Jeff "Jmunney" Malone's Self-Styled "Expert" Thoughts on Movies, TV, Music, and the Rest of Pop Culture
March 4, 2016
Cinema, Oscars Oscars, The Witch Leave a comment
Lead Actress
Anya Taylor-Joy, The Witch
Lead Actor
Ralph Ineson, The Witch
Supporting Actress
Ellie Grainger, The Witch
Supporting Actor
Lucas Dawson, The Witch
Film Editing
Louise Ford, The Witch
Makeup and Hairstyling
The Witch
Director
Robert Eggers, The Witch
Best Picture
The Witch
February 29, 2016
Awards Shows, Cinema, Oscars Oscar Predictions, Oscars Leave a comment
(The Ex Machina VFX team accepts their award.)
I was 17/24 in my Oscar predictions. Here are the 7 categories I got wrong, ranked from least to most surprising:
1. Film Editing
I Predicted: The Big Short
What Won: Mad Max: Fury Road
This was always a tight two-way fight; the surprise would have been if anything else had won.
2. Documentary Short
I Predicted: Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
What Won: A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
In Doc Short, I look for what can be construed as “important.” Trouble is, that descriptor could fit every nominee.
3. Animated Short
I Predicted: World of Tomorrow
What Won: Bear Story
I need to stop using the logic of “It’s so good – no way the Academy won’t vote for it!” World of Tomorrow just does not fit the charming and/or goofy mold of most Animated Short winners; Bear Story does (though it was obscured a bit by the more high-profile Sanjay’s Super Team).
4. Best Picture
I Predicted: The Big Short
What Won: Spotlight
As I suspected, it came down to the preferential ballot; unfortunately for us prognosticators, that worked in two films’ favor.
5. Supporting Actor
I Predicted: Sylvester Stallone
What Won: Mark Rylance
This race was always wide-open, even though Stallone was really the only one with any precursor indicators.
6. Original Song
I Predicted: “Til It Happens to You”
What Won: “Writing’s on the Wall”
I guess Sam Smith was second-most likely, but it sure looked like GaGa was way out in front.
7. Visual Effects
I Predicted: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
What Won: Ex Machina
A film with a budget as modest as Ex Machina‘s winning Visual Effects is simply unprecedented. And with such tough competition, I would have never predicted it happening this year. (It is totally worthy, though!)
February 28, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema, Oscars Oscars Leave a comment
If I were in charge of unilaterally selecting the Oscars, here is who would be recognized. Nominees are listed in order of preference, winners at the top.
Best Picture
1. The Big Short
2. Spotlight
3. Ex Machina
4. Inside Out
5. Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Lead Actress
1. Alison Brie, Sleeping with Other People
2. Brie Larson, Room
3. Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
4. Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road
5. Cate Blanchett, Carol
February 18, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema Chi-Raq, Ex Machina, Inside Out, Jurassic World, Mad Max: Fury Road, Magic Mike XXL, Minions, Sicario, The Big Short, Unfriended 1 Comment
The best mini-movies that had us rocking in and falling out of our seats in the past year.
10. Jurassic World, T. Rex vs. Indominus Rex – A.K.A the 2015 Late Night War.
February 14, 2016
Cinema, Movie Reviews Carol, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Todd Haynes 2 Comments
“We’re not ugly people,” Carol Aird pleadingly, but assuredly, insists to her husband during a custody fight that threatens to turn nasty. Carol is a thoroughly humanistic examination of the affair between a shopgirl and a housewife in 1952 New York, and the men in their life who struggle to understand them. It is about identity: the internal challenges to find your own and the external challenges to live it out. It mostly keeps it cool, in a manner that viewers who are not already fully attuned to director Todd Haynes’ restrained style might struggle to fully embrace. But when Cate Blanchett delivers the “ugly people” emphasis, Carol finds the winner’s circle.
