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My Top 15 Film Performances of 2015

Haven’t Seen: Legend, Crimson Peak, Grandma, I’ll See You In My Dreams, Trumbo, Heaven Knows What, James White, Taxi, Arabian Nights, Spy, Breathe, Experimenter, The Forbidden Room, Heart of a Dog, Mustang, The Walk, The Assassin, Chi-raq, Victoria, Li’l Quinquin, Blackhat, Hard to Be a God, Magic Mike XXL, Mr. Holmes, Amy, Bone Tomahawk, Dope

Honorable Mentions: Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn), Sylvester Stallone/Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies), David Thewlis/Tom Noonan/Jennifer Jason Leigh (Anomalisa), Steve Carell (The Big Short), Michael Shannon (99 Homes), Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation), Benicio del Toro/Emily Blunt (Sicario), Johnny Depp (Black Mass), Jason Mitchell (Straight Outta Compton), Matt Damon (The Martian), Eddie Redmayne/Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl), Carey Mulligan (Suffragette), Joel Edgerton (The Gift), Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Kitana Rodriguez/Mya Taylor (Tangerine), Marion Cotillard/Michael Fassbender (Macbeth), Rest of the Spotlight cast, Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs), Paul Dano (Love and Mercy), Elisabeth Moss/Katherine Waterston (Queen of Earth), Juliette Binoche/Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria), Bel Powley (Diary of a Teenage Girl), Jack O’Connell (’71), Greta Gerwig (Mistress America), Geza Rohrig (Son of Saul), Samuel L. Jackson (The Hateful Eight)

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Tags: Abraham Attah Idris Elba Beasts of No Nation, Alicia Vikander Ex Machina best supporting actress Ex Machina, Brie Larson Golden Globe win Best Actress drama Room, Charlize Theron Tom Hardy Mad Max Fury Road snubbed Oscars, Charlotte Rampling Tom Courtenay 45 Years Best Actress Oscars, Eddie Redmayne Alicia Vikander transgender The Danish Girl Best Actor Oscars 2016, Golden Globe winners 2016, Jason Segel David Foster Wallace The End of the Tour, Jennifer Jason Leigh The Hateful Eight Daisy Domergue Supporting Actress, Kate Winslet wins Best Supporting Actress Steve Jobs 2016 Oscars, Leonardo DiCaprio Tom Hardy performances The Revenant Oscars, Leonardo DiCaprio winning an Oscar 2016, Leonardo DiCaprio wins Golden Globe The Revenant Golden Globes, Mark Ruffalo Supporting Actor Spotlight Oscars, Matt Damon wins Best Actor The Martian Golden Globes Oscars, Michael Fassbender Best Actor Steve Jobs Oscars 2016, Nina Hoss Ronald Zehrfeld Phoenix, Oscar Isaac Ex Machina Caleb Oscar snub 2016, Oscar nominations predictions 2016, Oscar snubs reactions surprises Academy Awards 2016, Oscars so white race black actors 2016, Rooney Mara Cate Blanchett Carol Best Actress Oscars, Saoirse Ronan Best Actress Oscars 2016, Sarah Snook performance Predestination, Sicario Benicio del Toro Emily Blunt snubbed Oscars 2016, Steve Carell Christian Bale The Big Short Best Actor Oscars, Straight Outta Compton Creed black actors Oscars 2016, Sylvester Stallone Best Supporting Actor win Golden Globes Oscars, Tarantino Sorkin snubbed screenplay Oscars 2016, Walton Goggins Chris Mannix The Hateful Eight Supporting Actor

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Categories Best of 2015, Film

Thoughts On the 73rd Golden Globe Awards

11 Jan

First of all, RIP to David Bowie. I’ll probably be listening to “Modern Love”, “Heroes”, “Space Oddity”, “Life On Mars?”, etc. again tonight. What a musician.

Second of all, let’s head on down the winners’ list for the 73rd Golden Globes.

Best Motion Picture: I’m really, really surprised that The Revenant won. I think it’s a great movie, but I thought that Spotlight pretty much had it locked down; nevertheless, this makes the race for the Oscar slightly more interesting. As for The Martian, I’m pretty ambivalent about the film overall (I’d have gone with The Big Short myself), but I do have to say this: this is nowhere near as baffling a “comedy” nomination/win as some others have been in the past. I get that the premise isn’t exactly the most comedic in the world, but people seem to be forgetting that the movie is pretty damn funny. I feel like it runs on jokes, no matter how bleak its premise may be. I am 100% fine with this in the comedy category.

