Ben Foster is a very good actor. I've seen him in other films and he's always good. I'd probably watch HoHW mostly for him moreso than Chris Pine, who I haven't seen in other films besides Star Trek. I never pass up a good war movie, even shitty ones on Netflix or documentaries so I want to see Hacksaw despite my dislike for Mel Gibson. I typically avoid drama type films, which is what Oscars usually reward, but I feel like I need to watch Hidden Figures at least because it's a story I've never heard before, and you'd think it would be something they'd at least teach us all about in USA. Fences seems more like a play. I need to make more of an effort to watch films from points of views of other peoples lives, minorities, etc., so Moonlight is one I am interested in. Since you're a media guy, have you seen an indie film called 'Tangerine' by any chance? It's was filmed entirely with an iphone in Los Angeles and it's a about a Trans woman crime drama. I know more about Casey Afflecks rape allegations than the plot of his film. LOL! Thats the film I want to see. I don't really like musicals but that stupid City of Stars song got stuck in my head.
Oscar Best Picture Nominees I've Seen 3/14/159265359
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 On 03/14/2017 at 06:53 PM by Super Step See More From This User » |
Pi Day! Boston Market has a pretty good deal. So do pizza places. Actual dessert pies I'm sure do as well.
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Arrival is good if you like a lot of thinky in your sci-fi. It's not so great if you like to know wtf is going on DURING a movie and not just at the end. The first time I watched it I was honestly a bit annoyed by having spent almost 2 hours looking at a movie with no real action (a bomb goes off, but it's not really an action scene) only to go "oooohhh ok so that's ... huh" at the end of it.
My roommate had rented it and I watched in standard def the first time. Since PS+ had it for 50c, I figured I'd give it a shot on my HDTV the second time and I definitely enjoyed that viewing a lot better. It didn't improve the picture that much, cause it was still dark as shit, but once you know the ending you can focus more on the plot and characters without thinking "uuughhh, just wtf is going on?" and thinking most of it is flashbacks. It raises some interesting philosophical questions to boot. The aliens reminded me of Wallmasters from Zelda, if they were giant and grey.
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Hacksaw Ridge was another my roommate rented on Red Box, and I actually liked it quite a bit better than my first Arrival viewing since the story was straightforward. While I'm not religious, the story of a Seventh Day Adventist sticking to his conviction of not holding a rifle while a medic during WWII was definitely compelling to me. Espeically because I'd be a conscientious objector myself. It was a bit on the nose at times, but I really liked the story and characters.
As for the violence, I'm, not going to claim to know what a realistic war looks like, but I honestly thought the violence in Logan felt more real, because there are places this movie gets so gratuitous it becomes cartoonish. Maybe someone did grab a humanh shield while firing a WWII machine gun, but I dunno. LOTS of gore in this movie. Mel Gibson directed it and the bloodlust from Passion of the Christ is definitely present.
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Moonlight is one I actually saw in the NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS CARMIKE SIX THEATER earlier this month. I put that in all caps, because why the f was a movie about a gay, black, poor kid growing up in Miami playing in the oldest town in Texas. When I asked the cashier if it was because they were trying to capitalize on the Oscar buzz and if they were making any money on it, the answers were, as I expected, yes and no; in that order. I was the first person to buy a ticket that day. Granted it was 4:10 p.m. on a Saturday and there was a rivalry basketball home game at the university (the only crowd I'd see going to this other than older residents who know it won something but not the subject matter), so it's not surprising only three kids showed up after me to see it.
The movie itself was good. Definitely an aggressively indie slice-of-life film, but I personally dig stuff like this. Mahershala Ali (Best Supporting Actor, who I know as Remy from House of Cards and apparently Julian knows from Luke Cage which I've seen one episode of) is really only in the first part of the movie.
The three parts of the movie include the main character's childhood, his adolescence, and his adulthood. They keep alluding to the fact he gets beat up for being gay, but I honestly don't see it being so obvious in his early years (and he looks like 50 Cent in his adult years). Still, while I grew up white, lower middle class (money struggles were much more apparent for us than many who went to my Catholic school, but we were not poor), and in Oak Cliff, my experience going to a very mixed high school and knowing that teens actually do talk like in the movie had me realting to some aspects of this. I definitely never got bullied as much as main character Chiron, but man did I feel for him.
I thought the early years were the most interesting as we see a crack dealer (Ali) and his wife provide much more of a loving home for him than his crack-addicted mother (Naomi Harris). Unfortunately for him as a teen, the crack dealer's wife is a VERY attractive Janelle Monae, so I think you can guess how his bullies bring that up.
It's not as depressing as I make it sound (there are people looking out for Chiron) if you want to see it at all you should. There are definitely scenes that are tought to watch, particularly one scene involving kids playing Knock Down Stay Down, but while not my favorite I can see why it won Best Picture.
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Hell or High Water is a great western. I really liked both the robbers and the cops as characters. It's set in West Texas, which is probably the one Texan region I haven't visited or know much about the culture of. By all accounts, it's accurate though. I could certainly see civillians in the bank shooting at the robbers.
There are a lot of allusions to class warfare in the movie (the opening shot has graffitti on the side of one bank that says something to the effect of "vets are homeless, but no bailout for us" or something similar), but the plot doesn't do a whole hell of a lot with that. You learn why the straight man little brother asked his crazyass just-out-the-jailhouse older brother to help rob banks, but I don't reminder it having a political bent. The only way it gets brought up is several characters (including one cop) saying the banks are the real robbers.
Chris Pine is great as the attractive little brother robber, Ben Foster is oddly endearing as the crazy one, Jeff Bridges is great at impersonating a Texas Ranger who gives his partner played by Gil Birmingham a lot of shit via racist insults and Birmingham is a great foil for Bridges.
Oh and there are some really good action and humor moments. Of the Oscar movies I've seen, this was definitely the most fun.
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Finally, my favorite of those I've seen is Manchester by the Sea, which was released by Amazon Studios (I rented it and HoHW at Red Box myself). Casey Affleck definitely deserved that Best Actor Oscar. He's great here. I've never minded Ben Affleck; I have always seen Ben as serviceable and believable enough as an actor. But Casey just owns this role.
It's a surprisingly charming and funny movie about grief, loss of loved ones, and the little quirks that happen between people in these situations. It's basically about Casey Affleck being asked to watch his brother's kid as a result Affleck's brother's will and not feeling like he's suited for the job. There are a lot of moments where I could see some of my own family (who are from up north, not northeast but still) acting similarly. Like Moonlight, it's very slice-of-life, but there's a lot more levity here than in Moonlight
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So that leaves La La Land, Fences, Hidden Figures, and Lion I still need to see. I don't really know much about Lion, I figure Hidden Figures will be a rental for me (I like the subject matter, but I know exactly what kind of movie it is; lots of inspirational speaking and music telling you how to feel, people being absurdly racist and getting their commupance etc.; and I tend to just rent those), and Fences is based on a play about a tough, washed up dad. Apparently, he's sympathetic until he's not and I want to see why.
La La Land I want to catch in a theater if I can, since it's probably the most visual movie of the Nominees. Yes I know all movies are visual, but you know what I mean. It's a musical and will have more spectacle.
Whelp.
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