-Sad to see no “See You Again” in Best Song, but at least the correct song from 50 Shades of Grey was picked.
-This is the most spread out I can ever remember the field being, as expected. Carol, Star Wars, and Straight Outta Compton had to be pretty close to Best Picture noms. Also Sicario, amazingly. And Ex Machina, too.
–Room got more overall support than I was expecting. Lenny Abrahamson is your iconoclastic Director pick this year.
-Most of what I’m happy to see was expected or close to it, i.e., plenty of love for The Big Short, Stallone for Supporting, Mad Max for Costume.
-Denmark’s been doing well in Foreign Language Film this decade.
-Glad to see The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared for Makeup and Hair. I haven’t seen it, but it’s probably the best title of the year.
Oscar Nominations Reactions
January 14, 2016
Awards Shows, Cinema, Oscars Oscar Nominations, Oscars Leave a comment
This Is a Movie Review: The Forest
January 9, 2016
Cinema, Movie Reviews Natalie Dormer, The Forest 1 Comment
Movies like The Forest make me upset that horror does not on the whole get the critical fair shake it deserves. It has a decent premise that it does not quite live up to, though it has plenty of interesting moments. For most genres, that translates to respectability and a Rotten Tomatoes score of approximately 60-75%, but for horror, it means dismissal and a Tomatometer as low as single digits. If the scares are not up to snuff, then neither is the praise.
The Forest is indeed not all that scary, but while it is disappointing, it has enough elements to make it worth watching. Suicidal thoughts, a disorienting location, repressed memories, paranoia, disturbing folklore, and ghosts exploiting all of the above make for a potent mix of anxiety. In a dual role as twin sisters, Natalie Dormer frequently adjusts her personalities, occasionally switching characteristics between the two. It is a tricky performance that requires the support of better editing and writing than is on display. Ultimately, The Forest does not know if it wants to be ambiguous or answer all its mysteries; it is too eager to be the former and too overstuffed to be the latter. Still, it manages to distinguish itself in a genre that usually settles for the same old tricks.
This Is a (Quickie) Movie Review: The Good Dinosaur
January 9, 2016
Cinema, Movie Reviews The Good Dinosaur Leave a comment
The Good Dinosaur is the most uncomfortably close Pixar has gotten to the uncanny valley since Cars. “Dinosaurs with self-aware intelligence living alongside feral humans” is not on quite the same level as organic transportation devices, but it is still a freaky mix of weird and familiar. As disorienting as this premise may be, embracing this weirdness more completely may have actually been to The Good Dinosaur’s benefit, because otherwise, it is a fairly standard journey back home adventure film. What does stand out are the digressive bursts of personality. Specifically, there is the (too-short) acid trip caused by fermented berries and a triceratops with various critters adorning its horns. Other than that, Sam Elliott as a papa T. Rex rounds out the highlights.
This Is a (Quickie) Movie Review: The Hateful Eight
January 3, 2016
Cinema, Movie Reviews The Hateful Eight Leave a comment
You’ve got to hand it Quentin Tarantino. He always knows exactly what he is doing. His latest – the Western mission movie-cum-locked room mystery The Hateful Eight – starts off about as deliberately paced as possible. Sure, the tension needs to be built up for the enmity promised in the title to be worth watching, but does it have to take an hour and a half? While that setup could be more economical, it makes damn sure that the cabin this mix of bounty hunters, criminals, and mystery men find themselves trapped in is a lit powder keg. A mix of flashbacks and narration threatens to explain too much, but that is acceptable when withholding information as confidently as The Hateful Eight does. Is the whole thing indulgent, excessive, and distasteful? Sure, but the master of the prestige B-movie proves once again that such a bloody stew can still make for quality cinema.
2015: A Year at the Movies
January 1, 2016
A Year at the Movies, Cinema Leave a comment
After 2014’s total dropped significantly from 2013’s, 2015 moved back in the right direction, up 6 on last year, with a strong December showing (accounting for about 16% of the final tally) to wrap up the year.
