Tag: Oscars

Still Alice review

Director:
Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
Cast:
Julianne Moore
Kate Bosworth
Alec Baldwin
Kristen Stewart
Rated: PG-13

Alice Howland (Moore) is a college professor who has just turned 50 and appears completely fine and healthy. Away from her career, she lives in a nice home and has a great family life. Her entire life begins to change, though, when she starts having small lapses in her memory.

After visiting a neurologist on a few occasions, she is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. From there, the film explores her struggle with the disease and the effect it has on her family.

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Birdman review

Director:
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Cast:
Michael Keaton
Emma Stone
Zach Galifianakis
Naomi Watts
Edward Norton
Rated: R

“Birdman” was once a famous box-office powerhouse at the movie theaters but lately has fallen out of the public’s eyes in this new film from director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

The man who played the superhero Birdman, Riggan (Keaton) has fallen out of the eyes of many, too, as he hasn’t made a hit movie in years. To get himself back on top he decides to direct and star in a play in New York City. Problems arise, though, as he has to deal with his daughter Sam (Stone) who has just gotten out of rehab and an actor (Norton) who does things his way or the highway.

Birdman is a film that has a lot of depth in both its story and characters, and both subjects are thoroughly explored. What makes the film great is that not only are the various characters and their subplots interesting, they also make statements on a number of topics.

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Does the Academy need a new category for unique performances?

Every year Academy Awards are given to deserving nominees in the best actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress categories. Despite some upsets here and undeserving winners there, most of the time, the argument can be made that the Academy gets these categories right.

The problem is, despite having deserving winners and more so deserving nominees, there is still a category of performances that are left out. They are the more unique forms of acting. The ones where the actor can’t necessarily be seen, but the performance can still have a major effect on the audience.

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Zero Dark Thirty review

“Zero Dark Thirty” is based on the true story of the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden, starting with the attacks on 9/11. It takes an in-depth look at the tracking of Al Qaeda during a 10-year period through the eyes of a CIA operative who is part of the task force to find its leader and the No. 1 target of the United States.

The CIA operative, Maya, is played by Jessica Chastain. Maya travels much of the Middle East in the movie, interrogating a number of different detainees and using the extent of U.S. technology to try and put the puzzle pieces together. Through the film, she sticks to the hunt and becomes obsessed with Bin Laden.

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Argo review

Welcome to the elite director club, Mr. Affleck.

“Argo” is Ben Affleck’s latest film as a director, and apparently the third time’s the charm as this one is as good, if not better, than his previous two projects. The film takes place during 1979, when six Americans escaped the U.S. embassy in Iran and went into hiding with the Canadian ambassador. Affleck plays the role of Tony Mendez, a CIA agent who specializes in extracting hostages. Mendez is tasked with coming up with a plan to help the six diplomatic personnel escape from the revolution-torn country.

Mendez eventually comes up with a dangerous but workable plan that involves creating fake identities for himself and the six people that are in Iran. Fake identities would label that the seven are a film crew scouting areas for a sci-fi movie. The plan is selected and Mendez gets the help of Hollywood producer Lester Siegel, played by Alan Arkin, and make-up specialist John Chambers, played by John Goodman. Together they set a plan in motion to create publicity for a fake film called “Argo,” so that Mendez has a plausible story for being in Iran and getting the six out.

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Top 10 Movies of 2011

1. Midnight in Paris
2. The Artist
3. The Descendants
4. Drive
5. The Ides of March
6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
7. Martha Marcy May Marlene
8. Crazy Stupid Love
9. 50/50
10. The Lincoln Lawyer

Honorable Mentions:
Warrior
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Super 8
X-Men First Class
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Kung Fu Panda 2

Midnight in Paris review

Director:
Woody Allen
Cast:
Owen Wilson
Rachel McAdams
Tom Hiddleston
Corey Stoll
Marion Cotillard
Rated: PG-13

The artistry of Paris being on full display was expected, the time-travelling was not.

Midnight in Paris follows the character Gil (Wilson), a Hollywood screenwriter who is on vacation in Paris with his fiance Inez (McAdams) and is also in the middle of writing a novel. While the two are scheduled to be married, it is apparent that they have problems, as Gil is usually dragged around the city by Inez and her parents to some of the more dull parts of the city.

However one night Gil finds himself walking the streets of Paris and at midnight, he is taken into an old model car and brought back to the age of the 1920’s. Here, Gil meets famous artists from the time including Ernest Hemmingway (Stoll) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Hiddleston). The rest of the film follows Gil’s mundane life during the day and his exploration of his favorite artists at night.

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