Consider the following plotline:  A young man travels to another world where he infiltrates the indigenous people and adopts their ways.  He is befriended by a beautiful young woman who is very important to the tribe and ultimately becomes her lover.  Although at first the tribe has doubts about him, he proves his worth by ... read more »

I mean, DAME Helen Mirren.  (Photo via Associated Press.  Joke via Oscar co-host, Steve Martin.) Very happy for Kat B and The Hurt Locker. Worst Award of the Evening -  The Best Cinematography Award to Avatar.  It should have gone to the great Robert Richardson (Inglourious Basterds), or if not to him, to Christian Berger who was ... read more »

The Avatar hype continues.  There was a front-page (!) piece in the L.A. Times today, whining – for lack of a better word – about how “unlike the great majority of best picture nominees, the ‘Avatar’ actors have not nabbed a single major critic’s award, or guild prize. The snubs reflect the apparent ambivalence of the ... read more »

Can a filmmaker spend most of his or her artistic life recycling other people’s ideas and still be a true auteur?   Sure. Why not? Any idea, theme, style, or attitude if repeated frequently or obsessively enough can constitute an artistic signature – something that immediately identifies a particular movie as un film de [insert ... read more »

What’s so fresh and original about James Cameron’s Avatar? Very little, to be honest. The film’s design seems inspired by – if not directly borrowed from – the day-glo hyperrealism of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern paperback series and the videogame based on them: Conceptually, Avatar recalls a 1966 Star Trek episode, “The Menagerie” in ... read more »