(Included with the list of titles are grades, dates, showtimes, theatre locations, and folks I saw the movies with.)
1. The Gambler – C (1/7, 8:15 PM, Regal United Artists Oxford Valley, Langhorne, PA; Walter Wojcik)
2. Selma – A- (1/9, 7:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
3. Predestination – B+ (1/14, 1:00 PM, AMC Neshaminy, Bensalem, PA; Walter Wojcik)
4. Whiplash – A (1/17, 3:10 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
5. Inherent Vice – B (1/22, 2:45 PM, Oxford Valley; myself)
6. American Sniper – C+ (2/4, 7:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
7. The Theory of Everything – B (2/5, 1:00 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
8. Fifty Shades of Grey – C (2/16, 11:20 AM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
9. Jupiter Ascending – B (2/19, 7:10 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
10. What We Do in the Shadows – A- (3/14, 4:15 PM, Landmark Sunshine, New York, NY; Rob Malone and Walter Wojcik)
11. Kingsman: The Secret Service – B- (3/24, 6:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
12. It Follows – B+ (3/26, 7:50 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
13. Get Hard – B- (3/26, 9:50 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
14. Furious 7 – B+ (4/13, 1:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
15. Unfriended – B+ (4/17, 2:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
16. Ex Machina – A (4/24, 7:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
17. Rifftrax Live: The Room (5/6, 8:00 PM, Regal Union Square, New York, NY; myself)
18. Mad Max: Fury Road – A- (5/15, 1:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
19. Avengers: Age of Ultron in 3D – B- (5/15, 7:10 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik and Terri Wojcik)
20. Pitch Perfect 2 – C+ (5/19, 1:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
21. Far From the Madding Crowd – B (5/21, 4:15 PM, Angelika Film Center, New York, NY; myself)
22. Poltergeist – B- (5/27, 8:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
23. Insidious: Chapter 3 – B- (6/4, 7:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
24. Tomorrowland – C+ (6/9, 7:15 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
25. Dope – B+ (6/22, 7:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
26. Spy – B (6/22, 9:50 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojick)
27. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – A- (6/24, 7:50 PM, Neshaminy; Bob Malone and Beth Woods)
28. Inside Out in 3D – A- (7/2, 12:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojick, Natalie Wolanin, and Stasiu Wolanin)
29. Jurassic World – B (7/8, 8:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojick)
30. Minions in 3D – B+ (7/16, 8:10 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
31. Trainwreck – B+ (7/16, 10:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
32. Magic Mike XXL – B (7/27, 8:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
33. Terminator Genisys – B (7/27, 11:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
34. Ant-Man – B (8/3, 7:15 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
35. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation – B (8/3, 9:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
36. Irrational Man – B- (8/11, 1:40 PM, Regal Manahawkin, Manahawkin, NJ; Bob Malone and Kaity Malone)
37. Shaun the Sheep Movie – B+ (8/24, 7:45 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
38. The Gift – B (8/24, 9:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
39. The End of the Tour – B+ (8/26, 7:55 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
40. The Diary of a Teenage Girl – B (9/1, 7:40 PM, Oxford Valley; myself)
41. Sinister 2 – B (9/10, 7:35 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
42. The Visit – B+ (9/10, 9:40 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
43. Straight Outta Compton – B (9/11, 6:50 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
44. Grandma – B (9/28, 8:50 PM, Oxford Valley; myself)
45. The Intern – B- (10/1, 12:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Claire Dansbury)
46. Rifftrax Live: Miami Connection (10/1, 8:00 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
47. Sleeping with Other People – B+ (10/5, 7:50 PM, Neshaminy; Walter WojciK)
48. The Martian – B+ (10/8, 9:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
49. Sicario – A- (10/15, 12:50 PM, Oxford Valley; myself)
50. Black Mass – B (10/21, 12:40 PM, Oxford Valley; myself)
51. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension in 3D – C (10/29, 2:00 PM, Neshaminy; myself)
52. Goosebumps – B- (11/2, 8:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
