#script from silence 2016 by scorsese

[boundsoffateandfamily]

SOMETHING ABOUT MISSING FATHERS supernatural 1.09 home // silence (2016) script // supernatural 2.22 all hell breaks loose // the only thing, sufjan stevens // supernatural 1.18 something wicked // "the boy", marie howe // supernatural 2.01 in my time of dying // "a list of waters", bryce emley

[letterboxd]

Life in Film: Daniel Scheinert.

The Death of Dick Long director Daniel Scheinert (of “the Daniels”) talks stressful comedy, the South and Richard Linklater as he answers our life-in-film questionnaire.

Daniel Scheinert made a splash on the indie-movie scene in 2016 with the surreal and crude Swiss Army Man, alongside directing partner Dan Kwan. For his second feature with A24—and first away from the Daniels—Scheinert returns to his Southern roots with The Death of Dick Long.

Set in small-town Alabama, the story follows bandmates Zeke and Earl doing everything they can to avoid having to explain how their friend Dick Long died the night before. Billy Chew wrote the script, and Scheinert broke out in a nervous sweat when he read it. “I love comedies that are stressful. I get bored in movie theaters a lot and this was not boring.”

Chew, one of Scheinert’s BFFs, also has professional history with the Daniels: he’s acted in their shorts, and co-directed the interactive documentary The Gleam with Scheinert. “He lived in Alabama for a long time and that’s where I’m from, so I got excited about making his movie while Dan Kwan wrote the first draft of our new movie.”

Sunita Mani and Andre Hyland in ‘The Death of Dick Long’.

That’s right: the Daniels are far from over. It’s just that other-Dan is “not from Alabama so it’s a fun chance to explore the few things that are not in [the Daniels’] Venn diagram of interests. But Dan and I have been busy, we’re still trucking, we’ve got more movies to make.”

Premiering at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival—just as his “arty farty” debut did—The Death of Dick Long is, according to Letterboxd reviews, “pretty bonkers, surprisingly touching, melancholic, and—in certain aspects—relatable,” with “early Coen brothers” vibes in its portrayal of loveable idiots on the run. The best compliment of all for Scheinert? It is “the most Alabama film of all time.”

“With this one I just wanted people who were colorful and interesting, who had Southern roots, because one of my least favorite things is Hollywood actors faking Southern accents. The cast is like a mix of folks who travelled in and there’s a lot of folks around Birmingham, Alabama where I grew up. Sarah Baker, who plays Officer Dudley, is a super-talented pedigree actress who travelled in and did all her scenes with Janelle Cochrane, a local actress who did theater in Birmingham. She plays Sheriff Spenser and that’s just how she acts [in real life].”

Now that The Death of Dick Long is out in the world, one of Scheinert’s favorite things is to pull out his phone and record audience reactions. “I have ten recordings on my phone of different theaters in different parts of America reacting to this movie because it’s fun.” He argues that laughter isn’t the only fun reaction to get out of an audience: “It’s just as fun to get absolute silence if they’re leaning forward and hanging on every word. It’s really fun to get people whispering or gasping or uncomfortably moving around in their seats, and this movie gets all of it combined. It’s rewarding.”

Sarah Baker in ‘The Death of Dick Long’.

Daniel, it’s time for your life-in-film interrogation. What was the film that made you want to become a filmmaker? Daniel Scheinert: Oh man. It was the show Jackass. I think there’s a whole generation of filmmakers who saw Jackass and were like “you just filmed your friends doing stuff and that’s content?!” My favorite movies look like they were fun to make, which I feel is true of all of Spike Jonze’s stuff too.

What’s a bizarre movie that you recommend to everyone? Not to everybody, but this year I’ve been telling people to see Greener Grass, which is a bat-shit crazy movie that a bunch of comedians shot over in Georgia that just is a crazy satire of nuclear families.

Since Hallowe’en is coming up, what’s your favorite scary movie? White Chicks. So scary. I think their white faces are the scariest monsters in movie history. I don’t watch it every Hallowe’en but that’s one of my favorite scary movies.

Which dark comedies and crime movies did you watch in preparation for The Death of Dick Long? I rewatched episodes of Breaking Bad because I love how information is revealed in that show. It’s fun and colorful and vivid. Billy and I rewatched American Movie, which is one of our all-time favorites about buddies. That egotistical guy who just wants to make his goddamn movie, wilfully ignorant of the trainwreck of his life, is so relatable. A while ago I made Billy watch The Celebration with me, which is… some people would call it a drama, but I think it’s one of the funniest movies ever. It’s a European film about a 60th birthday party going horribly, horribly wrong.

‘The Death of Dick Long’ director Daniel Scheinert.

Which film do you think best represents people from the Southern states? I love that question and I was having a hard time coming up with one. Last year I watched Hale County This Morning, This Evening. It’s an arthouse documentary about rural, black, Southern life. I grew up near there and I had never seen the images from that movie [on screen]. Some of them were very familiar but some of them were not.

What’s your go-to comfort movie? The one you re-watch every year, you’re down to watch any time (and how many times do you think you’ve seen it)? It’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I’ve probably seen it start-to-finish like twelve times. I watch pieces of it and listen to the soundtrack all the time. Or Wet Hot American Summer. Similar number—maybe twelve.

What film do you have fond memories of watching with your parents? That was a fun question. Probably, Airplane!. I watched Jackass 2 with my dad and he laughed so much, it was really fun. He’s a very serious man, until he’s not.

What’s a classic that you just couldn’t get into? Would you call High Fidelity a classic? The “guy moping about his ex-girlfriend” genre is just rough for me. Maybe I’ll try it again someday but High Fidelity, man, is tough.

[Daniel later sent us Billy Chew’s answer: Gone With the Wind. “He hates it. I've never seen it. But you look back and it’s a super-problematic celebration of the good ol’ days before the Civil War. Fuck that.”]

Do you have a classic that you’re embarrassed to say you haven’t watched? So many. I missed some Martin Scorsese movies. I’ve never seen Raging Bull. I know. I was talking about this the other day, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Back to the Future Part II from start-to-finish. I think I’ve seen pieces of it on TV. Dan Kwan is a super-fan. I don’t know if I’ve seen [the first Back to the Future] either. That’s embarrassing. I always wail on time-travel movies and I haven’t even watched these.

Which film was your entry point to foreign-language cinema? I don’t know if Miyazaki counts because they dubbed Princess Mononoke so it’s probably Amélie. Actually, as a kid I was obsessed with the black-and-white Godzilla movies, and I would watch all of them, subtitled. I’d invite my friends over and they would get bored while I would get so excited about that monster smashing those cities.

Virginia Newcomb in ‘The Death of Dick Long’.

What movie scene makes you cry the hardest? It’s Freedom Writers. Anything with inner-city kids expressing themselves just strikes me out, and while that movie is not perfect, once the kids start reading their poems and their stories to the class, I just lost it. Later I found out that Richard LaGravenese, who made that movie, cast real kids and had them tell their real stories, so that’s probably why it hit me so hard. It wasn’t just a screenwriter.

What director do you envy the most? I always talk about this because my answer is Richard Linklater. As a kid, I wanted to find a filmmaker who I could look up to. I needed to find one who made multiple good movies because I want a whole career, so that shortened the list. But then also I needed filmmakers who are not assholes and that cut the list way down because you find out all your heroes are assholes. And then I needed to find people who were also good parents, you know? Because so many filmmakers are divorced or don’t see their families, and basically it just [came] down to Richard Linklater.

What’s a film that you wish you had made? Let me think. What’s that movie, I always forget the name, where he’s getting out of the limousine? It’s an arthouse film with, uh. [Daniel starts googling]. It’s French… Holy Motors! You ever seen Holy Motors? It’s a batshit crazy movie starring Denis Lavant. He’s just the best. It’s just him getting in and out of a limousine and wandering through a bunch of absurdist short films with each one zany in a different way.

What’s the best film of the decade, in your opinion? That’s a tough one. It’s probably Moonlight. I love Moonlight so much. For me, it opened up empathy I didn’t know I had. After the third act of that film, I felt I grew as a person. My other answer, I googled it, is not this decade but it came out in the last ten years, is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It’s just a perfect film. So I’m a super-fan of Moonlight and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

A24 is held in incredibly high regard—both in the industry and by the Letterboxd community—for the sheer quality of its output. As a filmmaker, what is the day-to-day experience of being in their camp like? I feel spoiled. Half of my favorite movies I go to see and I go “Oh man, that’s the logo in front of my movie!” I got to meet a handful of the other filmmakers, which I feel so fortunate to have done. They’re such a hands-off company in a really cool way. I just feel like I got to make my movie and they just trusted me. They’re not helicopter parents.

‘The Death of Dick Long’ is distributed by A24 and in US cinemas now.

[keramalusundeep]

‘KABALI’ PEAKED AT THE TRAILER. HERE’S WHY

First of all, I don’t do movie reviews. I am the guy who just watches a movie and then maybe talks about it during lunch at work to avoid awkward silences. So, why am I writing this review about a movie I watched a half hour ago? Because you know, how sometimes when you have a near death experience, your perspectives change and suddenly you want to do all this good in life, save lives, be a better person? Yeah, I am in that zone right now. I have been hit by something powerful. And it’s time to share it with the rest of my species.

Two months before today, I accidentally came across the trailer of Kabali on YouTube. I was immediately arrested by the killer original soundtrack for the movie. That’s where it had begun, for me.

Every time I watched the trailer at home, I’d go on and on to my wife about how I would not miss this movie. I don’t know why I had suddenly become such an aggressive fan of Rajinikanth. My mom was always a diehard fan, though. Two decades ago, I stumbled upon a large biology drawing book that had cut-out pictures and childlike hand-drawn sketches of him at my house in Bangalore. The book belonged to my mother. When I confronted her, she said that she was supposed to get rid of that book after marriage, but somehow it had come along with her. Super jealous of the superstar, my father would often mock Rajinikanth. I don’t blame him. He was just an ordinary South Indian man born in a conservative family. He is well educated and open-minded, yes, but he is still a man. I mean, when my wife used to look at Jason Momoa’s buttocks in Game of Thrones, I would run to the bedroom and do 50 squats and come out like I was all chill.

When you watch a Rajinikanth film, you better go to a local theatre. Not the multiplex ones where one is too shy to even release a silent fart. No, go to a local theatre. The kind where women best not venture. That’s the kind of place where you will know what it is like to be a Rajini fan.

In these theatres, as the lights dim, a new wave of energy crackles to life. Whistles, throat-burning screaming, firecrackers, shirtless dancing on seats. The entire room becomes a five-dimensional stimulation ride. Your seats rock. The walls vibrate. You smell smoke. It’s exhilarating to witness the madness, but deafening and annoying beyond a point as you can’t hear shit. Because from the time Rajini’s name pops up in the opening credits till the interval (where the fans begin to get a little tired), it’s a war zone. You would be lucky if you came out of the theatre entirely unbroken.

When you are watching a Rajinikanth movie, there is a 3000% chance that you will see something superhuman. Death-defying. Nonconforming to every law of nature. But you tell your mind to hush. During a Rajinikanth movie, only his fans can make a sound. If you are a non-fan and say something mocking, well, leave the address to your coffin.

Well, this time, I watched the film in a multiplex. Families and kids. So even if I had said something, I probably wouldn’t have got my ass whooped. Still, I watched quietly and saved everything for my keyboard. So now I’m going to spill my shit out. Here, I am Spartacus. Unyielding. Veracious.

Being 2016, being Kabali, being Rajini, you’d think, mafia being the spine of the story, it’d have all the beef in the universe to make Martin Scorsese take note. The opening scene, is the ending scene. When will writers learn that when you are showing Rajinikanth to be the gangster (especially when he is being released from jail), you know for sure that all his enemy gangsters will be dead, no matter what! Keep a little surprise, man! Henceforth, I want Santa Claus to write all the scripts for Rajini movies.

The story takes place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It’s a beautiful city. But they decided to show only the dark world. The Tamils. Their dark skin. Their dark labour problems. Their dark mafia. In all of this darkness, the only contrast in the colour palette was the ostentatious bling that these gangstas flaunted from start to finish.

After all these great movies in the West about drugs and gangsters, you’d go on to have this divine hope that the Tamil industry would go easy on making every hero a superhero. But nope. First of all, what kind of a gangster is comfortable with only a handful of business associates who also moonlight as security? I comprehend the fact that it is Rajinikanth and he can take care of himself, but he is old now. Besides, he carries only one gun. Not even an extra magazine!

When you are out of commission for 25 years, don’t you need money when you come back? Don’t you still need to be in business? Apparently, when Rajini is a gangster you don’t need to do gangster business to earn money. You just have it all sorted. Somehow he is able to run a free school for drop outs, drug addicts and ex-gangster kids. The funny part is, he himself is a gangster and hires kids on his team. So the point is that when you are in Kabali’s gangster squad, you don’t need to be rehabilitated, life’s all good.

P.A. Ranjith, before I forget, take this — you suck. You suck big time. Basha, for that time, had so much more swag than you have managed to squeeze out of Kabali. To a gangster, his family is very important. I mean to all of us, families are important. But to a gangster, it’s more of a prestige issue. If a gangster has let his enemy harm his family, it would convey that he is weak, incapable of protecting his own family . . . how then will he protect his business and other people who are dependent on him? But you could have involved his family saga in the movie in such a better way. There was no need for all the flashbacks. You have permanently ruined “once upon a time” for me.

