Juicy J — one-half of Three 6 Mafia — helped pen the crunk anthem “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” for the film Hustle & Flow, netting the duo a Best Original Song Academy Award in 2005. Now he heads to Oklahoma City as a part of The Smokers Club tour, which also features […]
Academy Award
Posted inArts & Culture
Bullhead
Hey, guys, you’d feel the same if you had no testicles. Bullhead is not, however, your average chunk of Oscar bait. In fact, nothing about it is average. Its distributor is Drafthouse Films, the theatrical arm of the legendary — among outré-cinema enthusiasts, at least — Austin, Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse, where you can enjoy a […]
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Annie Hall
But is its recent Blu-Ray release a worthwhile buy for fans of the Woodman? Well, if you haven’t seen the 1977 Academy Award winner enough times to quote it verbatim, or if you have but don’t own it, sure, it’s definitely worth a purchase. But Allen movies are notoriously no-frills on DVD and Blu-Ray, and […]
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Brief encounters
ANIMATED “A Morning Stroll” It sounds like the setup to a simple joke: Why did the chicken knock on the apartment door? This clever ditty answers it thrice, each with animation appropriate to the 1959, 2009 and 2059 time periods it depicts. Thus, we move from simple line drawings to today’s CGI, and ending with […]
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Blue Valentine
Williams didn’t have a chance, really, but in another year, amid a different set of nominees, things might be different. The same shift in luck applies to the couple that comprises this film’s core: one year, blissful; another, miserable. Cindy (Williams) is a nurse, while her husband, Dean (Ryan Gosling, “Lars and the Real Girl”), […]
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One Week
“How many stages are there?” he asks, not quite comprehending the severity of the situation. “Four,” replies the doc. Ben’s first instinct is to cancel his upcoming wedding to Samantha (Liane Balaban of “Last Chance Harvey,” looking like a taller, thicker-browed Natalie Portman). His second, taking advice from a disposable coffee cup, is to ride […]
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Be their guest
The year 1991 was good for yellow dresses. That was when Disney released the film “Beauty and the Beast,” and little girls everywhere began asking not to be a princess, but to be Belle — this once-little girl included. The Academy Award-winning movie spawned the Tony Award-winning Broadway production, one that played for more than […]
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Inside Job
One could read its 576 pages in an attempt to understand it all, but director Charles Ferguson (“No End in Sight”) does the same thing — and certainly a better job of it — in 108 minutes, in the documentary “Inside Job.” Nominated Tuesday for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the film has […]