Tag: 4 out of 4

Fuck yes. I am hyped. I am beyond hyped. I am too hyped.

I am hyped because I am excited to see Hail, Caesar!, potentially the first great movie of the year. We are out of January, and things can start to look up, if only for a little bit.

But hold the fucking phone. Two years ago, on the first Friday of February 2014, a different movie came out that I was super hyped for. That was The Monuments Men. I assume everyone knows that The Monuments Men ended up being one of the most disappointing films of that year, given that it had such an excellent cast and potential, but it was entirely squandered.

And George Clooney starred in both of them. Arguably there is more talent behind the scenes this time, but he has let me down before almost two years to the day.

So I am going in a bit timid. Excited, hoping for the best, but weary nonetheless.

BUT CLOONEY IS THE GREATEST ACTOR OF ALL TIME.

In the 1950’s, Hollywood was a rough place. It was chaotic. There was no CGI. The sets were big and the egos were bigger. Heck, people were talking and singing in movies now. In color. Everything is splashy and outlandish.

Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is a man who loves his wife and kids and is a devout Catholic. But he is a hard ass and he knows what needs to be done. He is one of the heads of Capitol studios, the biggest studio in Hollywood, and he is a fixer. He works long hours, looks at the film dailies, and make sure everything goes according to plan. That means makes sure the actors are where they are, finding replacements, protecting the image of everyone working there from a potential disaster. He is a one man wrecking crew, but like, the opposite of wrecking, because he saves everything.

So when Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) goes missing from his set of Hail, Caesar!, a giant historic epoch of a Roman general who met Jesus before he was crucified and became a believer, Mannix was on the case.

Mannix will also have to deal with a western actor being forced into serious drama (Alden Ehrenreich), the acclaimed director who cannot stand it (Ralph Fiennes), a singing swimming starlet whom is pregnant but unmarried (Scarlet Johansson), gossip columnists (Tilda Swinton), and maybe leaving this job behind for a similar, better paying, easier job in the tech industry. He doesn’t have to worry about Burt Gurney (Channing Tatum) though, he’s perfect.

Also featuring Frances McDormand, Jonah Hill, Veronica Osorio, and Alison Pill. They all basically have only one scene. But Heather Goldenhersh has a bunch, still minor.

Every good film has a mermaid in it.

Oh you Coen brothers. You sly devils. I originally watched the trailer for Hail, Caesar! assuming it would be a period peace film. I love Ancient Rome things, and I would love it if they decided to put their hats into that ring. But it wasn’t about ancient Rome, it was about Hollywood and many film genres of the 1950’s. They decided to go meta with it, allowing multiple story lines and themes, providing a bit of satire along the way.

Well, I still hope in the future they give me a movie about Ancient Rome with George Clooney in it. I will be wait. Thankfully, Hail, Caesar! was a great movie to watch to help pass the time.

H,C! was hilarious. It really had my funny knee in stitches. I might be getting some of that terminology wrong, but I giggled quite hard many a time. In particular, I loved the religious round table, the scenes between Ehrenreich and Fiennes, and the song and dance numbers. Ehrenreich killed it in this film, despite still being relatively unknown. He has the same sort of vocal twang he had in Beautiful Creatures that made me so happy, so I was glad to hear it again.

Brolin did a nice job of carrying the film, although his character felt like a lot of his previous roles. Clooney and Tatum were also swell.

What can I say? The Coen brothers are a great team. They know how to write together and direct together. They consistently put out high quality entertainment, even though not everything is a guaranteed hit, you know there is a good chance it will at least still be zany.

History is fucked up. There are so many fucky things that occured, learning about them all in school would probably inflect serious depression on the youth of the world and not lead to a happy future.

But that doesn’t mean we can ignore history. We have to take things that are relevant and have strict meaning to our world today. No one should care about a big village wiped out 2,000 years ago in Spain. That is not something relatable. But genocides over the last 50-100 years probably should qualify as important events to learn about. After all, if we ignore them, then the people who committed these genocides would live out their lives knowing they could do it again and never be punished. The Holocaust sucked, but the world is bigger than central Europe.

Military coups everywhere and lots of dictators and mass killings, especially during the cold war. You know, the one without the war? Tons of people died.

Like in Indonesia, in 1965-1966, where a failed military coup occurred, and then what was left over allowed fear to run the country. So street gangsters were able to form death squads that killed almost a million people. Which people? Communist people! And they also extorted Chinese people out of money to protect their shops. It was a bad year with a lot of blood shed and a lot of fucks not given.

In The Act of Killing, the director of this film goes to modern day Indonesia, to talk to these people who helped commit the atrocities.

Thankfully they loved to talk about it.

A documentary from these men’s point of view is already an almost insane idea. But the men involved are bragging about what they did, for the most part feeling no remorse and feeling like the heroes of their own life story.

But no, the director wanted them to not just tell their story, but to show their story. He provided material for them to make a movie about the killings, how it happened, how they interpreted it, so they can show modern people about their past.

So intertwined between their stories we have these people choosing actors, acting out scenes, describing torture, you name it. It was such a strange juxtaposition but it helped perfectly capture just how warped their own realities were, along with their own justifications for the murders.

The Act of Killing is powerful, and it is a surprise it did not win Best Documentary its year at the Oscars. I eventually did see the winner, Twenty Feet From Stardom, and it cannot compare to the same level of significance, both socially or historically.

I didn’t ever plan on watching this documentary because subtitles and I felt lazy. I eventually did so because a companion documentary came out last year, The Look Of Silence, and I before I get my reviewer claws on it I need to do my appropriate research. And hey, this documentary was phenomenal. It feels like a must watch and it is already three years old.

