Nerd in the 'Noke

It is time once again for the annual Academy Awards picks post.  I find it hard to believe that it has already been a year since Ben Affleck was snubbed in the directing category, and then redeemed when Argo took home Best Picture. In the past this post has had a guest contributor (my friend Wieder), providing a second opinion and adding a bit more depth to the discussion.  Unfortunately, he was not able to participate this year so you're stuck with me! I will be following suit with last year's expansion of categories picked here on the blog.  Twenty categories will be covered - all but the those for the documentaries and short films.  I am still excluding these because I haven't seen any of the nominees and wouldn't have any clue what I was talking about.  Please keep in mind that these are not predictions, but the selections I would make if I actually had a vote.  Each category is listed below.  The nominees that I have seen are denoted by a l...

Holy cow, it's that time again!  Time for my now yearly (thanks for screwing things up 2011) Top 10 list.  I found myself having a more difficult time compiling my list this year than I thought I would.  As has become customary, here are the parameters I use while making my list: The list is pulled only from the movies released in 2013 that I actually saw (a second list comprised of the films from 2013 that I would still like to see appears after my Top 10). These are the films that I enjoyed the most when I saw them not necessarily the best based on their award winning potential (although that may be a happy coincidence in some cases). All of these films have had a full review posted here on the blog. If you have more interest in a particular film, click on the movie title and follow the link to my previously posted review. Just as last year, there were a few films that I wasn't able to see that probably could make an argument for inclusion on this list.  Som...

12 Years a Slave (2013), R, 134 minutes - I saw this film a week ago and it has taken me a few days to figure out how I felt about it, and I'm still not sure.  Actually, that's a lie.  I know that it sickened me.  It sickened me on a number of levels.  Not because it isn't a well made film - it is, it's one of the best I've seen this year - but because the content it brings to life is just that appalling. 12 Years a Slave is based on the memoirs of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man in a pre-Civil War United States who was abducted from his home and family in upstate New York and sold into slavery.  Just hearing a story like that is disturbing enough, but then you see the circumstances in which it occurred it is that much more sickening.  Solomon wasn't taken from his home in the middle of the night, he was conned.  An able musician, he thought that he was entering into a business arrangement with two men, Brown (Scoot McNairy) and Ham...