Glitz, Glamour and Glory are all on the table for Sunday
night’s Oscars. Diamonds and Limos and Gowns and Tuxedos to celebrate what is
quite possibly the saddest bunch of films I can ever remember being nominated
for Best Picture. They aren’t bad, quite to the contrary, but good Lord they
are sad. Grief, sorrow, loss, misery, shame, if you suffer from it then it probably
plays a major role in this year’s selections. I have to admit it was not easy
getting through all of them this year. Not because they weren’t entertaining,
they were. It was because they were brutally emotional. That is a good thing to
be sure but not always an easy thing.
If I have said this once I’ve said this a thousand times. We
love movies when we care what happens to the characters. Everything else is
just window dressing. How does it make you feel? Do you the viewer buy into
what the director is selling? Are you cheering or jeering? If you are doing neither
there is a problem. Movies work or don’t work because of the emotional
connection made with the viewer. Everything else like lighting, cinematography,
editing, music, etc…..can all be great but at the end of the day if we don’t care
then nothing else really matters.
This year’s crop contains 3 movies based on actual events, 1
adapted from a play, 1 rewritten from an unpublished short story, 1 musical, 1 alien encounter, 1 modern day
western and 1 cinematic kick in the gut!
They are all exceptional films. There is no proverbial turd in
this year’s Oscar punch bowl. No particular controversy over nominations. I
like it better when there is at least one stinker I can hate. Alas that is not
this year. Some I obviously liked more than others but really not a bad one in
the bunch.
These are listed in my personal order ranked by how I would
vote if I were voting and not what I think will win. So, for the record, I
wouldn’t use this for betting unless you want to lose your house.
LION: All these
reviews are to a great extent a gut reaction. How did the movie make me feel? This
will be my shortest review. I’m not even going to talk about plot because if it
weren’t a true story it would be ridiculously unbelievable. Simply put, Lion is
the best film I saw this year. It is easily my vote for Best Picture. The story
by itself is awe inspiring. Every step of this young man’s life balances between
disaster and survival. Of all the movies
in this year’s class Lion won’t get out of my head. The journey of this young
man shown by the film elicits shock, sadness, survival, despair, kindness,
exhaustion, fear, perseverance, joy and most of all love. It is some kind of
beautiful ride.
HIDDEN FIGURES: Hidden Figures follows a tried and
true formula. That is not an insult. Historical dramas like this have a formula
for a reason. The formula works. I guess
I could go into how the Space Race is used as a mirror image for Civil Rights
and how in the end the only way to succeed in either is for the best and
brightest of us all to work together regardless of race or color or creed……I
could but I won’t. It is much simpler than that. This is a great movie because
the film makers took a phenomenal, mostly unknown, story and told it in a
compelling albeit formulaic way. The movie is perfectly cast. Taraji P. Henson,
Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe are superb and deserve all the accolades thrown at them. Through their character’s previously hidden perseverance we are finally
shown a more complete picture of our shared history. It’s a history that many thought they knew inside and out. Yet it reminds us that our greatest glories are always the
work of more than just the glorified. More importantly it provides long,
over-due credit where credit was so obviously due. That is no small or insignificant thing.
Hacksaw Ridge: The
real life story of Desmond Doss is more dramatic than anything Hollywood could
invent. Most “true stories” that make it
to the big screen are skewered for taking what are usually unnecessary
liberties with the story. In stark contrast director Mel Gibson actually had to
tone down and cut some the acts of bravery Doss committed on Okinawa in
WWII. Gibson didn’t want the audience to
think he was embellishing the story. He couldn’t make this stuff up……literally.
You want to know how good this movie is? Mel Gibson, Hollywood Persona Non
Grata Extraordinaire, directed it and it still got nominated. Gibson is a
skilled film maker. He understands the medium and has as good a connection with
his audience as anyone. He recognized that Doss’ entire life was as much the
story as his acts of heroism. In lesser
hands this film could have been a debacle. It could have been made into a hundred
things it was never intended to be by ignoring all the little things that were
actually what was important. Luckily an
unbelievable story about bravery and kindness and duty and faith was made
into a powerful movie about bravery, kindness, duty and faith…… What a novel
concept.
HELL OR HIGH WATER: Chris
Pine is an exceptional, leading man known for big budgets and action. Ben
Foster may be the best character actor working in Hollywood. Jeff Bridges
successfully occupied both of those positions at different times in his career.
Now he’s a grizzled veteran of the screen and as good as ever. Hell or High Water is a well-crafted
film. It packs more into less than any film I’ve seen in a long time. A script
so well written with dialogue so efficient they succeed in telling an intricate
story with as few words as possible. It is quite impressive.
The story is timely, compelling and most importantly entertaining. There isn’t
a single character, even the not-so-good guys, that you aren’t compelled to care about. What else do you
need from a film?
