It has become an annual event for a friend and me to see the live action and animated shorts in Uptown in Minneapolis. It's a day out, we have lunch, and today we had an adult beverage. It's fun to chat about the movies immediately with another human instead of this one-way mirror known as a blog. Don't get me wrong, I love the blog, but sometimes a real time debrief is very fulfilling. I have the best of both worlds, because now I get to post my musings.
Animated Shorts
Sanjay's Super Team from Pixar is unique in that it has a young Indian boy and his father as the characters, not including the Indian gods that engage in a super hero type battle against evil. It's a story about generational gaps and the clash of cultures that many families of different backgrounds experience. It was fun and touching, very typical Pixar. We both agreed it was good, but not great, and we didn't think it's the winner.
World of Tomorrow left us both scratching our heads, thinking what's the point. It's a 'the future meets the present' with a little girl meeting her future self. It was seventeen minutes and it seemed like it was forever. This was our least favorite.
Historia de un Oso (Bear Story) was our favorite and my choice to win. The animation was really good, I think it was stop action, and it kind of reminded me of the style used in The Box Trolls. A bear has a musical diorama that he plays for money; the diorama and the story it tells are obviously more complex than could actually be shown in a diorama (but if we question that, then we should we question the ability of a bear to make said diorama in the first place). There is a family of bears, but then the father bear is taken away and made to perform in a circus. He finally gets out and is reunited with his family. There are some parts that might be a little intense or serious for a child, but something about it captivated me more than the other nominated films.
We Can't Live without Cosmos is an entry from Russia, and my first thought as it started was that this was an unusually joyful movie for Russia. Of course, that didn't necessarily last the whole time. We see a group of cosmonauts going through exercises and one pair in particular is at the center. They don't have names, and they don't speak, but we get the impression they are great friends, competing against one another, but also pushing each other to the limits. In a lot of ways, they seem like two big kids, goofing around behind the backs of their more severe trainers. When it comes time to send the rocket up, only one of the men goes, the other is the alternate. Disaster strikes, and something happens to the rocket soon after it is in space. The astronaut left behind is distraught and inconsolable, clutching the last picture the two of them took together. The two friends are eventually reunited in a very sci-fi way, that was very sweet. This was one of our favorites as well.
Prologue was the last entry and our least favorite. And once the penises were out, my friend was convinced I planned it (same friend who witnessed the animated sex last weekend). The animation style was pretty cool, but the story was meh. It appeared to be set in Viking/Celtic times, with naked and semi-naked men killing each other. This left the women and children behind. War is bad.
There were a few other shorts included, some were okay, one we really liked was called Catch It and it featured a family of meerkats competing with a vulture for a piece of fruit. It was almost like a Roadrunner/Wiley Coyote or Tom and Jerry cartoon (I mean that in a good way). It was fun, the animation was bright and colorful and the ending was hilarious. This would have been our pick for the winner if it would have been nominated.
Then we went to lunch.
Live Action Shorts
I have to say people are idiots. We were lucky enough to sit next to a guy who could not stop sighing and clucking (well, my friend got to sit next to him); then there was 'Squeaky Shoes', squeak squeak as he walked or sat or whatever. Just sit and be quiet. This is not the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Okay, I'm better now. We really liked all of the shorts in this category; our one quibble would have been to put the first one last, and you'll see why in a moment.
Ave Maria is set in Israel, in the West Bank. At first I thought this might be very serious and heavy, but it wasn't and it was the lightest and funniest movie in the group. A Jewish family is driving when their car inexplicably crashes into a convent of nun who have taken a vow of silence. The crash is blamed on the mother-in-law or the wife, depending on whom you ask. The nuns, being disturbed in their afternoon meal, send the young novice out to see what's going on; the Jewish family is in a hurry to get home before the Sabbath, but nobody will come and get them, so they turn to the nuns for help. There were some laugh out loud moments, and I think what I liked so much was that these two groups of people both had to step beyond the confines of their culture and religious beliefs: the nuns broke their vow of silence and the Jewish family had to work on the Sabbath in order to get home. It was positive and a feel good movie.
It's emotionally downhill from here.
Shok is an Albanian film based on true events during the Kosovo War. Oki and Petrit are childhood friends and Oki just got a new bicycle. His friend Petrit has been selling cigarette papers to Serbian soldiers, which is a very dangerous things because they are ethnic Albanians. One of the Serbs takes Oki's bicycle and he blames Petrit for getting them into that situation. The Serbs expel the Albanians from the village and it doesn't end well. The narrative was set up so that you kind of knew something was going to happen, but when it did, it was still like a punch in the stomach. This was very powerful and beautifully filmed. I'm not sure exactly where it was filmed, but it was stunning.
Alles wird gut (Everything will be okay) was probably my least favorite film of this group. Michael Baumgartner picks up his young daughter, Lea, from his ex-wife's house. He is clearly very agitated as he waits for Lea to come out, and it doesn't get better when her step-father comes out to say goodbye. Michael and Lea go shopping to buy Lea a present (who knew they had Toys 'R Us in Germany?), and then off to an official looking building for an emergency passport. The foreshadowing is not very subtle. Then they go to an amusement park and then Michael sells his car, and they rush off to the airport. Their flight to Manila is delayed which causes Michael to get more distressed and by this time Lea is ready to go home and begins questioning her father. He, in turn, gets very angry and aggressive with her. Michael tells Lea he is doing this because he can't lose her, and fears her mother will not let them see each other anymore. Lea actually takes on the role of the grown up, trying to calm him and tell him it will be okay. I didn't hate it, but I thought the ending dragged out for what seemed like an eternity. The little girl was very good, but I don't expect this to win.
Stutterer is about a man who stutters when he speaks out loud, but when he has conversations in his head (as we all do) or online, he speaks flawlessly. He has been having an online relationship with a woman, but they have never met or spoken. He panics when she tells him she will be down in London for a few days and asks if they can meet. He hesitates, but eventually, agrees and it turns out she is deaf, so they don't have to speak; coincidentally, he is learning sign language. Eh, it was okay.
Day One presents the viewer with conflicting emotions and the potential for disaster. My heart was in my throat for a few seconds. Feda is the new interpreter on a US Army base in Afghanistan/Iraq (it's not really clear), and it's induction by fire. Almost as soon as she arrives, she must accompany her unit to look for an enemy bomb maker. Unfortunately, nothing goes as planned when the man's pregnant wife gets knocked down or falls down and goes into labor. It's a difficult process (thankfully it did not go the way I thought, which would have been horrific) and Feda has to assist because it would be inappropriate for the doctor on scene to be alone with the woman without her husband's permission. Early in the film, Feda makes it clear that she was not interested in having children, but she is obviously moved by the power of childbirth and the beauty of the newborn baby. The juxtaposition of the bomb maker and what he does with the love for his wife is touching; it humanizes people in something that has become very dehumanized. This is based on the director's experience as a platoon leader and his interpreter. This was very intense, and that's why I said, and my friend agreed, Ave Maria should have ended the evening, just a little light note to head into the evening.
I have started a channel on YouTube.com where I have begun compiling Oscar winning/nominated shorts. Still a lot of work to do, but you can check it out here: Oscar Shorts Play list
All in all, the films were outstanding, and even the ones we didn't like so much were still okay. The Revenant is tomorrow, and the remaining documentaries should follow this week. Twenty-eight days to go.
2015 nominated documentaries incl What Happened, Miss Simone?, Cartel Land, The Hunting Ground and the Shorts
The documentary, without a doubt or hesitation, is my favorite category. A good documentary can inform you and a great documentary can inform and motivate, inspire or piss you off. I can say my feelings ran the gamut for the films listed below.
1/25/16 What Happened, Miss Simone? nominated Best Documentary, 2015
I love music and I like to think I'm fairly educated about music history, but my curriculum did not include any Nina Simone, and I feel a little robbed. Granted her style was more in the jazz/blues genre which really isn't my thing, but listening to some of her music in the documentary was incredibly eye opening. The documentary shows Nina's early music education in the (still segregated) South by a white woman, playing for mostly white audiences; she was being groomed to be a classical pianist and went north to pursue that dream. She 'fell' into popular music because she was playing in clubs to make money and she was told she needed to sing; and that was all she wrote. The movie uses Nina Simone's own words from interviews and her journals as well as interviews with her daughter, husband and her longtime guitarist, among others. Concert performances are included throughout the movie and I was blown away. She was something else. Nina Simone found her activist voice in the 1960s, as did many performers, but it seems that her outspoken songs and protests had a more negative impact on her career and legacy than it did for others. On occasion I have heard Nina Simone's name as an influence on other singers/songwriters, but not as often as I would have thought; or even more, her influence on pianists. The movie does not sugarcoat Simone's personal, internal struggles, her daughter's conflict with her mother and occasional tormentor. Simone definitely had demons, as so many artists do. It makes her human. It makes her songs more powerful and poignant. Even if What Happened, Miss Simone? does not win the Oscar, I hope it brings her music to a new and wider audience. I think she deserves that much.
1/26/16 Cartel Land, nominated Best Documentary, 2015
Cartel Land tells the story of citizens fed up with what they perceive as their governments' inability to protect them and their families from the Mexican drug cartels. What I think is really interesting about this is that most of the narrative is told from the south of the border by a group of Mexicans who organize and arm themselves against the drug gangs. The other side is a group of Americans who are similarly angry and fed up with the American government, the Arizona Border Recon. The movie goes back and forth, but the focus is on the Mexicans and the group 'Autodefensas' and their charismatic leader, Dr. Jose Mireles. Mireles develops a cult of personality, which almost too predictably collapses in on itself (human nature, regardless of language or country, is subject to hubris and the flying too close to the sun). The rise and fall of Mireles and the Autodefensas is like a Greek tragedy, except it's real and true and has pretty serious consequences. At first it seems like the Autodefensas is winning the battle against the cartels in different towns and villages, but the group faces a challenge from the government, and then Mireles is severely injured in a plane crash, and the usurpation begins. And in true Shakespearean fashion, he is betrayed by a man he considers his close friend, known as Papa Smurf. I first was impressed by Mireles, a doctor in his regular job, Wyatt Earp in his spare time, fearless in the face of the gangs, but then he seems to get a little drunk with power (this may have been editing) and then his dramatic fall. Regarding the Arizona Border Recon group, the leader, Tim Foley, justifies what he does and downplays any racist overtones in his actions. It's about protecting the US, Arizona and the American Way. They appear to work with the US Border Patrol and we don't see any overt abuse of power; there are occasional racist remarks from some of the 'team' members. Foley actually voices some support for the Autodefensas as they battle the cartel, but he foreshadows how everything will collapse. The way the movie ended just about put me through the roof I was so angry; not that I was so naive, but that it seems the corruption runs so deep and so unabated. I don't think it will win, but people should see it.
1/27/16 The Hunting Ground, nominated Best Original Song, 2015
The Hunting Ground is not nominated for Best Documentary, but for Best Original Song, "Til it happens to you" by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga. The Hunting Ground was done by the same team, Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering who did The Invisible War which was about sexual assault in the military and nominated for Best Documentary Feature. The Hunting Ground moves from military bases to college campuses and the stories are eerily similar: assault survivors being blamed, disbelieved, harassed, driven to self-harm or suicide while their attackers are protected, shielded and exonerated. The film focuses on Andrea Pino and Annie Clark, two students and rape survivors form the University of North Carolina, and their efforts to raise awareness of sexual assault on campus and the rights of the victims, and the network they build across the country of survivors. They are not widely thanked for their pains, they are threatened on social media on campus, but they are not deterred. The movie looks at the institutionalized acceptance of the predatory behavior and how entrenched it is. There is an organization that was created to bring these crimes to the fore and shed light on the monsters under the bed; it's called See Act Stop. This and The Invisible War should be required viewing for all college students and their parents. The song, performed by Lady Gaga, is haunting and powerful; this or "The Writing's on the Wall" from Spectre are currently my picks (still a few I haven't heard yet).
1/29/16 Documentary shorts, 2015
I love the shorts; I have said before that in some ways doing a short film is harder because you have 5 to 55 minutes to get your point across, no fluff, no extraneous story lines. Last year's selection of documentary shorts were disappointing, but this year's nominees had me captivated from beginning to end. My prediction (if I wait until the end of the review, I'll forget) is either Last Day of Freedom or Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah. Let's see why this may be too close to call.
Body Team 12 - We heard about Ebola over here; we saw news stories from Liberia; we heard how horrible it was. Body Team 12 lived it. Body Team 12 is a group of Liberians who are responsible for removing the dead bodies from homes and villages and disposing of them safely. Their story is told by Garmai, a female worker who is fearless and has so much compassion for the families, even when they get angry with the team. I was moved by Garmai's actions, but also her eloquence in speaking about her job and why it was important. Many people talk about 'doing things' in the name of their country, but the people on Body Team 12 talked about doing this job, taking this risk for Liberia, to save their country. These weren't empty words.
