TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

Movies rarely hit as close to home as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl did for me. This summer alone I'll have written/directed/acted in a movie for the tiny "production company" my friends and I have been building and working on for years. Though we don't put in the almost Pixar-worthy effort characters Greg and Earl seem to, employing stop-motion animation and Star Wars -esque miniatures to get the job done, I certainly relate to the passion they put into their parodies, such as 2:48 Cowboy instead of Midnight Cowboy . Book to film adaptations always get nerds nervous, unless you're Shrek, Lord of the Rings or To Kill a Mockingbird , but that's a short list. It's great when young adult authors can make the jump from page to silver screen themselves, as Stephen Chbosky did, directing/adapting his Perks of Being a Wallflower to huge success three years ago. Jesse Andrews was able to adapt his novel, and it's been reported he and director Alfonso Gomez-...

Before I go any further, the BAFTAs were today, and I'd like to congratulate 12 Years a Slave on its wins for Best Actor and Best Film, surprise winner Barkhad Abdi winning for Best Supporting Actor for Captain Phillips , and Gravity on its impressive six wins, including Best Director! I'm enjoying the McConaissance as much as anyone, but this is a step in the right direction for Chiwetel Ejiofor to take home Oscar gold in two weeks! Now that I've got my awards season geeking out of the way, I must tell you something I'm sure you're already aware of: The Lego Movie  is astonishing. It mixes breathtaking visuals of what appear to be stop-motion Legos shifting, transforming and swiftly moving before your eyes, which made me wonder how they did it all. That is its first accomplishment: the art of mystery. Like Gravity , you felt high above in the clouds in outer space, peering down at Earth below like an enormous blue-green marble. Here you're sucked in to a wor...