Take the title of the film whatever way you wish, be it literally with the lurking threats of nightfall in this landscape or figuratively with the visions and nightmares one has while alone with their thoughts before sleeping. It Comes at Night is tightly comprised of excruciating moral challenges that escalate with time.

MOVIE REVIEW: Hidden Figures

With a family-friendly PG rating, “Hidden Figures” becomes an instant must-see film for both classrooms and living rooms. Boy or girl, man or woman, black or white, any audience member who has ever marveled at the Space Age of our national history will find much to love in Theodore Melfi’s follow-up to “St. Vincent” adapted from Margot Lee Shetterly’s nonfiction book.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Birth of a Nation

Circling back to the “timely” label, the film bears the designation in equally positive and negative connotations, depending of your personal capacity. Consider “The Birth of a Nation” to be the antithesis to “Selma” two years ago. This film’s depiction of violent retaliation reverberates far differently than Martin Luther King’s example of nonviolence. Audiences will wrestle with that polar opposite being empowering or troubling in justification.

MOVIE REVIEW: '71

Even as a little movie that most aren't going to see, let along hear of, "'71" enters my scorecard as the first great film of 2015. This is one is going to get remembered all year on this website. It will make the half-way "Best of 2015 (so far)" list in late June and will hang around until the year-end. Like my fervent love of "Whiplash," I may have found another hidden gem to stump for.

EDITORIAL: Final 2015 Awards Tracker and Oscar Reactions

Let's put a bow on the 2014 Oscar race. Last night, I correctly predicted 16 of the 24 winners. In my final update of this year's Awards Tracker, here are the final tallies, Oscar winners, and my reactions. The Oscar winners in each category are in bold. See you next year for another data session and awards season!

2014, 2015, Column, Editorial, SPECIALDon ShanahanFebruary 23, 2015Birdman, Boyhood, Whiplash, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Interstellar, American Sniper, Eddie Redmaybe, Julianne Moore, J.K. Simmons, Patricia Arquette, John Legend, Common, Glory, Selma, Everything is Awesome, The LEGO Movie, Gone Girl, The Imitation Game, Graham Moore, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Ida, Citizenfour, Feast, Best Animated Short, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Directing, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Animated Short Film, Best Animated FeatureComment

CHECKLIST: My full and official 2015 Oscar predictions

Alright, folks! I've done all of the research I can. I've read all of the tea leaves and broken down every race. I've made my detailed picks in seven columns and editorials over the past week. Here's my master list. In the three years of writing these Oscar nominations and following the data on my website, my prediction score has improved every year. Last year, I correctly guessed 20 of 24 awards up from 19 and 17 from the two years before. I'm gunning for another 20+ night again.

2015, Column, EditorialDon ShanahanFebruary 18, 2015Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Animated Feature, Best Animated Short Film, Best Documentary, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Live Action Short Film, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Song, Best Original Score, Boyhood, Birdman, Still Alice, Julianne Moore, Richard Linklater, Michael Keaton, J.K. Simmons, Whiplash, Patricia Arquette, Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Graham Moore, The Imitation Game, Ida, How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Dam Keeper, The Phone Call, Citizenfour, Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, Interstellar, American Sniper, The Theory of Everything, SelmaComment

OSCAR PREDICTIONS 2015: The race for Best Picture

In this seventh and final post, we've come to the big one, folks. Here's my analysis and breakdown of the race for Best Picture. This is a close one, so read on! Let's do this! I've said it all season. Stick with me and I will win you your Oscar pool.

10 Best, 2015, 2014, Column, EditorialDon ShanahanFebruary 18, 2015American Sniper, Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything, Whiplash, Nightcrawler, Gone GirlComment

OSCAR PREDICTIONS 2015: The music and sound categories

It's time to begin making my formal and official Oscar predictions. In this second post, we look at the musical and sound categories that include original score, original song, sound editing, and sound mixing. Let's do this!

COLUMN: Five snubs and five surprises from the 87th Academy Award nominations

The Oscar nominations for the 87th Academy Awards were announced this morning. Directors J.J. Abrams and Alfonso Cuaron mapped out the little categories and then actor Chris Pine and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs drops some bombs this morning. As always, there are plenty of surprises and plenty of snubs. Through it all, the frontrunners have already emerged and this race is taking shape, so much so that I could probably name the eventual winners already today.

COLUMN: Predicting the major 87th Academy Award nominations

With the 87th Academy Award nominations being announced tomorrow morning, I'm cutting it close with my predictions of who and what names will hear their named called. I've been following the full awards season over on my Awards Tracker page, where I've been following the trends and reading the tea leaves. Using that data and a batch of hunches, here are my savvy predictions for tomorrow's nominations in the eleven major categories.

COLUMN: Who will win/should win the 2015 Golden Globes?

More and more each year, the Golden Globes have become more an a popularity contest than a true precursor to the Academy Awards. What you're watching on TV is a party thrown by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in an effort to be loved and share some love. To its credit, the awards show still garners legitimate attention and ratings. The winners do get a pretty positive rub and the marketers gain a few more "Winner of..." graphics to put in the newspapers next to their films. Let's take a look at the film categories and pick some winners.

MOVIE REVIEW: Selma

"Selma," whose name echoes the history being told, is one of those films that gets history right, honors it, entertains you without sacrificing the real thing, and moves you to no end. Anchored by an amazing lead performance from David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Selma" has the ability to break and shatter the hardest of souls, thicken your pulse, and devour your tissue box. The experience is entirely worth all of that trouble. Best of all, it earn that emotion from you. Dare I say, "Selma" might be even better than last year's Best Picture winner "12 Years a Slave." That's the level of impact we're talking about.