Leonardo DiCaprio doesn’t have an Oscar. Everyone knows that. The internet won’t let you or anyone forget. He tried so hard with The Wolf of Wall Street. There was the incredibly long and well acted scene where he was on Ludes that was hysterical and just so damn good that it elevated his chances to win.

But he didn’t, and rightfully so. Chiwetel was the bomb. So what does a Leo have to do? Well, he found out that people love really physical performances. Just ask Eddie Redmayne, who won last year. So he will go and give a really physical performance. Easy, no problem, he is a professional actor, he can pretend to do anything. However, he needs help.

So he turns to the man with a plan, Alejandro González Iñárritu. He is fresh off his own Best Picture win with Birdman, and he wants to repeat. So two powerhouses coming together. What could go horribly amazing? Hopefully everything.

Acting.

Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a real person! In the early 1800s, he was a fur trapper and explorer. Here is his wiki. This movie is based on a very important part of his life. It is also super very different, because in movies, we need cool shit to happen.

Either way, he is the lead scout for a group who are about to head back home after a long few months. And of course they get attacked by some local Native Americans. Who knows the reason? Could be because they are hunting on the land, could be because they desecrated something, could be out of boredom. But there are more of them with really well aimed arrows, so a handful of them are able to escape by boat down the river. They saved some of the furs, but not all of them, meaning they won’t get paid as well as they thought when they return home. Worse news is that according to Glass, that same tribe owns the river, so they will probably lay an ambush for them soon. They have to get off the boat down river, hide the furs, and hike back to civilization on foot. Maybe with a large army they can return and hopefully get the fur back.

The captain, Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) agrees with the plan, but it angers a few of the crew, namely John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) who wants to get paid for all his hard work.

Fast forward a bit, and holy shit, Glass gets fucked up by a Mama Bear (Editor’s Note: He doesn’t get fucked though. Just fucked up) and has injuries all over. The crew would carry him back, but they are on mountains and it just can’t be done when they are on the run. So a few men volunteer to stay back until he either dies or gets better. Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), his son, Jim Bridger (Will Poulter), a young dumb trapper, and of course, Fitzgerald. He did it for the bonus money.

But when Glass is eventually left for dead anyways, he is encouraged to get over his almost carcass of a body. He is determined to ignore the biting cold and hunger. He needs to travel on his own a really long ass way, surviving the weather, river, animals and people trying to kill him along the way. Just so he can get revenge. Just so he can get closure.

Also starring Melaw Nakehk’o and another guy, who isn’t on IMDB, but totally important as he is the leader of the Native American tribe.

You can’t tell by this picture, but you will also see lush bears and hear even lusher accents.

This film is so beautiful. In every single way. Words can’t describe it well. Ohhh nooo. But I will still try today.

In case you are curious, no The Revenant is not one long continuous shot. Are you kidding me, it is 2.5 hours. This isn’t Victoria. However there are quite a lot of longer scenes in this film, definitely longer than normal. It works wonderful, especially during the skirmishes, which allow us to see all aspects happening as they occur, while also gracing us with the beautiful scenery that makes up this winter mountain side. Did I mention beautiful? I think I did.

Now onto the acting. HOLY SHIT LEO. WHAT ARE YOU DOING. He gave it all, more than his 100%. At least 105%, which is technically impossible. Impossible is probably what he thought his chances are at winning an Oscar, which is why he put so much dang effort into it. This thing was relentless. The bear attack was a CGI bear, but she was amazing and it didn’t look fake at all. The bear should get nominated for Best Supporting Actress (it is a weak year). Back to Leo, his groans and moans and crawling were everything I could hope for and more.

Technically he didn’t have many words to say. He was often alone, or just physically couldn’t due to injuries. Half of the speech he did have were in a native language. I kind of hope he doesn’t win Best Actor, not because I think someone has acted better (at least, not in films I have seen), but I want to see him top this. If he doesn’t win from this, he will have to try harder right? What kind of future movies could we have where DiCaprio constantly elevates his game, always looking for that highest honor?

No, that sounds mean.

I like to imagine this as all one glorious beard.

Speaking of Acting, Tom Hardy has had a fantastic year. He was great in Mad Max: Fury Road and the only good part(s) of Legend, and here again he is amazing. None of his roles were similar, they all had different voices and mannerisms. His bumpkin drawl was captivating, despite a bit of a struggle just to understand what he was saying sometimes. This is another role I expect to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but I still think Benicio Del Toro gets it for Sicario.

Either way, if you don’t see The Revenant on the big screen, you are missing out. It needs to be big to appreciate it that much more. Doesn’t mean I won’t buy it, but fuck, it’s so pretty. Maybe my film of the year.

This year, I am doing the best first! Mostly because, miraculously, I have seen everything that might make this list already, decently early. My worst list might be a few weeks, as I have been avoiding some of the worse films for my own sanity.

I had a lot of movies that I really liked this year too. And unlike the worst list, everything on this list I gave a 4 out of 4 too. This is the cream of the crop. As a side note, here are some critically acclaimed movies I did not see yet: Victoria, Son of Saul, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and The Duke of Burgundy.

Honorable Mentions::The Hateful Eight, Love & Mercy, Everest, It Follows

“What is this? This is Southpaw, not Creed! How dare you!” First of all, you have no idea if Creed is going to show up (it isn’t) and second, yeah, I think Southpaw is the better movie.

I should reiterate that since my baby girl was born, my emotions have been all over the place. And so when bad things happen to families with young girls? They can get to me. If there is a long death scene with crying and screaming, I will be right there with it, bawling my eyes out.

