The last of the Best Picture nominees: Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Moonlight, Lion, Manchester by the Sea

2/19/17 Fences, nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, 2016

August Wilson wrote his Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences in 1985 while living in St. Paul, Minnesota. A little over thirty years later, the movie, based on his screenplay was brought to life by Denzel Washington as a director and actor, playing Troy Maxson, and Viola Davis, his wife, Rose. The story is set in 1950s Pittsburgh, where Troy is a garbage collector and Rose stays home and cooks and takes care of their son, Cory. Troy and Bono, his oldest friend, collect their pay packets on Friday, buy a bottle of gin and share it in Troy's backyard. We learn that Troy likes spending time down at the local bar where he is flirting with Alberta (whom we never see), and also that Troy played ball in the Negro Leagues, and is resentful of not being given a chance to play, even though baseball is now integrated. Rose says it's because he's too old, Troy says it's because he's black. In addition to caring for his wife and son, his older brother Gabriel (Mykelti Williamson) has been severely brain-damaged during the war and now has a steel plate in his head and can be found wandering the streets of the neighborhood selling fruits and vegetables and blowing his trumpet. This is the 1950s and the understanding and treatment of brain injuries is very limited, but his family does the best they can, and he clearly loves them all. Troy carries around a harmful combination of anger, guilt and resentment, and will lash out at his sons and Rose at the least provocation. This combination of feelings alienates his son Cory, causing him to leave home; carry on an affair with no regard for Rose, even though he mentions she is the best thing to happen to him; seems offended that Rose is hurt at the affair; and break off his friendship with Bono. You might feel like you know what's going to happen, it doesn't matter, because don't know how it's going to happen exactly or what will be said. The performances by the entire cast is incredible; the love and attention they give the characters is joyful. These are roles that most of the cast played before in 2010 on stage. The story is an American story, and it reminded me a lot of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, which was written at the end of the 1940s, so it shares the post-war feel with Fences, as well as a leading male character who is utterly disappointed in his life, and seems to blame those around him. It has a long suffering female character, and two sons who cannot see eye to eye with their father. I honestly hated Denzel Washington for those two hours; I also tried to understand his behavior, just as Rose did. There is a scene towards the end of the movie where they are arguing after Troy tells Rose about his affair, and he's yelling about his stale, boring life and she yells right back at him, telling him she's been right with him, and I just loved her for that. She stood up for herself, and didn't give him that easy out for his actions. I silently cheered her. For me, I loved the movie for the story as much as I did the actors and what they did with August Wilson's story. I think Viola Davis should have been nominated for Best Actress, but I am wondering if that was a strategic point for the studio, and they didn't want her to go up against Meryl Streep again. I'm not sure I agree, because her role was a lead in my mind and I don't think Streep's Florence Foster Jenkins is Oscar worthy, but I suppose you don't want to take the chance. I'm pulling for Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures) and Viola Davis.

2/23/17 Hacksaw Ridge, nominated Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, 2016

I love documentaries, and the next best thing to a documentary (when they're done well) is a biographical film or something based on real events. I was not a fan of Mel Gibson's Passion, but I have liked other movies he directed, so I tried to approach this with an open mind. Hacksaw Ridge tells the true story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield, nominated for Best Actor), a Seventh Day Adventist conscientious objector who was determined to join the Army as part of the medical corps. The movie spends a good amount of time, maybe half the movie (?) providing us with the appropriate amount of background information on Doss on his pacifism and the lengths he would go to in order to stay true to his beliefs, even missing his own wedding because he refused to hold a gun, much less shoot one. His commanding officers and fellow soldiers try to get rid of Doss, challenging his mental faculties, but his father, a World War I veteran, surprisingly comes to his rescue. After training, his infantry company is sent to the Pacific theater and to Okinawa. Gibson has plenty of experience staging war scenes, granted mostly pre-20th century, but still, the battle scenes are intense, and to my non-combatant eye, accurate and realistic. The results are not necessarily a secret, you can look Doss up online, and learn that he received the Medal of Honor for his heroics, but to try and explain them here does the movie a disservice, I think. You really have to watch it for yourself; it's gruesome, but it has to be less so than in real life. Doss's courage and inner strength to do what he did is simply amazing; don't turn the DVD off too soon, because there are interviews with Doss, his brother and one of the men he rescued. I didn't expect to like Hacksaw Ridge as much as I did, but if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Garfield was very good, conveying this strength that is belied by his slight stature, and bringing this American hero to life; Gibson is back in top form, and he is in the top three in my mind.

