I’m not a fan of the desperate attempts at bringing out celebrities like Taylor Lautner and Miley Cyrus for the sole reason of bringing their fanbases in for ratings rather than their accomplishments. There were quite a few shots of Lautner sitting near the front when he wasn’t nominated for anything (like we saw with Rob Pattinson last year). He has a better seat than those who were nominated or even winners of other categor
Hounddog takes place some time in the late 50’s or early 60’s in the rural south. Dakota Fanning plays Lewellen, a very precocious 12 year old. It seems that right from the start the goal of the film is to make viewers uncomfortable as it opens with a scene between her and a boy that looks a bit younger that is her best friend. They’re in the woods and she wants him to drop his pants and underwear for a peek in exchange for a kiss. She talks about wanting to kill her father, which led me to believe that there may have been some sexual abuse going on, but it’s never alluded to ag
The other thing that bothered me that I alluded to above was that I’ve never seen a 12 year old wearing just underwear in a movie in so many scenes. There were also instances of her lifting her dress to carry fruit or to pull something she’d been carrying out of her underwear. I can only assume the point of that was to show that she was very un-self-conscious about her body, but this doesn’t jive with her constantly wanting to kiss her best friend. That indicates to me that she is starting to enter puberty which I would think comes with an increased sense of priv
My Kid Could Paint That was the last film I saw at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and is a fascinating look at the story of four year old Marla Olmstead, who a couple of years ago took the art world by storm by rocketing from lower middle class obscurity to international fame through the sale of her paintings. This documentary by director Amir Bar-Lev is extremely well done and is about as close to neutral as I think one could
In the aftermath of the 2012 Golden Globes ceremony , Hollywood “in-crowd” types like George Clooney and Meryl Streep are favored to take home the gold for acting, while multiple Globe-winning films such as The Artist and The Descendants are considered heavyweight contenders for the coveted Best Picture Os
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence ( Winter’s Bone , The Hunger Games ) jointly announced the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards this morning, on Tuesday January 24th. The actual 2012 Oscar ceremony will take place next month, on February 26th at the Kodak theater – with Billy Crystal serving as host, for the ninth time in his car
As you may already be well aware of, the Academy made some very significant changes to the format of this year’s Oscars event. In addition to the usual attempts at cutting back on the “thank you” speeches and quickening up of the program, the ceremony this year completely removed the performances of the best song nominees. Yet it was curious (read: it didn’t belong) to see interpretive dance routines in the presentations for Best Original Sc
Nothing against Narcos or Outlander , both are fine shows, but perennially overlooked The Americans is consistently a marvel to watch for its phenomenal performances across-the-board as well as its fantastic writing and consistently wonderful direction. Mad Men , on the other hand, turned in seven outstanding episodes for its final season that summed up what was so great about the show to begin with. Both should have been h
So, all in all, just another year at the Oscars – complete with plenty of obvious choices, surprising snubs, and a handful of unexpected nominations. Whether or not the actual winners list will be quite so predictable – or, perhaps, mix things up a bit – that remains to be s
Things are zooming along like an out of control freight train with first national and then international fame. The paintings sell for Moviefestivalhub.com between $5,000 to $10,000 each and a waiting list forms for future paintings. We see that Marla’s mom is much more reserved about the whole thing and wouldn’t be unhappy if everything stopped tomorrow. She harbors concerns about the effect it is having on her family and her daughter in particular. Marla’s dad on the other hand doesn’t see any downside at all, and at one point his wife states that he really enjoys being the center of attent
Hounddog is a drama film directed by Deborah Kampmeier, starring Dakota Fanning as a young girl named Lewellen who finds solace in Elvis Presley’s music while growing up in the rural South. The film delves into themes of trauma, resilience, and the transformative power of music. David Morse and Robin Wright Penn play pivotal supporting roles, contributing to the film’s exploration of complicated family dynamics and personal stren
Brie Larson has built up her “indie film cred” with turns in such movies as Greenberg , Short Term 12 , and The Spectacular Now in recent years, but her performance in Room (in which Larson and Jacob Tremblay are the only people seen onscreen for a good deal of the movie’s running time) has already earned Larson a number of awards and much in the way of recognition from critics. If Larson ends up taking the Golden Globe instead of Blanchett, that will cement her status as the front-runner for the Oscars this year,
