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Favorite/Best Films of the 21st Century So Far

2017-06-26T13:45:00.000-07:00

After looking over the NY Times’s list of the 25 Best Films of the 21^st Century to date, I starting think about what films would be on my list. It is tough. On one hand you have all your favorite movies, some are more objectively good and some are certainly not; and on the other hand, you have films that are great but not necessarily films you seek out to watch. I decided on a compromise. These are the films that I think are the best – but with my biases/loves built in, let run wild. I also included my favorite documentaries at the end. Ranking all these films is impossible (I narrowed it down to 103; 13 documentaries and 90 features). So, this list is organized by year for the features, followed by documentaries and finally my personal 25 favorites.

2000

American Psycho, directed by Mary Harron

2001

Amelie, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Black Hawk Down, directed by Ridley Scott

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, directed by Peter Jackson

No Man’s Land, directed by Danis Tanovic

The Royal Tenenbaums, directed by Wes Anderson

2002

The Hours, directed by Stephen Daldry

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, directed by Peter Jackson

The Pianist, directed by Roman Polanski

2003

The Barbarian Invasions, directed by Denys Arcand

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, directed by Peter Jackson

Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola

Open Range, directed by Kevin Costner

2004

2046, directed by Kar Wai Wong

A Very Long Engagement, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Downfall, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, directed by Alfonso Cuaron

Hotel Rwanda, directed by Terry George

House of Flying Daggers, directed by Yimou Zhang

The Life of Aquatic with Steve Zissou, directed by Wes Anderson

Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood

Sideways, directed by Alexander Payne

Spider-Man 2, directed by Sam Raimi

Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War, directed by Je-gyu Kang

2005

Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan

The Beat that My Heart Skipped, directed by Jacques Audiard

Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg

Pride & Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright

Serenity, directed by Joss Whedon

The Squid and the Whale, directed by Noah Baumbach

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, directed by Marc Rothemund

2006

Black Book, directed by Paul Verhoeven

Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuaron

Mission: Impossible III, directed by J.J. Abrams

Once, directed by John Carney

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, directed by Gore Verbinski

The Prestige, directed by Christopher Nolan

The Road to Guantanamo, directed by Michael Winterbottom

2007

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, directed by Andrew Dominik

Atonement, directed by Joe Wright

The Darjeeling Limited, directed by Wes Anderson

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, directed by David Yates

No Country for Old Men, directed by the Coen Brothers

There Will Be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

The Visitor, directed by Tom McCarthy

2008

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, directed by David Fincher

The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan

Forgetting Sarah Marshall, directed by Nicholas Stoller

Hunger, directed by Steve McQueen

Revolutionary Road, directed by Sam Mendes

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, directed by Woody Allen

WALL-E, directed by Andrew Stanton

2009

Inglourious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino

Up, directed by Pete Docter

2010

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, directed by David Yates

Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan

Never Let Me Go, directed by Mark Romanek

The Social Network, directed by David Fincher

True Grit, directed by the Coen Brothers

2011

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, directed by David Fincher

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, directed by David Yates

Incendies, directed by Denis Villeneuve

Jane Eyre, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga

Super 8, directed by J.J. Abrams

2012

The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon

The Dark Knight Rises, directed by Christopher Nolan

Life of Pi, directed by Ang Lee

The Master, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Zero Dark Thirty, directed by Kathryn Bigelow

2013

12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen

Her, directed by Spike Jonze

Short Term 12, directed by Destin Cretton

The Wolf of Wall Street, directed by Martin Scorcese

2014

The Babadook, directed by Jennifer Kent

Gone Girl, directed by David Fincher

The Grand Budapest Hotel, directed by Wes Anderson

The Imitation Game, directed by Morten Tyldum

Interstellar, directed by Christopher Nolan

2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron, directed by Joss Whedon

Bridge of Spies, directed by Steven Spielberg

Brooklyn, directed by John Crowley

Carol, directed by Todd Haynes

Inside Out, directed by Peter Docter & Ronaldo Del Carmen

The Revenant, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Sicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve

2016

Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve

Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson

Hunt for the Wilderpeople, directed by Taika Waititi

Manchester by the Sea, directed by Kenneth Lonergan

Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese

Documentaries

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons front the Life of Robert S. McNamara, directed by Errol Morris

Super Size Me, directed by Morgan Spurlock

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, directed by Alex Gibney

Why We Fight, directed by Eugene Jarecki

Man on Wire, directed by James Marsh

Inside Job, directed by Charles Ferguson

Magic & BirdL A Courtship of Rivals, directed by Ezra Edelman

The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki

The Imposter, directed by Bart Layton

Citizenfour, directed by Laura Poitras

13^th, directed by Ava DuVernay

O.J.: Made in America, directed by Ezra Edelman

Five Came Back, directed by Laurent Bouzereau

My Personal Favorite 25

The Dark Knight Trilogy

Lost in Translation

Inception

Inglourious Basterds

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the whole saga really)

Pride & Prejudice

Amelie

Spider-Man 2

Interstellar

The Prestige

Serenity

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

No Country for Old Men

The Lord of the Rings

Hunger

Zero Dark Thirty

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

The Darjeeling Limited

Atonement

The Royal Tenenbaums

There Will Be Blood

American Psycho

Gone Girl

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

My Personal Favorite 25 (Redux)

Within the NY Times rules of One Film per Director

The Dark Knight

Lost in Translation

Inglourious Basterds

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Pride & Prejudice

Amelie

Spider-Man 2

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Serenity

No Country for Old Men

Hunger

Zero Dark Thirty

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

The Darjeeling Limited

There Will Be Blood

American Psycho

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Life of Pi

The Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Arrival

Downfall

Her

LeapBackBlog 2016 Film Awards

2017-01-18T12:21:00.000-08:00

2016 was a wonderful year for film, from fun blockbusters to innovative and engaging independent films. There were so many good films, performances and technical feats that many that I really liked did not make my top 25 in each category. I have put an “*” next to my personal favorite from each category.

Favorite 25 Films of 2016

Arrival, a sci-fi thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve

Captain America: Civil War, an action adventure directed by the Russo Brothers

Captain Fantastic, a comedy directed by Matt Ross

Certain Women, a character drama directed by Kelly Reichardt

The Conjuring 2, a period horror thriller directed by James Wan

Deadpool, an adventure comedy directed by Tim Miller

Everybody Wants Some!!, a comedy directed by Richard Linklater

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a fantasy adventure directed by David Yates

Green Room, a thriller directed by Jeremy Saulnier

Hacksaw Ridge, a war drama directed by Mel Gibson

Hell or High Water, a modern western directed by David Mackenzie

Hunt for the Wilderpeople, a comedy directed by Taika Waititi*

The Jungle Book, a family adventure directed by Jon Favreau

Lion, a character drama directed by Garth Davis

The Lobster, a dystopian romance dramedy directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Loving, a character drama/romance directed by Jeff Nichols

Manchester by the Sea, a character drama directed by Kenneth Lonergan

Moana, an animated family adventure directed by Ron Clements & John Musker

Moonlight, a character drama directed by Barry Jenkins

The Nice Guys, a mystery comedy directed by Shane Black

Pete’s Dragon, a family adventure directed by David Lowery

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a sci-fi action adventure directed by Gareth Edwards

Silence, a period character drama directed by Martin Scorsese

Sully, a character drama directed by Clint Eastwood

The Witch, a period horror thriller directed by Robert Eggers

Favorite 25 Performances of 2016

Amy Adams, leading performance in Arrival

Casey Affleck, leading performance in Manchester by the Sea

Mahershala Ali, supporting performance in Moonlight

Jeff Bridges, supporting performance in Hell or High Water

Laura Dern, leading performance in Certain Women

Colin Farrell, leading performance in The Lobster*

Andrew Garfield, leading performance in Hacksaw Ridge

Andrew Garfield, leading performance in Silence

Greta Gerwig, supporting performance in 20^th Century Women

Ryan Gosling, leading performance in The Nice Guys

Tom Hanks, leading performance in Sully

Naomie Harris, supporting performance in Moonlight

Nicole Kidman, supporting performance in Lion

Ruth Negga, leading performance in Loving

Sam Neill, supporting performance in Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Dev Patel, leading performance in Lion

Natalie Portman, leading performance in Jackie*

Daniel Radcliffe, leading performance in Swiss Army Man

Margot Robbie, leading performance in Suicide Squad

Michael Shannon, supporting performance in Nocturnal Animals

Octavia Spencer, supporting performance in Hidden Figures

Hailee Steinfeld, leading performance in The Edge of Seventeen

Emma Stone, leading performance in La La Land

Anya Taylor-Joy, leading performance in The Witch

Michelle Williams, supporting performance in Manchester by the Sea

Favorite 25 Artistic, Technical & Aesthetic Achievements of 2016

Volker Bertelmann & Dustin O’Halloran, composers of Lion

Jarin Blaschke, cinematographer of The Witch

Nicholas Britell, composer of Moonlight

Doug Chiang & Neil Lamont, production designers of Rouge One: A Star Wars Story

Stuart Craig, production designer of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Robert Eggers, director of The Witch

Greig Fraser, cinematographer of Lion

Mel Gibson, director of Hacksaw Ridge

Christopher Glass & Abhijeet Mazumder, production designers of The Jungle Book

Barry Jenkins, director of Moonlight

Johann Johannsson, composer of Arrival*

Mark Korven, composer of The Witch

James Laxton, cinematographer of Moonlight

Mica Levi, composer of Jackie

Mark Mancia, Lin-Manuel Miranda & Opetaia Foa’i, composers of Moana

Seamus McGarvey, cinematographer of Nocturnal Animals

Rodrigo Pieto, cinematographer of Silence

Jeremy Saulnier, director of Green Room

Martin Scorsese, director of Silence

Shane Valentino, production designer of Nocturnal Animals

Patrice Vernette, production designer of Arrival*

Denis Villeneuve, director of Arrival*

Taika Waititi, director of Hunt for the Wilderpeople

David Wasco, production designer of La La Land

Bradford Young, cinematographer of Arrival*

10 Great Under-the-Radar Indie films and Documentaries that are Must-Sees

Don’t Think Twice, a dramedy directed by Mike Birbiglia

The Edge of Seventeen, a comedy directed by Kelly Fremon Craig

Jackie, a period character drama directed by Pablo Larrain

Love & Friendship, a period comedy directed by Whit Stillman

Midnight Special, a sci-fi drama directed by Jeff Nichols

Nocturnal Animals, a character drama/mystery directed by Tom Ford

O.J.: Made in America, a documentary directed by Ezra Edelman

Sing Street, a musical comedy directed by John Carney

Swiss Army Man, a comedy directed by Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert

13^th, a documentary directed by Ava DuVernay

Good Films I Have Yet to See (that probably would have factored into the above lists)

Christine, a character drama directed by Antonio Campos

Elle, a character drama/thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven

Fences, a period character drama directed by Denzel Washington

The Handmaiden, a drama directed by Chan-wook Park

Paterson, a character drama directed by Jim Jarmusch

TV Spotlight – 10 Favorite TV Shows of 2016 – December 2016

2016-12-19T10:03:00.001-08:00

The amount of Television I consume is not immense. I mostly only watch series available on HBO, Netflix and FXnow (but, thankfully that is generally where the best stuff can be found). I have indicated my personal favorite with an (*).

Ten Favorite Series of 2016:

Atlanta, season 1 – created by Donald Glover (FX)

BoJack Horseman, season 3 – created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg (Netflix)

The Crown, season 1 – created by Peter Morgan (Netflix)

Daredevil, season 2 – created by Drew Goddard (Netflix)

Game of Thrones, season 6 – created by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss (HBO)*

Girls, season 5 – created by Lena Dunham (HBO)

The Night Of – created by Richard Price & Steven Zaillian (HBO)

Stranger Things, season 1 – created by The Duffer Brothers (Netflix)

Vice Principals, season 1 – created by Jody Hill & Danny McBride (HBO)

Westworld, season 1 – created by Lisa Joy & Jonathan Nolan (HBO)

Ten Favorite TV Performances of 2016:

Will Arnett, leading performance in BoJack Horseman

Millie Bobby Brown, leading performance in Stranger Things

Claire Foy, leading performance in The Crown*

Kimberly Hebert Gregory, supporting performance in Vice Principals

Brian Tyree Henry, supporting performance in Atlanta

Anthony Hopkins, supporting performance in Westworld

Gillian Jacobs, leading performance in Love (Netflix)

Thandie Newton, supporting performance in Westworld

John Turturro, leading performance in The Night Of

Evan Rachel Wood, leading performance in Westworld

Ten Favorite TV Episodes of 2016:

Juneteenth, Atlanta – directed by Janicza Bravo

That’s Too Much Man, BoJack Horseman – directed by J.C. Gonzalez

Assassins, The Crown – directed by Benjamin Caron

Battle of the Bastards, Game of Thrones – directed by Miguel Sapochnik

The Winds of Winter, Game of Thrones – directed by Miguel Sapochnik*

People Persons, Orange Is the New Black – directed by Lev L. Spiro (Netflix)

Kissing Your Sister, VEEP – directed by David Mandel (HBO)

Gin, Vice Principals – directed by Jody Hill

No Way Out, The Walking Dead – directed by Greg Nicotero (AMC)

The Bicameral Mind, Westworld – directed by Jonathan Nolan

Movies Spotlight – 2016 Movies, Part 2 – August 2016

2016-08-04T14:04:00.003-07:00

Overall, 2016 has felt disappointing at the movies. Yes, we have a few great movies like Everybody Wants Some!!, Green Room and The Witch, but the year seems to have produced one disappointment after another (especially this Summer). Captain America: Civil War, The Jungle Book, Zootopia, Finding Dory, and Deadpool lived up to our expectations (and surpassed them), but Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, X-Men: Apocalypse, The BFG, The Legend of Tarzan, Jason Bourne, and now Suicide Squad have all come up short (seemingly pulling down our opinions of the whole year and our enthusiasm for what is to come). And yet, there are a number of films to still be excited for:

Pete’s Dragon

At face value, it is surprising that Disney would remake Pete’s Dragon, a back-catalog 1970s musical that I imagine anyone under 35 does not even know ever existed. But Disney has done something interesting with this remake, they have only taken the very basics from the original and let indie auteur David Lowery run with it, resulting in a family film that actually feels substantial. Lowery also has a great cast with Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford and Karl Urban. In theaters August 12^th. Check out the trailer.

The Light Between Oceans

Derek Cianfrance makes brooding dramas, steeped in deep, dark emotions. This all makes him the perfect filmmaker to take on an adaptation of The Light Between Oceans, a drama about a man and wife who decide to raise a baby they find adrift only to discover years later that the child’s mother is still searching for it. The cast is among the year’s absolute best with Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender and Rachel Weisz. This could be 2016’s first serious Oscar contender. In theaters September 2^nd. Check out the trailer.

The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins’s novel was a huge success, making this adaptation one of the most anticipated films of the Fall. Emily Blunt leads a good cast and Tate Taylor has proven very adept in his ability to produce strong cinematic adaptations (like The Help). The mystery thriller is about Rachel Watson, a divorced woman who takes a train past her old house everyday on her way to work; only, one day something is different when she believes that she witnesses a murder, but that is not the whole story. In theaters October 7^th. Check out the trailer.

The Birth of a Nation

Writer/director/star Nate Parker won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival with his slavery drama The Birth of a Nation. The film feels vital, given the #OscarsSoWhite controversy and our current sociopolitical climate. Parker also represents a much needed fresh cinematic voice. The film is about Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher who organizes a rebellion against the masters in the antebellum South. In theaters October 7^th. Check out the trailer.

Doctor Strange

Marvel Studios can do no wrong with their Cinematic Universe (aka the MCU), or so it seems. Doctor Strange, however, represents an interesting challenge. Marvel bottled lightening with Guardians of the Galaxy, a gaggle of heroes unknown to general movie-going audiences, but can they do it again with Dr. Stephen Strange? They certainly have the goodwill of their fans, a promising (and different) concept and a phenomenal cast, headlined by Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Eijiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton. In theaters November 4^th. Check out the trailer.

Loving

Indie auteur Jeff Nichols is one of America’s brightest independent filmmaking stars. His new drama tackles the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple struggling to live in 1958 Virginia. Like The Birth of a Nation, Loving feels tonally vital right now. The buzz out of the Cannes Film Festival, where it screened in May, was very strong with special notices for leads Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton. In theaters November 4^th. Check out the trailer.

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

Filmmakers have had limited success tackling the Iraq War, as it seems to be difficult to really capture the tone of such a twisted and problematic conflict and portray the struggles faced by the men and women in the middle of it (my personal favorite is the HBO miniseries Generation Kill). That said, auteur Ang Lee is a good fit to take it on. Lee also has a good eclectic cast with Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin, and Chris Tucker. The film adaptation is about Billy Lynn, a war hero who temporarily gets to come home. In theaters November 11^th. Check out the trailer.

Arrival

Auteur Denis Villeneuve made my favorite film of 2015 with Sicario; he is back in 2016 with the sci-fi drama Arrival. It is about an expert linguist who is recruited by the military to determine if an alien race that has landed crafts across the globe comes in peace or are a threat. Villeneuve again champions the need for more roles and better roles for female actors by casting Amy Adams in the lead (he famously gender switched the lead in Sicario, casting Emily Blunt). In theaters November 11^th.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Cynically speaking, we all knew Warner Bros. would find a way to keep the Wizarding World of Harry Potter going; however, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has the pedigree to delight fans. J.K. Rowling is providing the script, David Yates (who directed films 5-8 of the Harry Potter series) is behind the camera, and Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne stars. The film is about the adventures of Newt Scamander, a specialist in magical creatures, in 1920s New York City. Even after eight films, I am excited to return to the Wizarding World. In theaters November 18^th. Check out the trailer.

Manchester by the Sea

Auteur Kenneth Lonergan is finally back with a new film with Manchester by the Sea, a drama about an uncle who must take care of his teenage nephew after the boy’s father passes. The film has a ton of Oscar buzz coming out of its early festival screenings, many calling it the best film of 2016 so far. It boasts a solid cast, led by Casey Affleck, Kyle Chandler and Michelle Williams. In theaters November 18^th.

Moana

Disney’s latest ‘princess’ film aims to be something completely different. First, Moana, a young Hawaiian woman, is actually voiced by a young Hawaiian woman in Auli’I Cravalho and second Moana is her own hero without a love interest. This feels like a big step forward for Disney, who has made big recent strides forward in promoting its female characters. The film also features voice-work from Dwayne Johnson as Maui the demi-god. Ron Clements and John Musker lead the creative team (they have given us some of our most beloved Disney films like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin). In theaters November 23^rd. Check out the trailer.

Allied

Each new Robert Zemeckis film feels like a big deal, as he is a filmmaker known for pushing the visual envelope forward while telling big stories. His new film, Allied, is a WWII action romance about two spies working for the Allies who marry each other and work together, but what if one of them was really a double-agent working for the Nazis? The film also happens to have two of Hollywood’s most dynamic leading actors in Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard playing its spies. I think this is a sleeper for film of the year. In theaters November 23^rd.

