Brandon Streussnig On Film

I love the Oscars. They're my Super Bowl. I love film with pretty much everything I have and I can't help but obsess over the Oscars despite the fact that they're completely arbitrary. Despite the fact that they hardly matter in the grand scheme. I love the pageantry. I love the competition. I love rooting for "my film." That all said, the Oscars often get it wrong. Of course that's my opinion but we all feel a pang when an actor we love or a film we were blown away by wasn't nominated. I've already done my top films of 2016 so briefly I'm going to give a few awards of my own in what I'd like to be my First Annual Alternate Oscars: BEST PICTURE The Edge of Seventeen The Handmaiden Jackie The Lobster Moonlight The Neon Demon Swiss Army Man The Witch The Winner is.... The Handmaiden is a gloriously feminine, erotic, hilarious and thrilling film. It's a meticulously crafted, expertly made film by one of the b

Many of us were more than happy to see 2016 disappear into the ether. It was quite a depressing year with Trump, the Brexit, Aleppo and major celebrity deaths dominating the headlines. If you tried to escape to the movies you may have felt that the glut of sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots or whatever new buzzword studios are trying to coin was oppressive. However, not all was terrible and while the blockbuster scene may have been as stale as its ever been with only a few real gems ( Captain America: Civil War, Pete's Dragon, Zootopia ) to be found, the indie scene boomed in a profoundly striking way. A tiny movie about a gay, black man navigating through the mean streets of Miami netted 8 Oscars. A talking goat became an icon in the horror community. Patrick Stewart traded in his Starfleet uniform/Prof. X wheelchair to became a terrifying Neo-Nazi. Daniel Radcliffe's farting corpse saved Paul Dano's life. And Colin Farrell did his best to avoid being turned into