I still cannot digest the fact that the director completely omitted to show us or explain Kabali’s business model. Maybe every time Kabali and his men whimsically went after the villains and delivered some soggy dialogues the producers would give them some candy money? Also, I think Indian movies should stop making the villains troll the hero and his affiliated people with dummy guns. Can’t take that shit anymore. If you want to shoot, just pull that plastic trigger and be done with it. Why do you have so many extras pointing all those useless toy guns at one old guy and still end up getting laid low by his stunt double?

Radhika Apte, who plays Rajini’s wife in the movie is a good actor. However, in this movie, she is a bad actor. When you have a bad script and a dumbass director, even a lion becomes a pig. I was happy to know that she was killed by the villains. Good riddance, I thought that’s what she must have thought. But no, she was brought back from the dead 25 years later and made to run for her life again. What torture, marrying Kabali!

Dhansika has tried to play a version of Rooney Mara in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but the result is extremely unpleasing. The director concluded, perhaps, that if she is a girl and an assassin, she’s got to sport a punk bob cut and a lot of badly done temporary tattoos (which keep drastically changing and moving places). By the way, she is Kabali’s daughter, who he reunites with. Sadly.

What’s with the suit? I thought when you wore a suit, you had the license to kill. Oh, wait a minute! That was 007. In Kabali, if you wore a suit, well, you have the license to get killed.

The villain gangsters are real pussies, I tell you. I can’t fathom why they are so scared of Kabali. He is just a vintage chap with a few old friends who masturbate on the rusted bullets in their guns. Then again, it is Rajini. He can get bin Laden to marry Gandhi if he wanted to.

Movies in the south always thrive on comedy. In Kabali, there is nothing to laugh about. Nothing to cry for. Absolutely nothing to rejoice about. The soundtrack was the only saving grace. The movie was a drab, unsexy 150-minute quest for finding his family, which he could very well have done without us having to sit and watch. I liked the free trailer on YouTube. Not the full movie I spent 200 bucks for. Kabali, no magizhchi for you.

Reminds me of the famous Bruce Lee quote: “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” With all due reverence and respect for you as a great human being, I am afraid, Rajinikanth Sir, we are no longer afraid of your 10,000th kick. You have overdone it. It’s the same kick and it doesn’t give us any kick anymore. I know it’s the directors asking you to do lame stuff, not you per se. However, you could say no to them, yes? Maybe make meaningful cinema? You have earned that. But not the right to disappoint us, after all that hype.

P.S. Watch out for Tony Stark. He makes a sensational cameo.

Photo by Soloman Soh

[grey-house-videos]

Week 3- Lighting and Cinematography

(Image 1) 

Cinematography, is the the art of photographing a moving film, in other words its a way of describing a way of making films that shows off whats in each scene by capturing the film image that the script as required, with help by the director, and as such most of the work for capturing the film is left up to the cinematographer, with this in mind, the cinematographer has a lot of creative freedom when it comes to how the film looks and feels, and the director has a lot of work when it comes to hiring a cinematographer 

When setting a scene, weather it be for film making or photography, lighting is one of, if not, the most important aspect of how one sets a scene up, the lighting can determine how the viewer interpenetrates the image, weather it be positive or negatively, but it can also be used effectively without meaning to fully and effectively light a subject within the frame and create something that looks realistic, or something that looks unnatural and other-worldly. Lighting can be used in a viratity of different ways and with the several key lights that allow for customisation and experimenting, with the lights available. Much of the modern interpretations of lighting in cinema and photography come from how the classic painters used their lighting and why they thought it was important to frame the right subjects in the correct lighting to create mood and atmosphere in an image.   

TASK 1:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00hqprn

In this interview with Martin Scorsese, he talks about the painter Caravaggio and how influential he is to his own movie works, talking about how powerful the images presented on screen are, and how his use in colours or lack there of, and the effective use in composition allows for a shift in subjects, as an example, when Scorsese talks about the “Conversion of Saint Paul” he mentions the use in composition, having the horse “become the image” effectively making the horse the main subject of the painting, rather than having the main subject be Saint Paul, this use in composition to have the audience focus on various different subjects has made its way into many of Scorsese's works 

(Image 2)

(Image 3)

In these two examples, (Image 2 being Scorsese’s film “Silence” 2016) You can see how the use of warm colours and dark harsh shadows have been influenced by the works of Caravagggio- Salome Receives the Head of Saint John the Baptist. The main subjects faces are mostly shrouded in shadow, with only one of the females in Caravaggios works being shown in mostly light, this give the females an almost innocent look to them, whilst the male subjects are shrouded in harsh shadows, giving them a darker, more sinister look to them, which is fitting for the painting, meanwhile in Silence, the main subject is shrouded half and half, fitting the tone of the film, as he’s a priest but also has dark thoughts throughout the film, leading to the climax where he betrays his faith, fitting the image well.

TASK 2: 

when discussing painters, two of the most influential were Rembrant and the aforementioned Caravaggio, and as seen with Scorsese, they can influence people not only in paintings, but also in film and other visual mediums. Taking two different images, one from each of the painters, i’ll analyse them.

(Image 4) 

This image known as the “Wardens of Amsterdam” by Rembrant depicts 6 different subjects, with a mid shot of all the subjects looking into the “camera” at eye level. All the subjects appear to be shown in natural light coming from the left of the “frame” allowing for effective use in shadows in spots, which allows each subject to be differentiated from the background, instead of blending into the background.

The use in framing allows for the painter to get all of the subjects in, as for why the subjects are in this position, it give the audience the impression they’re on trail of sorts, with all the wardens looking directly at you (the viewer) with the lighting giving the scene a more realistic look to it,making the wardens look real and thus the image more chilling.

In a group, we were tasked with retracting an image from both Rembrant and Caravaggio, this is the image we produced

I feel as though we managed to capture the feeling of the image with all the subjects looking directly into the camera, whilst still giving the image that modern look.

The second image is by Caravaggio and the image we chose was:  Martha and Mary Magdalene

In this image, two subjects are sat next to each other, and the image is taken at a mid shot at eye level, with natural lighting filling the frame, this neatly lights both of the subjects and the background allowing all the intricate details of their dresses to come through, whilst also casting Caravaggio's iconic shadows in the background of the painting and even on the faces of the subjects, this is however an exception to Caravaggio's shadows as it doesn't dominate most of the paining and also includes colder colours which is contradictory to how Caravaggio used bleaker and warmer colours in the last few paintings, with this style of lighting the comes a change in the gender of the subjects which in many ways justifies the change in lighting, as it shows off more of the womens beauty whilst in the other paintings, it was more about the detail and the horror of some of the subjects, with “Salome Receives the Head of Saint John the Baptist” being a painting filled with darker shadows and being a darker image in terms of content, they’re both different in that regard, whilst “Salome” was about a gory be-heading, this image is about two women looking into a mirror, which would initiate somewhat of a level of shock, not in a bad way, more of a surprising way as people would then realise that Caravaggio is an artist who can paint beauty as much as he can depict depression and gore

as for a recreation of the image, we decided to change the mirror into a computer, with the original painting in the screen, as if the two characters are looking into the painting, and therefore into the past. After taking the image, i then edited it to have a soft focus look to it, to enhance the feeling of beauty in the image, staying true to the source material, changing Martha from a female to a male was simply the result of limited resources, as there was no other female subjects, however with this, we were able to bring back Caravaggios use in deep dark shadows, as in this image we were able to allow more shadow in on the male subject. 

TASK 3. Jack Cardiff was a British cinematographer who worked on many different films and took inspiration from the works of Rembrandt in how he framed and lit his scenes, in this task, i’ll take some screen shots and comment on how they compare to the paintings that inspired him. There are two main films that I’m going to be looking at, are:

A Matter of Life & Death

Black Narcissus

Starting with A Matter of Life & Death: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj5nopMMSV0

( Image 5) 

This shot from the film shows perfectly the cinematographers influence from Rembrandt and Carravagio, with its heavy use in shadows to keep the mysterious figure hidden in the shadows of the bush, with its use in angles to show the dominate figure in the scene, the angle of the camera making him look bigger than he is, not only to the audience, but also to the main character.

(Image 6) 

Who in this scene is looking up at the figure, and as stated in the last image, the angle effects our perception of the character and the scene as the character now is framed at a high angle making him look smaller than he is. The use in shadows helps the scene out as well, wit it mostly lighting the characters face showing the audience that the rest of the set doesn’t matter and to just focus on the main character. 

Black Narcissus uses its influences in two different ways.

:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZRzcLK1Ar0

(Image 7) 

In this frame, the use in shadows and lighting, bathes the main character in a shadow of the cross, with how the shadow is angled onto the main character, its obvious that the cross is higher up than the main character and again, with the use in angles we can see that the character is beneath the cross, whilst her own lighting shines through the shadows and allows her to fill the frame, the unique use in shadows almost as a reverse from how painters like Rembrandt and Caravaggio painted with the use in shadows not being the main focus of lighting, showing the audience he innocence.  

(Image 8)

In this frame, the character is lit from behind almost creating a glow around her head, this would signify that shes somewhat good natured, however the use in angles and heavy use in shadows tell a different story, with she again being angled from bellow creating a feeling of superiority, whilst the rest of the frame being bathed in deep shadows gives the audience the feeling that she’s sinister motives behind her.

TASK 4. Vermeer and Tom Hunter

Vermeer was a Dutch period painter who mostly focused on portrates and is most famous for the image, Girl with the peal ear ring 

Tom Hunter on the other hand is a Photographer who recreates the images of Vermeer with modern twists, and also manages to change the meaning of these images

In this side by side ( Left: Vermeer's: A Girl Reading At An Open Window. Right: Tom Hunters: Woman Reading a Possession Order ) as stated before, Hunters work is a recreation of Vermeer's painting with a modern twist, this being that instead of a Victorian period house its a somewhat modern looking apartment with vastly different paint, the Victorian room looks regal and somewhat expensive, whilst the apartment looks cheaper and more run down, this adds to the title, of hunters work which changes the simplistic, reading of a letter in Vermeer's work, to a young woman receiving a possession/eviction letter, which adds to the sadness of the photo, along with the fact that the woman has a child which she needs to take care of, more than herself.

[thejacksmit]

First Take: The Irishman- the G.O.A.T is back in business

SYNOPSIS: A mob hitman recalls his possible involvement with the slaying of Jimmy Hoffa.

So here we go. Martin Scorsese is back with his first film since 2016′s Silence, and arguably his biggest mainstream release since Wolf of Wall Street (purely because of the partnership with Netflix). Arguably one of the most anticipated films of 2019, The Irishman has a very big set of expectations- so I am relieved to say that all the hype was indeed justified.

We’re gonna start by talking about the cast, because this is really where this film comes alive. Scorsese has reunited with a lot of his frequent collaborators, and they include Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci (who came out of retirement to make this film), Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel amongst others. All of them have been digitally de-aged, and in De Niro’s case, it is some of the most convincing CG work that has ever been done. Supporting them is a group of heavyweights that is just as legendary, and just as talented- Ray Romano, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham, Bobby Cannavale and Jesse Plemons join the fold to create a cast that can make a film this long worth watching.

Now, tech time. Scorsese directs this one really well, it is the longest film he has ever made, and one of his most expensive films too- all of the money went on the CG needed for a big part of the film, but he turns in a pretty decently paced 3 hours 29 minutes of cinema (although multiple sittings may be required for some viewers) that tells a truly epic story pretty well. It’s adapted from a book called I Heard You Paint Horses, and legendary screenwriter Stephen Zaillan is the man tasked with adapting it- sure, the flashbacks could confuse a modern audience, but it is a damn good script, one which has been refined a fair bit in the 15 years it took Scorsese to get this film made. Rodrigo Prieto is behind the camera, just like the last 2 of Scorsese’s films, Robbie Robertson is on scoring duties, and the unsung hero that is Thelma Schoonmaker is behind the edit... it’s an Avengers tier line-up both on and off screen. Could this be regarded as a masterpiece eventually? If the cinemas had any say, it would be no- because Netflix were involved. But this is pretty damn close to one.

THE VERDICT

Only Scorsese could make a 3 and a half hour film in this day and age, and still make it pretty damn good. It’s a true epic, and with a cast he knows arguably better than anyone else, it is easy to understand why this has been seen as a major awards contender.

RATING: 5/5

[cinematicbydigrazia-en]

Welcome to the Oscars 2017: who will win, who should win. My analysis and guide into the most important night of Hollywood.

We are back for another year of surprises, snubs and, at times, predictable awards. Tonight will be full of fancy dresses, brand new memes and political undertones in every speech of the night. But, in between a beautiful dress and an A-lister falling gracefully in the red carpet, a film will be crowned as the best of 2016 or, at least, Hollywood’s favourite.

I usually make several posts analysing the most important categories with a couple weeks to go before the big awards. But as this year I’ve been busy with some creative work of my own, I am going to try to summarise my usual rant in a single post. So prepare for a long, and hopefully interesting, look into tonight’s show. And if you need tips to fill your ballot, you can always count on me!

 Actor in a Supporting Role

After the surprising turn it took last year when Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) took the coveted award over clear favourite Sylvester Stallone (Creed), it seems this year this may be one of the most predictable categories in this year’s Oscars.

This year, we have three first timers in this category, one of them as young as 20. Alongside them are veterans Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals, one previous nomination) and Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water, 1 Oscar, 5 previous nominations). The awards season has been pretty divided (the Golden Globe went to an actor who wasn’t even nominated to the Oscars: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nocturnal Animals), but there seems to be a clear winner.

Who will win: Marhershala Ali (Moonlight) is the obvious frontrunner. He has won the Critics’ Choice Award and the Actors Guild. And although Dev Patel (Lion) snitched the BAFTA just two weeks ago, it seems Ali is a locked deal for every ballot around the net.