La La Land

Bursting onto the scene with Whiplash, writer/director Damien Chazelle is back with a musical dramedy and he has J.K. Simmons with him again. We need more good musicals; this one looks magical and sublimely charming. It stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling (who has fantastic chemistry) and is about a jazz pianist who falls for an aspiring actress in Los Angeles. In theaters December 16^th. Check out the trailer.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Set right before the beginning of A New Hope, Rogue One is about the team of rebels who steal the plans for the Death Star. Director Gareth Edwards describes the film as a war movie, set in the Star Wars Universe. Writer Tony Gilroy is working with Edwards presently finishing up the final editing process, getting the tone just right. Everything we have seen so far is very promising. Plus, the cast, fronted by Felicity Jones, is very good. This is the film I am most looking forward to seeing. In theaters December 16^th. Check out the trailer.

Passengers

Sony’s most high profile film of 2016 is Passengers, a sci-fi adventure about a spacecraft shuttling thousands of people to a distant colony planet that experiences a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers awakening two passengers 60 years early. The story sounds intriguing alone and then you throw in the very charming leads Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt and Passengers suddenly jumps to the top of a lot of ‘Most Anticipated’ lists. If Lawrence and Pratt have chemistry, I cannot imagine this not being highly entertaining. Rising star Morten Tyldum is behind the camera. In theaters December 21^st.

A few others to look out for: Queen of Katwe, American Honey and Lion.

Movies Spotlight – 2016 Movies – May 2016

2016-05-24T14:19:00.001-07:00

So what have I seen so far in 2016? The answer is not much, really. Most of my movie-watching time has been spent on the endless catching up on the classics of the past (and revisiting my favorites). There is seemingly an infinite amount of films from the past I am curious to see. Also, my desire to go to the movies has waned a bit. Watching most things at home is just as pleasurable, basically because it is easy. (Here is a link to all my reviews for reference).

But what have I seen – well… twelve films. That is it. Let me just go through them quickly: Loved Captain America: Civil War. We do not get too many massive blockbusters that have characters and story arcs that resonate emotionally while also keeping the promise of fun and entertainment. The airport fight scene is wonderfully joyous. Suddenly, I am just as interested in the new Spider-Man and Black Panther films as I am Thor 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Marvel, once again, hit homeruns with their casting for these new characters. Deadpool is a riot. Ryan Reynolds does the best work of his career. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is disappointing (big surprise). Zack Snyder has so much visual talent; he just struggles with story and character. He really needs to bring on people to help him craft and structure his future DC films. I am, however, interested to see what Ben Affleck does with his solo Batman film.

The Jungle Book was far better than I would have ever imagined it could be. I even enjoyed its use of 3D. Disney’s other early release, Zootopia was also surprisingly good. I thought it was there “B” animiated project for 2016, with Moana being their “A”; but, Zootopia is funny, sweet and has a good message for children. It is a very good family film.

My favorite indie film so far this year is The Witch, Robert Eggers’s period horror film. It is a beautifully made and acted film that is scary and hits all the right aesthetic beats. I doubt there will be a better horror film this year. Anya Taylor-Joy is a star in the making. I also really enjoyed Hush on Netflix. It is a great horror/thriller from Mike Flanagan (who also made Oculus). 10 Cloverfield Lane was a fun thriller highlighted by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Making something work when in most takes place in one room is very tough. Midnight Special, from Jeff Nichols, is also a thematically interesting sci-fi drama. Very strong performances from his cast.

All the Way, which just debuted on HBO, is a good period drama about LBJ’s first year as President of the United States following President Kennedy’s assassination. Wonderful performances from Anthony Mackie and Bryan Cranston. Hail, Caesar! the new quirky comedy from the Coen Brothers is good, but probably one of their weaker efforts. It reminds me of A Serious Man (which I liked a lot more). And finally, Ricky Gervais’s new comedy on Netflix Special Correspondents is probably his worst project to date. Even his biggest fans can skip it.

There three films I missed in theaters earlier this year that I am very much looking forward to seeing at home. First, Sing Street, the new musical from John Carney about a young boy who forms a band to impress a girl in 1980s Ireland. I loved Once and also enjoyed Begin Again (more the second time I saw it). Second, Everybody Wants Some, the seemingly thematic follow-up to Dazed and Confused from Richard Linklater. The film looks like a fun, cool hangout which a bunch a guys playing college baseball. And third, Green Room, the new horror/thriller from Jeremy Saulnier (who also made the intense Blue Ruin). Saulnier, along with Mike Flanagan, Adam Wingard and Ti West, has really rejuvenated the American indie horror film.

Now, what am I most excited to see for the rest of 2016? Let me start with the blockbusters. Rogue One, the new Star Wars one-off from Gareth Edwards (who also made Monsters and Godzilla), looks fantastic. I really enjoyed The Force Awakens, but it is still somewhat bogged down in being an origin story for its new characters and paying so much fan service (I think Episode VIII is going to be much stronger). Rogue One may fall into the same trappings, having to introduce us to a bunch of new characters and hopefully it will not fall back on characters we do know (like Darth Vader, Han Solo and so on) too much (or at all), but it looks like a great action thriller. Ben Mendelsohn as the villain is going to be incredible; he very well might be our best character actor right now. I love the Harry Potter films; they are among my very favorite adventure genre films. That said, I was out on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them for most of its preproduction. I just was not into the casting choices and I feel like it is generally a mistake to go back in time (because, ultimately we know what happens in the end, which reduces the stakes – I mean, how bad can the events of this new series be if we have never heard about them once during Harry Potter?). But the latest trailer has me all the way back in. It looks good. Doctor Strange has a phenomenal cast, but the teaser trailer did not grab me at all. In fact, the Inception-like elements of it felt like a big letdown, lazy. I hope it turns out well in the end. I imagine D23 will give us a new, and hopefully better, trailer. Suicide Squad has had a few great trailers and Margot Robbie looks brilliant as Harley Quinn. Will DC and Warner Bros. get this one right? Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass are both back for Jason Bourne the Bourne sequel that no one knew they wanted until they saw the teaser. I hope Alicia Vikander has more to do they talk at monitors though.

Disney has some great animated films upcoming too (and their remake of Pete’s Dragon, which is totally random. I grew up with that film on a VHS my mom made recording Marry Poppins and Pete’s Dragon off the TV, but I never thought anyone saw it as essential or a major Disney project. Disney is also remaking Mary Poppins incidentally). Their Walt Disney Animation Studio release is Hawaii-set Moana, from Ron Clements and John Musker (who also directed/wrote The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules). The voice cast features Hawaii’s own Auli’I Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson. Their Pixar release is Finding Dory, which is both awesome and disappointing. Awesome because everyone like Finding Nemo and the same creative team is making this sequel. Disappointing because I think we all want Pixar to focus on original projects like last year’s fantastic Inside Out (although, their “B” film The Good Dinosaur was poor by Pixar standards).

Hollywood has a few very good looking films as well this Fall/Winter. Passengers sounds amazing on paper. A sci-fi film from Morten Tyldum (who also made Headhunters and The Imitation Game) starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt (who will hopefully have the best chemistry of all, as they are maybe our two most likable stars right now). It is about a man who prematurely wakes up from cryogenic sleep, years too early, during space travel. Instead of facing his life alone, he decides to wake up another passenger. I like everything about this film. I hope it is great. Robert Zemekis is back with a new film, which is generally a good thing, a very good thing. Allied stars Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard and is about spies during WWII (I am 100% in). The Girl on the Train looks like a potentially superb thriller (even if Tate Taylor is doing his best David Fincher impression). This also has a great cast, highlighted by Emily Blunt and Rebecca Ferguson. Out right now is Shane Black’s The Nice Guys. I am a big fan of Black’s films (as a writer: Lethal Weapon and The Last Boyscout; as writer/director: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3 and now The Nice Guys). He really just makes the same film over and over, but I am not tired of it yet. His LA detective stories, his plots that are really about something else, his great dialog, and his very funny humor.

The best films from 2016, however, seem to be the prestige indies coming this Fall/Winter. The Light Between Oceans, the new drama from Derek Cianfrance starring Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender and Rachel Weisz, feels like the way-too-early frontrunner for best film of 2016. The trailer showcases the heartbreaking drama and incredible performances of the film. Ang Lee’s new drama, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, very much looks to take its place as a definitive narrative on the Iraq/Afghanistan War and the soldiers who come home from the horror faced over there. Sundance favorite The Birth of a Nation (I assume very specifically titled as a comment on the D.W. Griffith film) should make a big awards season impact. Nate Parker, who writes, directs and stars in the film, seems to have emerged as 2016’s brightest new talent. J.A. Bayona’s family film A Monster Calls also promises to be aesthetically and thematically just right (like a better version of Steven Spielberg’s summer release The BFG), feeling akin to Pan’s Labyrinth.

There are also a number of films that do not yet have trailer that sound potentially great. James Ponsoldt (director of Smashed, The Spectacular Now and The End of the Tour) has a new sci-fi drama due out starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. Martin Scorsese has long been working on a period drama called Silence about priests in Japan. It stars Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson and Adam Driver. Terry George (director of Hotel Rwanda) is finally making a new film, the drama The Promise with Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac. Denis Villeneuve (director of Incendies, Prisoners and Sicario) has a new drama called Story of Your Life with Amy Adams. Damien Chazelle (director of Whiplash) returns with a musical called La La Land, starring Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and J.K. Simmons. Jeff Nichols (releasing another film this year) just won a ton of acclaim at Cannes for his new romance drama Loving. And, Kenneth Lonergan’s new drama Manchester by the Sea was also a darling of Sundance, many naming Casey Affleck’s performance as an awards season must.

Much like last year, the blockbuster season/summer releases feel a little disappointing and all the best stuff will come out in the Fall/Winter – even the best blockbusters still to come do not come out until November (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) and December (Rogue One).

LeapBackBlog 2015 Film Awards

2016-01-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

2015 was a fantastic year for film. There were so many good films that many that I really liked could not make the top 25 (and even more wonderful performances did not make the top 25 performances). I have put an “*” next to my personal favorite from each category.

Favorite 25 Films of 2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron, an action adventure drama directed by Joss Whedon – Trailer

Beasts of No Nation, a coming of age/war drama directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga – Trailer

The Big Short, a character drama/financial drama/comedy directed by Adam McKay – Trailer

Blackhat, a thriller directed by Michael Mann – Trailer

Bridge of Spies, a spy drama directed by Steven Spielberg – Trailer

Brooklyn, a romance drama directed by John Crowely – Trailer

Carol, a romance drama directed by Todd Haynes – Trailer

Creed, a sports drama directed by Ryan Coogler – Trailer

The End of Tour, a character drama directed by James Ponsoldt – Trailer

Ex Machina, a sci-fi drama directed by Alex Garland – Trailer

The Hateful Eight, a western directed by Quentin Tarantino – Trailer

Inside Out, a coming of age comedy directed by Pete Docter – Trailer

Joy, a character drama/bio-pic directed by David O. Russell – Trailer

Macbeth, a period drama directed by Justin Kurzel – Trailer

Mad Max: Fury Road, an action adventure drama by George Miller – Trailer

The Martian, a sci-fi drama directed by Ridley Scott – Trailer

The Revenant, a western thriller directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu – Trailer

Room, a character drama directed by Lenny Abrahamson – Trailer

Sicario, a crime drama directed by Denis Villeneuve – Trailer*

Spectre, a spy action adventure directed by Sam Mendes – Trailer

Spotlight, a drama directed by Tom McCarthy – Trailer

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a sci-fi fantasy adventure directed by J.J. Abrams – Trailer

Steve Jobs, a character drama directed by Danny Boyle – Trailer

Tomorrowland, a sci-fi fantasy adventure drama directed by Brad Bird – Trailer

Trainwreck, a romantic comedy directed by Judd Apatow – Trailer

Favorite 25 Performances of 2015

Christian Bale, a leading performance in The Big Short

Cate Blanchett, a leading performance in Carol

Emily Blunt, a leading performance in Sicario

Marion Cotillard, a leading performance in Macbeth

Matt Damon, a leading performance in The Martian

Paul Dano, a leading performance in Love & Mercy

Leonardo DiCaprio, a leading performance in The Revenant

Michael Fassbender, a leading performance in Macbeth*

Michael Fassbender, a leading performance in Steve Jobs

Tom Hanks, a leading performance in Bride of Spies

Tom Hardy, a supporting performance in The Revenant

Samuel L. Jackson, a leading performance in The Hateful Eight

Brie Larson, a leading performance in Room

Jennifer Lawrence, a leading performance in Joy

Jennifer Jason Leigh, a supporting performance in The Hateful Eight

Rooney Mara, a leading performance in Carol*

Eddie Redmayne, a leading performance in The Danish Girl

Daisy Ridley, a leading performance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Saoirse Ronan, a leading performance in Brooklyn

Jason Segel, a leading performance in The End of the Tour

Sylvester Stallone, a supporting performance in Creed

Kristen Stewart, a supporting performance in Clouds of Sils Maria

Alicia Vikander, a leading performance in Ex Machina

Alicia Vikander, a leading performance in The Danish Girl

Kate Winslet, a supporting performance in Steve Jobs

Favorite 25 Artistic, Technical & Aesthetic Achievements

Adam Arkapaw, cinematography for Macbeth

Carter Burwell, composer for Carol

Roger Deakins, cinematography for Sicario

Jack Fisk, production design for The Revenant

Cary Joji Fukunaga, cinematography for Beasts of No Nation

Dennis Gassner, production design for Spectre

Colin Gibson, production design for Mad Max: Fury Road*

Todd Haynes, directing for Carol

Hoyte Van Hoytema, cinematography for Spectre

Alejandro G. Inarritu, directing for The Revenant

Johan Johannsson, composer for Sicario*

Jed Kurzel, composer for Macbeth

Edward Lachman, cinematography for Carol

Emmanuel Lubezki, cinematography for The Revenant*

Arthur Max, production design for The Martian

George Miller, directing for Mad Max: Fury Road

Ennio Morricone, composer for The Hateful Eight

Thomas Newman, composer for Spectre

John Seale, cinematography for Mad Max: Fury Road

Francois Seguin, production design for Brooklyn

Steven Spielberg, directing for Bridge of Spies

Quentin Tarantino, directing for The Hateful Eight

Yohei Taneda, production design for The Hateful Eight

Denis Villeneuve, directing for Sicario*

John Williams, composer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens

A Few More Fun, Entertaining and Interesting Smaller Films You Might Have Missed from 2015

’71, a thriller directed by Yann Demange – Trailer

Clouds of Sils Maria, a character drama directed by Olivier Assayas – Trailer

The Danish Girl, a period character drama directed by Tom Hooper – Trailer

Dope, a comedy directed by Rick Famuyiwa – Trailer

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, a documentary directed by Alex Gibney – Trailer

It Follows, a horror thriller directed by David Robert Mitchell – Trailer

Love & Mercy, a character drama directed by Bill Pohlad – Trailer

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, a dramedy directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon – Trailer

Slow West, a western directed by John Maclean – Trailer

What We Do in the Shadows, a horror comedy directed by Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi – Trailer

Good Films I Have Yet to See (that probably would have factored into the above lists)

99 Homes, a drama directed by Ramin Bahrani

The Hunting Ground, a documentary directed by Kirby Dick

Son of Saul, a period war drama directed by Laszlo Nemes

Suffragette, a period drama directed by Sarah Gavron

TV Spotlight – 10 Best TV Shows of 2015 – December 2015

2015-12-07T12:59:00.001-08:00

The amount of Television I consume is not immense. I mostly only watch series available on HBO and Netflix (but, thankfully that is generally where the best stuff can be found). Thus, this list is biased by the overall lack of things I have seen (for example, I love Hannibal but I am a year behind, waiting for the Blu-ray release).

My 10 Favorite Television Series of 2015:

BoJack Horseman, season 2 (Netflix)

This animated series from Netflix might be television’s best comedy, highlighted by the phenomenal voice performances from Will Arnet, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Aaron Paul, Paul F. Tomplins, and Olivia Wilde. The series is hilarious, but even more engaging as a look at celebrity.

Community, season 6 (Yahoo Screen)

The series’ final season, and maybe its final moments if a movie never materializes, gives its fans everything they want: very funny, great/weird/wonderful episodes and a fantastic farewell. This is one of my favorite TV comedies (ever) and it is sad to say goodbye (though, made a little easier by the stellar, utterly fulfilling finale).

Daredevil, season 1 (Netflix)

Marvel’s partnership with Netflix is producing superhero properties that are as good if not better than their movies. Daredevil is fresh and engaging; but more so, it features full and great characters. Losing Drew Goddard and Steven S. DeKnight on the creative team is going to be a huge obstacle to overcome for season 2, but I have faith.

Game of Thrones, season 5 (HBO)

This is my favorite series on television. It is massively ambitious and thoroughly entertaining. It has everything fantasy adventure fans could want and the fearlessness to not stubbornly cling to its characters to the disadvantage of narrative. No one is safe in Westeros.

Jessica Jones, season 1 (Netflix)

Melissa Rosenberg, Marvel and Netflix have given us one of 2015’s most important series. On the surface, it is just another superhero series, set up like a film-noir private detective narrative, but Jessica Jones is so much more. Chiefly, it gives us a full, flawed and modern female character (who also happens to be a heroine). This series is unabashedly feminist in all the best ways. Now that we have Jessica Jones, we can never go back.

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (HBO)

This documentary series is groundbreaking (much like the podcast series Serial), likely to spawn many imitations. It is unflinching and utterly compelling. I do not know if an investigation documentary has ever been must-see television (across 6 episodes, culminating in “What the Hell Did I Do?”).

The Leftovers, season 2 (HBO)

Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta’s series asks big questions, plays with massive ideas and themes and completely delivers. The cast is brilliant, the writing is intelligent and the narrative is essential. The series is ambitious and bonkers, yet it feels like it speaks deeply and skillfully to the human struggle that is our relationship with faith.

Mad Men, season 7 part 2 (AMC)

This was my favorite series on television during its peak (season 3-5). Season 7, split into two parts, is very good, but does feel ever so slightly below the series’ best seasons and episodes. The finale is difficult to digest as well (I liked it a lot, but it does not feel as essential as the best episodes from Mad Men), but I think that is because it is hard to say goodbye to the series and characters.

Master of None, season 1 (Netflix)

This is another groundbreaking series from Netflix in the way it deals with women and people of color on television. Created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, the series puts people of color at its forefront. But it is just not a series centered on a minority family or character, it engages in a dialog with its viewers about how culture treats and engages people of color and women. I have not seen everything on TV, but I would be surprised if there are better written characters for people of color. Also, the series is very funny and not cliché at all, which is a relief.

Narcos, season 1 (Netflix)

This series detailing the rise of Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar is magnetic and alluring thanks to Wagner Moura’s superb leading performance and the narrative structure of the series: talking directly to the audience, taking them through each major moment. I think this probably should have been a single season story and slightly fear a quality step down in season two as the story is stretched over ten more episodes. Regardless, season 1 is electric, especially in the early episodes, playing as well as the best crime dramas.