To go with it, Jake Gyllenhaal is a great actor and he really gives it his all in this film. The fight scenes are exciting, the drama is tense, and I would say it is definitely the best boxing movie of 2015. Bring it on, haters.

Speaking of haters, boy golly, Spike Lee sure has a lot of them. I mean, some people have valid reasons. He has done stupid things in the past and has strong opinions based on movies that he may not have ever seen. But just because he may be an opinionated asshole does not mean that he cannot make good films.

Fuck. Everyone knows Lee can make good films. Outside of the recent Oldboy remake, he has had a pretty dang good track record as a director. Chi-Raq is not an exception and is one of the more unique and entertaining films of they year. I love Greek plays, so the idea of doing a modern version of an already scandalous and potentially offensive play is ballsy. Turning most of the films dialogue into poetic rhymes? Ballsy. Making a movie about solving gang violence with sex? Very very ballsy.

Lee has balls. And his balls paid off with Chi-Raq.

Good news Mark Ruffalo fans! Infinitely Polar Bear is not the only movie on this list with Ruffalo. I will say there is only one more with his cheesy face and he acts the most eccentric in this film.

To me, this movie was about better understanding bipolar disorder, and to watch Ruffalo act his ass off. He was all over the place, but it worked for the film and it was touching and warm. It is one of the first times in a few years where Zoe Saldana didn’t detract from the plot, but actually helped! Given that two of the main stars are teenage and pre-teen girls, the film is able to keep you on the edge of your seat as almost every character has the potentially to suddenly not act as you would expect. Emotions are all over the place and the best part is that it just makes sense.

And fuck, it probably has the best title on this list at least.

Let it be known, if I kept to a standard top ten list, Mad Max: Fury Road would have not made it on this list. That sounds like I am reluctant to praise the film, even though I did enjoy it. It is just a film that has been circle jerked on the internet to death, so it can get a tad annoying.

Fury Road is good. The action is intense and barely stops. Tom Hardy gives one of his many amazing acting performances of the year. Charlize Theron does a good job as well.

Top notch visuals and stunts really drive home the insanity of the universe George Miller created.

Straight Outta Compton ends up with the status of being the best musical Biopic of the year. Sorry Love & Mercy, but you were still close.

I think part of the reason I enjoyed this film so much is that I actually learned a lot through it. I had heard some of the songs and band members before, but I didn’t know how they got started or how they got famous outside of the group. I didn’t know about all the arguments or how other famous rappers came into the picture. It was probably the best way a young white person could ever remotely begin to understand any of it.

And you know what else? It almost made me cry. It almost made me cry three times. Which is technically a stark difference to the next film.

Oh Inside Out, how much I love you.

When I saw this in theaters, I cried three whole times. And one of those three times was during the animated short Lava (which won’t be nominated for any awards, what the hell?!). Given its subject matter of emotions, it is so wonder that the film can make people feel so emotional. It appeals to kids and adults, with old movie references and simple slapstick humor. Hell, even one part gets insanely psychological, but the kids would just write the scene off as weird and not miss a beat.

It is important to note that Inside Out is my only animated film on the list, so it is the obvious pick from me to win Best Animated Film. I think it is no contest. Maybe Shaun the Sheep could be an extreme dark horse.

Oh Sicario, I feel bad for you Sicario.

Sicario is twisted and beautiful. It is well acted and emotion inducing. It is realistic and sad. It is scary and thrilling. It is so much and more. Well, not a comedy.

After watching Sicario, I knew I had seen something special. I knew it would be nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actor for Bencio Del Toro. But now, suddenly, there is no award love at all. At the same time, it isn’t even that far down my list.

This was a hard list to compile, and like other films, I found myself surprised at how “low” certain films ranked, this being one of them. But I loved a lot of movies this year, and Sicario may end up being forgotten like the majority of films this year. So sad, but at least it is the highest thriller on my list this year. It is something!

I first saw Me and Earl and the Dying Girl back in April and I loved the piss out of it. At that point it was my favorite film of the year and it stayed there for months. Like, literally until September when more good movies started coming out.

And yeah, sure, it fell a few spots, but it is still on the list and still in the top ten.

This movie is about quirky people who love movies and full of awkward conversations between teenagers. Your basic indie bread and butter. But it is also funny, well acted, and a bit unexpected. Did I cry? I just might have. That was a long time ago. But it is the type of movie I want to own and put with my other weird films to show how cool and unique I am.

The addition of The Last Five Years on the list should end up being my most shocking. I don’t know if anyone put this film on their top of the year list, let alone do I know how many reviewers actually saw it. It was released limited on Valentine’s Day with an immediate VOD, and then out to buy only a month or two later. I remember the day it came out the Blu-Ray was only $7, which was a steal! It clearly just was ignored by most of the population.

And 2015 was a terrible year for musicals, but the only two shining stars both featured Anna Kendrick. The other being a sequel, not as good as the first.

I don’t even know where to start with The Last Five Years. It only has really two characters and it is told out of chronological order. The female POV is backwards, the male is forwards. The relationship jumps back and forth from bad to good and you know it won’t end well thanks to the very first song. The music is haunting and not pop musical shit. Choruses exist, but they are rare and change up. Many of the notes get belted and are just hard to sing along with, showing dedication to the words chosen.

After I watched it on my computer, I immediately had to re listen to the whole soundtrack, just to go through the emotions again. This is obviously the only musical on the list this year, and I hope 2016 also has some surprises in store.

Science, science, science!

