Tag Archives: Oscars

Films vs. Movies #57: A Night at the Oscars

Drinking about the Academy Awards.

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Viva Mabuse! #26: Grouchland

The Oscars are an iconic paradigm of our culture: closely watched and vetted public rituals that manifestly mean nothing, just like football games, reality shows, press conferences, weekly box office statistics, political campaign speeches, Thomas Friedman’s New York Times editorials, and Lena Dunham. We should be deeply ashamed of our professed commitment to all of the above, in a manner and to a degree we needn’t necessarily be ashamed of, say, our idle homicidal fantasies or bizarre sexual preferences or … Read More

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On the Couch: Oscar Contenders

I’d like to take a step back from the aggressive glamour of Oscar season and examine these Best Films of The Year (according to one particular group of people) from a specialist’s point of view. These films have issues, y’all. For those of us who have hustled out to see them, we’ve been exposed to a whole host of disorders. Not to worry, though—for every Best Picture nominee there is a sure-fire antidote.

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Here & Now & Then: 1940

The upping of the number of best picture nominees to ten in 2009 has only resulted in a greater volume of forgettable titles slipping through the cracks. This seems to be the case as well for Oscar years before 1944, when there were generally ten nominees. What’s most fascinating is not that these films are largely forgotten, but that at one point they meant something to large numbers of people, and are now basically lost to time.

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Films vs. Movies #51: Hooray For Hollywood

Jim and James swapping Oscar picks: What could go wrong with that?

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THE MONKEY BIZ BAROMETER: 9/19/12

Giving the Monkey Biz the business, from George Clooney to James Cameron, and from Entourage to Manimal.

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Monkey Biz: Box Office Buzz, News Updates & More

The Monkey Biz travels back to Madagascar, wrestles Prometheus, and trash-talks a metal-maned Tom Cruise.

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Monkey Business: Oscar, Billy, and “The Movies” – What Went Wrong

Hi, I just got back from the movies. Boy, are they the coolest. Thanks for the suggestion, Billy Crystal, Brian Grazer, and the Academy. Together, I believe we can teach everyone in the world about the movies.

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Films vs. Movies #5: The Morning After the Morning After

Films vs. Movies on the Oscars.

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