My 10 Favorite Television Episodes from 2015:

Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television, direct by Rob Schrab, from Community

Daredevil, directed by Steven S. DeKnight, from Daredevil

Hardhome, directed by Miguel Sapochnik, from Game of Thrones

AKA WWJD?, directed by Simon Cellan Jones, from Jessica Jones

I Live Here Now, directed by Mimi Leder, from The Leftovers

Time & Life, directed by Jared Harris, from Mad Men

Nashville, directed by Aziz Ansari, from Master of None

Descenso, directed by Jose Padilha, from Narcos

Trust No Bitch, directed by Phil Abraham, from Orange Is the New Black

Spend, directed by Jennifer Chambers Lynch, from The Walking Dead

My 10 Standout Performances:

Will Arnet as BoJack Horseman on BoJack Horseman

Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones on Jessica Jones
Kevin Carroll as John Murphy on The Leftovers
Regina King as Erika Murphy on The Leftovers

Justin Theroux as Kevin Garvey on The Leftovers

Noel Wells as Rachel on Master of None

Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar on Narcos
Rachel McAdams as Ani Bezzerides on True Detective
Tituss Burgess as Titus Andromedon on Unbreakbable Kimmy Schmidt
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer on Veep

Movies Spotlight – Ranking the Films of My Favorite Directors – September 2015

2015-09-24T15:52:00.004-07:00

These lists have been endlessly done by film fans and critics since the beginning of cinema. But, they are fun and interesting for those who like lists (which seems to be a lot of us). So, I am going to rank the films of ten of my favorite current directors and five of my favorite classic directors. I am only using directors that have made at least five films. (Further rankings: Elite, Good, Weak)

Christopher Nolan

1) The Dark Knight

2) Inception

3) The Dark Knight Rises

4) Interstellar

5) The Prestige

6) Batman Begins

7) Insomnia

8) Memento

9) Following

Wes Anderson

1) Rushmore

2) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

3) The Darjeeling Limited

4) The Royal Tenenbaums

5) The Grand Budapest Hotel

6) Moonrise Kingdom

7) Fantastic Mr. Fox

8) Bottle Rocket

Coen Brothers

1) The Big Lebowski

2) No Country for Old Men

3) True Grit

4) Fargo

5) The Hudsucker Proxy

6) Miller’s Crossing

7) The Man Who Wasn’t There

8) Inside Llewyn Davis

9) Burn After Reading

10) Blood Simple.

11) A Serious Man

12) O Brother, Where Art Thou?

13) Barton Fink

14) Raising Arizona

15) Intolerable Cruelty

16) The Ladykillers

David Fincher

1) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

3) The Social Network

4) Gone Girl

5) Se7en

6) The Game

7) Fight Club

8) Zodiac

9) Panic Room

10) Alien 3

Alfonso Cuaron

1) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

2) Children of Men

3) Y Tu Mama Tambien

4) Gravity

5) Love in the Time of Hysteria (Solo con tu pareja)

6) Great Expecations

I have not seen A Little Princess.

Michael Mann

1) Heat

2) The Last of the Mohicans

3) Blackhat

4) Miami Vice

5) Public Enemies

6) Thief

7) Collateral

8) The Insider

9) Ali

10) Manhunter

I have not seen The Keep

Steven Spielberg

1) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

2) Raiders of the Lost Ark

3) Saving Private Ryan

4) Schindler’s List

5) Munich

6) Minority Report

7) Catch Me If You Can

8) Lincoln

9) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

10) Jurassic Park

11) Empire of the Sun

12) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

13) Jaws

14) Close Encounters of the Third Kind

15) War Horse

16) 1941

17) A.I. Artificial Intelligence

18) Amistad

19) War of the Worlds

20) The Adventures of Tintin

21) The Lost World: Jurassic Park

22) The Terminal

23) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

24) Hook

I have not seen The Sugarland Express, The Color Purple, and Always.

Quentin Tarantino

1) Inglourious Basterds

2) Django Unchained

3) Pulp Fiction

4) Reservoir Dogs

5) Jackie Brown

6) Kill Bill: Vol. 2

7) Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Paul Thomas Anderson

1) There Will Be Blood

2) The Master

3) Magnolia

4) Punch-Drunk Love

5) Boogie Nights

6) Hard Eight

7) Inherent Vice

Terrence Malick

1) The Thin Red Line

2) The New World

3) Badlands

4) Days of Heaven

5) The Tree of Life

6) To the Wonder

I have not yet seen Knight of Cups.

Alfred Hitchcock

1) Rebecca

2) Notorious

3) Rear Window

4) Vertigo

5) Shadow of a Doubt

6) North by Northwest

7) Frenzy

8) Suspicion

9) The Lady Vanishes

10) Dial M for Murder

11) Marnie

12) Psycho

13) The Birds

14) To Catch a Thief

15) The 39 Steps

16) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

17) Torn Curtain

18) Strangers on a Train

19) The Trouble with Harry

20) Spellbound

21) Foreign Correspondent

22) Lifeboat

23) Rope

24) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

25) Saboteur

26) The Wrong Man

27) The Paradine Case

28) Family Plot

Whatever is not on this list, I have not seen.

Michael Powell &Emeric Pressburger (The Archers)

1) The Red Shoes

2) The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

3) Black Narcissus

4) A Matter of Life and Death

5) The Small Black Room

6) ‘I Know Where I’m Going!’

7) A Canterbury Tale

8) 49^th Parallel

9) The Tales of Hoffmann

10) Pursuit of the Graf Spee

Whatever is not on this list, I have not seen.

David Lean

1) Lawrence of Arabia

2) The Bridge on the River Kwai

3) Doctor Zhivago

4) Great Expectations

5) Brief Encounter

6) Hobson’s Choice

7) Oliver Twist

8) The Passionate Friends

9) Ryan’s Daughter

Whatever is not on this list, I have not seen.

William Wyler

1) The Best Years of Our Lives

2) Ben-Hur

3) Mrs. Miniver

4) The Little Foxes

5) The Big Country

6) Roman Holiday

7) The Children’s Hour

8) How to Steal a Million

9) The Letter

10) The Heiress

11) Wuthering Heights

Whatever is not on this list, I have not seen.

Stanley Kubrick

1) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

2) 2001: A Space Odyssey

3) Paths of Glory

4) The Killing

5) Lolita

6) A Clockwork Orange

7) The Shining

8) Spartacus

9) Barry Lyndon

10) Full Metal Jacket

11) Eyes Wide Shut

Let me know if there are any additional directors you want to see.

Movies Spotlight – The Best Films of 2015 (So Far) – July 2015

2015-07-27T10:38:00.003-07:00

These are the films I like the most so far in 2015. But first, two side notes: 1) I am only going to focus on narrative films (saying that, I thought the documentaries Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief and Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck were really good) and 2) There are quite a few films that have come out in theaters that I have not yet seen that I imagine would likely make this list (they include: ’71, Far from the Maddening Crowd, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Dope, Testament of Youth, and Love & Mercy). I list my favorites in alphabetical order below:

Ant-Man

I think many expected Ant-Man to be Marvel’s first complete failure in their Cinematic Universe. They were wrong. The film is highly entertaining, blending (as Marvel does so well) engaging action and funny comedy. The heroes too are well-drawn, likable and characters we want to see again (Marvel’s casting of their heroes so far has been spectacular; Paul Rudd is another inspired choice as Scott Lang). The villain, on the other hand, is essentially terrible (only existing to be an obstacle and drive our heroes to action). Marvel has a big problem developing great villains in their films (Loki is probably the only truly strong villain so far, though I did enjoy Ultron, Nebula and Ronan the Accuser as well – the latter purely due to Lee Pace’s performance). Hats off to Peyton Reed coming in with a limited schedule and making such a fun film. Trailer.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

I absolutely loved Avengers: Age of Ultron; it very well might be my favorite MCU film so far. It has a few narrative issues (with all the narrative threads it has to tie together, it is a wonder it works at all really), but the stuff that does work is fantastic. Joss Whedon’s dialog and character moments shine throughout the film, and the action sequences are top-notch as well. I really enjoy all these heroes being forced into the same space, having to co-exist when the odds are against them. More so than other Marvel films, Age of Ultron has real tension and palpable stakes (it is not just an orgy of explosions). I am very interested to see how the Russo Brothers handle all the characters that will popular Captain America: Civil War, which seems even more crowded than this. Trailer.

Blackhat

Michael Mann’s latest thriller was blasted by critics and almost universally unseen by filmgoers. The film is not for everyone, but the critics and moviegoers got it wrong. Blackhat is excellent, both as a narrative thriller about whitehats trying to stop blackhats and their evil plans and as a piece of brilliant aesthetic filmmaking. Mann’s camera and mise en scene create a vital and textured world that feels visceral and abstract at the same time. I think it is a must-see for all fans of Mann’s work. Trailer.

Clouds of Sils Maria

It is not often that serious dramas are designed as pieces of meta-filmmaking, but that is exactly what Clouds of Sils Maria is – a multilayered drama that, as it progresses, finds its characters transcending themselves. Their conversations could be about their own interpersonal relationships, their relationships with the characters they play, their interpersonal relationships between the characters they play, and even their own real identities as celebrities, actresses. The film succeeds completely on its writing (also provided by director Olivier Assayas) and the performances of its three stars (Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart and Chloe Grace Moretz) who are all wonderful. Trailer.

Ex Machina

As technology progresses, it almost feels inevitable that we will achieve artificial superintelligence (or the singularity). Ex Machina addresses this in a very human and resonating manner, by disguising it as a love story. Alex Garland has been writing great sci-fi films for years, but this might be his best and most interesting. The performances by the three leads (Alicia Vikander, Domnhall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac) are splendid – Vikander especially showcases her talent (for many, new to her work, a star is born). The film is smart yet accessible. Best of all, it is not afraid of realistically addressing its subject matter (the debate of whether ASI will benefit or destroy humanity). Trailer.

Inside Out

Pixar has the best reputation of current animation studios working in Hollywood (even if their films seem to be trending towards being more revenue-driven sequels than great original ideas lately). Inside Out reaffirms their position atop the animation world. It is funny, emotionally resonant and beautiful. It is about family, growing up and love – themes that Pete Docter beautifully excels at portraying (often finding his audience experiencing a full range of emotions). Inside Out is also my favorite film of the year so far. Trailer.

It Follows

Horror films today seem to be about gore and jump-scares; their purpose is to entertain, not to creep in on an emotional level and create within their viewer a real tension and fear. It Follows is part of the wonderful indie horror revolution, fully embracing the style and aesthetics of classic horror. It is a very simple story and premise. Out of context, nothing is particularly scary; but through the great slow building suspense that David Robert Mitchell uses, the film grabs you and finds you anxious and afraid. Trailer.

Mad Max: Fury Road

What can I say about Mad Max: Fury Road? It is absolutely bananas, aesthetically thrilling and grandiose in all the best ways. George Miller not only delivers a great feminist action film (something moviegoers have been craving for a long time) he also gives us what is likely to be 2015’s most enjoyable cinematic experience – this is a film that must be seen in theaters (it is insanely massive in its ambition). I went into it with little expectation and came out completely elated. Trailer.

Slow West

I love westerns. Slow West is a good western, capturing the right aesthetic and garnering appropriate performances; however, John Maclean’s film is also quite strange. Everything feels a bit off (given the genre). I wrote in my review that it goes down the rabbit hole, because it has a bizarre tone and playfulness to it, which gives it a very modern feel (even though it looks and is structured like a classic western). It is a must for the genre’s fans. Trailer.

Tomorrowland

Like Blackhat, Tomorrowland was not met with commercial or critical acclaim. Yet, also like Blackhat, I think it was deserving of both and will hopefully find its audience in time. Brad Bird’s film is above all incredibly hopeful for what humanity can accomplish if it dares to dream, imagine and reach for the impossible. We look back at the 1960s, pledging to go to the moon within the decade (a seemingly impossible task) and achieving it. Today, it feels like that ambition is gone. We look at the world and for the first time tomorrow does not look as bright as today. Tomorrowland wants to reignite our imaginations and ambitions – while also entertaining us with great action and good characters. It also features fantastic leading female characters. Trailer.

Trainwreck

Amy Schumer is very funny. Judd Apatow makes very funny and engaging films. Together, they have made what is likely 2015’s funniest film (it is downright hysterically hilarious). And not only that, but they have also made something that feels modern (while still classically structured) in the romantic comedy genre – a genre that has become incredibly stale and boring. It is not afraid to be crude and honest, soaring on the strength of its characters, performances and especially its jokes. Trailer.

What We Do in the Shadows

Mockumentaries are difficult to get right. What We Do in the Shadows gets everything right. It is funny, full of hilarious and cool references, and features well-developed characters. My one complaint is that there was not more (I wish it were a sitcom-style series, simply about these flatmates living their everyday lives – something along the lines of The Young Ones). Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi have made a splendid vampire film, when it would seem that cinema has been greatly oversaturated by vampire films, proving again the creativity and quality win out. Trailer.

Movies Spotlight – Upcoming 2015 Films (Fall & Winter) – July 2015

2015-07-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

Now that summer is winding down, let’s look at all the great films scheduled to be released this fall and winter – and there are a lot. I think 2015 will be remembered for its prestige films, looking back, even though, so far, it has been a year of blockbusters like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World and Inside Out.

September

Starting with September, Gavin O’Connor’s new western is finally coming to theaters (after a very troubled production, including losing directors and multiple actors). The film stars Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor and is about a woman who asks her ex-lover to help her save her outlaw husband from a lethal gang out to kill him. I’m looking forward to the film for a few reasons: I love westerns, it will be nice to see Portman is films again, and O’Connor’s last film was the excellent sports-drama Warrior.

Director Scott Cooper is known for his character driven dramas (Crazy Heart and Out of the Furnace). His new film, Black Mass, takes on the notorious South Boston criminal Whitey Bulger (an infamously violent man who became an FBI informant to stop the mob from infiltrating his territory). Cooper has assembled a fantastic cast, including: Johnny Depp (as Whitey Bulger), Dakota Johnson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton, and Corey Stoll. Here is the trailer.

The film I’m most looking forward to in September is Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, a mystery crime-drama starring Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin. It debuted at Cannes to critical acclaim and lots of positive buzz. Sicario looks like a brilliant, exciting and raw thriller. Here is the trailer.

A potentially fun comedy in September is Nancy Meyers’s The Intern. It is about a 70-year-old widower who is bored in retirement and looks to get back to work, joining an online fashion site as an intern. The film stars Robert De Niro as the Intern and Anne Hathaway as his boss (and founder of the company). Here is the trailer.

Closing out the month is Baltasar Kormakur’s action thriller Everest. The film looks intense and Kormakur has put together a strong cast, including: Jason Clarke, Jake Gyllenhaal, KeiraKnightley, Robin Wright, and John Hawkes. While Kormakur is known for making action films (like Contraband and 2 Guns), the great cast should bring a dramatic, character-driven dynamic to this thriller. Here is the trailer.

October

September features some potentially very good films, October has even better films, starting with Ridley Scott’s The Martian. Scott excels at creating epic and visually astounding space-set narratives and sci-fi imagery. The Martian tells the story of astronaut Mark Watney, who is abandoned on Mars after his crew believes him killed in a massive storm that pushed them off the planet. Now, Mark has to use his intellect and practical know-how to survive, while his crew races back to save him. The film sounds a little like Interstellar, and Matt Damon again plays the man left for dead alone on an alien planet, but thematically the films are completely different. In addition to Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, and Kate Mara also star. It’s among the five films I’m most looking forward to seeing. Here is the trailer.

Another film I cannot wait to see is Justin Kurzel’s William Shakespeare adaptation Macbeth, especially after playing well at Cannes. Kurzel’s film looks aesthetically phenomenal and boasts a super cast, including: Michael Fassbender (as Macbeth), Marion Cotilard (as Lady Macbeth), David Thewlis, Elizabeth Debicki, and Sean Harris. The play (and film) are about Macbeth, a duke of Scotland, who receives a prophecy that he will one day be King. Consumed by this ambition, he murders the King and takes the throne for himself. Here is the trailer.

I really like the work of British director Joe Wright. He helms a new version of the Peter Pan story, a prequel of sorts called Pan. On one hand, it looks great with astounding aesthetics and a strong cast, but on the other hand I'm a little worried that it might be too much of a kid's movie (something that has plagued many past Peter Pan films). I'm willing to give it a chance. Here is the trailer.

A film that I cannot quite pin down is Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk, which tells the story of Philippe Petit’s high-wire walk from the roof of one World Trade Center Twin Tower to the other. It is an incredible story, but it is already told wonderfully in James Marsh’s documentary Man on Wire. Zemeckis is a great filmmaker (Back to the Future, Cast Away, and recently Flight), but his film does not feel right thematically and how can he top Man on Wire? His film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley, and Charlotte Le Bon. Here is the trailer.

Yet another highly anticipated film to be released in October is Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs. The film went through directors and lead actors on the road to settling on Boyle and Michael Fassbender (although, I still would have liked to have seen the DavidFincher-Christian Bale iteration). The film is written by Aaron Sorkin and also stars Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Katherine Waterston. It looks like an interesting biopic of one of the great innovators of our time. Here is the trailer.

Netflix made a play to get into the filmmaking business when it acquired the rights to Beasts of No Nation, which it will debut October 16^th. The film is written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga (who also directed the first season of True Detective) and stars Idris Elba. It’s about child soldiers fighting in an unnamed African nation’s civil war. As a big fan of Fukunaga’s work and Elba, I’m very much looking forward to this. Could Nexflix get an Oscar nomination?

Horror has always been a passion of writer-director Guillermo del Toro. His new film, Crimson Peak, looks like his version of the classic haunted house horror narrative. Aesthetically, it looks wonderfully gothic. It also features a top cast, including: Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, and Charlie Hunnam. Here is the trailer.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have had one of the most fruitful partnerships in Hollywood, from films to producing excellent television (I’m specifically thinking of Band of Brothers). Their latest endeavor with Spielberg behind the camera and Hanks starring is the cold-war thriller Bridge of Spies. It’s about the man who negotiated an exchange of prisoners under extreme political pressures (with all-out nuclear war always looming). Here is the trailer.

November

Daniel Craig has enjoined his time as James Bond, starring in some of the best films of the series. Returning once again, along with director Sam Mendes, Craig next 007 adventure is called Spectre, where he will seek out the criminal organization behind the events that Bond faced in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Most of Skyfall’s cast is returning (M, Q and Moneypenny) and joining the cast are Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Monica Bellucci, and Andrew Scott. It looks like another great Bond film. Here is the trailer.

Brooklyn was one of the Sundance Film Festival’s most buzzed about films, coming out of the festival as a potential Oscar favorite. The film is directed by John Crowley, written by Nick Hornby, and stars Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen and Domhnall Gleeson. It’s about a young Irish woman who leaves Ireland in the 1950s to come to New York, but she finds herself torn between the two places and two men, the man she has fallen for in Brooklyn and the man she loves when she returns to Ireland. Here is the trailer.

For many, November’s most anticipated film is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, the closing chapter of the saga. I’m particularly looking forward to the film because it will be interesting to finally see Katniss make tough decisions (presumably) and actually be involved in the action, as District 13 engages in all-out revolution against the Capital. Jennifer Lawrence is excellent as Katniss; Francis Lawrence returns behind the camera. Here is the trailer.

