All Things Kevyn

Licorice Pizza , the auteur's ninth feature film, is probably Paul Thomas Anderson's most personal film to date, which is weird when one considers the story he is telling here is someone else's story. The story is set in a 1973 Southern California that is probably more idealized than the actual time and place were - but that's part of what makes the film so goddamn good.  Based on the life of former child actor turned movie producer Gary Goetzman, whom Anderson had worked with before going the director route himself, the film is a series of charming vignettes in and around the fringes of Hollywood. Anderson himself had grown up in and around the fringes of Hollywood, but about a decade or so after the setting of this film. That being that, even though the brunt of the scenarios, such as starring in a film with Lucille Ball (played loosely her by Christine Ebersole), or starting a waterbed company and delivering a waterbed to Jon Peter's home (played to the height of

So, back in the day, I used to write film reviews. Both for my own various blogs and whatnots, and for other publications such as The Burg, Filmspeak, & Central Pa Voice (all Harrisburg area alt-newspapers). For a while, I was even running a small three screen arthouse cinema (along with my loverly wife) for a few years too. Press passes to screenings and film festivals. It was a good life. I was a bonafide film critic - back when that term meant something. Or at least in the waning years of the era that film criticism meant something.  Well, that was a long time ago. The powers that be at the aforementioned arthouse cinema (aka the shady, backstabbing owners - not that I'm bitter) let my wife and I go in order to put their friends in positions of so-called power there. This along with me being burnt out on movies (I had just finished a project where I watched every movie on a 1000 Greatest Films list compiled online - in just two years!!) sent me in other directions in life. B

When one thinks of Guillermo del Toro, one thinks of the cinema of the macabre. Cinema with a supernatural bent. Films such as The Devil's Backbone , Pan's Labyrinth,  or the Oscar winning The Shape of Water . Well, the Mexican Maestro's latest film is a departure of sorts. Nightmare Alley is a film noir - but even though it technically doesn't delve into the supernatural, it does still have that certain del Toro je ne sais quoi. And it has it in spades. Adapted from William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 novel by del Toro and his new wife, Kim Morgan, a film critic and historian, and possibly a soon-to-be Oscar nominated screenwriter, Nightmare Alley is the story of a grifter who gets a bit too into his latest grift. Starting in the seedy world of carnies before expanding into the equally seedy world of nightclubs, Nightmare Alley is pure unadulterated noir. Save for a neo-noir movement in the 1980's & 90's, we haven't seen true noir like this since the h

The film has been in the making for several years now. Filming ceased during the pandemic but picked up as soon as it could. The general consensus was this had disaster written all over it. Like last year's Cats  fiasco by Tom Hooper. Spielberg was remaking West Side Story ? Are they for real? This was going to be bad. At least that's what everyone was predicting - myself included. An unmitigated disaster in the making. At least that's what we all thought. Would it be as bad as we were anticipating? When it finally hit the big screen last week, we finally got our answer. I'm happy to say that we naysayers were proven wrong. Dead wrong. Not only was it not a disaster, in this critic's opinion, it is not only one of Steven Spielberg's finest works (I'd place it in the auteur's top 5 all-time), but the damn thing is better than the original. There, I said it. Steven Spielberg's West Side Story is a better film than the Oscar winning 1961 version by Rob

Jane Campion, the first woman to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes and just the second female director to be nominated for the Academy Award (accomplishing both of these feats with 1993's The Piano ) is finally back on the big screen. Her first feature film in twelve years (2009's Bright Star was her last) Campion is in probably the best form of her life. The Power of the Dog is an astonishingly brilliant film, and probably the filmmaker's best film, or at least equal to the brilliant aforementioned The Piano . The film, adapted by Campion from Thomas Savage's novel, takes place in 1925 Montana and is the story of wealthy ranch owner brothers Phil & George Burbank who meet suicide widow Rose and her effeminate son Peter. Phil, played with the greatest aplomb by Benedict Cumberbatch, is the brutal and broken brother, while George, played with a quiet sincerity by Jesse Plemons, is the kind-hearted brother. When they first meet Rose and Peter, played by  Kirsten Duns

