TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

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...

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...

"No, don't stop! I haven't seen it yet!" "Shhhhhh... lalalalalalala I'm not listening, I'm not listening!" "AHHHP! AHHP AHHP AHHP! Don't say another word, you will not ruin this for me!" All of the above are common phrases you will hear when you begin to try to talk about David Fincher's latest film Gone Girl , an adaptation of Gillian Flynn's ubiquitous, bestselling novel of 2012. I couldn't go anywhere on vacation without seeing a copy of it in a tourist's hands, that sable cover with wisps of a woman's hair taunting me to come and pick it up. It's length alone intimidated me. So when I heard critics and people online saying "How can you NOT have heard of all the plot twists?" I just cupped my hands over my uncultured hears and pressed the red X at the top of the window. I was not having this movie ruined for me. And thats why I'm sympathetic with you, the reader, who may be going through my...

Meryl Streep in  Into the Woods Once again it's another round of ridiculously early predictions, this time for the year 2014! Last year I only got two right, The Wolf of Wall Street and Captain Phillips , both ending up on my top favorite movies of the year in 2013! I hope the same will be said about these next ten predictions, which have been getting early buzz. I almost included Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel , which has gotten probably the best reviews of any release this year, non-animated. And, since it's way too far a shot to include The Lego Movie as an Up -like Oscar story surprise, here are the films I think that might snag a nod for this year's Oscars! (Take into account I did choose both The Counselor and The Monuments Men  last year, both were critically reviled!) Interstellar (even though The Dark Knight Rises was shut out completely, Nolan's work is regularly recognized by the Academy, and with Matthew McConaughey in the starring role, ...