Let it be known that I feel really bad placing The Martian at only number 6 on this list, given how happy and excited it made me feel. Hell, I read the book right after watching the movie. That is how much I liked this film. Then I did that thing where I remembered I technically love all the films on this list, and that 6th is still pretty damn good. And I couldn’t figure out what films to pull back from the top five. Reality sucks.

But thankfully reality has Matt Damon in it to make everything feel that much better. The Martian is the best pro-science, pro-NASA thing to ever exist since the actual moon landing. Yes, it is a film, but it is a film a lot of people had seen and it is pretty accurate on the science front.

And it is entertaining yeah. It is funny, and scary at points. And they made a Lord of the Rings reference. That is automatically cool points, right?

I told you Ruffalo fans he’d be back. I hope you weren’t assuming it was Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Spotlight is the front runner to win Best Picture for the Oscars and a slew of other awards. And you know what? It totally deserves all of its praise.

Spotlight isn’t about one person giving the acting performance of a lifetime, it is a group of people coming together to give a real performance about real events. It is informative and lets you realize how hard investigative journalism can be. It shows how every cog is important in the machine. No one will be nominated for anything outside of supporting roles, because not even Michael Keaton is the “true” star. Sure he is the easiest to put in that position, but it definitely feels like something more than one individual.

Spotlight is a wonderful film that decided to get details right and tell the truth. Sure, this was all 14 years ago, but like most scandals, the people really only heard the headlines and not the details and specifics. I won’t be mad if Spotlight wins Best Picture, I just personally found four movies this year to be a bit better.

Sure, after reading my Spotlight blurb, you might find this and the next few placements a bit strange. After all, unlike Spotlight, they are most known for incredible acting performances. But I’d argue they have more than that, they have the whole package as well. This is true for all movies on the list as I gave them all perfect scores.

But let’s talk about Steve Jobs. No not fucking Jobs, that movie was technically bad despite above average acting from Ashton Kutcher. Steve Jobs features one of two incredible acting performances from Michael Fassbender this year, with the other being Macbeth. Unlike Macbeth, you can actually understand this whole movie and the dialogue is the strong point, not the weak point.

Some people may not like Aaron Sorkin‘s writing style of quick rapid fire banter, but those people just have to accept being wrong. The film is like an orchaestra and a war zone of words, displaying in full glory the asshole that Jobs was to his friends, family, and coworkers. And even though every aspect of this film and almost every camera angle is directed at Fassbender, the supporting actors also give top notch performances, especially Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels.

This biography, that includes fictionalized events, gets to the hearts of the real people involved and truly showcases human emotion.

The Revenant is a perfect storm of parts coming together to make a masterpiece.

First of all, the director is of course Alejandro González Iñárritu, who recently won Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture for Birdman. We have Leonardo DiCaprio, always the bridesmaid and never the bride when it comes to winning Best Actor. There is Tom Hardy, who had the acting year of his life, as you saw above and didn’t see above with Legend. And last but not least, Emmanuel Lubezki, who won Best Cinematography the last two years with Birdman and Gravity.

Yeah, they were going for something great. And thankfully, this 2.5 hour epic is something worthy and marvelous, especially on the big screen. Leo does a big part in this and I fully believe he deserves the Best Actor award this year. If not him, then look above at Fassbender. They are the only acceptable winners.

I hope Tom Hardy also gets some love as a support, but that category is stacked this year.

The Revenant is beautiful and a bit awe inspiring at times. It is truly a film created by people who take heart in their craft with every bit and piece working to perfection. It is a movie I worry won’t feel truly as amazing on my TV at home, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still one of the best of the year.

Room is a hard film to describe and praise, but given its surprise position on this list, I guess I have to try.

I originally avoided Room just thinking it’d be some family romance movie from the cover alone. Of course I was wrong. It is a serious drama/thriller. In fact, the subject matter is so strong that those with especially weak hearts and given today’s culture, I am surprised that it wasn’t splattered with trigger warnings before the first scene.

Room features two very strong acting performances, not just from Brie Larson who is totally going to win Best Actress, but also from Jacob Tremblay, who plays the kid.

And since the movie is basically from his point of view, it allows the movie to remain vague on many of the harsher elements. This allows the viewer to fill in the blanks and jump to their own conclusions, without being spoon fed the answers. It assumes the audience is paying attention, which not a lot of films care about.

Room is a hard movie to sit through, but one that is worth it for all the great elements around it.

I saw a trailer for The Big Short before Steve Jobs and didn’t care that much. But alas, people told me that it had Oscar buzz and it was supposed to be a big deal, so I reluctantly bought a matinee ticket two days before Christmas to check it out. And I was blown away.

Much like Spotlight, this movie involves a lot of actors working together to do some of their best work. The film’s biggest leads are Christian Bale and Steve Carell, and although they don’t meet in the film at all, their prescense is felt throughout it, especially Carell. It is well acted and based on a true story.

I can’t attest to how true the movie version is, but they call themselves out when they do something bullshitty, so it seems truthful. More importantly though is it takes a real, very confusing event that affected the entire world and did a pretty damn good job trying to explain it. It made me angry and pissed off at banks and was way more effective than what a documentary could have done. The Big Short makes me want to go out and change the world, so it left me with some of the strongest emotions of any film this year.

It might not be the big winner, but this year it is the big winner of my heart and mind.

And there you have it! The best of the best. Did I leave off anything you think should have been up here? Do you disagree with anything at all? Am I the stupidest person ever? Be sure to let me know and yell obscenities while doing it!

Few fun notes:

No super hero films made the list this year.
Only one animated film, last year had two.
Still only one musical like last year.
No straight horrors made the list this year, although there were a few thrillers.
And most likely my top movie this year will not win Best Picture like the last three before it.