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness is about honor killings in Pakistan, and one young woman who survived the attempted murder by her father and uncle. Saba (I apologize I cannot confirm her name and I thought I would remember from the film) had the gall to fall in love with a young man and married him against the wishes of her family. As punishment for disrespecting him, her father decided he should be the one to kill her. Somehow she survived and the rest of the film is about her desire NOT to forgive her father and uncle, and the societal pressures to forgive them. This isn't just semantics; custom dictates that if the perpetrators are forgiven, all criminal proceedings cease and the matter is over. Saba is initially represented and counseled by a lawyer not to forgive them because her case would disappear into the ether. The town elders substitute counsel and he contends, ON CAMERA, that Saba agreed to forgive her family. Ultimately, her eldest brother-in-law decided it was best for everyone to forgive because they had to live in the village and would likely be ostracized if they did not. Saba has to consent, she is now living with her husband's family and is fairly powerless. Yet, for all that she has been through, you would expect bitterness, but it's not there. She is angry, but she trusts in God and that the Koran will protect her and she hopes that her baby is a girl and that her daughter will be educated and do great things. You cannot help but like this young woman and hope she finds happiness with her husband and her new baby. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy directed this and also directed Saving Face which was about women who had been attacked with acid by their husbands or other male family members in Pakistan.
Last Day of Freedom is an animated documentary. Bill Babbitt begins telling his story, actually the story of his younger brother, Manny. Manny struggled in school, joined the Marines and served two tours of duty in Vietnam, returned to the United States and struggled with what we know today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Manny eventually moves out to California to live with Bill and his family. Manny seems to come into money around the same time that an elderly woman is murdered in her home. Bill does some investigating and believes that it was his brother who committed the murder, but nobody else has yet put the pieces together. It's conceivable that Bill could have said nothing and the murder would have stayed unsolved, but he didn't think that was the right thing to do. He also believed that his brother would get able representation and the help he clearly needed. The decked seemed stacked against Manny from beginning to end: inept counsel, an all-white jury (Babbitt was black), no serious inclusion of Babbitt's military service, PTSD or additional mental health history. He was sentenced to death. We are told all of this by Bill Babbitt; his is the only voice and we only see him through the sketched animation, but it kind of makes you focus on his voice and his anguish. At first I was distracted by the animation, but it works. This is one that I think may win. My reasoning is this: the death penalty and mental health stirs debate; the all-white jury and incompetent attorney; and the lack of diversity in all of the major categories may give the smaller categories an opportunity via guilt. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good and powerful film, some people may assuage their guilt over the nominations with picking this as a winner. Quite honestly, I couldn't pick a clear winner.
Chau, Beyond the Lines - Sometimes people complain about things that they could easily change or fix, but choose not to, and then other people don't make a sound about things that cannot be changed no matter what, and they accomplish things that seem impossible. Chau is a young man in Viet Nam whose mother drank water contaminated by Agent Orange during the Viet Nam War. Chau's legs are severely deformed so much that he cannot walk, and his arms are also malformed, but he can draw. Chau has spent over fifteen years in a care center that seems just this side of Dickens. He eventually goes back home to live with his parents because the nurses did not support his dream of drawing and being an artist. Living with his parents is less than ideal so he moves to the city and tries to live independently. In the process he improves his drawing and painting and develops a painting style using his mouth. He wants to be independent and part of society and do something he loves. In so many ways, he's not that different from most teenagers, except he gets around a little differently than most of us. I was impressed with his art, his use of color and the detail he is able to achieve just using his mouth. The movie is about Chau and his desire to paint and pursue his dream, but the shadow of the war and the United States' use of Agent Orange are not far from the surface.
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah is a recounting of how Claude Lanzmann made the 1985 epic documentary Shoah. Shoah was a documentary about the Holocaust with interviews of survivors, witnesses and German/Nazi participants; many interviews were secretly recorded. It took Lanzmann 12 years to make the 9 1/2 hour documentary, and this film looks at the emotional cost of making the film and how Lanzmann was determined to make the best film and tell the story of those who perished. It took such a toll on him that at one point he tried to commit suicide. I remember watching Shoah and reading the companion book. I also remember a scene, filmed in Poland, and the townspeople near Auschwitz (I think it was) said they had no idea what was going on and didn't really believe that it was happening. I was so angry. This is my other pick for a winner. The Holocaust still resonates in Hollywood, and I think Hollywood likes movies about the movies and the people that make them.
More nominees to follow.
1/25/16 What Happened, Miss Simone? nominated Best Documentary, 2015
I love music and I like to think I'm fairly educated about music history, but my curriculum did not include any Nina Simone, and I feel a little robbed. Granted her style was more in the jazz/blues genre which really isn't my thing, but listening to some of her music in the documentary was incredibly eye opening. The documentary shows Nina's early music education in the (still segregated) South by a white woman, playing for mostly white audiences; she was being groomed to be a classical pianist and went north to pursue that dream. She 'fell' into popular music because she was playing in clubs to make money and she was told she needed to sing; and that was all she wrote. The movie uses Nina Simone's own words from interviews and her journals as well as interviews with her daughter, husband and her longtime guitarist, among others. Concert performances are included throughout the movie and I was blown away. She was something else. Nina Simone found her activist voice in the 1960s, as did many performers, but it seems that her outspoken songs and protests had a more negative impact on her career and legacy than it did for others. On occasion I have heard Nina Simone's name as an influence on other singers/songwriters, but not as often as I would have thought; or even more, her influence on pianists. The movie does not sugarcoat Simone's personal, internal struggles, her daughter's conflict with her mother and occasional tormentor. Simone definitely had demons, as so many artists do. It makes her human. It makes her songs more powerful and poignant. Even if What Happened, Miss Simone? does not win the Oscar, I hope it brings her music to a new and wider audience. I think she deserves that much.
1/26/16 Cartel Land, nominated Best Documentary, 2015
Cartel Land tells the story of citizens fed up with what they perceive as their governments' inability to protect them and their families from the Mexican drug cartels. What I think is really interesting about this is that most of the narrative is told from the south of the border by a group of Mexicans who organize and arm themselves against the drug gangs. The other side is a group of Americans who are similarly angry and fed up with the American government, the Arizona Border Recon. The movie goes back and forth, but the focus is on the Mexicans and the group 'Autodefensas' and their charismatic leader, Dr. Jose Mireles. Mireles develops a cult of personality, which almost too predictably collapses in on itself (human nature, regardless of language or country, is subject to hubris and the flying too close to the sun). The rise and fall of Mireles and the Autodefensas is like a Greek tragedy, except it's real and true and has pretty serious consequences. At first it seems like the Autodefensas is winning the battle against the cartels in different towns and villages, but the group faces a challenge from the government, and then Mireles is severely injured in a plane crash, and the usurpation begins. And in true Shakespearean fashion, he is betrayed by a man he considers his close friend, known as Papa Smurf. I first was impressed by Mireles, a doctor in his regular job, Wyatt Earp in his spare time, fearless in the face of the gangs, but then he seems to get a little drunk with power (this may have been editing) and then his dramatic fall. Regarding the Arizona Border Recon group, the leader, Tim Foley, justifies what he does and downplays any racist overtones in his actions. It's about protecting the US, Arizona and the American Way. They appear to work with the US Border Patrol and we don't see any overt abuse of power; there are occasional racist remarks from some of the 'team' members. Foley actually voices some support for the Autodefensas as they battle the cartel, but he foreshadows how everything will collapse. The way the movie ended just about put me through the roof I was so angry; not that I was so naive, but that it seems the corruption runs so deep and so unabated. I don't think it will win, but people should see it.
1/27/16 The Hunting Ground, nominated Best Original Song, 2015
The Hunting Ground is not nominated for Best Documentary, but for Best Original Song, "Til it happens to you" by Diane Warren and Lady Gaga. The Hunting Ground was done by the same team, Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering who did The Invisible War which was about sexual assault in the military and nominated for Best Documentary Feature. The Hunting Ground moves from military bases to college campuses and the stories are eerily similar: assault survivors being blamed, disbelieved, harassed, driven to self-harm or suicide while their attackers are protected, shielded and exonerated. The film focuses on Andrea Pino and Annie Clark, two students and rape survivors form the University of North Carolina, and their efforts to raise awareness of sexual assault on campus and the rights of the victims, and the network they build across the country of survivors. They are not widely thanked for their pains, they are threatened on social media on campus, but they are not deterred. The movie looks at the institutionalized acceptance of the predatory behavior and how entrenched it is. There is an organization that was created to bring these crimes to the fore and shed light on the monsters under the bed; it's called See Act Stop. This and The Invisible War should be required viewing for all college students and their parents. The song, performed by Lady Gaga, is haunting and powerful; this or "The Writing's on the Wall" from Spectre are currently my picks (still a few I haven't heard yet).
1/29/16 Documentary shorts, 2015
I love the shorts; I have said before that in some ways doing a short film is harder because you have 5 to 55 minutes to get your point across, no fluff, no extraneous story lines. Last year's selection of documentary shorts were disappointing, but this year's nominees had me captivated from beginning to end. My prediction (if I wait until the end of the review, I'll forget) is either Last Day of Freedom or Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah. Let's see why this may be too close to call.
Body Team 12 - We heard about Ebola over here; we saw news stories from Liberia; we heard how horrible it was. Body Team 12 lived it. Body Team 12 is a group of Liberians who are responsible for removing the dead bodies from homes and villages and disposing of them safely. Their story is told by Garmai, a female worker who is fearless and has so much compassion for the families, even when they get angry with the team. I was moved by Garmai's actions, but also her eloquence in speaking about her job and why it was important. Many people talk about 'doing things' in the name of their country, but the people on Body Team 12 talked about doing this job, taking this risk for Liberia, to save their country. These weren't empty words.
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness is about honor killings in Pakistan, and one young woman who survived the attempted murder by her father and uncle. Saba (I apologize I cannot confirm her name and I thought I would remember from the film) had the gall to fall in love with a young man and married him against the wishes of her family. As punishment for disrespecting him, her father decided he should be the one to kill her. Somehow she survived and the rest of the film is about her desire NOT to forgive her father and uncle, and the societal pressures to forgive them. This isn't just semantics; custom dictates that if the perpetrators are forgiven, all criminal proceedings cease and the matter is over. Saba is initially represented and counseled by a lawyer not to forgive them because her case would disappear into the ether. The town elders substitute counsel and he contends, ON CAMERA, that Saba agreed to forgive her family. Ultimately, her eldest brother-in-law decided it was best for everyone to forgive because they had to live in the village and would likely be ostracized if they did not. Saba has to consent, she is now living with her husband's family and is fairly powerless. Yet, for all that she has been through, you would expect bitterness, but it's not there. She is angry, but she trusts in God and that the Koran will protect her and she hopes that her baby is a girl and that her daughter will be educated and do great things. You cannot help but like this young woman and hope she finds happiness with her husband and her new baby. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy directed this and also directed Saving Face which was about women who had been attacked with acid by their husbands or other male family members in Pakistan.
Last Day of Freedom is an animated documentary. Bill Babbitt begins telling his story, actually the story of his younger brother, Manny. Manny struggled in school, joined the Marines and served two tours of duty in Vietnam, returned to the United States and struggled with what we know today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Manny eventually moves out to California to live with Bill and his family. Manny seems to come into money around the same time that an elderly woman is murdered in her home. Bill does some investigating and believes that it was his brother who committed the murder, but nobody else has yet put the pieces together. It's conceivable that Bill could have said nothing and the murder would have stayed unsolved, but he didn't think that was the right thing to do. He also believed that his brother would get able representation and the help he clearly needed. The decked seemed stacked against Manny from beginning to end: inept counsel, an all-white jury (Babbitt was black), no serious inclusion of Babbitt's military service, PTSD or additional mental health history. He was sentenced to death. We are told all of this by Bill Babbitt; his is the only voice and we only see him through the sketched animation, but it kind of makes you focus on his voice and his anguish. At first I was distracted by the animation, but it works. This is one that I think may win. My reasoning is this: the death penalty and mental health stirs debate; the all-white jury and incompetent attorney; and the lack of diversity in all of the major categories may give the smaller categories an opportunity via guilt. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good and powerful film, some people may assuage their guilt over the nominations with picking this as a winner. Quite honestly, I couldn't pick a clear winner.
Chau, Beyond the Lines - Sometimes people complain about things that they could easily change or fix, but choose not to, and then other people don't make a sound about things that cannot be changed no matter what, and they accomplish things that seem impossible. Chau is a young man in Viet Nam whose mother drank water contaminated by Agent Orange during the Viet Nam War. Chau's legs are severely deformed so much that he cannot walk, and his arms are also malformed, but he can draw. Chau has spent over fifteen years in a care center that seems just this side of Dickens. He eventually goes back home to live with his parents because the nurses did not support his dream of drawing and being an artist. Living with his parents is less than ideal so he moves to the city and tries to live independently. In the process he improves his drawing and painting and develops a painting style using his mouth. He wants to be independent and part of society and do something he loves. In so many ways, he's not that different from most teenagers, except he gets around a little differently than most of us. I was impressed with his art, his use of color and the detail he is able to achieve just using his mouth. The movie is about Chau and his desire to paint and pursue his dream, but the shadow of the war and the United States' use of Agent Orange are not far from the surface.
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah is a recounting of how Claude Lanzmann made the 1985 epic documentary Shoah. Shoah was a documentary about the Holocaust with interviews of survivors, witnesses and German/Nazi participants; many interviews were secretly recorded. It took Lanzmann 12 years to make the 9 1/2 hour documentary, and this film looks at the emotional cost of making the film and how Lanzmann was determined to make the best film and tell the story of those who perished. It took such a toll on him that at one point he tried to commit suicide. I remember watching Shoah and reading the companion book. I also remember a scene, filmed in Poland, and the townspeople near Auschwitz (I think it was) said they had no idea what was going on and didn't really believe that it was happening. I was so angry. This is my other pick for a winner. The Holocaust still resonates in Hollywood, and I think Hollywood likes movies about the movies and the people that make them.
