James Gandolfini (9/18/1961-6/19/2013)

James Gandolfini passed away today. I’m not one for empty platitudes when actors and actresses die, but it’s hard not to feel something for Gandolfini, whose work has given me hours and hours of entertainment. He was universally beloved by his peers and by his fans. Everyone knows about his role as Tony Soprano, where he willed premium cable programming to a higher plane of existence. But he also had notable roles in In the Loop, True Romance, Zero Dark Thirty, Killing Them Softly, Cinema Verite, The Last Castle, and… you know what? He was notable in all of his roles. Instead of me listing them, just go check out his filmography on IMDb and watch some of those movies in the next few days. In his honor, here are some of my favorite Gandolfini scenes. It’s Soprano-heavy, as it should be, but that should take nothing away from what he achieved as an actor in other roles. Rest in peace, James Gandolfini. You’re eating braciola in heaven now.

The Third Annual TDYLFie Awards

It’s a major award!

The end of the year is just around the corner, which means it’s time for a bunch of lazy journalists to do their year-end best and worst lists. But why should they have all the fun? I’m lazy too. And I’ve established an award for this stuff two years in a row now–the TDYLFie. I’m going to capitalize on that laziness for an easy article. First, let’s establish some scope. I don’t see nearly enough new releases to make any sort of reasonable “Best/Worst of This Year” list. Thus, this list will be comprised of movies that I’ve seen this year only, which will run the gamut from era to era, genre to genre, and on and on. In reality, this is more of a list about my own experience watching movies this year than it is about anything that was released in this year. Without further delay, here is the awards program for the 3rd Annual TDYLFies.

It’s (Almost) the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

August might be a dead time of year for movies, but my favorite time of year is coming soon. Oh, it’s coming, my friends. And I can’t wait. Awards season starts picking up steam in a month. September through December is when all of the good stuff is released. In the last five years, there have been 39 Best Picture nominees for the Oscar. 27 of those were released between September and December (one other, There Will be Blood, was released in January). This year is no different. The rest of this year (and the early part of 2013) is packed with great film choices.