I could have seen Room months ago, in October. I didn’t. I didn’t know what Room was about. I just knew it was based on a book, maybe a thriller, maybe a romance. Who knows.

I didn’t know I had made a mistake. I didn’t know that choosing Burnt over Room would put me in an awkward situation for months. Mostly because I didn’t know Room would only be a limited release. So despite eventually wanting to see it, knowing just what it was about with rewards hype, I found it an hour and a half away from my home. Too far just for a film.

So I apologize to the entire cast and crew. How dare I slight them for Burnt. How dare I delay my end of the year best of list for a film very hard to find.

In the future, I will make sure I make movie watching choices based on the number of locations the film is shot in. The lesser, the better.

I will only watch “bottle movies” from now on.

Seven years. That is how long Ma (Brie Larson) has been living in Room. She was 17. A high school track star. And she was also a super nice person, and would help strangers. And that landed her in Room.

Oh, and now it is Jack (Jacob Tremblay), her son’s, fifth birthday. Do the math. Yes, you figured it out correctly. Jack has only known Room. A couple chairs, a bed with his Ma, a closet, and this guy, Old Nick (Sean Bridgers). He comes in most nights and Jack has to sleep in the closet while he is there and sharing a bed with Ma. Jack doesn’t know a lot about Old Nick, but Old Nick gives them food and supplies.

Ma doesn’t want to be in the room. She had many years outside the room and knows the reality of her situation. Jack has only known Room. The idea of anything else is scary and wrong and can’t be true. If Ma doesn’t get him out, at least to save her boy, he might grow up and never be a sane kid.

Can she? Will she get out? And if she does or he does, how will they be able to go on with their life? The world is very different and most people would have assumed Ma to be dead and not even know about Jack’s existence.

Also with roles by Joan Allen, William H. Macy, and Tom McCamus.

William H. Macy plays the role of the egg shell snake, of course.

Oh Brie Larson. I haven’t seen a lot of your work, for sure. You were a side character in Scott Pilgrim, and Tanner Hall was pretty average. But then you were in Short Term 12 and I realized you had some acting chops.

And then Room happened, and I, and everyone who saw it, was completely blown away.

Now, obviously it wasn’t Larson working alone to deliver an amazing performance. The script/plot and directing had to allow her to shine and this film offers the full wonderful movie package. Acting, directing, dialogue, plot. Hell, even the make up was on point, when it comes to the way they looked being locked in a room for so long. And guess what? Little Jacob Tremblay does an incredible job as well. There is lots of talk about Larson being nominated for Best Actress (and I am officially here saying she will win it for this), but Tremblay is also someone who deserves just as much praise.

I don’t know if they are trying, but if so, they will probably push him towards Supporting Actor despite being slightly more of a main character than Larson. Go big or go home. I won’t say he would win Best Actor if nominated, just that his performance is worthy of losing to Leonardo DiCaprio this year.

Room is a fantastic movie. One of the years best. And yes, it makes me want to read the book. Well done movie. Well done.

Did you see Margin Call? No? Well, it had a pretty big cast of actors! I mean, Stanley Tucci was in it, so you should see it. That is why I wanted to watch all the Hunger Games movies, but he only had one damn scene in the last one, and it wasn’t even good.

I ended up really enjoying it and found it informative. I didn’t think I was an expert on the financial collapse that America had experienced, but I got the vibe behind it all and understood that something like that could happen.

Needless to say, I didn’t expect more movies about the collapse. Then The Big Short came along. And I didn’t know what to expect. But here is a hint.

Anchorman. Anchorman 2. The Other Guys. Talladega Nights. Step Brothers. Sure, all of these have Will Ferrell in common, but they are also directed by Adam McKay.

Sure, he has directed some TV shows and shorts and random things, but that list was literally every movie he has ever directed. Up til The Big Short. Can a guy who is BFF’s with Ferrell, make a movie serious enough about the economic collapse, easy to understand, and good, without any Ferrell at all?

Don’t worry, we have mature Gosling to make the women and men swoon instead.

Back to the crisis. Our story starts in 2005, with one man. Michael Burry (Christian Bale). He is a socially awkward guy, with a fake eye. He had a wealthy inheritance, so he took it to wall street to make his own small investment firm. And you know what he wants to put over a billion of dollars? Into the mortgage market.

Mortgages are safe, everyone pays them, and only people who can pay them end up getting them. That idea has made bankers rich since the 1970s, thanks to something called Mortgage Backed Securities, MBS. The banks loan out hundreds of mortgages in one lump sum to many homes, and when they are that big, they can make some sweet interest and that gets them rich. More or less. But banks got greedy. They started renting to riskier and riskier people. So the chance of these large funds crashing, creating very bad scenarios, is actually getting higher but no one seems to notice.

Except for Burry. He wants to “short” the MBS funds. More or less, that means he is betting against them. He is loaning money to banks, like Goldman Sachs, and paying a monthly premium on it. He is letting them have that money, until these MBS’s break and he will get his money back multiplied many times over. He is the first guy to do something like this and most people think he is insane, but he looked at the numbers.

But there were more players. Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) is our narrator, and actually works for Deutsche Bank. He finds out about the Burry deal and tries to get more people to follow suit, believing in him and working to get some profit on the side as well. He ends up talking to Mark Baum (Steve Carell), operator of a hedge fund, who crusades against all the bull shit on wall street, and sets out to find just how corrupt this whole thing is.

Also, Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock), two Denver boys who grew their own money to 30 million, who see this as an opportunity to finally make it to the big leagues.