More nominees to follow.
2015 films: Carol, Anomalisa, 50 Shades of Grey and The 100-Year-Old-Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
I was bemoaning the fact that I had to watch Fifty Shades of Grey because it was on the list. Some suggested I skip it, I mean, they're my rules. But if I skip one movie, where would it end? It's a slippery slope. However, the same weekend that I planned to watch Fifty Shades of Grey, I also saw Carol, Anomalisa and the hidden gem of the Oscars, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. Forty movies and four weeks to go. Easy peasy.
1/23/16 Carol, nominated Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Costume Design, 2015
Cate Blanchett is Carol Aird and Rooney Mara is Therese Belivet in this 1950s drama based on the 1952 book The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. Carol is a wealthy woman separated from her wealthy husband, Harge (Kyle Chandler). Therese works at Frankenberg's and that happens to be where is Carol is doing some last minute Christmas shopping in New York City. Therese is seeing Richard, but seems intrigued by Carol's smooth and glamorous demeanor. Carol definitely seems interested in Therese who is many years younger and quite naive. We get veiled hints about Carol's past, and her relationship with Abby (Sarah Paulson), and the damage that has been done to Harge and Carol's marriage and more important to Carol, is the threat that Harge will take away their daughter, Rindy. Carol decides to head west for a break after Harge takes Rindy to Florida for Christmas, and she asks Therese to go with her. This is the 1950s and homosexual relationships were not out in the open and could lead to all kinds of ostracism, and could certainly cost Carol any contact with Rindy. Cate Blanchett is tremendous as the cool, elegant and sexy Carol who very slyly maneuvers the budding romance with Therese. As I was watching the movie, I flashed back to the Beebo Brinker/Odd Girl Out books and thought this story would have fit perfectly. I honestly don't know if the character of Therese bothered me or if it was Rooney Mara, but in any event, I did not get that connection at all. I watched it with my friend and we both commented that we did not see or feel any sparks (we may be the only two, but at least we agreed). The costumes and sets were extremely well done and I felt captured that post-war revival that came in the 1950s. Blanchett is nominated for Bet Actress, and she was really good, but my pick would be Brie Larson for Room because I feel that Brie's character ran the emotional gamut and I felt pulled into that movie so much more than Carol.
1/23/16 Anomalisa, nominated Best Animated Feature, 2015
I'm not sure where to start with Anomalisa the animated film directed and produced by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson. I liked the animation technique of stop motion and the way the animated characters were created as well as the incredibly detailed sets. I thought the story was interesting and in some form could have been a regular live action movie. But at the end of it, my friend and I (we saw Carol an hour before this) were not emotionally moved (as the trailers indicated we would be). Michael Stone (David Thewlis) is an ex-pat Brit who has been living in America for a while, has a family, and as the movie opens, he is landing in Cincinnati, Ohio, to give a motivational speech. Michael is kind of crabby, and I put that down to being tired from the flight. But it became clear to us (me and my Twinnie) that it wasn't the flight, he was crabby and lonely. Michael has an abrupt conversation with his wife and son; he then reconnects with an ex-lover from 10 years ago, and to say that doesn't go as planned would be a mild understatement. Michael mistakenly knocks on another room and invites the two women, who happen to be fans of his, down to the hotel bar for a few drinks. One thing leads to another, and he hits it off with Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and they go back to his room. I must say, I was a little taken aback at the full frontal nudity of the animated characters, to say nothing of what they did in that state. Unfortunately, the honeymoon period of Michael and Lisa's relationship lasted as long as it takes to get from Cleveland to Cincinnati on I-71. I think a lot of what is 'magical' or 'deep' about the movie requires it to be seen, so I don't want to give away too much. You should have that 'aha' moment on your own. The movie is definitely worth seeing, it's different than most animated stories out there. As for the Oscar, this is my pick; I would prefer Inside Out to win, but I don't know if it will, and I don't think Shaun the Sheep deserves it, and I haven't seen Boy & the World.
1/23/16 Fifty Shades of Grey, nominated Best Original Song, 2015
When my friends found out I had to watch Fifty Shades of Grey, some laughed, most refused to watch it with me, and a couple thought it would be hilariously uncomfortable to watch it with me, and a few offered to lend me the books. With friends like that.... I just decided to watch it and get it over with; I have seen a lot of terrible movies and I knew they weren't fatal. Fifty Shades of Grey is the story of the relationship between college student Anastasia (Ana) Steele (Dakota Johnson) and billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan). Christian wants to share his affinity for S&M with Ana, and has drawn up a contract regarding what is permissible and what is not. Ana is intrigued but gets hung up on the contract. It doesn't stop her from doing anything, so I don't know what she was squawking about. The acting was not great, in fact, so not great that the actors, the movie and the director were all nominated for a Golden Raspberry award (nominations pending at this time). It was light porn, I suppose. The soundtrack wasn't horrible, but the song that was nominated "Earned It" was not the best song on there. This could actually win (the horror) and because the only big name movie with a song is Spectre and the song by Sam Smith, "Writing's on the Wall", which could pull it out. The other movies/songs are on the list; we'll see. The best thing about this movie is that it was free from the library. This might be a fun movie to watch with friends and make some kind of drinking game out of it; I don't really drink, but it might help. This capped a day of movies with all kinds of sex and naked people. I think I'm good for a while.
1/24/16 The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, nominated Best Hairstyling and Makeup, 2015
What a treat. This Swedish production was so delightful. It reminded me of the Coen Brothers meet Forrest Gump and the quirkiness from My Life as a Dog. First, yes, it's a Swedish film and it's mostly in Swedish but it's narrated in English. Second, it's a history lesson of the 20th century told from the perspective of Allan Karlsson, who is turning 100 years old in the opening scenes of the movie. There is something that is innocently charming about Allan, almost like Mr. Magoo as he is seemingly oblivious about the situations that occur. Allan is put into a senior citizens home because he blew up the fox that killed his beloved cat. Allan loves to blow things up and it's a recurring theme. Allan climbs out the window and goes to the transit center and with all the money he has, he goes to Byringe, a town with a population of one, Julius. But, before he gets there, a skinhead tough looking guy demands that Allan hold on to his suitcase while he goes to the toilet. Allan (in Mr. Magoo fashion) continues to hold on to the case as he boards the bus. That's the Coen Brothers part. The movie uses flashbacks to show us Allan's past and then brings us to the current day and Allan's new friends, including Julius, Benny and Gunilla and the people trying to chase him down, Gaddan, Hinken and Pim. The flashbacks include saving General Francisco Franco from getting blown up, giving Oppenheimer tips on completing the atomic bomb (that's the Forrest Gump part). The movie was nominated for Best Hairstyling and Makeup and as I watched on the special features how they made actor Robert Gustafsson as Allan Karlsson age from 19 to 30 to 50 to 80 and 100 (or something like that) it was quite amazing. Sometimes five or six hours of makeup. It's up against Mad Max and The Revenant, so I'm not sure it will win, but get it from the library or Netflix, you won't regret it. In fact, I may have to buy a copy to keep for when I get tired of my lists.
1/23/16 Carol, nominated Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Costume Design, 2015
Cate Blanchett is Carol Aird and Rooney Mara is Therese Belivet in this 1950s drama based on the 1952 book The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. Carol is a wealthy woman separated from her wealthy husband, Harge (Kyle Chandler). Therese works at Frankenberg's and that happens to be where is Carol is doing some last minute Christmas shopping in New York City. Therese is seeing Richard, but seems intrigued by Carol's smooth and glamorous demeanor. Carol definitely seems interested in Therese who is many years younger and quite naive. We get veiled hints about Carol's past, and her relationship with Abby (Sarah Paulson), and the damage that has been done to Harge and Carol's marriage and more important to Carol, is the threat that Harge will take away their daughter, Rindy. Carol decides to head west for a break after Harge takes Rindy to Florida for Christmas, and she asks Therese to go with her. This is the 1950s and homosexual relationships were not out in the open and could lead to all kinds of ostracism, and could certainly cost Carol any contact with Rindy. Cate Blanchett is tremendous as the cool, elegant and sexy Carol who very slyly maneuvers the budding romance with Therese. As I was watching the movie, I flashed back to the Beebo Brinker/Odd Girl Out books and thought this story would have fit perfectly. I honestly don't know if the character of Therese bothered me or if it was Rooney Mara, but in any event, I did not get that connection at all. I watched it with my friend and we both commented that we did not see or feel any sparks (we may be the only two, but at least we agreed). The costumes and sets were extremely well done and I felt captured that post-war revival that came in the 1950s. Blanchett is nominated for Bet Actress, and she was really good, but my pick would be Brie Larson for Room because I feel that Brie's character ran the emotional gamut and I felt pulled into that movie so much more than Carol.
1/23/16 Anomalisa, nominated Best Animated Feature, 2015
I'm not sure where to start with Anomalisa the animated film directed and produced by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson. I liked the animation technique of stop motion and the way the animated characters were created as well as the incredibly detailed sets. I thought the story was interesting and in some form could have been a regular live action movie. But at the end of it, my friend and I (we saw Carol an hour before this) were not emotionally moved (as the trailers indicated we would be). Michael Stone (David Thewlis) is an ex-pat Brit who has been living in America for a while, has a family, and as the movie opens, he is landing in Cincinnati, Ohio, to give a motivational speech. Michael is kind of crabby, and I put that down to being tired from the flight. But it became clear to us (me and my Twinnie) that it wasn't the flight, he was crabby and lonely. Michael has an abrupt conversation with his wife and son; he then reconnects with an ex-lover from 10 years ago, and to say that doesn't go as planned would be a mild understatement. Michael mistakenly knocks on another room and invites the two women, who happen to be fans of his, down to the hotel bar for a few drinks. One thing leads to another, and he hits it off with Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and they go back to his room. I must say, I was a little taken aback at the full frontal nudity of the animated characters, to say nothing of what they did in that state. Unfortunately, the honeymoon period of Michael and Lisa's relationship lasted as long as it takes to get from Cleveland to Cincinnati on I-71. I think a lot of what is 'magical' or 'deep' about the movie requires it to be seen, so I don't want to give away too much. You should have that 'aha' moment on your own. The movie is definitely worth seeing, it's different than most animated stories out there. As for the Oscar, this is my pick; I would prefer Inside Out to win, but I don't know if it will, and I don't think Shaun the Sheep deserves it, and I haven't seen Boy & the World.
1/23/16 Fifty Shades of Grey, nominated Best Original Song, 2015
When my friends found out I had to watch Fifty Shades of Grey, some laughed, most refused to watch it with me, and a couple thought it would be hilariously uncomfortable to watch it with me, and a few offered to lend me the books. With friends like that.... I just decided to watch it and get it over with; I have seen a lot of terrible movies and I knew they weren't fatal. Fifty Shades of Grey is the story of the relationship between college student Anastasia (Ana) Steele (Dakota Johnson) and billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan). Christian wants to share his affinity for S&M with Ana, and has drawn up a contract regarding what is permissible and what is not. Ana is intrigued but gets hung up on the contract. It doesn't stop her from doing anything, so I don't know what she was squawking about. The acting was not great, in fact, so not great that the actors, the movie and the director were all nominated for a Golden Raspberry award (nominations pending at this time). It was light porn, I suppose. The soundtrack wasn't horrible, but the song that was nominated "Earned It" was not the best song on there. This could actually win (the horror) and because the only big name movie with a song is Spectre and the song by Sam Smith, "Writing's on the Wall", which could pull it out. The other movies/songs are on the list; we'll see. The best thing about this movie is that it was free from the library. This might be a fun movie to watch with friends and make some kind of drinking game out of it; I don't really drink, but it might help. This capped a day of movies with all kinds of sex and naked people. I think I'm good for a while.
1/24/16 The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, nominated Best Hairstyling and Makeup, 2015
What a treat. This Swedish production was so delightful. It reminded me of the Coen Brothers meet Forrest Gump and the quirkiness from My Life as a Dog. First, yes, it's a Swedish film and it's mostly in Swedish but it's narrated in English. Second, it's a history lesson of the 20th century told from the perspective of Allan Karlsson, who is turning 100 years old in the opening scenes of the movie. There is something that is innocently charming about Allan, almost like Mr. Magoo as he is seemingly oblivious about the situations that occur. Allan is put into a senior citizens home because he blew up the fox that killed his beloved cat. Allan loves to blow things up and it's a recurring theme. Allan climbs out the window and goes to the transit center and with all the money he has, he goes to Byringe, a town with a population of one, Julius. But, before he gets there, a skinhead tough looking guy demands that Allan hold on to his suitcase while he goes to the toilet. Allan (in Mr. Magoo fashion) continues to hold on to the case as he boards the bus. That's the Coen Brothers part. The movie uses flashbacks to show us Allan's past and then brings us to the current day and Allan's new friends, including Julius, Benny and Gunilla and the people trying to chase him down, Gaddan, Hinken and Pim. The flashbacks include saving General Francisco Franco from getting blown up, giving Oppenheimer tips on completing the atomic bomb (that's the Forrest Gump part). The movie was nominated for Best Hairstyling and Makeup and as I watched on the special features how they made actor Robert Gustafsson as Allan Karlsson age from 19 to 30 to 50 to 80 and 100 (or something like that) it was quite amazing. Sometimes five or six hours of makeup. It's up against Mad Max and The Revenant, so I'm not sure it will win, but get it from the library or Netflix, you won't regret it. In fact, I may have to buy a copy to keep for when I get tired of my lists.
