The Weekly Roundup

Over the last few months it’s been difficult for me to find the time to watch, write and upload reviews for this blog.

But a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go on a much needed holiday (of sorts), and as the airplane journey was particularly long, I got the opportunity to catch up on my movie ingesting. 

So I decided to watch every single ‘Oscar Film’ that I hadn’t yet seen, so that, for the first time ever, I could actually make an informed judgement about which movie deserved to win Best Picture.

I therefore announce that this Weekly Roundup will be an:

Oscar Special

Sure, the Oscars were almost three months ago, but they are still sort of relevant- mainly because, once again, the Best Picture of 2014 did not in fact receive the Best Picture Award. But more on that later…

This Week's Watches

The Theory of Everything

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox & Maxine Peake

Directed by: James Marsh

Rating: ★½

Nominated for:

Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score

Won:

Best Actor

Should Have Won:

Best Original Score

Although there were some things to like about this Stephan Hawking break-up movie, overall it’s a dry, dull and silly film that tries to turn a story about a relationship completely falling apart into an uplifting rom-com.

Strangely enough, the film isn’t really about Stephen Hawking or science, and the unfocused mishmash of a plot isn’t punchy or interesting, mainly as it tries but fails to push several erroneous agendas.

Both characters are horribly unlikeable, as she’s cold and distant and he’s just an annoying arsehole.

Redmayne clearly did not deserve to win Best Actor for this part- if you put me in a wonky wig, gave me crooked glasses and sat me in a wheelchair I could give the same (if not better) performance- as he makes the character so detestable, which I’m sure was not his aim. Everyone around Redmayne makes him look better, particularly Jones and Cox, but the biggest star here is the incredibly beautiful and moving score, which makes you think there’s emotion in a film that has none.

The weirdest part about the film is that we are meant to be happy about the fact their relationship falls apart. There’s no hate or malice from either of them, which seems completely unrealistic and makes the film seem so completely fabricated and disingenuous.

And, just like The Return of the King, there are about seven different endings to the film- including one about time travel- that are equally as bizarre and cheesy in the worst way possible. The ‘climax’ is that they get to meet the Queen- which just shows how much this film champions a ‘Little England’ mentality, which proves why I don’t think British films can compete on a global scale- because there are usually introverted and ignorant.

The final ‘twist’ at the end is that Stephen Hawking has not even invented a theory of everything- which proves that the movie’s title is just as pointless as the actual movie.

So, unlike his book A Brief History of Time, The Theory of Everything isn’t brief and is time that I will never get back.

Whiplash (2014)

Starring: Miles Teller & J.K. Simmons

Directed by: Damien Chazelle

Rating: ★★★

Nominated for:

Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing

Won:

Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing

Should Have Won:

Best Supporting Actor and Best Sound Mixing

Everybody raved aboutWhiplash, and after seeing the trailer I was not at all convinced that it would be any good.

But it is.

The film is about a drummer (Teller) who attends a music school, and is horribly bullied and abused by his teacher (Simmons). It’s an interesting story, and I enjoyed watching it, but, personally, I think that the directing and editing was really lacking in the most crucial moments. I wanted it to be way more intense then it was- there need to be tighter shots, better angles and faster cutting, and then it would have been really amazing to watch- and I would have loved it.

But, unfortunately, the movie is set at 6 instead of 11, so it’s good but not great. I also feel that the script could have been tighter and more extreme, but despite this, J.K. Simmons is excellent as a villain that you love to hate, and the ending is incredible- it’s an extraordinarily jaw dropping crescendo that is by far and away one of the strongest finales I’ve seen in a long time.

 

Still Alice

Starring: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin & the little boy from Panic Room

Directed by: Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland

Rating: ★½

Nominated for:

Best Actress 

Won:

Best Actress

Should Have Won:

I didn’t see all the other Best Actress performances so can’t comment.

Still Alice should have been retitled Still, Alicebecause watching this movie makes you feel like time has stood still- forever.

Slow, boring, dull and incredibly unoriginal, Still Alice relies on a tried and tested formula of tired drama tropes to try to make us like and care about a woman who has early onset Alzheimer’s.

Julianne Moore is great- although I think her acting was better in Maps to the Stars- but the rest of the film is not, mainly because nothing happens and that little boy from Panic Room just can’t act and so ruins most of the movie by being in it.

American Sniper

Starring: Bradley Cooper & Sienna Miller

Directed by: Clint Eastwood

Rating: ★★★

Nominated for:

Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing

Won:

Best Sound Editing

Should Have Won:

The sound was good- but I don’t know enough about it…

American Sniper is a high grossing and incredibly controversial blockbuster- and deservedly so. Criticised for being neo-conservative and very pro-war, I don’t agree that it is, as I think it raises issues that make you think about the realities of war. 