We have a ton of people in this movie, including Marisa Tomei, Brad Pitt, Adepero Oduye, Hamish Linklater, Jeremy Strong, Rafe Spall, Jeffry Griffin, Max Greenfield, Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez and Anthony Bourdain.

The man who drums at his desk and doesn’t wear a suit, predicted the downfall of American economy.
This is why I choose to wear shorts as well.

I honestly didn’t think much about this movie before seeing it. I saw the trailer once before Steve Jobs, was intrigued by the cast, but then forgot about it. And hey, I like some of McKay’s films a lot. I just didn’t have any faith with this topic.

Well, fuck me, I was wrong, and this movie was really fucking good. Star to finish, it captivated me about wall street fucking over America.

The acting was on point from all points, especially with Carrell and Bale as power houses. Pitt was very subtle in this film, similar to his role in 12 Years A Slave. But even better about these roles is that no single person was really the main character. The main character was the housing bubble and banks lying to America.

Were these people bad for profiting off the downfall of the World Economy? Sure, kind of. That is morally grey. Because it shows that some of them tried to tell everyone the problem with the numbers, tried to do something about the collusion, but were laughed right in their faces. Even if they wanted to warn everyone, no one would listen because the vast majority of people didn’t understand how any of it worked and were lied too constantly.

This movie made me ANGRY. I felt rage at what was going on, only eight years ago. I am mad that nothing has really changed. I am mad that no one got punished for it and that so many people got fucked over. I am mad that this movie is also a comedy, and that I gained so much amusement at something that ended up being so terrible.

And that is what a great movie can do. It can make you feel things. The Big Short is funny and anger inducing, while also taking a very complicated subject and making one feel like they understand it. I feel like I totally understand everything that happened now and it was something I never really thought about before. The Big Short is good enough that I feel like I could watch it every few months and still enjoy it and still feel those same emotions.

The Big Short wants me to almost get political and start shouting at rich people. One of the years best.

I may be the only one excited about this film.

I heard about Chi-Raq a few months ago, and like most people, I assumed it would be some sort of Iraq spiritual movie. Chi. Get it?

No, it is Chicago. Okay, a movie comparing the violence and unrest in Chicago to Iraq. After all, Spike Lee is directing it, and that sounds like something right up his alley.

But nothing I have said should make me excited about the film. I hate Chicago (Hockey reasons), and I’ve only seen like three of his films: He Got Game, Inside Man, and of course, the shitty Oldboy remake. However, it is also a modern retelling of the Greek play Lysistrata. As an Ancient History major on my spare time, and lover of Greek plays, the idea became immediately intriguing and something I knew I had to see.

SLJ wearing snazzy suits was reason number 2.

Chicago, the land of death. More people have been murdered in that one city than the American deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan since the wars have started. That should be a big deal, but it is ignored. That is why residents of the South Side have started to call it Chi-Raq, because it is a war zone out there and every body is dying.

In this fictionalized version of the city, the war is between two main gangs, the Spartans (purple) and the Trojans (orange). The leader of the Spartans is a rapper, whose stage name also happens to be Chi-Raq (Nick Cannon, don’t get lost on me yet), who people love. The leader is of the Trojans is a guy nicknamed Cyclops (Wesley Snipes), who only has one eye of course and a sexy studded eye patch.

But they aren’t the stars. No. Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris), the most attractive woman in Chi-Raq who also happens to be dating Chi-Raq. They will make beautiful babies some day. But Lysistrata starts to get tired of all the gang violence. She has to watch a mother grieve (Jennifer Hudson) over her dead 6 year old daughter who was accidentally hit during a drive by. She has to live with the fact that her boyfriend might have done it. And thanks to the same sage advice from a neighbor, Miss Helen (Angela Bassett), she realizes she has her own weapon that she can use to sway public opinion.

Yeah. We are talking about her body. No peace? No pussy. Lysistrata gathers her friends (Anya Engel-Adams, and more) and gets with Indigo (Michelle Mitchenor), the main lady friend of Cyclops. She wants them to put their differences aside and fight for change. They don’t allow any sex until the gang violence is over. They will get all the women in Chi-Raq involved. They will even get the prostitutes. They are doing it to protect the babies and their future. And hell, fuck it. They want World Peace, while they are it. And to prove their point, they also will take over a national guard armory in their city to show they fucking mean business. By not fucking.

Sex.

Also starring a lot more dudes. Harry Lennis is the police chief, D.B. Sweeney the mayor, David Patrick Kelly a general, John Cusack the main local priest, Steve Harris the leader of the Knights of Euphrates, Dave Chappelle a strip club owner, and Samuel L. Jackson our narrator and in the “Chorus” role.

Booty booty booty booty rockin’ nowhere.

Spike Lee might have out Spike Lee’d himself, as Chi-Raq is potentially the Spike Lee-iest thing he has ever created. It is so out there and original while being a modern retelling of a Greek play. It is amazing that I can say something like that and it totally make sense in the context in the film.

A majority of the dialogue in this film flows like poetry, complete with rhyming words and just being so fucking smooth. It was full of music and full of style. I want to have a copy of the script immediately, just to read some of the word again. I will buy this movie in the future and always watch it with subtitles, just to get the full impact and appreciate the cleverness of it all.

I hope beyond everything that Teyonah Parris gets nominated for a Best Actress award for this film. She owned the shit out of it, her presence on camera made you always focus on her and she nailed it. Some people might write off this film as just some “Sex movie” but it is a sex appeal film and not just one giant soft core porno. Parris is not afraid of anything from this film, tackling the hard subject matter in all the different ways.

