Movie Diary, Winter 2015-2016 - Entrepreneur Generations

Every year, I host an Oscar party. Last year, after #Oscarsowhite and the ignoring of Selma (my favorite film of 2014), I got a little down by it. This year, I feel like I'm even more down on the Oscars; the nominations are so embarrassingly white that I temporarily thought about canceling my Oscars party, which has been going on in various inceptions for a dozen years or so.

However, I just love movies too much. Sure, I would have nominated Creed for Best Picture and Best Actor, and Beasts of No Nation for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor (Idris Elba and Abraham Attah), Dope for Best Screenplay and Best Song and Shameik Moore for Best Actor, and probably, still unseen by me, Straight Outta Compton for a few awards too. But this was a really good year movies, and my disappointment with the Oscars aside, I'm still not going to punish these other films for the Academy Awards' oversights.

I haven't seen The Revenant or Anomalisa or Concussion yet, so I don't think I can write my Top-10 list. But I feel good about saying many down below would be on it: Creed, Room, Carol, Brooklyn, Spotlight, Ex Machina, Star Wars. I'd probably add Trainwreck and Spy and Dope, too. That's a lot of good movies and I'll have to narrow down. Hopefully I'll see the rest of those by the end of next weekend!

Here's what I'm thinking now:

Jordan and Coogler, cinema's best team these days.

Creed: After 2013's Fruitvale Station, my pick for the Best film of the 2000s so far, I'm a lifetime Ryan Coogler fan. I was a little bit disenchanted at first when I heard he was doing such a mainstream boxing movie followup, but then I saw Michael B. Jordan was starring, and felt a little better by that. Then the reviews came, and I was assuaged. I finally got to see the movie over Christmas break, and was dazzled. This is a tremendous film. From its opening scene, where Phylicia Rashad's character finds young Adonis Creed at a youth home and takes him home to raise him, to the closing fight, I felt both on the edge of my seats and on the edge of tears. Star Michael B. Jordan gives a performance that is as natural as any you'll ever see, full of charisma, pain, and humor; Sylvester Stallone (though I was distracted by his plastic surgery at times) is both tough and tender as the ex-champ coaching his former opponent's son; Tessa Thompson is a perfect mix of vulnerability and sexiness as the love interest. Coogler's direction was full of energy and style; the fight scenes were incredibly shot; the score is note perfect. This is a great film, one of the best of the year.

Tremblay and Larson.

Room: This story -- about a disturbed man who kidnaps a 17-year old girl, locks her in his garden shed, and impregnates her -- ends up being strangely optimistic and an utterly beautiful and suspenseful film. The movie opens with Brie Larson as the aforementioned woman, now in her 20s and mother to a 5-year old son who has never seen outside of the garden shed, which he calls simply "room." That's the first half of the film. (Mild spoilers ahead, but I knew beforehand and I think the trailers also reveal it, and if you know that Joan Allen and William H. Macy are in the movie, too, then you can probably figure this out.) Then, there is an escape, which is as exciting and suspenseful as anything I've watched onscreen all year. Then, the second half of the film is about re-entry into society. This is where the tears come, and, often, the film throttled me. There are moments that are so powerful, whereas the conclusion couldn't be more perfect. Larson is tremendous (give her the Best Actress trophy, please), but 9-year old Jacob Tremblay (playing the 5-year old) is just as good and often carries the film. I also feel like I haven't seen the great Joan Allen in anything in a while, and it was great to see her doing her thing; she's a 3-time Oscar nominee, but hasn't been nominated since 2000; this role could have been one. Anyhow, a great movie, one of the best of the year.

Mara and Blacnhett

Carol: Todd Haynes' period drama is a tremendous film about two women engaged in a romance in the 1950s. Played by Cate Blanchett and an incredibly moving Rooney Mara, I found it beautiful and sad in all the right ways. It's slow at times, but also sexy, and illuminating about the lives of gay women in the 1950s. I also loved the way director Todd Haynes films the women often behind glass, almost like a cloak under which gay people had to hide behind during that time period, and structures the film circularly, so it begins where it ends, and all those choices just add the impact of its perfect, subtle ending.

Ronan and Cohen.

Brooklyn: This one reminded me quite a bit of Carol: beautiful, sad, a little slow, lovely, a perfect ending, and really romantic. Saoirse Ronan stars as a young woman who must decide what "home" means, and where love and family fits into that; the film slowly, but beautifully, crescendoes into what ends up being a heartbreaking choice by the end, between her hometown in a small Irish village, and her adopted home of the titular Brooklyn. Ronan is the star and the Oscar nominee, and she's wonderful, but I also found Emory Cohen, as the love interest in Brooklyn, to be a terrific and charismatic actor. Great film.

McAdams, Keaton, and Ruffalo.

Spotlight: Last time I saw Michael Keaton in a movie about a newspaper, it was in 1994 and called The Paper. I liked that movie, but this one is better. It's an important story, told thrillingly and swiftly, of the Boston Globe uncovering the Catholic church child abuse scandal in 2001-2002. The film isn't flashy, just about a few regular guys (and one woman, played by Rachel McAdams) who end up uncovering one of the biggest scandals in modern world history. It builds momentum as it goes, and has tremendous performances (I especially liked Mark Ruffalo), and is exciting, suspenseful and moving. Certainly one of the best movies of the year.

Macbeth: My review here.

Boyega and Isaac.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens: There are moments we go to movies for - the choke in the throat, the belly laugh, the wave of emotion that resonates at the end of a great scene. I experienced many of those in Star Wars, and don't even consider myself a "Star Wars person." Yes, I had seen the movies in my childhood, and even dabbled in a couple of the forgettable prequels, but didn't expect to enjoy this one as much as I did. I saw it on December 26th, in my hometown of South Haven, and was swept up right away in the collective applause and cheers that the full theater shared. I recognized the story as familiar as I was watching, but, in a sense, I'm probably the perfect audience for this: I know enough about Star Wars to be nostalgic when Hans Solo or Princess Leia come onstage, but I'm not familiar enough to know that the story was misty a remake of the original. Anyway, I loved the new cast, including this theory about Poe and Finn.

Gleeson, Vikander, Isaac.

Ex Machina: Oscar Isaac is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors, and this smart and thoughtful film allows him to shine as a Mark Zuckerberg-type who is trying to create artificial life in his remote home/laboratory. The result is a film that's about a robot, but is more a meditation on what makes us human. It's a smart movie, with some cool twists, and it's beautifully written and directed by Alex Garland (the novelist -- I've read his The Beach, and this is his first feature), reminding me a bit in tone and theme of Gattacca: a thoughtful exploration of man's responsibility towards technology. In that way, I could see pairing it with Frankenstein if I ever teach that novel again (though there is some nudity that would be problematic).

Mad Max: Fury Road: I don't understand the hype. Though not without some beautiful shots and a lot of energy, that was all it was for me: basically a 2-hour chase scene that ended up being pretty dull, despite the flash. I never got to know the characters enough to care about them, and, while Charlize Theron was good, I just thought this was a lot of noise. I'm not buying the hype.

Minions: This one reminded me of Mad Max a little bit: episodic, not much plot, sporadically entertaining. It didn't hold my 4.5-year old nephew's attention very much, but the rest of us found it okay.

from Epiphany in Baltimore http://ift.tt/1SqV4AW Movie Diary, Winter 2015-2016 - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

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