Who should win: Marheshala Ali isn’t only the favourite but, in my opinion, the best out of a bunch of really talented actors. His performance in Moonlight, although brief, was intense, powerful and moving. His character also drove the main character’s growth into the different stages of life.

Among the other nominees, it is worth to mention Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea). Although only 20 years old, newcomer Hedges’ performance was incredible and touching, a great portrait of growing up and dealing with grief.

 Actress in a Supporting Role

A year after the Academy was called out for not nominating any people of colour in the acting categories for two years in a row, it seems it has finally reacted to the heavy criticism. And this is the category with the most diversity this year.

Everyone except Naomie Harris (Moonlight) has already been nominated at least once before. This includes two actresses who have already been winners: Nicole Kidman (nominated this year for Lion) and Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures). Viola Davis (Fences) is a third time nominee and Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea), a four timer. 

Who will win: Viola Davis has this award in the bag. She has won big during the whole season: Golden Globe, BAFTA, Actors’ Guild, Critics’ Choice. It’d be a real upset if anyone else won. No one is even considering another possibility.

Who should win: Viola Davis has been playing incredible roles for years, both on TV and on film. After not winning for The Help in 2012 (film for which her category buddy Octavia Spencer did win), it is only right she wins for her amazing performance in Fences. Her portrayal is emotional and raw, difficult to find in cinema nowadays.

My personal favourite, though, had to be the incredible Naomie Harris in Moonlight. Her performance was, as Viola’s, raw and deep. However, Michelle Williams’ intensity was probably, and regrettably, the thing I liked the least about an otherwise beautiful film.

 Actor in a Leading Role

This may be the closest race of the night. Once a clear win for Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Denzel Washington (Fences) has sneaked into the predictions in the last few weeks and seems to be ready to win.

Although the race is clearly a 50/50 in between those two actors, months ago it seemed like nominee Ryan Gosling (La La Land) also had a chance. Unfortunately, his Golden Globe winning in January deflated and it seems it will be the film that takes the awards, not him. First time nominee Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge) is a long shot, but it is easy to see this has been his best year yet (also starring in Scorsese’s Silence) and we will probably see him back in the Oscars in many years to come. Finally, Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic) comes to his second nomination in a little known but highly praised role that both critics and audience have acclaimed since the film premiered in Sundance last year.

Who will win: It is such a 50/50 that I have been struggling for weeks and still struggle to call a final choice. Although the maths clearly point to Casey Affleck (a 49.5% according to Ben Zauzmer’s Maths Predictions on The Hollywood Reporter), Denzel Washington is said to be the favourite by most experts (at least since he won the Actors’ Guild a few weeks ago). Affleck did win the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the Critics’ Choice (an almost complete sweep), but scandal has been following him the whole race for a sexual harassment suit filed against him in 2010.

I wouldn’t say for sure, but the development in the last few weeks seem to give Denzel Washington a small lead. But don’t be surprised if Casey Affleck manages to win tonight.

Who should win: When all is said and done and if we leave out anything that isn’t just performances, I would have to say Casey Affleck should win. His performance was really good and he he carried the enormous emotional weight of this film almost sorely on his shoulders. Although Denzel Washington was great, Fences was a bit too theatrical to me, seeming to forget cinema doesn’t have the same rules, even for its actors.

 Actress in a Leading Role

This is a category that has had me thinking a lot this season. Not because the winner is a tough call (it hasn’t been for the past few weeks), but because of how it is decided who is leading and who is supporting. Because, honestly, wouldn’t you say Viola Davis was a main character in Fences? I’m also conflicted by the wonderful Amy Adams not being nominated for any of her performances this year (Arrival, Nocturnal Animals).

But going back to the race, it is a pretty easy call. Natalie Portman (Jackie) may have had a possibility back in January, but the road to the Oscar has been pretty clear for Emma Stone (La La Land) ever since.E

In this category, we also see legend Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins) achieving her 20th acting nomination. French actress Isabelle Huppert (Elle) gets a consolation nomination after the film was forgotten in the Foreign Film category. Finally, Ruth Negga (Loving) gets her first nomination in a year in which she starred in both an incredible film (Loving, 89% on RottenTomatoes) and in a poorly received blockbuster (Warcraft, 28%).

Who will win: Emma Stone seems to have no competitors this year. After being nominated two years ago for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), she has won almost everything this year. The only exception is the Critics’ Choice, which went to Natalie Portman. But Stone has her award pretty secured, a 67.8% according to maths.

Who should win: Hard call. There were many amazing performances this year, all of them earning high praise. Personally, I loved Portman’s Jackie, but I have to say Emma Stone was my favourite. Although it isn’t a difficult role, she shined in La La Land. Particularly, her performance during the audition scene was one for the books. I already rooted for her two years ago (when, for me, she unfairly lost against an only decent Patricia Arquette), so she is my pick this year.

 Best Picture

Nine films will fight tonight for the biggest award of the night. All of them have been praised by the critics and, honestly, I think we have had one of the strongest years in the past few years. Also, it has been one of the most low-key. Many of the films weren’t very popular before awards season, and only raised to be well known once award season chatter started.

From sci-fi Arrival to the masterpiece that is Moonlight, these are all stories about humanity, finding oneself and, well, surviving in life when everything seems against you.

Who will win: It would be a surprise if La La Land didn’t win the night. It has tied Titanic and All About Eve at 14 nominations. It has won awards all over the globe. It has been highly praised by both critics and audience. It has even suffered the Frozen effect, meaning it had so much praise and hype around it, that people (even those who haven’t even seen it) are so tired of hearing about it, they seem to hate the film now. And although films like Moonlight may have a slight chance, it’d be a real showstopper if La La Land didn’t win.

Who should win: Although I really liked La La Land (artistically it was a masterpiece, script-wise it was good enough. As an homage to musicals it was wonderful), in a year so full of talent, it wasn’t my favourite. I think Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea were the greatest achievements this year. They are both masterpieces: amazing screenplays, outstanding performances, great cinematography and editing, perfect pacing… a long list of praise for both of them. They are very emotional and human pieces that really touch their audience in a way that films often aren’t able to reach.

Others nominees not mentioned before include Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures and Lion. Although I didn’t quite love Fences (too dialogue heavy for my taste), they are all incredible films worthy of being in this category. Also, praise to the Academy for nomination a sci-fi (Arrival) that surprises being so human when it is dealing with aliens.

 Animated Feature Film

For the past few years, the Academy has decided to mix more popular all-American-industry films (Zootopia and Moana this year) with less known, usually foreign, underdogs (The Red Turtle, My Life as a Zucchini). This year is no exception, although it is remarkable to point out Disney earned two nominations, whereas Pixar (a usual contender, only three of its films before this hasn’t been nominated), even though it did release a film in 2016, got zero.

The five nominees are rounded up by the highly praised Kubo and the Two Strings, which took home the BAFTA only weeks ago. Kubo has been a surprise in the race, from being a not very well known film to being the second favourite tonight.

Who will win: From early on, Disney’s Zootopia has been the frontrunner. In the last few weeks, though, Kubo and the Two Strings has been coming closer and closer. Ben Zauzmer’s maths call a close 50.9% - 41.8% race in favour of Zootopia. And it is true no BAFTA animated winner nominated to the Oscars has ever lost the Oscar. But Zootopia long string of wins (including the Annie), plus the message of the film, will probably make it the winner. Be open to a surprise, anyway.

Who should win: Although all of the nominees are incredibly creative and Disney’s Moana has wonderful animation and sountrack (script a bit lacking), my vote would go for Zootopia. It is a beautiful and creative story that reflects today’s society while also telling the tale of an extraordinary friendship between unusual companions.

 Writing: Adapted Screenplay + Original Screenplay

The writing categories haven’t been without controversy this year. The Academy has a different point of view of what qualifies as original and what qualifies as an adaptation. Surprisingly, Moonlight has been considered an adaptation when it was determined it was an original script in the Writers Guild Awards. It is true is was based on a play, but as they play was never producer, it is tricky to determine who is right. The Academy is very strict in this sense, though, Whiplash was considered an adaptation of Damien Chazelle’s own short film (which he made to get the opportunity to do the feature). Any sequel is considered an adaptation because it uses characters of a previous film.

Anyway, back to the race.

Who will win in Adapted Screenplay: It would have had tougher competition in Original, so Moonlight could actually be lucky to be in this category. It also won for original screenplay in the Writers Guild. Other nominees (Lion, Arrival) have gotten some awards, but highly praised Moonlight seems the frontrunner.

Who should win in Adapted Screenplay: Moonlight is one of a kind. The storytelling is sweet and moving, poignant and simply incredible. It is a simple tale told beautifully. Every person I talk to has been blown away by it. I have to say I also find Arrival was a great adaptation, and Hidden Figures has been incredibly praised. My only pet peeve here is Fences, as I wouldn’t count it as an adaptation because, according to all sources, director Denzel Washington didn’t want to change a single word of the play, so they didn’t. Is that adapting? Is just taking a script and performing it in another media worthy of this nomination?

Who will win in Original Screenplay: Tougher race, one may say one of the toughest alongside Actor in a Leading Role. Because of the previously mentioned confusion with which film goes in which category, looking at other awards isn’t really useful. Moonlight won the Writers Guild, La La Land got the Golden Globe, Manchester by the Sea, the BAFTA. It should be a close call between Manchester and La La Land, but I feel like this is usually an award that is given to great films which wouldn’t get any recognition otherwise, so my bet is on Manchester by the Sea.

Who should win in Original Screenplay: Although I really enjoyed La La Land, I don’t think its screenplay is its best quality. It is good, but it isn’t outstanding. The Lobster was a very original film that really surprised me, so it is a close second, but my favourite was Manchester by the Sea, because it felt true and raw in the best of senses. I also went in with the feeling it’d just depress me, and it was actually the perfect measure of melancholic and sweet.

 Directing

This is a category usually tied to Best Picture, and this year seems no exception.

Who will win: Damien Chazelle is clearly the favourite with La La Land. He won the Directors Guild, the BAFTA, the Golden Globe, the Critics’ Choice… So he is here on a landslide. Also, he is Hollywood’s golden boy, so it would be difficult for him not to win.

Who should win: I think many of these films are a big achievement, but I consider directing a musical is always a challenge, so my choice would be Damien Chazelle. I also have to confess I have a soft spot for him after Whiplash, which I honestly preferred to La La Land and thought was underrated.

 Cinematography

For me, one of the most interesting categories of the night. Usually overlooked, cinematography is what gives a film its tone, its personality. This year, there are some great contenders. 

Who will win: La La Land seems to be going to sweep all the technical awards it can. In true Mad Max: Fury Road fashion, La La Land is a frontrunner because honestly, like it or not, it is technically great. As Ben Zauzmer points out, in the past seven years only Birdman has won without a production design nomination. That would only leave La La Land and Arrival on the run. And there has been a lot of buzz around the prettiness of La La Land and, of course, that wonderful last sequence.

Who should win: I was honestly surprised by how beautiful Moonlight was. Although the shots were kind of too harsh at the beginning for me, the beach scene completely made me fall head over heels. Although I think La La Land is a true beauty, Moonlight is my favourite.

 Production Design

It also blows my mind how they create such wonderful worlds in film. Production Design is an underrated art that is able to create from spaceships (Passengers) to magical worlds (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) and make us believe for two hours they are actually possible.

Who will win: As I said, it seems like La La Land is going to win everything technical. It won on the Art Directors Guild (although Passengers did too, in the Fantasy genre) and it has been praised, particularly on that already mentioned last sequence. Fantastic Beasts did win the BAFTA, but I tend to think that might have been British voting for the British (although its production design was truly wonderful). All things considered, there could be a surprise in this category.

Who should win: It is a tough choice. All of these films have created such wonderful worlds. I particularly loved Passengers design of the spaceship and Fantastic Beasts take on the American magical world. Hail, Caesar! had a great look, but didn’t quite impress me. And Arrival was great, too, but once again it didn’t stay with me in the same way. But if I had to think of a film in which the production design really took my breath away, I’d have to go with La La Land because, above it, that film is pretty.

 Costume Design

Another close call, and there aren’t even only two frontrunners.

Who will win: Difficult to say. La La Land did get a Costume Designers Guild Award in its Contemporary category (unlike Jackie which lost to Hidden Figures, not even nominated in the Oscars; and Fantastic Beasts, that lost to Doctor Strange, also not nominated). But it is certainly difficult for a contemporary film to win this award. If we look into the BAFTAs, we see Jackie won. It also won the Critics’ Choice. So, relying on numbers and Oscars tendencies, I’d say Jackie is my (uncertain) bet.

Who should win: Jackie may have wonderful clothes (it is Jackie O after all), and La La Land is pretty but not extraordinary. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was for me the most outstanding in this category.

 Makeup and Hairstyling

I am always surprised there are only three nominees in this category. Also, they have nothing to do with the rest of categories, so it is hard to predict in relation to the others.

Who will win: There is not much to consider, not that many awards consider Make Up and Hairstyling. I’d opt out A Man Called Ove, because The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared didn’t do that good last year and I consider they were nominated for similar reasons. Between Star Trek Beyond and Suicide Squad, they have both won some awards for their makeup. I’d say it also depends on the effort the voters see in the creations, so this would be a matter of Killer Croc (Suicide Squad) against Star Trek’s aliens. As I think Star Trek Beyond was an all-around better film and it did better with critics and audience, that is my bet.

Who should win: I honestly have no preference.

