“If you don’t know Jurassic Park, you don’t know shit.”

If my best friend won’t fart in front of me, what else is he keeping from me?

Swiss Army Man was labeled by critics as “the farting corpse movie” at Sundance where it received controversial reactions at it’s festival screening. The juvenile humor in the movie prompted walkouts from audience members, but what they missed was the rewarding satisfaction of one of the most insightful explorations of a life some of us may have forgotten.

Sometimes it takes a flatulent corpse to remind us what it means to be human and why the simpler aspects of life are sometimes the most important. All farting jokes aside, Swiss Army Man is one of the most original movies I’ve seen in a very long time, but some viewers don’t want to give it the time of day.

The reactions were no surprise to directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (aka the Daniels) who knew they were fighting an uphill battle with their unusual yet wholly entertaining and original script. They departed Sundance with the Best Directing jury prize and explained, “We like to think of our movies as orphans. They’re bad ideas that no one else wants to make.”

Weird, wonderful, disgusting, demented and divisive…why pursue this story?

Swiss Army Man is an unusual fable about Hank (Paul Dano), a suicidal castaway, who befriends a farting corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) while stranded in the wilderness. Together they formulate an unbreakable bond and embark on a surreal journey to get home.

The indie is directed by the music video duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (aka Daniels) who became globally recognized with their music video for Lil’ Jon’s Turn Down For What in 2013. The video currently sits at 507,616,752 plays on YouTube and wouldn’t seem like the predecessor for their artistically whacky first feature film.

“From very early on, love was a theme. We have all these ideas about love and all these ideas about farts. And then the common ground that we found was that you shouldn’t be ashamed of love. That love is possible when you can kind of be your true self and kind of – and overcome your shame and that, like, that’s – that’s some of the most honest experiences we’ve had where – when someone can help you break down a wall and help you be more yourself, that’s just the most powerful, wonderful part of a relationship.” Director Daniel Scheinart via NPR

While the story may sound offbeat, what makes it work is the combination of music, cinematography and most importantly – Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe. Our imaginations are stretched when we discover that Manny possesses supernatural powers; he’s a human Swiss Army Knife, but his memory seems to have forgotten the life he once knew. Hank’s two goals are to get them both home and to resurrect Manny’s failing memory of life – both heartwarming and gut-wrenching. They remind us that the little details of life can have the greatest impact and define what it means to be alive.

Both performances by Dano and Radcliffe are some of the year’s best thus far, but it’s Radcliffe who seems to have captured the heart’s of many critics. Harry Potter who? Radcliffe has graduated from the role that defined him and is proving his worth as an actor.

IndieWire even boldly argues that Radcliffe deserves an Oscar for his performance (or least an Oscar nod). “Manny’s arc is all on Radcliffe, and it’s an amazing acting achievement. On top of all that, Manny is a role with no map. There’s no archival footage
to study. No research to rely on, no source material to scour for clues. Just the question: How would a person behave if he awoke in a body with no memories, no movement, and only one friend in the world?  Radcliffe’s soft blue eyes grow sad as Manny asks, “If my best friend is hiding his farts from me, what else is he hiding?” With this vulnerable delivery, the Daniels’ dedicatedly silly dialogue packs an emotional wallop that presses tears from moviegoers who were racked with giggles just moments before.”

This is a polarizing film that some people will love while others will hate it. It’s simply an amazing take on life, loneliness and personal identity. The film stumbles at times trying to be too weird and uncomfortable, which is one of my few gripes about it. Someone pointed out that it’s a film that looks for depth and symbolism where there is none. If you’re shortsighted, you’re not going to catch this film’s beauty, but give it a chance, and you’ll be rewarded.

“We never would’ve upset you if we knew you had superpowers!”

If you combine the wonder of Steven Spielberg, the dread of John Carpenter and add a heavy dose of Stephen King, then you’ve got all the ingredients of the SciFi Netflix show Stranger Things.

This 80’s nostalgic-heavy hybrid is this summer’s binge-worthy eight episode television experience involving parallel universes, telekinesis and a whole lot of references to 80s classics and culture.

On November 6, 1983 in suburban Indiana, 12-year-old Will Byers mysteriously vanishes. Will’s mother, Joyce, frantically begins her own quest to find Will, while Police Chief Hopper begins his own investigation. The next day a mysterious girl with supernatural abilities named Eleven is found by Will’s friends and claims to know Will’s whereabouts. The closer everyone comes to the truth, the stranger things become. They’ll have to evade a government agency with their own agenda, and a sinister supernatural entity, to get Will back.

This series hits some serious highs with it’s acting (particularly the child actors), it’s atmosphere, electronic soundtrack (I hear you, Tangerine Dream!), nostalgia and the possibility of Winona Ryder’s Winonaissance. The series even has the immaculate stamp of approval from the almighty Stephen King himself, so why do I feel so lukewarm about it?

USA Today summarized my reservations best,”If you want to emulate Spielberg, don’t mimic his themes; study his skill at propelling a story forward and tailoring it for its audience.”

I may have been born in the latter half of the 80s, but 80s movies are the foundation of my obsession with cinema. Movies like Stand By Me are my childhood, Aliens is my survival bible and Poltergeist is my nightmare. The greatest component of Stranger Things that lured me in was the assurance of nostalgia for my favorite decade, and it delivered.

But while I felt transported in time, the perpetual déjà vu of my favorite classics became disappointing. There were moments when I felt the kids on bikes would magically ascend into the sky while evading the government vans, or the acidic slime/symbiotic biology from the monster would elicit a cameo from Ellen Ripley herself. Imitation is the highest form of flattery; it worked for Super 8, but this felt like a carbon copy of my favorite classics instead of progressive imitation.

Creators-writers-directors The Duffer Brothers (32-year-old twins Matt and Ross) were also children of the 90s, and, like me, spent their youth addicted to 80s classics. When they first began to discuss the idea of the show, they were immediately drawn to the paranormal-missing child storyline. From there the discussion escalated to some of the mysteries and conspiracy theories at the end of the Cold War; when rumored projects like MKUltra were concluding.

“The subgenre of children coming in contact [with] and facing off against a terrifying supernatural force is my favorite subgenre in the world, and there’s actually not that much of it. It’s like Stephen King’s It, Dan Simmons’ Summer Of Night, J.J. Abrams’ Super 8. I think there’s an absence of that generally, specifically things starring kids that are not children’s movies. When we were kids we watched Stand By Me and I loved Stand By Me, but that was not a movie that was made for kids. I like that kids are going to watch this, but that it’s not meant for them. It makes it much cooler.

We were just talking about, “Why did we love all this stuff growing up? What was it?” The simple answer is that it’s generally about very ordinary people, whether it’s family or whatnot, coming into contact with something extraordinary. Whether that’s The Shining or E.T., that’s sort of what connects those stories. We were like, “Can we go back to that style of storytelling?” Ross Duffer/Matt Duffer via AV Club

The directors made a bold move by casting the queen of the 80’s herself, Winona Ryder, in early production. Resurrected from what seems like obscurity, Ryder brings as much punch and mania to her performance of the mother of the missing boy. But despite the overwhelming outpour of praise for Ryder by critics (I thought her performance was the weakest of the bunch), the real MVP here is the telekinetic Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). With a shaved head like Ripley, and a youthful innocence like Newt, Eleven may be this year’s Furiosa.

Stranger Things is steeped in 80’s nostalgia so much that you feel like you’re watching a VHS classic. Millie Bobby Brown explains that she was told to watch Poltergeist, Stand By Me and The Goonies prior to filming. The young actors even auditioned with lines from the script of Stand By Me to encapsulate the mood and genre. “It’s very independent. It resembles other movies, but it’s not those movies. It’s completely different.”

Poltergeist

But is it?

Aliens

Despite my qualms with the overabundance of copyrighted nostalgia, the Duffer brothers accomplished a great feat–they got me to watch a television series. This feat is a rarity and seldom gets accomplished with high marks, but the Duffer brothers did television justice.

“We grew up movie guys. It’s not like we didn’t watch shows like X-Files and stuff, but our heart was in movies. That’s what we fell in love with, and that’s what we wanted to do with our lives. I remember seeing the trailer for the first season of True Detective, and what Cary Fukunaga was doing with that, and what Steven Soderbergh was doing with The Knick, and it felt like there was this new generation of filmmakers—not just writers, filmmakers—pushing television into new territory. There was the potential to tell an original story, and not just something that’s purely based on character and dialogue, but also based on the visual.” via AV Club 

What I need to appreciate is that Stranger Things could become a favorite for a new generation; kids who haven’t seen Close Encounters or Halloween or Alien. Or it could give a younger generation the desire to explore the classics of the VHS generation.

For adults like myself, Stranger Things does well at accurately capturing a sense of nostalgia that is almost forgotten, but the homage feels more like an imitation of the authentic films it’s trying to recreate.

Other obvious film references: 

 Stranger Things / Under the Skin

Stranger Things / Minority Report 

“What was that? I should kill everyone and escape? Sorry, it’s the voices. Ahaha, I’m kidding! That’s not what they really said.”

“FUCK YOU, MARVEL,” announced overconfident Suicide Squad writer/director David Ayer at the movie’s world premiere in New York earlier this week. He’s now eating his words.

Suicide Squad is the unconventional superhero film desperately needed in the DC universe (or universe in general) to combat the superhero fatigue everyone is experiencing. What made this project so unique is that it is the first movie in the series of DC adaptations that is not directed by Zack Snyder. Sounds perfect, right??

With the disappointment of Batman v Superman, Warner Brothers felt responsible for proving to the world that they had a firm handle on DC Comics characters. They needed a box office hit fast. Suicide Squad was intended to be their saving grace, but with re-shoots and severe tinkering, their sticky little fingers fudged any possibility of redemption. Warner Brothers only has themselves to blame for the film’s 32% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The hype surrounding this movie has been astronomical. Since it’s killer teaser trailer at last year’s San Diego Comic Con, Suicide Squad was my most anticipated movie of 2016. And their marketing campaign has been building the hype-train heavily for a solid year…more exposure than I can remember from a movie. The problem with movies like this one with such a deep-rooted fan base is that expectations are inconceivably insane. It’s a rarity to please both the fanboys and the critics with comic book source material, but whether it’s positive or negative, everyone is talking about this movie.

But does the movie defy the generic and live up to the hype?

A secret government agency recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute a dangerous black ops mission in exchange for shorted prison sentences and some additional perks. They’re the bad guys, the worst of the worst, but this is their opportunity to use their skills for some good. In short, save the world.

Richard Lawson at Vanity Fair called it: “A shapeless, poorly edited trudge that adds some mildly appalling sexism and even a soupçon of racism to its abundant, hideously timed gun worship.”

Some of the more laughable reviews come from Buzzfeed: “The women can’t control themselves and they’re always dragging down the men around them.” Lol. Somewhere Viola Davis is internally screaming and rightfully so. Looks like Buzzfeed didn’t do their comic book homework.

Marvel raised the bar earlier this year with Deadpool crushing the box office ($782 million) and breaking records. Not only did it prove that an anti-hero could slay the screen, but it also could be done with an R-rating, a first for the X-Men film series, and the highest grossing R-rated film of all time.

“I just wanted to play with the genre. That was in a pre-Deadpool world and the movies had been so serious and straightforward up to that point. I wanted to do something where it was much more based on actor performance and character. Those films sometimes feel a little posy, talkey, the actors are very stiff, just kind of delivering the lines and very expositional. I just wanted to do something with more soul and grit and dirt.” Director David Ayer via Deadline

After writing Training Day and directing films like End Of Watch and Fury, David Ayer has taken a shift toward the superhero universe, but with a different approach to the franchise.

