Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

The 86th Academy Award nominations were announced today! Without any further ado, here are the nominees: Best Picture American Hustle Captain Phillips Dallas Buyers Club Gravity Her Nebraska Philomena 12 Years a Slave The Wolf of Wall Street Since there are only nine nominees and not ten, I can say I've seen more than half the nominees. But since there are nine instead of ten, Inside Llewyn Davis  is left off the list. Are the Academy nominators taking crazy pills? I'm glad to see the Her  made it on but to leave off Inside Llewyn Davis ? Anyway, this is the start of the showdown between American Hustle  and  12 Years a Slave . The former has 10 nominations and the latter has nine; the only reason 12 Years a Slave  has nine is because it did not have a contender in the lead actress category. If not for that, it'd be a dead heat between the two. I think 12 Years a Slave  should win, and if Academy voters can get over their squeamishness an...

The latest from brothers Ethan Coen and Joel Coen (they of The Big Lebowski , A Serious Man , True Grit and so much more) takes on folk singer Llewyn Davis’s journey. (The film is loosely based on Dave Van Ronk’s memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street .) It’s 1961 in the Village, and Llewyn is trying to make a living as a solo folk artist, having gained mild success (to put it mildly) as part of a folk duo. (The title refers directly to Llewyn’s eponymous solo album.) Llewyn (theatre veteran Oscar Isaac) couch surfs and lives moment to moment (though not in a live for the moment kind of way; more of an aimless kind of way). He’s strong-headed when it comes to his music and far from a warm and fuzzy guy. (Even so, as Isaac so sensitively portrays him, there’s something appealing about Llewyn. Maybe it’s just that Isaac ( We Live Here , Drive ) is so attractive. Or maybe it's that he’s playing an acoustic guitar and I have a thing for musicians.) Perhaps what’s most noticea...