It’s a ‘take what you want from it’ movie- if you want to cheer at brown skinned people being killed then you will, and if you want to really think about the psychological impact that war has on the innocent people involved, then you will.

Just because the protagonist is a killer, doesn’t mean the film relishes the deaths he causes- in fact it’s the exact opposite- but this would be lost on the closed minded liberal militia. American Sniper does actually take the time to humanise all of the Middle Eastern characters- including the villains- to show that war is not black and white- it’s complicated.

The film is tense, unpleasant, engrossing, disturbing and at times exciting, as it mixes drama and action together in a way that makes you realise the horror that everyone has to go through in war torn countries- regardless of what side they are on.

Cooper and Miller are strong in their roles, and Eastwood’s directing is assured and competent.  If you want to see a political drama with some intense action, then it’s one to watch.

The Imitation Game

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Charles Dance & Mark Strong

Directed by: Morten Tyldum

Rating: ★★★

Nominated for:

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Production Design

Won:

Best Adapted Screenplay

Should Have Won:

Best Production Design

Critically praised by movie critics, but badly savaged by historians, The Imitation Game was a film that I really didn’t want to watch for various reasons- mainly because I really don’t like or rate Cumberbatch or Knightley, and also I didn’t want to watch a film pushing the gay agenda down my throat.

But, shockingly enough, I was surprised to discover that I enjoyed The Imitation Game. Cumberbatch played the role well- mainly because he’s a dislikeable socially awkward eccentric- and I think he gives a better performance than Redmayne, but is still not as good as Keaton in Birdman.

The subplot about mathematician Alan Turing’s sexuality is not done in an over the top militant way- I actually thought that this part of the movie was the strongest bit about it, as the flashbacks to his childhood are poignant and unsettling.

The ending is also very powerfully done, and incredibly moving- even though it is apparently not at all historically accurate. I’m not sure this particularly matters, as the finale is meant to be shocking and thought provoking, and so it definitely does achieve its aim of being haunting enough to really make you think.  

My Pick of the Week

Gone Girl

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Neil Patrick Harris & Tyler Perry

Directed by: David Fincher

Rating: ★★★½

Nominated for:

Best Actress 

Won:

None

Should Have Won:

Best Film Editing

I really thought I was going to hate Gone Girl­- based purely on the fact that Ben Affleck is the lead and he’s just so terrible.

But, I am a Fincher fan (of his directing style, not necessarily the content of his movies), and so thought that I would at least like his directing/editing combination that has won me over many times before.

The first hour of the film is absolutely dreadful. Ben Affleck is abominably awful. We have to be told his emotions by other characters so that we know what he is thinking because he can’t accurately convey them. He ruins this part of the movie because we are meant to be guessing whether or not he’s a killer- and unfortunately he’s just so empty and soulless that we can’t tell due to his awful acting.

The first hour is also ruined by a terrible script. Trying to be ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ and ‘down with da kids’, the dialogue is like Dawson’s Creek on crack- pretentious elitist drivel that tries it’s hardest to be ‘real’ and ‘relatable’ but is so horribly unrealistic- just like an Ian McEwan book. And also like an Ian McEwan book, the film is about rich white people with first world problems that about 99% of the world would be unable to relate to or care about, which makes the film hyper real as it’s just about wealthy arseholes with one percenter problems.

But, as soon as the ‘reveal’ happens, the film is great. It is darkly funny, engaging, exciting and also sick and twisted, which is why I like it. It also has an incredible female character who is horrible and hateful but amazing to watch- proving why we need more femme fatales in modern cinema.

The directing and editing is excellent, as I would expect from Fincher. The cold, clinical and sterile tone of the film fits perfectly into the story, and makes the film much better than it would be if a lesser director had taken the reigns.

It takes a long time to get to the good bit, but once it does, Gone Girl is a great watch- it is just the kind of disturbed thriller that I enjoy. And it has a femme fatale!

So Who Should Have Won?

Now that I’ve seen every single Best Picture nominee, I can certainly say with confidence thatSelma should have won- as it was by far and away the Best Picture of 2014. Selma should have also won Best Screenplay (but wasn’t even nominated for it!)

Also, after seeing Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, I’m also convinced that Michael Keaton should have won Best Actor for Birdman, and that Birdman did deserve to win Best Director.

I have a dream that, one day, the most deserving film will win Best Picture… but who knows if that day will ever come?