Oscars 2012: The Final Word
What can one say about such a non-event as the 2012 Oscars? Perhaps not quite that it was “The Most Boring Oscars Ever!!!!,†as Nikki Finke is apparently obligated to say about every Oscarcast. But […]
Smackdown News
We’ve Pre-Smacked All the Oscar Noms Just for You!
Because we are diligent culture-watchers operating here at The Smack, we come to this day well-prepared. We’ve had each of the nominated “Best Picture†films in the Smack ring already. Not all of the films below even won their Smacks, but we’re not telling which ones. 😉
This offers us the chance, here in this single post, to create a gateway for you to lots of fresh writing, keen observation and (of course) a general lack of respect for authority, cinematic or otherwise. It gives me a chance to brag about the talent of Art Tiersky, Eric Volkman, Nicole Marchesani, Mark Sanchez, Rebecca Coffindaffer and Ben Silverio; their work is all available below. The really great artwork below and above is all from Lynda Karr. […]
The Descendants (2011) -vs- About Schmidt (2002)
The need for a Smackdown between writer/director Alexander Payne’s earlier effort About Schimidt and his Oscar nominated The Descendants is so obvious that we just can’t let the final days before the Academy Awards go by without […]
Oscar Week at the Smack
Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences have their way of picking movie winners; we have ours. We’re not gonna say Movie Smackdown’s way is necessarily better than its Oscar competition, although […]
This Means War -vs- How Do You Know
Seriously, why do studios think that men are standing in line to fight over Reese Witherspoon’s affections? Do the greenlights come from male executives who have a thing for Reese, or do they come from […]
Albert Nobbs: A Cross-Dressing Downton Abbey
The film Albert Nobbs — a cross-dressing version of Downton Abbey — features Glenn Close dressed as a man the entire movie. She plays the title character, a 19th-century Dublin woman who passes as a man so she can work as a waiter. I’ll bet confused waiters all over the world are racing off to check the movie listings even as we speak.
The look is so bizarre that my daughter who attended the screening with me expressed her fear after the film that she’s going to have nightmares about the character. But the voting members of the film Academy gave Close an Oscar nomination. . […]
Whitney -vs- Whitney: The Match-Up No One Wanted to See
That life is over. We all know the reasons, even as we await an autopsy report. Does it matter what they will find? The scourge of modern life, addiction, turned her away from her calling and purpose and took her life. For this conflict, there was no bodyguard to protect her. There should have been, of course, but on this struggle, friends and family can only do so much. The news coverage over the next week will shine some light on this. […]
Rampart (2011) -vs- Training Day (2001)
Our contenders here are hardened Los Angeles cops who come to the ring after years of battling gang-bangers, crooked politicians and their own evil instincts. Both these films were inspired by the LAPD’s troubled Rampart division which, during the late 1990s pretty much set the bar for police misconduct, and also inspired the classic cable hit, The Shield. So naturally, the squads in this fight are street-tough, hard-cases who should be difficult to knock down for a win. Always eager for a scuffle, they’re hyperventilating in their corners, ready for a blast of Smackdown violence. So let’s throw them at each other right away. Rrriiiiiiing! […]
The Oscar as the Ultimate Smackdown
Despite the major studios’ insistence on making primarily mega-budget, tent-pole, comic-book, sequel-remake, monster-alien-scifi films as their bread-and-butter, challenging and compelling original films do get made every year through alternative means. And, despite the harping and complaining we all do, there always seems to be a great crop that bridge the divide and are worth saluting. Those are the kinds of films that the Academy Awards gravitate to as their nominees. […]
On The End
This is it.
Here we go…
Today’s screenings:
Price Check: Perennial Sundance favorite Parker Posey plays Susan, a newly hired, incredibly manic boss who turns her department upside down and inside out, wreaking particular havoc on the life of nice guy/worker-bee Pete Cozy (Eric Mabius). […]