February 14, 2016
Cinema, Movie Reviews 45 Years Leave a comment
If a film is about a decades-long marriage rocked by the revelation of long-held secrets, the natural expectation is that the marriage will fall apart. 45 Years is a little more complicated than that. Kate (Charlotte Rampling) is initially fine when the dead body of her husband Jeff’s (Tom Courtenay) ex-lover Katya is discovered. But tensions rise as the extent of Jeff and Katya’s relationship is revealed. It is never fully clear if Jeff has kept these secrets due to selfishness, embarrassment, deviousness, forgetfulness, or some combination of the above. Similarly, it is left ambiguous whether or not Kate can remain satisfied with their marriage amidst the dishonesty. Ergo, 45 Years works best as a showcase for the complications that Rampling can convey with gasps, furrowed brows, and heavy cheeks.
February 13, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema Alison Brie, Ex Machina, Oscar Isaac, Sleeping with Other People Leave a comment
Here is a rundown of the excellence in individual performances in films in 2015, starting with my choices for the 2 best and then the rest in alphabetical order. At the top are a fellow who talked and talked his way through a freaky-cerebral premise, and a lady who cracked her buoyant starting point into a heartbreakingly complicated interior.
Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina
Alison Brie, Sleeping with Other People
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Elizabeth Banks, Love & Mercy
Angela Bassett, Chi-Raq
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Josh Brolin, Sicario
Steve Carell, The Big Short
John Cusack, Chi-Raq
Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Benicio Del Toro, Sicario
Robert De Niro, The Intern
Deanna Dunagan, The Visit
Joel Edgerton, Black Mass
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Walton Goggins, The Hateful Eight
O’Shea Jackson, Jr., Straight Outta Compton
Michal B. Jordan, Creed
Brie Larson, Room
Peter McRobbie, The Visit
Jason Mitchell, Straight Outta Compton
Daisy Ridley, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Seth Rogen, Steve Jobs
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Jason Segel, The End of the Tour
Phyllis Smith, Inside Out
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road
Lily Tomlin, Grandma
Stanley Tucci, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
February 13, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema Creed, Inside Out, Krampus, Spotlight, The Big Short, The Hateful Eight Leave a comment
When the folks who say the words and act out the movements flocked together, these were the groups who made the most thunder.
February 13, 2016
Best in Film 2015, Best of 2015, Cinema, Television Best of 2015, Brooklyn, Creed, Furious 7, Krampus, Mad Max: Fury Road, Room, Sleeping with Other People, The Peanuts Movie, The Visit, Unfriended Leave a comment
I already posted my top 10 list, but wouldn’t you know it, there were plenty of other great movies. Here are three less than a baker’s dozen worth:
11. Mad Max: Fury Road – Charlize barks at the moon, giving us our most iconic image of 2015.
12. Krampus – The tricks are a treat, as is the teamwork among a dysfunctional family.
13. Creed – Adonis unapologetically forges ahead to be true to his identity and establish his family.
14. Sleeping with Other People – The question this time isn’t, “Can men and women be friends without wanting to sleep with each other?” but “Why wouldn’t they if they like each other enough?”
15. The Visit – Right at home on the corner of creepy and hilarious.
16. Brooklyn – Even when Eilis Lacey’s life is hard, there is so much love in her world.
17. Unfriended – The most formally ingenious movie in years, perhaps decades even.
18. The Peanuts Movie – Charlie Brown is preternaturally neurotic; ergo, this one’s a thinker.
19. Room – Tight corners promote empathy.
20. Furious 7 – The first F&F movie in which I actually remembered some of the plot aftewards.
February 7, 2016
Cinema, Movie Reviews Caesar!, Hail Leave a comment
Capitol Pictures head of production Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) has a full slate of fires to put out: a kidnapped George Clooney who comes under the sway of communism, the need to curry favor with various religious figures, a pregnant starlet who needs a husband to maintain her good girl image, an ambush by gossip columnist twin sisters, and a cowboy actor struggling with erudition in his first romantic comedy. It’s all in a day’s work for Mannix. As world-threatening or paradigm-shifting as some of these crises are, they all turn out okay in the end. Despite the weightiness of the subject matter, this is decidedly a light feature. “Would that it were so simple”? Actually, it is.
