Oscar nominees - Bridge of Spies, The Martian and Sicario

2/2/16 Bridge of Spies, nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound Mixing, 2015

I have found myself thinking of my dad a lot with this last round of movies and how much he would have liked some of them, and of course he would have read the books (possibly more than once) and he would have recommended them and probably another half dozen that I should read or watch. He was right more often than not. I think he would have really liked Bridge of Spies with its basis in history during the Cold War period; he would probably tell me he remembers when Gary Francis Powers was captured by the Soviets. Bridge of Spies is about the capture of a Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel (played by Best Supporting Actor nominee Mark Rylance) and the events leading up to his exchange for pilot Gary Francis Powers and student Frederic Pryor. The completion of this covert transaction was managed by attorney James Donovan (Tom Hanks), as he frequently clashed with the U.S. government and representatives of the USSR and GDR (East Germany). I appreciated the pace of the movie; it seems to me that movies set in this era have a slow build up as the writers try to explain the events of the time and set the the scene. Joel and Ethan Coen co-wrote the nominated screenplay with Matt Charman (who?) and I love that you wouldn't even know it was them if you didn't read the credits. The movie begins with the capture of Abel in New York and follows the process of his trial (represented by Donovan) and then the capture of Powers and Pryor (there's much more to it, but I don't think you need the whole plot detailed). Donovan and his family experience backlash due to the vigorous defense that Donovan tries to provide Abel. Rylance is up for Best Supporting Actor, but he is competing with Tom Hardy (The Revenant), Christian Bale (The Big Short), Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight) and finally Sylvester Stallone (Creed). My money is on Hardy or Stallone. I'm not sure Bridge of Spies will get the Best Picture Oscar either, too much competition, and the movie doesn't have a lot of bangs, explosions or controversies to propel it to the top. In many ways it's a very understated movie. If you haven't seen it, this is a great movie for a Friday night, turn up the volume so you can hear the words and enjoy it. That's what my dad would say.

2/5/16 Sicario, nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, 2015

I heard great things about Sicario, but I didn't care for it. Perhaps because I just watched Cartel Land that watching a fictional story about corruption along the Mexican border didn't seem all that interesting. Benicio del Toro was very good as the ethically flexible Alejandro Gillick and probably should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. I don't think it will win for cinematography, which was done by Roger Deakins (cinematographer for the Coen Brothers) only because he is up against The Revenant/Emmanuel Lubezki, among others. Sorry for the short review, but I'm running on fumes and the movie didn't irritate me like The Revenant, so I can't even use that as a motivator.

2/6/16 The Martian, nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, 2015

The Martian proves that The List giveth and The List taketh away. In thith, I mean this case, the list definitely gave. I did not want to see this movie, not interested, not my thing, ugh. Sometimes when that happens I like to subject my friends to it because suffering together can be fun. As it turned out we all enjoyed the movie, quite a bit actually. We laughed and we were on the edge of our collective seats, and at the end we analyzed why we liked it so much. The fact that the dog, my pal Riley, fell asleep for most of the movie has no bearing on this review whatsoever. A team of NASA astronauts/scientists are on a Mars mission when a major storm hits the planet and they decide to cut the mission short. As they are making their way back to the rocket to get them off the planet, one of the group, Mark Watney (Matt Damon), is separated and left for dead. The team, lead by Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain), reluctantly leave the red planet and begin their long trip home. But, if Watney was dead, that would make for a very short movie, and certainly not the 'comedy' that the Golden Globes thought it was. Watney is indeed alive and the movie follows him as he learns to adapt to his surroundings, makes video logs, and eventually establishes contact with NASA back on planet Earth. Watney's insights and commentary is really funny, and considering that Damon is acting by himself, I think that's pretty impressive; a lot of comedy requires a straight man, but Damon is up to the challenge. One of the running jokes is the music he has available to him, which was from Commander Lewis and is a wonderful collection of hits from the 1980s - not Watney's preference. As Watney is counting down the days and growing potatoes, NASA, led by Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) and Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is trying to figure out how to get Watney back before his food supply runs out. There are twists and turns along the way and the viewer is kept in suspense as to how everything will be resolved. I did have some flashbacks to Gravity, but I liked that movie, as opposed to Interstellar which was horrible. I haven't read the book I'm not a scientist or astronaut, I'm not even very good at math, so how realistic or possible any of this is, I can't say, and I almost don't care. Unlike The Revenant (seen with the same friends) where they have a lot of knowledge about camping and such, so the issues with believability didn't come up with The Martian. We were all pretty surprised at how much we enjoyed it. The effects were extremely well done, from the storms on Mars to the spacecrafts in space, it was visually awesome. I don't think it will win for Best Picture, although that seems to be up for grabs after the other awards shows; and I don't think Damon has a real chance at Best Actor, that will probably go to Leonardo DiCaprio or Eddie Redmayne, but I will admit what I thought was a throwaway nomination I now believe was totally deserving. This probably would have been much better on a huge movie screen, but if you have a television from this century it will still be very good. Four thumbs up!

I was supposed to see Joy tonight, but I could not get myself to the theater. Hopefully I'll fit it in before it leaves the theaters. Fifteen movies to go, including Joy; I think the foreign films are off the table for this year, no way it's going to happen.Wish me luck on my quest (cue John Williams music).