4 posts categorized "Corporate Corruption"

February 25, 2024

Oscar Nominees 2024: Full List

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.ColeSmithey.comThis ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel. Punk heart still beating.

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Actor in a Leading Role

Nominees

Bradley Cooper

 

Colman Domingo

 

Paul Giamatti

 

Cillian Murphy

 

Jeffrey Wright

 

Actor in a Supporting Role

Nominees

Sterling K. Brown

 

Robert De Niro

 

Robert Downey Jr.

 

Ryan Gosling

 

Mark Ruffalo

 

Actress in a Leading Role

Nominees

Annette Bening

Nyad
 

Lily Gladstone

 

Sandra Hüller

 

Carey Mulligan

 

Emma Stone

 

Actress in a Supporting Role

Nominees

Emily Blunt

 

Danielle Brooks

The Color Purple
 

America Ferrera

 

Jodie Foster

Nyad
 

Da'Vine Joy Randolph

 

Animated Feature Film

Nominees

The Boy and the Heron

Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki
 

Elemental

Peter Sohn and Denise Ream
 

Nimona

Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary
 

Robot Dreams

Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz
 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal
 

Cinematography

Nominees

El Conde

Edward Lachman
 

Killers of the Flower Moon

 

Maestro

 

Oppenheimer

Hoyte van Hoytema
 

Poor Things

 

Costume Design

Nominees

Killers of the Flower Moon

 

Napoleon

Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
 

Oppenheimer

 

Poor Things

 

Directing

Nominees

Anatomy of a Fall

 

Killers of the Flower Moon

 

Oppenheimer

 

Poor Things

 

The Zone of Interest

Jonathan Glazer
 

Documentary Feature Film

Nominees

Bobi Wine: The People's President

Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek
 

The Eternal Memory

Maite Alberdi
 

Four Daughters

Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha
 

To Kill a Tiger

Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim
 

20 Days in Mariupol

Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath
 

Documentary Short Film

Nominees

The ABCs of Book Banning

Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic
 

The Barber of Little Rock

John Hoffman and Christine Turner
 

Island in Between

S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien
 

The Last Repair Shop

Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
 

Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó

Sean Wang and Sam Davis
 

Film Editing

Nominees

Anatomy of a Fall

 

The Holdovers

 

Killers of the Flower Moon

 

Oppenheimer

 

Poor Things

 

International Feature Film

Nominees

Io Capitano

Italy
 

Perfect Days

Japan
 

Society of the Snow

Spain
 

The Teachers' Lounge

Germany
 

The Zone of Interest

United Kingdom
 

Makeup and Hairstyling

Nominees

Golda

Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra Kelly-Blue
 

Oppenheimer

 

Society of the Snow

Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé
 

Music (Original Score)

Nominees

American Fiction

 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

John Williams
 

Killers of the Flower Moon

 

Oppenheimer

 

Poor Things

 

Music (Original Song)

Nominees

The Fire Inside

from Flamin' Hot; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
 

It Never Went Away

from American Symphony; Music and Lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson
 
from Barbie; Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell
 

Animated Short Film

Nominees

Letter to a Pig

Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter
 

Ninety-Five Senses

Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess
 

Our Uniform

Yegane Moghaddam
 

Pachyderme

Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius
 

WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko

Dave Mullins and Brad Booker
 

Live Action Short Film

Nominees

The After

Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham
 

Invincible

Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron
 

Knight of Fortune

Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk
 

Red, White and Blue

Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane
 

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Wes Anderson and Steven Rales
 

Sound

Nominees

The Creator

Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic
 

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor
 

The Zone of Interest

Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn
 

Visual Effects

Nominees

The Creator

Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould
 

Godzilla Minus One

Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima
 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and Theo Bialek
 

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland and Neil Corbould
 

Napoleon

Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco and Neil Corbould
 

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

Nominees

The Zone of Interest

Written by Jonathan Glazer
 

Writing (Original Screenplay)

August 08, 2023

FILM CRITICISM IS...

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.ColeSmithey.comThis ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

ColeSmithey.com

 

 

ColeSmithey.com

ColeSmithey.com

It's not called film praise; it's called film criticism for a reason. There's an art to it.

