TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

It's hard to believe Jennifer Lawrence hasn't been in more movies, isn't it? Or rather, that she hasn't been around longer than she already has. Two massive franchises, an Oscar and... The Beaver ? Did anyone see this movie about Mel Gibson and the beaver puppet? It was actually kinda cute. Anyway, IMDb lists Lawrence as being in 15 movies since she broke out in Winter's Bone . She's the it girl of Hollywood now and she was born in the 90's. What am I doing with my life? But this movie is important for one reason. The Hunger Games and X-Men  were both series, franchises with fans (one of the book series, the other the previous films) built in. Silver Linings Playbook was her and Bradley Cooper's movie. She had a supporting role in American Hustle . Joy can be considered the first original movie that Lawrence has carried...pretty squarely on her shoulders, much like her titular character in this film. So is she effective? My initial response is yes. I l...

You won't understand The Big Short . "Stop calling me Michael Scott!" That is, unless you're an insider in the banking business. That's probably not even how you use that phrase. Banking industry? How about super villain headquarters? Yeah, I like that a little better. As we learned from The Wolf of Wall S treet (and uh, common sense: how many articles talk about the nice guys of Wall Street?) there are plenty of bankers and investors willing and ready to make a profit at the risk of the 99%. Ryan Gosling's Jared Vennett certainly knows this. He's one of the insiders who saw the 2008 bubble pop, the housing and banking collapse that led to one of the largest recessions in U.S. history. Everyone in this movie is based on real people, based on Michael Lewis' nonfiction book of the same name. But this movie will tell you when it's fibbing on the truth a little: and that's the biggest thing it has going for it. As I said, laymen to this bus...

Without its more racy bits, Brooklyn is a film that could have been made decades ago, even as far back as the '50's. It's got an absolutely timeless feel to it, which makes it the even more surprising that it was adapted from a moderately recent novel from 2009. So how does John Crowley's film make you feel like you're watching a story that could be updated today with little change besides clothes and era? It's its evergreen material of youth vs. love, and all the entanglements that eternal struggle weaves into its many victims' lives. Saoirse (Sair-sha. It's Sair-sha! What a lovely Irish name, but I'm so desperate just to call you Sarah) Ronan carries this entire thing on her back, no matter how wonderful and strong the supporting cast around her is. It's not her fault, it's the nature of the story. We're not going to care who she picks romantically if we're not invested in her. We're not going to feel as sad if something devas...

I watched A New Hope when I was 14, on my tiny VHS-exclusive TV in my room. I didn't understand a majority of it, and it was a crime to watch that 1977 special effects beauty on my miniature television, so this past summer I've tried to atone for my movie buff sins (YOUHAVENTSEENALLTHESTARWARSMOVIESWHATSWRONGWITHYOUYOURENOTAREALMOVIEFAN) etc. I watched the entire original trilogy, but the summer ran out with the person I was watching them with (no way I, who needed a guide through the galaxy on my first run was watching them alone) and I didn't get to see the prequels. I'm sure some fans out there envy me, some will probably advise me to stay away from them. But I've now still only seen 4 out of 7 Star Wars  movies. The saga never interested me as a kid, when Revenge of the Sith came out when I was in fifth grade I remember being overwhelmed and bored by the nerds I hung out with because they wouldn't shut up about it. So why was I so pumped to stand in line for...

With my Breaking Bad  poster, Walter White bobble head and crafted Heisenberg drinking mug, you could say I have a whole lot of Bryan Cranston splattered around my college dorm room. I've enjoyed the man ever since seventh grade, watching Malcolm in the Middle reruns on FX before the middle school bus picked me up. I would've been only 12 when Breaking Bad had its series premiere on television, but after catching up after I graduated high school, it was astonishing, (for hundreds of reasons). But one of the biggest achievements critics and fans point out so often was Cranston's ability to play the silly, childlike Hal, and then to troubled meth kingpin Walter White. Cranston shows us why he's won a Golden Globe, 6 Emmys and 4 SAG Awards in the past several years, as he transforms (a lot of it is that gravely, smokey voice: I wonder did he actual smoke the cigarettes that he's inevitable seen with in nearly every scene of the film?) into blacklisted screenwriter D...

No one can ever say the Golden Globes are predictable. Phew. I'm so glad we have getting stranded in the middle of space and the 2008 financial crisis to laugh at because APPARENTLY these are two of the best comedies 2015 had to offer. Remarkable. Also I learned valuable lessons, like you can't always bank on Meryl Streep (and if you do, then bank on Maggie Smith, who over the years has just become one hilariously cranky awards statue from all of her wins), not to underestimate the power of Alicia Vikander, and to always remember the movies that came before the November-December Oscar season (sorry for leaving you out Danny Collins !) Without further ado, here are the major film category nominations for the Globes, and ones I missed/left out are in red. The list is notable for having completely gotten one field wrong, and another entirely correct! What can I say, it's the week before exams. DRAMA FILM:  Spotlight Carol The Revenant Mad Max: Fury Road (I could ex...

Forever the Oscar's foreign cousin that's always getting into trouble, the Golden Globe nominations are coming out on the 10th! Naturally all of the nominees waited until the fall to come out (and some on here haven't even been released). But here's a stab in the dark at a show so wildly unpredictable that  Big Eyes , a movie about a man cheating his wife out of her life's work, was submitted as a comedy. Last year I got nearly 40 out of the 55 picks correct. Let's see how accurate I am after being consumed with my first sophomore semester of college. DRAMA FILM: (So out of what I've predicted, two films have really seemed to put a gleam in critic's eyes: Spotlight and Carol . I would put my money on the former come Oscar time, but the race is still fairly young. I think Spotlight resonates with critics because of the journalistic aspect, even if some don't want to admit that bias. The Martian was a huge surprise for me to see it pop up so of...

Fresh off his Oscar-winning film, Michael Keaton co-stars in Tom McCarthy's excellent journalistic drama about the Boston Globe's investigation into a massive ring of child-molesting priests. I say co-stars because this is truly an ensemble piece; though Mark Ruffalo's Mike Rezendes and Keaton's "Robby" Robinson probably have the most screen time, it is refreshing to see a film so dedicated to the delivering of its story that there is no main character. The main character is the horrifying tale brought to life by the year's best ensemble and diamond-solid screenplay. The film eases you into the subject matter, though. It doesn't startle you with a priest wagging a finger towards an alter boy: the subject is serious and the film too grave to wander into such territory. Tom McCarthy (who also wrote the story to Up , how cool is that) approaches the film journalistically. He gives you its key players: in this case Rezendes, Robinson and Sacha Pfieffer...