TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

It's been a busy past few weeks, but I've had time to check out one of my biggest misses from 2013's Oscar season, starring an Oscar in it, and that's the Coen brother's Inside Llewyn Davis . There was critical vocalization against this being snubbed in this month's ceremonies, only getting nods for its cinematography and sound mixing, losing both to that little outer space movie. Well, going inside Inside Llewyn Davis , I can see both sides of this heavily polarized film. First off, it's for sure a Coen brother's movie. It's quirky, has their signature wit, inspired music and John Goodman. All of those things are its strengths. The cinematography is initially infuriating: why have it so dimly lit you sometimes literally can't see what's going on at nighttime on the screen? But then it hit me: it was an intentional choice. The life of Mr. Davis can certainly not be interpreted as a positive one, to himself or to the nearly parasitic relatio...

Feel lucky, ladies and gentlemen, for we're witnessing the peak, the pinnacle, the highest point of Ben Affleck's directorial career so far.  I can't obviously speak for his next project, but Affleck can't stop winning when it comes to directing.  Who knew a guy who starred in "Gigli," "Pearl Harbor" and "Surviving Christmas" could pull off a second act in Hollywood.  His debut feature, "Gone Baby Gone," was a grimy look at Boston's underworld, and had an extremely strong ensemble and a heartbreaking ending, the cast consisting of greats like Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Amy Ryan, who won an Oscar nomination for her bold work.  When his second effort "The Town" rolled out two years ago in the summer of '10, I was disappointingly too young to attend the hard-R flick.  It amassed even higher lauding, and Affleck directed another one of his costars into a supporting Oscar nomination: Jeremy Renner.  So now, the bi...