The Hollywood Bowles

Those who can't write, edit. Those who can't edit, blog. Operating at a loss since 2014.

Well, that changed everything. In 2019, Netflix scored its first Oscar nomination for best picture. A year later, the streaming service is leading the field in total nominations. Movies released by Netflix earned 24 nominations this year, nearly doubling its all-time total. Leading the way for the company this year are The Irishman and Marriage Story, which earned 10 …

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(Warning: Spoilers abound in this far away galaxy…) And so, great empires fall and are forgotten. No, not that Empire. Not the one with Death Stars and Stormtroopers and Darth Sinisters. That Empire didn’t fall. It exploded into a million incongruous pieces in a profitgasm called Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which opened this weekend and supposedly …

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(AP) Let’s get confirmation biases out of the way straight off: The Report is a political southpaw of a film. But it clearly worked meticulously on the pitch. Of all the statistics involving the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the CIA’s post-9/11 detention and interrogation program — better known as the “Torture Report” …

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You could make an arguable case that not only is Martin Scorsese America’s greatest living director, but that he’s made the best movie of every decade dating back to the 1970’s. There was Taxi Driver (1976),  Raging Bull (1980),  Goodfellas (1990) and The Departed (2006), all considered masterworks of their time. Even casual moviegoers are likely familiar with Scorsese’s cinematic hallmarks: violence, corruption …

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Breaking Bad has always kept fans on edge with black humor, inescapable pickles and miraculous getaways.  But with the premiere this month of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, it’s theaters and studios that may be nervous. Camino reached nearly 8.2 million viewers its opening weekend, according to data from the ratings company Nielsen. The …

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One of the beauties of Breaking Bad TV series was that no truth occurred without consequences: dead bodies needed disposing; stolen money had to be laundered; sins did not go unpunished. And so it goes with El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, the searing new film from Netflix and series creator Vince Gilligan. Taught, tense …

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Joker may be the most anti-comic comic-book movie ever set to film. Violent, grim and deliriously unconcerned with superhero tradition, Joaquin’s rubber-bodied portrayal of Batman’s arch nemesis has, like Heath Ledger’s performance before him, permanently altered the definition of a comic-book villain. Directed by Hangover and Old School veteran Todd Phillips, Joker is a superhero …

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In the Shadow of the Moon is the sum of many parts that don’t quite add up. Part crime noir, part action film and part sci-fi adventure, Moon resembles The Terminator cross-pollinated with Seven, yet never quite matching either film’s punch.  Director Jim Mickle has balanced genres before, with standout movies including Cold in July …

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