“You know, all these movies are about defeating the evil alien robot from f*cking Planet X, before it destroys the world with its ticking clock. And who the f*ck cares? But you do a story about struggle and isolation and people who have been shit on, that suddenly get thrown this lifeline… that’s not so bad. I like to think of this as Comic-Book Movie 2.0.” David Ayer via MoviePilot 

Though the studio believed there was enough time to get the movie done, a source with ties to the project says it was a sprint from the start. “[Ayer] wrote the script in like, six weeks, and they just went,” he says, arguing that the whole process would have benefited if Ayer had been given more time to work. More time for the grit and dirt was never delivered, and I’m devastated that I didn’t get to see that film.

Pulses dropped and anxiety ensued with fans when the film underwent significant re-shoots in the spring to boost up the “fun” factor. Rumors suggested that Warner Brothers wanted a lighter movie, while Ayer’s original cut was more dark and sombre. That’s the final cut audiences needed, but the studio came to an agreement to meet in the middle and balance the tones. Thus, the PG-13 rating sealed it’s fate.

The final product is choppy, unbalanced and misdirected. There’s some great humor that previous DC films lack, but coherency and structure were nowhere to be found. It’s very obvious now when you watch this where Warner Brothers tweaked the script, or even how the script feels rushed. But it’s a fun movie. It may be riddled with flaws, but strong performances by Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Jared Leto and even Jai Courtney saved the film for me. The rest of the squad? Almost pointless and forgettable.

If you’re looking to be marveled with scenes from Joker’s Jared Leto, don’t hold your breath too hard. He’s not in the film as much as I’d hoped, and that’s a mistake. It also doesn’t help that almost every Joker scene in the movie is already revealed in trailers or television spots. Joker and Harley are unquestionably the scene-stealers of the entire show; scenes between Joker and Harley are so polarizing that you wonder why David Ayer didn’t focus more on them?  Why couldn’t the script make them the “villains” or the antagonists against the squad?

It may not be the best in the superhero franchise, but it’s certainly oozing with some great performances that carry the film. Leto is no Heath Ledger, and no one ever will be, but his version of the loony, comedic mobster fit the bill for me. He may not resonate well with others, especially those keen to the comics, but he’ll be the least of your complaints.

While I was hoping for a ballpark hit like Deadpool or Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad missed the mark. It just tried too damn hard to be cool. If I can applaud David Ayer and their marketing team for anything, it’s that they got a non-DC/Marvel movie fanatic to see a superhero film. They may be  considered the Worst. Heroes. Ever., but this certainly isn’t the worst movie ever. Critics and trolls alike need to take many seats.

“It’s not going to be easy, but it’s going to be awesome. Awesome ain’t easy.”

It takes Steve an hour-and-a-half to get out of bed in the morning, but he hasn’t lost his sense of humor or purpose in this world.

While you think you may have a grasp on what this documentary will cover, you really have no idea until you watch it. This isn’t a documentary about football, and it’s not even a documentary about living with ALS. Gleason is about being human and learning how to survive under extraordinary circumstances.

“My intention is to pass on as much of who I am as I possibly can to you,” Steve Gleason says in the trailer to his unborn son, Rivers.

 The film originated as a passion project after his diagnosis with ALS in 2011, as a series of video journals for his son,  but as time progressed, his project became larger than life.

While director Clay Tweel sifted through 1,300 hours of footage shot by the filmmakers, David Lee and Ty Minton-Small, his direction for the film continued to shift significantly.

“My first instinct was that the movie would be about a guy searching for purpose in his life, and through this tragic diagnosis was able to find himself,” Tweel said. “But I didn’t understand the intergenerational father-son story. I didn’t understand the husband-and-wife story. There were so many more layers going on.”

The documentary premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival to a standing ovation with Variety describing the film as “emotionally wrenching.” The film took home an audience award at the SXSW Film Festival and a special jury prize at the Full Frame Film Festival.

Steve Gleason, who was a defensive back for the New Orleans Saints, is best known for his 2006 block of the opposing team’s punt in a game on September 25 against the Atlanta Falcons broadcast on Monday Night Football. That game was the first time the Saints had played in their home stadium, the Superdome, since before Hurricane Katrina. The play signified a “rebirth” for the city and the franchise. Everyone knows Gleason as a local hero in New Orleans; he’s even been immortalized into a statue outside the Dome.

In 2011 Gleason was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gerig’s Disease—a rare and incurable degenerative autoimmune disease that slowly robs the person afflicted of his or her motor functions, including eventually breathing—ultimately resulting in death.

“Really, my movie isn’t even about ALS. It’s about being a human rather than a kitty cat. Michel and I chose to turn my footage into a feature film because we thought viewers would see themselves in our humanity. We’re two imperfect people striving to find strength, solidarity and love under extraordinary circumstances. I believe the desire to live with purpose, despite the circumstances in one’s life, is universal. If our movie inspires anyone to live life more triumphantly, rather than hanging in there, we’ve succeeded.

When you watch our film, you’ll see elements of football—but it’s not about football. I think sports movies, in general, tend to abide by an almost clichéd storybook narrative. The journey. The struggle. The resolution. The sunset. But from my experience, real life doesn’t work like that. Real life is messy.” Gleason via Sports Illustrated 

Gleason, realistic about the condition, proves that there’s a non-medical treatment for ALS. Technology. Because of eye-tracking technology, which he uses in conjunction with a tablet, he can do anything you or I can do: talk, text, conduct online meetings, watch movies, etc. Steve admits that he even tweet while pooping. Just. Like. You. 

The documentary also covers the passing of the Gleason Act signed by President Obama in 2015. The bill makes speech generating devices, such as the one used by Gleason to communicate, more readily accessible for patients with ALS and other neurological disorders. It does this by making purchase of the devices eligible for reimbursement through Medicare and Medicaid.

As a documentary, the film isn’t perfect for everyone, but if it can be praised for one thing, it’s the power of filmmaking. Perhaps being from New Orleans has created a bias toward my five star rating, because other critics don’t seem to agree with the intentions of the former Saint.

“One comes to distrust Gleason‘s pathos, because the doc always appears to be selling something. It knows it’s one of those films that we’re aren’t culturally allowed to dislike, emotionally boxing us in a corner.” via Slant 

Selling hope? Selling knowledge to the majority of us who are unfamiliar with ALS? Selling the Gleason Act? This isn’t the first time Slant has been asinine and missed the point of a film.

Gleason proves that the power of film-making is extraordinary, because it serves a greater purpose than to just entertain. It educates.

For more information on Team Gleason, visit teamgleason.org.

Great movie soundtracks act like an additional actor in the movie. More than setting, more than costume, more than clever editing in the studio, music is the final dimension that conveys emotion, place and character, sometimes without even having to say a single word.

These compilation albums are the best of their kind, and their accompanying movies would have been lost without them. So grab your headphones, sit back and enjoy the tunes—they’re some of the greatest of all time.

Garden State (2004)

Zach Braff’s directorial debut has influenced an entire generation of movies, and it’s in a large part thanks to its one-of-a-kind soundtrack. With songs from Nick Drake, The Shins, Coldplay, Simon & Garfunkel, Iron & Wine, and Bonnie Somerville, it’s the perfect foil to the antagonist Andrew Largeman’s preoccupation with doubting mood-changing drugs.

While Garden State isn’t everyone’s idea of a good movie, its soundtrack escapes the bad reviews by delivering a fully realized opus on the popularity of good emo rock of the time. The music influenced a whole generation of listeners and movies—Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, anyone? Besides, who didn’t feel Largeman’s “The Only Living Boy in New York” moment?

O Brother Where Art Thou (2000)

This Coen brothers’ film starring George Clooney, John Goodman, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson is one of the best made films of all time, and its soundtrack is equally epic, framing the life and times of escaped convicts in Depression-era Mississippi.

Produced by T-Bone Burnett, the movie is illustrated beautifully through its music by including tunes of Americana and bluegrass and the unique, folksy voices of Diana Krauss, Emmy Lou Harris and Gillian Welch. While it seemed unlikely the American public would fall so hard for the soulful country style of the movie, it became an instant hit after release and rightly deserves its place in soundtrack fame, even if you judge it on this scene alone.

The Lord of the Rings (1999)

No sweeping fantasy epic is complete without a score to match its fanciful world, and no trilogy did a better job at capturing the imagination than The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson’s award-winning trilogy dominated the industry at every level—set design, makeup, costume, acting—which is exactly why the music was so strong as well.

Howard Shore’s film score includes over 10 hours of music and has become the most popular of the composer’s works and certainly defined his career. With influences from English folk to New Zealand Moira sounds, the strong woodwinds and percussion outlined the tone of each of the three movies. The inclusion of nonorchestral instruments such as fiddles and Celtic harps gave it that much-loved individuality. If you haven’t started humming notes from the score after reading this paragraph, I suggest it’s time for another watch. The movie is currently streaming on American Netflix.

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s remake of the “Carnival of Animals” theme for Beauty and the Beast not only earned unanimous praise for songwriting and scoring, but the movie landed a coveted place in the Academy Award for Best Picture category, making it the first animation motion picture ever to receive a nomination.

Music from the film went on to win multiple Grammys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and also two Academy Awards for best original song and best original soundtrack. More than just being critically acclaimed, the music found a place in our hearts, which is probably why the Broadway rendition went on to be such a hit. The live-action reboot starring Emma Watson and Ewan McGregor will be in theaters in 2017.

Marie Antoinette (2006)

How do you make a notoriously spoiled queen real to her audience? You add Converses, endless confectionary colors, and eighties pop punk. Sofia Coppola’s visual orgasm of a movie may not have been well received by critics or the most historically accurate, but to deny that New Order’s “Ceremony” didn’t breathe beautiful life into a character that has long been vilified by the world is just a flat-out lie.

With bands like Bow Wow Wow, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Gang of Four, Marie Antoinette stole the zeitgeist of culture-defining pop punk, bringing Coppola’s heroine into the 21st century. The cleverly mixed, period-perfect odes from Dustin O’Halloran make it a soundtrack masterpiece. Not a believer? Check it out here.

The Graduate (1967)

No movie was ever better defined by one sound than The Graduate and the talented duo Simon and Garfunkel. Without the crucial editing process, it would’ve been a pair that was never to be.

While on the chopping block floor, director Mike Nichols and editor Sam O’Steen couldn’t get the folksy tunes of Sound of Silence out of their heads. After they decided it was crucial to the tone of the tale, S&G got on board to complete the rest of the album, which is how “Mrs. Robinson” and the movie that defined a generation came to be. Evoking the lost generation’s lack of complicity with the confines of social life during the 1970s, it is perhaps one of the most iconic film and sound pairings of all time.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

A classic movie is so much more enjoyable when it’s got a perfectly matched score, and when it comes to Tarantino, he leaves no detail left unnoticed. From Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” to Kool & the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie,” the music selection is top-of-the-line and perfectly balanced in the Tarantino world.

With classics spanning genres from surf to rock and roll, the movie’s dark humor and regular violence are at times smoothed by the pristine music selection and always perfectly paired. I mean, could you imagine the movie without the almost forgotten classic “Misirlou” by Dick Dale & His Del-Tones before the Black Eyed Peas covered it? Yeah, me neither.

As good as these soundtracks are in the movies, I have to make the case that they stand alone for listen-only sessions as well, which makes them not just great soundtracks but great musical playlists in their own right. Don’t agree that these are the best there is? Leave your favorites in the comments below.

About the author
 Caroline Black is a music and movie aficionado, always happy to talk about her favorite scenes and favorite tunes. She’s a fan of Netflix bingeing and is always on the lookout for the next greatest film and musical hit.

Thanks to Wendell @Dell on Movies and KG @KG’s Movie Rants for putting together the Against the Crowd Blogathon!

Here are the rules:
1. Pick one movie that “everyone” loves (the more iconic, the better). That movie must have a score of at least 75% on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you hate it.

2. Pick one movie that “everyone” hates (the more notorious, the better). That movie must have a score of less than 35% on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you love it.

