Last day to give WPRK a Woodie!!!
No. DEFINITELY not that. OK, now that’s what I meant. It seems like Orlando’s coolest little radio station, Rollins College’s WPRK (91.5 FM), has made it into the TOP 10 to be considered for the mtvU Woodie Award for Best College Radio Station. FTW! Well, almost. That’s where you come in. Voting ends Mar.…
Early Oscar frontrunners for 2012
Here are some forthcoming releases that are already racking up big awards buzz. The Kinks’ Screech – Hoping to avoid the sophomore jinx, Tom Hooper takes a detour into Charlie Kaufman-style pop-culture metaphysics. In an alternate reality not all that unlike our own, Ray Davies leaves The Kinks and is replaced by Saved by the…
O-Woww’s Super Skanky Oscacular Spectacular Day 6: Best. Picture. Ever. of the Year.
First, a prediction: This guy’s wrong. Second, a request for the Oscar Gods: Next year, can we get a little romance in this bitch? Honestly, of the 10 (diez) films up for the Biggest of the Big this year, only The Kids Are All Right comes close to qualification as a genuine, heart-on-your-sleeve, Jack-and-Rose/Jack-and-Ennis Romance.…
All that Razz
Well, now you can go bowling tomorrow night like you wanted to. The results have been announced in the only movie awards that matter: the Razzies. The big “winner” was this blog’s old pal M. Night Shamwow, whose The Last Airbender marked a milestone in its putrid genesis. This morning, it was still merely the…
OW Golden Man Happy Fun Time, Day 5: Best Actor
Here we are, covering the penultimate category on the penultimate day before the Big Show. Best Actor is filled with fine candidates, but it seems that last year’s ceremony will have a hand in guiding this year’s voters to even the keel. Jeff Bridges did damn fine work in Crazy Heart, but it was generally…
OW Really Likes You: Best Lead Actress
Every year it seems to be that there is one movie nominated in this category that I haven’t seen, so I always feel weird saying “[she] should win!” I really thought Sally Hawkins was going to get nominated for Made in Dagenham just to throw a wrench into the works for me, but I’ve seen…
OW OscarMania XXVIXV5: Original Screenplay
You hear it every year: Some actress gets onstage and thanks some awkwardly attired writer “for the words” as if they were just conjured out of the air and typewritten onset just before the real auteur yelled “action.” In truth, this is the category where the hard work happens, where some bodyguard or stripper or…
OW’s Oscarwatchmen at work, Day 4: Animated Feature
Or Countdown to Oscars 2012 When We’ll Pretend Cars 2 Didn’t Suck Exhaust Pipe Cause At Least It’s Not Puss in Boots or Happy Feet 2. Cue the boos … I’m about to piss a bunch of people off. Here’s the deal: Even though I have two kids which forces me to watch more animated…
OW Awards Zone 2011: Best Director
It’s rare for Best Picture and Best Director to split, but this year makes quite the case for that happening. [EDITOR’S NOTE: I’d still like to make the case for The Happening!] If David Fincher won, it’d be for The Social Network, a film crafted with remarkable precision from every angle, including those terrifically integrated…
OW Osc-o-mite! Day 4: Visual Effects
This slot was originally slated for Best Foreign Film, and then we realized that between the three of us, we’d only cumulatively seen two of the five films (Dogtooth and Biutiful), so VFX it is! It’s an odd feeling to be judging a film visually without judging its story, but that’s what this category calls…
Policy wonks, legal scholars vexed by Scott’s rail-killing authority
So it’s been over a week since Governor Rick Scott sent the hopes for high-speed rail in Florida careening towards a cliff, and now that the red haze has faded from the periphery of your vision and you’ve wiped the foam from your mouth, you may be asking yourself: is that even legal? Did Rick…
OW Oscarama: Best Adapted Screenplay
Let’s get one of the big boys out of the way, shall we? Over the last decade or so, the Best Writing categories have both become something of the de facto “Best Indie Movie” category. It’s traditionally populated with titles like Sideways or Lost in Translation that just didn’t have the mainstream pop to win…
Oscars, Schmoscars – Day 3: Best Supporting Actor and Actress
It’s a good thing that we’re discussing who we believe actually deserves these awards, as opposed to merely predicting who will take it home, because I’m just about sick of lamenting the staggering amount of acclaim that perfectly fine character actress Melissa Leo is earning for her good-not-great work in The Fighter. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Don’t…
Quick Lime
Fast-casual taqueria’s high standards set it apart from the rest
Savage Love
first line of story
Happytown
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!You know those Chicken Little weeks where it feels like every synaptic click in your head is like a sharp iron filing flying by you – or through you – on your personal sidewalk-race toward the end of the world? Well, last week was a lot like that,…
The defining question
Considering the “Beatles or Elvis” dividing line of film: Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin?