More nominees: The Danish Girl, Mad Max, Cinderella and Ex Machina - visual delights all around
1/12/16 Experimenter, not nominated, 2015
Even though I was pretty sure Experimenter would not get nominated for an Oscar but I thought I had some spare time and it was available from the library. I was interested in it because it was about the experiments that Dr. Stanley Milgram (Peter Sarsgaard) conducted in the 1960s and 1970s about crowd mentality, most famously the experiment where one member of the experiment would deliver electric shocks in increasing volts to the other member of the experiment. Milgram was influenced by the Nazis and how many people said they were just doing what they were told. Participants in the experiment were encouraged, cajoled, instructed to increase the voltage even when the recipient appeared to be screaming in pain. The movie also shows some of Milgram's other experiments. Wynona Ryder is Milgram's wife, Sasha. The movie was okay, there was nothing groundbreaking and the performances were fine. If you are interested in psychological experiments, this is a good movie to check out.
1/16/16 The Danish Girl, nominated for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, 2015
The Danish Girl is based on the of Lili Erbe (Eddie Redmayne) and Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander). Lili Erbe was previously known as Einar Wegener before Einar began her transition to a female. Lili and Gerda were married painters in Denmark in the early 20th century. Einar poses for Gerda wearing women's clothing and discovers that he enjoys them and feels more comfortable. It starts out as fun and somewhat exciting for both of them as Einar/Lili attends events and fools most people. It soon becomes clear to Einar that something has been 'off' his whole life and only as Lili does he feel normal. Einar begins his transition to Lili and Gerda is remarkably sympathetic, if not a little confused and hurt as Lili pulls away from her. Einar seeks professional help in Copenhagen, but at that time, the homosexual and transgender communities were viewed as sick and degenerate, and Einar was subjected to painful radiation treatments. Einar was the more successful painter, but as Lili she lost her desire to paint, and Gerda began painting portraits of Lili and she became more popular. So popular that she went to Paris for her own showings. Einar 'put' Lili away, but was very melancholy and started to dress as her again and reconnected with an old friend, Hans, who was an art dealer. Eventually, Lili and Gerda went to see a sexologist who was interested in helping Lili transition to being a woman physically. Gerda continued her support of Lili even as they stopped being husband and wife. Eddie Redmayne is subtle and and intense in portraying Lili's internal struggle. Alicia Vikander matches his emotion as she tries to make Gerda strong and understanding and an advocate for her husband and best friend's interests. They are a beautiful couple and the movie is just as beautiful and gorgeous. The costumes and sets were stunning; Copenhagen is one of my most favorite cities in the world, especially around Nyhavn. Redmayne is up for Best Actor, which he won last year for his role as Stephen Hawking; and Vikander is nominated as Best Supporting Actress and based on the nominated actresses I have seen this year, I think she certainly deserves it. I don't understand why she wasn't nominated for Best Actress because she is equal to Redmayne's character in my opinion. The movie is tender and sensitive and a not your standard love story (but it is most definitely a love story).
1/18/16 Ex Machina, nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, 2015
I don't really how to review Ex Machina. It was a movie I didn't really want to see (generally not a fan of science fiction), and as it turned out, I didn't really enjoy the movie. It was okay. Alicia Vikander (who may be one of my new favorite actresses) is Ava, the artificial intelligence humanoid robot who is being tested by Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) a computer programmer on behalf of his employer, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), who is a an eccentric billionaire. Nathan has been brought in to see how close to human Ava is, and in the process he develops an emotional attachment to Ava. Nathan is unpredictable, like a buddy one minute, and a mad scientist the next. Isaac is an actor who can transform himself from a struggling folk musician (Inside Llewyn Davis) to an organized crime boss (A Most Violent Year), and if you didn't know any of those characters was him, you might not know it. He and Vikander are very good, I kind of thought Gleeson was the weakest link, and since the chain only really has three links, I think that impacted my liking of the movie (or not liking it). The story reminded me of a short story that Isaac Asimov or Robert Heinlein might have written, and something my dad would have read for sure, and I think I would have liked it more as a short film than a feature film. The visual effects are good, I don't think they are superlative, and this is a category that has Star Wars, The Revenant, The Martian and Mad Max. It was good, and the ending was the best part, I think. If you are a sci-fi fan, you will probably like this a lot more than I did.
1/20/16 When Marnie Was There, nominated for Best Animated Feature, 2015
Um, no, no, no. The film has already won one film award this year, the Chicago International Children's Film Festival Best Animated Film of the Year and all I can say is, they probably didn't ask any kids. There is no way I can see most children, including the one I used to be, sitting through this. Maybe if the ideas were condensed into 40 minutes, but not 104. I stopped caring. Actually, that's not true. I never cared. That's not to say there were not some important topics, especially related to children, but I would bet they would be bored before these were made apparent. The topics the film touches on include: juvenile diabetes and how a child copes with being 'different', being an orphan/foster child, feelings of loneliness. I mean, these are pretty important, but blah blah blah. It's a beautifully drawn/animated film, with a lovely song at the end. You'd be better off watching Inside/Out. That's all. Next film please.
1/21/16 Cinderella, nominated for Best Costume Design, 2015
Whew. Nice recovery with Cinderella. I'm not going to recount the story of Cinderella, the story is pretty much the same as it always is, the difference here is it stars Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother, Helena Bonham-Carter as the narrator and fairy godmother, Derek Jacobi as the elderly king and Lily James (Downton Abbey) as a beautiful and sweet Cinderella, all directed by Kenneth Branagh. When this was released in the theater, I was kind of ho hum about it, but after watching the mind-numbing When Marnie Was There the night before, I was hopeful for redemption. I was not disappointed. The movie is a beautiful re-telling of a familiar tale, with gorgeous scenery, fun effects (although not too much), an evil performance by Blanchett but not too over the top and Bonham-Carter is a scene stealer in her few minutes of actually being on screen, costumes worthy of the Oscar nomination and Lily James holds her own as Cinderella. Seriously, I was shocked at how much I really enjoyed the movie. If you are looking for a movie for the kids, I totally recommend this film.
1/22/16 Mad Max: Fury Road, nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, 2015
I'm not going to give a detailed synopsis of Mad Max because at the heart of it, it's really not that deep (in my opinion) despite the weight that some people give it. Mad Max is set in a post-apocalyptic world, mostly desert with water and gasoline are king. Charlize Theron is virtually unrecognizable as Imperator Furiosa, a woman hardened by the challenging and dire conditions under which she lives. Tom Hardy is the new Mad Max and he's a loner but gets captured by the War Boys who fight on behalf of Immortan Joe who is quite ghastly. Furiosa tries to help Joe's five wives escape and through a series of circumstances, Max joins them. Mad Max is a great action movie; the stunts and effects are really incredible; some of them look like Cirque du Soleil on acid (and I mean that in a good way). I really couldn't keep track of which wife was which and which bad guy was which, and I finally decided I didn't care, I just wanted to enjoy the movie. The scenery/sets were stunning, not in the same sensitive way that they were in The Danish Girl or Carol, but in a big, bombastic in your face way. It's a movie I would watch again just to see the effects and stunts again. If you're looking for a movie for the blizzard this weekend or for a Friday night where you just want to watch a movie and have a visceral experience, this is a good one (maybe not for the kids). I would be surprised if this takes Best Picture or Best Director, but I would expect it to get a couple of the technical awards.
Even though I was pretty sure Experimenter would not get nominated for an Oscar but I thought I had some spare time and it was available from the library. I was interested in it because it was about the experiments that Dr. Stanley Milgram (Peter Sarsgaard) conducted in the 1960s and 1970s about crowd mentality, most famously the experiment where one member of the experiment would deliver electric shocks in increasing volts to the other member of the experiment. Milgram was influenced by the Nazis and how many people said they were just doing what they were told. Participants in the experiment were encouraged, cajoled, instructed to increase the voltage even when the recipient appeared to be screaming in pain. The movie also shows some of Milgram's other experiments. Wynona Ryder is Milgram's wife, Sasha. The movie was okay, there was nothing groundbreaking and the performances were fine. If you are interested in psychological experiments, this is a good movie to check out.
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| Soren Kirkegaard, existenialist, Copenhagen, Denmark |
1/16/16 The Danish Girl, nominated for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, 2015
The Danish Girl is based on the of Lili Erbe (Eddie Redmayne) and Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander). Lili Erbe was previously known as Einar Wegener before Einar began her transition to a female. Lili and Gerda were married painters in Denmark in the early 20th century. Einar poses for Gerda wearing women's clothing and discovers that he enjoys them and feels more comfortable. It starts out as fun and somewhat exciting for both of them as Einar/Lili attends events and fools most people. It soon becomes clear to Einar that something has been 'off' his whole life and only as Lili does he feel normal. Einar begins his transition to Lili and Gerda is remarkably sympathetic, if not a little confused and hurt as Lili pulls away from her. Einar seeks professional help in Copenhagen, but at that time, the homosexual and transgender communities were viewed as sick and degenerate, and Einar was subjected to painful radiation treatments. Einar was the more successful painter, but as Lili she lost her desire to paint, and Gerda began painting portraits of Lili and she became more popular. So popular that she went to Paris for her own showings. Einar 'put' Lili away, but was very melancholy and started to dress as her again and reconnected with an old friend, Hans, who was an art dealer. Eventually, Lili and Gerda went to see a sexologist who was interested in helping Lili transition to being a woman physically. Gerda continued her support of Lili even as they stopped being husband and wife. Eddie Redmayne is subtle and and intense in portraying Lili's internal struggle. Alicia Vikander matches his emotion as she tries to make Gerda strong and understanding and an advocate for her husband and best friend's interests. They are a beautiful couple and the movie is just as beautiful and gorgeous. The costumes and sets were stunning; Copenhagen is one of my most favorite cities in the world, especially around Nyhavn. Redmayne is up for Best Actor, which he won last year for his role as Stephen Hawking; and Vikander is nominated as Best Supporting Actress and based on the nominated actresses I have seen this year, I think she certainly deserves it. I don't understand why she wasn't nominated for Best Actress because she is equal to Redmayne's character in my opinion. The movie is tender and sensitive and a not your standard love story (but it is most definitely a love story).
1/18/16 Ex Machina, nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, 2015
I don't really how to review Ex Machina. It was a movie I didn't really want to see (generally not a fan of science fiction), and as it turned out, I didn't really enjoy the movie. It was okay. Alicia Vikander (who may be one of my new favorite actresses) is Ava, the artificial intelligence humanoid robot who is being tested by Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) a computer programmer on behalf of his employer, Nathan (Oscar Isaac), who is a an eccentric billionaire. Nathan has been brought in to see how close to human Ava is, and in the process he develops an emotional attachment to Ava. Nathan is unpredictable, like a buddy one minute, and a mad scientist the next. Isaac is an actor who can transform himself from a struggling folk musician (Inside Llewyn Davis) to an organized crime boss (A Most Violent Year), and if you didn't know any of those characters was him, you might not know it. He and Vikander are very good, I kind of thought Gleeson was the weakest link, and since the chain only really has three links, I think that impacted my liking of the movie (or not liking it). The story reminded me of a short story that Isaac Asimov or Robert Heinlein might have written, and something my dad would have read for sure, and I think I would have liked it more as a short film than a feature film. The visual effects are good, I don't think they are superlative, and this is a category that has Star Wars, The Revenant, The Martian and Mad Max. It was good, and the ending was the best part, I think. If you are a sci-fi fan, you will probably like this a lot more than I did.
1/20/16 When Marnie Was There, nominated for Best Animated Feature, 2015
Um, no, no, no. The film has already won one film award this year, the Chicago International Children's Film Festival Best Animated Film of the Year and all I can say is, they probably didn't ask any kids. There is no way I can see most children, including the one I used to be, sitting through this. Maybe if the ideas were condensed into 40 minutes, but not 104. I stopped caring. Actually, that's not true. I never cared. That's not to say there were not some important topics, especially related to children, but I would bet they would be bored before these were made apparent. The topics the film touches on include: juvenile diabetes and how a child copes with being 'different', being an orphan/foster child, feelings of loneliness. I mean, these are pretty important, but blah blah blah. It's a beautifully drawn/animated film, with a lovely song at the end. You'd be better off watching Inside/Out. That's all. Next film please.
1/21/16 Cinderella, nominated for Best Costume Design, 2015
Whew. Nice recovery with Cinderella. I'm not going to recount the story of Cinderella, the story is pretty much the same as it always is, the difference here is it stars Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother, Helena Bonham-Carter as the narrator and fairy godmother, Derek Jacobi as the elderly king and Lily James (Downton Abbey) as a beautiful and sweet Cinderella, all directed by Kenneth Branagh. When this was released in the theater, I was kind of ho hum about it, but after watching the mind-numbing When Marnie Was There the night before, I was hopeful for redemption. I was not disappointed. The movie is a beautiful re-telling of a familiar tale, with gorgeous scenery, fun effects (although not too much), an evil performance by Blanchett but not too over the top and Bonham-Carter is a scene stealer in her few minutes of actually being on screen, costumes worthy of the Oscar nomination and Lily James holds her own as Cinderella. Seriously, I was shocked at how much I really enjoyed the movie. If you are looking for a movie for the kids, I totally recommend this film.