53. Crimson Peak – C+ (11/2, 10:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
54. Bridge of Spies – A- (11/4, 7:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Claire Dansbury, Pat Dansbury, Walter Wojcik)
55. Steve Jobs – A- (11/5, 12:50 PM, Oxford Valley; myself)
56. The Night Before – B (11/19, 8:00 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
57. Brooklyn – B+ (11/30, 7:35 PM, Neshaminy; myself)
58. Rifftrax Live: Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (12/3, 8:00 PM, Neshaminy; Dave Coyle and Walter Wojcik)
59. Spotlight – A (12/6, 3:20 PM, Oxford Valley; Pat Dansbury)
60. Krampus – B+ (12/6, 7:50 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
61. Creed – B+ (12/6, 10:10 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
62. Chi-Raq – B+ (12/10, 1:35 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
63. Spectre – B (12/15, 6:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
64. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 – B- (12/15, 9:30 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
65. The Peanuts Movie – B+ (12/16, 7:10 PM, Oxford Valley; myself)
66. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – A- (12/22, 10:00 AM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik and Terri Wojcik)
67. The Big Short – A (12/22, 7:05 PM, Oxford Valley; Walter Wojcik)
68. The Hateful Eight 70mm Roadshow – B+ (12/29, 11:00 PM, Neshaminy; Walter Wojcik)
Best Films of 2015
December 31, 2015
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema Best of 2015, Bridge of Spies, Ex Machina, Inside Out, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, movies, Sicario, Spotlight, Star Wars The Force Awakens, Steve Jobs, The Big Short, What We Do in the Shadows 1 Comment
Clockwise from Top Left: Inside Out; Spotlight; Ex Machina; The Big Short (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots)
Box office records kept falling in 2015, and some of the biggest blockbusters were actually among the best films of the year! This is appropriate enough, as bigness was the name of the day in 2015, with Big Emotions and Big Ideas all over this list. Whether it was through muckraking journalism and statesmanship, the birth of new heroes, or the burning desire to make personal connections, the makers of the best films of 2015 made sure audiences heard what they had to say.
This top 10 list was originally posted on Starpulse in December 2015.
1. The Big Short – Spoiler alert: as the wild ride of Adam McKay’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ bestselling nonfiction thriller about the players who anticipated the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble settles into its conclusion, the epilogue reveals that every Wall Street fraudster was imprisoned and new stringent legal regulations have been implemented to prevent another crisis. Except, of course, that didn’t happen. This is an esoteric topic, but the audience for “The Big Short” knows it has been screwed. The level at which this swindling occurred is astounding and ridiculous, and the filmmaking that captures it is just as absurdly gut-wrenching.
This Is a Movie Review: The Big Short
December 26, 2015
Cinema, Movie Reviews Adam McKay, The Big Short 2 Comments
Have you ever seen a movie with an indelible moment and wondered, “How did I not hear about this before seeing it?” The Big Short is likely to leave you feeling this way, as nearly every feature fits this description, and most reviews are not just a list of everything that happens in the movie. You may have heard about the cameoing celebrities talking directly to the camera, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.
In its editing, production design, and sound composition, The Big Short is just sick (in all connotations of that word). Adam McKay has shown some flashes of narrative experimentation in his Will Ferrell comedies (the Applebee’s commercial in Talladega Nights, direct acknowledgement of the lack of consequences following the battle royale in Anchorman, the musical breaks in Step Brothers), but in those cases they did not overwhelm the whole movie and they fit more naturally. This time, he goes completely for broke.
As for the cast, Christian Bale sinks into another character, Ryan Gosling revels in the slime and eccentricity, and the rest of the ensemble sinks their teeth into the muck. But Steve Carell shines the brightest as a trader whose arc presents the most human moments of the narrative. The whole system tears him up internally as much as it tears up any semblance of financial integrity. When he and his team visit a Florida community decimated by evictions, it is a sobering reminder of how real this crisis is for a lot of people. The film would be excellent without this segment, but with it, it is at another level.
