The Entertainment Blur

My good buddy, Mike Sheehan, and I recently recorded a podcast episode debating our favorite movie musicals since the year 2000. In celebration of March Madness, we used a bracket-style to determine the rankings, match-ups, and eventually the winner. Here is the process that went with figuring out the rankings and at the bottom is the episode. Enjoy! — This post is to explain how we came up with…

Why we shouldn’t be surprised by Moonlight’s vitory

Listen, I am still shocked to the bone, but like everything that I can’t make sense with, I do my best to really analyze the situation and give myself some reasons why whatever was surprising really shouldn’t have been all along. So here we go… The lack of SAG Best Ensemble nomination. This is a stat that goes all the way back to 1995 when Braveheart became a very rare instance to not receive a…

How Many Oscars Will La La Land Win?

Usually there is some kind of discussion about what film will win Best Picture on the night of the Oscars. It actually makes it a lot more fun when you don’t know or at least when there are two films in the running. Last year, it was anyone’s guess between The Revenant, Spotlight, and The Big Short. The year before that it was down to Boyhood vs. Birdman. The year before that was Gravity vs. 12…

The 89th Academy Awards will take place this Sunday, February 26, 2017. Here are my final predictions: Best Picture Arrival Fences Hacksaw Ridge Hell or High Water Hidden Figures La La Land Lion Manchester by the Sea Moonlight Leading the year with 14 nominations (also tying the record for most nominations of all-time), La La Land is the Best Picture to beat. It’s beloved by practically everyone…

2017 SAG Awards Predictions

I’ll make this post quick. The SAG Awards take place this Sunday and while La La Land has been racking up all of the attention and buzz (both good and bad), this year’s SAG Awards are a bit unpredictable mainly because La La Land is not nominated for the main award: Best Film Ensemble. Weird. So what does this mean? This is Moonlight’s big chance to gain some ground while behind La La Land. With…

2017 Oscar Nominations (and snubs)

Here are a few snippets of my opinions from the Tuesday announcement of Oscar nominations. — The Nominations: To no one’s surprise, La La Land received a ton of nominations, but did anyone really expect the romantic musical to tie the record for most Oscar nominations ever? With 14 nominations, La La Land now finds itself with the company of All About Eve and Titanic with 14 Oscar noms. Both…

Audio Review: Hidden Figures & Fences

I am currently involved with two podcasting projects, both pop culture related. In the one titled Popcorn and Pop Culture, I review the films Hidden Figures and Fences separately. Instead of writing my review of both films, check them out here: Hidden Figures Review Fences Review Popcorn and Pop Culture site

2017 Oscar Nomination Predictions

It’s time! The Oscar nominations will be announced this Tuesday, January 24 so it’s time to make some predictions. Here we go! — Best Picture Since we don’t know how many films will be nominated (5 to 10), I’m just going to rank the films that I feel have the best chance and see how accurate my guesses are. La La Land Moonlight Manchester by the Sea Fences Arrival Lion Hacksaw Ridge Hidden…

Golden Globes 2017 – Predictions

The Golden Globes kick off the Oscar races and that is why I mainly watch this awards show. Sure, it’s fun to see all of the year’s most famous celebrities get together in one room, and occasionally get drunk and make a fool out of themselves. But for me, the Emmy’s are the true awards for television and the Oscars are the true awards for movies. With the Oscars nominations just around the corner…

Movie Review: Manchester by the Sea

Manchester by the Sea (2016) 137 minutes Rated – R Starring: Casey Affleck, Kyle Chandler, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges Directed by Kenneth Lonergan Grade: A — When given the attention and depth necessary, the location of a film could be as important as any character. In Manchester by the Sea, the large city of Manchester, New Hampshire is a well-developed and integral part to the plot with…

Movie Review: The Edge of Seventeen

The Edge of Seventeen (2016) 104 minutes Rated – R Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson, Blake Jenner Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig Grade: A- — I’m sure this isn’t the first time I’m writing about this, but I love a high school drama that is done well, and The Edge of Seventeen has officially cracked into my list of favorite high school movies of all time. High school is such a complex…

Arrival (2016) 116 minutes Rated – PG-13 Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker Directed by Denis Villeneuve Grade: A — I never like to write any kind of review and say how I cannot completely discuss it because it would spoil the essence and the experience that the film offers, but this is true with Denis Villeneuve’s latest sci-fi flick, Arrival. It starts out like many other alien…

Tangerine (2015) 128 minutes Rated – R Directed by Sean Baker Starring: Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor Grade: B+ — If this is the movie that people talk about because it was shot on iPhones, then that’s too bad because Tangerine is truly a one-of-a-kind film. But yes, let’s address the elephant in the studio because I’ll be completely honest, this was probably the main reason why I checked out…

Oscars Nominations Predictions 2016

The polls have been open since December 30, and they will be closing later this week on Friday, January 8. The nominations won’t be announced until Thursday morning on January 14. In the time being, let’s make some predictions! — Best Picture Spotlight The Martian Mad Max: Fury Road The Big Short Carol The Revenant Bridge of Spies Star Wars: The Force Awakens Brooklyn Room Notes: Obviously I have…

Sufjan Stevens @ Loew’s Landmark Theatre, Jersey City (Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015)

Went to this concert with Vivenzio on Halloween night. We were both looking forward to this show and as we glanced at the setlist from prior shows, we knew that Sufjan would be playing every song off of his latest album “Carrie & Lowell.” This forced us to listen to the new album instead of hoping he would play tracks from his whole catalog, but this was a blessing in disguise because “Carrie &…

Mr. Robot – “eps1.9_zer0-day.avi”

Season One, Episode Ten Grade: B+ Season One Grade: A — After two incredibly thrilling episodes back-to-back, it was impossible for Mr. Robot to keep its foot on the acceleration pedal through the first season’s finale. But we did get answers, and boy did they ever give us the results we wanted. Or did we? It’s easy to go along for the ride with Fsociety and say “F the world! Hack them all!”…