My Interstellar Review and The New Norm For Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan is my favorite director of all time. I will blindly go see any movie the man makes. Hell, I went to see Man of Steel in part because his name was attached to it. It was my blind faith that I even went to see Interstellar in the theaters at all. Nolan was coming off of his worst movie since his debut of Following, The Dark Knight Rises, and the trailers made Interstellar seem horrible and boring as shit. I was neither looking forward to nor excited to see Interstellar. But this was still a Christopher Nolan film, and as such, I needed to go see it.

And bow howdy am I glad I did.

The reason I will go see any movie that Christopher Nolan makes is because between 2000 and 2010, the director had one of the greatest runs in the history of American cinema. You would have never guessed that a man responsible for the 1998 indie film Following would go off on the hot streak that Nolan did. (At one point, and it still might be, Following was streaming on Netflix. I watched the first half hour of it and I had to turn it off because it was so bad and it was not compelling).

Predicting The 2014 Emmy Winners: Best Actor

DRAMA

THE NOMINEES:

* Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)

* Kevin Spacey (House of Cards)

* Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom)

* Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

* Matthew McConaughey (True Detective)

* Woody Harrelson (True Detective)

SURPRISED HE'S NOT NOMINATED: Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey)

SHOULD BE NOMINATED: Martin Sheen (Masters of Sex)

MY THOUGHTS ON THE ACTUAL NOMINEES:

2014 Emmy Predictions and Hopefuls: Best Actor

Recently, the Emmy's released every person and show eligible in all of their categories for the 2014 Primetime Emmy's for their nomination ballot. This post is dedicated to everything related to Outstanding Lead Actor in both the comedy and drama series categories. It will be both who I think will actually earn a nomination as well as who I think deserves to earn a nomination. However, there is one main ground rule- I have to go off of the actual Emmy nomination ballot. Which means that if the actor isn't actually eligible to earn a nomination in real life, then he's not eligible to be mentioned in this post. Makes sense, doesn't it? Let's begin!

DRAMA

WHO I THINK WILL GET AN EMMY NOMINATION:

- Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
- Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey)

- Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom)

- Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

- Kevin Spacey (House of Cards)

- Matthew McConaughey (True Detective)

2014 Emmy Questions: True Detective

Click here for the introduction to The Cover 3's "2014 Emmy Questions" series

COLD, HARD LOCK NOMINATIONS: Outstanding Drama Series, Best Actor (Matthew McConaughey), Best Director (Cary Joji Fukunaga for "Who Goes There")

STRONG EDUCATED GUESSES: Best Supporting Actor (Woody Harrelson), Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Monaghan), Best Screenplay (Nick Pizzolatto for "The Long Bright Dark")

QUESTION ONE: Will being eligible for a Drama Series as opposed to a Mini-Series hurt True Detective's nominations?

Final Predictions For The 2014 Academy Awards

Best Picture: 12 Years A Slave

Click here to check out my thoughts on the Best Picture nominees

Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Click here to check out my thoughts on the Best Director nominees

Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Click here to check out my thoughts on the Best Actor nominees

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Click here to check out my thoughts on the Best Actress nominees

Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Click here to check out my thoughts on the Best Supporting Actor nominees

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

Click here to check out my thoughts on the Best Supporting Actress nominees

2014 Oscar Preview: Best Actor

NOMINEES:
- Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
- Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave)
- Christian Bale (American Hustle)
- Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
- Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

SHOULD BE HERE: Joaquin Phoenix (Her)

The hipster in me wants to say Michael B. Jordan for his work in Fruitvale Station, but Phoenix was just too good to ignore (unless you're the Academy of course!). Phoenix has been doing such outstanding work recently, that he's bordering Daniel Day-Lewis status for excellence.

Can Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto Both Win An Academy Award This Year?

The Academy Award nominations were recently announced, and both Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto were nominated for their work in Dallas Buyers Club. McConaughey for Best Actor and Leto for Best Supporting Actor. Both won the Golden Globes for their respected races, and both are probably the favorites to win the Oscars come March 2. However, I wanted to see how often it is for two males to win the Oscar from the same movie.

Since the Best Supporting Actor award was created in 1937 for the 9th Academy Awards, two male actors from the same movie winning Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor has happened only four times, and only once since 1960. Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald first did it in 1945 for Going My Way, and Fredric March and Harold Russell did it two years later for their work in The Best Years of Our Lives. The next time this phenomenon occurred was in 1960 when Charlton Heston and Hugh Griffith both won for Ben Hur. The next and last time this happened was 44 years later when Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won for their work in Mystic River.

The fact that an acting duo from the same film won only a decade ago bodes well for McConaughey and Leto, but the fact that it's only happened about as many times as a film won Best Movie without having its director even nominated isn't something to be thrilled about. Yet Argo won Best Picture last year, so maybe we're in a new era of Hollywood...

But the fact that this occurrence happens so infrequently isn't necessarily a bad sign for McConaughey and Leto. It could just be that the deserved winner from each category just so happens to star in different movie. It's very possible that the person who deserves to win does win, and it's irrelevant if they star in the same movie or different ones. So I went and looked back at recent history at the possible and realistic chances where an actor and his co-star should have both won, but did not.