I really liked the Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Jonathan Levine collaboration 50/50. There are back with a new film called X-Mas. It’s about three friends who annually travel to New York City on Christmas Eve to get drunk and otherwise have fun. This year their tradition might be coming to an end, so they embark on a mission to find the biggest and best party. Joining Gordon-Levitt and Rogen in the cast are Lizzy Caplan and Anthony Mackie.

Pixar and Disney released one of their better recent films this summer with Inside Out. They have another film coming in November called The Good Dinosaur that sounds just as good. The logline of the film asks: What if the meteor that killed-off the Dinosaurs never hit the Earth, leading to a world in which humans and dinosaurs co-exist? Peter Sohn is heading up the creative team (directing his first feature, though he did make the great short Partly Cloudy which played in front of Up). Here is the trailer.

A film that sounds awesome but has so far flown under the radar is the new sci-fi drama from writer-director Jeff Nicholas called Midnight Special. It’s about a father and son who go on the run after the dad learns that his son has developed special powers. It stars Michael Shannon, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, Joel Edgerton, and Sam Shepard. Nicholas also made the very good dramas Take Shelter and Mud.

Eddie Redmayne, who won the 2015 Best Actor Oscar for The Theory of Everything, is back again with what sounds like another Oscar-worthy performance. This time in Tom Hooper’s new film The Danish Girl, where he plays Einar Wegener, the husband of famous Danish artist Gerda Wegener who painted him as a woman. As the painting gained popularity, Einar began to change his appearance, dressing and associating more as a lady, which he named Lili Elbe. With the support of his wife, he attempted the first ever male to female sex reassignment surgery. The film also stars Alicia Vikander (who’s blowing up this year) and Matthias Schoenaerts. The film is likely an Oscar favorite.

December

And finally we get to December. To kick us off, here’s In the Heart of the Sea, a film scheduled to be released in the Spring but scored such outstanding reviews in its test screenings that Warner Bros. pushed it all the back to awards season to compete for Oscars. It’s directed by Ron Howard and stars Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Benjamin Walker, and (your new Spider-Man) Tom Holland. The film’s about Thomas Nickerson, the ship captain that encountered the famous white whale Moby Dick, inspiring Herman Melville’s novel. Here is the trailer.

One of the best reviewed films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival was Carol, a romantic drama set during the 1950s in America. It’s about two women who fall in love and dream of a different world in which they could be together. It’s directed by dramatic filmmaking master Todd Haynes and stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara (who won Best Actress at Cannes).

The biggest and hopefully greatest blockbuster of the winter season is Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. I cannot wait to see it. J.J. Abrams seems like a god choice to take over the creative reigns for the franchise. The film will mix characters we know (Luke, Leia, and Han Solo) with new characters, continuing the saga. The cast sees many of the original actors returning (Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford) and a mix of great new actors, including: Oscar Issac, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, and Gwendoline Christie. Here is the trailer.

It sure seems like Olive Stone’s best films are behind him. That said, he is back with a new politically charged biopic Snowden. It’s about Edward Snowden, the man who basically destroyed his own life to inform the American people what the government was doing (i.e. spying on them). The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Zachary Quinto, Melissa Leo, and Tom Wilkinson. Let’s hope Stone finds his form again, as this is an important story that people need to hear/see. Here is the trailer.

Another very fruitful partnership between director and actor has been between David O. Russell and Jennifer Lawrence (and Bradley Cooper), they have made Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle together. Their new film is Joy. It’s about inventor and entrepreneur Joy Mangano, creator of the Miracle Mop and many other products. The film seems like an Oscar favorite, with a great cast (in addition to Lawrence), including: Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro.

The film that I predicted would be the 2016 Academy Awards frontrunner for Best Picture is The Revenant. It’s the new adventure/western/drama from Alejandro G. Inarritu (who directed Birdman, last year’s winner). It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, and Will Poulter. It’s about Hugh Glass, a frontiersman who is left for dead after he is severely injured in the wilderness by compatriot John Fitzgerald. Somehow he survives, regaining his strength, and sets out on a mission of vengeance against Fitzgerald.

2015 might be the year we finally see the resurgence of the western (with Slow West, Jane Got a Gun, and The Revenant); its most high profile entry is Quentin Tarantino’s new film The Hateful Eight, a post-Civil War narrative that sees a group of bounty hunters who find shelter from a blizzard only to get pulled into a plot of betrayal and deception. Tarantino has a great mix of actors with Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Walton Goggins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Bruce Dern (among others).

Other Potential Releases

These two films don’t have firm release dates yet, but could very likely come out in 2015 and compete for awards. First is Derek Cianfrance’s new drama The Light Between Oceans, which stars Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weisz. It’s about husband and wife lighthouse keepers who find a baby the washes ashore in Western Australia. The second is Lenny Abrahamson’s new drama Room about a boy who is raised exclusively with the small confines of a small shed. It stars Brie Larson, William H. Macy and Joan Allen.

Joan Fontaine & Teresa Wright – Cinema Legends – June 2015

2015-06-24T14:57:00.003-07:00

Joan Fontaine and Teresa Wright are both actresses who made their best films in the 1940s. They both won Oscars. And, they both starred in great films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Are they Cinema Legends, as the header of this post might suggest? Probably not to the same degree as a few of their contemporaries, but they are two of my favorites from the time period, and I wanted to share a bit about them and their films.

Joan Fontaine

Joan Fontaine and her sister Olivia de Havilland, who she was bitter rivals with throughout her life, were born in Japan, but her family moved to California when the girls were still young. Fontaine started her career in Hollywood in 1935 when she signed a contract with RKO Pictures, shortly after debuting in the West Coast stage production of Call It a Day. RKO thought of her as a rising star, but she struggled to really make an impact in the 1930s, mostly featuring in supporting roles (most notably as Peggy Day in The Women and Emmy in Gunga Din).

Everything changed for her, however, when she was seated next to producer David O. Selznick at a dinner party. O. Selznick was in the process of developing Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca as Alfred Hitchcock’s American debut. They started discussing the film adaptation and O. Selznick suggested that Fontaine audition. She did, along with hundreds of other actresses. Laurence Olivier had been cast as Mr. de Winter and he hoped and lobbied for his wife Vivien Leigh to take the lead role; but, neither Hitchcock nor O. Selznick thought she was right for the part. After six months of auditioning and film tests, Fontaine finally emerged with the role. The film, a masterpiece, played to critical and commercial acclaim, winning the 1941 Best Picture Academy Award (it is the only Hitchcock film to win Best Picture). Fontaine’s performance as Mrs. de Winter was praised as well, garnering her a Best Actress nomination (though she did not win).

She would not have to wait long for another chance, however, as she next appeared opposite Cary Grant (with whom she has great chemistry) in the Hitchcock thriller Suspicion, this time winning the Best Actress Oscar (cementing her rivalry with her sister who was very jealous that Joan had won an Oscar first). Her win is also the only Oscar-winning performance in a Hitchcock film.

Fontaine excelled during the rest of the 1940s in romantic melodramas. Chief among them are The Constant Nymph, Jane Eyre, and Letter from and Unknown Woman. The Constant Nymph is Joan’s favorite among her own films and she received her third Oscar nomination for her work on the film, but for a long time it is was very hard to find a copy of it – thus, I have never seen it (although, it is now on Amazon, so I hope to remedy my having not seen it soon).

In Jane Eyre, she takes the title role opposite Orson Welles, who pretty much ran the production even though the film is directed by Robert Stevenson (who would later direct many films for Disney including Mary Poppins). The film is one of the best cinematic adaptations of the gothic novel and both Fontaine and Welles are very good. In Letter from an Unknown Woman, Fontaine plays a woman who is in love with a man who never quite realizes what he has with her, always chasing something else. It is directed by the great Max Ophuls and is considered to be among the best films ever made (number 154 on Sight & Sound’s 2012 Critics’ Top 250 Films list and number 71 on my list of the Top 100 Films of the 20^th Century).

Fontaine’s career waned a bit in the 1950s, as she started to take on more television and stage roles. She continued to act until 1994.

Teresa Wright

Teresa Wright was born in Harlem, New York. She started her acting career in 1939 when she was discovered by Samuel Goldwyn on the stage in Life with Father. Goldwyn offered her a five-year contract, but she had some demands (here is an excerpt from her first Hollywood contract: “The aforementioned Teresa Wright shall not be required to pose for photographs in a bathing suit unless she is in the water. Neither may she be photographed running on the beach with her hair flying in the wind. Nor may she pose in any of the following situations: In shorts, playing with a cocker spaniel; digging in a garden; whipping up a meal; attired in firecrackers and holding skyrockets for the Fourth of July; looking insinuatingly at a turkey for Thanksgiving; wearing a bunny cap with long ears for Easter; twinkling on prop snow in a skiing outfit while a fan blows her scarf; assuming an athletic stance while pretending to hit something with a bow and arrow.”). She wanted to assert her seriousness as an actress from the jump.

In 1941, she won her first role opposite Bette Davis in the adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes. She immediately won over critics and Hollywood, garnering a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her work. The film was directed by William Wyler, the first of a many fruitful collaborations between the actress and director.

In 1942, she starred in two films, and received two more Academy Award nominations (I wonder if anyone else has ever received Oscar nominations for all three of their first three film appearances? Doubtful). She won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Mrs. Miniver, a fantastic propaganda drama directed by Wyler. Her performance is touted as being a somewhat significant factor in winning over average Americans approval for entering the war in Europe to support Britain against the Nazis (which was unwelcome in the wake of the very unpopular WWI). She also received a Best Actress nomination for her role in Pride of the Yankees opposite Gary Cooper. It is a biopic of Yankee Legend Lou Gehrig. Her performance in the final scenes is heartbreaking (and a chief reason many cry at the end of the film). She also holds a special place with the New York Yankees organization, her name being remembered among the greats when she passed in 2005.

Next, in 1943, Teresa won the lead role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (though, initially Hitchcock wanted Joan Fontaine for the role, but her schedule was incompatible) opposite Joseph Cotten. Wright is brilliant in the film, playing an innocent young girl who becomes suspicious that her beloved uncle is a serial murderer. Shadow of a Doubt is one of Hitchcock’s best and it is considered to be his first truly American film, taking place is small town America. Hitchcock thought Wright was one of the best and most intelligent actresses her worked with, bringing many qualities to her character not often found in his heroines.

Wright made two films about war veterans returning from WWII. The first, again with Wyler, was The Best Years of Our Lives, which one Best Picture in 1947. It is a brave, profound and important drama. The other was 1950’s The Men, directed by Fred Zinnemann and it starred Marlon Brando (in his film debut). She also starred opposite Robert Mitchum in the Raoul Walsh directed western Pursued in 1947. The film is a much darker version of the West than audiences were typically used to in the genre.

Throughout her career Wright had been widely acclaimed by film critics; however, she also felt unfairly treated by the studio system. So, in 1948, she rebelled against that system, and fell out with the man who discovered her, losing her contract with Goldwyn. Years later, Wright regretted her choice saying, “I was going to be Joan of Arc, and all I proved was that I was an actress who would work for less money.” She worked throughout the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s (her final appearance is in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rainmaker), but her career never saw the same heights as it had in the 1940s.

Underrated and Under Seen (So Far) in 2015 – Movies Spotlight – June 2015

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A lot of great films have come out in 2015 so far. Blockbusters like Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mad Max: FuryRoad and Pixar’s Inside Out, as well as a bunch of really good indie films like Ex Machina, Clouds of Sils Maria, It Follows, Love & Mercy, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Slow West, What We Do in the Shadows, Far from the Madding Crowd, Dope, While We’re Young, and ‘71. It is easy to say that all these independent films are under seen (because they are), but that is a function of availability and the economics of film distribution. One might also say that Mad Max: Fury Road is under seen relative to other big blockbusters like Jurassic World and Furious 7, both of which have greatly out-performed Mad Max at the box office but are not on the same level of critical praise (or even close – personally, I think Furious 7 is 2015’s most overrated film so far). Thus, I am going to look at two Hollywood films that had all the right elements to be hits but failed commercially and critically; when really, they are both very good films.

Film: Blackhat

Director: Michael Mann

Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Wei Tang, Viola Davis, Leehom Wang, Ritchie Coster, John Ortiz, and Yorick van Wageningen

Plot Summary: When a hacker’s malware triggers the meltdown of a Chinese power plant, the Chinese and American governments turn to their own computer experts to find and stop this new hacker threat.

Why You Should Give It a Chance: Writer-director Michael Mann makes dynamic dramas and sprawling crime epics. His films feature beautiful aesthetics and a gripping realism. For most of his career, his films were greeted with critical acclaim and strong box office numbers (films like Thief, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, and Collateral). His recent efforts, however, seem to have failed to reach their audiences (although, Miami Vice, Public Enemies and now Blackhat are all very good crime drama/thrillers that I think time and perspective will reinstate as canonized quality films). Blackhat benefits from good leading performances from Chris Hemsworth and Wei Tang, as well as Mann, cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh and production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas’s wonderful and vital aesthetics. Blachhat is a topically relevant crime thriller, playing on the scary idea of the future (or present) of cyber terrorism, but more than that it is a captivating film, not just in terms of its use of tension, but in its ability to immerse its viewer in its world and vision.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Film: Tomorrowland

Director: Brad Bird

Stars: Britt Robertson, George Clooney, Raffey Cassidy, and Hugh Laurie

Plot Summary: With ambitions to make tomorrow better than today, a bright teen with scientific talent and curiosity (Casey) teams up with a jaded former wunderkind inventor (Frank) to make those ambitions a reality by finding ‘Tomorrowland’.

Why You Should Give It a Chance: Let me start with the cast. Britt Robertson and Raffey Cassidy are fantastic in the film, delivering great and strong performances (continuing 2015’s seeming attempt to promote feminism in cinema, Mad Max: Fury Road’s Imperator Furiosa as the poster-woman). George Clooney is good as well. Writer-director Brad Bird’s films generally provide a good mix of comedy, resonating drama and brilliant action (his other work includes: The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol). Tomorrowland is no different; however, what I think sets it apart and makes it something special and worthwhile is its cinematic/dramatic aspiration. Not just to enthrall, excite and entertain, it does those things too, but to inspire its viewers to once again dream. Much like last year’s Interstellar, Tomorrowland is a call to its viewers to once again look ahead with wonder and hope and not just settle for the doom and gloom malaise that seems to have overcome us as a people. We do not like to think about the future, because now the future does not seem as bright as today. But our dreams, imagination, ingenuity, and work effort can change that. This is what is at the heart of Tomorrowland.

Trailer: Here

Available on: Blu-ray and Video On-Demand

Sequels, Reboots and Remakes – Movies Spotlight – June 2015

2015-06-17T14:53:00.005-07:00

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Sequel/Reboot/Remake

We all know that Hollywood is overrun with sequels, reboots and remakes. Just look at the films we are most excited to see this year: Avengers: Age of Ultron (sequel), Mad Max: Fury Road (sequel/reboot), Jurassic World (sequel/reboot), Terminator: Genisys (sequel/reboot), Ant-Man (sequel of sorts), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (sequel) Fantastic Four (reboot), Spectre (James Bond sequel), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (sequel), Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (sequel). Why all the sequels and reboots? Plainly, if a Hollywood studio is going to spend a bunch of money on a film, they would like it to be as secure a bet as possible, so why not bet on established properties. Original blockbusters are often based on successful books, comics, video games, television series, or something that came prior. There are very few truly original blockbusters. And when Hollywood does give us a good one, like Disney’s Tomorrowland, which came out in May to mixed reviews and mild box office returns (not reaching its audience – I genuinely think it is great film), no one goes to see it. Or worse, Jupiter Ascending, an original blockbuster from the Wachowskis that bombed in every way. This only increases the likeliness of Hollywood to stay away from original ideas, as there is much more risk.

So, we are likely stuck in a world of constant sequels and rehashes of the same established characters, stories and properties.

At first, I was annoyed by the very idea of someone making a new film based on an old film or character that I loved. A good example is Steve Martin’s The Pink Panther. Steve Martin is a very funny comedian and a good actor, but why would he ever want to attempt Inspector Clouseau – a losing proposition at best? A character made famous in the 1960s by Peter Sellers (probably film’s greatest comedic actor to this day). Martin could never approach what Sellers brought to the character, all this new film could do is soil the reputation of the character (is what I initially thought).

This is an overreaction. At worst, the new Pink Panther films scar younger viewers, preventing them from seeing the Peter Sellers’ films (but let us be honest, they were not going to watch them anyway). At best, the new viewers would love the character of Inspector Clouseau and seek him out in other films, finding their way to Sellers’ genius. Also, do not forget that the Clouseau character has been played by other actors before Martin took over in 2006 (Alan Arkin in the 60s and Roger Moore in the 80s, as well as Roberti Benigni, in spirit, in 1993’s Son of the Pink Panther). Martin was in no way tarnishing a character that was not already grinded up and spit out in many other subpar forms.

I came to understand that remaking or reboot a beloved character/series/film really has no effect on the original (or the version I love most). If I do not like the new vision for the character then I still have the original, and if the actors and filmmakers bring something new or different to the story/character then all the better. I take more of a wait and see approach now than one that finds me immediately upset before seeing how the new film even turns out (and if it does turn out to be terrible, I do not have to see it or even acknowledge its existence – like the Star Wars Prequels or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I just live my life as if they do not exist). I will always have the version I love.

Now on to sequels. So many sequels. They crowd our summers and holiday seasons. Yet, many of them are films I love. I love The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I love the Harry Potter film series. I love Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2. I love Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy. I love what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become during Phase II (especially Joss Whedon’s brilliant Avengers films) and cannot wait for Phase III. Of course I love these big adventure/action/fantasy films. I grew up on Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Ghostbusters. When these big films are done well, they capture all that film can be.

So why is there such a stigma? Well, I think it is twofold. First, and chiefly, for each sequel, reboot or remake there is money not going to an original idea film, blockbuster or otherwise, which has led many of our great auteurs today to work solely in indie film (for better or worse). Secondly, many of these tent pole blockbuster sequels, reboot and remakes are just not good. For every great film like The Dark Knight, there many more films like Catwoman or Batman and Robin. Or forgetting the downright terrible, most of these blockbusters are just the same old thing, nothing special and bland. Even Jurassic World, which just opened to the biggest box office weekend ever, is painfully banal and uninteresting. It is entertainment for the moment but not good enough to be lasting (like Jurassic Park).

We are just tired of the endless parade of these boring action films that try to thrill us by being massive, but offer little in the important areas of character and emotional resonance. They may grab us in the moment, but they fail to stay with us, inspire us or capture our imaginations.

How does this change? The answer is easy. If we do not give our money to these films, Hollywood will stop making them; but as Jurassic World proves, audiences are just fine with thrills over substance. Thus, I say take a similar approach to blockbuster sequels as you do with reboots and remakes. Revel in the films that are great and ignore and move past the ones that are marginal or bad.

Because honestly, who is not passionately eager to see the new James Bond film, the new Star Wars, the next Marvel Cinematic Universe film (Captain America: Civil War), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Warner Bros.’s new Harry Potter prequel series), Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast, Pixar’s Finding Dory, the conclusion of The Hunger Games series, or the third iteration of Spider-Man (now a part of the MCU)? I know I cannot wait to see all of these.