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Categories Film, Television

45 Years Review

7 Jan

45 Years moves at a deliberately slow pace, necessary in order to let the film’s opening revelation fester within the household and within the central relationship of the story. That central relationship is between Geoff and Kate Mercer, played with nuance and poise by Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling, respectively. The aforementioned opening revelation comes from a letter Geoff receives, one informing him that his ex-girlfriend Katya’s preserved body has been found in the Swiss Alps. It’s a revelation that occurs around the time of the couple’s 45th anniversary, and the two events coincide at just the right moment, dredging up wounds and memories from the past and slowly dividing the supposedly happy couple. The past haunts and hangs over every scene, and it’s like a horror film told through the lens of real human drama.

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The Hateful Eight Review

25 Dec

The Hateful Eight is excessive in every way imaginable. Its roadshow runtime is a whopping 187 minutes. The characters talk for an eternity. Blood spurts in every which way. Certain scenes feel like they exist just to exist, circling around and around without building up the tension as well as they would with a better editor. And yet, from under those problems emerges a wildly entertaining movie, a Western mashed up with a whodunit mashed up with a horror film that is ultimately also 100% Tarantino. Simply put, I had a blast.

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The Revenant Review

23 Dec

The pure craft of this film is undeniable. I want to print and frame every single shot, apologize to Roger Deakins for probably missing out on that Oscar again, and spend the rest of my days marveling at the breathtaking beauty of Emmanuel Lubezki’s work. The two sequences that open the movie–the Arikara attack and the bear attack–are astonishing in both their brutality and in the skill that obviously went into them. After that, the film doesn’t reach those types of highs again, but the opening still sets the stage for two and a half hours of intensity, suffering, and violence.

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review

20 Dec

It’s difficult not to get chills when “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away” appears and John Williams’s iconic theme kicks in. It’s difficult not to get nostalgic when characters like Han Solo and Chewbacca return to kick some ass, when Stormtroopers and the Millenium Falcon and lightsabers show up on screen again. Unlike the situation back in 1977, it’s nothing that we haven’t seen before, but it still finds a way to hit all the right notes as it integrates the new with the old. Star Wars is back, and although it’s full of problems, it’s also full of pleasures.

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The Big Short Review

14 Dec

The Big Short is an angry movie, one that directs its rage at the system as it attempts to both educate and entertain you. It’s a very different approach to the topic than the ones taken by films like Margin Call or this year’s 99 Homes, but it’s without a doubt a very interesting one. McKay and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd bring an extremely frenetic style to the film, moving the camera in every direction possible so as to emphasize that Ackroyd learned a thing or two from his work on Paul Greengrass movies. The movie also has a very distinct style, utilizing real-life images and celebrity cameos and fourth wall-breaking techniques in order to keep the jargon manageable for the majority of viewers.

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Categories Film

Anomalisa Review

8 Dec

The Fregoli delusion is the belief that everyone else is the same person, just in disguise or in a state of constant appearance shifting. This delusion befalls the main character of Anomalisa: Michael Stone, a customer service author on a business trip who happens to be staying at (surprise!) Hotel Fregoli. At said hotel, everyone from the bellhop to the couple arguing in the hallway sounds suspiciously like Tom Noonan, and the voices combine to create an environment inundated with the dull sounds of customer service. Each face is clearly split into two by a line across the middle, furthering the idea that they’re all wearing masks of some sort.

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Carol Review

23 Nov

One look speaks volumes. We can feel the desire emanating from the screen, the magnetic pull bringing Therese Belivet and Carol Aird together from across a crowded room. That type of moment plays out through the entire movie, each time growing heavier and lovelier as the two share fleeting touches and lingering glances. This is pure attraction, plain and simple, and it’s conveyed in a natural, tender, and deeply affecting manner.

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Creed Review

20 Nov

Creed is a crowd pleaser that doesn’t really carve out its own identity, but a lot of that crowd-pleasing just plain works. Ryan Coogler’s dynamic filmmaking serves the boxing sequences well, particularly an early one-take scene that generates quite a bit of excitement and creates a wave of energy that the movie rides all the way until the end. We’ve seen it all before, but it’s done well for the most part.

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Polar Bears Watch TV

My Top 15 Film Performances of 2015

Thoughts On the 73rd Golden Globe Awards

45 Years Review

The Hateful Eight Review

The Revenant Review

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review

The Big Short Review

Anomalisa Review

Carol Review

Creed Review

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