Friday, March 15, 2019

Everything I Love About Captain America in Avengers: Infinity War

Captain America in Avengers: Infinity War
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
After a devastating smackdown against Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War, Steve Rogers relinquished the iconic shield and stepped away from the Accords. The 'Star-Spangled Man With A Plan' became the Nomad, living undercover alongside other rogue Avengers such as Black Widow, The Falcon, Scarlett Witch and Vision. Called to reunite with old friends, they rally with T'Challa, Bucky, and Thor to take down Thanos.

Appearing in Avengers: Infinity War alongside a dozen other superheros, Nomad's appearance caps in at six minutes and forty-five seconds. But that doesn't mean his limited time isn't intricate to the longstanding arc of his own series. In fact, pinpointing how deep his appearance is in Avengers: Infinity War was a fun challenge to accept while waiting for the next installment Avengers: End GameIn continuing my series about Captain America, here is a breakdown of his role and the connections to his past films. Hope you enjoy! (This post is gif-heavy and click on the image for credit).


Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Fighting With My Family (2019) Shines A Light on Sharing The Dream

Fighting With My Family review
Universal Pictures
Thousands of screaming fans. Electrifying feuds. Bold outfits. Audacious athleticism. Wrestling is larger than life. Taking the glitz and glamour down a notch, Fighting with My Family shows what happens when fans dare to walk the path their heroes paved and become icons themselves.

Based on the real life story, eighteen year old Saraya-Jade Bevis - popularly known as Paige - (Florence Pugh) who aspires to be a wrestler, is discovered by the WWE and becomes their youngest champion ever. Hailing from a small town in Norwich, England, Paige's dreams are not entirely her own. She shares them with her family - dad Ricky (Nick Frost) and mom Julia (Lena Headey) who runs their own wrestling association, and her brother Zak (Jack Lowden) who misses out on making his own fantasies as a WWE Superstar come true.

Saturday, March 9, 2019

The Imperfect Complexity of Jackson & Ally

A Star Is Born portraits photographer Peter Lindbergh
photographer Peter Lindbergh
When A Star Is Born was released in late 2018, it received acclaim by both critics and moviegoers. But a not-so-subtle critique about the film was how it didn’t change its messaging about the tragic love story or its characters: does a male lead have to sacrifice himself as a woman rises to the top of their industry? Is the relationship between the love birds toxic more than purely romantic? With my love of director Bradley Cooper’s latest version in mind, I wondered about Jackson Maine and Ally Campana both on the page and screen, and if anything has truly changed in eighty-four years. (This post is l-o-n-g. Thanks in advance if you take the time to read it. Hope you enjoy!)

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Mount Rushmore of Hot Beards

m.brown at Two Dollar Cinema is holding a blogathon called Mt. Rushmore of Movies, where fellow bloggers pick four actors, performances, or themes that they think should replace the U.S. Presidents on Mount Rushmore.

I've never participated in the challenge before and thought it would be fun to give it a go. If you follow me on twitter, you guys will know I have a type. And that is a dude with a glorious beard. If an actor (on my radar or not) cranks out some scruff, he becomes worthy of being displayed in a museum, or in this case, on a mountain for the whole world to bow down to. My theme was fairly easy to choose after some inspiration from Rambling Film and Mettel Ray. I started questioning my life choices after seeing their magnificent selection, but these are my picks for the Mount Rushmore of Hot Beards. If you think there's a beard I missed including in this list or should check out, let me know in the comments!

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

5 Changes The Oscars Can Take to Improve Next Year's Ceremony

Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler Oscars 2019 Craig Sjodin
photograph by Craig Sjodin / People Magazine
The road leading up to the 2019 Academy Awards ceremony has been anything less than unexciting. In an effort to limit its air time to three hours, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made a scroll's-worth of decisions that drew backlash and criticism from the movie-going community as well as the industry's biggest names. From difficulties landing a host to attempting to break tradition with presenting all of the categories, there are a lot of elements the show got wrong and right this year. Let's keep my unsolicited advice column going, and talk about which steps the Oscars can take to improve next year's ceremony. What did you think about this year's Oscars? Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Stars I Love: Emily Blunt

Richard Phibbs Harpers Bazaar UK January 2019
Richard Phibbs - Harpers Bazaar UK January 2019

Emily Blunt can do no wrong. While I’m sure this isn’t entirely true because we’re all human and have imperfections, every time I watch one of her films, I’m always taken aback by her pure talent and ability to mold into different characters and seamlessly move from genre to genre. We never quite know what direction she'll take her career next, and half the excitement is watching her filmography unfold year after year. For me (and her husband John Krasinski), I guess you can say, I think she can do no wrong. And it's mind-boggling to think that she almost didn’t become an actress.

Friday, February 15, 2019

The LAMB Devours The Oscars: A Star Is Born As Best Picture

Warner Bros. Pictures
After eighty-four years, it might be time to let A Star Is Born die. The story of an ingenue rising to the top of the music (or film) industry while falling in love with a veteran spiraling out of control has been told since 1937 (and again in 1954, and then 1976). Now with the massive success of the latest version by director Bradley Cooper and co-star Lady Gaga, there's no doubt that the saga can go out on a high, if also bittersweet, note.

When the production of this musical-drama started coming together in 2016, most people were left scratching their heads: the remake of A Star Is Born had been circulating for years, rumored to star everyone from Beyonce to Leonardo DiCaprio, with director Clint Eastwood, until Bradley Cooper finally signed on to helm the project and Lady Gaga to make her debut in a leading role. Many suspected in the film's earlier days that it would garner the worst the industry has to offer known as the Razzies versus reaching the pinnacle of film-making at the Oscars. As possibly the only other rendition that rivals the most popular 1954 version starring Judy Garland and James Mason, everything that didn’t sound good through the grapevine managed to pull the film through to critical acclaim, memorable chemistry between its leads, and crowd-pleasing tunes.

The film follows aspiring singer Ally Campana (Lady Gaga) who falls in love with Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper), a country-rock musician plagued by substance abuse. While her career takes off with the help of his belief in her talent, his begins to fall apart. Out of their attempts to love each other in the midst of fame comes a movie where almost every production element is the star.