TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Fresh off his Oscar-winning film, Michael Keaton co-stars in Tom McCarthy's excellent journalistic drama about the Boston Globe's investigation into a massive ring of child-molesting priests. I say co-stars because this is truly an ensemble piece; though Mark Ruffalo's Mike Rezendes and Keaton's "Robby" Robinson probably have the most screen time, it is refreshing to see a film so dedicated to the delivering of its story that there is no main character. The main character is the horrifying tale brought to life by the year's best ensemble and diamond-solid screenplay. The film eases you into the subject matter, though. It doesn't startle you with a priest wagging a finger towards an alter boy: the subject is serious and the film too grave to wander into such territory. Tom McCarthy (who also wrote the story to Up , how cool is that) approaches the film journalistically. He gives you its key players: in this case Rezendes, Robinson and Sacha Pfieffer...

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...

I've been saying to friends and family that the fact we're living in the year twenty fifteen sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. And it was! (Thank you, Back to the Future Part II ). But let's go back to last year for the last time and examine some of the best written/acted/directed roles of 2014. Whether it was a wicked music teacher, a teen with cancer or simply a man driving his car, these are the actors, in alphabetical order, who grabbed my attention this year. EMILY BLUNT as Rita in EDGE OF TOMORROW- Emily Blunt had an incredible 2014, starring in this action flick that got a lot of critics and audiences calling this "underrated" and standing out in the musical ensemble Into the Woods .  I thought it was an inventive movie but didn't wow me. What we can all agree on is Blunt's performance. Hopefully, after great turns in Looper  and The Adjustment Bureau this will cement her as one of the best action stars of today. She's fearless as...

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...