Other recent Wall Street-based films have portrayed this type of fraud just as well, but The Big Short takes it a step further by not taking it a step further. It betrays hardly any hope that it can actually make a difference. Free of that burden, the message is: we might be as fucked as we ever were, but at least we can still make an absolutely insane movie.
This Is a Movie Review: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
December 26, 2015
Cinema, Movie Reviews Star Wars, Star Wars The Force Awakens, The Force Awakens 2 Comments
-I cried from anticipation during the first spaceship shot after the crawl.
-Daisy Ridley’s facial expressions convey a constant state of surprise. It is terribly endearing.
-It is the rare Star Wars character who can say that his decision in a moral quandary is simply the right thing to do. John Boyega has the earnestness to pull that off as ex-stormtrooper Finn.
-There is a bit of a potential romantic spark between Rey and Finn. He is clearly smitten the moment he sees her warding off scavengers. True, she yells when he keeps grabbing her hand, but that is more about practicality. (Come on, Finn, it’s not faster for either of you to be holding hands while running.) Right now, they have an intense friendship borne out by surviving death-defying adventure together, and it can develop or not develop however should be most natural.
-Rey’s desert attire is perhaps the best outfit in Star Wars history. Dressing decisions ought to be made based on comfort, functionality, and style; these three elements all feed into each other in this case.
-Adam Driver as Kylo Ren gives the performance that Hayden Christensen was supposed to give in the prequels. His petulant manchildishness is also reminiscent of Spaceballs’ Dark Helmet (in a good way).
-As Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, Oscar Isaac is the least tortured he’s ever been. Interesting.
-BB-8 does not disappoint. “Droid, please.”
-All your favorites are back! Even more than you might expect. They mostly pick up right where they left off, R2-D2 more than anyone else. Harrison Ford looks the most comfortable he ever has been as Han.
-Wow, this is exactly the same movie as A New Hope. Thankfully, the characters are so great that it is just thrilling to watch them (sky)walk through the beats.
-A few dramatic moments may happen too quickly, but they play in a way that might make you think, “perhaps there is a way to do it differently than the precedent that has been set.”
This Is a (Quickie) Movie Review: Chi-Raq
December 21, 2015
Cinema, Movie Reviews Chi-Raq Leave a comment
Father Mike Corridan’s (John Cusack) firebreathing homily sets the tone and thesis statement for Chi-Raq. Rattling off statistics about gun culture and poverty with the passion of the Holy Spirit, he sounds much more like a fiery Pentecostal minister than a stereotypically low-key Catholic priest. There is no universally accepted response to gun violence, but Spike Lee is absolutely damn sure that doing nothing is just about the worst idea possible. So he has created this modern-day update of Lysistrata, complete with both women refusing to give up their sex until the violence ends AND the poetic dialogue. Some of the actors flounder a bit with the unnatural cadences of verse, while pros like Angela Bassett, Sam Jackson, and even Wesley Snipes kill it. Chi-Raq recognizes the humanity of everyone in this narrative, a fact that is too often astoundingly ignored.
This Is a (Quickie) Movie Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
December 21, 2015
Cinema, Movie Reviews The Hunger Games, The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 Leave a comment
The final installment of The Hunger Games is a collection of several great scenes and production details, but the overall product is not commensurately impressive. I bemoaned the announcement that the final book would be split into two movies, and the end result did not disabuse me of this notion. As the rebel fighters make their way to the Capitol, they are bombarded by a succession of ingeniously fiendish mutants and booby traps; they are the dangers of the hunger games themselves unleashed. The rebels are more impressed than intimidated, noting that the gamemakers have not stopped doing their jobs, even though the official games are no more. It is like a large-scale, lethally high-stakes Home Alone. There is plenty of room to draw out thematic points on this canvas, but the approach Part 2 (and Part 1) takes is not ideal for underscoring them. More close-ups of Jennifer Lawrence’s preternaturally expressive face might have helped.
