Room and Suffragette - two movies with strong female leads and probable Oscar noms

I have started to go home to Cleveland to go to concerts (Steve Hackett, Joan Armatrading) and to go my favorite movie theater, the Cedar-Lee. And of course I get to spend time with my mom.

12/4/15 Room, not yet nominated, 2015

Wow. That's really all I could say when the movie was over. I had not heard a lot about the movie and I have not read the book upon which it was based, also called Room, so I really didn't know what to expect. What I got was a taut, tense, well-acted and emotional roller coaster of a movie. The movie is based on the 2010 book of the same name by Emma Donoghue; Donoghue also wrote the screenplay. I don't want to give too much away in case you have also not read the book. The movie opens in a room, with a little boy just waking up and greeting the day and shortly waking up his mother. It doesn't take us long to see that Room is fairly cramped and with only the essentials, a toilet, refrigerator, a tv (yes, that is essential), and to figure out that they cannot get out of Room. The first part of the movie focuses on life in Room. The mom, Joy, played brilliantly by Brie Larson, is young and stressed, but still able to enjoy the energy and life of her little boy, Jack, who is celebrating his fifth birthday. Jacob Tremblay as Jack is effortlessly natural, none of that precocious, 'look at me, I'm so cute' crap that annoys me; Jack has temper tantrums, argues with his mother, asks hard questions, is afraid, and willing to do anything for his mother. Joy and Jack are interdependent and have created a support and survival system while they are kept in Room by a man they only know as Old Nick; Old Nick regularly rapes Joy while Jack hides in a cupboard, but Jack is getting older and eventually ventures out to see Old Nick. I think this was the moment that Joy decided that they could no longer passively accept their current situation; perhaps if she was alone, she would have just lived with it, but having a child who was now curious and might be at risk of experiencing Old Nick's temper, the status quo is not okay. The two eventually get out and the second half of the movie focuses on Joy readjusting to the world, to her parents, and them adjusting to her; and of course, Jack has to learn about the world outside Room, in fact he has to wear a mask until his body acclimates to the atmosphere. As hard as it was watching Joy struggle to come back to the world, it was a joy to see Jack come out of his shell and form bonds with other adults and children and to show that independence that almost all kids develop. How Joy and Jack get from the first few minutes of the film to the end is the work of a great film and something you should experience for yourself. I will say that normally I just sit back in my chair and watch the movie, but I found myself leaning forward, almost trying to penetrate that 4th wall; that's how captivated I was. It was tough to watch at times, but Larson, Tremblay and Joan Allen who played Joy's mother, were tremendous. Room has already been nominated for many film awards, including Golden Globes, and I would expect it to receive several Oscar nominations, including in the Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, and possibly Editing.

As a Clevelander, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the movie was set in Akron (although filmed elsewhere) and it had an eerie resemblance to the Ariel Castro kidnappings in Cleveland that were finally ended in 2013; the book was published in 2010 and based on a similar situation in Austria.

12/5/15 Suffragette, not yet nominated, 2015

Suffragette is a period piece set in the early 20th century in the heart of London and is about the fight to get women the right to vote. Carey Mulligan plays Maude Watts, a laundress who becomes politicized after a series of events make her reconsider her current situation. Watts, and most of the characters in the film are fictionalized, including Edith Ellyn by Helena Bonham Carter, and Brendan Gleeson's Inspector Steed. The historical figures in the movie are Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep for about 10 minutes), Emily Davison (Natalie Press) and David Lloyd George (Adrian Schiller). This is a coming of age story, Maude has been working in the laundry for most of her young life, and before she was working, she spent time as a baby sleeping under the equipment; until she meets some of the radical suffragettes by happenstance, she accepted her life as a fait accompli. Maude gets caught up in the increasingly radical suffrage movement, much to the dismay of her husband and the owner of the laundry. Maude meets Edith Ellyn who provides basic medical services, but isn't a doctor because her father didn't think a girl should have an advanced education; and Violet, a co-worker at the laundry who has far too many children but is dedicated to the work of the Women's Suffrage and Political Union, led by Emmeline Pankhurst. Maude is forced to choose between her family life and having a better life, even if that means sacrifice and force feedings and public humiliation. In a strange mirror on today's society we see how Maude becomes more and more dedicated to her cause as she loses her husband, child and home, her job; she sees girls preyed upon by men in powerful positions; and a new generation of girls destined to earn less wages, but work longer hours than their male counterparts; and women beaten (including herself) for holding a protest. The last ten to fifteen minutes of the movie are based on a real event at the Epsom Derby, with the King in attendance, where Emily Davison, a fervent suffragette, wanted to hang up a banner in an attempt to get more attention from the worldwide press. It did get a lot of attention, but not necessarily for the reason she hoped; she was killed by the King's horse as she stepped in to tie the banner to the horse. The film ends with newsreel footage of her funeral and the thousands of people, men and women, in attendance as well as a scroll of when women around the world were granted the vote. If you have watched "Upstairs, Downstairs", "Downton Abbey" or almost any British drama that focuses on that period, you may be somewhat familiar with the voting rights movement, but this is a little grittier than most of those representations. Mulligan and Bonham-Carter are very good, but so are Anne-Marie Duff who plays Violet, a tough, but vulnerable woman trying to improve her life and Gleeson as Steed, who tries to play hardball, but seems to have a soft spot for Maude, not in any sexual way, but in a paternal way. I liked the movie; I tend to like stories like this and characters like Maude, but I can't say I loved it. Maybe that's because the day before I saw Room and was biased by that. I think it is important that people see this movie though, because too many people take the right to vote as a given, and forget that many people fought very hard for that privilege. Everyone should have to see Selma, Suffragette and Ion Jawed Angels (about the suffragette movement in the US), to see what it means to have the ability to vote. There is some talk about Oscar nominations, and I think Mulligan may again be nominated for Best Actress and possibly a costume or cinematography award as well.


12/10/15 Pitch Perfect 2,  not yet nominated, 2015

After watching so many heavy and dramatic films, it was nice to get Pitch Perfect 2 just for a laugh or two, and I heard some rumblings that there may be some award nominations in the future. Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson and Brittany Snow return as the Bellas and my favorites, Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins as the a capella commentators, who are so inappropriate and hilarious. For the past several years, the Bellas have been riding high, but the movie opens with them performing for the President of the United States when Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) has a wardrobe malfunction of global proportions, which takes them out of a world tour and out of competitions. They now have a new competitor, Das Sound Machine, from Germany; I have to say the exchanges between these two groups were my least favorite, except when Becca (Kendrick) got flustered by the sexually dominating Kommissar (Birgitte Hjort Sjrensen). Hailee Steinfeld is Emily "Legacy" Junk, an aspiring songwriter and new Bella because her mother, Katherine Junk (Katey Sagal) was a Bella years ago. Emily may have been introduced so they can make another movie, but otherwise, I didn't pay too much attention to the story line; I just like the comedy and the music, plot lines kind of pass me by. I liked the movie, and I would probably watch it again, but the first one is my favorite.