Condensing a popular young adult book to its most basic and necessary parts is an unenviable task. No matter how passionate the filmmakers are to the original text, someone’s bound to be disappointed. No film adaptation can satisfy every fan; it doesn’t matter how hard you try. Take out one character or rewrite them to be minimal, and you’re doomed.
I’ve got Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino on my mind these days. It’s a product of the end-of-year hurrahs for Scorsese’s Hugo. The film goes into the Academy Award ceremonies with 11 Oscar nominations – the most of any film this year – including a Best Director nod for Scorsese. Win or lose, Marty’s on …
Throughout the first half of February, the Sound On Sight staff will take a look at the Academy Awards. With the biggest night of the cinematic year coming up on the 26th February, the nominations are all set and confirmed, and the potential recipients are on a presidential-like campaign trail which is one part professional …
Throughout the first half of February, the Sound On Sight staff will take a look at the Academy Awards. Whether one of the major studios takes the top prize at the Academy Awards or not, they have no squawk this year. Several years ago, as you might recall, the Big Guys were getting fed up …
Throughout the first half of February, the Sound On Sight staff will take a look at the Academy Awards. Rather than write about any of the Academy’s many Best Picture mistakes, or any decisions that I wasn’t alive for and was thus ignorant of the huge amount of extenuating context surrounding any such decision, I’ll …
Acting and directing categories during awards seasons are always the hardest to determine. Who to choose and what for film is a constant battle, not to mention who deserves to be nominated. Between the veteran nominees (Clooney, Streep, Scorcese) to newbies in the awards season (Fassbender, Refn and Oldman (!)), let’s see who deserves a …
Its that time of the year again in when everyone prepares their Oscar predictions, because let’s be honest for a moment – the best part of the Oscars is placing your bets on who’ll win and hopefully walking away from a long and usually boring ceremony with some extra cash in your pocket. This morning …
Want a prediction for 2012 at the movies? It’s going to look a lot like 2011. An awful lot. It’s going to be a case of, If ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Well, actually, the creative machinery in Hollywood is broke, but, as the numbers show, not broken enough to warrant fixing. So. Next year, …
With more movies in limited and general release than ever before, 2011 was a ridiculously crowded year for both casual and discerning moviegoers alike. One by-product of the glut is a refreshing lack of consensus; so many films have been championed in so many corners – while those same films get trashed in others – …
Most moviegoers can agree on one thing: there were way too many movies this year. If you’re (un)fortunate enough to live in New York, you had the opportunity to see around 600 new features come and go; the rest of us didn’t get that many fewer. That means that anyone who’s been put in …
Most moviegoers can agree on one thing: there were way too many movies this year. If you’re (un)fortunate enough to live in New York, you had the opportunity to see around 600 new features come and go; the rest of us didn’t get that many fewer. That means that anyone who’s been put in a …
We recently discussed Martin Scorsese’s Hugo to raving reviews on episode 296 of the Sound On Sight podcast. It looks like we are not alone in sharing our love for the film. Today the National Board of Review named Hugo the best film of 2011 and Martin Scorsese best director. Check out the NBR’s full …
Hugo Directed by Martin Scorsese Written by John Logan, based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick USA, 2011 What are the odds that two of the best films of the year would be films about the history of Paris by veteran filmmakers identified strongly – almost chained – to the history …