 Film Editing

Who will win: Musicals always seem to be favourites in this category. Also, La La Land did win both an Eddie (Arrival also got one) and the Critics’ Choice. The race is also joined by BAFTA winner Hacksaw Ridge. As I think voters usually start voting on technical awards in group (they give them all to someone, look at Mad Max last year), I think La La Land will be it.

Who should win: I don’t really have a clear favourite here, but I did think Moonlight did a great job in pace, rhythm and structure. Its editing was really good, so that is my pick.

 Sound Editing & Sound Mixing

Two categories not even the voters know how to differentiate, so it is tough to know what would win which. It is true musicals usually win Sound Mixing, whereas war/action films usually win Sound Editing. Also, I don’t know enough about sound to have a favourite, so I won’t make a personal judgement on who should win.

Who will win Sound Mixing: La La Land seems the favourite. It is a musical, which means there is a lot of work into the sound. It also has won a handful of sound awards already. Its fellow nominees are Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. I can only think of Hacksaw Ridge as a competitor.

Who will win Sound Editing: As I said, bet for the war film, which in this case is Hacksaw Ridge. It doesn’t hurt it won a bunch of Golden Reel Awards. Its fellow nominees are Arrival, Deepwater Horizon, La La Land and Sully.

 Visual Effects

Who will win: The Jungle Book is the big favourite for this category. Its creation of all the animals is truly remarkable, so it isn’t that difficult of a choice. It also won on the BAFTAs and the Visual Effects Society.

Who should win: Although I enjoyed The Jungle Book and always love a Star Wars film, I found outstanding the visual effects behind Doctor Strange. It is probably one of the most creative things I have seen in a while.

 Original Score

Who will win: It seems La La Land is also the favourite here. Although it isn’t that common for a musical to win original score (surprising, huh?), its wins on the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice give it advantage over the BAFTA winner (Lion) and fellow nominees Moonlight, Jackie and Passengers.

Who should win: I loved La La Land’s music and couldn’t stop humming its soundtrack for weeks, so it is my pick, too.

 Original Song

Choosing a song is always a difficult thing. Do you have to consider the song by itself? In relation to what it does to the film, how it contributes to its storytelling? It is lucky when it’s a musical, but otherwise, it is tough to vote.

Who will win: La La Land’s City of Stars is the frontrunner. Everyone hums it everywhere. It is a memorable and lovely song. And although there could always be a surprise if the La La Land lovers divide in between its two nominated songs, I think it is mostly a safe bet.

Who should win: I love some of these songs, so it if tough. Although Trolls’ Can’t Stop the Feeling is cute, I don’t find it worthy of an Oscar (also happened with Happy). I really love Moana’s How Far I’ll Go, an instant Disney classic written by the one and only Lin-Manuel Miranda. The La La Land soundtrack made me fall in love and, although City of Stars is wonderful, I find the originality and sincerity of Audition (The Fools Who Dream) to be my favourite.

 Foreign Language Film

Here come the few categories which nominees I haven’t had the chance of seeing. So no personal opinions, just facts and predictions.

Who will win: It seemed Germany’s Toni Erdmann was the frontrunner, and Sweden’s A Man Called Ove was also well considered. But after Trump’s travel ban and controversy, I’d say Iran’s The Salesman seems like the probable winner. But don’t count the highly acclaimed Toni Erdmann out.

 Documentary Feature

Who will win: O.J.: Made in America has been so praised it seems difficult it won’t win. It won the Critics’ Choice, the Directors Guild, the National Board of Review, the PGA… only thing it didn’t win was the BAFTA (13th won), but it wasn’t nominated. Consider Ava DuVernay’s 13th a true contender (after all, is has been highly acclaimed and it talks about a very relevant topic right now), but O.J. seems to have the lead.

 Documentary (Short Subject)

Who will win: Not even the experts predict the shorts accurately. It is very difficult to know and these all talk about sensitive current topics. My pick, though, is The White Helmets.

 Animated Short Film

Who will win: Again, difficult choice, but a bit easier. Pear Cider and Cigarettes has been highly praised, but it also has a more adult theme, and voters usually associate animation with a topic suitable for their kids. Also, as Pixar was absent from the big animated category this year, I’m inclined to think they will give them the award here as a consolation price, so Piper it is.

 Live Action Short Film

Who will win: Silent Night’s director has already won on this category twice. Timecode won in Cannes, but that doesn’t really mean that much. Sing seems to be one of the favourites, alongside Ennemis Intérieurs, a thriller that deals with immigration and terrorism in the 90s. The latter seems to be slightly on the lead, but only barely.

 Final thoughts

So these are my predictions. Who do you think will win? Who should win? Tune in to watch the biggest night in Hollywood and have fun!

PS: Am I going to be struggling in between Casey Affleck and Denzel Washington until the awards start? Probably.

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Photograph: Jake Chessum

Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield on Martin Scorsese’s new film Silence                                            

Silence stars Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield talk about the cathartic experience of shooting Martin Scorsese’s epic

By Joshua Rothkopf

Posted: Tuesday December 20 2016          

“ ‘What’s that bird?’ ” It’s maddeningly early for a Sunday morning, but Adam Driver, gleeful with his coffee and smoked salmon in the near-empty Brooklyn Heights café that’s his local favorite, is setting a scene. “We were shooting in the hills of Taiwan, and Marty kept hearing a certain kind of bird, asking everyone around, ‘What’s that bird sound I’m hearing? What’s that bird?’ It was really important for him to get it. And I don’t remember that bird! It was a detail I wasn’t absorbing. But Marty was so open, in the midst of everything, to be aware of how the space was affecting the story.”                                       

Marty is, of course, Martin Scorsese, the high priest of American cinema, maker of Mean Streets, Goodfellas and, occasionally, something that challenges and floors even his most ardent fans. That movie this time around is Silence, the director’s long-cherished passion project come to fruition after nearly 30 years of development. Based on Shusaku Endo’s controversial 1966 novel about faith under fire, the film follows the plight of 17th-century Jesuit missionaries who travel from Portugal to Japan, which was at the time a mystery to the West.

In Scorsese’s execution, Silence is more than just an Oscar contender, more than a masterpiece, even. It’s simply the kind of thing that doesn’t get made anymore. It explores a spiritual agony last probed by Sweden’s mighty director Ingmar Bergman while being swaddled in a smoky fable-like texture that even Akira Kurosawa would have envied. And if you’re wondering if Marty ever found his bird, rest easy: The film’s opening seconds in the darkness build to a deafening roar of chirps, the shriek of a land that won’t be tamed.

“There’s a short list of directors that, if they call—no matter what they’re asking for—you do it,” says Andrew Garfield, leaning in as if confiding a secret, the most obvious one in the world. “And Scorsese is at the top of that list. I had just finished my stint as Spider-Man. I wasn’t aware that it was over yet, but I kind of had that feeling. I was doing a lot of reflecting. That was a really difficult learning process and a wonderful one as well.”

Garfield and Driver make up the emotional core of Silence as a pair of young novitiates who, Heart of Darkness–style, head into the wilderness searching for their missing mentor, who hasn’t been heard from in years. Along the way, they are tested by a brutal regime that doesn’t want their foreign beliefs spread, even as converted Japanese Christians harbor the holy men as fugitives.

But there’s another story here: that of two actors, both 33 years old (Jesus would smile at that), both at a crossroads of success and personal satisfaction. Silence has been their crucible, and they’ve emerged from it hardened and recommitted to chasing their art to a degree that’s noticeable.

Driver, the soulful ex-boyfriend of Lena Dunham’s character on Girls and a brilliant portrayer of millennial squirminess in Noah Baumbach's While We’re Young, now chafes at his popular status as a Bushwickian sex symbol. “I’m kind of mystified by it,” he says, “because a lot of times, I feel disconnected from my generation.” An ex-Marine who arrived at New York’s Juilliard School in 2005 with a strict sense of discipline and a fierce work ethic, Driver has never known what he terms the “shitty-apartment part” of young strugglers (he loves his “gravely quiet” hipster-free neighborhood). Shaking his head, Driver won’t say a word about next year’s Star Wars: Episode VIII, in which his villainous Kylo Ren from The Force Awakens reappears. Instead, he pivots our conversation back to his passion for personal expression, even in a galaxy far, far away: “Because J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson directed those [Star Wars] movies, they still feel like independent films to me. They don’t sacrifice story for spectacle.” (Before the year is out, Driver will also be seen in Jim Jarmusch’s bus-driver haiku, Paterson—as small and lovely as it gets.)

Garfield, for his part, lashes out at his years toiling in the Marvel megamachine. “There has to be something urgent about the stories we’re telling,” he says, “otherwise we’re a part of the numbing of the culture. I think that was hard, doing the Spider-Man stuff. Because even though I felt an opportunity to do something for young people—adolescents who were going through the confusion of ‘What’s my gift? Who am I in the world?’—it ultimately became about shareholders and McDonald’s. It ended up flattened and made to appeal to everybody. That’s a heartbreaking thing.”

After that heartbreak, Garfield took some time off. He prepared a full year for Silence, training under the tutelage of Father James Martin, a Jesuit friend of Scorsese’s who worked as the film’s consultant. “He became my spiritual director for a year,” says Garfield. “He took me in as if I was training for the priesthood.” That, combined with Scorsese’s own homework assignments (“the most obscure movies, like black-market films that only three people had seen”) and even a 30-day silent retreat with Driver, coaxed a new actor to emerge, one who could take on Mel Gibson’s ferocious war picture Hacksaw Ridge—itself about a deeply religious man challenged by the realities of WWII soldiering—with confidence.

“I think there’s always been a longing in me,” Garfield adds when I ask if he thinks of himself as a spiritual person. “There’s a big hole that needs filling all the time. I mostly search for it in all the wrong places, like we all do: work, success, food, drugs, alcohol, validation. You name it. One of the things I understood in the process of making Silence is that we’re always worshipping something. We’re always devoting ourselves to something, even if we’re not conscious of it. So better to be conscious of it and choose what we’re devoting ourselves to.”

As for the director who inspired his two leads to lose a combined 85 pounds to better portray both literal and religious hunger (Driver looks painfully emaciated in the film), Scorsese himself sounds like the upstart 33-year-old who helmed Taxi Driver during a sweltering New York City summer in 1975. “I guess I’m looking for it for myself,” he tells me on the phone from Los Angeles, of his quest for something higher, a core element of even his most violent and hedonistic films. “I’ve always been very close to religion. I figured if I could pull myself through this picture, I might get a little closer to it, you know? The problem is, how do you act it out?”

Scorsese, Driver and Garfield all describe the birthing of Silence as difficult. Above and beyond the years of looking for funding—Scorsese was first turned on to Endo’s book in 1988 during the controversies over The Last Temptation of Christ—there was the matter of shaping the material into a script, a multidecade task undertaken by frequent Scorsese collaborator Jay Cocks (The Age of Innocence). And then, even with the green light, the Taiwan shoot had its share of miseries.

“It was actually pretty painful,” Scorsese says of one particular scene: a moment when Garfield’s priest, captured by the Japanese and ranting in a haze of religious doubt, comes close to snapping. With its echoes of Raging Bull, specifically when Robert De Niro smashes up a Miami jail cell, the scene is arguably the summit the 74-year-old director has been working up to his entire career.

“The key there was Andrew, because I put two cameras on him and created this atmosphere in which he could just take off—in one take, by the way,” says Scorsese. “And it was—how can I put it?—excruciating. A lot of the stuff in this film was. Excruciating to the point where you feel pain in your back and your stomach and your head. It may have been cathartic, but I gotta say, none of this stuff was enjoyable.”

Driver agrees, saying he fed off the parallels between religion and the leap of faith needed to take on any role seriously. “Acting, a marriage, any relationship where you make a commitment to something—it’s filled with doubt,” he says. “But that’s actually a virtue of Scorsese. He sets an environment for people to take ownership of their parts. He actually hires you for your opinions. He wants you to rebel, to do something unexpected. He’s been thinking about this stuff for 28 years, and still he doesn’t have a ‘right’ way of going about it, which I think is amazing.”

Silence now arrives in a moment of global uncertainty, making it extra timely. A private meeting between Pope Francis and Scorsese’s family led to blessings and a message of hope for the days and months ahead. “He said, ‘Pray for me—I could use it,’ ” recalls the director. But in no small way, Silence already signals a mighty resurrection, even under the guise of a historical epic about religious repression. It’s a long-won triumph for Scorsese and an arrival for its two stars, poised to possibly join the company of cinema’s great tortured souls—the Brandos and the Pacinos. “I want my work to be as deep as it can possibly be,” admits Garfield. “I’m more aware than ever of human potentiality. And I think I need it all.”

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Best Dramas of 2016

 1. Manchester By The Sea 

Arguably the best film of 2016 Manchester by the Sea is powerful and deeply affecting. A raw examination of grief, in particular the male grieving process, the film uses a beautifully emotional script to portray the hardest parts of humanity. Affleck will most likely get the Oscar for his performance and he is backed by an exceptional cast. The film slices through you and sticks in your blood. 

2. Moonlight 

Moonlight is just as much our exploration as it is the protagonist’s. The script is so well written and so brilliantly executed by Barry Jenkins that we’re mesmerized to the points of self-discovery that the film builds up. It’s beautiful simplicity at it’s finest. The characters are real and personable, the actors portraying them are exemplary - Mahershala Ali in particular. No matter if drama is your type of genre or not, Moonlight is a film that is unmissable. 

3. Arrival

Arrival was my personal favourite film of 2016. It displays science fiction in a manner that feels less like fiction and more like realism. Amy Adams is absolutely brilliant. The script as a whole is deeply resonant and moving. It’s not  film to sit and relax in, it’s intellectual and it operates on a grand scale of contemplation. Arrival offers not only amazing effects but a powerful story to boot. 

