TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

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...

The Golden Globe, SAG Awards and Critics Choice Awards have all gone nuts over a little David O. Russell picture called "American Hustle." Exceppt for Jeremy Renner, there isn't a cast member among those Big 3 that hasn't been up for something, probably taking into account that Renner's character, Carmine Polito, is the most upright/righteous among this stellar cast of rather deceptive con folk. So here's my job, to deliver to you good people: is "American Hustle" worth the hype, and the rivalry status it has against "12 Years a Slave" for the Best Picture race this January? In a word, no. "American Hustle" is the more entertaining of the two, obviously, but it's nowhere near as accessible as director David O. Russell's proceeding, realistically charming romantic dramedy "Silver Linings Playbook." Its setting is the polyester, toupee, plunging neckline world of the 1970s. If "Hustle" and Russell did o...

People are calling "The Dark Knight Rises," the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy "the most anticipated movie of the summer."  I'd like to think they're underplaying it a little bit, so let me be the fanboy who hypes/hams it up: "The Dark Knight" is arguably the best superhero ever made, some say one of the greatest period, Heath Ledger won on ACADEMY AWARD for playing the Joker, something that would've sounded bizarre but made so much sense after you watched the film, and America has been teased with whatever dental-wear we thought Bane had going on, the debate if Anne Hathaway was sexy enough which will make you feel dirty after watching "The Princess Diaries," and wondering if the trailers, posters and reviews of this film will ever succeed the unreachable mountain standards set by that Oscar-snubbed film in 2008? Well, it has.  I won't pretend I liked it better than "The Dark Knight," but as a...

Before I go into what is going to be a considerably lengthy review, I'd like to inform you on my weird, complicated past with Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight:" when it came out in theaters the summer of 2008, my uncle read a review in the Washington Post claiming the movie was too violent for preteens, so I couldn't go.  I didn't feel like I really missed anything until Oscar time, where I heard there were raves for Heath Ledger's performance.  Weirder still was he had died, and the mystique of his death only added to me wanting to see "TDK" even more. Well I finally got it for Christmas of 2008, and got around to watching it early 2009.  Almost immediately after I watched it, I had this sudden urge to vomit, not due to the movie of course,  but I had eaten too much previously.  Though it didn't sour the experience for me (I thought it was still an excellent film, if not a little over-hyped) I still associate "TDK" with thes...