Review Special: Oscar Predictions 2017

Hello All,

    Sorry for the lateness, my life has been weird lately and I honestly blanked on the Oscars coming up, and I have honestly been unsure on what will win so I originally decided to say nothing. However, upon reviewing the nominees, and this being one of the rare years I’ve actually seen most of the nominated films, I decided late is better than never, so let’s get to it.

I will only review the categories where I have seen at minimum over half of the movies.

I will do a short list for each of the following:

• What I think will/should win
• What I would want to see win
• The surprise upset

Sound simple? Okay, we’re going straight down the list in the order the academy has on their own website which you can read here: http://oscar.go.com/nominees, and I would actually recommend having that open while reading this, because I will save us all a lot of effort by not retyping all of the nominees for each one, instead going straight to my opinion.

Best Picture

• Will win: Moonlight - I did really like Moonlight, and as much as it didn’t make my year end list, I think it’s probably the most important film made in 2016, and would certainly cement the academy’s effort to try and make the changes people have been wanting them to make.
• To See Win: La La Land - I’m probably going to lose some popularity in certain circles, but goddamn it La La Land was really good, and it deserves all the praise it’s been getting. Since my number one film didn’t even get nominated, I want to see the feel good musical get some goddamn oscar gold.
• The Upset: Manchester by the Sea - We’ll talk about best actor further down, but I honestly think that since people have been talking about the acting so much, it’s not too farfetched to see this win, but it will still be a shock if it did.

Leading Actor

• Will Win: Casey Affleck - I truly think this is Casey’s best effort ever, and he’s been mostly killing it in the awards race so far (I think). It’s his year hands down.
• To See Win: Casey Affleck - See above.
• The Upset: Ryan Gosling - If only because of, again, all the hype La La Land has been getting.

Leading Actress

• Will Win: Emma Stone - She has been dominating the awards scene, again for La La Land, and again it’s well deserved. She really has the bigger emotional and character arc in the film and she pulled it off near flawlessly.
• To See Win: Ruth Negga - She was charming as the wife who just wanted be able to love her husband in peace in Loving. She was tremendous in the film, and I would honestly love for her to win the golden statue.
• The Upset: Natalie Portman - Okay, her playing Jackie Kennedy is an easy call to make, but I honestly think Black Swan, which she did win for, was her better performance, as good as both films were.

Supporting Actor

• Will Win: Mahershala Ali - While only in Moonlight for a third of the film, his brief time was memorable as the surrogate father of our main protagonist, and he dominates the limited time he has on screen.
• To See Win: Lucas Hedges - This is a star making performance, and I’m glad he got the nomination, but I would argue he deserves his win almost as much as Affleck does for his.
• The Upset: Jeff Bridges - In an overall awesome film, Jeff Bridges was still the most awesome thing in it.

Supporting Actress

• Will Win: Viola Davis - Honestly, for me the will win and to see win categories are almost interchangeable, but Viola gets me vote for this one because my lord she was incredible. Just the range of emotions that woman goes through is just astounding.
• To See Win: Octavia Spencer - She has this great quiet dignity about her that she brings into every film, and it would be nice to see her snag another win for this film.
• The Upset: Michelle Williams - I still maintain she was underutilized in her film, and honestly in such a tight category, she just doesn’t stand out for me.

Animated Feature

• Will Win: Zootopia - In a year of heated racial politics, leave it to Disney to try and remind us that we need to look beyond our own prejudices in order to truly get to know others. And that’s all I’m really going to say about that.

• To See Win: Kubo and the Two Strings - Because it’s a cool adventure, that also teaches us an important lesson about life.
• The Upset: The Red Turtle - I haven’t seen the film, but if it won, it would literally make people upset that Your Name (which I also didn’t see) didn’t get nominated at all. So call this one a case of the quite literal meaning.

Cinematography

• Will Win: La La Land - Boy I’m starting to sound like a broken record. It’s a gorgeous film, that manages to have such a wide scope of colours and looks to it that some scenes are just mind blowingly beautiful.
• To See Win: Silence - Scorsese’s brutal depiction of a Japan in the midst of a purge is just this terrific mixture of beauty and haunting imagery that it just leaves you speechless by the end of it.
• The Upset: Arrival - The cinematography did a great job of capturing the mood of every scene in arrival, and it’s hard to argue with emotional perfection sometimes.

Costume Design

• Will Win: La La Land - Call this another case of this category and to see win being interchangeable, but again La La Land will probably get it. It created an amazing mix of both modern and classic clothing designs to bring together this quite unique looking style to it’s film.
• To See Win: Fantastic Beasts - This one I’ll admit seemed like the harder challenge, matching the wizarding style of Harry Potter with the looks of post first world war fashion, and for the most part I think they did a brilliant job with it.
• The Upset: Jackie - The film does a fantastic job capturing the style of both the first lady and the era she lived in, so this one wouldn’t surprise me too much if it won.

