Interview: ‘Emilia Pérez’ Breakthrough Karla Sofía Gascón Discusses Her Soul-Bearing Performance and Historic Potential Oscar Nod
In Jacques Audiard latest film, Emilia Pérez, a fearsome drug lord in Mexico hires an overworked attorney to assist in a convoluted plot aimed at... Read More
J Don Birnam
J. Don Birnam has been a NYC-based freelance film critic since 2014 and an obsessive Oscars fan since Titanic took the top prize in 1997. He is a member of various critics groups, including GALECA, and is a founding member of the Latino Entertainment Journalists Association. His favorite film is They Shoot Horses, Don't They, which mostly describes his mood, particularly when he posts from @jdonbirnam on X or @awards_predix on Instagram
‘Without Blood’ Review: Angelina Jolie Directs Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir With Lots of Looks But Little Content | TIFF
Writer/director Angelina Jolie has shown a penchant for challenging films depicting war when she is behind the camera—think First They Killed My Father or Unbroken.... Read More
‘Pedro Páramo’ Review: Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto’s Adaptation of the Classic Mexican Magical Realism Novel is Otherworldly | TIFF
Long before M. Night Shyamalan’s characters saw dead people, author Juan Rulfo wrote about a whole bunch of them roaming the streets of an abandoned... Read More
‘Nightbitch’ Review: Amy Adams Goes Feral in Marielle Heller’s Neutered Adaptation of Stressed-Out Mom Novel | TIFF
‘Motherhood is a Bitch.’ So says the tagline of the new Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) film starring Amy Adams as the titular... Read More
‘We Live in Time’ Review: Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield Romantic Drama is Less a Tear-Jerker and More Like a Forced Extraction | TIFF
Life affirming dramas or tear-jerking romcoms should do at least one of those things—affirm life, or make you cry a little while amused by the... Read More
‘Presence’ Review: Steven Soderbergh’s Haunted House Drama is Quietly Terrifying | TIFF
Haunted houses are scary, but the hidden personal demons that are common in our modern society are at least just as disturbing. In Steven Soderbergh’s... Read More
‘Emilia Pérez’ Review: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdance | Telluride
French auteur Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez took the Cannes Film Festival by storm, winning the Jury Prize as well as the Best Actress award, shared... Read More
‘Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight’ Review: A Ghostly, Ghastly Tale of Growing Up During an African Civil War | Telluride
Alexandra Fuller’s award-winning memoir Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight gets cinematic treatment, courtesy of first-time writer/director Embeth Davidtz, who also stars in the... Read More
2024 Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA) Winners: ‘The Brutalist’ Takes Five 
2025 Oscar Predictions: BEST ACTRESS (December) 
2024 San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) Nominations 
2024 Las Vegas Film Critics Society (LVFCS) Winners: ‘Dune: Part Two’ Leads with 6