I Still Believe in Heroes

"Since childhood, I've been faithful to monsters. I have been saved and absolved by them. Because monsters, I believe, are patron saints of our blissful imperfection. They allow and embody the possibility of failing and living." Those were the words that Guillermo del Toro spoke after winning his first Golden Globe for his directorial work on The Shape of Water . It was a speech that I connected with and understood completely. With the Oscars coming up, I want to say a few words on what Guillermo del Toro and his films mean to me and why I am rooting for him to win the Best Director award at the Academy Awards.              Growing up, my parents never really censored what my brothers and I saw on TV or at the movies. As a result, I was exposed to many of the great horror films at an extremely young age. Slashers were a constant in our home. Despite how much they scared me, they also fascinated me. Slashers were the norm for...

The official nominations for the 2018 Academy Awards are here. As is the case every year, there were some surprises along the way. Below are the nominations for each category along with my biggest takeaways. BEST PICTURE Call Me by Your Name Darkest Hour Dunkirk Get Out Lady Bird Phantom Thread The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Biggest Takeaways: I was really rooting for Phantom Thread  but I doubted its chances to get in. It ended up doing much better than I thought it would and that makes me very happy. Get Out becomes just the third horror film ever to be nominated for Best Picture, following in the footsteps of The Exorcist (1973) and The Silence of the Lambs  (1991).  I really hoped that either Logan or Wonder Woman would maybe sneak in, but figured they wouldn't. Finally, I really wish Coco  would have been nominated for Best Picture because it honestly deserved it. BEST DIRECTOR Christopher Nolan - ...

            When Phantom Thread   ended, the very first thing that came out of my mouth was, “Wow.” I just wasn’t sure what else to say after that. I knew I absolutely loved the film, but I couldn’t think of the right words to express how I felt about it. I don't typically sit through the credits of a film unless I know there's a scene attached after them, but with Phantom Thread   I just sat there after the fact trying to take it all in. As I walked out of the theater, I found myself unable to stop smiling like an idiot because I had just witnessed a love story unlike anything I had ever seen before. “Wow” ended up being the perfect way to sum up my thoughts on the film.             Paul Thomas Anderson's  Phantom Thread  has been one of 2017’s most secretive films. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock in what he has announced will be his final role before retir...