3. Include the tomato meter scores of both movies.

4. Use one of the banners in this post, or feel free to create your own.

5. Comment on this post, or on KG’s Movie Rants with the two movies you intend on writing on.

6. Publish your post on any day from Monday August 22 through Friday August 26, 2016.

Everybody Loved But I Hated…

Two years ago I declared Boyhood to be the most overrated movie of the year, and I still stand by that statement. At the Academy Awards, it was a battle of the best between Boyhood and Birdman; the latter deservingly taking home the gold and glory.

With a nearly perfect 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (only five critics out of 258 dared to negatively review) and a 100% ranking at Metacritic (ranks as the highest scored new release for at least this century at Metacritic),  New York Times film critic A.O. Scott hails Boyhood as “one of the most extraordinary movies of the 21st century.” And I’m left here wondering…why?

Director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Before Trilogy) chronicles 12 year’s in the life of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) where we literally watch him mature on screen. Linklater’s 12-year filming project touches groundbreaking territory using the same cast transforming and molding the characters based on the development of the child actors. The film includes notable performances by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, but those performances couldn’t save a film that I thought coasted on neutral for the entirety of the movie. Sure, it’s a glimpse into one boy’s life, the chaos of divorced parenthood, the struggles and inadequacy of “finding yourself” … but the ups and downs of the movie are minimal while the plot flatlines for three hours.

I appreciate Linklater’s ambitious project, but this monotonous movie is by far a crowd-pleaser I’ll never understand. Patricia Arquette took home the Academy Award for best actress, another nod I don’t fully understand, because the performance wasn’t her best. It was a comeback if anything. I know I’m in the minority on this one, but I just wanted something with a little more depth.

Everybody Hated But I Loved…

Practical Magic is one of my guilty pleasure movies that I watch almost every year. It may be a calculated chick flick, considered garbage by most, but it introduced the world to the holy union of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, midnight margaritas and that being normal isn’t a virtue – rather denotes a lack of courage.

Practical Magic is a 1998 rom-com oozing with 90s appeal; witches were then what the zombie craze is now. The film was directed by Griffin Dunne (who?) and stars Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest and Aidan Quinn. It also features a young Evan Rachel Wood and Camilla Belle.

The movie follows the Owen sisters, Sally and Gillian, as they struggle to use their hereditary powers to overcome obstacles in discovering true love. Cliche? No matter.

The general reception to this film in the 90s wasn’t well-received by critics who called it Hollywood fluff, an absolute waste of time and an uneven adaptation of the novel it’s based upon. This decade provided some of the best Hollywood fluff, a genre that we don’t see in the current day, or at least nothing good enough worth remembering. I yearn for this type of movie fluff to return to theaters…instead we get reboots and remakes galore.

According to Sandra Bullock in the DVD commentary, in the scene where the Owens women are drunk and slinging insults, the actresses actually got drunk on very bad tequila brought by Kidman.

It’s a very overlooked film, but I argue that the performances and chemistry by all involved is complete A-game despite some of the cheesy dialogue.

The movie also features an incredible soundtrack with the likes of Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell and 90s newcomer Faith Hill.

It may be a flawed film, but I’d take a movie like this any day over another disaster blockbuster like Suicide Squad. Bring on the fluff!

Rebellious teenage orphan Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) is shipped off to live with a foster family in the New Zealand countryside. Unhappy with his new surroundings, he attempts to run away and hide in the unforgiving wilderness. His reluctant caretaker Hector (Sam Neill) eventually finds him, and the unlikely duo survive in the harsh terrain as a nationwide manhunt is launched to find them.

Chalk this one down to not living in one of the big cities. I missed it the first time around, then it left and then it came back to theaters. I wasn’t going to let it get away from me again. No, I haven’t seen What We Do in the Shadows but I am familiar with director Taika Waititi and his quirky brand of comedy.

Ricky Baker (Dennison) is an orphan born on the wrong side of the tracks. In an attempt to straighten him out, he is sent to live with a foster family in the New Zealand countryside. This comes as a big culture shock for him. It’s probably easy to guess what happens next, but it’s better than than what you’d expect. Once he learns more about his foster parents, Hector (Neil) and Bella (Rima Te Wiata), and the area, he is persuaded to stay. After a freak tragedy, Ricky is forced to leave his new foster home. In revolt, he runs away into the wilderness, getting lost and eventually being found by Hector.

Hounding them was Ricky’s over-the-top social worker Paula (Rachel House). She had taken great offense to Ricky’s unwillingness to leave and made it her mission to get him back. The plot escalates when Ricky and Hector become fugitives with the whole nation on the hunt to find them. The two must move around, trying to survive by living off the land, running into countless quirky characters along the way.

What is noticeable early on is the contrast between Hector and Ricky. Hector knows how to survive off the land and Ricky has absolutely no clue. Since Ricky is a newcomer to the wilderness, watching him learn to survive was entertaining; it’s easy to get invested in this character, because he’s so likeable. Hector wasn’t much of a fan of Ricky initially, but over time grew closer to him as he started to break down his own walls. Their chemistry made them dynamite together as the film experimented with the generational gap between the two resulting in amazing exchanges from the smart and comical script.

The acting here was excellent with Dennison and Neill carrying the film. Dennison stole the majority of scenes, often looming above the more experienced Neill.  His screen presence and likability allowed him to stand out in many scenes and his charisma made him a believable kid from the streets. All the people they met along the way were pretty much caricatures, but their quirkiness was very endearing addition to the mix.

It should be mentioned that the film’s cinematography showcased the beauty of the New Zealand wilderness adding intrigue to the film. This was just a very beautiful film to look at if anything else. While the film is mostly focused on Ricky and Hector, there is still more depth to this coming of age story.

Score: 9.5/10

For more, please visit keithlovesmovies.com.

Hello, lovelies. Thank you to Courtney at On The Screen Reviews for allowing me to do a guest post. Today I wanted to list my personal top 10 fantasy films. I am a big lover of films and so being able to do a Top 10 is right up my street. So, lets begin!

10. The Aristocats

Disney and a story of cats. You cannot get better than that. This is one of the best Disney films in my opinion. It’s comedy, story plot and music is so lovable and glorious.

9. Hook

Hook is such a good sequel to the well known story of Peter Pan. Not only is Robin Williams brilliant in this film, but the story is also on point and adventurous.

8. Edward Scissorhands

Such a beautiful, yet such a sad film. My heart sobs for Johnny Depp’s character all the way through this film. Normality is not always the best thing in society and Edward Scissorhands shows that.

7. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

When looking at it’s cover, this film may look cringe-worthy, but it is actually far from it and focuses on the importance of friends, especially when family lets you down.

6. The Star Wars films

I do not believe I ever need to justify why the Star Wars films are so good. If you want adventure, space battles, weird robots and badass characters, holla at Star Wars.

5. Coraline

So creepy, yet so intriguing. I guess this film just shows that nothing is as it seems and the world is a very peculiar place if you look in-between the cracks. If you get the chance, look at some of Tim Burton’s films too, as they follow the same kind of style shown in Coraline.

4. Howl’s Moving Castle

Again, another amazing Studio Ghibli film. Man, if I could put all the films in this fantasy film review, I would! However, that would then make it a Studio Ghibli list instead of a fantasy list. Basically, watch all the Studio Ghibli films, especially this one! How’s Moving Castle can relate to all of us, regarding how we may see ourselves and their are so many life lessons that you learn from it!

3. Spirited Away

I am a massive fan of Studio Ghibli films, especially Spirited Away, as it was the first one that I had the pleasure of watching. Like all Studio Ghibli films, Spirited Away is so bizarre, yet so powerful and lovable. It is a film you can watch whatever your mood.

2. The Lord Of The Rings/ The Hobbit Trilogies

I have been a lover of Middle Earth since a very early age when I accidentally saw my Mum watching it one evening and the next day, me and my Brother hijacked it and started watching it. Needless to say my parents were pretty stunned when they came in and saw us entranced by Lord of The Rings. It has magic, it has friendship, it has very strange beasts and elves, as well as battles and love. Both The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies are a definite go to.

1. Labyrinth

This film is so weird, yet so wonderful and iconic. If you ever want a film that will cheer you up, Labyrinth is the one!

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So there is my top 10 favorite fantasy films. If you would like to check out my blog; it is https://rhiannaelizabethblog.wordpress.com/

Rhi. X

The Birth of a Nation is a great made for TV movie. There. I said it.

Nation is being billed as an important movie — a story that demands to be heard. I hear it, but my most anticipated movie of the year has left me completely empty.

Since it’s double win in January at the Sundance Film Festival taking home both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize, Nation was the movie to beat in the 2017 Oscar race. The film was picked up by distributor Fox Searchlight who ushered movies like Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave and Birdman to Best Picture glory. It’s been the most talked about movie of 2016…but for all the wrong reasons.

Director Nate Parker said he wanted to make a film that fell in line with films like Braveheart and Defiance, where the opposed rose up against the oppressors. But let me tell you, this is no Braveheart.

The film  chronicles the life of Nat Turner and the slave rebellion he led in Virginia in 1831. It’s an important story to tell, especially following the controversial #OscarsSoWhite 2015 year that put the Academy in ill-favored territory for it’s lack of diversity. Nate Parker was going to be the saving grace for the Academy this year — he wrote, directed, produced and starred in the film.There’s one slight complication though – Parker’s controversial past.

Variety recently published a story re-surfacing rape allegations made against Parker. Seventeen years ago, when Parker was a student wrestler at Penn State, he and his teammate Jean Celestin (who has a story credit on Birth of a Nation) stood trial for allegedly raping a woman in Parker’s dorm room. Parker was acquitted; Celestin was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to six months in prison, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. The victim killed herself in 2012.

Oscar history tells us that there are no secrets during award seasons and all closeted skeletons find their way into the spotlight. Even though Parker has been in other movies, and his history is documented on Wikipedia, more fame = more spotlight = more scrutiny. This isn’t the Nate Parker story though, it’s the Nat Turner story, but Parker, who has not been accused of assault since the trial, has been compared to R. Kelly, Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Bill Cosby. Many critics are struggling to separate the art from the artist, and Parker’s interviewing skills are not working in his favor.

When he was first asked about the rape— during an interview to which he brought his six-year-old daughter—he did not mention the victim, but said, “Seventeen years ago, I experienced a very painful moment in my life. It resulted in it being litigated. I was cleared of it. That’s that.”

Despite the allegations surrounding Parker, I was able to separate the artist from his art. And to be honest, the art is mediocre at best. Important? Absolutely. A great film? Absolutely not.

The film fails to deliver the raw impact of previous films on the atrocities of slavery.It follows a very paint-by-numbers exposition of Nat Turner’s story and the brutality of the Antebellum South. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Steve McQueen’s powerhouse 12 Years a Slave. Although 12 Years wasn’t about the resistance, it delivered more punch in every capacity that Nation couldn’t quite muster. When you compare the two, the latter feels like a cheap knockoff burdened with amateur film-making. There’s a brief scene in 12 Years with Paul Giamatti who delivers more emotional punch in 60 seconds than any of the actors in Birth of a Nation. I’m not saying that I didn’t care about their plight, but there was something severely lacking. Parker’s performance is worthy of mention, but other characters felt underdeveloped, rushed and even forced.

Biblical metaphors are blatantly scattered throughout the film to the point where I felt like I was being force-fed the material. Movies like this shouldn’t feel forced; it should feel like you’re actually watching history on screen, not like a Lifetime movie. Scenes including an ear of corn literally bleeding was the last straw in metaphorical imagery that I could handle. Other scenes felt tailor-made and poorly edited. Matt Donato says it best adding: “Same goes for an angelic incarnation of Nat’s wife (forgotten in plot after a savage beating), who appears wearing angle wings that look like they were purchased at a local costume store.” The message and intentions of the brutality of slavery and injustice were clear, but the execution didn’t quite hit the mark.