4. La La Land 

La La Land breathes new life into a seemingly passed over genre. The cinematography is absolutely exceptional but even it is only a component of the truly captivating story that plays out. It’s heartbreaking in the realest sense. La La Land plays on our very real individual fears by portraying them in a quite beautiful sense. It’s surreal and moving and overall dazzling.

5. Hell or High Water 

Hell or High Water is a modern day Western that turns from it’s typical genre tropes to craft complex characters. The cinematography is some of the best of the year and the visuals help add to the perfect pacing of the film. Jeff Bridges is absolutely fantastic. The film’s greatest success is in our reactions. It manages to successfully question  it’s characters and drives us to that same point of questioning. It’s a film you’ll talk about for long after and one that stays with you. 

6. Fences

Fences succeeds first of all because of the brilliance of it’s actors. Both Washington and Davis are fantastic and I would think of Davis as a frontrunner for an Academy Award this year. Fences is a riveting story most of all because it feels so real. Both it’s familial aspects and it’s commentary on race remains potent today. The dialogue so richly enabled by beautifully written characters adds to these two themes and forces us to explore them on a moving and profound level.

7. Love and Friendship

There are a fair number of Austen adaptions that have hit the screen before this one, but none have been done quite like this. Love and Friendship is comical, engaging, and intellectually entertaining. The film is almost quirky in how it plays out, and it’s overall atmosphere could be described as something along the lines of “a giggling oddball”. It’s delightful in character and it’s wry in script. The film doesn’t just prove Austen’s wit but the cleverness of every person involved in the film’s making.

8. The Edge of Seventeen

At first glance The Edge of Seventeen appears to be yet another coming of age story. Yet as Hailee Steinfeld acts out a witty and immersive script it becomes clear that this film is succeeding on a much grander level. It’s a teen comedy that is realistic and that has the feel of itself being written by a teenager. It manages to be at times abrasive and during others more sensitive. It’s touching and emotional and most of all entertaining. 

9. Silence 

Martin Scorsese’s latest, the film isn’t perhaps making as much of an impact as expected. However, it’s still worth making a great deal of noise about. Indeed, Silence seems to stand out as one of Scorsese’s greatest works simply for the manner in which it tackles such challenging thematic material. It’s soundtrack is one of the greatest this year by far. And the visuals are both breathtaking and immersive. The material itself is passionately executed and that is by far enough to leave the screen with questions and a resonating feeling. 

10. Paterson 

Paterson is simple yet unexpectedly emotional. It’s rare a film can capture such a daily life sort of film and transform it into a commentary on daily life that leaves us with a great degree of sentimentality. The film succeeds for never trying to be more than it is. It’s actors have a certain confidence in how they quietly embody the screen. It never tries to be more dramatic than it needs to be. Overall it’s a film that is comfortable with itself and that is by far enough for us to feel moved by it. 

Honourable Mentions: Loving, American Honey, The Mermaid

[jschaeferreviews]

Silence (2016)

It is a trying time for Christians in Japan during the 1600’s.  The faith being outlawed, they must practice in silence or else face immense torture at the hands of the Inquisitor General.  Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) was sent to aid in the conversion of the Japanese from Buddhism but his faith is broken after enduring many terrible trials.  Two young priests, Rodrigues and Garupe (Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver) petition to be sent to Japan to rescue their mentor. With hearts full of prayer, the two men head across the sea towards the strongest test of their faith either have ever faced.

“Silence” is a passion project directed by Martin Scorsese and after more than 25 years in the making it finally lands itself on the silver screen.  The film is truly the work of a master craftsmen behind the lens and it is imbued with respect towards both the Japanese and the Christian followers in the film.  While it could be dissected to no end on a technical level, the two-hour forty-minute run time is a bit daunting and given the nature of the story it holds on to the film like a lead weight.

Scorsese’s direction is not afraid of the subject matter, he handles it adeptly and rolls head on during even some of the darkest scenes; there is not much light for us as an audience to hold or grasp on to.  I can compare “Silence” most immediately to Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” (1993). Both films handle atrocities surrounding their respective director’s personal beliefs.  The difference lies in that “Schindler’s List” is about a hero while “Silence” does not have that same magnetic character.  That is not to say that Garfield, Driver, and Neeson do not pull us in – they do – but whereas Oskar Schindler (ironically enough, also played by Liam Neeson) stood up against the Germans and saved those being persecuted, the priests in this film are foreign invaders and there is no way of discussing that.  In fact, the film makes it quite clear that they are outsiders.

The film opens and closes strongly, it is just in the lengthy middle where it begins to lose us.  It lingers and winds its way slowly through the plot which gives us ample time to feel the weight of the story.  The way it puts us in the character’s state of mind is normally a strong compliment to a script, but unfortunately in this case, few among us have the endurance to last the duration without looking at our watches at least once or twice.  It is a long film that feels even longer.

It also does not help that the second act becomes repetitive and almost episodic.  When Rodrigues is captured and detained the film beings to play like a broken record.  Between the religious tile test and the scenes with Kichijiro (Yôsuke Kubozuka), it wears us down and the plot begins to stagnate.  Eventually, Rodrigues is reunited with Ferreira and the film concludes with a powerful, cathartic climax and fulfilling resolution.

“Silence,” despite its flaws, is a strong film that should be seen at least once.  The power of the story and the passion behind the man that fought to get it on screen is evident in every shot.  The acting across the board is top notch with all the lead players giving great performances and the scenery, cliché as it sounds, becomes a character in and of itself.  “Silence” is one of those anomalies in cinema where it is a great film in its craft, but it is not exactly an enjoyable experience overall.

[placetobenation]

There is a disturbance in the Force…

Yes this is the time of great unrest. Minnesota kicking it off, flowing through LA, Detroit, New Orleans, Seattle, Washington DC and even NY. 

Unrest, riots, murders and poor Target stores have been looted more times than Liberace played chopsticks. 

So let me try and keep things focused here and see what’s new in entertainment this week. 

Martin Scorsese is in the news again. He was shopping around a big budget movie called “Killers Of The Flower Moon” starring of course, the same people who are in all his movies these days, DiCaprio and DeNiro. It seems they all come in a set. If you wanna finance Marty, you gotta hire Cap and DeNiro. Comes with the package. I don’t know if Marty is scared his films will not get financed without the star power, or if he’s too lazy to cast people, or if he is so fragile maybe he can’t do his job without people supporting him all the time. Who knows. I mean I know Adam Sandler used the same people, but that was kinda fun. But soon even he stepped away from Buscemi and Turturro, and Kevin Nealon. Quentin uses the same people a lot, and that is starting to get annoying too. Can he do a single film without Sam L Jackson? I mean c’mon, there are other black actors out there. I know he’s not literally in every single one, but he is in most of them. Give the guy a vacation will ya? Thousands of black waiters are dying for a chance out there. 

Anyway, back to Marty. So he was shopping around this film, “Killers of The Flower Moon” and everybody was interested, but nobody was interested. You know what I mean? They all placed bids on the thing, but no one really wanted to strike the big blow. With the stink The Irishman made who can blame them? Paramount originally had The Irishman, they passed on it, gave it to Netflix who needed a big name and lots of star power, and it sucked. It was almost 4 hours long and most people either fell asleep on their couch or walked out on the thing. I can explain all those Oscar noms it got too, and it wasn’t because the film was good. Marty was using brand new technology invented for de-aging and it was used in a brand new way, on set. Plus – you had Pacino, DeNiro and Pesci starring in the film – something that will never ever happen again. So they were “thank you” nominations, or “appreciation” nominations. Not to be taken seriously, and nothing ever came of them. 

So point being, Netflix was done with Marty and all the drama and money that comes along with him. This film he was asking, more like demanding, $200 million, and he would not budge with any streaming platform or major studio. 

Apple finally took the albatross. Now Apple and Marty have an interesting history, and Apple is not picking up the entire tab. Apple financed a doc by Marty about Bob Dylan, which is on Netflix now, I believe. No Direction Home, Bob Dylan. It’s about his early days and career and all that. Apple loves his docs, after all, he did direct the legendary Last Waltz, so they threw some money in. Paramount also has a history with the big guy – Wolf of Wall Street, Shutter Island, and the huge flop, Silence, released in 2016. Both Apple and Paramount were responsible for his Bob Dylan doc which was released in limited areas. I guess it went well enough for them to try again. I don’t know what kind of effect The Irishman had in their way of thinking, but Marty got his full budget and everything he asked for. Suckers. 

Apparently Paramount had optioned the film first, and wanted to distribute it, but was nervous about the $200 million price tag. Universal and MGM were reportedly waiting in the wings – so Paramount went looking for a studio to helm the deal, as Paramount was only interested in distributing it in theaters. They were not having much luck so Paramount turned it over to Rick Yorn, who is both Marty’s and DiCaprio’s manager. (Now you know why Leo and Marty are always working together.)

Rick began shopping the project, with all 3 stars attached, Leo, Marty and DeNiro. Naturally he had a lot of bites. Two big hurdles to overcome were the budget and the script. Some studio brass liked the original script by Eric Roth much better than the re-write. The story was taken from a book by David Grann, bought for $5 million by Imperative Entertainment. Ultimately though someone bought it and bought in. Paramount preferred a streaming platform be the studio that produces this project so that it can have long life on a major service after the theatrical run, which could become the way Hollywood does business from now on. 

Apple bought in and will throw the film on the Apple TV platform along with that Jennifer Aniston show and whatever the hell else they got going on over there. This will be Apple TVs second huge big budget grab for a feature film, the first being Tom Hanks’s written/directed project “Greyhound”. So I guess we know what direction they will be going in from now on. 

Hey guys – thanks for taking the time to read my newsletter. Catch me every week here on Thursday. See ya then! 

[thejoeydavis]

Movies of 2017

Every year I write down all the movies I watch and compile it in a long year-end list like this one. Since mid-2016 I’ve used letterboxd.com to keep track of dates and ratings but in 2017 I started recording where I watched each film too (got the idea from Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt; his list is 4 years and hundreds of movies long). This is about 12,000 words long and it took me a few days to write (and a month to edit apparently) so I don’t really expect anyone to read this all the way through but there are top/bottom 10s and honorable mentions at the bottom if you just want the highlights. Also y’all know these are just my opinions right? Feel free to discuss movies you also saw last year or maybe even give some recommendations if you want to. My watchlist is about 500 movies long and I’m always adding to it. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in a year.

116 movies in 2017

January – 11

February – 5

March – 3

April – 4

May – 8

June – 10

July – 12

August – 15

September – 17

October – 6

November – 9

December – 16

1/1 – Hell or High Water (2016) – 8 – Home (Ridgecrest) – Directed by David Mackenzie – Written by Taylor Sheridan – Dirty, gritty, and full of brotherly bank robbing, Hell or High Water is a thrilling and morbid look at the lower class rural communities that America is leaving behind and the lengths to which some will go to provide for their families. The line between good and bad is muddled as the exploited seek to take back from the exploiters and as the law (Jeff Bridges) slowly closes in on them. Really exciting and moving film with great performances all around. Highly recommended if you liked Sicario (the darker and more thrilling version of this movie, also written by Taylor Sheridan) or if you like the atmosphere and/or flavor of crime unique to the American Southwest.

1/2 – Frances Ha (2012) – 10 – Home – Directed by Noah Baumbach – Written by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig – One of my top 5 films ever and contender for coziest film of all time, Frances Ha is arguably Noah Baumbach’s magnum opus. This film has been both praised and criticized for its mumblecore-esque dialogue, “quirky” characters, and the seemingly meandering plot in its 86-minute runtime. To enjoy this you really need to be able to empathize with the plight of these privileged white kids in their late 20s as they try to find direction in an inherently directionless time in life. It’s not a film for everyone but it’s everything to the people for whom it resonates. It seems to have a permanent stay on Netflix too so check it out if you have an hour and a half to spare. Also it has Adam Driver playing a privileged art kid living in Manhattan.

1/10 – La La Land (2016) – 9 – Cinemark Lancaster – Directed by Damien Chazelle – Written by Damien Chazelle – “Jacques Demy for the digital age.” If you like LA, golden-age Hollywood musicals, theatre, jazz, Ryan Gosling, and/or Emma Stone then you’ll like this movie. The non-musical parts tend to drag a bit, especially toward the last half of the film, but it’s amazing that movies like this still get released (even if it’s just a huge love-letter to Hollywood).

1/12 – Spirited Away (2001) – 9 – Home – Directed by Hayao Miyazaki – Written by Hayao Miyazaki – A classic that oozes with charm and has some of the best world-building and character designs I’ve ever seen. It receives a lot of praise and deserves every bit of it.

1/13 – Blue Ruin (2013) – 8 – Home – Directed by Jeremy Saulnier – Written by Jeremy Saulnier – An amazing and gruesome thriller from the same guy who made Green Room. If you get tired of protagonists seemingly always knowing what to do or only encountering minor setbacks placed there simply because they need to be there then I feel like you’ll like this movie. The revenger must often deal with obstacles he creates himself and that’s where much of the tension and excitement comes from (but don’t take my word for it since I haven’t seen it in a year). Is very good film though.

1/16 – Prisoners (2013) – 8 – Home – Directed by Denis Villeneuve – Written by Aaron Guzikowski – A slow burn suspense thriller about Hugh Jackman’s daughter being kidnapped and Jake Gyllenhaal having to find her. This movie is extremely fucked up and it could’ve been amazing if not for some parts toward the end that feel rushed. It’s definitely worth your time though, everything by Villeneuve is.

