Alexander Payne

Oscar Gets it Right!

Posted on 01/24/2012 by | Movies & TV | Comments

EntertainmentAmazing. Absolutely amazing. This year’s list of Oscar nominees is so terrifically, breathtakingly right, I thought I must have been dreaming when they were announced early this morning. I’ve never come away from the Oscars announcement more satisfied that Hollywood really, really gets it—that the best movies really are movies for grownups. Just look at how the winners of this year’s AARP Movies for Grownups Awards—announced last week—dovetail with the Oscar nominations:

At Last, It’s Safe to Sit in a Movie Theater Again!

Posted on 11/14/2011 by | Movies & TV | Comments

EntertainmentOur long national movie nightmare is over: the Grownup Movies Season is in full swing. I do hope you’ve been saving your pennies since last January to take advantage of November and December, when Hollywood studio execs wake up, look in a mirror and declare, “Wait a minute—we’ve been releasing crap all year! How in the world will we win any Oscars for that tripe?” So they run out and track down Clint Eastwood on the golf course and say, …