1/22/16 Mad Max: Fury Road, nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, 2015
I'm not going to give a detailed synopsis of Mad Max because at the heart of it, it's really not that deep (in my opinion) despite the weight that some people give it. Mad Max is set in a post-apocalyptic world, mostly desert with water and gasoline are king. Charlize Theron is virtually unrecognizable as Imperator Furiosa, a woman hardened by the challenging and dire conditions under which she lives. Tom Hardy is the new Mad Max and he's a loner but gets captured by the War Boys who fight on behalf of Immortan Joe who is quite ghastly. Furiosa tries to help Joe's five wives escape and through a series of circumstances, Max joins them. Mad Max is a great action movie; the stunts and effects are really incredible; some of them look like Cirque du Soleil on acid (and I mean that in a good way). I really couldn't keep track of which wife was which and which bad guy was which, and I finally decided I didn't care, I just wanted to enjoy the movie. The scenery/sets were stunning, not in the same sensitive way that they were in The Danish Girl or Carol, but in a big, bombastic in your face way. It's a movie I would watch again just to see the effects and stunts again. If you're looking for a movie for the blizzard this weekend or for a Friday night where you just want to watch a movie and have a visceral experience, this is a good one (maybe not for the kids). I would be surprised if this takes Best Picture or Best Director, but I would expect it to get a couple of the technical awards.
Going back - In the Heat of the Night, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dances with Wolves and Rocky
I requested several classic movies from the library before the Oscar nominations were announced because I thought I was in really good shape. Ah, overconfidence. I thought since I had them, I should watch them, cross them off the list and move on. It feels like a strategy one might use in a hot dog eating contest, eat and move on to the next one. I will try to give good and reliable reviews despite my cinematic overload.
1/15/16 In the Heat of the Night, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, 1967 #75 AFI, National Film Registry
So, the movie was made 48 years ago, in the midst of the American Civil Rights movement, with two of the greatest actors at that time, and perhaps ever. One was nominated for Best Actor and won, and the other was not even nominated, not for this movie or the other big movie he was in, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Rod Steiger won Best Actor and Sidney Poitier was not even nominated. Seriously. If I was a cynic, I would say things haven't changed all that much in Hollywood. 1967 was a great year for films, nominated films included Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Cool Hand Luke (a favorite of mine; Newman lost out to Steiger), The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde (ack), and Camelot among others. Virgil Tibbs (Poitier) finds himself as the prime suspect in the murder of a wealthy man in Sparta, Mississippi. The problem is Virgil is black and the victim is white (although from Chicago) and Mississippi is in the South. Virgil shortly proves that he is actually a police detective from Philadelphia, and is ordered by his superior officer to stay and help Chief Gillespie (Steiger) solve the murder. Tibbs and Gillespie have a strained relationship at best, with Tibbs upsetting, well actually smacking, a wealthy scion of the community, who also happens to be a remnant from the antebellum South. Tibbs finds himself surrounded by violent racist members of the community on more than one occasion. The movie as a movie is a murder mystery that needs to be solved by the stranger; the stranger happens to be a Northerner and black, which adds to the tension. Norman Jewison directed In The Heat of the Night and a little over 15 years later he directed another murder mystery that includes race relations and another great black actor, Denzel Washington. Steiger digs into the gum-chewing, drawling chief Gillespie who may not be a card carrying member of the NAACP, but he's also pragmatic and realizes that Tibbs may bring some detection skills to the case. Steiger is as explosive as Poitier is cool and restrained, we only see Tibbs really lose his temper once; he handles the indignities of being called 'boy' with a controlled anger, he tells Gillespie that "They call me Mister Tibbs" back in Philadelphia. Poitier and Steiger are a study in contrasts and I really enjoyed the scenes they did together, watching two geniuses at work. You cannot go wrong watching this movie, ever.
1/16/16 Rocky, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, 1976, #57 AFI, National Film Registry
You cannot even think about Rocky Balboa and not hear that theme music. Rocky has become part of the American pantheon, the man who makes his dream come true and gets the girl. I saw the original years ago, and honestly, was, like, meh, and I think I have maybe seen one of the sequels, so I wanted to see if I had changed or at least I could have some appreciation for the king of underdog movies. And, I guess I was motivated because Creed is a continuation of the Rocky saga and Sylvester Stallone has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor (however, Michael B. Jordan, playing Apollo Creed's son, was not nominated). Anyway, back to the movie at hand, Rocky. Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is a boxer in Philadelphia who is sort of successful, but never really got that big break. He still fights, but he also acts as the muscle for a local loan shark. Rocky likes Adrian (Talia Shire), who works at a pet store and is really shy. Adrian is Paulie's sister, and Paulie (Burt Young) wants to get in with Rocky's boss. Rocky gets his shot at the big time when Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) needs a quick replacement for an injured opponent. Creed is smooth and rich, and if you think too hard, you would probably not believe that he would ever ask Rocky to fight, but Rocky is a local boy, a Southpaw and he has a cool nickname, Italian Stallion. Rocky starts to train for the big fight, reconnecting with Mickey (Burgess Meredith in an Oscar-nominated supporting role). Mickey sounds like he gargled with glass shards and he's just as gruff. Don't look to him for comfort. There are great shots of Rocky running through the streets of Philadelphia and up steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. The fight sequence is very well done, with both fighters landing blows as well as taking them. What was interesting to me, and it's funny looking back forty years, is that Rocky was made with a 1.1 million dollar budget, but made over $225 million. But because of the tight budget, there were things that couldn't be re-shot, or that were shot differently, like the ice skating scene - they couldn't afford to have as many actors as they wanted, so, they filmed it with just Rocky and Adrian. Who would have thought that a franchise was born. I was also impressed with Stallone as Rocky, before he knew he was going to be a huge multi-million dollar star. Rocky in this first film was very sensitive and tender but with a huge heart and a some naivete as well. He's a huge animal lover and a kid from the neighborhood. Perhaps you knew this, but I had no idea. I really liked it and it finally dawned on me why he's such a popular character. You've probably seen it already, but if you haven't, get some Philly cheese steaks and some hoagies and watch a homegrown American hero.
1/16/16 A Streetcar Named Desire, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction - Set Direction B&W, 1951, #47 AFI, National Film Registry
I planned to watch A Streetcar Named Desire when I watched On the Waterfront, it made perfect sense. Although, if you recall, I requested the play and not the film. Grr. I did finally get the correct item and re-watched the film; I say 're-watched' because I watched it about ten years ago. The film version stars Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski, Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski, Stanley's wife (winning an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress), Vivien Leigh as Blanch DuBois, Stella's sister (winning an Oscar for Best Actress) and Karl Malden as Mitch, Stanley's friend and Blanche's suitor (Best Supporting Actor). The story is set in New Orleans, and New Orleans is as much a character as the actors. Stanley and Stella live in the upstairs of a two family home and have their own version of wedded bliss until Blanche comes for a visit. It took me about half of the film to not be annoyed by Blanche (Leigh), she seems so over the top. It occurred to me that perhaps that intention and not overacting (I really don't know) because that is Blanche's character Leigh is acting as Blanch and Blanche is acting. Blanche has left the family estate/plantation, Belle Reve under unclear circumstances and has nowhere else to go. Stanley is not very sympathetic to Blanche, but he bends to Stella's loyalty to her older sister. Blanche's behavior is erratic, somehow not of this world and as a viewer, we don't know exactly what is going on or why she is acting this way. She certainly seems delusional at times. Mitch, a bachelor living with his elderly and ailing mother, is taken by Blanche's charm and ladylike disposition and they begin seeing each other, but we find out that they're meetings are usually in darkly lit places. Stanley wants Blanche out of his home and sets out to find what really happened in her home of Auriol, and why Blanche left. Throughout the film we see how explosive Stanley's temper can be, especially when he's been drinking or Blanche and Stella harangue him for being 'a dirty Pollack' or a pig. He gets physical with Stella, pushing and shoving, smacking her, and her reaction is to be angry and run to her neighbor's house, but it does not take much for her to come back to Stanley, in fact, she seems to be turned on by his aggressive animalistic behavior. Brando as Stanley can be violent and brutal but then seems to be so tender with Stella. It's an intense performance. Stanley uses his contacts to learn more about Blanche and it seems that Blanche may have had a mental breakdown and did things that a proper lady would never do, so much that she was run out of town. There is a lot that unfolds and with any great movie, the drama comes from the unraveling. What I will tell you is that if you have only seen Vivien Leigh as Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, her portrayal of Blanche will surprise you; as strong as Scarlet was, Blanche is fragile and not as resilient. Kim Hunter was in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire (as were Brando and Malden, only Leigh was not, her role played by Jessica Tandy, although Leigh was in the play in London) and she seems to have the chemistry with Brando, and she can go nose to nose with him during their arguments. There are some differences between the play and the movie, some changes were made due to the morality of movies at the time and what you could show and say and what you couldn't; allusions to homosexuality are strongly muted, and the ending is also different than the play. Brando is powerful and was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, but lost out to Humphrey Bogart in African Queen.
1/16/16 Dances with Wolves, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, 1990, National Film Registry
If I said I was avoiding this movie, for once I would not be exaggerating. As a rule, I am not a Kevin Costner fan and a movie that goes for three hours is a big turn off. BUT, for some reason it seemed like a good idea. And, much to my surprise, I liked it, not loved, but not hated either. The movie is set in the 1860s as the US is expanding westward. Kevin Costner is Lieutenant John Dunbar a soldier in the Union Army who is wounded and then sent to a post out west at his request. The post is deserted, but he is spotted by the Pawnee and the Sioux. Through a series of events, he befriends the Sioux, especially Stands with a Fist (Mary McDonnell) a white woman who was adopted by the Sioux, and her adopted father, Kicking Bird. The movie is three hours long so I'm not going to give you a detailed synopsis. There are trials and tribulations, a battle with the Pawnee and fight with Army soldiers. Dunbar lives with the Sioux and takes on the name "Dances with Wolves". A lot of the movie is in Lakota with either subtitles or Stands with a Fist translating. There are a lot of great things about the movie, in particular the scenery is really beautifully filmed, the plains of South Dakota and Wyoming, the wildlife, including the bison (although they were part of private herds). The score by John Barry is very powerful as well. The acting was well done, with Mary McDonnell and Graham Greene both outstanding. Costner was okay, too. The movie gives an unkind and somewhat barbaric portrayal of the Army soldiers, and much is based on fact. Looking back a hundred years can be tough, especially when you know the things that were done were wrong. Maybe the expansion was inevitable, but it was brutal. Ways of life were lost and people killed. Dances with Wolves sheds a little light on that; it may not be textbook, and perhaps the Lakota dialect was not perfect, but I will admit I was wrong about hating it and that maybe watching it will encourage people to learn more about Native American history.
The next entry you see should include more of the 2015 nominees, including: The Danish Girl, Star Wars, Ex Machina, Cinderella and (I'm so creeped out by this) Fifty Shades of Grey.
1/15/16 In the Heat of the Night, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, 1967 #75 AFI, National Film Registry
So, the movie was made 48 years ago, in the midst of the American Civil Rights movement, with two of the greatest actors at that time, and perhaps ever. One was nominated for Best Actor and won, and the other was not even nominated, not for this movie or the other big movie he was in, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Rod Steiger won Best Actor and Sidney Poitier was not even nominated. Seriously. If I was a cynic, I would say things haven't changed all that much in Hollywood. 1967 was a great year for films, nominated films included Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Cool Hand Luke (a favorite of mine; Newman lost out to Steiger), The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde (ack), and Camelot among others. Virgil Tibbs (Poitier) finds himself as the prime suspect in the murder of a wealthy man in Sparta, Mississippi. The problem is Virgil is black and the victim is white (although from Chicago) and Mississippi is in the South. Virgil shortly proves that he is actually a police detective from Philadelphia, and is ordered by his superior officer to stay and help Chief Gillespie (Steiger) solve the murder. Tibbs and Gillespie have a strained relationship at best, with Tibbs upsetting, well actually smacking, a wealthy scion of the community, who also happens to be a remnant from the antebellum South. Tibbs finds himself surrounded by violent racist members of the community on more than one occasion. The movie as a movie is a murder mystery that needs to be solved by the stranger; the stranger happens to be a Northerner and black, which adds to the tension. Norman Jewison directed In The Heat of the Night and a little over 15 years later he directed another murder mystery that includes race relations and another great black actor, Denzel Washington. Steiger digs into the gum-chewing, drawling chief Gillespie who may not be a card carrying member of the NAACP, but he's also pragmatic and realizes that Tibbs may bring some detection skills to the case. Steiger is as explosive as Poitier is cool and restrained, we only see Tibbs really lose his temper once; he handles the indignities of being called 'boy' with a controlled anger, he tells Gillespie that "They call me Mister Tibbs" back in Philadelphia. Poitier and Steiger are a study in contrasts and I really enjoyed the scenes they did together, watching two geniuses at work. You cannot go wrong watching this movie, ever.
