Category Fraud Runs Amok Through Oscar Season

It seems that with each passing Oscar season, incidents of category fraud grow more common, and the conversation around it growing louder.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the  term, "category fraud" is when an actor or actress is campaigned for awards in the wrong category. It's usually done to avoid "internal competition", which is campaigning two performances from the same movie, or simply a case of the studio going with the less competitive category.

Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet & Seth Rogan Aim for Oscar in "Jobs" Trailer

It's almost strange to see Michael Fassbender take such a conventional biopic choice given his very eclectic early role choices ("Shame", "Fish Tank" and "12 Years A Slave"). But here's to hoping his performance as Apple creator Steve Jobs is filled with the same fire and energy he's brought to his previous performances.

He's already won raves for his work in "Macbeth", so I think having this role to measure against that one is a good way to lead him into the Oscar race for something, whichever role appeals more to voters (which I feel will be this one).

Other than an almost unrecognizable Kate Winslet (could this bring her back into Oscar's warm graces since her win in 2008 for "The Reader"?), Seth Rogan seems to be making a play for a Jonah Hill Best Supporting Actor play of sorts; voters love it when comedians take on serious roles with some humor still lingering.

The screenplay by Aaron Sorkin is reminiscent of "The Social Network"; almost at a lightning quick pace. How do actors manage to spout off that much in almost seconds?

Time will tell if this is better than the ill-fated "Jobs" starring Ashton Kutcher, or if it's a critical success much like "The Social Network". Take a look at the trailer below.

Happy Valentine's Day: Revisiting My Favorite Romance Movies

Valentine's Day is a day for couples to smother each other in Hallmark cards, candy hearts, and floral arrangements. It's also a day for cynical singles to whip up their best "I don't care about this holiday" jokes. But for me, Valentine's Day is simply a movie marathon, consisting of some of my favorite romantic movies.

I'm not a fan of a lot of "rom coms" or romance movies, because there's a gigantic disconnect between the way relationships are, and the way Hollywood portrays them; it immediately takes me out of the film. Not saying every love story has to be absolutely 100% realistic in its depiction, but to be more about the idea of what a relationship should be, instead of depicting the relationship that [should] be blossoming onscreen (whether it be good or bad) is completely counterproductive; these days, romances onscreen oftentimes seem so formulaic.

But for every few bad movies, there have been some truly great films about relationships or love. Shakespeare In Love, last year's Blue Is the Warmest Color, Like Crazy, Love Actually, Sleepless in Seattle, the list goes on. I'm going to talk about 2 of my absolute favorites which I watch every year, that I think deserve even more praise than they got in their respective release years.