Directing

• Will Win: La La Land - Jesus Christ I am a broken record. For musicals, being able to transition from song to reality, and sometimes cross huge stretches of time while keeping the story in line and making it all flow seamlessly is tough, but Damien Chazelle nails it here and again, it’s well deserved praise.
• To See Win: Arrival - Speaking of keeping everything in order, Denis Villeneuve pulls that off in Spades with Arrival, and while it wasn’t one of my personal favourites, the sheer amount he had to keep inline and the fact that he made a film that complex easy to follow without sacrificing its intelligence is just a sight to behold.
• The Upset: Hacksaw Ridge - It’s a great return to form for Mel Gibson, but I think it’s just too soon. Happy to see it nominated though.

Did not see any of the documentaries listed, so we’re skipping those.

Film Editing

• Will Win: La La Land - Okay, I know I might be putting a lot of eggs into this basket, but again every scene in this film flows amazingly well, and the editing keeps up perfectly, especially in the way there might be more editing in it than you might realize, especially in some of the longer scenes.
• To See Win: Hacksaw Ridge - The war scenes in the film were hectic as hell, and the fact that the film manage to both show the chaos and yet allow us to follow what’s going on perfectly is always a feat.
• The Upset: Hell or High Water - Same thing as Hacksaw Ridge basically, except more for the shootouts and robbery scenes.

Didn’t see any foreign language films, so moving on.

Makeup and Hairstyling

Okay so there’s only three films nominated, yet I only saw two of them so we’ll just do this instead. As much as Suicide Squad had some really cool aspects in this category, Star Trek always dominates in this category, so consider Star Trek my choice to win, and Suicide Squad my upset.

Alright Folks, for the rest of the technicals, we’re going speed run style. I will simply state which one gets my vote and why, so let’s begin.

Music (Original Score): La La Land - Like the musical isn’t going to win at least this one?

Music (Original Song): Audition (The Fools Who Dream) - My favourite song from La La Land, mostly because of it’s raw, and unflinching passion for life and love.

Production Design: Arrival - I did like the designs of anything alien related, because it was hard to find anything else to compare them too.

Didn’t see any of the short films, moving on

Sound Editing: Deepwater Horizon - The sounds throughout the film are just epic and capture the intensity of the situation well.

Sound Mixing: Hacksaw Ridge - A tough call, but I’m leaning towards this one. Again, those battle scenes are just intense as hell, and that film nails it.

Visual Effects: Kubo and the Two Strings -  That whole film was stop motion. That alone makes it the clear choice in my mind.

Writing (Adapted): Moonlight - Only getting nominated for adapted instead of original on a  technicality, I just think it’s a well told story done right.

After looking over the choices for the last category, I had to switch back to my original format in order to explain myself a bit better.

Writing (Original)

• Will Win: Manchester by the Sea - I think in lieu of Best Picture, it’ll pick up best writing. I almost gave it to La La Land, but I think Manchester was the better story, La La Land was just executed better.
• To See Win: Hell or High Water - A Western set in the modern day just seems like a cool idea, and a win would potentially lead the way for more films with ideas like this.
• The Upset: The Lobster - Because Swiss Army Man didn’t get nominated, I think the weirdest film in this category winning would suffice for that.

And that’s it. I will be watching the Oscars tomorrow (at the time of writing this) and I will be live tweeting throughout, so apologies in advance, and let’s find out how wrong I am.

Next: No Idea. Probably Logan, but it’s still early in the week.

Links:

Want to read more? Click above for my last review. Hint: The only film that came out this week, but also probably one of the best so far this year. You can read that here.

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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Movie Review: Get Out (2017)

Hello All,

    Boy, we’re staring down the barrel of a slow week aren’t we? I can’t remember the last time we had only film come out in wide release, especially so close to the beginning of spring. So in a situation like this, you can tell that that one film and everyone involved in it is praying that’ll be good enough to draw in enough business. Now some of you might be saying, “If it’s the only film, it doesn’t really have to be that good because most people will see it anyways right?”. From personal experience, I can tell you that is not indeed the case. I’ve seen weeks where most of the films have been awfully reviewed, and no one showed up at all. So how good is this film that it’ll try and float the whole weekend? Let’s find out together shall we?

Plot Summary - When Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) agrees to visit his girlfriend’s parents for the weekend, but he is apprehensive as he’s black and she’s white. When they arrive, Chris begins to notice strange doings around the house, as he begins to suspect something more sinister going on underneath.

Pros - Where to start? Honestly, it’s just an overall amazing film. The writing and the visuals are my favourite things, as the film just has this whole creepy vibe that’s perfectly maintained the whole time, which kicks into overdrive when the plot gets going. The cast and casting is spot on as well, as there’s not a single out of place character, or misstep in characterization. The film also has a decent amount of humour throughout, and if you’re seeing this with the right crowd, it can really add to the experience.