2/24/17 Moonlight, nominated Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, 2016

I'm not really sure how to describe Moonlight; it's a movie told in three parts in three different time periods, featuring the main character, Chiron; his mother, Paula; his surrogate mother, Teresa; and his unlikely mentor, Juan. Chiron is a young, black man, growing up in a pretty tough neighborhood in Miami, getting teased and beaten up by the other boys for being gay, even though he doesn't really know what that means. He is discovered by Juan (Mahershala Ali in his Oscar-nominated role) hiding in a boarded up house; refusing to speak, he goes with Juan to get some food and then Juan takes him home to meet his girlfriend, Teresa (Janelle Monae), who takes a shine to the young boy. Juan takes Chiron home where his mother (Naomie Harris, nominated for Best Supporting Actress) has been worried, but she isn't grateful to Juan at all; we find out why a little later. Chiron's only friend, Kevin, tries to get Chiron (or 'Little' as he is called) to fight back against the bullies. Chiron is really on his own, except for his new found safe haven with Teresa and Juan, but this only serves to anger his mother. The second part has Chiron in high school, and his mother's drug problems are worse as is the teasing and bullying he receives in school. Kevin meets up with Chiron in the hallway as Chiron is trying to avoid the bullies, and Kevin is in detention for allegedly having sex with a girl in school. The look on Chiron's face gave away his feelings for Kevin; later that night, Kevin and Chiron meet up on the beach and share a moment of closeness that Chiron has not shared with anyone before, and he allows himself a moment of vulnerability. I cringed as the next day as Chiron was badly beaten by his nemesis Terrel and his friends, and he was unable to defend himself. Chiron avenges himself, but at the cost of his freedom. The last part of the movie introduces a grown up Chiron, who looks eerily like Juan, driving the same car (I think) with the same crown ornament on the dashboard. If you didn't know it, you would not recognize Chiron: he's buff and tough, not the scared little kid we met earlier. His mom is now in a rehab center and tries to apologize; it's still a tense relationship, and Chiron seems very much alone. Out of the blue, he gets a call from Kevin, and he's not sure what he wants, but he drives back to Florida (Chiron is living in Atlanta) to meet his old friend. Kevin is pretty surprised at how Chiron has changed. They go back to Kevin's apartment where Chiron, in one of his very few expository moments, tells Kevin that nobody has touched him the way Kevin did that night so long ago. I got the sense that Kevin felt the same way about Chiron. The movie ends and I wonder what happened to the two of them. Would they be together, or go their separate ways? Would Chiron finally find happiness and love? The movie turns stereotypes on their head; Juan, who is a drug dealer, becomes the male role model for Chiron, and with Teresa, they try to give him stability and love and guidance. Gay, black men are stereotypically played very effeminately and flamboyant, and Chiron is neither of those. Moonlight is a story that hasn't been told (at least not in any mainstream fashion) and it was told with a lot of love and care. The three actors who played Chiron were all wonderful, and did most of their communicating with body language and facial expressions, because they really didn't speak that much. That's tough to do, but I think they were up to the task. It's not a happy film, but it's not angry or totally sad either, but somehow strangely affirming in how Chiron beats the odds to survive and be stronger than anyone could have anticipated. The name 'Chiron' sounded familiar, so I looked it up, and Chiron was the eldest and the wisest of the Centaurs, and he was a mentor to heroes of the myths, like Jason of the Argonauts. I don't know if there is any connection to what becomes of our Chiron, or the hopes his mother may have had for him when he was born. This was a 'small' movie that has had a huge impact; I'm not sure of its odds for any of the awards, but I'm sure we're going to hear more from the director and screenwriter, Barry Jenkins, and the young men who were Chiron: Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes.

2/24/17 Manchester by the Sea, nominated Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay, 2016

The only thing I could think of before I saw this movie was that a co-worker took her 80 year old mother to see this on Christmas...and it was not the Yuletide experience in the reclining movie theater seats she had hoped. This didn't encourage me in the least; then when I saw some of the more negative reviews, I moved even slower. But, I watched it. I don't get the hype on this. It's a good movie, but I didn't think it was great. I found it hard to care too much about any of the characters (that may make me a cold-hearted cynic to some). Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck in an Oscar-nominated role) is a morose loner, who is named by his older brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler), as guardian of his teenaged nephew, Patrick (Lucas Hedges, nominated as Best Supporting Actor). Flashbacks are used to show us what happened to put Lee in his current state of misery. It is definitely tragic, and he cannot put it behind him. Even though Lee and Patrick used to be close when Patrick was much younger, time, their mutual sadness and adolescence make their reunion challenging. Patrick is a bit of an asshole, and I would wager that he was one when his dad was alive. Lee was previously married, but since the tragedy, he and his wife, Randi (Michelle Williams in her Oscar-nominated Best Supporting Actress role) have barely spoken, but Randi reaches out to Lee and tries to talk with him and help him to move on, but Lee isn't interested. In some ways, the characters of Troy Maxson and Lee Chandler are similar; they are men who carry their pain and disappointment deep inside and have cut themselves off from the people who care about them. The difference for me in liking/loving/not caring between the two films is I care about the people around Troy; I cared and cheered for Rose and for Cory; I didn't care a whole lot about Patrick, and we don't really get to know about Joe and his marriage; and I did care about Randi, but not enough to make me love this movie. Casey Affleck may be the front-runner for the Best Oscar, but I would vote for Denzel Washington or Andrew Garfield, or Ryan Gosling.