TV Spotlight – The 25 Best Series on Television – May 2015

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It is that time of the year again when we find out what will be on TV in the Fall/Spring/Summer 2015-2016 and what will not be. It is a good time to discuss the best series on television (or, what is on HBO, AMC, FX, and Netflix).

Let us start with HBO, which boasts TV’s best lineup of dramas and comedies. Also on HBO are television’s best two news programs Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Vice (forget your local and national new coverage, it is pointless and severely lacking by comparison).

Game of Thrones is the most popular series in the world and it is maybe television’s only true must-see series (particularly for fantasy/adventure genre fans). Its popularity has given HBO the ability to become autonomous with their HBO Now service.

Girls is the brilliantly funny and resonant dramedy from Lena Dunham. The series began as sort of a Sex and the City for a new generation, but I think it has become so much more, really getting at the meat of these characters and what it is like the grow up and become an adult in a much more substantial way. It is also good fun to watch.

Veep is Armando Iannucci’s hilarious political comedy (that feels very much like an extension of his film In the Loop). Sadly, he is leaving the series at the end of Season 4 (its current season), but the great mix of characters/actors and its sharp wit make it one of TV’s best comedies.

True Detective is an anthology series, with new characters, location and a case each season. Season 1 was incredible; Season 2 looks to be primed to be just as good. Nic Pizzolatto has assembled a wonderful cast for Season 2 (but it is still hard to imagine it eclipsing Season 1, which was probably the best thing on television in 2014).

Silicon Valley is a satire from Mike Judge that seems to perfectly capture the culture of the high-tech landscape in Silicon Valley, while remaining biting and hysterical. I am really interested to see where this show with go in the future, as things so far have moved relatively slowly (in terms of pushing the plot forward in a major way).

The Leftovers is fantastic on a character level, as it looks into the lives of the people left behind in a small suburban community after what could be called the Rapture. Opinions are rather mixed, probably due to the religious overtones associated with the series, but personally I think it is an excellent series.

Togetherness debuted this year, telling the story of a couple whose marriage seems to be falling apart. There series is funny and dramatically engaging, but really it is Season 1’s finally that really makes this a must. It is electric.

Moving on to Netflix…

House of Cards is Netflix’s biggest series, but with each season it seems to be losing what made it so good – its characters. At the end of Season 3, we are left with a bunch of unlikable people that we do not really even want to root for and thus do not care about. Watching House of Cards has become more about what will happen next in the plot and not because we are interested in where the characters will be taken next (on a character level). That is too bad, but maybe everything will turn around in Season 4. Otherwise, this might fall out of the top 25.

Orange Is the New Black is probably the best series on Netflix now. It is different from anything else in the medium. The only question I have is how do the show’s writers keep it fresh when the characters are so confined?

BoJack Horseman is a weird and wonderful animated comedy about a washed up sitcom actor who also happens to be a horse. It is a bizarre series, but infectiously funny.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is the new series from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. In many ways it feels a lot like 30 Rock in tone and comedy style, though I would argue that it is superior. It too is infectious and addictive.

Daredevil is the first of four planned collaborations between Marvel and Netflix. It is the best superhero series on television (and better than most of the Marvel films as well). As the beginning of watch will eventually become the Defenders, I cannot wait to see how AKA Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist turn out (after the brilliance of Season 1 of Daredevil).

Moving on to Yahoo Screen…

Community was cancelled by NBC only to find a new home on Yahoo Screen. The result is a show that is mostly the same as it was before – very funny, odd and among the greatest things the sitcom-like format has to offer. Will we get a Season 7 or just go straight to the movie?

Moving on to AMC…

With Mad Men ending this year and Breaking Bad ending last year, AMC needs to develop some new great show to take their place (a tall order, given that during their runs both were in the top five of almost every critic’s list).

Better Call Saul is an easy answer, being the prequel to Breaking Bad centering on the unscrupulous lawyer Saul Goodman (or as he is known on this series Jimmy McGill). Thanks to the tireless work of Bob Odenkirk, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. This series is excellent, living up to the seemingly high expectations.

The Walking Dead is AMC’s other heavy hitter, and maybe their most addictive series (I usually wait until it is on Netflix because every episode is a cliffhanger). It is amazing that this show has not become tired and boring given that every episode or storyline seems to go the same way (things kick off and then zombies show up to add extra tension). It has its slow moments, but it also has it fantastic, edge-of-your-seats moments.

Moving on to Cinemax…

The Knick is a medical drama that is also a period piece, and so far that formula is working very well, especially on premium cable, giving it an edge over what similar networks shows can even attempt.

Moving on to Comedy Central…

Inside Amy Schumer is hilarious and has made itself mandatory pop-culture viewing (but I do not really think of it as a series, thus it is disqualified from this list); however…

Broad City is also mandatory pop-culture viewing. It is works as a great companion series to Girls, as it too is about young women making a go of it in New York City. It is not nearly as dramatic as Girl, but probably stranger and often funnier. I recommend watching both.

Moving on to FX…

FX is also losing many of its standout dramas with Sons of Anarchy and Justified (a personal favorite) ending.

Fargo is their big dramatic series now, also working as a black comedy. It was promoted as an anthology series, but I expect to see some of Season 1’s characters show up in Season 2.

Archer is an animated spy series comedy that just builds on itself to such an extent that it feels like the whole show has become a series of inside jokes, which is fantastic for its fans that have been with it since the beginning. The voice-acting and jokes are tops (and often insane).

Louie is a comedy series from Louis C.K. that often feels like a drama and seems to resonate on a much deeper level than one would ever expect. Yes it is funny, but more so it is thoughtful and shows us life as it is (which is something that seems to be strangely missing from TV dramas).

Moving on to Masterpiece Theatre…

Sherlock is returning in 2015 with a Christmas Special, and Season 4 in 2016. I cannot wait.

Downton Abbey, everyone’s favorite period soap opera, is ending with Season 6, which will give Julian Fellows the ability to do almost anything with his characters, which should make for great television.

Wolf Hall tells the same story as The Tudors. You could just watch that, but Wolf Hall tells it so well and has such a great cast that it is well worth visiting the exploits of King Henry VIII yet again.

Moving on to NBC…

Hannibal is the only network series on this list. It is also one of the five best series in any format. It is incredibly stylish, well-acted and features wonderful writing and directing. I think it is the best iteration of the characters so far.

And finally, moving on to the Sundance Channel…

Rectify is a slow burn character. It is the opposite of most TV series. It asks you to invest in its characters as it slowly builds the tension without giving you much action or twists or soap operay moments (House of Cards should take notes, as it has delved into full on soap opera theatrics).

There you have it. The 25 TV Series that I think are the best currently on TV for the 2015-2016 season.

Auteurs (The Great Directors of Cinema History): Part 3 – Movies Spotlight – April 2015

2015-04-09T14:37:00.001-07:00

List is in alphabetical order.

Part I and Part II

Part III – The Modern Director (A.K.A. Blockbusters or Small Indies)

Paul Thomas Anderson

Style/system: American; works in American independent film; flawed characters, stylized moving camera, memorable use of music, an overall aesthetic flare

Active: 1988-Present

Key films to see: Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, and The Master

Wes Anderson

Style/system: American; works in American independent film; highly stylized aesthetics (down to the smallest detail), wonderful and ambitious camera moves, stylized blocking, youths with potential and adults not reaching their potential, memorable use of music

Active: 1994-Presnet

Key films to see: Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, and The Grand Budapest Hotel

Jacques Audiard

Style/system: French; works in France; an aesthetic flare, but also an actor’s director, flawed characters looking for redemption, gritty settings, dramatically specific/effective use of violence

Active: 1994-Present

Key films to see: Read My Lips, The Beat That My Heart Skipped, A Prophet, and Rust and Bone

Kathryn Bigelow

Style/system: American; works in Hollywood; a terrific use of dramatic tension and suspense, gritty action, strong performances despite films being plot driven

Active: 1978-Present

Key films to see: Point Break, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty

Danny Boyle

Style/system: English; works in England, American independent film and Hollywood; frenetic/up-beat editing, digital photography pioneer; leaves room for comedy in his dramas

Active: 1987-Present

Key films to see: Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later…, Sunshine, and Slumdog Millionaire

James Cameron

Style/system: American; works in Hollywood; big action movies and grand epics, pushing technology forward (basically, singlehandedly resurrected 3D, for better or worse), an explorer at heart (especially in documentary work)

Active: 1978-Present

Key films to see: The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Titanic, and Avatar

Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan)

Style/system: American; work in American independent film; highly stylized dialog and aesthetics, masters of composition and camera movement, as well as narrative storytelling that deviates from the norm (regardless of genre), oddball characters, leaders of America’s resurgence of independent cinema in the 1980s/1990s

Active: 1984-Present

Key films to see: Miller’s Crossing, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, and True Grit

Sofia Coppola

Style/system: American; works in American independent cinema; highly stylized aesthetics, wandering/free form narratives that feel far more about character than plot, great use of music

Active: 1996-Present

Key films to see: The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation and Somewhere

Alfonso Cuaron

Style/system: Mexican; works in Mexico, England and Hollywood; brilliant long-take tracking shots, naturalistic feel to his work despite often making sci-fi, fantasy and actions films

Active: 1983-Present

Key films to see: Solo con tu pareja, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men, and Gravity

David Fincher

Style/system: American; works in Hollywood; prolific music video director, a master of the mystery thriller, bleached out color schemes often on the cool side of the palate, brilliant, specific and expertly used camera moves

Active: 1985-Presnet

Key films to see: Se7en, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Miyazaki Hayao

Style/system: Japanese; works in Japan; the master of Japanese animation, highly influential for today’s leading animation storytellers, an expert in narrative storytelling and use of drama/comedy

Active: 1972-Present

Key films to see: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle

Todd Haynes

Style/system: American; works in American independent film; subversive narrative structure, provocative storytelling, complex eroticism, wonderful performances

Active: 1978-Present

Key films to see: Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Velvet Goldmine, Far from Heaven, and Mildred Pierce (HBO Miniseries)

Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Style/system: French; works in France; surreal narratives, exaggerated color palates, an aesthetic flare, odd characters and locations yet also charming

Active: 1978-Present

Key films to see: Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement, and Micmacs

Spike Jonze

Style/system: American; works in Hollywood; a prolific music video director, narratives that push the boundaries – feeling as they might exist in our world but also strange and foreign, things are always just a bit off, elicits phenomenal performances

Active: 1991-Present

Key films to see: Being John Malkovich, Adaptation. and Her

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Style/system: Polish; worked in Poland and France; a magnificent use of color and sound (music), deeply emotional narratives and performances, striking aesthetic, powerfully moving storytelling

Active: 1966-1994

Key films to see: A Short Film About Love, A Short Film About Killing, The Double Life of Veronique, Three Colors: Blue, and Three Colors: Red

Ang Lee

Style/system: Taiwanese; works in American independent film, Hollywood, England, and China; conflict between tradition and modernity, repressed emotions, powerful dramatic storytelling, superb performances

Active: 1982-Present

Key films to see: Eat Drink Man Woman, The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, and Life of Pi

David Lynch

Style/system: American; works in American independent film; bizarre narratives, creepy characters, often surreal, violent, highly stylized aesthetics

Active: 1966-Present

Key films to see: Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive

Michael Mann

Style/system: American; works in Hollywood; a master of the crime drama, violent, stark, authentic, highly stylized aesthetics (often featuring wonderful photography)

Active: 1968-Present

Key films to see: Thief, The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider, and Collateral

Steve McQueen

Style/system: English; works in England and Hollywood; powerful, emotional dramas, wonderful long-take shots (often employing a static camera), garners sensational performances, a true artist

Active: 1993-Present

Key films to see: Hunger, Shame and 12 Years a Slave

Christopher Nolan

Style/system: English; works in England, American independent cinema and Hollywood; the master of the modern blockbuster/epic, psychological narratives, disjunctive narrative structures, grand action sequences, practical effects (in a world of cgi), a champion of film over digital

Active: 1997-Present

Key films to see: Memento, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, and Interstellar

Park Chan-wook

Style/system: Korean; works in Korea and American independent film; brutal, precise aesthetics, black humor

Active: 1992-Present

Key films to see: J.S.A.: Joint Security Area, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, and Thirst

Quentin Tarantino

Style/system: American; works in American independent film; violent, great dialog, highly stylized and referential aesthetics, a film fan first, a leader of the revitalization of America’s independent cinema, a champion of film over digital

Active: 1983-Present

Key films to see: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Inglourious Basterds, and Django Unchained

Thomas Vinterberg

Style/system: Danish; works in Denmark, England and American independent film; co-founder of Dogme 95 (a movement to simplify film production), champion and pioneer of digital photography, deeply dramatic narratives, character-driven films, an actor’s director

Active: 1990-Present

Key films to see: The Celebration, Submarino and The Hunt

Lars von Trier

Style/system: Danish; works in Denmark, England and American independent film; co-founder of Dogme 95 (a movement to simplify film production), a minimalist, often makes provocative narratives, pushes social boundaries, highly stylized aesthetics

Active: 1967-Present

Key films to see: Europa, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, and Melancholia

Wong Kar Wai

Style/system: Chinese; works in China, France and American independent film; a director’s director, emotionally dramatic narratives, solemn tones, tragic romance, a wondrous use of color, highly stylized aesthetics

Active: 1988-Present

Key films to see: Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, In the Mood for Love, and 2046

Part I and Part II

Auteurs (The Great Directors of Cinema History): Part 2 – Movies Spotlight – April 2015

2015-04-08T10:31:00.000-07:00

List is in alphabetical order.

Part I and Part III

Part II – The Rise of the Auteur and Experimentation

Woody Allen

Style/system: American; worked in American independent film; known for his dialog and contribution to the romantic comedy genre

Active: 1966-Present

Key films to see: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, and Midnight in Paris

Robert Altman

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood and American independent film; large ensemble casts, naturalistic style, a leading filmmaker in the New Hollywood era

Active: 1951-2006

Key films to see: MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Long Goodbye, Nashville, and The Player

Ingmar Bergman

Style/system: Swedish; worked in Sweden; a director’s director, very influential and beloved by those who came after him, his work often focused on the human condition

Active: 1946-2007

Key films to see: The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Persona, Cries and Whispers, and Fanny and Alexander

Bernardo Bertolucci

Style/system: Italian; worked in Italy and America; strikingly beautiful and poetic films, often dealing with character facing moments of monumental change in their lives

Active: 1962-Present

Key films to see: The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, and The Last Emperor

Robert Bresson

Style/system: French; worked in France; influenced the filmmakers who birthed the French New Wave, a director’s director (influential and beloved), Jean-Luc Godard wrote: “Robert Bresson is French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music.”

Active: 1934-1983

Key films to see: Diary of a Country Priest, A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Au Hasard Balthazar, and Mouchette

John Cassavetes

Style/system: American; worked in American independent film; an actor’s director, known for garnering some of cinema’s greatest performances from his troupe of actors, often made films about normal life and the great strain that exists within it

Active: 1959-1986

Key films to see: Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Opening Night, and Gloria

Francis Ford Coppola

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood and American independent film; a prominent member of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers, the filmmaker of the 1970s (only to seemingly never again make a truly great film)

Active: 1959-Present

Key films to see: The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather: Part II, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders, and Dracula

Stanley Donen

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood; marvelous musicals (with Gene Kelly) and masterful Hollywood genre films (with Audrey Hepburn), bright and colorful, pure Hollywood

Active: 1949-1999

Key films to see: On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain, Funny Face, Charade, and Two for the Road

Federico Fellini

Style/system: Italian; worked in Italy; blends fantasy and baroque imagery with realism, yet another of the most influential filmmakers of those to follow him

Active: 1950-1990

Key films to see: La Strada, The Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita, 8 ½, and Amarcord

Milos Forman

Style/system: Czech; worked in Czechoslovakia and Hollywood; a leader of the Czechoslovak New Wave moment, bringing his biting satire and rebellion against authority to Hollywood

Active: 1960-Presnet

Key films to see: The Loves of a Blonde, The Fireman’s Ball, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Hair, and Amadeus

Jean-Luc Godard

Style/system: French; worked in France; a leader of the French New Wave, an artist often working with experiment cinema techniques

Active: 1955-Present

Key films to see: Breathless, Vivre Sa Vie, Contempt, Band of Outsiders, and Pierrot le Fou

Stanley Kubrick

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood and England; evocative films, strikingly beautiful films, incredibly influential, a prominent leader of the New Hollywood wave

Active: 1951-1999

Key films to see: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and The Shining

Sergio Leone

Style/system: Italian; worked in Italy and America; known for his grand Spaghetti Westerns (modernizing and stylistically changing the western forever)

Active: 1954-1984

Key films to see: A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good , the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and Once Upon a Time in America

Sidney Lumet

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood; an actor’s director with expert craftsmanship, prolific, his films often address social realism

Active: 1952-2007

Key films to see: 12 Angry Men, Fail Safe, The Hill, Dog Day Afternoon, and Network

Terrence Malick

Style/system: American; worked in American independent film; ethereal filmmaking almost more montage than narrative, more poetic than structured, stunning visuals, deeply philosophical

Active: 1969-Presnet

Key films to see: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World, and The Tree of Life

Jean-Pierre Melville

Style/system: French; worked in France; a minimalist, French film noir and gangster films, his style is the epitome of cool, influenced the French New Wave

Active: 1946-1972

Key films to see: Bob le Flambeur, Le Doulos, Le Samourai, The Army of Shadows, and Le Cercle Rouge

Mike Nichols

Style/system: German; worked in Hollywood and Broadway; an actor’s director, experimental and aggressively progressive stylistically completely changing the narrative language on American cinema with one film (The Graduate)

Active: 1966-2007

Key films to see: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate

Sam Peckinpah

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood; innovative and explicit use of violence, reworked the western to be much grittier and moral ambiguous (replacing white hats and black hats with versions of gray)

Active: 1958-1983

Key films to see: The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, The Getaway, and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Roman Polanski

Style/system: Polish; worked in Poland, England, France and Hollywood; a master of the thriller, an expressive style utilizing camera movement, framing and mise en scene to their greatest effect

Active: 1955-Present

Key films to see: Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, The Tenant, and The Pianist

Nicolas Roeg

Style/system: English; worked in England; disjunctive editing, cryptic plots that are fascinating even so (to be revealed in full in the end), films that draw the view in, often terrifying due to a foreboding sense of atmosphere

Active: 1970-2007

Key films to see: Performance, Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Bad Timing

Martin Scorsese

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood; a leader of the New Hollywood wave, revitalizing the American gangster film (along with Francis Ford Coppola), highly stylized use of music, camera moves and editing, cinema’s greatest student, fan and protector

Active: 1959-Present

Key films to see: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino

Ridley Scott

Style/system: English; worked in England and Hollywood; a grandiose scene of scope and scale, atmospheric visuals, modernization of sci-fi crossing it over with other genres (like the horror/thriller and noir/hard boiled detective)

Active: 1965-Present

Key films to see: Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down

Steve Spielberg

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood; created the modern blockbuster (along with George Lucas) and blockbuster filmmaking, a leader of the New Hollywood wave, maybe the world’s most famous director

Active: 1959-Present

Key films to see: Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Schindler’s List

Andrei Tarkovsky

Style/system: Russian; worked in Russia, Italy and Sweden; a director’s director, changed film language for many to follow him with his style and storytelling, life as a reflection, as a dream

Active: 1956-1986

Key films to see: Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, The Mirror, and Stalker

François Truffaut

Style/system: French; worked in France; a principal filmmaker of the French New Wave, a student and critic of cinema, as well-versed as any

Active: 1955-1983

Key films to see: The 400 Blows, Shoot the Pianist, Jules and Jim, Stolen Kisses, and Day for Night

Part I and Part III

Auteurs (The Great Directors of Cinema History): Part I – Movies Spotlight – April 2015

2015-04-07T13:19:00.001-07:00

Introduction

I have been making a lot of lists lately. With less time to write, lists are an easy way for me to talk about cinema. And yet, I seem to be tackling huge projects under the guise of creating a list. This time I will attempt to detail the greatest directors of cinema history, broken into three twenty-five director categories: The Beginnings of Cinema and Shaping the Narrative Language of Film, The Rise of the Auteur and Experimentation and The Modern Director (A.K.A. Blockbusters or Small Indies). Multiple directors fit in more than one of these categories, but I tried to put each director in the era they were most prolific in or developed their style in. I hope you enjoy the list and feel free to engage me in debate.

