'Zero Dark Thirty:' Bigelow's Controversial Triumph Worth Seeing

Director Kathryn Bigelow overlooked for Oscar in Best Director category.

Zero Dark Thirty, which brought in $24 million in its first two days of wide release, has been lauded worldwide and almost universally as an impressive piece of filmmaking, a movie that is anything but formulaic.   It's always very different for those of us who live within the Washington area.  Our experience of anything political is amplified. The headquarters of the CIA, FBI, and of course, the White House, are all within driving distance. It is, therefore, nearly impossible not to have heard about the controversy surrounding this film.  Senators Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) denounced the film, for its depiction of torture. “We believe the film is grossly inaccurate and misleading in its …

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Movie Reviews by Cinema Siren

Five Movies with Oscar Buzz

The holidays are a great time to get a head start on Oscar viewing!

December is Oscar time. Filmmakers need to get their movies under the wire so they'll be in contention for this year's awards. Consequently this month is a weird mix of crowd-pleasing mediocrity and painfully long masterpieces that mix horribly with a need for fluff. But what is a movie lover to do? Gotta see them! Having only viewed two of these films (Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook), I'm as in the dark (as it were) as you all are about how truly great these movies are, and how they measure up to each other as far as acting and scripting are concerned. All I know is what I hear, and I'm hearing a lot. All the critics associations are putting together their lists of bests, and they all influence how the Oscars go.   So far, these are …

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