On this week’s episode of the Critic Speak Podcast, we discuss “The Big Wedding” and what’s happened to Robert De Niro in recent years, the new Michael Bay flick “Pain & Gain,” and Zach Braff’s recent Kickstarter campaign. Then, we interview my buddy and fellow movie lover Oscar Velasquez about his Letterboxd challenge “Great Movies […]
Critic Speak Podcast: Episode 3 Read More »
Hello from Hollywood. We’re a day and a half into this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival and I’ve been able to catch three movies so far — perhaps not as many as I would have liked, but still a decent amount given the hustle and bustle of taking the train up from San Diego, sprinting
2013 TCM Classic Film Festival: Dispatch #1 Read More »
The fourth annual TCM Classic Film Festival kicks off tonight in Hollywood and, despite a stellar lineup of old films on brand-new DCP restorations and glistening 35mm archival prints, plus famous guests aplenty, all I can think about is the festival’s main venue: Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Or, if we must honor the recent naming rights
2013 TCM Classic Film Festival: Preview Read More »
This week on the Critic Speak Podcast, we review “Oblivion” with Tom Cruise, talk about various news stories from CinemaCon 2013, and cover the new Blu-Ray releases “Gangster Squad” and “The Impossible.” Be sure to show your support for the show by subscribing and rating on iTunes, where new episodes go up the day after
Critic Speak Podcast: Episode 2 Read More »
Critic Speak turns one year old today—how time flies—and in celebration we are launching our latest new feature on the site, the Critic Speak Podcast. I’ll host this weekly show (a new episode every Monday night) with my fellow Critic Speak editor/co-founder James Frazier. We’ll cover an array of topics related to current happenings in the
Critic Speak Podcast: Episode 1 Read More »
As the San Diego Latino Film Festival enters its final weekend, there’s still plenty of good stuff left to see (I have five selections slated for today and tomorrow). It’s been tough to find time to write about the festival films I’ve already seen—in addition to my usual load of regular screenings and reviews, I’ve
SDLFF 2013: Dispatch #3 — “¡Atraco!” and “Post Tenebras Lux” Read More »
Three days into this year’s San Diego Latino Film Festival, I’m still very much enjoying myself. Festival fatigue—that inevitable wave of exhaustion one gets from watching several movies in a row, then returning home to write about them—has not yet set in, though I’m sure it will in a few days. So I’m committed to
SDLFF 2013: Dispatch #2 — “The Body” and “Nostalgia for the Light” Read More »
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious of fellow film bloggers who are reporting from South by Southwest in Austin, Texas this week—I haven’t been back there since I first attended in 2009—but plenty of cinematic discoveries await me at the local San Diego Latino Film Festival. Now in its twentieth year, the
SDLFF 2013: Dispatch #1 — “De jueves a domingo” and “La sirga” Read More »
Rest assured: this is the only Oscar predictions post you’ll see on Critic Speak all year. While the rest of the Internet film community becomes obsessed with statuettes come November, writing almost exclusively about precursors and frontrunners and “Oscar buzz” for the next four months, we pride ourselves on keeping the focus on real criticism.
Our Oscar Picks and Predictions Read More »
The highest grossing Korean film of all time, Dong-hoon Choi’s “The Thieves” has been repeatedly characterized by critics as its native country’s take on Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s 11” remake. While there are certainly surface similarities between the films—both deal with a band of robbers pulling off a major heist—the comparison hardly seems fair in that
Blu-Ray Review: “The Thieves” Read More »