“The reality is, I wrote this film from the standpoint of a young man who didn’t have heroes growing up. I lived in an environment where the idea of a black, intellectual person of faith, that had integrity, respected his community and was willing to sacrifice for everyone, was an oxymoron. These things just didn’t seem to exist in the same space, ever.” Parker via Deadline

Parker wanted his movie to inspire a movement, but I left feeling uninspired. I applaud Parker for his efforts, but I think he wore too many hats in this film juggling the roles of producer/writer/actor/director and the cinematic focus got lost in translation.

While Parker’s past may or may not influence Oscar voters come award season, this isn’t an Oscar-worthy film to even include in the conversation. Although Parker’s history left a bad taste in my mouth personally, I didn’t let it influence my opinion of this movie. An important story doesn’t always translate into an exceptional film, and it’s okay to admit that.

Steve McQueen thanks you for your time.

With the awards season ebbing towards us we ought to pay some respect to the films gone by in 2016 before they get swept away. More specifically, then, with an array of cinematic moments to choose from I plucked these 7 indelible scenes from 7 very different movies, which have all left their mark on me in various ways. By no means my favorite moments, or my favorite movies (though some are), but certainly deserve their pin in the 2016 map. In no particular order…

Catwalk (The Neon Demon)

So much to choose from in Nicolas Winding Refn’s thoroughly messy whole, a sum of a few stunning parts – technically and in content. Do I opt for the mountain cat in the hotel room? The necrophilic embrace? The knife-driven oral sex nightmare? The vomiting up the eyeball? Bathing in blood? At the center somewhere of the drawn out, obnoxiously executed neo-noir effort is the notion of supermodels exceeding their peak and being replaced by younger, more natural girls. The catwalk audition sequence is perhaps the least schizophrenic and colorful of the movie, but is way ahead with pure, simple meaning. Jesse is a sight of beauty to behold, and Sarah is just too damn old. The scene, shot meticulously and slowly, eyes and expressions tell the story, with bright crossing dull in an architecture of whites and the like.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy Fight (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies)

One does find it easier to believe that not everyone has read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice than one would believe that they haven’t imagined or envisaged that the stubborn lovebirds at the center of the story have a good old-fashioned scuffle. In the ridiculously grand, flesh-eating, tongue-in-cheek version of the classic novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy actually do go head-to-head. Elizabeth kicks him full force before hurling books at him, and that is only the start of it as she grabs the fire poker. Some standard martial arts ensues, you know, she gets leg-swept, he gets round-housed. There’s also a bit of swift button removing on Darcy’s waistcoat from Elizabeth, before he slashes back at her revealing yet more cleavage – you see, there is still then some of the sexually driven tension from the book. When the bedlam dies down, Mr. Darcy leaves, giving his best wishes in true Jane Austen fashion. Splendid.

Mephisto Waltz (Victoria)

When Victoria meets and then proceeds in hanging out with a bunch of unknown lads you can’t help feel there may be danger ahead. The entire film is a remarkable achievement for following through with this, while still remaining gripping and fairly unpredictable. Victoria’s attachment to one of the boys, Sonne, certainly carries some mutual attraction, and one scene between them is one of the more sedated but poignant of the movie. Stopping off at the cafe where she works, Victoria is challenged by Sonne to have a crack on the piano. She does so, and unbeknown to him, she plays Mephisto Waltz by Franz Liszt expertly and beautifully. Victoria claims she always wanted be a pianist until she was knocked back. Sonne is rightly impressed by her talent and dreams, as are we watching, a lovely, character-building scene in a movie rife with rapid action sequences and dark narrative passages.

Would That It Were So Simple (Hail, Caesar!)

Up-and-coming actor Tobey has already in quick succession called his director “Mr. Laurence” three times, and thus corrected with “Laurentz” each time. Later, calling him Mr. Laurentz, Toby is told to use “Laurence” which confuses the poor kid: “We can use Christian names, my good dear boy, Laurence is fine.” Laurence Laurentz. Of course. What follows is a simply hilarious exchange between the two of them regarding the pronunciation of one basic line, to which the hapless actor is asked to repeat it exactly as Laurentz is about to. Sounds so simple. Laurentz delivers the line with such professional ease, whereas Tobey misreads the emphasis: “My dear boy, why do you say that? Why do you say, twuuuuuh?” exclaims the director with ample disgust. The short scene soon builds much more hilarity, when Laurentz expresses the line with his hand gesture, to which Tobey mimics in return only to get a rapid hand slap “Keep your head still.” or when he asks him to say “Would that it’were so simple. Trippingly.” the boy responds “Would that it twuuuuuuh, so simple. Trippingly.” “Don’t say trippingly. Say the line trippingly.”. By the time you’re watching the over-lapping repetition of their respective takes on the line you’ll be watching through tears of laughter.

Reality On The Outside (10 Cloverfield Lane)

Through the edge-of-your-seat guessing games, the scissor melting, the girl in the photo not who we all thought, the uncomfortable dinners, the doomed woman smashing her head against the vault glass, the human urge to simply know the reality whether the world is under attack or that your captive is a nutbag. The marvel of 10 Cloverfield Lane is that it plays yo-yo with your own expectations and suspicions throughout. When the courageous heroine Michelle, home-made shower-curtain safety-suit-clad, finally breaks free from the clutches of the disturbed Howard and his apocalyptic-prepped bunker, she is apprehensive about her new freedom in the outside world. Fearing Howard was indeed right, she she sees birds freely flocking above her – the whole dynamic of her semi-brainwashing turns on its head. A helicopter-sound prompts her to leap atop a car to reveal what she can see, those noises become more surreal and louder – that is no helicopter, but an alien spacecraft. Michelle now believes with her own eyes, this is just too much to take as she exclaims “Oh come on!”.

Escape To Victory (Mustang)

Mustang’s tough-and-tumble subject matter is handled beautifully through vivid lighting and hopeful little faces. A merciful distraction from the confinements of the sisters comes through not just a form of escape but also a moment of genuine humor. Football-fan Lale refuses to be forbidden to see Trabzonspor’s current big game. The girls come together and make it happen, sneaking out, though they sadly miss the all-girls bus that would take them there, the kind truck driver Yasin is persuaded to help. The girls are overwhelmed, overjoyed by the sporting spectacle, moments of pure young euphoria ensue. However, just as the men in the family and local village come together to watch too, their aunt shockingly sees the girls in the crowd on the television. In a panic, the female relatives also join forces to firstly cut the power to the house – but then hilariously the entire village it seems.

Caleb’s Possession (The Witch)

It does not look good for poor Thomasin, her big sister credibility thrown almost entirely out of the window in a matter of moments, firstly her baby brother disappears completely in from of her eyes, then bares witness to Caleb’s vanishing, later returning suffering cold sweats and demonic possession. It’s a horrifying enough state of affairs for her own parents who now cast the accusative net also on their daughter – while Caleb is being ripped apart by pure evil, the twin siblings lash out at Thomasin who they claim to be the witch. It’s a terrifying pandemonium, shot in an enclosed, dark room that’s supposed to be full of joyful family memories, but instead full to the brim with fear and panic. And as an audience member you feel the dreaded delirium. Of course we’ve seen possessed children before on film, but the urgent, relentless bedlam and horror here is too powerful and affecting to forget.

Edited writing originally featured over at Write out of L.A. earlier this year.

On the Screen Reviews has been active in the blogosphere since 2012, and during this four-year span, I’ve serendipitously stumbled upon other great movie blogs.

I’ve never made an appreciation post to the websites I frequent and interact with, so I’ve decided it’s time to pay respect. These are the top 10 movie blogs you should be following, and they’re the ones I interact with the most.

In no particular order, here’s some clickbait.

Cinematic Corner

Assholes Watching Movies

Let’s Go To The Movies

Mr. Rumsey’s Film Related Musings

Rambling Film

Dell on Movies

Flixchatter

Write Out of L.A.

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These are the top 10 bloggers you should be following now. If you’re not, be sure to add them to your feedly, tweet them, email them and engage with them!
Tell them Courtney sent you!

“What we lost in the fire, we’ll find in the ashes.”

 It’s been 56 years since Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen burst onto the screen introducing a generation to one of the greatest Westerns of all time. Now, director Antoine Funque (Training Day) has decided to resurrect a nearly extinct genre for a new generation of cowboys.

If you’re familiar with my reviews, you’ll know that I’m not the biggest fan of remakes or reboots, especially when you’re tapping into golden nostalgia. I’m also not a fan of Westerns or shoot-em-up flicks, so what sold me on The Magnificent Seven?

Generations of Magnificence

The Magnificent Seven (1960) is actually a remake of the 1954 Japanese epic Seven Samurai. Whether or not you believe this is a story in need of of re-tellling, Funqua cites our current political atmosphere is the perfect opportunity to modernize a classic with diverse heroes attempting to halt political corruption.

Cinephiles have to wait until the Fall for studios unleash the Oscar contenders and more substantial blockbusters. As Trevor Dueck noticed “Summer 2016 was a bit lackluster, but the September-to-December offerings should renew our love for film with some well-told stories. It was kind of funny to see how many people were pissed off that they made a remake of The Magnificent Seven. Regardless, this film has two of Hollywood’s most bankable stars in Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt.”

The film follows seven gun men in 1879 in the old west who gradually come together to help a poor village against corrupt industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard). The seven include Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). 

What initially had me apprehensive about the film was the desire to re-create a classic, albeit one I’ve never seen, but Fuqua impressed me with his reasoning for re-opening this Western file.

“One of the most important things is that I believe in what Kurosawa said [with] Seven Samurai, and what Sturges continued: People coming together to stop tyranny. And the idea that perfect strangers that may be a little rough around the edges, flawed characters, can still do the right thing. They were fighting against something bigger than themselves. We’re still dealing with people who are just terrorizing other people. We’re still dealing with people who are abusing other people, burning up the churches, killing people in the streets.” Antoine Fuqua via IndieWire

The relevancy of the subject is undeniable, but without a completely perfect cast, this would be a tough film to sell for a third time. When Fuqua met with studio executives to begin casting, he found the cast originally selected were all white. Fortunately, he was able to sway the studio to give him a more diverse cast that audiences could relate to. And thank God for that.

But some disagree with Fuqua’s casting decisions.

“The Magnificent Seven, like another recent ragtag-band-of-outsiders-saving-the-day movie, Suicide Squad, is an awkward milestone in Hollywood’s ongoing and urgent conversation about representation. As a sheer feat of casting, it feels like it deserves a salute — a $100ish million remake of a 1960 Western in which four of the titular seven aren’t white. The Magnificent Seven is quick-shooting, dynamite-blasting evidence that the filmmakers and executives behind it agree that onscreen diversity is important, but not that they understand that diversity might mean something more than simply having characters of color show up.” via Buzzfeed.

Fuqua incorporated diverse casting decisions such as African-American Denzel Washington, Korean Byung-hun Lee and Mexican Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. It may sound like an unusual mix of characters for a period piece, but the final product felt like one of the least-forced diversified casting in recent memory and is actually not too unrealistic either.

It’s a decision Fuqua argues reflects historical reality more than it does any attempt to modernize the story. Fuque tells Vulture that “There were a lot of black cowboys, a lot of Native Americans; Asians working on the railroads. The truth of the West is more modern than the movies have been.”

The film also features a dominant female performance by Haley Bennett (The Equalizer, Hardcore Henry) who shows as much true grit as her male co-stars. It’s still a damsel in distress role, but this girl can also handle a rifle and take care of herself. She’s not your typical female character who relies on male characters to save her, and we can thank Fuqua for that.

What I can appreciate about Mag7 is that it transported me to a time I was unfamiliar with capturing all the nuances of the Old West: the dusty frontier, nomadic lifestyle, the bandits and lawmen, the spurs and cowboy boots. Fuqua’s comparison of old day to present day has made the film even more relevant than becoming your typical blockbuster.