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| Philadelphia Art Museum |
1/16/16 Rocky, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, 1976, #57 AFI, National Film Registry
You cannot even think about Rocky Balboa and not hear that theme music. Rocky has become part of the American pantheon, the man who makes his dream come true and gets the girl. I saw the original years ago, and honestly, was, like, meh, and I think I have maybe seen one of the sequels, so I wanted to see if I had changed or at least I could have some appreciation for the king of underdog movies. And, I guess I was motivated because Creed is a continuation of the Rocky saga and Sylvester Stallone has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor (however, Michael B. Jordan, playing Apollo Creed's son, was not nominated). Anyway, back to the movie at hand, Rocky. Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is a boxer in Philadelphia who is sort of successful, but never really got that big break. He still fights, but he also acts as the muscle for a local loan shark. Rocky likes Adrian (Talia Shire), who works at a pet store and is really shy. Adrian is Paulie's sister, and Paulie (Burt Young) wants to get in with Rocky's boss. Rocky gets his shot at the big time when Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) needs a quick replacement for an injured opponent. Creed is smooth and rich, and if you think too hard, you would probably not believe that he would ever ask Rocky to fight, but Rocky is a local boy, a Southpaw and he has a cool nickname, Italian Stallion. Rocky starts to train for the big fight, reconnecting with Mickey (Burgess Meredith in an Oscar-nominated supporting role). Mickey sounds like he gargled with glass shards and he's just as gruff. Don't look to him for comfort. There are great shots of Rocky running through the streets of Philadelphia and up steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. The fight sequence is very well done, with both fighters landing blows as well as taking them. What was interesting to me, and it's funny looking back forty years, is that Rocky was made with a 1.1 million dollar budget, but made over $225 million. But because of the tight budget, there were things that couldn't be re-shot, or that were shot differently, like the ice skating scene - they couldn't afford to have as many actors as they wanted, so, they filmed it with just Rocky and Adrian. Who would have thought that a franchise was born. I was also impressed with Stallone as Rocky, before he knew he was going to be a huge multi-million dollar star. Rocky in this first film was very sensitive and tender but with a huge heart and a some naivete as well. He's a huge animal lover and a kid from the neighborhood. Perhaps you knew this, but I had no idea. I really liked it and it finally dawned on me why he's such a popular character. You've probably seen it already, but if you haven't, get some Philly cheese steaks and some hoagies and watch a homegrown American hero.
1/16/16 A Streetcar Named Desire, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction - Set Direction B&W, 1951, #47 AFI, National Film Registry
I planned to watch A Streetcar Named Desire when I watched On the Waterfront, it made perfect sense. Although, if you recall, I requested the play and not the film. Grr. I did finally get the correct item and re-watched the film; I say 're-watched' because I watched it about ten years ago. The film version stars Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski, Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski, Stanley's wife (winning an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress), Vivien Leigh as Blanch DuBois, Stella's sister (winning an Oscar for Best Actress) and Karl Malden as Mitch, Stanley's friend and Blanche's suitor (Best Supporting Actor). The story is set in New Orleans, and New Orleans is as much a character as the actors. Stanley and Stella live in the upstairs of a two family home and have their own version of wedded bliss until Blanche comes for a visit. It took me about half of the film to not be annoyed by Blanche (Leigh), she seems so over the top. It occurred to me that perhaps that intention and not overacting (I really don't know) because that is Blanche's character Leigh is acting as Blanch and Blanche is acting. Blanche has left the family estate/plantation, Belle Reve under unclear circumstances and has nowhere else to go. Stanley is not very sympathetic to Blanche, but he bends to Stella's loyalty to her older sister. Blanche's behavior is erratic, somehow not of this world and as a viewer, we don't know exactly what is going on or why she is acting this way. She certainly seems delusional at times. Mitch, a bachelor living with his elderly and ailing mother, is taken by Blanche's charm and ladylike disposition and they begin seeing each other, but we find out that they're meetings are usually in darkly lit places. Stanley wants Blanche out of his home and sets out to find what really happened in her home of Auriol, and why Blanche left. Throughout the film we see how explosive Stanley's temper can be, especially when he's been drinking or Blanche and Stella harangue him for being 'a dirty Pollack' or a pig. He gets physical with Stella, pushing and shoving, smacking her, and her reaction is to be angry and run to her neighbor's house, but it does not take much for her to come back to Stanley, in fact, she seems to be turned on by his aggressive animalistic behavior. Brando as Stanley can be violent and brutal but then seems to be so tender with Stella. It's an intense performance. Stanley uses his contacts to learn more about Blanche and it seems that Blanche may have had a mental breakdown and did things that a proper lady would never do, so much that she was run out of town. There is a lot that unfolds and with any great movie, the drama comes from the unraveling. What I will tell you is that if you have only seen Vivien Leigh as Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, her portrayal of Blanche will surprise you; as strong as Scarlet was, Blanche is fragile and not as resilient. Kim Hunter was in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire (as were Brando and Malden, only Leigh was not, her role played by Jessica Tandy, although Leigh was in the play in London) and she seems to have the chemistry with Brando, and she can go nose to nose with him during their arguments. There are some differences between the play and the movie, some changes were made due to the morality of movies at the time and what you could show and say and what you couldn't; allusions to homosexuality are strongly muted, and the ending is also different than the play. Brando is powerful and was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, but lost out to Humphrey Bogart in African Queen.
1/16/16 Dances with Wolves, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, 1990, National Film Registry
If I said I was avoiding this movie, for once I would not be exaggerating. As a rule, I am not a Kevin Costner fan and a movie that goes for three hours is a big turn off. BUT, for some reason it seemed like a good idea. And, much to my surprise, I liked it, not loved, but not hated either. The movie is set in the 1860s as the US is expanding westward. Kevin Costner is Lieutenant John Dunbar a soldier in the Union Army who is wounded and then sent to a post out west at his request. The post is deserted, but he is spotted by the Pawnee and the Sioux. Through a series of events, he befriends the Sioux, especially Stands with a Fist (Mary McDonnell) a white woman who was adopted by the Sioux, and her adopted father, Kicking Bird. The movie is three hours long so I'm not going to give you a detailed synopsis. There are trials and tribulations, a battle with the Pawnee and fight with Army soldiers. Dunbar lives with the Sioux and takes on the name "Dances with Wolves". A lot of the movie is in Lakota with either subtitles or Stands with a Fist translating. There are a lot of great things about the movie, in particular the scenery is really beautifully filmed, the plains of South Dakota and Wyoming, the wildlife, including the bison (although they were part of private herds). The score by John Barry is very powerful as well. The acting was well done, with Mary McDonnell and Graham Greene both outstanding. Costner was okay, too. The movie gives an unkind and somewhat barbaric portrayal of the Army soldiers, and much is based on fact. Looking back a hundred years can be tough, especially when you know the things that were done were wrong. Maybe the expansion was inevitable, but it was brutal. Ways of life were lost and people killed. Dances with Wolves sheds a little light on that; it may not be textbook, and perhaps the Lakota dialect was not perfect, but I will admit I was wrong about hating it and that maybe watching it will encourage people to learn more about Native American history.
The next entry you see should include more of the 2015 nominees, including: The Danish Girl, Star Wars, Ex Machina, Cinderella and (I'm so creeped out by this) Fifty Shades of Grey.
2016 Oscar Nominations are out - so much work to do
The nominations for the Academy Awards were announced today, and if my office was rigged for video and audio, you would have seen a lot of head slaps and heard a lot of 'WTFs?' #AYFKM First, I thought I was in better position than I am, I will be busy over the next month or so; second, I have to see Fifty Shades of Grey and Mad Max: Fury Road. There are movies that get released and I think, please don't let that be nominated, please, please, please. I asked a friend if she would watch Fifty Shades with me and she answered with an emphatic and resounding NO. Some friend. I'm not that upset about Mad Max, I just have never been a fan of the franchise or dystopian movies in general, but I'll watch it. They are both on request from the library; the whole experience may cost me two dollars, not including therapy.
I'm a little disappointed that some movies I hoped to see be nominated were not, including Concussion, Suffragette, Home, Meru. But, trying to be positive and upbeat, I have seen a few of the movies already and the reviews are posted. To save you from asking me if I have seen it and what do I think, I have put them in this one handy review.
Shaun the Sheep and Concussion (Will Smith deserved a nomination).
Inside/Out and The Big Short (not sure how you can single out Christian Bale because Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling were both very good).
Amy is not my favorite documentary, and I'm really not sure how they picked the list, but I think He Named Me Malala should have been nominated as well as Meru.
Spotlight which is awesome and nominated for several awards was really an ensemble cast, and it's hard for me to single someone out, but I think Liev Schreiber's character was the push behind the story. Sigh.
Trumbo was a very good film telling an important story. Bryan Cranston was Dalton Trumbo.
Room is an incredibly powerful movie, and Brie Larson is totally worthy of her Best Actress nomination. I'm hoping it doesn't get lost among the other movies.
Bond films are almost sure to get nominated for their songs, and Spectre is no exception. It's not a bad song, and so far, it's the only one I have heard/seen.
I have a long way to go, and I hope to knock another five to seven off the list in the next week, and to really just be down to the usual foreign films and documentaries left to be seen. Fingers crossed.
I'm a little disappointed that some movies I hoped to see be nominated were not, including Concussion, Suffragette, Home, Meru. But, trying to be positive and upbeat, I have seen a few of the movies already and the reviews are posted. To save you from asking me if I have seen it and what do I think, I have put them in this one handy review.
Shaun the Sheep and Concussion (Will Smith deserved a nomination).
Inside/Out and The Big Short (not sure how you can single out Christian Bale because Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling were both very good).
Amy is not my favorite documentary, and I'm really not sure how they picked the list, but I think He Named Me Malala should have been nominated as well as Meru.
Spotlight which is awesome and nominated for several awards was really an ensemble cast, and it's hard for me to single someone out, but I think Liev Schreiber's character was the push behind the story. Sigh.
Trumbo was a very good film telling an important story. Bryan Cranston was Dalton Trumbo.
Room is an incredibly powerful movie, and Brie Larson is totally worthy of her Best Actress nomination. I'm hoping it doesn't get lost among the other movies.
Bond films are almost sure to get nominated for their songs, and Spectre is no exception. It's not a bad song, and so far, it's the only one I have heard/seen.
I have a long way to go, and I hope to knock another five to seven off the list in the next week, and to really just be down to the usual foreign films and documentaries left to be seen. Fingers crossed.
Brando, Lloyd, Nicholson, Connery and Bogart - check out these classics: The Maltese Falcon, Goldfinger, On the Waterfront
I want to be clear: I LOVE libraries, what a great community meeting place, and a great source for free stuff: books, music, classes, and movies, especially movies. So, I really try not to get too upset when I get DVD that looks like someone took a scouring pad to it or ate peanut butter from it. Three movies in this review were problematic and two more were so bad, I couldn't even watcth them. ARGH, I was excited to watch In The Heat of the Night, and mildly interested in seeing It's a Wonderful Life (I have seen it years ago, and I know it's on television during the holidays, but I wanted to watch it on my time and without commercials), but the DVDs would not play. Maybe next time. I would ask that if you borrow DVDs or CDs or even old fashioned books from the library, please take care of them; just because they are free, doesn't mean they can be mistreated. They are for all of us. Cheers and happy watching.
12/23/15 On the Waterfront, Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Story and Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction - B&W, Best Cinematography - B&W, Best Film Editing, 1955 #8, AFI, National Film Registry
On the Waterfront won EIGHT Oscars in 1955 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. I watched it years ago and liked it, but I wanted to watch it with fresh eyes and after watching hundreds more movies. Elia Kazan directed Marlon Brando (Terry Malloy), Karl Malden (Father Berry), Lee J. Cobb (Johnny Friendly) and Eva Marie Saint (Edie Doyle) in this dark story about corruption on the docks. Terry Malloy is a washed up boxer working on the docks and doing favors for the leader of the mob, Johnny Friendly. Unfortunately, one of the favors gets Joey Doyle killed; Joey's sister, Edie, wants answers. There are investigators from the Waterfront Crime Commission that are trying to get dockworkers to talk about what Johnny Friendly is doing. Due to feelings of guilt for Joey's death and growing feelings for Edie and the pressure coming from Father Berry, Terry considers testifying before the commission. Clearly this would not be good for Johnny and he tells Charley (Rod Steiger), Terry's older brother, to set Terry straight. This sets up the classic scene in a taxi, with Terry and Charley and Terry saying "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am.". I don't often tell you that you have to see a movie, but if you have not watched On the Waterfront or have not seen it in a while, you really should see it. Marlon Brando is amazing, restrained, strong but vulnerable. This is one of the reasons that Brando is considered one of the very best. This was Eva Marie Saint's first film and she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Malden, Steiger and Cobb were all nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and they probably cancelled each other out, because all three were very strong, although sometimes I find Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb too much; Steiger played such a different role than his lead role in The Heat of the Night which won him the Best Actor Oscar. But really, to me, Brando is why I watched this movie. There are political undertones because as Terry testified so did Kazan, but to the House Un-American Activities Committee which led to a backlash against Kazan by some in Hollywood.
Brando worked with Kazan and Malden a few years earlier in A Streetcar Named Desire for which all three were nominated for Best Oscars, with Malden winning that year. As a note, I was supposed to get the movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire at the same time as On the Waterfront, but someone inadvertently requested the play instead.