1/17 – Ratatouille (2007) – 8 – Home – Directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava – Written by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, and Brad Bird – Probably my favorite Pixar movie. The music, voice acting, designs, writing, etc are all great obviously since this is pre-shitty Pixar (though hopefully the slump is over what with Coco’s success and Incredibles II coming soon).

~Spring Semester 2017~

1/22 – Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) – 10– Oak (Chico home) – Directed by Steven Spielberg – Written by Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas, and Philip Kaufman – The best Indiana Jones movie and arguably the greatest action/adventure film of all time. Hell, it’s one of the greatest movies of all time. The pacing (understandably) takes a hit after the basket chase and no one remembers the u-boat scene but otherwise it’s perfect.

1/22 – Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) – 7 – Oak – Directed by Steven Spielberg – Written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz, and George Lucas – The worst of the original Indy trilogy but still good. Darker than Raiders but somehow cheesier than Crusade, and that’s not even mentioning the casual racism, although you could definitely argue that it’s being racist to satirize the serials of the 1930s. Or maybe it’s just racist because it was the 80s.

1/23 – Silence (2016) – 8 – Cinemark Chico – Directed by Martin Scorsese – Written by Jay Cocks, Shûsaku Endô, and Martin Scorsese – This movie is long and completely joyless; a two and a half hour slog of Christian missionaries being tortured and killed in horrific ways that make you question faith and the lengths to which some will go to do what they believe is right, no matter the suffering it may cause. This film is great because it’s Scorsese but don’t expect good vibes.

1/25 – Split (2016) – 5 – Cinemark Chico – Directed by M. Night Shyamalan – Written by M. Night Shyamalan – Terribly overrated, depressing, and lame. If you do decide to see this, make sure you watch M Night’s good movies first since this is a sequel and the “twist” of this one is basically a huge fuck you to anyone who didn’t. James McAvoy was amazing but it’s pretty much the only worthwhile thing about this.

2/9 – Frances Ha (2012) – 10 – Nord (old Chico apartment) – Directed by Noah Baumbach – Written by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig – Fun fact, this was my most watched movie in 2017.

2/9 – Captain Fantastic (2016) – 8 – Nord – Directed by Matt Ross – Written by Matt Ross – There are pacing issues but this movie is a solid 8/10. Wonderfully heartfelt performances, lovable characters, and a beautiful story. The poster makes it look like a Wes Anderson / Little Miss Sunshine rip off but it’s not that at all. Definitely check this one out.

2/10 – 20th Century Women (2016) – 9 – Pageant Chico – Directed by Mike Mills – Written by Mike Mills – Oh wow I love this movie. So so so so good. This coming of age story is about Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Lucas Jade Zumann, and Dr. Manhattan living in Santa Barbara in the late 70s just living their lives. It’s nostalgic and it’s beautiful and please see this.

2/15 – Superbad (2007) – 8 – Nord – Directed by Greg Mottola – Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg – A true classic. I watched this for the first time on an iPod Nano in 2008 and had to be real sneaky about it because I knew my parents wouldn’t let me watch it. Definitely a defining film of the 2000s and one that’ll be remembered fondly.

2/15 – Knowing (2009) – 5 – Nord – Directed by Alex Proyas – Written by Ryne Douglas Pearson, Juliet Snowden, and Stiles White – This movie combines an interesting premise with some seriously disturbing disaster visuals and a not-the-worst performance from our boy Nic Cage. I actually really enjoy this movie and aside from pacing/writing issues and a questionable ending it's not even that bad.

3/12 – Kong: Skull Island (2017) – 5 – AMC Disneyland – Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts – Starring Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman, and John C. Reilly – This movie is a total schlock-fest and it’s fun as hell. Super fun action, cool creature designs, a dope setting, and John C Reilly is a god among men. On the flip side, the first 20 minutes kind of suck, the pacing is INSANE, the characterization is terrible, and the love-story was half-assedly shoehorned in but if you like over-the-top ridiculous bullshit then you’ll fucking love this movie because that’s all it is.

3/17 – Hot Rod (2007) – 7 – Home – Directed by Akiva Schaffer – Written by Pam Brady – One of the best comedies of the 2000s. Legitimately hilarious and super well written. Cool beans.

3/19 – Midnight in Paris (2011) – 5 – Oak – Directed by Woody Allen – Written by Woody Allen – I used to love Midnight in Paris but upon re-watch I noticed there are really just a few excellent scenes surrounded by terribly lazy writing. I love the themes and the depictions of the modernists but the writing is typical phoned in Woody Allen bullshit. Woody Allen retire bitch.

4/1 – The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) – 9 – Nord – Directed by Wes Anderson – Written by Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson – Starring Bill Murray, Anjelica Huston, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, and Jeff Goldblum – Gets better every time I watch it. It’s definitely up there with Anderson’s best even though Grand Budapest or Tenenbaum usually overshadows it. Wonderful soundtrack.

4/2 – Get Out (2017) – 8 – Cinemark Chico – Directed by Jordan Peele – Written by Jordan Peele – Relevant, funny, and poignant; This only gets better on re-watch because the script is tight as fuck and there are small things that only make sense in hindsight. Also I never realized before but there’s a very good reason the protagonist is a photographer and the thematic significance of black bodies also can’t be ignored. A very well written movie and I can’t wait to see what Jordan Peele has in store for the future.

4/6 – The Discovery (2017) – 5 – Oak – Directed by Charlie McDowell – Written by Charlie McDowell and Justin Lader – The worst Black Mirror episode you could possibly imagine: very interesting premise with a terribly flawed execution. Really it’s just boring and that’s the worst thing it could be. Also why is Jason Segel in this?

4/17 – The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) – 4 – Nord – Directed by André Øvredal – Written by Ian B. Goldberg and Richard Naing – The first hour was enjoyable and suspenseful but by the end I really didn’t give a shit. Very meh and wastes Emile Hirsch and an ok premise.

5/9 – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) – 6 – Cinemark Chico – Directed by James Gunn – Written by James Gunn – Back in May people were saying this is better than the first Guardians and I have no idea what movie they watched because this is blatantly awful in comparison. 80% of the action scenes are fun and engaging but the other 20% are I-want-to-go-home levels of boring. The emotional moments were certainly much better than the first but the jokes are much worse BY FAR. “Haha nipples haha turds hahaha trash panda huehuehue.” The jokes that land are hilarious but when they fall flat they fall hard. The pacing of this thing is baffling as well with short periods of insane action and long periods of nothing but failed emotion baiting and baby groot being a fool. I sleep. I do think the plot was more interesting than the first and Yondu’s story was awesome but this could have been much better. It wasn’t, but it definitely could’ve been.

5/12 – Don’t Think Twice (2016) – 8 – Oak – Directed by Mike Birbiglia – Written by Mike Birbiglia – Starring Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Mike Birbiglia, Kate Micucci, and Chris Gethard – This is about a bunch of improv comics struggling with their failures and insecurities in the failing Brooklyn improv scene while one of their troupe makes it big and joins the cast of SNL. I don’t want to say anything else because there’s not much else without spoilers but you should watch this if you like comedy/comedians/improv. Pros: Written by Mike Birbiglia. Cons: Lena Dunham cameo.

5/20 – Possession (1981) – 10 – Pageant Chico – Directed by Andrzej Żuławski – Written by Andrzej Żuławski – This movie is completely insane and it fucking rules. It’s impossible to articulate anything about this movie because it’s a totally evil and fucked up cosmic horror film that relies on atmosphere and makes less sense the closer you look at it. I highly recommend this film but be prepared to leave with a ton of questions and no answers at all.

5/21 – Prometheus (2012) – 6 – Nord – Directed by Ridley Scott – Written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelhof – People give this movie too much shit. I loved this back in 2012 and thought the idea of the engineers creating humanity then coming back and trying to kill them was very interesting. 5 years later I’m not totally sold on the execution but the characters are great despite their stupidity and the premise is a fun exploration into the Alien universe. I re-watched this in preparation for Covenant thinking it would be necessary but no it didn’t matter at all.

5/23 – Alien: Covenant (2017) – 5 – Cinemark Chico – Directed by Ridley Scott – Written by Jack Paglen, John Logan, Dante Harper, and Michael Green – “I’ll do the fingering.” This movie is ridiculous. The first 45 minutes or so are great and harken back to a time when Ridley Scott movies weren’t synonymous with schlocky garbage, but then it devolves into typical thoughtless action-horror. Don’t expect any questions from Prometheus to be answered and don’t expect any questions from this one to be answered because by the end of the film nothing matters. Fassbender is far and away the best part of this and the action is really cool if you don’t think about it. Really, both Prometheus and Covenant are good movies if you don’t think about the things that make them bad. Like at least they’re entertaining.

5/24 – I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017) – Nord – Directed by Macon Blair – Written by Macon Blair – Starring Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood – A fun Netflix original by Macon Blair, the protagonist of Blue Ruin and Nazi dude in Green Room. This almost seems allegorical in how it depicts those who do violence, those who oppose violence by any means necessary (even going as far as to commit violence themselves), and those who oppose violence regardless of intent or justice. It’s shot pretty well and it’s good to see Elijah Wood and Melanie Lynskey back together again (Over the Garden Wall).

5/24 – The Iron Giant (1999) – 9 – Nord – Directed by Brad Bird – Written by Ted Hughes, Brad Bird, and Tim McCanlies – A classic and a cornerstone of my childhood. One of the best animated films of all time hands down. RIP John Mahoney :(

5/27 – Alien (1979) – 8 – Nord – Directed by Ridley Scott – Written by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett – I need to watch Alien again because I feel like other people see more in it than I do. It’s great but it’s underwhelming and I expected more from it (didn’t affect my rating). It’s better than the new films but something about it didn’t work for me I guess. I’ll watch it again in 2018.

~Summer~

6/2 – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) – 5 – Ridgecrest Cinemas – Directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg – Written by Jeff Nathanson and Terry Rossio – I didn’t hate this movie. Weird pacing in the first half, the plot was much looser than previous Pirates films, and the actual climax with the mcguffin was terrible BUT there were some really cool sequences and great locales/sets. I’d venture a guess that most of the budget for this went to the sets and Johnny Depp. There are really no surprises here and if you liked any of the other Pirates movies you’ll probably enjoy yourself. It’s better than the previous two. Also that one shot with the stars on the island was incredible.

6/3 – Wonder Woman (2017) – 6 – Ridgecrest Cinemas – Directed by Patty Jenkins – Written by Geoff Johns, Allan Heinberg, Zack Snyder, and Jason Fuchs – The best DCEU film and a cool WWI film but there are MANY problems. Regarding the good; this movie had fun characters, the whole beginning part on the island looked beautiful, and Gal Godot and Chris Pine are wonderful. I also rather liked the first half or so. As for the bad—there’s a lot of it. The framing device is god-awful, the CGI is laughably bad, there’s an HOUR of exposition upfront in which nothing happens, an entire German battleship disappears after they kill 30 guys on the beach and is never brought up again or explained, there’s an overuse of slow mo making the CGI look even worse, every shot off the island (even the ones in broad daylight) look like they were filmed through limo tint, and the third act is a mess. But the biggest problem I have with this film is that Diana never learns from her mistakes and is almost too naïve to be likeable. She’s doing her own thing the whole movie trying to get to Ares specifically and then when the third act comes we realize oh none of it even mattered and Chris Pine is the one who actually saves the day. DC is straight up incompetent.

6/5 – The Void (2016) – 4 – Home – Directed by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski – Written by Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski  – Cool Lovecraftian themes, some awesome practical creature effects and designs, and seriously disturbing imagery marred by a boring script and wholly uninteresting characters. This could’ve been good if the cosmic horror elements were fleshed out more but this movie is pretty lame as is.

6/6 – Chris Chan Documentary – 6 – Home – Directed by Josh L (Sachumo) – Written and Edited by Josh L (Sachumo) – Christian Weston Chandler (known as “Chris Chan”) is a 33 year old high-functioning autistic internet celebrity/punching bag known for his “countless anti-social episodes and traumatic events in his life. From public outbursts to assault of property and people, these events have eaten away at his very sanity.” I first learned about Chris Chan through memes and people doing impressions of his distinctive voice but I later learned about the man, the meme, the legend and became curious to find out more as many who discover him do. Chris is basically what happens when those with autism or other mental disabilities don’t receive the help they need at an early enough age and then discover the Internet where they find themselves at the mercy of a population disconnected from the consequences of their actions. Chris is probably most well known for his creation of Sonichu, an OC character that is a hybrid between Sonic the Hedgehog and Pikachu, but he’s probably equally well known for engaging with the trolls who have harassed him for well over a decade. If you’d like to learn more about Chris Chan I recommend checking out this movie, the Chris Chan Documentary: https://youtu.be/bXjnakAlF-s or this Down the Rabbit Hole episode about Chris: https://youtu.be/5IPtLvxO8hs OR the best version; the Chris Chan Lecture: https://youtu.be/vFOIauPQ5XI

6/19 – It Comes at Night (2017) – 7 – Christiana Cinemark Newark, DE – Directed by Trey Edward Shults – Written by Trey Edward Shults – I love the concept of the audience only knowing as much as the characters; it gives the film a sense of immersion you don't get with other horror suspense films. Despite that I don't think this lived up to its potential so it was a bit disappointing imo. They could've done more with it but for what it is I think it's completely fine. I don't think it's fair or sound to judge a movie based on expectations vs. result so I won't do that here but I think they could've gotten away with a little more plot. I'll probably never watch it again but I enjoyed it and would recommend it fur sure, especially if you like what a24 has released previously.

