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Victories: "Erin Brockovich" and the 2000 Oscars Aftermath
ERIN BROCKOVICHIn director Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich, which is based on a true story, Julia Roberts plays the titular heroine, a divorced, unemployed mother of three, who bullies her way into...
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"Heartbreakers" Coughs Up a Soggy Center: Also, "Enemy at the Gates" and 2000...
HEARTBREAKERSThough the competition is fierce - The Insider, All That Jazz, maybe even Beetlejuice - I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie that made smoking look more repellant than David Mirkin's comedy...
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Predicting the 2009 Academy Award Nominees
With the Golden Globes behind us and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) telecast not taking place until January 25, there's nothing for movie-award hounds to do now but wait for the announcement of this...
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Sean & Mickey & Kate & Meryl... and Melissa: Predicting the Oscar Races for...
If you're looking to win your workplace's annual Oscar pool, you'll likely do pretty well this year just by going with Slumdog Millionaire for nearly everything, by picking The Curious Case of Benjamin...
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Slam Dunk, "Millionaire": 2009 Oscar Predictions
I know, I know ... you heeded my Oscar advice to the letter last year, and wound up guessing correctly in only 11 of the 24 categories. I'm truly sorry if you ended up looking like an idiot at your...
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Best. Oscars. Ever.: Notes on the 2009 Academy Awards Telecast
Seriously, by the end of Hugh Jackman's opening number during the 2009 Academy Awards telecast, did it even matter if the rest of the show was any good?
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Predicting the 2010 Academy Award Nominees
A Best Picture slate for the Oscars with twice as many titles as usual? A female front-runner for the Best Director trophy? Not one, not two, but three science-fiction films potentially up for the big...
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The 2010 Academy Award Nominees
Granted, I was in Illinois when I watched this morning's announcement of the 82nd Annual Academy Award nominees. But I'm still reasonably sure that, as Anne Hathaway finished reading the list of 10...
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"Locker"-ed and Loaded: 2010 Oscar Predictions
Okay, yes, we've been trying this for years. But this time, I think I've finally figured out how you can score 24 out of 24 in your office's annual Academy Awards pool.
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All About Steve. And Alec.: Notes on the 2010 Academy Awards Telecast
All told, I thought this year's Academy Awards telecast was awfully satisfying, and I'm not saying that because I predicted 18 out of 24 categories correctly.Yup. 18 out of 24.Tying my personal...
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Predicting the 2011 Academy Award Nominees - Second-Guessing Edition!
[Author's note: In the 11 days since this article was first published, a number of generally reliable pre-Oscar-nomination indicators have seen the light, including the nominees for several guild...
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Oscars / The Grouch: Notes on the 2011 Academy Awards Telecast
Before getting into what went wrong at last night's Academy Awards ceremony - and sadly, quite a bit went wrong - let's begin by addressing the one portion of the telecast that, for maybe the first...
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Everything New Is Old Again: Notes on the 2012 Academy Awards Telecast
The first trophy handed out at the 2012 Academy Awards ceremony was for Best Cinematography, a prize that I predicted would go to The Tree of Life but that instead went to Hugo. (Seriously, after his...
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Gold Men Sunset: Notes on the 2013 Academy Awards Telecast
Seth MacFarlane, I thought, did a fine job hosting the 85th Academy Awards ceremony. He turned out to be a fine choice for the frequently thankless Oscar-emcee position, tossing in some fine jokes in...
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How Oscar Got Best Picture Right – by Nearly Any Measure
Mocking the Oscars – or any made-for-TV awards spectacle with the fool’s errand of crowning the “best” in the arts – is a time-honored tradition. Sometimes it’s even important, as with last year’s...
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