By Rex Reed 9/25/12 7:57pm

movies

Substitutes Chalk It Up in Won’t Back Down

Taking on the school choice issue that has made its way into the headlines via California’s controversial new parent trigger laws, Won’t Back Down faces an uphill climb at the box office. Its heroes are the parents and renegade teachers who risk everything to improve the education of children in failing schools. Its villains are the teachers’ unions that stand between a million rules and restrictions and the chance of a better life for a handful of children. The movie is going to be controversial, depending on how you feel about labor unions. My feeling is that the schoolroom is no place for political agendas, and all that matters is how good a movie it is. And it is pretty good, but flawed for a number of reasons, detailed below. Nevertheless, it’s a film that deserves to be seen, savored, debated and given serious attention.  Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 2/27/12 10:54am

The Oscars

Streep (Getty Images)

What Were the Best Oscar Moments?

Last night’s Oscars were as draggy as ever–perhaps it’s time to give up the ghost of the hope that they can magically become a breezy ceremony, or at least to stop complaining annually that the jokes are hackneyed and the show’s self-congratulatory. The jokes being hackneyed are kind of the point, and, given that this Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 2/23/12 12:23pm

The Oscars

Jean DuJardin, your Best Actor winner (Getty Images)

Here’s Who Will Win the Oscars

The Academy Awards are this Sunday–and we’ll be liveblogging away at observer.com. So as to be optimally prepared for these mythical “Oscar pools” that exist only in the minds of entertainment writers, or at least to shout the winner a second before it happens, we’ve held the hive-mind of the Internet to our ear so Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 1/30/12 8:30am

The Oscars

Viola Davis at the SAG Awards (Getty Images)

SAG Awards–Clooney and Streep Look a Lot Less Secure

Last night’s Screen Actors Guild Awards shook up the Oscar race insofar as it was able to be shaken up. Sure bets in the supporting categories Octavia Spencer (The Help) and Christopher Plummer (Beginners) cleaned up again, while frontrunning lead actors George Clooney (The Descendants) and Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) were dethroned.

The beneficiaries Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 11:25am

The Oscars

Viola Davis (Getty Images)

The Most Exciting Oscar Races

Best Actress

In the past few weeks, this race–long led by Viola Davis–got a lot more interesting with Golden Globe wins for Meryl Streep and Michelle Williams. Ms. Williams’s film may feel too slight, but she’s gone on the PR offensive with an in-character GQ cover; Ms. Streep’s film has its detractors, and Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 9:23am

The Oscars

Academy Award Nominee Rooney Mara

Hugo Leads Oscar Race With 11 Nominations

This morning, thousands upon tens of New Yorkers are realizing they have to go see Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, as that film was announced as one of nine Oscar Best Picture nominees.

Big surprises of the morning included that film’s nomination for Best Picture, the inclusion of Best Actor nominees Demian Bichir and Gary Read More

By Daniel D'Addario 1/23/12 11:37am

The Oscars

Charlize Theron (Getty Images)

One ‘Newsweek’ Oscar Panelist Won’t Be Nominated (Mathematically Speaking)

Newsweek‘s current issue features its annual pre-nominations “Oscar roundtable”–and either it’ll look dated when nominations are announced tomorrow, or we need to adjust our predictions! The panelists are likely nominees George Clooney and Viola Davis (the working-it pair both recently appeared together on an Entertainment Weekly cover, too), as well as Read More