The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on November 23, 2023

This new page in Disney animation borrows from some of the first of their films in some of the most beautiful ways. The backgrounds in Wish look like the glorious paintings that make up the worlds of Snow White and Pinocchio. There is warmth and texture and stunning little details...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 17, 2023

Kenneth Branagh’s A Haunting in Venice is loosely based upon the Agatha Christie novel A Halloween Party. This story features Christie’s infamous detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) as he once again finds himself in the middle of a murder mystery. This time it is Halloween night in an old orp   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 11, 2023

A group of Aussie teens have come up with a new hit party game. One of them has acquired a mysterious, creepy arm, supposedly from a gypsy or medium who could talk with the dead. For the game, first light a candle. Then one person sits, tied to a chair...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on October 1, 2023

Disney’s Haunted Mansion film is made for fans of the legendary Disney parks ride. I am one of thoes fans who can proudly say that Haunted Mansion is my favorite Disney World ride, so this film was right up my alley. The film perfectly greets us foolish mortals, lets us...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on September 12, 2023

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a biopic filled with political intrigue. For three hours we focus on the life of J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) from his time as a brilliant but clumsy physics student in Europe, up through his involvement in creating the atomic bomb and into the political a   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on July 31, 2023

The opening scene in Barbie is a hilarious parody of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, with little girls playing with baby dolls as the primitive apes at the dawn of man. Then suddenly, like the mysterious monolith, stands a giant Margot Robbie as the original 1951 Barbie doll, in her...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on July 14, 2023

Pixar’s Elemental shows off how the animation juggernaut can play with fire, but leaves the audience burning for something more. Where the film shines and shows off is the amazing character animation. To digitally create fire is one feat, but to animate, anthropomorphize and bring so much raw emoti   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on March 11, 2023

Happy Oscar weekend! Another Oscar season is coming to a close. To wrap it up, I like to do two things: pick a top five from Best Picture and post my official picks for each category. As always, I tried to watch as many films as possible, yet it was...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on March 10, 2023

Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness is a hilariously tragic social commentary like I’ve never seen before. In three acts, it centers on a young couple of British models, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean). The opening scene shows us male models in a documentary setting, being interviewe   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on March 6, 2023

Over the summer I was a stubborn fool. I didn’t go see Top Gun: Maverick in theaters. I know, I know. Alyson, what were you thinking?! Didn’t you hear the rave reviews? Why? I don’t know. Like I said, I’m was stubborn and just plain stupid. Part of me didn’t...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on March 3, 2023

The Banshees of Inisherin has been categorized as a comedy. And while there are a few funny moments, maybe more awkward than funny, this movie is far from a laugh riot. I guess it’s more of a comedy of exasperation. Unless you find loneliness and despair on a tiny, rural...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on March 1, 2023

When I first saw Everything Everywhere All at Once when it first came to theaters, I left the theater absolutely gobsmacked. I was astounded and confused but I loved it. I had never seen a film like that before, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The film...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on February 20, 2023

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a beautiful work of stop-motion animation retelling the classic tale of a wooden puppet come to life. Here, Guillermo del Toro focuses more on life, death, grief and the heavy burden each of those things can be. We see how happy and complete Geppetto (voiced...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on February 18, 2023

In Todd Field’s latest film, Tár, we meet our title character at the top of her game. Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is the first female chief conductor at the Berlin Philharmonic. In an early scene she is interviewed on stage and Adam Gopnik lists off her illustrious list of titles...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on February 16, 2023

In a remote religious community, the women have finally had enough. Enough of what? The men. And their violence. Their savage beatings. Rape. No one is safe from them, not even their own little children. So a group of women gather in a hay loft to discuss what to do...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on February 10, 2023

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis portrays the king of rock and roll in ways many who lived before his time have never truly comprehended. The young are told Elvis was revolutionary and a rebel when he first broke onto the music scene. And older generations still revel in the glitz and glamor...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on February 4, 2023

Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front starts with a moment of juxtaposition. We are shown the beautiful winter forest in France, and then a family of foxes sleeping, nestled in their foxhole. A foxhole as nature intended. Then we are shown a gruesome, overhead shot of a nearby...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on January 30, 2023

Personally, I enjoy James Cameron’s Avatar films more than I like to admit. I geek out over the technical achievements, the stunning visuals, the unique combination of motion capture acting and CGI. Most of all, the Avatar movies are incredibly immersive. They’re truly an escape that I don’t mind be   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on January 24, 2023

The film opens on a story I’ve heard before in an interview with Steven Spielberg. Outside a movie theater in 1952, people are lined up to see the new Cecil B. DeMille picture, The Greatest Show on Earth. Little Sammy Fabelman (a fictionalized young Spielberg) is apprehensive about seeing his...   read more

The Best Picture Project Posted by Alyson on December 21, 2022

Last week a couple old film blogger friends, Ian and Dan, invited me on their podcast. It’s called Cinema in Seconds. The premises is that they each pick a very small moment in a film, then discuss why it’s such a significant moment in the film. Honestly, it’s a fascinating...   read more