There are plenty of ego-stroking bottom feeders who call themselves film critics, or better yet, reviewers. These reprobates can easily be discovered by noticing the usual suspects whose names constantly show up in movie ads.

In NYC we call them quote whores.

Frequently, these poseurs hide behind a media entity that masks their identity by usurping it with their brand. Nevertheless, if you get a gig writing for the New York Times, you'll automatically earn "Top Critic" status on RottenTomatoes. Corporate is as corporate does.

Roger Ebert has been dead for years, yet somehow RogerEbert.com is still getting credit for reviews being written in 2023. Weird, I know. What a load of bullshit.

A film critic is not a brand; the art of film criticism is much more than that.

ColeSmithey.com

I've been a published film critic for 30 years now. Over that time I've written for dozens and dozens of outlets. I've written well over four million words across 4000 film reviews. So what. Note the lack of a question mark.

Now that oxymoronic Social Media has driven the final nail of clickbait into the coffin of any editorial oversight anywhere, I don't write for the same reasons that I once did. Nonetheless, I still write because I am a writer.

The death of the alt weeklies was a canary in the coalmine for more than just honest film criticism, it marked a degradation of American culture and communication.

I have my reasons for doing my job. It's my passion.

ColeSmithey.com

Film criticism is a job.

Professional is as the professional does.

Film criticism is not publicity.

Film criticism is not "content;" it is editorial fact.

You have to be a serious person in order to be a film critic, not that you have to take yourself too seriously; don't do that.

There is no such thing as a "good" or "bad" review, only good or bad movies.

Critical thought cannot be swayed by money. You can pay for a review; you cannot pay for the outcome of the critical analyses that it entails.

Film criticism exists to analyze its subject as a work of art, not commerce.

ColeSmithey.com

Film criticism is an individual pursuit, not a group activity. If you care what other people think about a specific movie or film, you're fucked.

Filmmakers Jean-Luc Goddard, Francoise Truffault, and Paul Schrader were each film critics before becoming filmmakers. They worked out their initial film theories by writing criticism. There are rich rewards if you're willing to put in the time. Children without siblings are naturals for becoming critics — less distraction.

ColeSmithey.com

Social media is a natural enemy to film criticism, and to rational thought for that matter.

The study and analyses of film/movies requires deep focus and concentration, the exact thing that social media rejects.

The value of Cinema rests with the patience to absorb its importance, not to exploit it.

A commercial cannot be a movie, i.e. "Barbie" is not a movie. Neither is "Black Panther." These are commercials made to move product.

All film is political; it is up to the film critic to draw upon research to define its political subtext.

ColeSmithey.com

Film criticism is not a club or a meritocracy.

Film criticism is writing, many hours of writing, for many years, if you're lucky.

Film criticism is a study of global sociology.

And endless study and research; if you haven't seen any of a filmmaker's past films, how can you pretend to contemplate the personal context of their latest movie? You can't.

ColeSmithey.com

It's none of our damn business how much money your dumb-ass movie made.

The movie industry teamed up with modern clickbait media to shit the bed of movie-going in America.

It's fine for industry professionals to turn into bean counters on their own time, but insulting the public by waving their huge profits under our noses as a merit badge is beyond the pale.

Money does not equal quality, quite the contrary.

ColeSmithey.com

Roger Ebert was an awful example of a narcissist passing as a film critic.

Because of the way Ebert fell into his job as a corporate film critic, he did not properly prepare for the task.

Contrary to Ebert's belief that a critic should write about his, her, or their experience of watching a movie (i.e. did it make you cry?) is bullshit.

Just because a movie makes you cry, does not automatically make it a good movie. There are many people who can make you cry, not all of them are good people.

The minimum requirement for any film critic is that he or she watch, and read reviews of the best 100 movies of all time. "John Kobal Presents the Top 100 Movies" (yes, it's a book) is a great place to start.

ColeSmithey.com

A love of international Cinema, the diligence to constantly study various aspects of Cinema, and the willingness to sit down to artfully express to the reader a cogent understanding of the movie at hand, are things that cannot be taught.

ColeSmithey.com

You've either got it, or you don't.

5 Stars

Cozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

 

August 18, 2017

Weekend Update: Tina Fey on Protesting After Charlottesville - SNL

Tina Fey hits it out of the park on this one! Wow!

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