6/19 – Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) – 2 – Hockessin, DE – Directed by Roland Emmerich – Written by Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich, Nicolas Wright, James A. Woods, James Vanderbilt – This movie sucks so bad I purged it from my brain.

6/20 – The Mummy (2017) – 3 – United Artists Philly – Directed by Alex Kurtzman – Written by Christopher McQuarrie, David Koepp, and Dylan Kussman – I didn’t hate this movie but I did get bored around the second or third round of expository monologue. Tonally inconsistent and, at times, what seemed like an inexplicable combination of two different movies. There were the parts about the Jekyll SCP-esque society for containing evil, which I thought was pretty cool, but then there were the parts about the actual mummy, which I couldn’t have cared less about. I think everyone did a fine job here with what they were given except for Jake Johnson whose delivery was ridiculously terrible for some reason lmao

6/29 – Life (2017) – 4 – Home – Directed by Daniel Espinosa – Written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick – Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds – I literally just wrote a list as I watched so here are the most important thoughts I guess: the score is extremely generic, some really dodgy CGI in places, the characters are idiots, I got bored and looked at the time and there were still 45 minutes left oh god, they refuse to kill the alien even when they have the chance, and my final thought was “glad I didn’t pay money to see this.” I also said “I liked when Calvin smacked into the door like a cartoon.” Haha that part was good. Still better than The Cloverfield Paradox.

6/29 – Crimson Peak (2015) – 8 – Home – Directed by Guillermo del Toro – Written by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro – The sense of place and atmosphere in this film is remarkable. Some seriously spooky imagery and ghost design and the camera work is delicious. Love the sets, love the performances, and love the genre. Goddamn that’s some good shit right there.

6/30 – The Beguiled (2017) – 9 – Arclight Hollywood – Directed by Sofia Coppola – Written by Thomas Cullinan and Sofia Coppola – Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning – Incredible sound design, cinematography, atmosphere, tension, and performances. Most shots could be framed and hung on the wall and every scene had such a thick sense of place you could reach out and grab it. Worst thing were some of the accents at times but god damn everything else was near perfect. It’s downright disgusting how slept on this movie was.

7/3 – Cars 3 (2017) – 7 – Ridgecrest Cinemas – Directed by Brian Fee – Written by Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson, Kiel Murray, Bob Peterson, Mike Rich, Brian Fee, Ben Queen, Jonathon E. Stewart, and Eyal Podell – Here’s my letterboxd review from the day I saw Cars 3: “Never thought I'd be able to empathize so well with anthropomorphized cars. Uh so I really enjoyed this movie and it's much better than Cars 2. Glad they toned town the Mater involvement and when they did include him his jokes landed pretty well so he was actually fun in this one. The pace was lightning fast for the first act but the 2nd and 3rd were pretty good and the climax was pretty intense even though I knew exactly what was going to happen. This movie looks fucking incredible and some of the shots looked close to photorealistic. The lighting especially was so fucking choice dang. Can u tell I love Pixar movies?”

7/6 – The Thing (1982) – 10 – Home – Directed by John Carpenter – Written by Bill Lancaster and John W. Campbell Jr. – Arguably one of the best horror films of all time and a personal favorite of mine. Practical effects are life. It’s just perfect. The second watch later this year has more info about it so read that one too.

7/9 – Despicable Me 3 (2017) – 6 – Ridgecrest Cinemas – Directed by Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin – Written by Ken Daurio – This was fun. The animation looked pretty good and Trey Parker was pretty hilarious in every scene he was in, although I couldn't help my cynicism and notice how transparent some of their decisions for this installment were. Dr. Nefario is frozen in carbonate because I'm guessing they couldn't get Russell Brand again and they included a ton of 80s stuff to cash in on the whole stranger things / 80s nostalgia craze. Even with these things in mind they still wrote a more than coherent plot around it so whatever I won't fault them even though they weren't very subtle about it. There were 2-4 separate plots going on at any given time but it worked because it kept the movie flowing well. The minions were ok but they didn't do much. Pacing was pretty good and I was surprised to find out it was only like 1h25m. If you liked the other ones you'll like this one.

7/10 – The Big Sick (2017) – 8 – Ventura Downtown 10 – Directed by Michael Showalter – Written by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon – Starring Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, and Ray Romano – Fucking incredible. I used to love comedy—I still do but I used to too—and if you love comedians like I do then you will probably love this film as well. Kumail's story is hilarious as it is heartbreaking and it completely subverts the romantic dramedy format that Apatow films are known for. Someone recently criticized Apatow films for running about 20 mins too long and I definitely felt that with this one too (less so on rewatch). Still works even if it feels a bit overlong. Anyway yeah throw all your fucking money at this film. Stories like these deserve to be told and, most importantly, seen. 1000 congrats to Kumail and everyone else involved.

7/14 – Aliens (1986) – 7 – Home – Directed by James Cameron – Written by James Cameron – I really don’t know why Alien is such a successful franchise. The first Alien is great, Aliens is good but not great, and the rest are shit in comparison. I can barely remember anything about this movie and this isn’t even the first time I’ve seen it. Perhaps it is not for me. All I can remember is Bishop’s knife trick (WHAOOOOOOAOAAOOHHH WHAOOAOAOAOHHHHHH WHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOAHHHHHHHHHH) and Newt saying “they moostly come at night,, moostly”

7/15 – Baby Driver (2017) – 7 – Ridgecrest Cinemas – Directed by Edgar Wright – Written by Edgar Wright – Overrated. The deaf representation, synchronized soundtrack, and performances are great but this is the weakest film Edgar Wright has done imo. The pacing is weird and it doesn’t always make sense given the character motivations and also Kevin Spacey is in a movie called baby driver. Kinda forgettable in hindsight.

7/17 – The Big Lebowski (1998) – 10 – Oak – Directed by Joel Coen – Written by Joel and Ethan Coen – Starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, and Philip Seymour Hoffman – A lot of people don’t like this movie and I feel like it’s because the comedy is derived from the characters instead of actual jokes and gags. These people are hilarious and the characterization is absolutely incredible so by the end of the movie you should be completely on board with the chaos that is the Big Lebowski. Absolutely masterful writing and directing because it’s the coen bros.

7/18 – Friday (1995) – 5 – Oak – Directed by F. Gary Gray – Written by DJ Pooh and Ice Cube – Starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker – This was the first time I watched Friday and now I know where all the annoying piece of shit kids in middle school got all their references. This movie is pretty funny though so I don’t blame em.

7/20 – The Green Inferno (2013) – 3 – Oak – Directed by Eli Roth – Written by Guillermo Amoedo and Eli Roth – This gets worse every time I watch it so why the fuck do I keep watching it. The only thing this movie has going for it (if you can even say that) is that the gore is legitimately fucked up. Honestly this movie would work pretty well if it went the dark and gritty Cannibal Holocaust route but it’s just so ridiculously stupid and tonally inconsistent.

7/22 – Dunkirk 70mm IMAX (2017) – 10 – Ontario 22 – Directed by Christopher Nolan – Written by Christopher Nolan – What I’d imagine a perfect movie looks like. Maybe it’s because I saw this in 70mm IMAX but this film is incredible. It doesn’t feel like it should be but it really is that good. The biggest complaint I’ve seen about this has been about the lack of characterization, which is very obviously not the point of this movie at all and shouldn’t be taken into consideration when critiquing it. The characters are not the point. You don’t need a lull in the action where 5 people gather around a campfire and talk about their lady back home like every single other shitty melodramatic war movie since the beginning of time. This isn’t Saving Private Ryan; it’s fucking Dunkirk. It’s a mad dash through land, sea, and air to survive. It’s tense, it’s moving, and it’s pure suspense and thrills from start to finish. One of the best movies of the year no doubt about it. Seeing it in IMAX was a revelation.

7/23 – Enemy (2013) – 8 – Home – Directed by Denis Villeneuve – Written by José Saramago and Javier Gullón – This movie is crazy. Just watch it without looking up anything about it I promise it’ll be better that way. And make sure you pay attention from start to finish to get the best experience because there’s tons of symbolism (spiders and webs etc). I’d think this would get better on rewatch if the first viewing wasn’t so insane.

7/29 – Dunkirk 70mm IMAX (2017) – 10 – Regal Hacienda Crossings 20 – Directed by Christopher Nolan – Written by Christopher Nolan – It was even better the second time.

8/1 – The Prestige (2006) – 9 – Oak – Directed by Christopher Nolan– Written by Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, and Christopher Priest – Even though I rated Dunkirk higher I’d say this is Nolan’s best work. Everything has a purpose and everything is important. “Are you watching closely?” Only complaint is that there’s something about this that feels cheesy but that might just be a Nolan thing.

8/2 – Spider-Man 2 (2004) – 6 – Oak – Directed by Sam Raimi – Written by Alvin Sargent and Stan Lee – Not nearly enough Spider-Man in this Spider-Man movie. Also it’s cheesy as hell because 2004.

8/3 – Jackass: The Movie (2002) – 6 – Andrew’s House – Directed by Jeff Tremaine – Written by Jeff Tremaine, Johnny Knoxville, and Spike Jonze – Like it or not, jackass is culturally significant and a perfect snapshot of the MTV crowd in the early 2000s. This is my childhood and I’m happy the newer generations are still watching this stuff.

8/4 – Mattress Man Commercial (2003) – 8 – Home – Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson – Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman – A comedic short featured on the 2-disc DVD of Punch-Drunk Love, released in June 2003: https://youtu.be/fkeLGisUHtc

This is actually a parody of this original mattress man commercial: https://youtu.be/Fsro18nP3mg

8/7 – The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) – 8 – Home – Directed by John Huston – Written by John Huston and B. Traven – Starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, and Tim Holt – Great movie about greed and humanity. It’s no wonder Paul Thomas Anderson named this as an inspiration for There Will Be Blood. Kinda slow but worth it in the end. Required viewing as far as Bogart movies go. I don’t remember it very well to be honest.

8/8 – Gangs of New York (2002) – 7 – Home – Directed by Martin Scorsese – Written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan – Daniel Day-Lewis is amazing in this, Leo is alright in this, and Cameron Diaz—well I guess my question is, can you recast someone’s part in a 15 year old movie? I heard great things about Gangs but it really didn’t live up to the hype and felt very dated, which is something we’re going to be seeing a lot of from late 90s/early 2000s films as time goes on. I have the book but I still need to read it. I absolutely love stuff about the history of Manhattan.

8/9 – Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) – 10 – Home – Directed by Stanley Kubrick – Written by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, and Peter George – The best performance(s) from Peter Sellers and without a doubt one of my favorite endings of all time. If you haven’t seen this yet then you’re missing out.

8/9 – Clapping for the Wrong Reasons (2013) – 8 – Home – Directed by Hiro Murai – Written by Donald Glover – Starring Donald Glover, Trinidad James, Danielle Fishel, Flying Lotus, Abella Anderson, and Chance The Rapper – A surrealist short film by the renaissance man himself, Donald Glover. It follows a day in the life of ‘The Boy,’ a character Donald Glover created for his rap persona Childish Gambino to go alongside his 2013 album “Because the Internet.” The haunting cinematography by Hiro Murai, director of Atlanta, and the score by Gambino create an atmosphere that I fucking can’t get enough of. Also Gambino and Chance the Rapper have a pushup contest and you can watch the whole film here: https://youtu.be/Z_bONLcE8IA

8/10 – Casablanca (1942) – 10 – Home – Directed by Michael Curtiz – Written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch – There’s a reason Casablanca is regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time and has somehow remained in the pop culture for over 75 years. A beautiful and moving film that’s more relevant than you think. vive le france, vive la démocratie.

8/11 – Annabelle: Creation (2017) – 4 – Ridgecrest Cinemas – Directed by David F. Sandberg – Written by Gary Dauberman – Hot take: both Annabelle movies are hot garbage. The script is laughably bad, the directing is ok, and the last act was exciting enough to be enjoyable. I like how it tied into the Conjuring universe but the writing was so bad that I honestly felt like I could write a better script and that’s not good. Also I kept forgetting this wasn’t Insidious. At least possession cures polio.

8/16 – Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) – 6 – Oak – Directed by Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, John Landis, and George Miller – Written by George Clayton Johnson, John Landis, Richard Matheson, and Rod Serling – Starring Albert Brooks, Vic Morrow, John Larroquette, John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd, Scatman Crothers, and Rod Serling – I had to include that all-star cast. I think I’m biased because the Twilight Zone is a huge part of my childhood and continues to be, mostly through New Years marathons and Netflix background streaming, but I enjoy this movie quite a bit. Twilight Zone the show is amazing. The movie is fine. John Landis is a murderer.

8/17 – Paths of Glory (1957) – 9 – Oak – Directed by Stanley Kubrick – Written by Humphrey Cobb, Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham, and Jim Thompson – Starring Kirk Douglas – I watched this on a whim at 2 am and it was great. Also I didn’t know Kirk Douglas was in this movie until I looked it up afterwards.

8/18 – Chinatown (1974) – 9 – Oak – Directed by Roman Polanski – Written by Robert Towne – Starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, and Roman Polanski – Chinatown is extremely good and the history behind it is actually pretty interesting. I occasionally listen to a podcast called ‘You Must Remember This’ all about Hollywood history in the 20th century and one of the episodes centering around Roman Polanski talks about Chinatown and its production quite a bit. The original script was written by Robert Towne, was 180 pages long, and had a different ending but Polanski cut down and reordered the plot then changed the ending, causing Towne to leave the project. This is also Polanski’s reluctant return to American film after the Tate murders of 69. Roman Polanski die bitch.

