Martin Scorsese's Hugo led the way with eleven nominations, stacking up many a nod in the technical categories, while Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist was close behind with ten total. Academy members clearly love a good homage to the magic of old-fashioned cinema - be it a Hollywood flick set in Paris or a French production set in Hollywood. Moving o

My Kid Could Paint That is a documentary directed by Amir Bar-Lev, exploring the story of Marla Olmstead, a 4-year-old abstract painter whose work garnered international attention and considerable market value. The film examines the ensuing media frenzy, accusations of fraud, and the ethics of exploiting a child prodigy for commercial gain, while questioning the authenticity and value of modern

The viewer is left to draw their own conclusion and although I liked that the film did that, another part of me would have liked a definitive conclusion. Having said that, it's probably better that it was left open-ended because too many documentaries have an obvious agenda meant to convince the viewer of some particular point of v

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

The documentary has an interview with a New York Times art critic who discusses modern (or abstract) art and the reasons behind the sometimes apparently insane valuations for what looks like some paint splashed on a canvas. Part of his explanation is that the story behind the artwork contributes to the value. What has the artist gone through, for example? In Marlas's case part of the value is due to the fact of her young age and the apparent sophistication of the w

The film kind of rambles along and we meet Lewellan's grandmother (played by Piper Laurie), and some of the black folks in town including Charles, a (too?) wise old soul and fan of snakes, which he uses to create medicine. The very bad guy in the movie Awards games Updates|https://moviefestivalhub.com/ is a new milkman in his early 20's, who comes by Lewellan's house one day and happens to see her singing a bit of her favorite song with her trademark moves, except this time while lying on her bed. He is the one who eventually rapes Lewel

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

Amir Bar-Lev, the director of the film, spent an entire year with the Olmsteads shooting this documentary. He became aware of them by reading a story about Marla and her paintings in the New York Times. His initial approach to the documentary was to take a look at the world of modern art, but as things progressed he saw that the real story was what was going on with Marla and her fam

There's really no chance at an upset in this category, but Lewis was great in Wolf Hall and that show deserves some love. If not for Mark Rylance, then Lewis for his generous performance as Henry VIII, which shined at times but always gave the floor to Thomas Cromwell (Rylance) when necess

A relatively subdued Ricky Gervais took the stage as host of the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards . In his second year as host, it appears that all of last year’s controversy surrounding Gervais' hosting must have impacted the funnyman, as all of his jabs appeared a little too nice compared to what was said last ye

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

FOX's Brooklyn Nine-Nine made a big awards splash its first season, and then seemingly shifted away from the spotlight. That's too bad, because it is has become one of those shows that is too good for its own good, and Braugher is a big part of why that is true. His performance as Capt. Ray Holt has grown into one of the most consistently hilarious roles in a comedy to

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