Chi-Raq has all the same messages from Dear White People, but in a way that strangely makes it more relatable (not on a college campus). It is also incredibly modern, including references to every Black male shot that made political news, but also the Charleston shootings (which was in June this year) and Sandra Bland (July this year). Typing it makes me realize how long ago that was technically, I could have swore they were only two months ago. But eh, still modern as shit.

Original. Fun. Serious. Spike Lee.

I love journalism movies. You may not know it, but I used to be a journalist. Yes, sure, 99% of my articles were reviews for a few papers, but damn it, I worked in the newsroom, I discussed articles occasionally, and I wrote at least one article on my own about a non movie thing.

But you know what is even sexier than journalism? Investigative journalism! You know, the journalism that requires investigations! Weeks to months to potentially years of digging around, looking for scoops, talking to witnesses, etc. That is like modern detective work, but where the pay is shit and you are only working for the greater good (or whatever).

Movies like All The President’s Men and Shattered Glass are examples of interesting or even great films that go through the real life process. Maybe some dramatization, but damn it, the facts are there! Spotlight is a new film, also about true events, and about the team that brought them to the public.

You can tell they are a real newspaper because they are actually working and not throwing footballs around.

The year is 2001! Don’t worry, September hasn’t happened yet. It is just summer time. You can tell it is a different time and place by the giant ass AOL billboard in the film. In Boston, life is pretty damn normal. People work, people go to church, people get drunk, eyyyyy Bawston. The Boston Globe is like a lot of other papers, they are worried about the internet taking away a lot of their jobs and trying to change things up. So they bring in this single, Jewish guy from Miami, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber). He is not a Bostonian, however a lot of the paper happens to be from the area. This really gives them a sense of purpose and makes them think they are helping their community, so they are worried about a non Catholic outsider coming in and doing bad things.

And guess what he wants to do? He wants to…make sure the paper matters for the community. Oh okay, that sounds good. But he wants to also do some follow ups on a story he read about. Some priest had apparently been molesting kids for years, but the paper only ran a couple articles on him. He wants follow up and research. So he puts the Spotlight crew on it. A four person team who does the longer projects on it. Lead by Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson (Michael Keaton) who has been with the paper forever, he also has on his team Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), and Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy James).

But can they really do that? Can they (what most people would see it as) wage war on the church? They all grew up Catholic and have that culture ingrained in their subconscious? Could it really be a bigger issue and something everyone just turned a blind eye towards?

Also featuring James Sheridan, Billy Crudup, Neal Huff, John Slattery, and Stanley Tucci.

This was definitely not a real scene from the film, but boy is it convenient to showcase the actors.

When the credits began to role, I had the biggest investigative journalism movie boner ever. That shouldn’t sound graphic or surprising, because that is an oddly specific thing to say and thus doesn’t mean a lot.

I wanted to go out, quit my job (hah!) and become a journalist again to save the world from bad people. I wanted to call strangers and find out information. I wanted to jostle notes on a small pad of paper while people talked. Oh okay, I technically already do that during movies, but I want to be able to do it when I can also see the paper well and not in a dark room.

Spotlight is a unique story where everyone knows how it will end, but the journey is so fascinating that it still can keep the tense moments. Sure, we know the article gets published, but you can still let out a small fist bump when everything finally comes together, happy that justice and journalism finally win despite the enormous pressures to fail. This is some of the best acting I’ve seen from Ruffalo, Keaton, and Schreiber. Maybe second best for all three. I think they are better in Infinitely Polar Bear, Birdman, and Goon, respectfully.

If there is any weak point in this film, it has to be Slattery. His character just felt like he was a cartoon, being a weird sometimes foil, sometimes not, maybe bad guy, maybe not. It was frustrating with little to no payout.

But outside of that, go see Spotlight, go see some sexy reporting, and damn it, support your local paper.

Writing a review without pictures would be like talking about Mark Ruffalo and not making a Hulk reference. You can’t do it.

Hulk had two personalities, regular, and rage. Mark Ruffalo in real life probably also has two personalities, something lame like celebrity and normal.

And in Infinitely Polar Bear? Well, I am not sure of the actual number, but they are all on his sleeve, all at the same time.

Fuck, he is already halfway into full on Hulk mode already. THE REVIEW HASN’T EVEN BEGUN RUFFALO.

Cameron (Mark Ruffalo) and Maggie (Zoe Saldana) had a picture perfect free spirited life. Except Cameron was found out to be Bipolar. It made a lot of sense, but they didn’t let that get in the way. They had two wonderful kids, Amelia (Imogene Wolodarsky) and Faith (Ashley Aufderheide). They were loving and awesome.

But eventually, Maggie couldn’t take it anymore. Cameron was getting too out there, too unsettled and she had to separate with the kids to be away from him. Cameron got put into a mental health hospital to get his life back on track. And now? It is awhile later. Cameron wants to visit and be with his kids and be with his wife, but she can’t allow it. The problem is they are very poor. She had been lying about their house location to get them into a good school, but after that has been “corrected” they find themselves in bad housing and going to a shitty school. So Maggie wants to get an MBA to make their life better.

The problem is that she’d have to go to NYC to do it because she can stay at a friend’s apartment for free. So she has to reconnect with Cameron. You know, so he can be a full time dad, watching them every day of the week for a year and a half on his own. Sure she’d visit on some weekends, but for the most part, he will have to be a responsible individual. And hey, after a year and a half, she will move back and maybe they can all work things out and be a wonderful family that isn’t on the poverty line.

Sure, why not, he can be responsible for other lives. On his own. To make things weirder, Cameron is actually part of a really rich family. It is just all in a trust owned by his Grandma (Beth Dixon) who gives away money from it, sure, but she is very stingy about it. So they get to be poor, while his family own mansions.