“We still need some magnificent men and women, like we do have in our military and in our service community, to help stop that. But it it has to be all of us,” Fuqua said. “And that’s not just ‘us’ meaning America. Everybody has to throw a hand in there to help, you know? That’s what I think the movie says, how are we still dealing with the same thing? Why are we still dealing with taking advantage of other people this way? And that’s the idea there.” via IndieWire

What did you think of this modern Western? Let me know in the comments!

I’m spreading the word about the LGBT film experience, and I’ve picked 7 little wonders of the film world that delve into transsexual lifestyle, forbidden love, secret affections, identity crises , homophobia, etc. Spanning the corners of the world, from Canada, France, and England, to Sweden and Greece, then Iran and over to Cuba. The stories told here on celluloid are great ones, enlightening reflections on the human spirit and depictions of romantic, sensual bonds. So dig out your watch-lists and make room for the following seven:

Laurence Anyways (2012)

Someone recently told me, as we were preparing this series, that any LGBT film coverage might not quite be the same without an entry from the Canadian boy-wonder Xavier Dolan. With Laurence Anyways, an open, honest, at times astonishing, romantic drama, Dolan wrote, directed and edited. He is a film-maker with a clear talent for the visual medium with style, execution and story-telling, churning out a well-built narrative at his own pace and prowess. The movie tells the story between Frédérique (Fred) and Laurence, a man who soon confides his true longing to be a woman. The relationship is a brittle one, but pulled together with an undeniable, and recognizable force, as Fred and Laurence frolic and fight their way through an intense, enduring adult journey. Laurence of course has his own transition to contend with, but the hot-headed Fred is brutally honesty in her own coping with not just the change of gender, but Laurence’s general attitude and behavior. The film is as much about the mechanics of a deep-rooted companionship in all it’s loyalty and conflict as it is a transgender tale. As it soars beyond the two and a half hour mark, Dolan somehow keeps things fresh and relevant, closing the picture with two marvelous scenes. As Laurence and Fred meet again years later, he tells her he got the hair flick from her, reminding us and them how much she supported him as he became a woman – mannerisms, fixing her, what to wear. They soon bicker again, but it all contributes to the natural little observations of their relationship. The final scene goes right back to the beginning, how they met, so sweet and authentic in its depiction that even after the turbulence you have just witnessed, you are almost swept off your feet again.

A hit at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, the film nabbed the Queer Palm Award, as well as the Un Certain Regard Best Actress Award for the stupendously great Suzanne Clément – and well deserved, if just for the coffee shop outburst alone – she blows me away every time I see it.

My Summer of Love (2004)

BAFTA-winning drama My Summer of Love marks another excellent British venture for Polish film-maker Pawel Pawlikowski (now an Academy Award winner with Ida), set during a West Yorkshire summer. From different backgrounds, Mona (Natalie Press) and Tamsin (Emily Blunt) meet and embark on personal exploration and expression; the girls begin to bond, swigging alcohol, swimming, smoking, secret-sharing – even going to the extent to swear an oath of death should they lose each other. The brief, passionate lesbian relationship that forms is a natural progression for the two girls who are keen to push aside the troubles of their respective lives and find in each other a seemingly felicitous companionship. Both young actresses Blunt and Press are superb.

Una Noche (2012)

Lucy Mulloy’s extraordinary Una Noche is memorable for many reasons. The youthful energy of the three teenagers at the heart of the story. The relentless, sweltering heat of the Havana streets. The empathetic struggles of restricted, ambitious youth. Following (and narrated by) Lila (Anailín de la Rúa de la Torre) a teenage girl bewildered by the concept of sex, her twin brother Elio (Javier Núñez Florián) who has a bond so strong with troubled / troublesome best friend Raul (Dariel Arrechaga) that we later discover very different outlooks they have on each other. Raul thinks he knows about the realm of sexuality, but does not fully see that Elio wants him even after a kiss from the closeted brother, and earlier tries to lure an older prostitute who turns out to be transgender. The movie is about the twins primarily, but Raul’s subplot, fighting the struggles of poverty and disease, doing what he has to do to escape is a true monument to the movie.

Show Me Love (1998)

Written and directed by Lukas Moodysson, Show Me Love, set in the small town of Åmål, opens with a bout of explosive sibling squabbling – which sets the scene for Agnes (Rebecka Liljeberg) to fascinatingly stare over at Elin (Alexandra Dahlström) amidst a bunch of teenage girls bickering in the school halls. There’s a real free-spirited comedy element here as well as coming-of-age drama, reminiscent in tone to those John Hughes classics. These teenage girls verbalize their angst like it’s going out of fashion, it’s a raw, candid depiction of melodramatic adolescence, also proving young love is like any love, it can hurt you, humiliate you, as well as stir your most euphoric senses. The unison of Elin and Agnes takes time, even though the strong feelings are there, given how teenagers have such illustrious reputations to think about, which lesbianism would only taint. The film was given the title Show Me Love when the Hollywood industry frowned upon the original Swedish title Fucking Åmål (ending its Oscar Foreign Language bid). Fucking Tinseltown.

Plein sud (2009)

Translated to “Going South”, the French drama Plein sud is heavy on relations between strangers and family members, a film that attempts to focus on human expression and emotions in the long and short term. When Sam (Yannick Renier) finds himself in contact with his estranged mother, he sets off on a road trip from France to Spain, picking up three travelers along the way – Lea (Léa Seydoux), her brother Mathieu (Théo Frilet), and Jeremie (Pierre Perrier). Both Lea and Mathieu ae attracted to the somewhat distracted Sam, who soon shows his availability to the brother (while Lea hooks up with Jeremie). Director Sebastien Lifshitz keeps tensions raw throughout, in two particular sexual sequences Mathieu hears his sister’s pleasurable moans, while Lea herself later decides against watching as her brother and Sam get at it on the beach.

Circumstance (2011)

Love and affection is often born regardless of age, religion and gender. Set in modern day Tehran, Circumstance does not take any sides, a drama that although is political as much as it is romantic, is not shy in demonstrating the disruption of constructed family life, but more so a certain clandestine mutual attraction between two girls from very different family lives. Partying hard behind the scenes, Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) and her best friend Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) spend every private moment with longing looks, holding hands, as well as some truly electric sensual moments. Writer-director Maryam Keshavarz makes the female embrace so breath-taking you can just about touch it, telling a convincing story of lesbian love so magnetically intimate in their restrictive Iran culture. Boosheri and Kazemy bring shimmering, simmering passion to their seamless on-screen chemistry, keeping emotions and sexual tension on an extended hair’s end – all the while an enthusiastic, if somewhat repressed, layer of first love vibrates on the surface.

Angelos (1982)

You don’t have to stand too far back when getting to grips in your own head how films depicting homosexuality still appear to garner breakthrough status. So when you go back to 1982 with the Greek film Angelos, you just crave to go back and experience the audience reactions to such an openly gay portrayal. Giorgos Katakouzinos’s compelling drama is not afraid to let the camera linger among the gay community thriving on the dance floor keeping disco alive, but bigger than that it shows the exposure of the queer culture, how it affects them, and those around them. Angelos himself is involved in a questionable lifestyle when he meets a confident lover, but the ramifications his homosexuality has on his family is in this instance a truly tragic outcome, in one of the the film’s most powerful scenes. That, and the final scene of violent self-expression. A depiction of homophobia this appears to be then, an attitude that is sadly still familiar today, making Angelos even more important and essential.

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Taken from the 100 LGBT Film Experiences series at writeoutofla.com – click here for the final part and links to the other nine.

“At some point you’ve got to decide for yourself who you gonna be. And let nobody make that decision.”

Moonlight brings the internal struggle of being a gay black man in America out of the shadows by shining a light on the concept of masculinity within the context of personal identity.

“What’s a faggot?” asks young Chiron, mercilessly bullied by classmates each day, because they consider him different.

Moonlight unfolds in three chapters of one man’s life, from childhood to young adulthood, as he discovers who he is as a black, homosexual man in the Miami projects. With themes including race, homophobia, identity and black masculinity, it’s a miracle that a film of this nature was made. It’s going to be the answer to last year’s #OscarsSoWhite.

The film is based on the unproduced play by gay black playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. “Black men loving each other is a radical idea,” McCraney admit. It certainly isn’t a conventional story, but it’s one that desperately needs to be told.

Being poor, black and struggling with sexual identity are things I know absolutely nothing about. What I can relate to in Moonlight is identity and how society can negatively affect personal development in crucial stages of life. It’s bold exploration of personal adversity is exactly what the world needs to see right now.

Director and writer Barry Jenkins returns from an eight-year film-making hiatus (this will be his second feature after Medicine For Melancholy) to tackle one of the most personal and necessary films of 2016. It’s as beautiful as it is powerful, and it’s message continues to marinate long after viewing. As The Fader describes it, “the movie sometimes unfolds like an episode of The Wire as re-imagined by the French filmmaker Claire Denis.”

Moonlight premiered at the Telluride Film Festival then the Toronto International Film Festival surrounded by a Goliath of hot-ticket films. News of the film spread by word-of-mouth as TIFF’s breakout must-see-movie, surpassing the bigger-budgeted star-studded premiers. I was fortunate enough to catch this indie gem at the New Orleans Film Festival.

“The reaction has been amazing,” says the 36-year-old Jenkins in Toronto. He is visibly thrilled – and relieved – to be receiving such acclaim for only his second film. “I’ve had a 65-year-old straight white man bawling in my arms.”

The film follows the life of Chiron in three monumental stages of his life: childhood, adolescence and young adulthood (all played by different actors). The journey of Chiron to self-discovery is tumultuous and heartbreaking.

The first chapter follows young Chiron, aka Little, (Alex Hibbert) who has no father and a junkie mother. His introversion is met with aggression from schoolyard bullies, and his only mentor is a drug dealing kingpin named Juah, magnificently portrayed by House of Cards’ and Luke Cage’s Mahershala Ali. Juah’s relationship with Chiron is my favorite coupling in the film; he takes Chiron under his wing helping him on his path to self-
discovery.

When we meet Chiron as a lanky, impressionable teenager (Ashton Sanders) nicknamed “Black” against his liking, we discover his introversion has overcome his ability to connect with the outside world. From his dialogue to the way he carries himself perpetually slumped over, his inability to express himself crawls off the screen.

The transition to adult Chiron (Trevante Rhodes) is a heartbreaking overcompensation of masculinity to conceal his homosexuality. His hyper-masculinity is accompanied by bulging muscles and a thug-like exterior; an identity to be feared and respected as a dealer on the streets.

Throughout these stages, he meets, loses then reconnects with his only real love, Kevin.

“We don’t get to see stories about these people so we don’t really get to humanise them and see how they get this way. To me it’s groundbreaking that people are responding to a character like this. You walk past someone like him all the time. You see the grills and assume all these things. Fifteen years ago, that kid loved ballet but the world has beaten it out of him.” Barry Jenkins via The Guardian

One of the greatest accomplishment’s of Moonlight is it’s ability to capture both beauty and sorrow so artistically on screen without being preachy. The way Jenkins frames each shot is both methodical and unconventional. His story unfolds delicately like a dreamy memory in the corner of your mind juxtaposed with the dirty, unapologetic Miami streets. Instead of inviting the cliche hip hop beat into any scene, Jenkins chooses the unexpected Mozart to classically pair with Chiron’s ugly reality.

While some had preconceived notions that this may be the black response to Brokeback Mountain, it’s not. At all. The dialogue and internal performances reminded me of a more modern Carol, both grappling with society pressure and treatment. But unlike Carol, which I found dull as dirt, Moonlight has a pulse and heart that bleeds off the screen.

Moonlight is timeless and relevant now more than ever. It’s these inherent fears of acceptance and love that continue to hold us back, and Jenkins and his tremendous troupe bring these issues to the forefront where they belong.