Did I mention Jeff Bridges is great?
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA:
Upon hearing “He Stopped Loving Her Today” for the first time George Jones
reportedly looked at his producers and said, “Great song. But nobody is ever
gonna play it on the radio. It’s just too damn sad.”
It would be hard to imagine the makers of Manchester by the Sea didn’t hear the same
sentiments. Luckily for country music, and for cinema, grief is a helluva thing
and Manchester by the Sea is a
helluva movie. It is gripping and methodical and while the pace is slow it
never drags. Every single scene moves the story forward. It continually builds
anticipation to learn what happens in these people’s lives and you’re just
praying they can finally catch a break. I did find the music to be a
distraction in some places but that’s just me being picky. Casey Affleck should
and probably will win the Oscar for Best Actor. This is a heartbreaking look at
the debilitation grief can have on a life and lives.
MOONLIGHT: This may be the best film of the year. Initially
I thought I just didn’t identify with the lead character in Moonlight. I’m not gay. I’m not black and I didn’t grow up
in a place of such violence and despair with a drug addicted mother.
Additionally, it reminds me of another nominated movie from two years ago that
I hated titled, “BOYHOOD”. Both follow the main character from youth to manhood.
Unlike Boyhood which follows a
working-class white kid and uses the same cast of actors filmed over a 7 year
period, Moonlight shows the main character at three distinct stages of his life
all played by different actors and in my opinion with much better results. It’s
not fair to draw such a straight line between two movies. However, I find it
interesting how much more emotionally invested I felt after watching Moonlight even though it never remotely resembles my own life experience.
You are dropped into this boy's, Chiron, life and vividly see what it is like living
every day in a constant state of fear. It’s palpable. Mahershala Ali is
outstanding as the local drug dealer who becomes a somewhat. stable father figure
for the boy. So to be sure Chiron finds rays of love and kindness along the
way but even then he’s never more than a step away from danger and fear. Everything
and everyone is compromised. How do you trust? How does that effect and mold a
soul, even one as kind and beautiful as Chiron's? Moonlight may not be the
easiest film to watch which makes it the one film you probably should.
LA LA Land: Taken
in pieces La La Land is a mess. The whole first hour is painstakingly dull.
While the jazz is great it doesn’t always meld well with some of the more
“musical friendly” songs. Additionally, the numbers are charming and artfully staged. I wouldn’t say any of them
are show stopping or all that memorable. Not to mention that Gosling can’t sing and over halfway
through the film I couldn’t imagine why in God’s name this movie had been so
well received.
Fortunately, we don’t take films in pieces. We take them as a whole. Stone and
Gosling are both excellent actors and even more importantly they have superb
chemistry. Very much like the chemistry I imagine I would have in real life with Diane Lane
if I ever…. You know…. actually meet Diane Lane. But that’s beside the point.
For the record, I like musicals. Oklahoma, South Pacific, West Side Story, Singing
in the Rain, Top Hat, Yankee Doodle Dandy…you name it and I’m in. La La Land is not in that class but if you
give it time and musicals don’t freak you out then the payoff is worth it.
FENCES: Films
adapted from plays often choose one of two ways to go. Either they totally
embrace the play format and limit the sets and visual aspects of the film (12
Angry Men) or they ignore those limitations and embrace the complex visual
opportunities offered by the medium of film (A Few Good Men). Fences it seems
tries to hedge its bets. Washington as
the director never seems sure which tactic to use. The few times they break away to shots outside
the “set” it never really advances the story. It is like they found some extra budget and
decided to add a location shot. It is a minor complaint but it does disrupt the
flow. Regardless, this movie isn’t about the editing or the setting. It is
about the acting and the dialogue and on both those counts Fences is
exceptional. Denzel Washington and Viola Davis have few peers. Her rage is
fueled by her desperation about his rage and his rage is born from his desperation. It is a vicious circle. It isn't always clear how to make a good movie.
A great cast speaking the exquisite words of August Wilson is not a bad place to start.
ARRIVAL:
I liked Arrival. I liked it even better when I
saw it two years ago as Interstellar.
No, they aren’t the same movie but, you know, they are the same movie. One
major difference is Interstellar was actually awesome and Arrival was pretty good.
There were also hints of Sphere, Inception and Contact to be fair.
Don’t get me wrong there is no shame in stealing from other movies and making
them into great movies. Steven Spielberg is a master of it. But in order for it
to be forgiven the end product needs to be a lot better than Arrival. The
acting is strong and it has a great, if not totally original, twist to explain
their Sci-fi premise. Unfortunately, it causes more questions than answers. Amy
Adams is continuing to amass an impressive body of work. I hope she is going to
be around a long time. Again, not a bad film, I think Arrival gets lost in translation up against this year's field
of nominees.