Strangely enough, if he transforms in the car, the car doesn’t lose any value.

Ruffalo was the emotional equivalent of a typhoon in this picture. Yes, I could have just made another Hulk reference but that would be lazy. He was all over the place, always energetic and hyper. Just sometimes he was loving life, sometimes he was yelling curses at little kids. Good family fun.

I generally don’t like learning about mental disorders from films, as they tend to over exaggerate the disease and show the most extreme versions. I always assumed being bipolar just meant someone changed from happiness to sadness real quick like. I was also turned off by the film title, it was weird and nonsensical but it makes a bit more sense now. Ruffalo isn’t bipolar. That is only two! He is infinitely polar. And a bear. Maybe they made that joke in the film and I missed it.

I should talk more about Ruffalo. He fucking wrecked this role. He smashed it. Argh I can’t stop. The references, it makes me so mad! Watching Ruffalo was a delight though. Every scene had a sense of charm and love around it, like they were a real, fucked up family.

A fucked up family. Like one that would introduce Gamma rays to their son, accident or otherwise. Damn it. Just watch the movie.

Buy It! – This movie is available now on {Blu-Ray} and {DVD}.

Few people are lucky enough to have a film be made on their life. For the most part, they have to wait til they are both dead and a decade or so after they kick the bucket. Obviously, some people wait hundreds of years, because they are old famous people and movies weren’t a thing in the 1600s.

Steve Jobs is a luckier than most men (outside of the being dead from Cancer thing). He had two movies about his life in the last two years! And he only died four years ago! Not only does he have Jobs and now Steve Jobs, he also had quite a few documentaries.

It is clear that Steve was a living legend who had tons of stories about him. It is true that he was a flawed character with a lot of issues, problems, and broken friendships. But he also did a lot of good things, so this makes him an interesting character for people to want to see.

Now, this movie was delayed for awhile. Blame Ashton Kutcher. But at a time, this was supposed to be directed by David Fincher and starring Christian Bale. The script was always Aaron Sorkin I believe.

I believe that Seth Rogen can play a character who doesn’t get high at all. I believe it so much.

1984. 1988. 1998. These 3 years were some of the most pivotal in Steve Jobs’ (Michael Fassbender) life. There were tons of big moments before and after of course. Before that he helped build a computer with Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) and helped create Apple into a powerhouse corporation. There was the failed computer the Lisa. After 1998 he introduce the iPod and the iPhone, crazy popular Apple products in our current era.

But in 1984 he was about to introduce the Macintosh computer, after the best Super Bowl Ad ever. Sure he came to the team late, but he is a visionary damn it. In 1988 he was going to release the NEXT computer, a perfect cube, away from Apple due to the falling out after the Macintosh. And in 1998, his triumphant return to Apple, about to release the iMac computer. He wanted to make the products sexy again. That may have been a line from Jobs, whoops.

Each setting of the film, each roughly the same length in time, takes place the the minutes before his press conference, with all the drama and tension of his life coming together to fuck with him. That includes Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston), a former lover who always needs more money from him, to take care of the daughter he originally doesn’t claim to be his. It also involves an Apple CEO, John Sculley (Jeff Daniels). There is Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg), one of the better computer engineers, and Avie Tevanian (Adam Shapiro) a different engineer. His ever faithful assistant/planner Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet), a tech reporter (John Ortiz), and of course his daughter, Lisa (Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo, Perla Haney-Jardine).

I didn’t remention Wozniak, but he is totally hanging around each time too. But I kept the above vague so you could hear the major players but not the many of their plot lines. Because I care and I am not an asshole CEO, like some people.

“How big is my metaphorical penis you ask?”

I am a big fan of Sorkin’s writing. The dialogue between characters is often quick and forces me to stay on my toes. Several times in the film, standing on my toes didn’t seem to be good enough. The conversations at point were so rapid fire that I practically had to dance to avoid the bullets from striking my legs, like a western stereotype. I think that metaphor works, if not, re-read it and think harder. The best way to describe some of these scenes would be an intense action fight, with words as bullets. I rarely feel that tense during a drama, let alone a biography.

The acting was definitely on point in this film. This is some of Rogen’s best work. Daniels had one majorly great scene with Fassbender. Stuhlbarg? I don’t know anything about Stuhlbarg, but he did a great job. I didn’t even recognize Winslet the whole film, that’s how in character and different she was. And of course, Fassbender. Early on, it just looked like Fassbender acting in a film, but somehow during the movie, he transformed so fully into Steve Jobs that I couldn’t remember who was the main actor. Of course by the end he looks so much like Jobs that it is easy, but I am talking before that, when he still had longer hair. He nailed the shit out of the role.

For comparison sakes, Kutcher did a great job as Jobs too. He had a walk, he went fully into character, but I usually thought it was still just Kutcher. But Fassbender still did a better job. And besides, I saw Fassbender’s penis in that one movie, so for most comparisons he is sure to win.

A lot of this is highly fabricated. The plot lines are real, but there is no way the timing worked for most of this. Regardless, where it excelled was how true to life they made his character. Jobs was egotistical, a know-it-all-, an asshole and a dick. He wasn’t the most pleasant person to work with and that all came across in the film. This wasn’t some fluff piece. This just tried to present the man behind the myth, flaws and perfections and everything in between.

One final comparison: This is not as good as The Social Network. Sorkin is the common link between the two, and the fact that they are both based on real people. I am not saying Fincher is the reason and that Danny Boyle could not pull off a better movie. It was fine, and even if Fincher directed this it probably wouldn’t have been as good. Just don’t go in expecting that and you should enjoy the show.