NYC Film Critic

Oscar Talk 2010 continues with our takes on the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress races.

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Kevin Smith goes mainstream with disappointing results in the new cop comedy Cop Out.  I add to the chorus of pans here.  Better luck next time, Kev!

Prison movies don’t get much more entertaining than Jacques Audiard’s Oscar-nominated thriller A Prophet.  Read my review here.

The Good Guy
Directed by Julio DePietro
Starring Alexis Bledel, Scott Porter, Bryan Greenberg, Anna Chlumsky, Aaron Yoo and Andrew McCarthy
**

Julio DePietro’s directorial debut The Good Guy is based around a genuinely interesting idea–what happens when a person’s words don’t match up with his or her actions?

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Another year, another edition of Oscar Talk featuring myself and my fellow movie-mad pal, Nick Spagnoli.  Read our discussion of the Best Actor and Best Supporting races below.

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October Country
Directed by Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher
Featuring the Mosher Family
***

I’ve always had mixed feelings about a certain type of documentary that, for lack of a better genre label, I’ll call the “home movie doc.”

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Don’t worry, I wasn’t familiar with this series of kid novels at first either.  Check out my review here.

Benicio Del Toro takes over the fur and fangs from Lon Chaney Jr. in the troubled remake of the 1941 horror classic.  Read my review here.

The Red Riding Trilogy
Directed by Julian Jarrold, James Marsh and Anand Tucker
Starring Andrew Garfield, Rebecca Hall, Sean Bean, Paddy Considine, Maxine Peake, David Morrissey and Mark Addy.

Individual Ratings:
Red Riding: 1974: ***
Red Riding: 1980: ***1/2
Red Riding: 1983: **1/2

Overall Rating: ***

As a rule, I’m not the world’s biggest crime buff. If I had to rank my favorite genres, stories involving killers/thieves/all-around bad dudes and the cops/agents/vigilantes that pursue them would come in towards the bottom of the list.

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Edge of Darkness
Directed by Martin Campbell
Starring Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston
**
As much as I’d like to avoid turning my review of Edge of Darkness into a referendum on the state of Mel Gibson’s career, it’s impossible to discuss the movie without at least acknowledging the baggage its leading man brings with him.

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