TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

The powers that be at the Academy have spoken, and these are the nine films they've chosen as the finest of the year. I have my beef with a couple picks, but I can't say there's a truly weak one in the bunch, unlike past years (here's looking at you Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close  and War Horse ). To celebrate, I chose the best quotes from each of the films, a brief 6 word review on them, and their best scenes, no spoilers I assure you. Enjoy! 12 YEARS A SLAVE BEST QUOTE: Northup : I survive. I will not fall into despair! I will offer up my talents...I will keep myself hardy until freedom is opportune. SUMMARY: Heart wrenching because it actually happened. BEST SCENE: After a certain character attempts to hang Northup unsuccessfully, Solomon simply stands there, with no help whatsoever from anyone, dangling from a noose, trying to make his feet connect with the muddy ground. It's horrifying. AMERICAN HUSTLE BEST QUOTE: Irving : She was the Picasso of ...

Before I go any further, the BAFTAs were today, and I'd like to congratulate 12 Years a Slave on its wins for Best Actor and Best Film, surprise winner Barkhad Abdi winning for Best Supporting Actor for Captain Phillips , and Gravity on its impressive six wins, including Best Director! I'm enjoying the McConaissance as much as anyone, but this is a step in the right direction for Chiwetel Ejiofor to take home Oscar gold in two weeks! Now that I've got my awards season geeking out of the way, I must tell you something I'm sure you're already aware of: The Lego Movie  is astonishing. It mixes breathtaking visuals of what appear to be stop-motion Legos shifting, transforming and swiftly moving before your eyes, which made me wonder how they did it all. That is its first accomplishment: the art of mystery. Like Gravity , you felt high above in the clouds in outer space, peering down at Earth below like an enormous blue-green marble. Here you're sucked in to a wor...

The Super Bowl has come and gone. Besides being devoid of football enjoyment, especially so for a guy who's not big into football, the game also had a huge cloud hanging over it even before the slaughter began. Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of the 21st century's finest character actors/actor in general overdosed on heroin at the age of 46. Media coverage of Hoffman's death has been intrusive to say the least, and I wanted it to die down a bit so I could get most of the news and think of something fitting to say in response to his death. In one of his lighter roles as Brandt It's ironic to say that I'm fortunate that I haven't seen Hoffman's finest work, which, reading from the tribute articles that have come out in droves this past week, include primarily the following five films: Capote, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Almost Famous, Doubt and Boogie Nights . They're at least the constantly reoccurring ones. I'm glad not to have seen the...