TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Say the words "First Lady" to anyone over about 30, and the next two words they associate with that will probably be "Jackie Kennedy," or if they really know their history, "Jackie Onasis." Anyone around my age will probably say Michelle Obama, and while I anticipate a movie made about her legacy in the decades to come, Jackie is surely the most iconic in modern history. The last memorable depiction of a First Lady was in Spielberg's Lincoln , where Sally Field played Mary Todd Lincoln as an unhinged, witty partner to her husband's more calm figure. Field lost the Oscar that year to Anne Hathaway crying, but Natalie Portman looks poised to win her second Best Actress Oscar as the widow who captured the hearts of a generation. The film follows Lincoln 's outline of effective biography: focus on one aspect of this person's enormous life and dissect it, find out the key players, and examine the conflict that made them who they are. In that f...

The importance of a film's opening scene can't be stressed enough. In my favorite film, which most people watch around this time in the holidays, It's a Wonderful Life , we see a slew of people in the wee town of Bedford Falls praying for the life of George Bailey. Immediately know something is wrong, that the film will tote a sentimental sentiment, and who is George and why does he need these prayers? A great opening scene should ask all of those questions...and in Nocturnal Animals  you will have a lot of questions, and it's not indicative of the movie you are about to watch. Please don't Google it, and, review spoiler alert, I liked this movie a lot, so I encourage you to go see it. I want to say Ford wanted to be sensationalistic but it doesn't fit with the theme. It must be experienced, with a crowd as full as many people as you can, so you can all collectively stew in the awkwardness. The movie actually revolves around Susan, played by Amy Adams, who rec...

If I'm not in college, I'm home, and if I'm home, I try to at least watch a movie a day. I definitely have some OCD tendencies, and one of them is keeping track of how many movies I've seen in my life. Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea was #1332. I'm giving you all these facts to point to the reality that I watch many a movie a year, and they don't always stick with me the next day. Not that I forget about them, but sometimes they're just okay , and then it's on to the next one. Last year, I had images of George Miller's Fury Road burnt into my brain, and this year, I'm very pleased to say two films have been playing in my mind's theater over and over; Barry Jenkins's Moonlight , and now, number thirteen-hundred thirty-two, what will be a tough competitor for my favorite film of 2016, Manchester by the Sea . Casey Affleck stars, and I can't emphasize stars enough, as Massachusetts handyman Lee, going through the motions ...

You would've thought I ran track in high school seeing how fast I jumped on the "Star Wars" bandwagon when I found out that The Force Awakens was coming out near Christmas of 2015. The prequels, especially Revenge of the Sith , were popular with my nerdy friends as I was growing up, but I truly didn't get the appeal until I started getting into the Academy Awards, and found something bizarre to me: A New Hope was nominated for Best Picture? I popped it in my tiny foot-wide VHS television when I was 14 and watched tiny Han and tiny Chewie on the Millennium Falcon on a snow day. I'll probably take lashings for that in the afterworld where movie critics go, but after re-watching the original trilogy and the prequels last year on much better means of visual projection. After my college exams I saw Episode VII last year on the official opening day, December 18. I repeated that with seeing the new stand-alone film, Rogue One , last night, with a year's worth a hype ...

As predicted, there were some fresh, diverse faces present in the list! Let's take a look and see who's up!  BEST COMEDY/MUSICAL: La La Land predictably picked up quite a few nominations, but of course the most stunning surprise here is the presence of the Merc with the Mouth! I almost pegged Reynolds for a Deadpool nomination, but I thought it was too far-fetched. The indie everyone's fallen in love with, Sing Street , was this year's little film that could that only garnered one nomination, but in a big category.  La La Land Florence Foster Jenkins 20th Century Women Deadpool Sing Street BEST DRAMA: David Mackenzie's neo-western has been targeted for Oscar love ever since its late August release, and with several nominations here it's apparent. The highly Oscar-bait looking Lion also did quite well in its categories, and hey, if it can net Dev Patel the Academy Award nod he was robbed of in Slumdog , let it happen! Moonlight Manchester by the Sea ...

Some things change in the Golden Globes, some will always remain the same. For instance, I expect to see some color in the Crayola Box of nominees this year, with strong contenders like Moonlight and Fences sure to go toe to toe in the dramatic categories. What's unsurprising: seeing Globes favorites Amy Adams and the unstoppable awards magnet Meryl Streep in their respective categories. Florence Foster Jenkins has weirdly been getting a lot of buzz, and I just don't get it...is it because Streep's in it? But I'm getting ahead of myself, the nominations don't come out 'til this Monday the 12th! Down below is some educated guesses, but mostly stabbing in the dark. BEST COMEDY/MUSICAL: (The Globes are infatuated with the Coens, and their latest Hail, Caesar! will be the one movie that gets the best picture nod with nothing else. The rest are probably going to be a gaggle of indies, no offense Office Christmas Party , but I'll call right now that La La Land ...

Remember #OscarsSoWhite? Besides future directing winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu, there wasn't a single person of color in the major nominees of last year's Academy Awards. Idris Elba, the deserving winner of the Best Supporting Actor SAG, wasn't even nominated. So this year's Academy Awards have a lot of recovery to do, especially in the wake of the horrific racial violence and tensions that have plagued America and rocked the media all of 2016. So (unless the predominantly white male Academy is really set on alienating viewers) expect to see a lot more color amidst the nominees, with acclaimed films like Loving , Moonlight  and Fences all predicting to steal Best Picture nominee slots. Over my Thanksgiving break, I was thankful to have watched the former two of those movies, both in part dealing with the African-American experience. I'll start with Loving , because it literally hits close to home, in the Old Dominion! Three years ago I was lucky enough to attend t...