The TCM Classic Film Festival wrapped up last weekend and, if I do say, it was one of the best moviegoing events I’ve ever attended. How liberating it is to enjoy a festival that isn’t populated by bloggers under pressure to break news or be the first to review a premiering film. Everybody attending TCMFF, […]
2013 TCM Classic Film Festival: Dispatch #2 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 »
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 »
Honorable Mentions: “Argo” – Ben Affleck continues his career resurgence in front of and behind the camera with the year’s best crowd-pleaser. Centering on the true story of how the C.I.A. extracted several Americans from Tehran during the Iran Hostage Crisis posing as a film crew, “Argo” manages to be an affectionate satire of Hollywood
James Frazier’s Top 10 Films of 2012 Read More »
Despite a lackluster crop of summer blockbusters—“The Dark Knight Rises,” in particular, was a colossal disappointment—2012 turned out to be a very good year at the movies. Two weeks ago, with several key films left to see, I began actively wishing that I would be disappointed by my remaining viewings because I didn’t want to
Danny Baldwin’s Top 10 Films of 2012 Read More »
Historically, Robert Zemeckis’ dramas have worked by harnessing their thick characterizations and exaggerated situations to unabashedly play to the audience’s emotions. From Forrest Gump’s run across America to Chuck Noland’s bald-faced wailing at the loss of his beloved volleyball Wilson in “Cast Away,” Zemeckis’ finest work may be coated in Hollywood sheen, but it nonetheless
NYFF Review: “Flight” Read More »