As we hurtle towards the film industry’s awards season beyond the festival circuit, I tend to fall deep into the heartbreak of those that don’t make it to the Oscar nominations. I know, the Academy Awards are miles away, but those in the field of reporting and predicting the Oscars are already talking about it. Not all can make the final cut of course amidst the politics of preferences, and I am never short of choices that didn’t receive AMPAS recognition. It’s impossible to choose set favorites, but I picked 7 actresses and 7 actors from the array of many that the Oscars seem to have forgot. Let’s save the dominant of the species til last and start with the men.

Paul Giamatti for Sideways (2004)

Alexander Payne’s brilliant Sideways cruising through the awards season picking up big accolades left, right and center, was in the end a crushing anti-climax. As Million Dollar Baby crashed the party late on, I was mortified to find Clint Eastwood had Oscar experts ripping up their fine-tuned predictions as he landed a Best Actor nomination instead of many strong contenders. The real blow was that Paul Giamatti had to miss out for Sideways, a clear sign this movie was perhaps not going all the way after all. Bagging deserved nods all season-long, including with Oscar, Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen were magnificent, but Giamatti’s Miles was the heart of the picture. Seemingly always verging on a nervous breakdown, Miles is crafted as a funny, vulnerable guy, Giamatti brings a defiant emotional response out of him, a sympathetic, often self-loathing figure, who can erupt at any time. We experience him through his passion for wine and writing, and root for him as he gradually claims the affection of a good, like-minded woman, as well as hitting new heights (both funny and poignant) with his intolerable best friend. Giamatti puts in a full shift in every movie, but this sits right at the peak of his stellar work – and a Best Actor nomination should never have been up for debate.

Harry Dean Stanton for Paris, Texas (1984)

I did not give it too much thought, but it crossed my mind that we don’t talk about Harry Dean Stanton very often. Not enough in fact. His presence in movies is often casual, a quiet man we know little about as his characters go. I am generalizing of course, but it is these thoughts and the undeniable fact that Stanton is a remarkable actor, that makes the role of Travis Henderson in Paris, Texas all too perfect for him. And we, the audience get to marvel in it. Directed superbly by Wim Wenders, Stanton’s lost man in Paris, Texas, clutching at memories of the past and dragging them closer, walks off into the burning Texan landscape in search of his brother, and more directly his son and long-lost wife. His voyage is a long one, both in distance and time gone by, Travis is given an ambiguous, but deeply sympathetic, aura by Stanton. It is a performance that requires little strenuous action or extensive dialogue, but Wenders does not need this, the story is a simple and effecting one, and the acting is deeply emotive and heart-warming, exhaustively so. We join Travis on his journey and support his plight all the way.

Robert Duvall for Network (1976)

Robert Duvall’s Executive Senior Vice President of the network Frank Hackett is not quite a bully or a thug, he is just a no-nonsense, fast-talking fellow who certainly does not mince his words. With the great, great screenplay from Paddy Chayefsky to work from, Duvall has little choice but to expel such chunks of adrenaline-fueled sentences as “I’ve had it up to here with your cruddy division!” or “It’s a big, fat, big-titted hit!” – and that is where the top-tier actor Duvall really shines here, in his sheer gut-busting delivery of the dialogue. Hackett just wants the sinking ship of a TV network to be a big fucking success, and he is knocking over the bullshit to make sure that happens. Even his flippant willing to listen to ideas from co-workers about the prospect of murdering the enigmatic Howard Beale is satirically ruthless. AMPAS went bonkers with Network in 1977, yet failed to take Best Picture and Director (Sidney Lumet), handing 3 of the 4 acting Oscars to the movie: Peter Finch (beating co-star William Holden), Faye Dunaway, and Beatrice Straight. Also nominated in Supporting Actor, for me Ned Beatty’s surprise nod over the meatier and more dynamic performance by Duvall will always remain a mystery.

R. Lee Ermey for Full Metal Jacket (1987)

What more is there to be said about R. Lee Ermey’s unforgettable portrayal of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Stanley Kubrick’s attempt at heavy morality warfare in Full Metal Jacket? Taking his own personal experiences of being a U.S. Marine drill instructor and serving in the Vietnam War, Ermey explodes authentically yet terrifyingly across that first act, meaning that you are still in the fall-out of his foul-mouthed disciplinarian even during the harrowing scenes in Vietnam that follow. Brandishing a lot of his own dialogue, the violence and abuse that flow from his mouth during the opening kill-training is both extremely explicit and blackly funny: “You best unfuck yourself or I will unscrew your head and shit down your neck!”. We’ve all quoted this film, but I suspect we wouldn’t be anywhere near close to laughing were we one of his Private Warfaces. Ermey has been an outright contender for years as one of the worst omissions in the Academy’s history. His brutal, frenetic performance is relentlessly brilliant, Ermey doesn’t appear to pause or take breath for a second. He’s inspired many such cruel characters since then, arguably this would include the 2014 Best Supporting Actor winner – I hope J.K. tipped his hat to R. Lee in some way.

Robert Shaw for Jaws (1975)

From the moment his fingernails claw across the blackboard, until long after the great shark takes him, there is a heroic and lasting impression left by Robert Shaw’s Quint. A character who ultimately grows on you more than you would have imagined as Jaws progresses through it’s small-town horror tale and becomes something of an encouraging, convincing buddy movie. Quint’s shocking, brutal death becomes all the more bittersweet in the end, no offence to Hooper or Brody, as he is the man you long to survive and be standing come the film’s close. Shaw brings the raw charisma and confidence to Quint not many other actors could have pulled off so effectively. With surprisingly only one single acting Oscar nomination to his name (A Man for All Seasons), Shaw was classic Supporting Actor material here. Neither Roy Scheider nor Richard Dreyfuss made the acting short-lists, neither did the writers Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, not to mention of course the film’s super-talented director Steven Spielberg. Like his remarkable career, Spielberg’s neglected Academy Award journey still had a way to go.

Paul Dano for There Will Be Blood (2007)

Paul Dano showed encouraging signs of an actor not afraid to explode feelings outward from his character in Little Miss Sunshine. In fact, the signs say he relishes this type of role. In Paul Thomas Anderson’s deep, dark There Will be Blood, Dano has to compete with the immovable Daniel Day Lewis who made career-best acting look easy. Quite a challenge then, and Dano was way beyond up for it, such an achievement, it was hardly questioned whether he would join his co-star on the gold-list. His Eli, a young pastor at the local church on oil-dwelling land, is a highly strung fellow who meets Day Lewis’ Plainview head-on. Humiliated and insulted, Eli still eventually manages to squeeze some remorse from him, though it is ultimately to his own downfall in the end. Dano is eerily good at bringing Eli’s own corrupt obsession, greed and sly nature to the screen. One of the most fascinating, brilliant performances of the year, a genuinely major surprise that Dano missed out on a Best Supporting Actor nomination given the movie’s popularity come awards season. Blessed he was not.

Andy Serkis for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Andy Serkis was listed as a cast member that was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for all 3 The Lord of the Rings films by the Screen Actors Guild. Why then is he not recognized individually for his performance-capture, computer-aided, consistently brilliant work? Not just those films, but his excellent contribution in King Kong and the Apes franchise too. As Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers there was a strong push by the film’s makers to garner some award attention for Serkis. This was thoroughly deserved, and in a normal world his undeniable talent would have made the cut without any pushing at all. I am not going to get technical, I know there were many behind the scenes that helped bring Gollum to life on the screen, but Serkis’ mesmerizing delivery and performance shone through, making the creature-formerly-known-as-Sméagol come to life before your eyes. The scene encompassing Gollums’ conflicting personalities is breathtaking. Actors have worn masks, prosthetics, make-up, and been nominated for Oscars without question. Serkis was not just some corpse, an entity to fill the spaces and join the dots, this guy acted. Acted his socks off. You know this as you read my words, you’ve seen the footage of Serkis suited up and playing Gollum before the visual effects and cherry on top were later added. A remarkable achievement on any level of acting, Serkis continued to be the man to go to as he played King Kong and Caesar with similar awesomeness. The cinema world ought to continue to embrace the ground-breaking work from those that create, and Serkis provides breakthrough in various fields. Like many of the film industries blind spots and minorities, are the Academy just not ready to change their own history yet? Wise up.

What actors would make your list?

Originally published on www.writeoutofla.com – all ten links can be found here. I’m just skimming the surface here, share you Oscars omissions in the comments.

Welcome to 7 more gloriously under-looked excuses to have a good old moan. This time the ladies. The years and years of the Academy’s illustrious history in rewarding great work in cinema has generally been very kind. But boy do they forget about a lot of terrific performances. And I am talking every single year. Below are 7 performances I am particularly fond of, and I know I am not alone here. These are not necessarily my all-time favorites, but they are certainly plucked from the very best that missed out on Oscar nominations. I know, three of the actresses derive from France – what can I say, I am something of a French cinema fanboy. It could easily have been all 7. Hell, 100. For now, get acquainted with these Oscars-neglected, but extremely talented women. Enchanté.

Shailene Woodley for The Descendants (2011)

As much as the Oscars bring plenty of pain and frustration, I hold my hands up and say they also garnish a near half-year of my annual existence. I’ve often openly attempted to predict not only the damn winners, but more privately I have been known to figure out which nomination clip the Academy would use. Or at least give it a go. I’m contently geeky like that. When Shailene Woodley looked to be heading for a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Alexander Payne’s near-perfect The Descendants, I already knew they would use the moment some horrible news forces her to instinctively duck herself under the water of the swimming pool and show the raw suffering all by herself, on her own terms. A remarkable moment of cinema and acting. Woodley’s Alexandra is certainly introduced as a kind of bratty, rebellious teenage girl, but long before the movie ends she is possibly the most straight-talking, mature member of her family – and the movie. Although a breakthrough of a performance, Woodley is so good here it is like you have been watching this talent for years. She devours her forthcoming, often provocative dialogue with ease, leading her character far beyond what you first assume of her – as Alexandra is forced to adapt to her new, sorrowful circumstances we, the audience, find our affections for the girl grow too.

Isabelle Huppert for The Piano Teacher (2001)

Isabelle Huppert’s Erika is a tormented woman, surrounded by bleakness and misery, and the actress sucker-punches you on numerous occasions. It’s a brutal, emotive display from Huppert, who portrays Erika as a somehow isolated, defeated woman, void of any ample amount of warm, aesthetic feelings – but oh my would she welcome them. Michael Haneke does this kind of melancholy well, very well, but makes it compelling and meaningful. The Piano Teacher conjures all manner of dark thoughts, what you would be willing to do to gain some rightful attention and affection. Erika’s pain is clearly physically and mental, but also manifested through sexual encounters, here with a much younger man – this itself leaving her humiliated further. It is not an easy watch, that is for sure, but a devastatingly good one. Huppert was highly regarded and strongly considered at Cannes (as she always is) and took the Best Actress prize for The Piano Teacher. Come Oscar time however, Huppert and the movie were nowhere to be seen, which is rather obscure for what turns out to be the performance of the year.

Carey Mulligan for Shame (2011)

For shame indeed, as the phrase goes. Or sham, as its treatment goes. A movie famous not just for it’s sheer, gritty brilliance, but also because the talking point ever since has been more about Michael Fassbender’s Oscar snub than his penis. Carey Mulligan, as Fassbender’s “troubled” sister, does not get tongues wagging as much perhaps, but she really fucking ought to. In a much more sedate, but still excellent, role in Drive, the feisty, fragile character in Shame marks a fantastic year for Mulligan. As Sissy, not only does she provide the heat and adrenaline to Brandon’s cold and static sex addict, Mulligan certainly matches the great man in the acting stakes when she is on screen. Both siblings are damaged and lonely, but as Brandon tries to suffer privately and internally, Sissy explodes her anxieties outward into the world, her heart splattered across her sleeve as she craves some attention that might save her from herself. A bratty, excitable young woman, Mulligan makes Sissy sympathetic and honest, dragging her along admirably – adding a fine American accent and a simply heart-stopping rendition of “New York, New York” into the mix. Two well-deserved Oscar nominations to-go please, Academy.

