Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Carousel (Fred Zinnemann, 1956) 3/10 In order to return to Earth and solve some family issues, a man must recount his story to a heavenly gatekeeper. "Carousel: or, How Your Husband Abusing You Means He Loves You." Seriously, there is no way to discuss this film without talking about this...

The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (Luis Buñuel, 1955) 8/10 After believing himself to have accidentally killed his governess in his youth, a man decides it's his destiny to become a notorious serial killer of women only for his plans to go terribly awry. Like most people writing about this...

Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) 7/10 After moving to a new town, a rebellious, trouble teen makes friends with a disturbed classmate, falls for a nice, local girl, and gets in trouble deep with the local tough kids. Nicholas Ray moves away from the brutality of the Old West and moves it ...

I know Welles is revered like no one else in the film community, but, man, "The Stranger" is really, really, really bad. "Martha Ivers" is also overbloated and unexciting. "To Each His Own" is touching, and I usually dig Charles Brackett's work. Even without Wilder, he ...

Silver Lode (Allan Dwan, 1954) 7/10 On the fourth of July, a respected citizen in a western town has his wedding interrupted by four men who arrest him for the murder of the leader's brother. McCarthyism hits the Old West again! "Silver Lode," despite its uninspired name, is actually fair...

Senso (Luchino Visconti, 1954) 10/10 A neurotic, troubled Italian countess betrays her entire nation for a self-centered, sultry affair with an Austrian officer. As I've travelled through the works of Luchino Visconti, starting at the beginning, I've given his first three films, "Ossessione,&q...

BEST SCREENPLAY 01. Late Spring (Kogo Noda & Yasujiro Ozu, based on the novel "Chichi to musume" by Kazuo Hirotsu) 02. The Small Back Room (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel by Nigel Balchin) 03. Adam's Rib (Ruth Gordon & Garson Kanin) 04. Kind Hearts and ...

Split Second (Dick Powell, 1953) 7/10 A group of escaped convicts, one seriously wounded, take hostages and hole up in a ghost town none of them know is set to be the site of nuclear bombing. I have no idea how, but this little RKO B-movie is a hell of a film. "Split Second" reeks of chee...

REWATCH: The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) 9/10 A tough cop and a gangster's moll take on a massively-corrupt crime syndicate. Fritz Lang's brutal noir puts anger into both male and female hands for two interesting looks at organized crime. Glenn Ford, whose merely alright performance is the film's o...

Beat the Devil (John Huston, 1953) 4/10 A ne'er-do-well American teams up with four crooks trying to lay claim to land rich in uranium deposits in Kenya as they wait in a small Italian port. "Beat the Devil" is a really interesting film. It's kind of a fever dream. It's aimless and listle...

Seeing as both Ace in the Hole and La Ronde are among the 25 or so greatest films ever written...

I'm only 24, but I think I can safely say this is the biggest Cinderella story in sports history. I'm a Spurs fan, but I wouldn't want to see anything other than the Foxes atop. What an incredible season.

Eddie Redmayne, once again, turns in one of the most godawful performances of the year in one of the year's most atrocious films. His work in The Danish Girl is stupendously bad. It's even more mannered than his post-ALS Hawking work the year before. Oscar needs to stop honoring this guy. He may hav...

REWATCH: The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952) 4/10 An American boxer trying to escape his past seeks to court a stubbornly independent Irish woman. Upon another viewing, I can say that I really don't like this film, and I don't think it's good in the slightest. "The Quiet Man" is basically &qu...

Hunted (Charles Crichton, 1952) 6/10 A man on the run after killing his wife's lover takes a six-year old boy running from a housefire with him after he witnesses the crime. "Hunted" is a nice little film with a solid Dirk Bogarde and an even more impressive little Jon Whiteley as our tod...