TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

10. GREEN BOOK The retrospective rundown: Having been crowned the Academy's movie of the year less than a year ago, it only took a few seconds after Julia Roberts read the name to realize a mistake had been made. And not a La La Land / Moonlight debacle either. I've heard it perfectly described as the second installment in the Driving Miss Daisy cinematic universe. This is not to say Peter Farrelly's Green Book is terrible. The chemistry between Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) and Dr. Shirley (Mahershala Ali) is what keeps this engine running. But the white savior narrative (not the only Best Picture on here with that problem, either) is so glaring. Tony saves Shirley from getting beat up by white supremacists, saves him from a police investigation of a gay hook-up Shirley had in a YMCA. And, of course, Tony saves him from loneliness when Shirley is invited to Christmas Eve dinner. The onscreen friendship is palpable, but who would ever go with centering a narrative on Tony...

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: (Edward Norton, Ethan Hawke, J.K. Simmons, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Duvall) Should Win: J.K. Simmons or Edward Norton. Simmons, similar to his band teacher Fletcher, has been dominating this category since day one. It's his to lose, but I wouldn't be sad if Edward Norton pulled a huge upset. His Mike was an endlessly interesting actor with a massive ego. Will Win: J.K. Simmons. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: (Patricia Arquette, Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Keira Knightley, Emma Stone), Should/Will Win: Patricia Arquette. Laura Dern was delightful in Wild , but Arquette had the strongest role out of all these ladies as a very human mother. When you can make the audiences sympathize with you after you refuse to see your kid off to college, you deserve an Academy Award. BEST ANIMATED MOVIE: ( Big Hero 6 , How to Train Your Dragon 2 ,   The Lego Movie ,  The Boxtrolls , Song of the Sea , The Tale of the Princess Kaguya ) Should Win: I've only seen How t...

This year's Academy Award nominations, which took place yesterday at- NO LEG MOVIE NO LEGO MOVIE NO LEGO MOVIE NO LEGO MOVIE NO LEGO MOVIE NO LEGO MOVIE. I had to get it out, I have to vent, because shouting at my television as it went from How to Train Your Dragon 2 to Song of the Sea . And I'm sure the latter film is very respectable, but at least until Oscar time people will be hating it, because it STOLE the coveted fifth spot from, I think it's safe to say, everyone's favorite animated movie of 2014. Enraged fans swept to Twitter, prompting the directors to make characteristically clever tweets, including co-director Phillip Lord showing a Lego Oscar. I'd rather win that than an actual one, though a regular Academy Award wouldn't hurt that much if I stepped on it. There were other snubs and surprises that occurred the other morning. They are not as important as The Lego Movie 's absence, but I will proceed regardless. A full list can be found HERE. ...

Well, take my predictions with a grain of salt, because I will be the first to admit that I had a hard time with Sunday's Golden Globes. Though it was called a night full of upsets, it was still depressing to read my scorecard of 10 out of 25 right, and I got four wrong alone in the movie category! Grand Budapest Hotel beating Birdman ?!? How to Train Your Dragon 2 defeating The Lego Movie ?!? It was a weird, weird night, but all that matters to me is that Boyhood came out on top, winning three awards for Patricia Arquette, director Richard Linklater and best picture!!! This leads me to believe exactly what I thought back in July... Boyhood will sweep the Oscars! Though I'm predicting Birdman will lead in nominations due to its innovative nature, probably at least 10. Theory and Imitation will do well technically since they're period pieces, then expect to see Boyhood with a respectable six or seven. Below I have my full listing of the nine major nominees, and little note...

This is just a straightforward list of predictions for the eleven major film awards! I will make my should win/could win predictions once it gets closer to the actual Oscar night, but since Oscar tends to stick fairly close to the Foreign Press, I'll save it for later. For now, I'm going to predict who's taking the gold home, and how this will determine the Academy Awards! A full list of the nominees HERE. BEST ANIMATED MOVIE: Nominees: ( Big Hero 6 , How to Train Your Dragon 2 , The Lego Movie , The Boxtrolls , The Book of Life ) Winner: This isn't because it was my second favorite movie of the year, but I honestly believe that if any movie but Lego wins it will be an upset. I love HTTYD2 , but this seems like the frontrunner. BEST SCREENPLAY: Nominees: ( The Imitation Game , Gone Girl , The Grand Budapest Hotel , Birdman , Boyhood ) Winner: This is actually one of the toughest races to call! There's no clear winner here, no Aaron Sorkin or Woody All...

What a wonderful, marvelous year it was for the movies. Emphasis on the Marvel: the studio produced three movies this year, and honestly all three could've been added to this list in a weaker year. I think what bonds this list of five films together is uniqueness: each put a spin on either a tired formula or predictable pattern and exceeded everyone's expectations, and brandished interesting and complex faces into the ever-growing, endlessly fascinating world of the movies. For a couple hours at a time I was able to fly with Michael Keaton, investigate with Ben Affleck and drive with Tom Hardy. Movies have such a way of whisking you away for a while, and I think that's why everyone got so up in arms when The Interview was cancelled because of the Sony hackers. Though it's a low-brow bro-humor movie, everyone should be able to have free artistic license with their film, and we ultimately did not bow down. As usual, here are a list of films I either need to see or reg...

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...

I just watched The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1  yesterday, and I have to say it is the polar opposite of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman or (The Virtue of Ignorance) . Despite the pretentiously long name (just pick one or the other!) Birdman  is the movie with the Hollywood cast that's very Broadway, very independent, and very...alive. Of course, anyone who has seen it knows that Michael Keaton's Riggan berates a critic, saying that he takes risks being an actor, but what does she have to lose? This in effect makes this movie critic proof...but Inarritu and his brilliant cast need not worry, this movie is fantastic, and will surely pick up a trophy or two come Oscar time. Mid-life crises, putting on troubled plays, family dysfunction are all themes here that have been explored to death in other movies, but Birdman has a way of taking them, flipping them on their head and analyzing them in a way that feels fresh and electric. The closest thing I can say it is co...