TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR  BLINDED BY THE LIGHT (and GREEN BOOK )* I felt a real bond with Spike Lee when Julia Roberts announced  Green Book  as the best film of 2018. You can see him here jumping up, looking like the grape mascot from the Hanes commercials, fuming in his aisle, his blaxploitation crime thriller  BlacKkKlansman  just having won him his first Oscar for Adapted Screenplay. It was a short-lived victory for Spike, because  Green Book  (the next entry in the  Driving Miss Daisy  cinematic universe, my friend joked) has been accused of perpetuating the stereotype of the white savior film. And the bippidy-boppidy Italian stereotype that Viggo Mortensen portrayed. Like your favorite $6 plate of lasagna from your local Italian restaurant (maybe Mario's? maybe something with "La" in the title),  Green Book  went down easy with a lot of familiarities, no harmful spices. The white driver has Christmas dinner with the black ...

What an odd awards season it's been so far. A middle-of-the-road Queen biopic bested Black Panther , A Star Is Born and BlacKkKlansman for the best drama of the year at the Globes, crowd-pleaser Green Book took Best Comedy and Best Production from the PGA Awards, and the Netflix darling Roma took the Critic's Choice Award for Best Picture. Neither Green Book or Roma are up for Best Ensemble at the SAGs. It's a true shot in the dark for who's taking home Best Picture, as opposed to the pitting of two films against each other we've gotten the past few years ( Three Billboards... vs. Shape of Water , La La Land vs. Moonlight , Spotlight vs.  Revenant ) and I love it! Nobody will be so sure who's getting what on Oscar night. Before the nominations are announced tomorrow, here are my picks. BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The Favourite First Reformed Green Book Roma Eighth Grade (my generation, the ones raised on writer/director Bo Burnham's hysterical ...

2018 was indicative of many things: the biggest being departure. I said goodbye to the comforts of college back in May, where I was working on my own script called "Black Chicken." I told myself that's why I wasn't working on this blog, because all of my creative attention was being poured into my senior project. But honestly, seven months after I graduated, I realized I had lost the lust for this little website. Why review superhero movies when everyone's already going to see them? I thought. The act of critiquing or lauding someone's art has left me. Nothing I wrote last year came close to the buzz of creating, of sculpting a character's jokes or figuring out where to put my B plot. I hope this is temporary, as movie reviewing is what's kept me active here on Blogspot. But for now, it might be for a while, as I hope to turn to making art instead of just writing about how bad I want to be these actors, these directors, these storytellers. That asid...

Why beat around the bush! Let's dive right in... BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: ( Call Me by Your Name , The Disaster Artist , Logan , Molly's Game , Mudbound ) I think Disaster Artist's nod here is more because it's a great concept, but the movie is pretty predictable as far as buddy pictures go. It's Franco who should've been up for playing Wiseau, but if the accusations against him are true, I'll feel a lot better letting this snub slide. All the nerds rejoiced when we heard Logan announced, but Call Me by Your Name is the clear winner here. It's slyly subtle dialogue hooks you in, and devastated you/makes you cheer in equal parts. Molly's Game is unbridled Sorkin goodness, and pretty underrated if you ask me, but CMBYN will walk away with the trophy. BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: ( The Big Sick , Get Out , Lady Bird , The Shape of Water , Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ) These movies are being recognized for being outstanding, fresh exam...

I'm feeling mighty Swift-y at the ripe old age of 22, and to celebrate it I thought I would list the top 22 (or the ones that came to mind) movies that either my friends/family have recommended to me for years and years or films that I desperately want to see but haven't gotten around to. Enjoy! MOST MIYAZAKI MOVIES Anime reached its height of popularity when I was in the sixth grade, and perhaps for that reason I wanted to rebel and not be as into it as my friends were. I saw Spirited Away years ago on Cartoon Network, where it effectively creeped me out. Totoro , Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle are all on my list to explore. 50 FIRST DATES This is actually the one I get the most, from people my age. I don't mind Sandler comedies for the most part, Punch Drunk Love and Happy Madison have tickled my fancy, and this'll probably be viewed fairly soon. SEVEN SAMURAI Though I did study his Rashomon last year in college, Akira Kurosawa...

There's no witty opener to be found here. I want to be as straightforward and honest about Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name as Call Me by Your Name was straightforward and honest with me. This is the most piercingly honest depiction of first/falling in/romantic love I have seen in a very long time, perhaps of all time. If I would have postponed my top five list of 2017, this would have surely made the mark. The premise is so simple it begs you to question its gimmick: maybe they're on Mars the whole time? There is nothing deceiving about this film, and its pureness in relation to its characters is what makes it one of the better I've seen in the past decade. Oliver (Armie Hammer) comes to stay with Mr. Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) as a research assistant for a summer in northern Italy in 1983, along with Perlman's wife Annella (Amira Casar) and son Elio (now Oscar-nominee Timothée Chalamet). The relationship begins: and that's the movie. Spread out leisur...

My New Years resolution? Pay more attention to this blog! If you look back on the posts, there's a six month gap between my Oscar predictions and my first review of the year, July's All Eyez on Me (which actually does make a spot one of these lists below). I'm going to be probably stepping away from the predictions this year. A friend of mine has sparked my interest in creating a YouTube channel where I can post reviews, not necessarily like the ones on this blog, but I'll keep y'all updated. This list was intentionally late, because I wanted to make sure I saw all of the films that I wanted to to make the best possible list. My last semester of college starts tomorrow, and I'm confident I saw all of the 2017 movies that I really wanted to. Though it pains me to exclude films I've loved like LEGO Batman , The Big Sick and Mudbound , I wish you all a productive 2017 and hope 2018 has even better cinema to come! 5. LOGAN LUCKY A complete left-field surp...