2/25/17 Lion, nominated Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, 2016

I am so glad I ended my quest to see all of the Best Picture nominees with Lion. I did cry a little, but it was ultimately uplifting and ended on a high note. Lion is based on the true story of Saroo Brierley and his journey from Khandwa to Calcutta (Kolkata) India, over 1500 kilometers to Tasmania and back to Khandwa. It's a long journey in terms of distance, but also emotionally. The movie starts out in 1986 with five year old Saroo (played by the incredibly adorable Sunny Pawar who won everyone over at the Golden Globes) stealing coal with his older brother, Guddu. They steal coal to sell it back in their village. The family is extremely poor and struggles to get by with what the boys' mother earns collecting rocks and what Guddu might earn at odd jobs. Saroo is devoted to his big brother and wants to go with him on his next job, which involves late nights and trains; the two boys are separated, and Saroo is left on his own, falling asleep on a train ride that takes him to Kolkata where a different language and huge metropolis await him. Through machinations that I'm sure I don't totally understand, it's determined that Saroo can be adopted by an Australian couple, John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman in an Oscar-nominated performance). The film jumps ahead about 20 years and Saroo is now played by Dev Patel, and he is on his way to study hospitality management where he meets other students from India and he feels self-conscious about being from India, but not feeling Indian, and shares that he was adopted. This begins his quest to figure out where he was from; he was so young, he didn't know his surname or what his village's name was (he kept saying a name, but nobody knew what or where it was) and he wasn't exactly sure how he got to Kolkata. The Internet and Google Earth play a huge role in helping him trace the possible routes. As Saroo becomes almost obsessed with finding his Indian family, his relationship with his American girlfriend, Lucy (Rooney Mara) and his family suffer. He is very reluctant to tell his parents about his quest because he is afraid of hurting them and appearing ungrateful, but he finally tells his mother and she gives her blessing and insight into why she and her husband chose adoption to add to their family. Saroo makes the trip home and that's really where the tears flowed. You'll have to watch this one to see how it turns out. I really loved this movie, which I cannot say about half of the Best Picture nominees. My pick is Dev Patel for Best Supporting Actor. I don't think it will win Best Picture, but I would be happy if it did. It is in English, Hindi and Bengali, but don't let this deter you. The subtitles were easy to read (at least on the mega movie screen) and it's so worth it. India is a vast country, filled with contradictions of epic proportions, and I know people like to characterize it in a negative way, but it's a place I'd like to visit again. I was reminded of another 'adoption' movie from a few years ago starring Judi Dench, Philomena, where the reunion didn't go as planned, but nevertheless it was an emotional journey based on a true story.

2/25/17 Jim: The James Foley Story, nominated Best Song, 2016

James Foley was a war correspondent take hostage by ISIL in 2012 and whose execution was videotaped and shown on television and the Internet. The documentary, made by his friend Brian will Oakes, tells us up front that the documentary is about Jim and shows war footage, but will not be showing his execution. What Oakes does show is home movie/video footage, interviews with his three brothers, sister, parents and the men with whom he was held captive. Foley was originally a teacher, but he felt he was missing something and decided to be a journalist, focusing on conflicts and war. The interviews with his family and fellow independent journalists give us a deeper look into what James was like, but also what it is like reporting from war-torn countries, the danger faced by the reporters as they bring us the stories from the front lines. Foley was taken hostage in Libya, but was eventually released; the turn in Syria didn't end so well. A few of the men held captive with him relate the deprivations and torture they experienced, and how James helped them all get through it. I think it has become very easy for us to expect our 24 hour news coverage without a lot of thought about how we get it, the risks that the reporters and photographers take to get us the news from war zones like Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, even closer to home and the domestic unrest we've seen in Ferguson, Chicago or Baltimore. The documentary is nominated for Best Song "The Empty Chair" by J. Ralph and Sting, so that's why I watched it, but it really is a very powerful documentary by HBO.

This wraps up the reviews before the Oscars. I have 16 movies to go, and I expect most of those to appear in the next month or so.