12/25/15 A Few Good Men, nominated Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, 1992
My normal routine on Christmas Day is to go see a movie in the theater with my friends, but we didn't want to see Star Wars or any of the other movies in the theater at the time. So instead we ate some really good food and watched some older releases, including A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson who pretty much steals every scene he is in. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffey (Cruise) is in the Navy's Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps and is known for being quick to take a plea bargain and for his irreverent attitude towards regulations; Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway is an investigator in the JAG and has a reputation for plodding and taking a long time to resolve cases. They end up working together representing two Marines charged with murder. Colonel Nathan Jessup (Nicholson) has his sights set on a national post; he is also incredibly egotistical and dismissive of Kaffey and Galloway. A Few Good Men was written by Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, Newsroom) based on his play, and it is taut and suspenseful. The scene where Jessup is cross-examined by Kaffey is one of the best scenes ever. Gene Hackman won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in Unforgiven; it would have been a tough call for me. The movie is filled with young actors like Kevin Bacon as Jack Ross representing the Judge Advocate Division; Kiefer Sutherland, Noah Wyle, Cuba Gooding, Jr. It's probably not the traditional Christmas movie, but we all enjoyed it.
12/25/15 Goldfinger, Best Sound Effects Editing, 1965
"Gold-fingaaaaa", I mean how can you not burst into that song when you hear that title? Goldfinger was the third James Bond movie and starred Sean Connery as Bond. Bond is trying to figure out what Auric Goldfinger is up to with his gold smuggling enterprise. The adventure takes him from Miami to Switzerland to Ft. Knox in Kentucky. The Bond girls in the movie are the ill-fated Jill Masterson (Shirley Easton) and the capable and beautiful Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman, previously of The Avengers TV series). Of course there is also the henchman, and in Goldfinger we have Oddjob (Harold Sakata) who has a lethal derby hat as well as lethal hands. The Aston Martin is duly decked out, but it doesn't really last more than twenty minutes before it's trashed, which is a damned shame. There is some not great acting and definitely a suspension of belief, but that's what most movies are (I say that as a reminder to myself when I get upset that my superhero movies get too preposterous). Connery is so smooth as Bond, and he really seems to enjoy the fighting, quips and the women - not necessarily in that order. The movie won for Best Sound Effects Editing, and I was surprised that the title song sung by Shirley Bassey and written by Leslie Bricuse, Anthony Newley and John Barry. Travesty. This is also the movie where "A martini. Shaken, not stirred." made it's first appearance. All in all, a fun movie on Christmas Day.
1/1/16 The Maltese Falcon, 1941, #31 AFI, National Film Registry
I think the first time I saw The Maltese Falcon with my dad, years ago. I didn't quite appreciate Bogart or John Houston or anything really (that could apply generally to my life as well as specifically to this movie). This is another movie I wanted another chance to see and put in perspective with the other movies I've seen, including those with Bogart. This was Bogart's first real starring role and he places private detective, Sam Spade, who finds himself in the middle of a con game gone quite awry. This was also John Houston's directorial debut, and the first of several films where he teamed with Bogart. The Maltese Falcon is based on the book of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and set in San Francisco and is considered one of the first films noirs. Mary Astor is Ruth Wonderly who tells Sam and his partner Miles Archer a story about her missing sister and a mystery man. Things are not quite as they seem, and Archer is killed, and then people start asking about the Maltese Falcon, including Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and Kaspar Gutman (Sidney Greenstreet) (both men would join Bogart in Casablanca a few years later). There are double crosses and red herrings, cigarettes and whiskey. The movie was nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Greenstreet) and Best Adapted Screenplay by Houston. Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor went to the film How Green was My Valley. There were some interesting filming techniques and the cinematography is really well done. It may seem a little stiff and old fashioned by today's standards; if it was made today, there would be more sex, more swearing and more blood, I'm sure, but the movie still works. Bogart shows why he was cast as Rick in Casablanca and how Houston became one of the America's great directors. The mystery is still there, which is why I haven't really told you too much. If you want to find out about the Maltese Falcon and why people are willing to die for it, you need to watch the movie.
1/3/16 Safety Last!, 1923, National Film Registry
Whether you realize it or not, you have probably seen a small part of this silent film. You know, the part where this guy is hanging off a clock attached to a tall building. You know it. Well, that's Harold Lloyd, one of the more famous silent film actors after Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Lloyd is known for his over-sized glasses. The plot is really just a conduit for some great comedic pratfalls and pranks, but here is a brief synopsis: The Boy (Lloyd) goes off to the big city to make his fortune so can bring The Girl and get married. The Boy has a hard time making any money and paying rent, but eventually he gets a job in a department store. There are some pretty humorous scenes with crazy customers and an overbearing supervisor. The Boy has a friend, Limpy, who is a construction worker and can climb great heights on buildings. The Boy wants to use Limpy's skill to win $,1000 from the department store's general manager for attracting people to the store. Limpy is to climb up the to the top of the building. The Girl comes to the city to see how The Boy is doing and she thinks he's the general manager, and leads to more comedy as The Boy barks out orders to the staff, and they follow him. Limpy has his own encounters with a policeman who is not amused by too much. Honestly, for me, I wanted to see the scene that I was familiar with in the context of the movie (like Chaplin eating his shoes in Gold Rush), and I didn't know what to expect. I'm consistently amazed when I watch silent films that I don't miss the words. You can get the general idea of what's going on by the action, the intertitles and the music (often an updated score has been added, and I mean more than the original piano or organ music, but nothing crazy like synthesizers or anything like that). The comedy speaks for itself (no pun intended), if you're looking for something different to watch and you want to see a classic, check out this film (or something by Charlie Chaplin).
PSA: This doesn't really tie into any movie or theme in this entry, but I wanted to share this information with you anyway regarding food insecurity and children and how you can help if you are in the state of Minnesota (your community may have similar 'backpack' programs). There are over 200,000 children in Minnesota that deal with food insecurity, that is to say, they may rely on food programs at school during the week or other food subsidies. Some children do not have any food over the weekends and that makes it difficult to come back to school Monday ready to learn. The Sheridan Story in the Twin Cities area helps to provide these children with packages of food to help them get through the weekend. It's not gas station food (Twinkies, high sodium ramen, etc.) but fruit, vegetables, pasta. My firm helps to deliver these packages to a Minneapolis school on Fridays and we do it with mixed feelings, we get the warm fuzzies helping these kids but it's brutal to think this may be all they have for the weekend and that there are children in this country that are hungry. Anyway, if your company or church/synagogue/mosque is looking for something to do in the community that will have an immediate impact, please look at this website: http://www.thesheridanstory.com/
Thanks for reading.
12/23/15 On the Waterfront, Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Story and Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction - B&W, Best Cinematography - B&W, Best Film Editing, 1955 #8, AFI, National Film Registry
On the Waterfront won EIGHT Oscars in 1955 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. I watched it years ago and liked it, but I wanted to watch it with fresh eyes and after watching hundreds more movies. Elia Kazan directed Marlon Brando (Terry Malloy), Karl Malden (Father Berry), Lee J. Cobb (Johnny Friendly) and Eva Marie Saint (Edie Doyle) in this dark story about corruption on the docks. Terry Malloy is a washed up boxer working on the docks and doing favors for the leader of the mob, Johnny Friendly. Unfortunately, one of the favors gets Joey Doyle killed; Joey's sister, Edie, wants answers. There are investigators from the Waterfront Crime Commission that are trying to get dockworkers to talk about what Johnny Friendly is doing. Due to feelings of guilt for Joey's death and growing feelings for Edie and the pressure coming from Father Berry, Terry considers testifying before the commission. Clearly this would not be good for Johnny and he tells Charley (Rod Steiger), Terry's older brother, to set Terry straight. This sets up the classic scene in a taxi, with Terry and Charley and Terry saying "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am.". I don't often tell you that you have to see a movie, but if you have not watched On the Waterfront or have not seen it in a while, you really should see it. Marlon Brando is amazing, restrained, strong but vulnerable. This is one of the reasons that Brando is considered one of the very best. This was Eva Marie Saint's first film and she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Malden, Steiger and Cobb were all nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and they probably cancelled each other out, because all three were very strong, although sometimes I find Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb too much; Steiger played such a different role than his lead role in The Heat of the Night which won him the Best Actor Oscar. But really, to me, Brando is why I watched this movie. There are political undertones because as Terry testified so did Kazan, but to the House Un-American Activities Committee which led to a backlash against Kazan by some in Hollywood.
Brando worked with Kazan and Malden a few years earlier in A Streetcar Named Desire for which all three were nominated for Best Oscars, with Malden winning that year. As a note, I was supposed to get the movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire at the same time as On the Waterfront, but someone inadvertently requested the play instead.
12/25/15 A Few Good Men, nominated Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, 1992
My normal routine on Christmas Day is to go see a movie in the theater with my friends, but we didn't want to see Star Wars or any of the other movies in the theater at the time. So instead we ate some really good food and watched some older releases, including A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson who pretty much steals every scene he is in. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffey (Cruise) is in the Navy's Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps and is known for being quick to take a plea bargain and for his irreverent attitude towards regulations; Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway is an investigator in the JAG and has a reputation for plodding and taking a long time to resolve cases. They end up working together representing two Marines charged with murder. Colonel Nathan Jessup (Nicholson) has his sights set on a national post; he is also incredibly egotistical and dismissive of Kaffey and Galloway. A Few Good Men was written by Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, Newsroom) based on his play, and it is taut and suspenseful. The scene where Jessup is cross-examined by Kaffey is one of the best scenes ever. Gene Hackman won the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in Unforgiven; it would have been a tough call for me. The movie is filled with young actors like Kevin Bacon as Jack Ross representing the Judge Advocate Division; Kiefer Sutherland, Noah Wyle, Cuba Gooding, Jr. It's probably not the traditional Christmas movie, but we all enjoyed it.
12/25/15 Goldfinger, Best Sound Effects Editing, 1965
"Gold-fingaaaaa", I mean how can you not burst into that song when you hear that title? Goldfinger was the third James Bond movie and starred Sean Connery as Bond. Bond is trying to figure out what Auric Goldfinger is up to with his gold smuggling enterprise. The adventure takes him from Miami to Switzerland to Ft. Knox in Kentucky. The Bond girls in the movie are the ill-fated Jill Masterson (Shirley Easton) and the capable and beautiful Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman, previously of The Avengers TV series). Of course there is also the henchman, and in Goldfinger we have Oddjob (Harold Sakata) who has a lethal derby hat as well as lethal hands. The Aston Martin is duly decked out, but it doesn't really last more than twenty minutes before it's trashed, which is a damned shame. There is some not great acting and definitely a suspension of belief, but that's what most movies are (I say that as a reminder to myself when I get upset that my superhero movies get too preposterous). Connery is so smooth as Bond, and he really seems to enjoy the fighting, quips and the women - not necessarily in that order. The movie won for Best Sound Effects Editing, and I was surprised that the title song sung by Shirley Bassey and written by Leslie Bricuse, Anthony Newley and John Barry. Travesty. This is also the movie where "A martini. Shaken, not stirred." made it's first appearance. All in all, a fun movie on Christmas Day.
1/1/16 The Maltese Falcon, 1941, #31 AFI, National Film Registry
I think the first time I saw The Maltese Falcon with my dad, years ago. I didn't quite appreciate Bogart or John Houston or anything really (that could apply generally to my life as well as specifically to this movie). This is another movie I wanted another chance to see and put in perspective with the other movies I've seen, including those with Bogart. This was Bogart's first real starring role and he places private detective, Sam Spade, who finds himself in the middle of a con game gone quite awry. This was also John Houston's directorial debut, and the first of several films where he teamed with Bogart. The Maltese Falcon is based on the book of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and set in San Francisco and is considered one of the first films noirs. Mary Astor is Ruth Wonderly who tells Sam and his partner Miles Archer a story about her missing sister and a mystery man. Things are not quite as they seem, and Archer is killed, and then people start asking about the Maltese Falcon, including Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre) and Kaspar Gutman (Sidney Greenstreet) (both men would join Bogart in Casablanca a few years later). There are double crosses and red herrings, cigarettes and whiskey. The movie was nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Greenstreet) and Best Adapted Screenplay by Houston. Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor went to the film How Green was My Valley. There were some interesting filming techniques and the cinematography is really well done. It may seem a little stiff and old fashioned by today's standards; if it was made today, there would be more sex, more swearing and more blood, I'm sure, but the movie still works. Bogart shows why he was cast as Rick in Casablanca and how Houston became one of the America's great directors. The mystery is still there, which is why I haven't really told you too much. If you want to find out about the Maltese Falcon and why people are willing to die for it, you need to watch the movie.
1/3/16 Safety Last!, 1923, National Film Registry
Whether you realize it or not, you have probably seen a small part of this silent film. You know, the part where this guy is hanging off a clock attached to a tall building. You know it. Well, that's Harold Lloyd, one of the more famous silent film actors after Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Lloyd is known for his over-sized glasses. The plot is really just a conduit for some great comedic pratfalls and pranks, but here is a brief synopsis: The Boy (Lloyd) goes off to the big city to make his fortune so can bring The Girl and get married. The Boy has a hard time making any money and paying rent, but eventually he gets a job in a department store. There are some pretty humorous scenes with crazy customers and an overbearing supervisor. The Boy has a friend, Limpy, who is a construction worker and can climb great heights on buildings. The Boy wants to use Limpy's skill to win $,1000 from the department store's general manager for attracting people to the store. Limpy is to climb up the to the top of the building. The Girl comes to the city to see how The Boy is doing and she thinks he's the general manager, and leads to more comedy as The Boy barks out orders to the staff, and they follow him. Limpy has his own encounters with a policeman who is not amused by too much. Honestly, for me, I wanted to see the scene that I was familiar with in the context of the movie (like Chaplin eating his shoes in Gold Rush), and I didn't know what to expect. I'm consistently amazed when I watch silent films that I don't miss the words. You can get the general idea of what's going on by the action, the intertitles and the music (often an updated score has been added, and I mean more than the original piano or organ music, but nothing crazy like synthesizers or anything like that). The comedy speaks for itself (no pun intended), if you're looking for something different to watch and you want to see a classic, check out this film (or something by Charlie Chaplin).
