As the end of the year nears, Rotten Tomatoes have released the tallies for the best reviewed movies of 2010. I thought we'd compare the list with the other movie review compilation site Metacritic. Both sites have their advantages. Rotten Tomatoes includes a larger sample of reviews, while Metacritic features a smaller more-selected grouping of…
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Usually, when The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces their short list of documentaries eligible for the Best Documentary Oscar, a dark cloud comes over my day. Pretty regularly, some of my favorite films haven't been eligible for a nomination. Shut Up and Sing, The September Issue and Dear Zachary all come to…
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At this year's Sundance Film Festival, one of the most talked-about pictures was The Tillman Story. The film drew generally great reviews and was quickly the object of an acquisition bid by The Weinstein Company. Now there's a trailer that paints Amir Bar-Lev's documentary not just as a portrait of a huge, terrible lie, but…
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UPDATE: Just after I published this, The Weinstein Company was announced as the distributor for Blue Valentine, the drama starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. The film has been one of the critical hits of the fest, but I've got to wonder what TWC will be able to do with it. The company is struggling,…
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In My Kid Could Paint That, director Amir Bar-Lev followed around the family of child prodigy Maria Olmstead, documenting her rise to fame and its subsequent painful backlash. But Bar-Lev’s film ended up becoming less a document of Olmstead’s life, and more about Bar-Lev’s own struggle to come to terms with the concept of truth…
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