Melanie Laurent for Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Christoph Waltz stole the majority of the limelight in Quentin Tarantino’s historical retelling Inglourious Basterds, winning at the Oscars and in Cannes. In a special, personal way though the heart and soul of the movie is Melanie Laurent as Shosanna, fleeing for her life only later to be floundered with her enemies. She is fearless and smart, though very aware of the dangers in her path, and eager to develop the means to banish them. Laurent is pitch-perfect here, portraying a young woman who must have the weight of the world at war on her small shoulders, but externalizes her cool and courageous attitude. Sure, Waltz was the showy masterclass, but Laurent had depth and feeling, a character you warm to instantly and root for right to her very end. She does somehow triumph with a great spirit and sense of freedom at the film’s close, in spite of what her writer-director had in store for her. Tarantino started to lose my fandom ever-so-slightly with the Kill Bill double-bill, but the fate he ultimately gives to Shosanna is unforgivable – I was heartbroken. The lack of an Oscar nomination for the marvelous Laurent doesn’t really tend to my wounds.

Bryce Dallas Howard for The Village (2004)

With The Village continuing the steady decline of the career of one-trick pony M. Night Shyamalan, I can still find a couple of great things about the mediocre 2004 thriller. They are both called Howard. For one, James Newton Howard’s incredibly provoking, transcending score, which owes a lot to Hilary Hahn and her magic violin I might add. And secondly, actress Bryce Dallas Howard making her breakthrough lead role. I wonder how many of you recall the minor echoes of support for Howard as a possible Oscar Best Actress contender. That never unfortunately amounted to a serious challenge. In the end the movie’s poor reception damaged its chances and even the Best Original Score nomination was considered a surprise (it was most certainly well-deserved). Bryce Dallas Howard does the best with what she has to work with here, her blind Ivy Walker is the most endearing and sympathetic character in The Village – noted this is an actress now known for playing quite unsavory characters. Howard’s performance here is both truly engaging and appropriately sedate, she gives Ivy the innocence and determination that sets the narrative in motion. An impressive, affecting portrayal of a girl who cannot physically see nor anticipate the life-changing secret before her. A pleasure to watch; I’m a real sucker for this performance (many of you likely feel this selection itself is a bit of a Shyamalan-style twist), and not sure Bryce Dallas Howard has been this captivating since.

Juliette Binoche for Three Colors: Blue (1993)

The first of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s miraculous Three Colors trilogy is certainly the bleakest. So Blue is the appropriate color, and Juliette Binoche is the perfect face that fits. Her beauty and magnetism is matched by her natural ability to display utter turmoil and self-depletion. You would struggle to find examples where Binoche has not demonstrated these qualities and such acting brilliance to this great extent in anything else she has done. Though she is never anything short of exceptional. In Three Colors: Blue the central character of Julie (Binoche) loses her child and husband in an automobile accident, and consciously fades away from the social world choosing some form of isolation and distance from society. She tries to commit suicide, before attempting to abandon her past, including an affair and her husband’s music (which she very well may have written). The somber and luminous Binoche and composer Zbigniew Preisner work in unison as the music haunts Julie throughout, following her like memories you can’t forget. It’s a mesmerizing, memorable central performance from the enigmatic Binoche – painful, poignant and beautiful.

Jessica Chastain for A Most Violent Year (2014)

Warning: some serious, unashamed, completely warranted flattery coming up. Oscar nominated in 2011 for a wonderfully quirky and sympathetic turn in The Help, this may or may not have hindered Jessica Chastain’s chances at also being mentioned for a stellar work in films like Take Shelter and The Tree of Life that year. Not many actresses can claim to have a multitude of solid award-worthy performances in a single year. Wait, Jessica Chastain can, in 2014 this time. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby and Miss Julie were promoted with such promise but disperse into the industry mist – Chastain is cracking in both. And what of Interstellar, a general miss for me, but Chastain was by far the greatest entity of the picture (and campaigned accordingly). Wow, what a year. Wait, there’s more. Her best work of the year, and likely one of the finest acting displays in years was her portrayal of Anna Morales, wife of not-quite-gangster Abel (an also terrific Oscar Isaac). It’s an utterly confident, tenacious, illuminating turn, once again, relentlessly enchanting Chastain makes acting seem easier than the art of breathing. Which brings me to one of my prominent sore points from that awards season, and is still a freshly open wound with me. I’m shaking my head as I write this, reminded of that strong whiff of disappointment and disbelief. Someone needed to give the brilliant Patricia Arquette a run for her money, and for my dollar it was Chastain who ought to have won gold. But you have to be nominated first, right…

What actresses would make your list?

Originally posted on www.writeoutofla.com, here you can check out the ten parts of the 100 Performances Oscars Forgot. Feel free to bitch away about other Oscar snubs in the comments.

“If you could see your whole life laid out in front of you, would you change things?”

If E.T.’s landed on Earth tomorrow, what would you do? If you had the option to change the course of your life, would you do it?

Arrival is the most cerebral experience of 2016, and the intimate nature of the film has everything to do with that.

The film is not entirely original; it takes the age-old science fiction premise of aliens landing on Earth with the panicked world asking: “Why are they here?” But this sci-fi addition has all the right ingredients from it’s cast to director to score to script that produces some serious thought-provoking material. The exploration of this archaic, hypothetical reality leaves me wondering when this inevitable future will occur off-screen. I’m. Not. Ready.

 After last year’s drug-cartel flick (one of my personal favorites of the year) Sicario, director Denis Villeneuve adds science fiction to his directing resume. Comparisons to director James Cameron have circulated online, and Arrival’s resemblance to Interstaller is unquestionable. The difference? This film feels more accessible and realistic.

When 12 extraterrestrial space pods mysteriously appear around Earth, the U.S. army enlists linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) to analyze the U.S. site in Montana in hopes of communicating with the aliens, known as heptapods (due to their 7-pointed radially symmetrical appearance). “Why are they here? Are they scientists, or tourists?” are the underlying world concerns as panicked nations are on the verge of global war.

We learn in the opening sequence that, like Sandra Bullock’s character in Gravity, Banks has lost her daughter to disease leaving her emotionally wrought. Amy Adams explains in a voice-over, “I used to think this was the beginning of your story.” What follows is a series of flashbacks of her daughter’s life from infancy to childhood to the argumentative teenage years. She continues, “I remember moments in the middle…and this was the end.” The next scene shows her daughter in a hospital bed and then the bed is empty.

Then the movie begins.

The Atlantic explains this sequence more accurately than I ever could, “The sequence—a brief life encompassed in still briefer summary—is surely among the most heartbreaking since Michael Giacchino’s magnificently versatile waltz carried us through the “Married Life” segment of Up. And while at first it appears to be mere backstory for Adams’s character, it is in fact much more, perhaps the most crucial thread in Villeneuve’s intricately woven film.”

Can a science fiction film be this year’s Oscar-bait? I asked myself that question immediately post-movie, and I realized the rarity of sci-fi recognition by the Academy.

Prior to 2007, only three such movies had ever been nominated for best picture: A Clockwork Orange, Star Wars and E.T. Arrival could easily be this generation’s Close Encounters, but it’s taking me a heap of effort to convince friends to see it.

What I’ve tried to explain is that Arrival is more focused on the societal response to fear and takes a deeper, intimate look at it’s female protagonist. It’s the anti-Independence Day, which focused on the chaos and Will Smith saving the world. It’s also the anti-Alien, which focused more on survival than world destruction.

Like Ellen Ripley in the Alien franchise, Louise Banks is a realistic feminine hero who uses her brains over bronze to solve international crisis. But unlike Ripley, whom we know very little about personally, we’re given a very intimate glimpse of Banks’s personal life. Even Ripley had a daughter she lost, but most audiences don’t know this, because the scene was ultimately cut.

“We see to what extent the world is fragile when the slightest event — which is not ultimately threatening — what interests me is the human reactions. Faced with (the aliens’) approach, there is a paranoia that develops and a tension that develops, a disequilibrium. They’re there to teach something, but they don’t have a hidden agenda like in the majority of science fiction. Arrival talks very little about language and how to precisely dissect a foreign language. It’s more a film on intuition and communication by intuition, the language of intuition.” Denis Villeneuve via Deadline

The many layers and depth of Arrival make it profoundly more relevant in our world today than any other sci-fi I’ve seen in the last decade. There’s a scene of news coverage getting different global reaction-shots when panic strikes, and the image of “Save Our Species” struck me. Banks makes a pertinent point that rings true in the movie as well as our present-day reality, “What better way to force us to work together for once?”

Newt thanks you for your time.

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When I think of high school, I think vulnerable, insecure and awkward, which is exactly what Seventeen’s director wanted to translate on screen of 21st century teenagers.

In her directorial debut, writer-director-producer Kelly Fremon Craig conducted extensive research for inspiration for the film.

“I didn’t try to emulate specific movies. I interviewed teenagers across the country and asked them a lot of really personal questions, and hung out at high schools to see what was happening for this particular generation. What I found was that 99 percent of everything is exactly the same as how I remember it. Technology has changed, but no matter where a kid is on a social spectrum, everyone deals with that feeling of ‘everybody’s okay except me.'” Kelly Freemon Craig via Nylon

The premise of  Seventeen is simple: high school life becomes more unbearable for Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) when her best friend, Krista, starts dating her older brother.

Seventeen collected the details of modern teenage life, but failed to hit the mark on dialogue and significance. There’s nothing profound spoken that hasn’t been expressed on screen before; even as whimsical and silly as Clueless was, the script had razor-sharp dialogue that created a new vocabulary that is quoted to this day.

The film also treads heavily on the telling and not showing methodology making the protagonist less believable as awkward youth.

“I don’t want to take up a ton of your time, but I’m gonna kill myself. I just thought that an adult should know,” Nadine says to her favorite teacher (Woody Harrelson).

Teenagers are notoriously melodramatic, but when the movie opens with this conversation, you’re immediately questioning what could be so horrible for this victim of youth?

The movie glosses over a lot of what made childhood difficult for Nadine; she’s bullied by other girls for being weird, her brother is the trophy son of the family and her relationship with her mother is conflicting. There’s a brief scene in the beginning where Nadine loses her father, which could have left a significant scar on-screen, but the script only lightly touches upon that with brief dialogue and an anti-depressant to soothe the pain.

Hailee Steinfeld, whom you might best know for her Oscar-nominated turn in 2010’s True Grit (when she was just 14) is both the greatest strength and weakness of the movie. Her acting is tremendous for such an unlikable character; one scene even made me consider her performance Oscar-worthy. But the fault of the character falls upon the script and not the actor. Her problems on the surface are traditional, yet we’re expected to believe they’re tremendous. Nadine asks herself, “Why are you so awkward?” while trying to socialize at a typical high school party. But the character isn’t that awkward. “I am an old soul. I like old movies and old music and even old people.” But never once does the movie cover any of this. All I can gather from her conversations and interactions is that she’s a self-absorbed, bratty and spoiled teen forced to battle the ‘who am I?’ struggle that we all go through.

“Sometimes it seems as if Craig was struggling to find a way to move Nadine through the story. The structure gets wonky when she runs out of ideas, even sending Nadine to the playground and then to the yogurt shop for many minutes to have a kind of epiphany, á la Cher’s moment in Clueless — Amy Heckerling has her heroine strolling by well-timed fountains and getting distracted by designer sales (her passion) as she comes to realize she’s in love with her ex-stepbrother. But, here, there’s still not a lot of revelation, and the only visuals supporting Nadine’s incessant self-talk are her sitting down and texting. That’s realistic, but it’s not very interesting.” via Village Voice

It may be an accurate depiction youth, but it’s certainly a watered down portrait of our tumultuous teenage years. I don’t think this will be the staple of teenage flicks like Juno was a decade prior, but it’s certainly a well-made film with a tremendous performance from it’s lead that deserves attention and recognition.