PSA: This doesn't really tie into any movie or theme in this entry, but I wanted to share this information with you anyway regarding food insecurity and children and how you can help if you are in the state of Minnesota (your community may have similar 'backpack' programs). There are over 200,000 children in Minnesota that deal with food insecurity, that is to say, they may rely on food programs at school during the week or other food subsidies. Some children do not have any food over the weekends and that makes it difficult to come back to school Monday ready to learn. The Sheridan Story in the Twin Cities area helps to provide these children with packages of food to help them get through the weekend. It's not gas station food (Twinkies, high sodium ramen, etc.) but fruit, vegetables, pasta. My firm helps to deliver these packages to a Minneapolis school on Fridays and we do it with mixed feelings, we get the warm fuzzies helping these kids but it's brutal to think this may be all they have for the weekend and that there are children in this country that are hungry. Anyway, if your company or church/synagogue/mosque is looking for something to do in the community that will have an immediate impact, please look at this website: http://www.thesheridanstory.com/
Thanks for reading.
Movies from 2015 including Concussion, Southpaw and Shaun the Sheep
Is it possible to burn out your retinas? I suppose I could Google it. I think I have watched more movies in the past month than in the whole year. It sure feels like it. I consider myself fairly lucky that most of the movies have been above average, and only a few horrid, and even better, most of them have been free or cost less than $2. I love a bargain.
12/31/15 Ride Along, 2014
For some reason I thought that Ride Along was releases in 2015 and could perhaps be eligible for an Oscar (don't look at me like that, if Ted and Bad Grandpa can be nominated, anything is possible). Er, except it was released in 2014 and had not been nominated. That's okay, I had an ulterior motive in that Ride Along 2 is coming out this year, and I thought I should get up to speed on the Ice Cube/Kevin Hart 'series'. As they say themselves in the special features, this is a buddy film, and who doesn't like a buddy film? I didn't like Hart's most recent buddy film Get Hard, but I do like Hart and I needed something light, and this was perfect for my friends and me on New Year's Eve (it also got two thumbs up from my 16 year old friend, and who can argue with that?). Kevin Hart is Ben Barber, a high school security guard with aspirations of becoming an Atlanta police officer; he is also living with Angela, and her brother is a bad ass Atlanta detective, James Payton (Ice Cube) who cannot stand Ben. In an effort to scare Ben off, or at least keep him out of the police academy, Payton offers to take Ben out on a ride along and gives him all of the crazy calls; it almost works, but Ben sticks it out, but gets caught up in a gun smuggling scheme with Payton's bugaboo, Omar (Laurence Fishburne). There are definitely some laugh out loud moments; Hart is funny, he has a comedic delivery and timing that make a funny moment hilarious. Ice Cube is a great straight man, and gives Hart the room to deliver. I guess it got bad reviews, but I think how you rate a film depends on what you expect from it; my expectations were for a few laughs and maybe a little action, not a deep, complex story. We laughed and I'm planning on seeing Ride Along 2 next month. Not everything has to be an Oscar nominee.
1/1/16 Concussion, not yet nominated, 2015
I used to watch football every Sunday, run a fantasy football league and be in another, but my feelings started to change after Junior Seau committed suicide in 2012. I lost interest and have watched only one or two games since then. Concussion is a film about the research into traumatic brain injuries in football by Dr. Bennett Omalu, played by Will Smith, and his attempts to bring this to the attention of the National Football League. Omalu was a forensic pathologist with the Allegheny County Coroner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he first started investigating with the unexplained death of Mike Webster (David Morse), All-Pro Hall of Fame center for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Omalu knew nothing about football, but he wanted an explanation for Webster's death. He is unaware of the firestorm he is walking into as he pulls the curtain back on the most popular sport in America. Omalu is unorthodox in his approach but he has the full support of his boss and mentor, Dr. Cyril Wecht (played by Albert Brooks). Omalu also gets an unexpected ally in Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin) who was the team doctor for the Steelers and was part of the committee to look into brain injuries in the NFL. Smith is getting a lot of praise for his role, and he is very good as the Nigerian-born doctor who firmly believes in the American dream. He may very get a nomination for Best Actor, but I don't know if the movie is strong enough to get him the Oscar. I also think that Brooks should get a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. I liked the movie very much, but there was something about the pacing of it that seemed to bog it down and stop the momentum. That doesn't take anything away from the information that is provided in the movie about the potential for severe brain trauma when the head experiences repeated blows. It also doesn't change the fact that the NFL is a money-making goliath and does not want to lose fans or participants. As Omalu says in the movie (I do not know if that's a scripted creation or really happened) but he just wants the players to know the risks they face. Some players have walked away from possibly very lucrative careers because they did not think the risk was worth the cost; others have said it's the way the game is.
1/1/16 Southpaw, not yet nominated, 2015
When Southpaw was released, way back in July, Jake Gyllenhaal was getting a lot of press for his role as Billy Hope; perhaps an Oscar nomination would be in his future. Unfortunately, as I have learned, movies that are released early in the season often get forgotten when it comes time for nominations. However, I hope that I am wrong. When the movie opens, Billy Hope is defending his title; he's the champ and he has a beautiful wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams) and daughter, Leila (Oona Laurence), a huge house, a posse, everything. Then, after a confrontation with a potential rival, Miguel Escobar (Miguel Gomez), Maureen is shot and killed. Hope's world pretty much crashes in on him and he loses his daughter to child protective services. All Billy knows how to do is box, so he heads to a local gym which is owned and run by Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker); Wills hires Billy to clean up around the gym. He won't let Billy box until he feels he's ready. Eventually, Billy proves he is ready to box again, and he also works to get Leila back. Billy gets an offer to fight Escobar from his former manager, played by 50 Cent, and it's a chance to make some money and find some redemption. Wills reluctantly agrees to train Billy for the fight (he doesn't train professional fighters). Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) directed and he injects a score by the late James Newton Howard and a soundtrack by Eminem into the drama. I found the soundtrack jarring, but I suppose that was the idea. Whitaker is so good - you feel there is so much more under the surface to Tick and he's not eager to share. Gyllenhaal as Hope is so angry, you feel that he could explode any minute, which he does; Billy and Maureen both came up through child protective services, they are really all they have. I haven't seen Creed yet, but I don't know if the voters will recognize two boxing movies.
1/1/16 Shaun the Sheep, not yet nominated, 2015
I often wonder who decides something is the 'best'; like who thought Shaun the Sheep was one of the best animated features of 2015? It was made by the Aardman Studios, although not Nick Park or Peter Lord, and that should have been my first clue that this was not Wallace and Gromit. Shaun the Sheep was first seen in Wallace and Gromit's A Close Shave, and I would have preferred a short film instead of a full length feature. The movie opens with the sheep, the dog and the farmer going through their routine, day after day, kind of being bored, so they go on a camping adventure. The farmer gets amnesia and the animals try to find him in the city, but get captured by the animal control officer. So, they have to escape and once they find him, now as a hair stylist (sheep shearing pays big dividends), he doesn't remember them. Yeah, I think it would have been better as a 45 minute short, but I don't think it was the best animated film; I do think that belongs to Inside Out.
I have another blog going to document my experience (and others') on public transit. Check it out: http://doingthebusrun.blogspot.com/
12/31/15 Ride Along, 2014
For some reason I thought that Ride Along was releases in 2015 and could perhaps be eligible for an Oscar (don't look at me like that, if Ted and Bad Grandpa can be nominated, anything is possible). Er, except it was released in 2014 and had not been nominated. That's okay, I had an ulterior motive in that Ride Along 2 is coming out this year, and I thought I should get up to speed on the Ice Cube/Kevin Hart 'series'. As they say themselves in the special features, this is a buddy film, and who doesn't like a buddy film? I didn't like Hart's most recent buddy film Get Hard, but I do like Hart and I needed something light, and this was perfect for my friends and me on New Year's Eve (it also got two thumbs up from my 16 year old friend, and who can argue with that?). Kevin Hart is Ben Barber, a high school security guard with aspirations of becoming an Atlanta police officer; he is also living with Angela, and her brother is a bad ass Atlanta detective, James Payton (Ice Cube) who cannot stand Ben. In an effort to scare Ben off, or at least keep him out of the police academy, Payton offers to take Ben out on a ride along and gives him all of the crazy calls; it almost works, but Ben sticks it out, but gets caught up in a gun smuggling scheme with Payton's bugaboo, Omar (Laurence Fishburne). There are definitely some laugh out loud moments; Hart is funny, he has a comedic delivery and timing that make a funny moment hilarious. Ice Cube is a great straight man, and gives Hart the room to deliver. I guess it got bad reviews, but I think how you rate a film depends on what you expect from it; my expectations were for a few laughs and maybe a little action, not a deep, complex story. We laughed and I'm planning on seeing Ride Along 2 next month. Not everything has to be an Oscar nominee.
1/1/16 Concussion, not yet nominated, 2015
I used to watch football every Sunday, run a fantasy football league and be in another, but my feelings started to change after Junior Seau committed suicide in 2012. I lost interest and have watched only one or two games since then. Concussion is a film about the research into traumatic brain injuries in football by Dr. Bennett Omalu, played by Will Smith, and his attempts to bring this to the attention of the National Football League. Omalu was a forensic pathologist with the Allegheny County Coroner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he first started investigating with the unexplained death of Mike Webster (David Morse), All-Pro Hall of Fame center for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Omalu knew nothing about football, but he wanted an explanation for Webster's death. He is unaware of the firestorm he is walking into as he pulls the curtain back on the most popular sport in America. Omalu is unorthodox in his approach but he has the full support of his boss and mentor, Dr. Cyril Wecht (played by Albert Brooks). Omalu also gets an unexpected ally in Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin) who was the team doctor for the Steelers and was part of the committee to look into brain injuries in the NFL. Smith is getting a lot of praise for his role, and he is very good as the Nigerian-born doctor who firmly believes in the American dream. He may very get a nomination for Best Actor, but I don't know if the movie is strong enough to get him the Oscar. I also think that Brooks should get a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. I liked the movie very much, but there was something about the pacing of it that seemed to bog it down and stop the momentum. That doesn't take anything away from the information that is provided in the movie about the potential for severe brain trauma when the head experiences repeated blows. It also doesn't change the fact that the NFL is a money-making goliath and does not want to lose fans or participants. As Omalu says in the movie (I do not know if that's a scripted creation or really happened) but he just wants the players to know the risks they face. Some players have walked away from possibly very lucrative careers because they did not think the risk was worth the cost; others have said it's the way the game is.
1/1/16 Southpaw, not yet nominated, 2015
When Southpaw was released, way back in July, Jake Gyllenhaal was getting a lot of press for his role as Billy Hope; perhaps an Oscar nomination would be in his future. Unfortunately, as I have learned, movies that are released early in the season often get forgotten when it comes time for nominations. However, I hope that I am wrong. When the movie opens, Billy Hope is defending his title; he's the champ and he has a beautiful wife, Maureen (Rachel McAdams) and daughter, Leila (Oona Laurence), a huge house, a posse, everything. Then, after a confrontation with a potential rival, Miguel Escobar (Miguel Gomez), Maureen is shot and killed. Hope's world pretty much crashes in on him and he loses his daughter to child protective services. All Billy knows how to do is box, so he heads to a local gym which is owned and run by Tick Wills (Forest Whitaker); Wills hires Billy to clean up around the gym. He won't let Billy box until he feels he's ready. Eventually, Billy proves he is ready to box again, and he also works to get Leila back. Billy gets an offer to fight Escobar from his former manager, played by 50 Cent, and it's a chance to make some money and find some redemption. Wills reluctantly agrees to train Billy for the fight (he doesn't train professional fighters). Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) directed and he injects a score by the late James Newton Howard and a soundtrack by Eminem into the drama. I found the soundtrack jarring, but I suppose that was the idea. Whitaker is so good - you feel there is so much more under the surface to Tick and he's not eager to share. Gyllenhaal as Hope is so angry, you feel that he could explode any minute, which he does; Billy and Maureen both came up through child protective services, they are really all they have. I haven't seen Creed yet, but I don't know if the voters will recognize two boxing movies.
1/1/16 Shaun the Sheep, not yet nominated, 2015
I often wonder who decides something is the 'best'; like who thought Shaun the Sheep was one of the best animated features of 2015? It was made by the Aardman Studios, although not Nick Park or Peter Lord, and that should have been my first clue that this was not Wallace and Gromit. Shaun the Sheep was first seen in Wallace and Gromit's A Close Shave, and I would have preferred a short film instead of a full length feature. The movie opens with the sheep, the dog and the farmer going through their routine, day after day, kind of being bored, so they go on a camping adventure. The farmer gets amnesia and the animals try to find him in the city, but get captured by the animal control officer. So, they have to escape and once they find him, now as a hair stylist (sheep shearing pays big dividends), he doesn't remember them. Yeah, I think it would have been better as a 45 minute short, but I don't think it was the best animated film; I do think that belongs to Inside Out.
I have another blog going to document my experience (and others') on public transit. Check it out: http://doingthebusrun.blogspot.com/
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Whiling away the time while staying at home
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