List is in alphabetical order.

Part II and Part III

Part I – The Beginnings of Cinema and Shaping the Narrative Language of Film

Luis Buñuel

Style/system: Spanish; worked in Spain, Mexico and France; avant-garde surrealism

Active: 1929-1977

Key films to see: Un Chien Andalou, Viridiana, The Exterminating Angel, Belle de Jour, and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

Charles Chaplin

Style/system: British; worked in Hollywood; silent era comedies, sociopolitical commentaries

Active: 1914-1967

Key films to see: The Kid, The Gold Rush City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator

Henri-Georges Clouzot

Style/system: French; worked in France; wonderfully tense thrillers

Active: 1931-1967

Key films to see: Le Corbeau: The Raven, Quai des Orgevres, The Wages of Fear, Diabolique, and The Truth

Vittorio De Sica

Style/system: Italian; worked in Italy; neorealism as a response to the devastation in Italy both culturally and economically after WWII

Active: 1940-1974

Key films to see: Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves, Miracle in Milan, Umberto D., and Two Women

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Style/system: Danish; worked in Denmark and France; a master of silent cinema and the close-up, he made both surreal and stark films

Active: 1919-1964

Key films to see: The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, Day of Wrath, Ordet and Gertrud

Victor Fleming

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood; grand, vibrant epics

Active: 1919-1948

Key films to see: Captains Courageous, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

John Ford

Style/system: America; worked in Hollywood; westerns with John Wayne

Active: 1917-1966

Key films to see: Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot LibertyValance

D.W. Griffith

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood; pioneer of feature film style and struture

Active: 1908-1931

Key films to see: The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance: Love’s Struggle Throughout the Ages, and Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl

Howard Hawks

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood; master of all genres from gangster films to screwball comedies, westerns to film noir

Active: 1926-1970

Key films to see: Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, The Big Sleep, Red River, and Rio Bravo

Alfred Hitchcock

Style/system: British; worked in England and Hollywood; the master of suspense, maybe the greatest director of all

Active: 1922-1976

Key films to see: Rebecca, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho

Elia Kazan

Style/system: Greek; worked on Broadway and in Hollywood; an actor’s director with an eye for new talent

Active: 1937-1976

Key films to see: Gentleman’s Agreement, A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, East of Eden, and A Face in the Crowd

Buster Keaton

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood; silent era slapstick comedies

Active: 1917-1965

Key films to see: Our Hospitality, Sherlock Jr., The General, The Cameraman, and Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Akira Kurosawa

Style/system: Japanese; worked in Japan; samurai epics, greatly influencing filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s

Active: 1941-1993

Key films to see: Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Ran

Fritz Lang

Style/system: German-Austrian; worked in Germany and Hollywood; the master of darkness, expressionism

Active: 1919-1960

Key films to see: Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler, Metropolis, M, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, and The Big Heat

David Lean

Style/system: British; worked in England; grand epics and visceral literary adaptations, the epitome of the caricature of ‘the director’

Active: 1941-1984

Key films to see: Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago

Georges Méliès

Style/system: French; worked in France; a pioneer of cinema, special effects and the narrative language of film

Active: 1896-1913

Key films to see: A Trip to the Moon and The Voyage Across the Impossible

F.W. Murnau

Style/system: German; worked in Germany; Expressionist silent film

Active: 1919-1931

Key films to see: Nosferatu, The Last Laugh, Faust, Sunrise, and Tabu: A Story of the South Seas

Yasujirô Ozu

Style/system: Japanese; worked in Japan; films about relationships between spouses, family, and the generations, a very static camera and 90 or 180 degree cuts

Active: 1927-1962

Key films to see: Late Spring, Early Summer, Tokyo Story, Floating Weeds, and An Autumn Afternoon

Michael Powel & Emeric Pressburger (the Archers)

Style/system: British and Hungarian; worked in England; grand films going against the grain of British polite society, often war films as many were made during WWII, beautifully designed, shot and structured, their use of Technicolor is unmatched

Active: 1939-1972

Key films to see: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes

Jean Renoir

Style/system: French; worked in France and Hollywood; poetic realism and satire

Active: 1924-1962

Key films to see: Boudu Saved from Drowning, La Grande Illusion, La Bete Humaine, The Rules of the Game, and The River

King Vidor

Style/system: American; worked in Hollywood; highly ambitious camera work at the height of cinema’s aesthetic and stylistic craftsmanship during the silent era

Active: 1913-1959

Key films to see: The Big Parade, The Crowd, Show People, The Patsy, and (the Kansas scenes of) The Wizard of Oz

Orson Welles

Style/system: American; worked on Broadway and in Hollywood; innovator, revolutionizing film aesthetics in the sound era

Active: 1934-1985

Key films to see: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Touch of Evil, and F for Fake

Billy Wilder

Style/system: Austrian; worked in Germany and Hollywood (like many, fleeing the Nazis); a leader of Hollywood’s Golden Age (1950s), versatile, equally deft at comedy, film-noir and drama

Active: 1934-1981

Key films to see: Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., Witness for the Prosecution, Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment

William Wyler

Style/system: German; worked in Hollywood; Hollywood’s most bankable director and maybe its most acclaimed with three Best Picture winners

Active: 1925-1970

Key films to see: Mrs.Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, Roman Holiday, The Big Country, and Ben-Hur

Part II and Part III

Ranking All Superhero Movies – Movies Spotlight – March 2015

2015-03-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Empire Magazine put out a feature article called The Greatest Superhero Movies of All Time, which got me thinking – how many superhero movies have I seen? The answer is ninety-five. Here is my ranking from worst to best (broken down into five tiers).

Tier 1: Painfully Bad

These are the superhero films to never see… ever.

95.) Catwoman (2004), directed by Pitof

94.) Batman & Robin (1997), directed by Joel Schumacher

93.) Steel (1997), directed by Kenneth Johnson

92.) Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), directed by Sidney J. Furie

91.) Supergirl, (1984), directed by Jeannot Szwarc

90.) Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011), directed by Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor

89.) Captain America (1990), directed by Albert Pyun

88.) Elektra (2005), directed by Rob Bowman

87.) The Phantom (1996), directed by Simon Wincer

86.) Ghost Rider (2007), directed by Mark Steven Johnson

Tier 2: Really, Really Bad

These films are also just bad, but diehard fans may find some redeeming qualities.

85.) My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), directed by Ivan Reitman

84.) Zoom (2006), directed by Peter Hewitt

83.) The Shadow (1994), directed by Russell Mulcahy

82.) The Meteor Man (1993), directed by Robert Townsend

81.) Blade: Trinity (2004), directed by David S. Goyer

80.) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), directed by Bryan Spicer

79.) Blankman (1993), directed by Mike Binder

78.) Superman III (1983), directed by Richard Lester

77.) Sky High (2005), directed by Mike Mitchell

76.) Spawn (1997), directed by Mark A.Z. Dippe

75.) The Toxic Avenger (1984), directed by Michael Herz & Lloyd Kaufman

74.) The Specials (2000), directed by Craig Mazin

73.) Daredevil (2003), directed by Mark Steven Johnson

72.) The Spirit (2008), directed by Frank Miller

71.) Jonah Hex (2010), directed by Jimmy Hayward

70.) The Punisher (1989), directed by Mark Goldblatt

69.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), directed by Jonathan Liebesman

68.) Mystery Men (1999), directed by Kinka Usher

67.) Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), directed by Tim Story

66.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret of the Ooze (1991), directed by Michael Pressman

65.) X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), directed by Gavin Hood

64.) Hulk (2003), directed by Ang Lee

Tier 3: Fun and Entertaining, but Nothing Special

These are the superhero films you kind of like (maybe even secretly love), but they are just not that great.

63.) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), directed by Brett Ratner

62.) Batman Forever (1995), directed by Joel Schumacher

61.) Green Lantern (2011), directed by Martin Campbell

60.) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), directed by Marc Webb

59.) Fantastic Four (2005), directed by Tim Story

58.) Hancock (2008), directed by Peter Berg

57.) The Crow (1994), directed by Alex Proyas

56.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993), directed by Stuart Gillard

55.) Tank Girl (1995), directed by Rachel Talalay

54.) The Punisher (2004), directed by Jonathan Hensleigh

53.) Zebraman (2004), directed by Takashi Miike

52.) Batman: The Movie (1966), directed by Leslie H. Martinson

51.) Orgazmo (1997), directed by Trey Parker

50.) Superman Returns (2006), directed by Bryan Singer

49.) The Green Hornet (2011), directed by Michel Gondry

48.) Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), directed by Guillermo del Toro

47.) TMNT (2007), directed by Kevin Munroe

46.) Iron Man 2 (2010), directed by Jon Favreau

45.) The Incredible Hulk (2008), directed by Louis Leterrier

44.) Spider-Man 3 (2007), directed by Sam Raimi

43.) Blade II (2002), directed by Guillermo del Toro

42.) Punisher: War Zone (2008), directed by Lexi Alexander

41.) Push (2009), directed by Paul McGuigan

40.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (1990), directed by Steve Barron

39.) Hellboy (2004), directed by Guillermo del Toro

38.) Darkman (1990), directed by Sam Raimi

37.) Defendor (2009), directed by Peter Stebbings

36.) The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), directed by Mark Webb

35.) Megamind (2010), directed by Tom McGrath

34.) Kick-Ass 2 (2013), directed by Jeff Wadlow

33.) Constantine (2005), directed by Francis Lawrence

32.) The Wolverine (2013), directed by James Mangold

31.) Superman II (1980), directed by Richard Donner & Richard Lester

30.) The Rocketeer (1991), directed Joe Johnston

29.) Unbreakable (2000), directed by M. Night Shyamalan

28.) Batman Returns (1992), directed by Tim Burton

27.) Big Hero 6 (2014), directed by Don Hall & Chris Williams

Tier 2: Very Good Superhero Films

These are the superhero films you love.

26.) X-Men (2000), directed by Bryan Singer

25.) Thor (2011), directed by Kenneth Branagh

24.) Blade (1998), directed by Stephen Norrington

23.) Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), directed by Joe Johnston

22.) Man of Steel (2013), directed by Zack Snyder

21.) Kick-Ass (2010), directed by Matthew Vaughn

20.) X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), directed by Bryan Singer

19.) Thor: The Dark World (2013), directed by Alan Taylor

18.) X-Men 2 (2003), directed by Bryan Singer

17.) Watchmen (2009), directed by Zack Snyder

16.) Batman (1989), directed by Tim Burton

15.) Superman (1978), directed by Richard Donner

14.) Iron Man (2008), directed by Jon Favreau

13.) Chronicle (2012), directed by Josh Trank

12.) X-Men: First Class (2011), directed by Matthew Vaughn

11.) Spider-Man (2002), directed by Sam Raimi

10.) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

With Phase II of their MCU, Marvel has taken their films to a new level of quality, fun and entertainment. Marvel also positioned their solo-hero films to fit character specific genres (Iron Man 3’s 80s/90s style action movie, Thor: The Dark World’s adventure fantasy feel and Guardians of the Galaxy’s space opera vibe). Captain America: The Winter Soldier wonderfully works as an action spy/thriller, feeling just gritty enough while still holding onto the MCU’s overall lighter tone.

9.) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), directed by Eric Radomski & Bruce Timm

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is the feature film incarnation of Batman: The Animated Series. It is just brilliant, bring fans what is probably the best versions of Batman, the Joker and a Batman movie (until Christopher Nolan made his Dark Knight Trilogy).

8.) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), directed by James Gunn

First there was Star Wars; next there was Firefly; now there is Guardians of the Galaxy. The film is just plain fun, mixing great sci-fi elements with awesome action, funny writing, maybe the year’s best soundtrack, and a stellar group of characters (and our latest Han Solo/Malcolm Reynold in Star Lord).

7.) The Incredibes (2004), directed by Brad Bird

Brad Bird’s first Pixar film showcases a family of superheroes in a world of superheroes, but the genius of the film is that he takes these extraordinary characters and makes them first exist in the mundane tediousness of normal, everyday life.

6.) Iron Man 3 (2013), directed by Shane Black

Shan Black is known for writing some of Hollywood’s best action films in the 80s and 90s (most famously Lethal Weapon). With Iron Man 3, he gives the Tony Stark adventure the same vibe, while also giving Robert Downey Jr. some of his best dialog to date (recapturing the magic of their Kiss Kiss Bang Bang collaboration).

Tier 1: Simply the Best

These are the films that changed the rules, making superhero films the massive critical and commercial successes they are today.

5.) The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon

The first half to two-thirds of The Avengers is a little rocky, but once things finally kick off in New York the film is nothing but pure gleeful joy.

4.) Batman Begins (2005), directed by Christopher Nolan

Origin stories are the hardest to tell, as so much story is devoted to the how and why. Christopher Nolan, however, set the new standard with Batman Begins, one that has not yet been eclipsed.

3.) The Dark Knight Rises (2012), directed by Christopher Nolan

Epic is a simple and short way to describe the last chapter of the Dark Knight Trilogy. Nolan’s film feels massive in scale, but everything is rooted in character and emotion.

2.) Spider-Man 2 (2004), directed by Sam Raimi

Spider-Man 2 is the perfect mix of Sam Raimi’s campy style and great storytelling, creating the best comic book feeling superhero film. It is infinitely watchable, and always enjoyable.

1.) 1.) The Dark Knight (2008), directed by Christopher Nolan

Brilliantly capturing the essence of Michael Mann, Nolan creates a superhero film that completely transcends the genre (forcing the Oscars to change their rules so they do not look like fool again after they snubbed it in 2009), rewriting the rules of what a superhero film could aspire to be. It is a magnificent piece of entertainment and art (and let us not forget Heath Ledger’s chilling portrayal of the Joker – it is breathtaking).

Top 10 Film Scores, Shot Films and Designed Films of the Decade So Far (2010-2014) – March 2015

2015-03-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Here is LeapBackBlog’s list of the Top 10 Film Scores (or: the Hans Zimmer Award), the 10 Best Shot Films and the 10 Best Designed Films of the 2010s so far. I have put an “*” next to my favorite in each category.

Top 10 Films Scores:

Alexandre Desplat, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2010-2011)

Alexandre Desplat, Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Harry Escott, Shame (2011)

Dario Marianelli, Jane Eyre (2011)

Rachel Porter, Never Let Me Go (2010)

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Hans Zimmer, Inception (2010)*

Hans Zimmer, The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Hans Zimmer, 12 Years a Slave (2013)

Hans Zimmer, Interstellar (2014)

Top 10 Shot Films:

Sean Bobbitt, 12 Years a Slave (2013)

Manuel Alberto Claro, Melancholia (2011)*

Roger Deakins, True Grit (2010)

Hoyte Van Hoytema, Interstellar (2014)

Emmanuel Lubezki, The Tree of Life (2011)

Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman (2014)

Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi (2012)

Wally Pfister, Inception (2010)

Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Robert D. Yeoman, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Top 10 Designed Films:

K.K. Barrett, Her (2013)

Donald Graham Burt, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Guy Hendrix Dyas, Inception (2010)

Stuart Craig, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2010-2011)*

Nathan Crowley, The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Sarah Greenwood, Anna Karenina (2012)

Adam Stockhausen, Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Adam Stockhausen, 12 Years a Slave (2013)

Adam Stockhausen, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Top 25 Performances of the Decade So Far (2010-2014) – March 2015

2015-03-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

Picking the 50 best films of the decade so far was incredibly hard, but this was far more difficult. Every year there is a ton of very strong work to choose from – some performances are just incredible, and those are the easy ones to pick, but for the most part there are a lot of performances that just as easily could have made this list. I have put an “*” next to my favorite performance from each year. Anyway, here are my picks:

2010

Christian Bale, a supporting role in The Fighter*

Claire Danes, a leading role in Temple Grandin

Tom Hardy, a supporting performance in Inception

Natalie Portman, a leading Role in Black Swan

2011

Kirsten Dunst, a leading performance in Melancholia

Michael Fassbender, a leading performance in Shame

Rooney Mara, a leading performance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo*

Carey Mulligan, a supporting performance in Shame

2012

Jessica Chastain, a leading performance in Zero Dark Thirty

Daniel Day-Lewis, a leading performance in Lincoln

Jennifer Lawrence, a leading performance in Silver Linings Playbook

Joaquin Phoenix, a leading performance in The Master*

2013

Cate Blanchett, a leading performance in Blue Jasmine*

Leonardo DiCaprio, a leading performance in The Wolf of Wall Street

Chiwetel Ejiofor, a leading performance in 12 Years a Slave

Adele Exarchopoulos, a leading performance in Blue is the Warmest Color

Michael Fassbender, a supporting performance in 12 Years a Slave

Brie Larson, a leading performance in Short Term 12

Mads Mikkelsen, a leading performance in The Hunt

Lupita Nyong’o, a supporting performance in 12 Years a Slave

2014

Ralph Fiennes, a leading performance in The Grand Budapest Hotel

Edward Norton, a supporting performance in Birdman

Rosamnd Pike, a leading performance in Gone Girl*

Eddie Redmayne, a leading performance in The Theory of Everything

Mark Ruffalo, a supporting performance in Foxcatcher

Top 50 Films of the Decade So Far (2010-2014)

2015-02-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

I have seen 785 films from the years 2010 through 2014. Here is my attempt at the fifty best, unbiased (if that is even possible), taking into account aesthetic/technical quality, performances, entertainment value, and dramatic depth. I have also included five must-see documentaries and my personal ten favorites.