Hello true believers and welcome to that annual thing of things - my Oscar Predictions! They're a bit late this year, as are the Oscars themselves. Something to do with a pandemic we had last year (and are still kinda having), but hey, enough of that nonsense, let's get on with the predictions. They are rather predictable this year - even moreso than normal. Nearly every technical category is a lock. The only real questions overall, other than the always wonky short film categories, are Adapted Screenplay (a two way race) and Best Actress, which honestly could go to pretty much anyone right now. And, in a year where more people of color have been nominated than ever before, if my predictions come true in the acting categories, it will be even more historical, as it will be the first time all four acting Oscars will have been won by people of color. Anyhoo, here are my predictions. And awaaaaaay we go.... Best Picture Predicted Winner: Nomadland Possible Spoiler: The Trial of th

So, the Oscar nominations have been announced, and as predicted, they were pretty predictable - only a few minor surprises. As far as my prediction rate went, I was 38 for 43, or an 88% correct percentage. I missed one each in Director, the two screenplay categories, and the two Supporting categories. But enough of that - here are my thoughts on what we got. Mank, my second favourite film of 2020, was the big winner with 10 nominations, but the real news was the diversity in the nominations - a reflection in both the more diverse Academy membership and the more diverse Hollywood as a whole, especially when it comes to women in the directors seat. 2020 saw 18% of Hollywood made films being directed by women, doubling the numbers from just two years prior. This has also led to a long overdue new record, as two women are nominated for Best Director this year. Emerald Fennell, who directed Promising Young Woman, and Chinese born Chloe Zhao, who is expected to take the prize home for her fi

So here we go kids! Another year, another attempt at predicting the Oscars! Of course 2020 was a very different year, but enough about all that. Haven't we discussed that enough. Let's look to the future instead. Granted, the Academy Awards were pushed back until the end of April because of, well you know...2020. So that means the nominations are coming a bit late too. But tomorrow they are a-comin', so today, I give you my final nomination predictions - just like every other year. And speaking of every other year, my predictions usually come in the 83% to 88% range, sometimes I even breach that 90% threshold. This year, who knows. It does seem a bit more predictable than normal this year. Anyhoo, enough babbling. Let's get on with the predictions! Below are my predictions for each of the eight major categories, along with a dark horse / spoiler choice and an impossible hopeful, aka a film or performer I love but knows has no chance in hell. And awaaaay we go! Best Pict

So, 2020 may not have been the best year in recent memory. A global pandemic. Businesses shutting down. So many people sick and dying. A president who didn't care one iota about any of it - or any of us. Nearly half the country blinded by the very same grifter-in-chief. Police brutality telling 2019 to hold it's beer. Protests and counter protests and counter counter protests. Quarantining. A jobless rate through the figurative roof. Overworked first responders. Overstuffed hospitals. Record amounts of deaths. People refusing to do the right thing. Did I mention the president? Yeah, I did. With all this turmoil, most movie theatres were closed for a good portion of the year. Most potential blockbustery movies (most of the big superhero franchises, the new Dune, all the so-called tentpole films) were postponed until sometime in mid to late 2021. Even the Oscars & their brethren, were delayed until the end of April, and eligibility deadlines were pushed from December 31st to

So, ever since coming back into the blogging world last month, All Things Kevyn has been a place to hear (or read) me go on and on about the movies. Which makes sense, since I am a dyed-in-the-wool old school cinephile. But hey, there is more to life than just the cinema. No seriously, there is. I mean it. There really is. And anyway, the name of this blog is not All Things Cinema. The name of this blog is All Things Kevyn. So here I go with another quirk that makes the aforementioned Kevyn, to whom this blog is all things to (or for ... or from ... or whatevs), tick tock tick. That quirk is Pez, or more accurately, the art of collecting Pez. I guess you may have figured that out from reading the above title, but hey, can't a guy ramble on a bit before getting down to those so-called brass tacks of legend and lore? Yeah, ok, I'll stop rambling and get on with the promised Pez talk. And awaaaay we go! It all started back in February of 1998 in a small suburban town called Lemoyn

If, after watching Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things , you don't say to yourself, "What the fuck did I just watch!?" Then did you even really watch Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things ? It's like that adage, "If you remember the 1960's, you weren't really there." Because, no matter how intelligent you may well be, no matter how attuned with cinema you may happen to be, no matter your veracity with metaphor and symbolism, you will still come out of watching Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things , saying to yourself, "What the fuck did I just watch!?" And this is not a bad thing. The film is gleefully surreal - if that word even is capable of describing such a film. Surreal is too generic of a term to describe the oeuvre of Charlie Kaufman. No, to describe the films of Mr. Kauffman, one needs a new, as of yet undiscovered word. Perhaps in order to properly describe (yet never explain