Cons - The only minor gripe I have is that they maybe could’ve explained the antagonist's motivations just a slight tough better. Not that it didn’t tell me, I just have the slight feeling that they should’ve made it clearer sooner.

Final Score - 10/10

As of writing this, it’s definitely in at least my top two favourites so far this year. It’s a really cool film, and as thrillers go, it’s one of the best I’ve seen in awhile. It’s a definite go see this now.

Next: We’re probably going for the next suggestion box review, otherwise I might tackle the huge stack of unwatched dvd’s I have next to me. I’m saying I’m going to review them so that it’ll (hopefully) motivate me to watch them finally.

Links:

Want to read more? Click above for my last review. Hint: The last film was more physical than the last one. You can read that one here.

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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Movie Review: Fist Fight (2017)

Hello All,

    Oh boy we’re sailing this ship again, time to try and review a comedy without spoiling anything about it. I mean I can almost guarantee I’ve said this before but there’s only so many ways to say this film is or isn’t funny. So let’s just get through this version of the exact thing again sooner rather than later shall we?

Plot Summary - Andy Campbell (Charlie Day) is a mild mannered english teacher suffering through the last, prank filled, day of school. When history teacher Ron Strickland (Ice Cube) runs out of patience after one of these pranks is played against him, Campbell ends up getting him fired, leaving Strickland to challenge him to a fight after school.

Pros - The fight is pretty worthwhile once the film gets to it. The third act also has probably the funniest moments in the film. Ice Cube as Strickland is easily the best person in the film, because they actually do give his reason for what he’s doing a clear and even kind of inspiring motivation. I’ll admit, I only really know Charlie Day from horrible bosses, but he does pretty well here also. The film overall does actually have more of a story and character arc for our leads as the film progresses than other comedies like this.

Cons - The supporting cast don’t get really that much to do. They’re unfortunately more one dimensional characters and while the actors are fine they’re basically left stranded. The weird thing is they have Jillian Bell as a guidance counselor who is basically just Pam from Archer, minus what makes Pam funny. The first two thirds of the film, while not bad, I wasn’t really laughing, more mildly amused at best.

Final Score - 5/10

It’s a hard call but this is a meh. I truly think that as much as I do like what it was trying to do, if you’re sitting through more than half of a comedy not really laughing, then you kind of have a problem. I’d like to have seen them run with some of the ideas a bit better, and maybe give the supporting cast more to do as well.

Next: I’m either going to do the next suggestion box review, or take a personal day and watch some dvds, which I may or may not review depending on mostly how I feel.

Links:

Want to read more? Click above for my last review. Hint: I did a double review last time, were they any better? You can read that here.

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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Double Movie Review: The Great Wall (2017) & A Cure for Wellness (2017)

Hello All,

    Thank you all so much for your support during my absence the past few days. It’s been, weird, to say the least, but I’m not going to dwell on it. I’ve been actually wanting to get back into the swing of doing these, so let’s take it a bit slow today and review these shall we?

The Great Wall Review

Plot Summary - William Garin (Matt Damon) has travelled to China with his companion in search of black powder. However, when they are captured by a group called The Nameless Order who defends the great wall, he gets entangled in their ancient battle against a mysterious evil.

Pros - The set design is probably the coolest thing I’ve seen in quite some time. They way they utilize the wall to fight the enemy is well explored and really accounts for a good number of possibilities in battle. The cast is good for the most part, and the action scenes have some satisfying moments scattered throughout.

Cons - The story is really nothing to write home about, it’s the same kind of invasion movie you’ve seen before. The third act is also quite weird, not in terms of story disruption, but more in terms of just seemingly losing focus on things at random. The creature designs are also not great, as they really don’t look that distinctive or unique in any real way.

Final Score - 5/10

I really can’t describe this film beyond average. It’s not bad, not great, just average. I’d say it’s up to you on this one.

A Cure for Wellness

Plot Summary - Lockhart (Dane DeHaan) is a young financial executive who is sent to a european wellness spa to retrieve one of his bosses. While there however, he gets into an accident, and finds himself undergoing their treatment as part of his recovery, only he begins to suspect much more sinister motives underneath it all.

Pros - The casting is spot on, especially DeHaan as Lockhart. The visual style of the film is also really intense and cool as well.

Cons - I’ve seen the film, and have read the plot summary three times now, and I can still not quite 100% sure what even happened in this film. I’m not even joking, and it’s honestly starting to bug me. The film is way too long, convoluted, and the plot just keeps stop starting over and over again, killing all pacing. The villain’s motivations are also really weird, and how the mystery unravels is also just kind of dumb. The film justs leaves so many unanswered question on top of everything else to the point that it just kills the film by the time it’s over, but you might leave thinking it died so much earlier.