2010

Black Swan, a character drama/thriller directed by Darren Aronofsky – Trailer

The Fighter, a character/sports drama directed by David O. Russell – Trailer

Fish Tank, a character drama directed by Andrea Arnold – Trailer

Inception, a crime action/adventure directed by Christopher Nolan – Trailer

The King’s Speech, a period character drama directed by Tom Hooper – Trailer

Never Let Me Go, a sci-fi drama directed by Mark Romanek – Trailer

A Prophet, a crime drama directed by Jacques Audiard – Trailer

The Social Network, a character drama directed by David Fincher – Trailer

True Grit, a western directed by the Coen Brothers – Trailer

2011

Beginners, a character/romance drama directed by Mike Mills – Trailer

Drive, a crime drama directed by Nicolas Winding Refn – Trailer

50/50, a dramedy directed by Jonathan Levine – Trailer

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a mystery thriller directed by David Fincher – Trailer

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, an action/adventure fantasy directed by David Yates – Trailer

Incendies, a mystery drama directed by Denis Villeneuve – Trailer

Jane Eyre, a gothic period romance drama directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga – Trailer

Like Crazy, a romance drama directed by Drake Doremus – Trailer

Martha Marcy May Marlene, a character drama directed by Sean Durkin – Trailer

Melancholia, a character drama directed by Lars von Trier – Trailer

Midnight in Paris, a romantic dramedy directed by Woody Allen – Trailer

Moneyball, a character/sports drama directed by Bennett Miller – Trailer

Shame, a character drama directed by Steve McQueen – Trailer

The Tree of Life, a character drama directed by Terrence Malick – Trailer

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a spy drama directed by Tomas Alfredson – Trailer

Warrior, a sports drama directed by Gavin O’Conner – Trailer

2012

The Dark Knight Rises, an action adventure directed by Christopher Nolan – Trailer

Django Unchained, a western directed by Quentin Tarantino – Trailer

The Intouchables, a character drama directed by Olivier Nakache & Eric Toledano – Trailer

Life of Pi, an adventure drama directed by Ang Lee – Trailer

The Master, a period character drama directed by Paul Thomas Anderson – Trailer

Moonrise Kingdom, a romance comedy directed by Wes Anderson – Trailer

A Royal Affair, a period romance drama directed by Nikolaj Arcel – Trailer

Rust and Bone, a character drama directed by Jacques Audiard – Trailer

Zero Dark Thirty, a mystery thriller directed by Kathryn Bigelow – Trailer

2013

Blue is the Warmest Color, a romance/character drama directed by Abdellatif Kechiche – Trailer

Her, a romantic drama directed by Spike Jonze – Trailer

The Hunt, a character drama directed by Thomas Vinterberg – Trailer

Inside Llewyn Davis, a period musical drama directed by the Coen Brothers – Trailer

The Past, a mystery drama directed by Asghar Farhadi – Trailer

Rush, a sports drama directed by Ron Howard – Trailer

Short Term 12, a character drama directed by Destin Cretton – Trailer

12 Years a Slave, a period character drama directed by Steve McQueen – Trailer

The Wolf of Wall Street – a crime drama directed by Martin Scorsese – Trailer

2014

Birdman, a character drama directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu – Trailer

Calvary, a character dramedy/mystery directed by John Michael McDonagh – Trailer

Gone Girl, a mystery thriller directed by David Fincher – Trailer

The Grand Budapest Hotel, a mystery comedy directed by Wes Anderson – Trailer

The Imitation Game, a period character drama directed by Morten Tyldum – Trailer

Interstellar, a sci-fi adventure directed by Christopher Nolan – Trailer

Whiplash, a character drama directed by Damien Chazelle – Trailer

Must-See Documentaries

The Act of Killing, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer – Trailer

Exit Through the Gift Shop, directed by Banksy – Trailer

The House I Live In, directed by Eugene Jarecki – Trailer

The Imposter, directed by Bart Layton – Trailer

Inside Job, directed by Charles Ferguson – Trailer

My Favorite 10 Films of the Decade So Far

The Dark Knight Rises

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Gone Girl

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Inception

Interstellar

Super 8

True Grit

12 Years a Slave

Zero Dark Thirty

Movies Spotlight – Upcoming 2015 Films – February 2015

2015-02-24T16:10:00.000-08:00

Last year was an interesting year for film. For most of 2014, it felt like it was a fairly weak year, aside from a few bright spots (Sundance hits Boyhood and Whiplash, the surprisingly great The Lego Movie and Wes Anderson’s wonderful The Grand Budapest Hotel). Even the summer movie season felt underwhelming, with many disappointments. Edge of Tomorrow was probably the best summer blockbuster (May-July – the typical summer season for big movies), but it did not find its audience and was a commercial disappointment (to go with all the critical disappointments). Really, only Marvel succeeded with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, bookending the summer coming in early April and early August, respectively. But then awards season rolled around and suddenly we were treated to lots of very good films (Gone Girl, Interstellar, Birdman, The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game, Calvary, and Nightcrawler), turning 2014 into a fairly great year for movies. Especially given that most of the year’s best films came from original narratives (at least original in film form).

2015 is a whole different story. It is shaping up to be the year of the blockbuster sequel. That may sound negative and depressing, a whole year defined by sequels and tent poll films, but honestly I am very excited (as are many of us, I imagine) to see most of these films. Among the sequels/reboots are: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Spectre (the latest installment in the Daniel Craig James Bond films), Ant-Man (continuing the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even if he is a new character to cinema), Mission: Impossible 5, Fantastic Four, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Jurassic World, Terminator Genisys, Mad Max: Fury Road, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.

Disney starts the year off in March with their live-action Cinderella (which looks fairly good). Turning their classic animated films into live action films seems to me to be in response to other studios doing their own adaptations of the stories. I think Disney would probably be happier to not make these live action films, but I guess there is money to be made and they probably think they can do them better. So far, none of them has been very good, by Disney or any other studio. Cinderella looks like it might be, however, as it seems to feature the classic style and grace of the original animated film with a modern vibe to make it more accessible for today’s audiences.

There is not really that much else of interest in March. Well, I am curious about Chappie. It does look like a mix between RoboCop and Short Circuit; but despite the disappointment of Elysium, Neill Blomkamp is still one of the more exciting filmmakers making sci-fi films right now. It was just announced that he is making a new Alien film to be released 2017. Based on the concept art, it looks like it might be really great.

In April, Furious 7 starts off the month, promising to deliver yet another boring formulaic and generic action film built on impossible car stunts. I did enjoy Fast 5, but the rest of the series is not really worth anyone’s time, aside from the pure spectacle of it all. The rest of the month seems just as uninteresting as well. Child 44, however, could be an exception. It is a new thriller from Daniel Espinosa (who directed Easy Money and Safe House) and features a great cast, including: Tom Hardy, Joel Kinnaman, Noomi Repace, and Gary Oldman. The other exception is the British sci-fi import Ex Machina (which I think very well might be the best film to open prior to the summer season).

And then, finally, in May things kick off. The month starts off with one of 2015’s two biggest films Avengers: Age of Ultron. For some critics and filmmakers, it seems easy to dismiss superhero/comic book films as mindless entertainment and not engaging art (like say the films nominated for Best Picture Oscars) and there are many, many examples of bad superhero/comic books movies. Yet, when they are done well, they bring great storytelling and spectacle to the masses, and have their own artistic charms as well. When brilliant filmmakers have passion for the material, they are going to make great films that everyone will see (not just a few). Joss Whedon is one of these brilliant filmmakers. On The Avengers, he was handcuffed a bit by coming to the project a little late in its creative process and needing to fulfill Marvel’s story structure – he still made a wonderfully entertaining film. With Age of Ultron, Whedon has created the film in whole, carefully crafting the story, action set pieces and character arcs. I cannot wait to see it.

Also opening the month of May is Far from the Madding Crowd, a potential Oscar contending drama starring Carey Mulligan, Tom Sturridge, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Michael Sheen. The film is directed by Thomas Vinterberg, one of Denmark’s greatest auteurs. He made the 2012 drama The Hunt, which I highly recommend. In terms of other non-blockbusters, Cameron Crowe’s new film Aloha comes out later in the month. It boasts a very strong cast with Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, Danny McBride, John Kransinski, Jay Baruchel, and Alec Baldwin. There is some trepidation regarding whether or not the film will be any good, given its tumultuous production, but there is no denying that based on its cast alone it sure has the potential to be really fun.

After Avengers: Age of Ultron, May also offers the blockbusters Mad Max: Fury Road and Tomorrowland. The latest iteration of the Mad Max series, with Tom Hardy taking on the title role, looks absolutely bonkers, but in all the best ways. It looks aesthetically magnificent, and I want to see it just for its grandiose set-pieces. Tomorrowland sounds like a terrible idea conceptually. Disney taking one of their theme park areas and adapting it into a feature film. And yet, the film looks very interesting. Disney hired Pixar veteran Brad Bird (The Incredibles and Ratatouille) to write and direct the film and Damon Lindelof (Lost and The Leftovers) to co-write it. That is a solid creative team. The film stars George Clooney and Britt Robertson (who is looking to have a breakout year). Tomorrowland very well could be one of the summer’s best films.

In June, there are a few highly anticipated films, namely: Jurassic World and Inside Out. Universal Pictures hired indie filmmaker Colin Trevorrow to write and directed the film that they hope will jumpstart one of their biggest franchises that stalled out a bit with two poor sequels. They also made a great choice in casting Chris Pratt (fresh off his breakout film role in Guardians of the Galaxy) as their lead. Jurassic World hopes to recapture the magic of Steve Spielberg’s original. Inside Out is Pixar’s first of their two films slated for 2015 (the other is November’s The Good Dinosaur). It looks to be a good family film, mixing comedy and drama well, while engaging not only young audience members but also their parents (something that feels rare in family films).

July keeps the sequels coming with Terminator Genisys, Magic Mike XXL, and Minions; but, the more interesting films are maybe the reimaginings of Peter Pan and Poltergeist. Joe Wright, who is a fine British director, makes his first big studio film with Pan – an adaptation of the Peter Pan story that finds Hook as a younger man who aligns himself with Peter and Tiger Lilly to take on the villainous pirate Blackbeard (played by Hugh Jackman). Assuming Warner Bros. wants this to be the beginning of a new franchise, I imagine that things go wrong for Hook leading him down the dark path to becoming the famous villain Captain Hook we all know. Poltergeist was one of the scarier films of my childhood. Remaking it, as it is with remaking any other classic film, seems a tall order and unnecessary. Yet, this new Poltergeist looks quite good. It is directed by Gil Kenan who made the wonderful animated Halloween film Monster House and produced by horror master Sam Raimi.

July does also have a couple big films that could be very good. The final film in Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase II is Ant-Man. Its production troubles seem to have marginalized it for many fans (the original writer-director of the film, Edgar Wright, left the project due to creative differences with Marvel), but it still has a great cast with Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas. Plus, Marvel has yet to miss during its splendid Phase II run. The film I am most looking forward to in July, however, is Trainwreck, the new R-rated comedy from Judd Apatow. The film stars and is written by stand-up comic Amy Schumer (who is maybe the funniest person in America right now). The film has an outstanding cast of comedians and great actors, including: Bill Hader, Brie Larson, Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, Mike Birbiglia, Randall Park, Colin Quinn, Dave Attell, and others. It should serve as Schumer springboard into the mainstream. I think Trainwreck will be 2015’s best comedy.

August has a few smaller films that could prove to be big hits, like: Goosebumps, Straight Outta Compton and Regression; but I am most interested in its two blockbusters. Opening the month is the reboot Fantastic Four, directed by Josh Trank (who made the fantastic small superhero film Chronicle). Fox has stated that they want this new Fantastic Four franchise to exist within the same universe as their X-Men films (whether or not that is actually the case, we shall see). The film looks very good, a big change from the utter terribleness of the past two Fantastic Four films Fox made. Fox did a great job casting the films with some of our brightest young stars (Miles Teller of Whiplash, Kate Mara of House of Cards and Michael B. Jordan of Fruitvale Station). The other is the reboot of the remake of the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., an action spy adventure set during the 1960s. Stylish British director Guy Ritchie is writing and directing (and it seems like a really good fit for him) and he has a great cast with Henry Cavill, Alicia Vikander, Armie Hammer, and Hugh Grant.

Sundance this year produced some great films that very well could contend for Oscars next February. I want to look at five films from the festival that stood out. First the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award winner Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. This drama features strong performances from its young cast (Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler and Oliva Cooke) and is very Oscar friendly dramatically and narratively. James Ponsoldt’s new film The End of Tour features a breakthrough performance by Jason Segel (at least in terms of him being recognized for his dramatic skill as well as his comedic skill – although, I would argue that it was already clear from his great work in Forgetting Sarah Marshall). Segel very well could be among the Best Actor nominees. Brooklyn, John Crowley’s new film, is another potential Best Picture nominee. It is a period romance dramedy about Ellis Lacey, a young Irish woman who must decide if she want to remain in Ireland or make the move to America permanently. And finally, Sundance’s most fun film was Dope, a coming-of-age story about three friends growing up in Inglewood. It feels like a Boyz n the Hood for a new generation. Dope is slated for a June release, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is slated for July and The End of Tour will likely see Fall/Winter Releases.

2015 seems like the year of massive blockbusters, but there are some original films form some of our greatest current auteurs coming later in the year. Danny Boyle is directing a biopic about Steve Jobs starring Michael Fassbender, Quentin Tarantino has a new western The Hateful Eight, Sunday’s multiple Oscar winner (including Best Director and Best Picture) Alejandro G. Inarritu is also making a western of sorts with The Revenant (the film I think is the way-too-early Best Picture frontrunner), Terrence Malick has a new stream of consciousness wandering narrative Knight of Cups, David O. Russell is again reteaming with Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro for Joy, True Detective director Cary Fukunaga directs the child-soldier narrative Beasts of No Nation, Ridley Scott returns to sci-fi with The Martian, and Denis Villeneuve gives us a new mystery thriller with Sicario. Lots of great stuff to look forward to – I also want to mention Justin Kurzel’s new dark adaptation of Macbeth with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard; it looks incredible.

Academy Awards Retrospective – Movies Spotlight – February 2015

2015-02-20T14:31:00.004-08:00

I thought it might be interesting to look back at the Oscar winners from 2001’s show through last year’s, giving my thoughts, now in retrospect, of who probably is most deriving today (looking at all films, not just those nominated).

2001:

Best Picture: Gladiator

Best Director: Steven Soderbergh, Traffic

Best Actor: Russell Crowe, Gladiator

Best Actress: Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich

Best Supporting Actor: Benicio Del Toro, Traffic

Best Supporting Actress: Maricia Gay Harden, Pollock

Looking back, 2000 was a pretty lousy year for movies. I do not have any thoughts on many of the categories because there is just no real standout work that has stood the test of time. Best Actor, however, I think probably belongs to Christian Bale for his electric and career-making performance in American Psycho (one of my ten favorite performances of the decade). Best Director now goes to Christopher Nolan for Memento, which seems like a no-brainer today. Best Picture is In the Mood for Love, arguably the best film from the decade.

2002:

Best Picture: A Beautiful Mind

Best Director: Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind

Best Actor: Denzel Washington, Training Day

Best Actress: Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball

Best Supporting Actor: Jim Broadbent, Iris

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind

Best Actress Halle Berry is very good in Monster’s Ball; it is by far her best work; however, Maribel Verdu’s performance in Y Tu Mama Tambien is even better. And yet, I think Audrey Tautou takes the award today; her work is among my ten favorite performances of the decade. Her performance in Amelie is iconic and lasting. Best Actor I think belongs to Gene Hackman for his work in The Royal Tenenbaums. Best Director is far more difficult, Ridley Scott’s direction of Black Hawk Down is exceptional, but really it is a toss-up between David Lynch for Mulholland Drive and Jean-Pierre Jeunet for Amelie. The same is true for Best Film. Mulholland Drive and Amelie are just as important and relevant today. I will also add Spirited Away to the mix as well.

2003:

Best Picture: Chicago

Best Director: Roman Polanski, The Pianist

Best Actor: Adrien Brody, The Pianist

Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, The Hours

Best Supporting Actor: Chris Cooper, Adaptation

Best Supporting Actress: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago

Three of the four acting categories are hard to dispute this year; however, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep are far better in The Hours (assuming you consider them potential Best Supporting Actress nominees, which the Academy did). Just to mix things up, I think Bill Pullman is wonderful in Igby Goes Down (is what is about a cameo’s worth of screen time worth a Best Supporting Actor Oscar?) and Robin Williams is delightfully insane in Death to Smoochy. Best Actress is hands down Nicole Kidman for The Hours, one of my favorite ten performances of the decade. Best Actor Adrien Brody is excellent in The Pianist, but I also very much enjoy Chiwetel Ejiofor in Dirty Pretty Things and Al Pacino in Insomnia. Best Director is rightfully Roman Polanski’s, but Paul Greengrass with Bloody Sunday and Danny Boyle with 28 Days Later… introduced new styles and aesthetics, changing cinema. Best Picture is a toss-up between The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (which only suffers a minor setback from being the middle of a grander narrative – it is still my favorite of the series) and The Hours, a beautifully constructed and acted film.

2004:

Best Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Best Director: Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Best Actor: Sean Penn, Mystic River

Best Actress: Charlize Theron, Monster

Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins, Mystic River

Best Supporting Actress: Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain

Starting with Best Supporting Actor, Remy Girard is un-matched in The Barbarian Invasions. Best Actress is Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation and Best Actor is Bill Murray also in Lost in Translation, another of my ten favorite performances of the decade.. Best Director rightfully belongs to Peter Jackson, not just for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King but really the whole trilogy. I also want to mention Kevin Costner for making the brilliant western Open Range, Gus Van Sant for the chilling and unflinching Elephant and Chan-wook Park for the jaw-dropping mystery thriller Oldboy. It is hard for me to deny The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Best Picture, because it is a monumental achievement and I do love it, but Lost in Translation transcends with its beautiful, touching and funny performances and the simplicity of its premise. It is a movie about friendship and life.

2005:

Best Picture: Million Dollar Baby

Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby

Best Actor: Jamie Foxx, Ray

Best Actress: Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby

Best Supporting Actor: Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, The Aviator

Jamie Foxx is very good in Ray, but Christian Bale’s transformation in The Machinist is staggering and Bill Murray’s hard-luck adventurer/oceanographer Steve Zissou is funny yet emotionally complex. None of them are Best Actor, however, that alone belongs to Bruno Ganz in Downfall. Back in 2005, I agreed with Million Dollar Baby winning the awards it won. Today, I still think it is a powerful and well-told narrative, but it is not Best Picture or even Best Director. For director, I put forth Oliver Hirschbiegel for Downfall and Kar Wai Wong for 2046; and yet, honestly I think the year belongs to franchise sequels. Alfonso Cuaron’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 are the best crafted and most entertaining films of the year. With Spider-Man 2, Raimi constructs a perfect narrative. For Best Picture, I will also add Hotel Rwanda to the mix, but it is Spider-Man 2 all the way.

