"2009"

Produced by the great Robert Duvall, “Crazy Heart” tells the story of hard-drinking former country star Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges), who refuses to acknowledge that his career as a crooner is kaput. Things are looking bleak for Blake, but a tentative relationship with reporter Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and a chance to open for country mega-star Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell) signal that Blake’s fortunes may be turning. Can Blake overcome his addictions and reignite his country career? As successful and effective as "Crazy Heart" was, it bears some striking parallels to Duvall’s own “Tender Mercies” from 1983. Let’s see: both feature a drunk, washed-up country singer. Both meet women who inspire them to put the toilet seat down. And they both struggle to figure out whether one can actually live inside a bottle of whiskey. Yep, pretty darn close. Luckily, as they say, "Close is only good in horseshoes and hand grenades... and movies about alcoholic country singers." 

I’ve written before about my particular love for mysteries and suspense films. When done well, they tease the mind and quicken the pulse. In a world bursting with distractions, you suddenly find yourself totally focused, hooked, transported.

French cinema is alive and well in the 21st century, as evidenced by these twelve titles, all made since the millennium. They are all…magnifique!

When you think of France, what comes to mind? Great food and wine?  Absolument. Romance? Mais oui. Culture? Bien sur!

I’ve always appreciated how movies set on liners recreate a bygone era when travel could be calm and civilized. Other boat films may take us on-board a luxurious yacht, or show man pitted against the biggest and cruelest natural force on earth: the sea.

An opening scene of a movie is like a cinematic thermometer. You take a movie’s temperature by that first scene. It holds you, intrigues you, grabs you — or it doesn’t. Though it’s true that plenty of great movies take their time building up our involvement, obviously they can’t take too long. Then there are those others that start off with a bang. It’s this latter group we’re celebrating today. Here are fifteen of our favorite movie openers, covering seven decades of filmmaking:  

Oscar season is now upon us, as the year’s prize-worthiest fare begins its annual rollout to theaters in time for the holidays, sliding in just under the wire for nomination eligibility.  It is never too soon to start handicapping the contenders in the acting category, so we have compiled a handy reference guide to some of the types of roles that Academy pops for year after year. Once one starts to look for them, it becomes easy to spot future winners. Many of the performances in the upcoming raft of releases will be jaw-dropping.