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Stale Popcorn

By Amos Posner

Rewarding the Oscar Also-Rans

[23.Feb.07] :. With the Academy's 'big dance' on the horizon, it's time to recognize those motion pictures and performances overlooked by Oscar's self-serving system of artistic determination.
 

The Invincible Stubbornness of Judi Dench

[7.Feb.07] :. Some consider her one of the grand dames of modern motion picture acting. But when it comes to her actual performances, this celebrated Oscar winner is decidedly one note.
 

Analingus and the Borat Antidote for Cultural Thin Skin

[15.Nov.06] :. He's the most polarizing figure in recent pop culture history, and our mainstream movie maven is here to tell us why that's a good thing - for comedy and for society.
 

The Great Wait for Oscar Bait

[16.Oct.06] :. If there's anything to be learned from a review of the year so far, it's that 2006 will either go down as a terrible movie year or a tremendously back-loaded one.
 

Towering Concerns

[13.Sep.06] :. It's admirable that people want our culture to strive for relevance and depth in its filmmaking and film watching, but our desperate grasping for real world ideals has dissolved our sense of cinematic values.
 

Hollywood’s Boring, Boring, Blockbuster Summer

[25.Jul.06] :. Think Summer of 2006's popcorn movies have been more bust than boffo? You're not alone, according to our resident mainstream movie maven.
 

The Battle for M. Night Shyamalan’s Artistic Soul

[13.Jun.06] :. As the weather heats up outside, all summer blockbuster eyes will be on M. Night Shyamalan's latest epic of the ethereal. But the big question is, Will it be a return to form? Or the final nail in his creative coffin?
 

The Mid-Level Movie Star’s Guide to Staying That Way

[12.Apr.06] :. Tired of striving for the A-List and failing? This month's insider look at the industry offers up seven lessons guaranteed to help the overreaching actor maintain his b-level mediocrity.
 

The Academy NIT

[1.Mar.06] :. Year in and year out, Oscar typically misses some noteworthy candidates for recognition. Stale Popcorn offers its list of overlooked gems in this annual March 'madness'.
 

Ladies’ Plight

[23.Jan.06] :. What's most notable about superstars in the last decade is not that there are so few of them. It's that none of them have been female. Of Hollywood's elite women, several have found success largely in the shadows of men.
 

How Chris Tucker Made a Fortune in Films Without Making Movies

[13.Dec.05] :. Want a sure-fire way to a $20 million payday? Just follow the Chris Tucker example of salary security: don't make a movie for five years.
 

Trumping the Box Office Slump

[15.Nov.05] :. Posner has some advice for all those suits who believe that the current box office slump is centered around bad films or the burgeoning sell-through schism of DVD: 'It's the marketing, stupid!'
 

Intervening Oliver Stone

[19.Oct.05] :. Oliver Stone is in trouble, and its up to Posner and his pals to see him through this latest creative crisis, or else all might be lost for the once mighty Oscar winning moviemaker.
 

The Case for Tom Cruise

[13.Sep.05] :. If we are indeed witnessing the death rattle of Cruise's career, then perhaps it's time to give him some credit for what it was that made his stardom so impenetrable for so long.
 

Mr. Cent Goes to Hollywood

[8.Aug.05] :. To be fair, with musicals out of vogue, rappers as a group are more intrinsically prepared to handle movie roles than other pop stars.
 

Fighting Hollywood’s Super-Relapse

[11.Jul.05] :. Director-driven fare is back in Hollywood vogue, and one of the great joys of this new auteurist era is watching it spill into comic book adaptations.
 

Hollywood’s Battle with Depression

[6.Jun.05] :. It's war to see who really came to America's rescue after the big crash of '29. And the cinematic suspects are a boxer, a ghost, and a horse... of course.