Final Score - 2/10

It’s a hard no from me. If you like creepy imagery then at an absolute best a maybe, otherwise just skip it.

Next: Fist Fight - Most likely tomorrow. At this point I don’t know what to expect anymore.

Links:

Want to read more? Click above for my last review. Hint: It might have been something a shade darker than these films.

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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Movie Review for Thursday, Feb. 16th 2017 (18+)

Hello All,

    Before we begin, please take a moment to watch my dear friend LadyCassandrina’s video featuring me!

    Now I will admit to a slight error on my end before we start. I honestly thought that there were only two films coming out last weekend, so I was bothering to look for the third one so obviously in my face. That and all of the friendly and helpful reminders about it as well. Since I’m being truthful, I will also admit that the rather provocative nature of the film was a bit of a repellent to me, as a man inflicted with chronic singleness. A small part of me thought it would be super weird to see a movie like this by myself, but goddammit I worked up the courage and did it.

And, while trying not to spoil too much before the review, it’s been quite some time since I’ve seen a film with such a heavy amount of romance involved. Like, a huge amount of it. Looking back it’s so silly why I thought it’d be off putting to me, It’s actually refreshing to see two people so in love in a film. Especially one made in Canada as well, which always makes me proud. And the kicker? It’s also an LGBT+ film made entirely by women. I mean you just don’t see enough of these films nowadays.

Alright, I’m getting too carried away, let’s begin the review of Below Her Mouth now shall we?

Plot Summary - Jasmine (Natalie Krill) goes out on the town after her fiancee leaves for the weekend, when she meets Dallas (Erika Linder), and the pair enter into a passionate love affair.

Pros - I think the chemistry between the leads is easily my favourite thing about the film. The way it’s written as well allows them to really present a real and honest relationship. You find yourself really rooting for them as the film goes on. The story is well told at 91 minutes, as it doesn’t try to do too much, again besides being honest. It’s well shot, and overall it’s a solid looking film.

Cons - Jasmine’s reason for why she’d begin the affair while engaged is talked about briefly, but I wish was just expanded upon maybe just slightly more. There’s also one or two moments where it’s slips just a touch too far into fantasy that kind of hurts the realism a bit. There’s an odd line read here or there, and just a slightly too long ending.

Final Score - 8/10

It’s a strong 8 don’t get me wrong, and a definite recommendation for the age appropriate.

I (slightly) apologize for leading all of you on. I simply decided to do this for me, since I admittedly will not be able to get any reviews up until Sunday at the earliest due to some personal issues. All I ask is that you please do not spoil the joke, I’m curious to see how long I can keep this going.

Next: A Cure For Wellness - I am aiming for Sunday for this one.

Links:

Want to read more? Click above for my last review. Hint: Last one was for a suggestion box review. You can read that here.

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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.

Suggestion Box Review #5: Spaceballs (1987)

Hello All,

    So before we begin today I’d actually like to take a moment and do something I don’t do often on this blog: Directly promote something! My dear friend LadyCassandrina (her facebook page is here please go follow it) recently asked me to voice a character for one of her youtube videos (Go subscribe to that here also). More specifically she asked me to voice the character of Grillby for her Undertale fan series. If you have a moment I would deeply appreciate you taking some time to watch it right now. No go ahead, seriously watch it right now. DO EET

Watched it? Good! Watched it several times? Great! Shared it with everyone you’ve ever known and even strangers creepily on the street? Excellent! Go watch it one more time then come back if you wanna hear me talk about Spaceballs.

For those of you who don’t know Mel Brooks and his filmography, do yourself a favour after you’re done reading this review (and having watched that video at least one more time) go and watch at least Blazing Saddles. The man is a comedic genius, but how well does Spaceballs hold up? Let’s find out shall we?

Plot Summary - When Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) runs off from her wedding, Captain Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his sidekick Barf (John Candy) are hired to retrieve her and bring her home. However, the evil Lord Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) is trying to capture the princess, in order to force her plane to hand over all of their fresh air.

Pros - Let's not beat around the bush here Spaceballs is a comedy classic. It’s just an absolute brilliant parody of Science Fiction in all the best ways, and which great performances, and a solid, if slightly basic story, the film is a must for lovers of comedies, sci - fi, or both.

Cons - The only con that I can think of would be if you read down this far and didn’t watch that youtube video yet. The film is also perfect.

Final Score - 10/10

Next Suggestion Box Review: Ghost in the Shell (1995) - Hooray we’re finally catching up on these, which means you should suggest more movies in the suggestion box below.

Links:

Want to read more? Click above for my last review. Hint: It was my last suggestion box review. You can read that here.

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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.