TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

My 1st Woody Allen film was a little movie called "Annie Hall," Allen's Best Picture-winning film from 1977, which famously beat out the 1st "Star Wars" movie for the top prize. I don't agree with that choice, but the "little movie that could" was clever, a little snarky, but had some majorly good messages of love and how hard it is to keep relationships alive. "Midnight in Paris" keeps some of these themes, but does it in what I'm tempted to say is in an even better format. "Midnight in Paris" was the first gem for me in 2011 cinema. The one movie I was fascinated by though was Terrence Mallick's "The Tree of Life," which sounded alot like last year's "Inception" in that people weren't really sure what it was about and when they left the theater they still weren't entirely sure what they saw. I respect and love movies that have that effect on people. "Tree of Life" was in lim...

A wide variety of films are up for Best Picture this year, including one that got some pretty bad reviews, cough cough, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."  I take a look at what will win and (IMO) what should win: BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: (The Ides of March, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Hugo, The Descendants, Moneyball) WILL WIN: While "TTSS" got this award at the BAFTAs, last year's winner Aaron Sorkin has got it again this year for "Moneyball." SHOULD WIN: Moneyball.  It deserves it because it made an odd topic like baseball statistics seem interesting, and the character development is top-notch. BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: (The Artist, Midnight in Paris, Margin Call, A Separation, Bridesmaids) WILL WIN: Midnight in Paris. SHOULD WIN:  Midnight in Paris.  It really doesn't get any more original from the mind of Woody Allen, who most likely won't even be there to accept it. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: (Christopher Plummer, Nick Nolte, ...

It is the day before the Oscar nominations are being announced!  I'm excited for tomorrow, I'll post the nominees as tradition since 2010.  Another tradition I have to uphold is predicting the Oscar nominees for the best movie of 2011 right before they come out.  This year it's going to be a lot trickier, so I'll do it like this: THE SHOO-INS: The Descendants The Artist (and the winner) Hugo The Help (a BAFTA nomination for Best Picture helped its outlook) and Midnight in Paris Like I said, this is where it gets harder.  Though there won't be 10, many are saying 7 or 8, there is always that possibility the Oscars will throw us a curve-ball.  So, if there are: 6.  War Horse 7.  Moneyball 8.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 9.  Bridesmaids/Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (if they're going all out they'll want to include a blockbuster favorite) 10.  The Tree of Life  So, in hopes I don't lo...

It's that time of year again, when critics announce their ten favorite films of the year!  I'm unfortunately at a disadvantage, for the year of 2011 I only saw about 20 movies in the theaters, where pro-critics see about 80-90 movies.  2011 was a GREAT year for cinema, truly marking some of the best movies I've seen a while.  You got movies about Marilyn Monroe, a man trying to find his coma-stricken wife's lover and a whole lot of movies about Paris.  Go figure.  Here are my top five films of the year, some others that didn't quite make the cut, and some movies I wished I just hadn't seen.  I plan on seeing other 2011 films before Oscar season, like "The Artist," "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and "The Iron Lady," but since I'll be seeing them in 2012 they won't necessarily count for this list. 5.   MONEYBALL Just like with last year's "The Social Network" Aaron Sorkin writes another incredible scr...

This year's Golden Globe's were surprisingly straightforward, where really nothing was totally out of the park. There were  no head-scratchers like last year's "The Tourist" and "Burlesque" getting Best Comedy/Musical nods except for the lame "Cars 2" getting a Best Animated Feature nomination.  This year's selection of movies was so good they actually expanded the Best Drama category to 6!  Here are the major nominees: BEST DRAMA: The Help (an audience favorite with 2 supporting nods for Spencer and Chastain, who both deserve the award) The Descendants (an excellent little movie I've yet to review, that's been generating a lot of buzz) War Horse (the yet-to-be-released Spielberg epic that's gotten considerable lauding) Moneyball (one of my favorite films of the year got both Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill nominations) Hugo (Scorsese's breathtaking love letter to cinema of yesteryears) The Ides of March (Clooney got ...