TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

There's no better way to end the year of 2014, a very solid year for the cinema, than with a soon-to-be Oscar nominee and Golden Globe nominee for Best Drama: Morten Tyldum's The Imitation Game does not disappoint. With a strong trio giving awards-worthy performances, Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode star in this drama about socially awkward genius (is there any other type in the movies?) Alan Turing who not only prevented a lot of World War II casualties with his enormous code deciphering machine, but was a closeted homosexual who additionally had childhood bullies. Though it is a different type of pain inflicted on him, Turing suffered the amount of mental and emotional pain like Louie Zamperini suffered physical pain in Unbroken . This was not  a man satisfied with the cards he was dealt, and Cumberbatch rarely smiles in the role. Out of the two British genius movies that are competing heavily for Oscar gold, The Imitation Game outsmarts The Theory o...

Who says musicals are dead? Well, probably anyone who's seen this year's  Annie  that's over the age of 10. But I'd like to make a case for the art that is, at least, attempting to come back to life! Rob Marshall, the director of Into the Woods , essentially revitalized the genre with 2002's Chicago , an adaptation of the stage play. It took home the Oscar for Best Picture, beating much better films like The Pianist and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers . It also won the ancient Golden Globe category of Best Comedy/Musical, which has nominated such hilarious classics like Pride & Prejudice , My Week with Marilyn and The Tourist . It turned out to be a fluke for the genre, until Marshall again tried to wow us with Nine , a box-office failure. It wasn't until 2012's Les Mis , (which I saw twice!) that really excited people and brought theater geeks and casual film fans alike in drove to the box office to watch Hugh Jackman steal bread and hear Russel ...

What a strange mindset the MPAA must have. I think back to one of my favorite movies of last year, Nebraska , and think; how did that film get an R-rating when it had maybe a handful of HBO words...and how did Unbroken , Angelina Jolie's second directorial effort, get a PG-13, when it has nearly if not more than the amount of torture in last year's Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave ? Perhaps it's because you didn't see any blood gushing out, or any severe aftereffects like when Solomon Northup examined Patsy's slashed back, but please be warned parents to think twice before letting your 13 year old see this movie. I wouldn't be such a stickler about this issue, especially violence, which doesn't usually bother me in a non-horror film, because the trailer was rather deceptive. I don't know about the life of Louis Zamperini (played by Jack O'Connell), just the articles I have read about him and the large press the film has received, mostly because...

As weird as this sounds, Chris Rock has never really been in a classic comedy. He had a great show in "Everybody Hates Chris," of course his legendary stand-up routines, and, most recently, he's been the voice of Marty the Zebra in Madagascar . On his IMDb page, he's most known for, in this order, a stand-up special, the first Madagascar , Head of State (you know, where he...what is that movie even about?) and now this film. Let's hope more people catch on to Top Five , because as the director of his third film, he puts in a great comedic effort, becoming an effective triple threat of a writer, director and actor. Some critics are saying this Rock channeling Woody Allen, as it's a self-reflective piece in New York with a big ensemble and a love story. If so, keep doing what you're doing, Chris. The comedian plays Andre Allen, known for playing Hammy the Bear in a series of movies that smelled suspiciously like a Marty dig. Yes his three outings as the be...

Awards season has kicked off! The Critic's Choice, SAGs and Golden Globe nominations have all been announced, and there have been several consistencies in those three! One is the presence of Reese Witherspoon, someone who hasn't led a good movie since her Oscar-winning turn in Walk the Line . Call it an Oscar curse, but fare like This Means War and Water for Elephants have plagued her career since the Academy Award win. Last year she came back as the object of McConaughey's affection in the amazing Mud , but Wild sees her anchoring an entire film, mostly, and I know this backpacking pun will come up a lot, on her shoulders. Buh dun tss. Wild is based on Cheryl Strayed's account of her travels on the Pacific Coast Trail. I was very much unfamiliar with her adventures, and though this might say something about me, I only knew it from seeing it in Borders (this was a while ago after all) as an Oprah Book Club book. Witherspoon's performance has been repeatedly lauded...

In some ways, the Globes surprised me quite a bit, and in others, they couldn't be more predictable! With four real life biopics heading the drama category, you could only help but see that coming. But in the comedy category there are a lot of surprises: a movie up for best comedy that I'd only barely heard of, and a few nominees that I'd completely forgotten about. Without further ado, let's see how accurate I was in the actual Golden Globe nominations: (in red are those I didn't include on my predictions)   DRAMA: Boyhood  Foxcatcher (totally forgot about how many critics loved this movie, I was surprised to see it knock off other contenders like Whiplash and Gone Girl ) The Imitation Game Selma The Theory of Everything ACTRESS: 
Jennifer Aniston- Cake (I forgot about Aniston too! She just picked up a SAG nom too, imagine Rachel Green and Michael Scott up for an Oscar the same year!) Felicity Jones- The Theory of Everything Julianne Moore- Still Al...

Along with endless Christmas music, the one thing you can always count on in December is awards season being there for you, and the Golden Globe nominations come out tomorrow! Even though it had a summer release, Richard Linklater's coming of age epic Boyhood is starting to become the frontrunner for Best Picture! Others, in the acting categories, include Michael Keaton, Julianne Moore, J.K. Simmons and Patricia Arquette. I'm throwing a few surprises and hopefuls in there, just for the sake of spicing up the selection, because I can already tell that the biopic will once again be reigning this Oscar season, with everyone from MLK to Stephen Hawking getting a treatment. DRAMA : Boyhood (very happy that this is getting such big traction)   Gone Girl (thought it was released a little earlier than its competition, this is a safe bet) The Imitation Game The Theory of Everything Selma ACTOR : Benedict Cumberbatch- The Imitation Game (Cumberbatch and Redmayne need their o...

Fortunately I got to see a good handful of movies over the Thanksgiving break, Oscar contenders Whiplash and Birdman , and ginormous blockbusters that I normally would have seen opening day, Interstellar and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1 . It killed me not being able to see these two films that I've heard so much buzz and conversation about. Acknowledging these facts, and the truth that I am late to these reviews, here is my review of Mockingjay , and later, will do a joint review with my friend Aaron Haynes on Interstellar because...I'm not sure I understand it completely. There were fewer movies this year that I was more hyped about than Mockingjay Part 1 . Perhaps it is filling that young adult adaptation space that I crave, but I just can't get enough of this series, talking about it, watching those great propaganda trailers released earlier this year. What I love is that they don't really need to market these gargantuan blockbusters because the fans alread...