2006:

Best Picture: Crash

Best Director: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain

Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote

Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line

Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney, Syriana

Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener

Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor very well could be The Squid and the Whale’s Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels; although, Niels Arestrup is very good in The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Val Kilmer is hilarious in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Tom Hollander steals scenes in Pride & Prejudice. That said, I think Best Support Actor, for me, is Chiwetel Ejiofor in Serenity. I love Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line (and Joaquin Phoenix is wonderful as well), but Best Actress is Keira Knightely in Pride & Prejudice, another of my ten favorite performances from the decade. Best Director very well could be Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain, but I would also like to mention Jacques Audiard for The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Terrence Malick for The New World, Rian Johnson for Brick (reimagining the film noir genre, blending it with a teen film), Steven Spielberg for Munich, Joe Wright for Pride & Prejudice (with his fantastically fluid and kinetic camera), Joss Whedon for Serenity, and Christopher Nolan for Batman Begins (making me forget that Tim Burton even attempted another Batman film before, something seemingly infeasible to my late 1980s adolescent self). Best Picture is among all these films as well as Capote and Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. I am torn between Batman Begins, Pride & Prejudice and Serenity – each is highly entertaining, very well-made and just as vital and relevant today. 2005 was a standout year for film.

2007:

Best Picture: The Departed

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

2006 mostly comes down to two films: The Prestige and Children of Men, but let us dig a little deeper. Best Support Actor, for me, is Bill Nighy in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (just utter brilliance and joy). Best Actress is Carice van Houten for her tour de force performance in Black Book. Best Actor easily could be Francois Cluzet in Tell No One or Ulriche Muhe in The Lives of Others, but Christian Bale is phenomenal in The Prestige, another of my ten favorite performances of the decade. Martin Scorsese was due to win a Best Director Oscar, and cinema fans were happy to see him win, but there were some move deserving directors: Paul Verhoeven for Black Book, Paul Greengrass for United 93, J.J. Abrams for Mission: Impossible III (I know you are shocked by this, but he made the best action film of the decade with MI3; it is just wholly entertaining), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck for The Lives of Others, and Guillermo del Toro for Pan’s Labyrinth. The award, however, belongs to either Alfonso Cuaron for Children of Men (its aesthetic and technical degree of difficulty) or Christopher Nolan for The Prestige (its masterful construction). I tend to favor Nolan, as I favor The Prestige for Best Picture. I also want to throw in the genuine, sad and heartfelt musical Once, just to mention it. It is a great film.

2008:

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men

Best Director: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

2007 was also a very good year for film. I agree with most of Oscar winners. Tilda Swinton is very good in Michael Clayton (a film that has not remained vital in any regard), but Saoirse Ronan is extraordinary in Atonement; she is 2007’s Best Supporting Actress. Javier Barden is Best Supporting Actor, no question, but Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton, Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson’s War probably would have all won in different years. There is also no denying Daniel Day-Lewis Best Actor, but Brad Pitt is sensational in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (probably the best performance of his career, and the performance that won me over; he has since become one of my favorite actors), as is Richard Jenkins in The Visitor. I concur with the Coen Brothers being Best Director and No Country for Old Men being Best Picture, but I also love Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (I know you have not seen it, but if you love westerns, you must), Joe Wright’s Atonement, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.

2009:

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actor: Sean Penn, Milk

Best Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Supporting Actress Penelope Cruz and Best Supporting Actor Heath Ledger (giving maybe the performance of the decade, and one of my ten favorite) are both very deserving (although, you can make cases for Taraji P. Henson and Tilda Swinton in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, both of whom are also very good). Best Actress Kate Winslet is better in Revolutionary Road and should have won for that film; I also very much enjoy Rebecca Hall in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Sean Penn is great in Milk (it is my favorite performance of his), but I also want to nominate Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (perfectly conveying the humor and sadness – it is the decade’s best romantic comedy), Leonard DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road, Tom Hardy in Bronson, Chiwetel Ejiofor in Redbelt, Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and my pick for Best Actor Michael Fassbender in Hunger. Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight, David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Tomas Alfredson for Let the Right One In are all good choices for Best Director, but Steve McQueen does something exceptional with Hunger. It is mesmerizing, haunting and unforgettable. WALL-E deserves to be mentioned along with these others, as one of the few animated films to really make an impact as one of the year’s very best movies. Yet, Best Picture comes down to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Dark Knight – two grand epics. I pick The Dark Knight.

2010:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious

This year’s Oscars has a lot of wrongs. Starting with Best Supporting Actress, my pick is Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air, but in close proximity are Rosamund Pike in An Education and Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds. Christoph Waltz is Best Supporting Actor, unquestionably, but there were some other great supporting performances by men in 2009: Michael Fassbender in Inglourious Basterds, Tom Hollander and Peter Capaldi in In the Loop (hysterically funny), Niels Arestrup in A Prophet, and Christian Bale in Public Enemies. The Blind Side being nominated for Best Picture is laughable (almost as laughable as Crash winning in 2006) and Sandra Bullock’s performance boarders on caricature, but I guess everyone decided it was her year, good performances be damned. My pick for Best Actress is Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds, followed closely be Carey Mulligan in An Education, Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank and Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria. Jeff Bridges is good in Crazy Heart, but Colin Firth in A Single Man, Sam Rockwell in Moon, Sharlto Copley in District 9, Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds, and my pick for Best Actor Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man all give more interesting and dynamic performances. Best Director could be Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, Pete Docter and Bob Peterson for Up, Michael Mann for Public Enemies, Juan Jose Campanella for The Secret in Their Eyes, Jacques Audiard for A Prophet, Armando Iannucci for In the Loop, or Cary Fukunaga for Sin Nombre, but my pick is Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds, which also my pick for Best Picture.

2011:

Best Picture: The King’s Speech

Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech

Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech

Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter

I think all the performances that won are very deserving. I just want to mention some other great performances from the year not nominated: for Best Supporting Actress Rooney Mara in The Social Network; she makes a tiny amount of screen time resonate throughout the whole narrative. Keira Knightley is also excellent in Never Let Me Go, playing off type. For Best Supporting Actor Andrew Garfield is brilliant in both The Social Network and Never Let Me Go, having a breakthrough year. Matt Damon and Barry Pepper (in a tiny role) are great in True Grit. Ben Mendelsohn (who has become one of our best working character actors) is electric and terrifying in Animal Kingdom. And, Tom Hardy is just a treat to watch in Inception. For Best Actress Hailee Steinfeld is wonderful in True Grit, as is Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go. And for Best Actor, Leonardo DiCaprio is very good in Inception, a deseptively difficult performance. Best Director is unquestionably Christopher Nolan (did the Academy not see Inception?). Incendies, Never Let Me Go, True Grit and The Social Network are all top-notch, and could have won Best Picture if not for Inception, a breathtaking feat of directorial skill, narrative construction and realization. In a time dominated by series and series, Inception is a grand and original blockbuster.

2012:

Best Picture: The Artist

Best Director: Michel, Hazanavicius, The Artist

Best Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Best Actress: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help

The 2012 Oscars were dominated by nostalgia, but in retrospect they got most everything wrong. Best Supporting Actress Octavia Spencer is deserving, but it is a shame that Carey Mulligan did not get nominated for Drive or Shame, Jessica Chastain for The Tree of Life, Elle Fanning for Super 8, Anna Kendrick for 50/50, Keira Knightley for A Dangerous Method, and Shailene Woodley for The Descendents (who probably gave the best performance of the bunch). Best Supporting Actor Christopher Plummer is also deserving, but I also really enjoy Michael Fassbender in Jane Eyre, Omar Sy in The Intouchables, Ezra Miller in We Need to Talk About Kevin, Albert Brooks in Drive, Brad Pitt in The Tree of Life, Corey Stoll in Midnight in Paris, and Jonah Hill in Moneyball. And then things go wrong. Best Actress is Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, followed by other excellent performances by Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia, Mia Wasikowska in Jane Eyre, Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and Felicity Jones in Like Crazy. Best Actor is Michael Fassbender in Shame, followed by other excellent performances by Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Brad Pitt in Moneyball, Tom Hardy in Warrior, Michael Shannon in Take Shelter, and Francois Cluzet in The Intouchables. Best Director is David Fincher for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (making an even better version of what was already a great Swedish film and book). Steve McQueen’s work on Shame is also striking. A few others worthy of mentioning: Cary Fukunaga for Jane Eyre, Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive, Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life, and J.J. Abrams for Super 8. There were quite a few great films in 2011, like the blockbusters Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which actually lived up to the hype, and surpassed it) and Super 8, fun dramedies like 50/50 and Midnight in Paris, and profound dramas like Shame and Jane Eyre. The Best Picture of the year, however, is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (revisit it and you will see its brilliance).

2013:

Best Picture: Argo

Best Director: Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hawthaway, Les Miserables

I agree with the acting categories. Anne Hathaway is also fabulous as Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises, which would have been my favorite Best Supporting Actress performance of the year if not for her work in Les Miserables (it is the only thing worth watching the very tedious movie for). Kelly Reilly is excellent in Flight, but did not get a nomination. Christoph Waltz winning Best Supporting Actor is probably right, but it was a strong year. These standout performance were not even nominated: Javier Bardem in Skyfall, Ezra Miller in The Perks of Being a Wall Flower, Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained, Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises (his Bane is one of my favorite superhero film villains, up there with Heath Ledger’s Joker and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki), Michael Fassbender in Prometheus (the best part of the film, along with its aesthetics), and Ben Mendelsohn in Killing Them Softly. Jennifer Lawrence is undeniably charming and engaging in Silver Linings Playbook winning Best Actress, but I think Marion Cotillard’s performance in Rust and Bone is just as good (maybe even better). Other great performances not nominated include: Keira Knightley in Anna Karenina (a visual whirlwind, but grounded by her strong work), Alicia Vikander in A Royal Affair and Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha. Daniel Day-Lewis is probably our best working actor presently, he utterly becomes his characters. He deserved to win Best Actor for Lincoln, but here are some exceptional performances not nominated: Mads Mikkelsen in The Hunt, Christian Bale in The Dark Knight Rises, Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained, Brad Pitt in Killing Them Softly, and Suraj Sharma in Life of Pi. Ang Lee’s Life of Pi is remarkable. He took 3-D, an improperly used technology, and used it to produce an incredible film experience. And yet, Kathryn Bigelow’s directorial feats on Zero Dark Thirty are just about as impressive. In terms of blockbuster filmmaking, Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is uneven, but he knocked the third act out of the park, creating the year’s most entertaining film, while Christopher Nolan ends his Dark Knight Trilogy with another astoundingly good film in The Dark Knight Rises. Rian Johnson also exhibits flourishes of sheer brilliance in the montages of Looper. And, Paul Thomas Anderson gets pitch perfect performances across the board in The Master. Best Director is a toss-up. If I have to pick though, I tend to lean towards Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty is just so enthralling). Best Picture comes down to The Master, Life of Pi, The Dark Knight Rises, and Zero Dark Thirty. Argo is a good thriller, but nowhere near the level of these films. I love Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and so my pick is The Dark Knight Rises, but if you were to take that out of the running I would go with Zero Dark Thirty.

2014:

Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave

Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Best Supporting Actor: Jered Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave

We have finally come to the end. I will make this one quick. I agree with Lupita Nyong’o as Best Supporting Actress. I question if anyone will care about Dallas Buyers Club in five year, or if anyone even cares about it now. Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave is Best Supporting Actor. I agree with Cate Blanchett as Best Actress. Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave is Best Actor. Initially I did agree that Alfonso Cuaron deserved to win Best Director for the technical challenges of Gravity, but now I feel differently. The film does not really hold up to multiple viewings and Steve McQueen’s directorial work on 12 Years a Slave is much more profound and interesting. I think Spike Jonze for Her and Marin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street are also more deserving, but McQueen is my pick today. I agree with 12 Years a Slave as Best Picture.

Enjoy the 2015 Academy Awards on Sunday.

Music Spotlight – Dr. Rocket – February 2015

2015-02-13T14:04:00.002-08:00

Up and coming rock/pop group Dr. Rocket have released their first single I Never Knew You Like That, a poppy infectious song. The duo from the Pacific Northwest, Nick Carver and Mason Kline, have tapped into a sound that is both fresh and nostalgic. It has its roots in the great pop music to come out of the U.K. in the 1960s (bands like the Beatles, the Zombies, the Kinks, and so on), but also offers a modern vibe both lyrically and musically.

Pop music is mostly concerned with the trials and tribulations of love – specifically when we first fall in love or when it all goes wrong, the thrill or the anguish. I Never Knew You Like That very well may be just another love song, but it feels as if its protagonist is trying to convey the entirety of the experience in a single song – from the dumbfounded goofy awkwardness of first meeting to the painful disassociation following a break-up (in which we wonder how we could ever have even been with a person like that) – an ambitious feat. The song is catchy, fun and a little deep. I cannot wait to hear more.

Follow Dr. Rocket on Twitter @xxDrRocketxx

And, check out I Never Knew You Like That below:

I Never Knew You Like That by Dr. Rocket

LeapBackBlog 2014 Film Awards

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2014 was such a great year for movies. Putting together my top 25 lists was very difficult (and it is impossible to see every film and every performance). Here are lists of my favorites from the year. I have put an “*” next to the best (or, at least, what I think is the best) film, performance and artistic/technical/aesthetic achievement in each category.

Favorite 25 Films of 2014

Birdman, a character dramedy directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarrutu – Trailer

Boyhood, a coming-of-age drama directed by Richard Linklater – Trailer

Calvary, a character drama directed by John Michael McDonagh – Trailer

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, an action adventure directed by Anthony & Joe Russo – Trailer

Edge of Tomorrow, a sci-fi action adventure directed by Doug Liman – Trailer

The Fault in Our Stars, a teen romantic drama directed by Josh Boone – Trailer

Foxcatcher, a character drama directed by Bennett Miller – Trailer

Fury, a WWII action drama directed by David Ayer – Trailer

The Grand Budapest Hotel, a mystery comedy directed by Wes Anderson - Trailer

Gone Girl, a mystery thriller directed by David Fincher – Trailer

Guardians of the Galaxy, a sci-fi action adventure directed by James Gunn – Trailer

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, a fantasy action adventure directed by Peter Jackson – Trailer

The Imitation Game, a biographical WWII character drama directed by Morten Tyldum - Trailer

Intersteller*, a sci-fi action adventure drama directed by Christopher Nolan - Trailer

Into the Woods, a musical fantasy drama directed by Rob Marshall - Trailer

The Lego Movie, an animated action comedy directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller – Trailer

A Most Violent Year, a period crime drama directed by J.C. Chandor – Trailer

The Normal Heart, a period drama directed by Ryan Murphy – Trailer

Pride, a period drama directed by Matthew Warchus – Trailer

The Raid 2, a martial arts action adventure directed by Gareth Evans – Trailer

Selma, a period drama directed by Ava DuVernay – Trailer

The Theory of Everything, a biographical period character drama directed by James Marsh – Trailer

Unbroken, a WWII biographical character drama directed by Angelina Jolie – Trailer

Whiplash, a character drama directed by Damien Chazelle – Trailer

Wild, a character drama directed by Jean-Marc Vallee – Trailer

Favorite 25 Performances of 2014

Ben Affleck, a leading performance in Gone Girl

Emily Blunt, a leading performance in Into the Woods

Jessica Chastain, a supporting performance in A Most Violent Year

Carrie Coon, a supporting performance in Gone Girl

Marion Cotillard, a leading performance in Two Days, One Night

Benedict Cumberbatch, a leading performance in The Imitation Game

Ralph Fiennes, a leading performance in The Grand Budapest Hotel

Brendan Gleeson, a leading performance in Calvary

Oscar Isaac, a leading performance in A Most Violent Year

Felicity Jones, a leading performance in The Theory of Everything

Keira Knightley, a leading performance in Begin Again

Keira Knightley*, a supporting performance in The Imitation Game

Matthew McConaughey, a leading performance in Interstellar

Edward Norton*, a supporting performance in Birdman

David Oyelowo, a leading performance in Selma

Rosamund Pike*, a leading performance in Gone Girl

Chris Pine, a supporting performance in Into the Woods

Eddie Redmayne*, a leading performance in The Theory of Everything

Mark Ruffalo, a supporting performance in Foxcatcher

Jenny Slate, a leading performance in Obvious Child

Emma Stone, a supporting performance in Birdman

Miles Teller, a leading performance in Whiplash

Reese Witherspoon, a leading performance in Wild

Shailene Woodley, a leading performance in The Fault in Our Stars

Favorite 25 Artistic, Technical & Aesthetic Achievements

Wes Anderson, the director of The Grand Budapest Hotel

Donald Graham Burt, the production designer of Gone Girl

Damien Chazelle, the director of Whiplash

Jeff Cronenweth, the cinematographer of Gone Girl

Nathan Crowley, the production designer of Interstellar

Roger Deakins, the cinematographer of Unbroken

Alexandre Desplat, the composer of Godzilla

Alexandre Desplat, the composer of The Grand Budapest Hotel

Alexandre Desplat, the composer of The Imitation Game

Maria Djurkovic, the production designer of The Imitation Game

David Fincher, the director of Gone Girl

Hoyte Van Hoytema, the cinematographer of Interstellar

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the director of Birdman

Johann Johannsson, the composer of The Theory of Everything

Ryszard Lenczewski & Lukasz Zal, the cinematographers of Ida

Richard Linklater, the director of Boyhood

Emmanuel Lubezki*, the cinematographer of Birdman

Seamus McGarvey, the cinematographer of Godzilla

Christopher Nolan*, the director of Interstellar

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, the composers of Gone Girl

Adam Stockhausen*, the production designer of The Grand Budapest Hotel

Charles Wood, the production designer of Guardians of the Galaxy

Robert D. Yeoman, the cinematographer of The Grand Budapest Hotel

Hans Zimmer*, the composer of Interstellar

A Few More Fun, Entertaining and Interesting Films You Might Have Missed from 2014

Begin Again, a musical romance drama directed by John Carney – Trailer

Enemy, a mystery thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve – Trailer

Fort Bliss, a character drama directed by Claudia Myers – Trailer

The Guest, a horror thriller directed by Adam Wingard - Trailer

In Your Eyes, a sci-fi romance directed by Brin Hill – Trailer

Laggies, a character dramedy directed by Lynn Shelton – Trailer

Locke, a drama thriller directed by Steven Knight - Trailer

Obvious Child, a dramedy directed by Gillian Robspierre - Trailer

The Skeleton Twins, a character drama directed by Craig Johnson – Trailer

What If, a romantic comedy directed by Michael Dowse - Trailer

A Few More Wonderful and Under-Heralded Performances that I also Loved

Rose Byrne, a leading performance in Neighbors

Kim Dickens, a supporting performance in Gone Girl

Michael Fassbender, a leading performance in Frank

David Gyasi, a supporting performance in Interstellar

Bill Hader, a leading performance in The Skeleton Twins

Tom Hardy, a leading performance in Locke

Michelle Monaghan, a leading performance in Fort Bliss

Joaquin Phoenix, a leading performance in The Immigrant

Tilda Swinton, a supporting performance in Snowpiercer

Kristen Wiig, a leading performance in The Skeleton Twins

Good Films I Have Yet to See (that probably would have factored into the above lists)

The Babadock, a horror thriller directed by Jennifer Kent – Trailer

Force Majeure, a drama directed by Ruben Ostlund – Trailer

Mr. Turner, a period character drama directed by Mike Leigh – Trailer

Nightcrawler, a drama thriller directed by Dan Gilroy – Trailer

Starred Up, a crime drama directed by David Mackenzie – Trailer