A window into Tiffany
Morse Museum’s expansion puts designer’s better-known works in perspective
Rotation:What local artists are listing to
This week: Go Rydell’s Chris Scaduto
DVDs Nuts!
Lesser-seen OW approved titles
Free Will Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19) “Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization,” said George Bernard Shaw more than six decades ago - and it’s still true. It’s very important that you be more discerning than newspapers in the coming weeks, Aries. You can’t afford to confuse a minor…
The Old 97’s on their new double album and managing audience expectations
The plight of prolific frontman Rhett Miller
Kaboom
Split-ticket weekend at Enzian shows last year’s best and this year’s worst
This Little Underground
Bao Le-Huu takes on Broken Social Scene, Pile, Futurebirds, an experimental double-bill at Uncle Lou’s and has tons of local music news
Church and State
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd’s mission from God to eliminate obscenity knows no bounds
Live Active Cultures
Seth Kubersky susses out Urban ReThink
Oscar-palooza, Day 2 – Part II: Best Documentary
So far as this year’s Best Documentary category is concerned, the nominees I’ve seen are: Exit Through the Gift Shop Anonymous graffiti artist-turned-lovable prankster Banksy broke out with this playful “documentary” about art culture. Given the doubt cast over the film’s authenticity (which is itself part of its appeal, a la F for Fake), I’m impressed…
Oscar Picks Thingie Day 2: Best Costume Design
The manliest of all Oscar categories, the one for the dudes out there forced to sit through red carpet ooing and aahing, the moment when the Kodak Theatre, for a precious moment, becomes a gladiator arena of bloodthirsty barkers and maidens burying their faces from the primal nightmare on display. Kidding, it’s Best Costume Design.…
OW Oscar Battle: Best Cinematography
The next category in our bloody battle to the filmic death is Best Cinematography [Editor’s note: That would be the 1st Annual OW’s 5 Days of Oscar Championships Tournament Battle Picks, or OW FOCTOBAP. The editor is very stuck on that name. Enjoy.] It’s the most exciting of all of the technical categories because it…
Shook me all night long
In the wake of 3D and Smell-O-Vision, theater owners are looking for the next gimmick to spring on moviegoers, and after being made available in other markets, D-Box technology has finally landed in Orlando — specifically, at the Premiere Cinemas Fashion Square — to coincide with last week’s opening of the blandly bombastic I Am Number…
Welcome to OW’s 5 Days of Oscar Championships Tournament Battle Picks!
OK, I don’t know what exactly OW’s 5 Days of Oscar Championships Tournament Battle Picks means, but it sounds fun, right? And it almost definitely will be a little! Fellow OW movie critic Rob Boylan came up with this idea to do a week of picking our favorite past winners from each category, ostensibly so…
This week in Harvey Weinstein’s half-embarrassed sharts: The Concert
Continuing their unerring streak(stain) of pushing movies at the last minute only to drop them in just in time to miss the press – see: The Company Men, Apollo 18, Shelter. Oh wait, you can’t! – the Weinstein Co. just announced they’re opening The Concert, at the Bolshoi orchestra or something, this weekend at Regal…