The real teen drama queens still judging you

Robin over at Write Out of LA is hosting a Christmas Movie Advent Calendar series throughout December highlighting one holiday film per day. My contribution to the series is the 80s-inspired modern retelling of A Christmas Carol, Scrooged.

Scrooged is undoubtedly my favorite Christmas movie of all time – it’s a tale as old as time without the gimmicks or seriousness. It’s got one hell of a cast with the most memorable Scrooge himself, Frank Cross, played by the legendary Bill Murray. The film was actually a resurgence for Murray who had taken an imposed four-year exile from Hollywood and what a joyous return!

Murray was an A-list movie star by the time Scrooged hit theaters, but up until that point he had always been part of an ensemble cast (Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters). This was his first opportunity to shine solo on screen. Director Richard Donner admit this little gem about shooting the final scene of the movie: “On the last take I saw something happen to Billy. I saw Billy Murray become an actor.”

Here are my five favorite things about the movie.

1.”The Night the Reindeer Died”/Marketing with Terror

Screw the traditional A Christmas Carol, because Frank Cross’ demented mind has something better to bring into your home this holiday season. The opening sequence of Scrooged features a fake trailer starring Lee Majors (as himself, obviously) who travels to the North Pole to rescue Santa and his glam-rock elves from deadly assassins. When Mrs. Claus opens the door to a big closet filled with AK-47 assault rifles, it’s clear that this movie would be lit. It may look dated, but it’s a hilarious introduction that sets the tone for the film as Santa explains, “This is one Santa who’s going out the front door” gripping his AK-47. As Film School Rejects describes it: It’s basically “Die Hard in Santa’s Workshop.” Yule love it!

After watching the family-friendly trailer the network had lined up as their holiday special, Frank Cross has no reservations telling his staff it sucks. Frank’s vision is to premiere a teaser trailer so great that viewers will be so scared to miss it. His alternative marketing trailer to capture viewers attention involves holiday themes like drug addiction, acid rain and terrorist attacks in the most hilarious anti-Christmas montage ever experienced. “Now, more than ever, it is important to remember the true meaning of Christmas. Don’t miss Charles Dickens’ immortal classic, ‘Scrooge’. Your life just might depend on it.”

2. The Script

The script from Scrooged is knee-slapping funny; if you don’t laugh during this movie, I’m going to have to question your emotional well-being. Written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue (who also wrote for SNL), the film has some of the funniest quotes in any comedy I’ve experienced, which is a tough feat for a dark holiday classic.

Here are a few of my favorite excerpts from the script:

Censor Lady: “You can see her nipples!”
Frank Cross: “I want to see her nipples.”
Censor Lady: “But this is a CHRISTMAS show!”
Frank Cross: “Well, I’m sure Charles Dickens would have wanted to see her nipples.”

Ghost of Christmas Past:
Let’s face it, Frank. Garden slugs got more out of life than you.
Frank Cross:
Yeah? Name one.

Frank Cross:
No, you are a hallucination, brought on by alcohol. Russian Vodka, poisoned by Chernobyl.

Frank Cross:
The bitch hit me with a toaster.

Frank Cross:
The Jews taught me this great word. “Schmuck”. I was a schmuck, and now I’m not a schmuck.

Frank Cross:
Do you think I’m way off-base here?
Elliot:
You’re, well, you’re a tad off-base, sir. That thing looked like The Manson Family Christmas Special.

3. The Ghosts of Past & Present

If I’m ever visited by three ghosts to evaluate my life, I hope to God those ghosts include David Johansen and Carol Kane, because they would make the blow of reality a delightful pill to swallow.

David Johansen, the ghost of Christmas past, is a nutty New York cab driver who starts by bringing Frank back to his childhood in 1955. “I get it. You’re taking me back in time to show me my mother and father, and I’m supposed to get all goosey and blubbery. Well, forget it, pal, you got the wrong guy!” It’s one of the more sentimental scenes of the movie as Frank assures the ghost that he’s not going to get emotional…until he see’s his mother; I think we all can get reminiscent of our youth from this scene. The ghost replies, “That’s exactly what Atilla the Hun said. But when he saw his mother, Niagra Falls.”

Fast-forward to 1968-1971 where we get a glimpse into Frank’s very modest early careers as well as Frank’s serendipitous introduction to Claire. Can I also mention that his trial as Frisbee the dog is of monumental hilarity for the sake of the ghost’s child-like excitement?  “It’s a bone, ya moron!”

The ghost of Christmas present is an adorable, volatile version of what Glinda the Good Witch on adderall would be like. Her teaching specialty involves aggressive acts to help Frank understand the countless errors in his ways.Sometimes you have to SLAP people in the face to get their attention! “The bitch hit me with a toaster!”

There’s a heartwarming scene when the ghost of Christmas present takes Frank to his secretary’s house who lives a frugal existence as a single mother. Grace’s long hours endured at IBM are at Frank’s expense (IF I HAVE TO WORK LATE, YOU HAVE TO WORK LATE!) has caused her to be home less for her family. Grace’s son Calvin, the tiny Tim of the film, who has been mute since witnessing the murder of his father five years prior, strikes a chord with Frank who promises to give Grace a raise.

4. Frank’s Future Prediction

Although this may appear as an odd addition to the prior hilarious three, the ghost of Christmas future delivers a grim glimpse into Frank’s potential fate. And it really forces the viewer to hardcore re-evaluate their own life, which is why I added it to the list.

Back in present-day at IBC, Preston has put Brice in charge, fearing that Frank is having a mental breakdown. Frank runs into an elevator, and finds the ghost of Christmas future lurking and waiting for him inside. The ghost reveals that if he continues on his destructive, self-satisfying path, his actions will affect those closest to him. Claire will become a cold-hearted aristocrat who turns her head and heart against her philanthropy. Grace’s son Calvin will be committed to a mental institution (probably the most horrifying and depressing prediction to see) and Frank then sees himself in a casket at a funeral.

Of course we anticipate Frank’s dark fate, because we all know that’s how the story goes, but the indirect affect it has on the likes of Claire and Calvin are far darker than we’d imagine. It’s very parallel to It’s a Wonderful Life in how one life affects many, and the thought of his potential disastrous future snaps Frank back to reality. Literally.

5. Frank’s Final Monologue

Of course, I’ve got to end this on a high note, and what better way than to mention Frank’s monologue at the end of the movie. Frank’s revelation of what his potential future could look like sparks the golden rule of life and Christmas right up his ass.

Apparently, the scene was mostly ad-libbed by Murray, and it brought out a tremendous performance by the actor and a little joy in all of our hearts.

“I get it now. And if you give, then it can happen, then the miracle can happen to you. Not just the poor and hungry, it’s just, everybody’s gotta have this miracle! It can happen tonight for you all! If you believe in this pure thing, the miracle will happen and you’ll want it again tomorrow! You won’t believe the bastard who say, “Christmas is once a year and it’s a fraud.” It’s not! It can happen every day! You’ve just got to want that feeling! And if you like it and you want it, you get greedy for it. You’ll want it every day of your life! And it can happen to you! I believe in it now. I believe it’s gonna happen to me, now. I’m ready for it! And it’s great. It’s a good feeling. It’s really better than I’ve felt in a long time. I’m ready.”

“Have a Merry Christmas, everybody.”

“Did I forget something, big man?”

What are your favorite scenes, lines, characters in Scrooged? Let me know!

“This is the dream! It’s conflict and it’s compromise, and it’s very, very exciting!”

La La Land’s ode to old Hollywood has re-ignited our love affair with musicals and the magic seldom seen on screen, but while this movie reminds me why I love classics of yesteryear, it’s respectful homage is also a reminder that it will never match those classics it honors.

Bogart and Bacall. Tracy and Hepburn. Stone and Gosling? I can’t quite stomach the idea of the latter couple on the same pedestal as the power couples of the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema, but La La Land desperately wants you to believe that Stone and Gosling are the 21st century golden couple.

With a massive 12 nominations from the Critics Choice Awards, La La Land is proving to be the movie to beat this year as critics hail it “the years best” and “an instant classic,” but Ryan Gosling tap dancing around a light pole at dusk doesn’t make him Gene Kelly.

Writer and director Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to his breakout film Whiplash (nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, and won three, for editing, sound mixing and J.K. Simmons as Supporting Actor) once again focuses on music and performances, but this film is strikingly different from Whiplash.

La La Land follows Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a jazz pianist, who falls for aspiring actress Mia (Emma Stone) in Los Angeles. Chazelle’s love letter to the city of Los Angeles is not sugar-coated as one may expect, but is a more realistic portrait of the challenging reality of what it takes to make it in Tinseltown.

Chazelle admits that both films reflect his own experiences as a film-maker working his way up the Hollywood ladder.

“There’s something to be said for having even unrealistic dreams. Even if the dreams don’t come true – that to me is what’s beautiful about Los Angeles. It’s full of these people who have moved there to chase these dreams. A lot of those people are told by people around them that they’re crazy, or that they’re living in la la land. I wanted to make a movie that saluted them a little bit, and that kind of unrealistic state of mind.”

“Here’s to the ones who dream, foolish as they may seem. Here’s to the hearts that ache. Here’s to the mess we make,” sings Emma Stone’s character at an audition. Jazz, dreams, musical scenes and an ode to Hollywood wrapped into a two hour film is a dream film for the Academy.

As Chazelle explains, this is a film for those who love movies, the arts, music, Los Angeles, musicals.  And as ambitious as Chazelle may be, I think he tried to cover too much…there was too much tackled in a two hour span. The musical component of the film felt unnecessary (at times even awkward), and let me be the first to admit that neither Stone nor Gosling are singers. It’s apparent that Chazelle was inspired by the likes of Top Hat, Singin’ in the Rain and A Star is Born, and he desperately wanted to emulate those classics. But his undeniable imitation, or ode if you will, only reminds me why we call old Hollywood the classical era of Hollywood. You simply can’t replicate it.

“Chazelle opens with the old CinemaScope logo in the same way that Tarantino opens his films with vintage logos and teasers. The difference is that Tarantino understands the movies he’s pulling from and Chazelle doesn’t. Homage isn’t just playing the notes, or oversaturating the colours. La La Land is tone deaf. It has no catchy tunes, no extraordinary numbers (although there are a couple of big ones); it’s directed by the wrong person and written by the wrong person, who happen to be the same guy. Oh, and there’s a Baz Luhrmann scene with dancing among the stars. Swoon. The ‘No Dames’ number in Hail Caesar! is the most devastating critique of La La Land possible, doing in five minutes what this film fails to do for what seems like hours.” via Walter Chaw at Film Freak Central

Despite my complaints and critiques, the film’s greatest asset is Emma Stone. This is her third movie romantically paired with Gosling, and their chemistry in this one is minimal. While Gosling gives an occasional brooding glance, trying his best James Dean imitation, it’s Stone who is steals every scene. Gosling appears to just be going through the motions on screen, but it’s Stone who gives me goosebumps. I’ve warmed up to her more in recent years, and her personal touches to this character’s awkward silliness is actually endearing and fitting. Expect a nomination for her performance, but whether or not it’s worthy of a win depends on the other nominees.

While Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire glided effortlessly cheek to cheek, Stone and Gosling’s musical numbers appear unnecessary, choreographed and going through the motions of Chazelle’s dream on screen. Chazelle may light up the screen with another beautiful film, and gives a breath of fresh air back to the musical genre, but this “masterpiece” sadly fell a little flat for me. Not my tempo.