8/20 – Watchmen (2009) – 8 – Oak – Directed by Zack Snyder – Written by David Hayter, Alex Tse, and Alan Moore – Watchmen was the last film I watched before the fall semester started and it caused me to have the first of many existential crises/breakdowns that would continue up to the end of 2017. Moral of the story this was not a good way to start the fall semester but Watchmen is fucking awesome. The graphic novel is even better but I still appreciate the film. Can’t wait to watch the Extended Director’s Cut in 2018.

~Fall Semester 2017~

8/21 – Operation Avalanche (2016) – 5 – Oak – Directed by Matt Johnson – Written by Josh Boles – Starring Matt Johnson, Owen Williams, and Jared Raab – I heard about this from YourMovieSucks.org I think and it was ok. I fell asleep watching it like 3 times so I don’t remember it well enough to talk confidently about it but I remember the ending was underwhelming. It’s basically about these filmmakers in the 60s who learn that the US is probably going to lose the space race to Russia so, after seeing Kubrick’s front projection technology, they’re hired to fake the moon landing for the US government. Super interesting premise but flawed execution. They actually shot the NASA scenes on location after they told them the equipment was for a student documentary.

9/1 – Apocalypse Now (1979) – 10 – Oak – Directed by Francis Ford Coppola – Written by John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola, Joseph Conrad, and Michael Herr – Starring Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Laurence Fishburne, and Harrison Ford – What the fuck even is Apocalypse Now. This movie feels like a comedy in spots and a shadowy fever dream in others and it all somehow works. Either Coppola is a genius or the editors are. I still need to watch the documentary about the making of this (Hearts of Darkness) but I’m sure it’ll end up on next year’s list and that question will be answered.

9/2 – Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) – 8 – Oak – Directed by Steven Spielberg – Written by Jeffrey Boam and Menno Meyjes – Starring Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliot, Alison Doody, and River Phoenix – Mitch I finally got to finish watching the OG Indy trilogy; it only took 8 months. This is my favorite Indiana Jones movie because it balances the serious with the fun/cheese really well. Technically speaking, Raiders is the best Indy movie hands down but it isn’t quite as rewatchable as Crusade imo and Temple is insanely dumb and annoying in comparison. Crusade hits that sweet spot, making it one of those movies that I always need to sit down and finish if I see it on TV.

9/3 – There Will Be Blood (2007) – 10 – Pageant Chico – Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson – Written by Paul Thomas Anderson and Upton Sinclair  – One of my favorites of all time and arguably one of the best movies ever made. This film is literally perfect. Thrilling, dark, and evil, Daniel Day-Lewis disappears into the role of Daniel Plainview and Paul Dano gives an incredible performance as Eli. Goddamn this movie is so good I’m so happy I got the chance to see it in the theater this time. Paul Thomas Anderson is my favorite director and everything he touches is a masterpiece.

9/8 – It (2017) – 5 – Cinemark Chico – Directed by Andy Muschietti – Written by Chase Palmer, Gary Dauberman, Stephen King, and Cary Fukunaga – I was expecting a horror movie because they marketed this as a horror movie but it is not a horror movie. It tries to be a dozen different 80s films and fails at being any of them. Complete tonal disaster. Is it a raunchy comedy? Is it a horror film? Oh no it’s Stranger Things! Wow John Hughes! 1980s! Do you remember the 1980s? They were over 30 years ago now isn’t that crazy? Buy tickets to our movie.

If this was billed as a dark comedy I would’ve liked it more but when it’s actually a lame horror film with no tension or effective scares then how could it not be disappointing? To be completely honest I would have walked out about halfway through if I hadn’t seen it with friends. The praise this movie received is honestly baffling to me; it’s a total piece in every department except for Finn Wolfhard making dick jokes.

9/10 – The Room (2003) – 1 – Clay Theater San Francisco – Directed by Tommy Wiseau – Written by Tommy Wiseau – I HIGHLY recommend seeing this in the theater at a midnight showing because I have never laughed harder in my entire life and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I knew I had to see this again to prepare for The Disaster Artist but a midnight screening is the only way to experience this movie. Tommy Wiseau is an inspiration to us all.

9/12 – Grave of the Fireflies (1988) – 10 – CSU Chico Ayres 106 – Directed by Isao Takahata – Written by Akiyuki Nosaka and Isao Takahata – They screened this as part of the University Film Series at Chico and boy is it sad as fuck. The story is told in an unconventional way and it’s extremely effective. High recommend but don’t expect to do anything afterwards.

9/14 – mother! (2017) – 8 – Cinemark Chico – Directed by Darren Aronofsky – Written by Darren Aronofsky – BALLS TO THE WALL INSANITY HOLY SHIT. I had an absolute blast seeing this in the theater because I had NO idea what to expect and wow this movie really delivered on blowing my expectations into orbit. Sure, Aronofsky is pretentious and his knowledge of allegory could be summed up by a one-word 72-pt font bold synopsis that reads, “HAMFISTED.” Sure, there’s an extremely unnecessary and possibly disturbing part for women that occurs towards the last half. Sure, this is just a weird but not-boring adaptation of Rosemary’s Baby. Sure all these things, but this movie is fucking insane and there’s much more to this than “loll bible allegory.” There are at least TWO other extended metaphors you could reasonably interpret from this story and that’s the main reason why this isn’t a pretentious piece of shit.

9/16 – Night of the Living Dead (1968) – 8 – Oak – Directed by George A. Romero – Written by George A. Romero and John A. Russo – I wrote my last long post about how influential and amazing this film is because it really is that good. In a vacuum this is probably a 6 or 7 out of 10 but considering what it did for the horror genre it deserves an extra star or two.

9/16 – Dawn of the Dead (1978) – 8 – Oak – Directed by George A. Romero – Written by George A. Romero – This is what people describe when they think of a zombie apocalypse, or at least this is what most people envision; locking yourself in a mall or store with everything you’d ever need and waiting/fighting it out. The sheer joy the characters experience as they scavenge the stores and slap the shit out of some zombies is super relatable and everyone is extremely likeable. With some legitimately hilarious moments and a few genuine scares, Dawn is a solid entry in the Dead franchise. Side note: I love that the Romero Dead films are very critical of capitalism. Gives me the warm fuzzies.

9/17 – Paris, Texas (1984) – 10 – Pageant Chico – Directed by Wim Wenders – Written by Sam Shepard and L.M. Kit Carson – One of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. The colors, the shot composition, and the acting—my god what an incredible movie. I was lucky enough to catch a screening of this at the Pageant in Chico but unfortunately it was a rather sad occasion since Sam Shepard and Harry Dean Stanton both passed within 2 months of this screening. Shepard was my favorite playwright and he will be sorely missed. Also a lot of the highway scenes are shot along the 395 and you can even see the old Kramer Junction Astro Burger looking exactly the same in 1983 as it does now. RIP Harry and Sam <3

9/19 – Day of the Dead (1985) – 9 – Oak – Directed by George A. Romero – Written by George A. Romero – Ok I thought the first two Dead movies were good but this is be far my favorite. It feels much more focused that the first two and is probably the best example of realism in the trilogy. In the first two there were many moments where the characters seemed like they were almost trying to be caught by zombies but in this one the survival feels much more natural. The enclosed setting, with its tight hallways and small underground rooms, makes for deaths that feel inevitable rather than forced. And the practical effects dude, holy shit. I thought The Thing had great practical effects but wow this movie is gruesome. It almost makes me regret calling the gore in Dawn of the Dead “gnarly.” The gore in Day of the Dead makes the gore in Dawn of the Dead look like the gore in Night of the Living Dead. This movie kicks ass.

9/19 – Embrace of the Serpent (2015) – 8 – CSU Chico Ayres 106 – Directed by Ciro Guerra – Written by Ciro Guerra and Jacques Toulemonde Vidal – This was part of the University Film Series at Chico and tells the story of a “life-transcending friendship” between Karamakate, a lone Amazonian shaman, and two scientists 40 years apart who both go into the jungle looking for a rare psychedelic plant to help them. Filmed almost entirely in black and white, this was a hard look at the disappearance of the indigenous culture at the hands of industrialization and religion. It’s really depressing to think about all the stories lost to time because of greed but these are the kinds of stories that need to be told to make people aware of that fact.

9/21 – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) – 10 – Oak – Directed by Tobe Hooper – Written by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper – One of the best horror films ever made. Absolutely oozing with death and grit—the unknown actors, detailed sets, and somewhat naturalistic way of shooting create a feeling of realism not present in many other films. It just feels fucking evil and a lot of that comes down to the atmosphere since the story is quite simple. If you haven’t seen it then you need to. It’s required viewing for horror fans.

9/24 – Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017) – 3 – Cinemark Chico – Directed by Matthew Vaughn – Written by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman – The first Kingsman was an enjoyable parody of Bond films but this one was essentially a parody of the first Kingsman. In other words, THIS MOVIE FUCKING SUCKS HOOOOLY SHIT. They just stopped caring; they really don’t give a shit anymore. From the ps2 game cutscenesque CGI to the fucking claw machine sports stadium prison thing seriously what the fuck is this garbage. The suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy this movie is impossible to attain and I just don’t know why this exists. How is the audience supposed to care about anything when you’ve literally cured death? They removed all stakes from this movie just to get Colin Firth back and then spoiled his return in all the marketing; it’s just baffling. [Extremely Stefan voice] this movie has everything; cartoon car chases, vaginal walls, Chekhov’s Elton John, Republican claw machines, heroin overdoses, and Channing Tatum reprising his role as Magic Mike for ¼ of this 8 minute screen time.  Oh hey did you see that bar fight scene from the first one? Get ready to see that about 5 more times but boring. Oh hey did you like the doin-it-in-the-butt joke from the first one? Well you’re in luck because this is just as lowbrow but for the entire film! Fuck this movie and fuck Matthew Vaughn for creating this cancerous waste of money and time. I pray to any and every deity that we will never see a Kingsman 3.

9/26 – Psycho (1960) – 9 – Oak – Directed by Alfred Hitchcock – Written by Robert Bloch and Joseph Stefano – Wow! What a reveal. I wish this hadn’t been spoiled by pop culture because this would’ve been such a fun ride to follow. Knowing all the twists dampens the effect but by god the direction is incredible. Hitchcock truly is a genius filmmaker. The way the events unfold is so satisfying.

9/27 – Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) – 8 – Oak – Directed by Philip Kaufman – Written by W.D. Richter and Jack Finney – Legitimately terrifying. The way it’s shot makes it feel like the movie knows something you don’t and the genuinely upsetting imagery and sounds throughout make this such a weird and surreal journey. The practical effects are awesome and the ending is insane. Definitely the best Body Snatchers adaptation.

9/29 – Ingrid Goes West (2017) – 5 – Pageant Chico – Directed by Matt Spicer – Written by David Branson Smith and Matt Spicer – Starring Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olson, O’Shea Jackson Jr, and Wyatt Russell – A total takedown of social media culture. Ingrid is an extreme example of how social media normalizes over sharing and voyeurism, allows for and encourages total curation and bastardization of self-image, and how it rewards mental illness. It’s a numbers game and Ingrid is #killingit. Jk but I found the commentary in the first half to be especially effective and hilarious. It’s just so ridiculous but horrifyingly relatable—like Spring Breakers for social media but not as good (and if you didn’t like Spring Breakers then this movie is better if only because it’s not nearly as esoteric). Worth a watch if ur millennial scum like me.

10/1 – The Fog (1980) – 6 – Oak – Directed by John Carpenter – Written by Debra Hill and John Carpenter – I had no idea this was a ghost pirate movie. Felt like it had potential that it failed to reach by being so small scale and just kind of lame in general. Sorry if ghost pirates aren’t lame to you but this really didn’t leave a lot to the imagination once the threat was revealed and the scares were okay at best. It was good for what it was. Felt kinda Goonies tbh.

10/4 – The Thing (1982) – 10 – Oak – Directed by John Carpenter – Written by Bill Lancaster and John W. Campbell Jr. – Jesus Christ look at Kurt Russell’s fucking hat. Something unusual about this film is that we learn how the thing works pretty much immediately after it becomes known. In fact, we learn quite a bit about it. The establishing shot is a UFO crashing and we get the burned thing at the Norwegian station. After the kennel scene we learn the thing digests beings, absorbs them, then imitates/transforms. They discover the actual UFO then find out the thing can absorb and imitate from a single cell—spelling certain doom for all living things on earth if left alive. Really the horror in this film is so effective because the characters aren’t idiots. They learn a considerable amount about the thing (thereby establishing rules) but it doesn’t really help them survive. Plus, it’s damn near invincible. These elements plus the practical effects easily carry this into top horror films of all time territory. But seriously what’s up with Kurt Russell’s fucking hat

10/13 – I Love You, Man (2009) – 8 – Oak – Directed by John Hamburg – Written by John Hamburg and Larry Levin – I love this movie, man. A seriously underrated and endlessly quotable late 2000s comedy about bro-love and jamming to Rush. Hell yeah.

10/14 – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) – 9 – Pageant Chico – Directed by Tobe Hooper – Written by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper – I got to see this in the theater and holy shit I HIGHLY recommend it.

10/19 – Pi (1998) – 5 – Oak – Directed by Darren Aronofsky – Written by Darren Aronofsky, Sean Gullette, and Eric Watson – This is Darren Aronofsky’s debut film and it’s extremely weird and unsettling. Fitting that a story about losing your mind trying to predict the future using math and numbers would make you feel like you’re going crazy while watching it. It’s worth checking out next time it shows up on Netflix if it sounds interesting or if you like other Aronofsky movies like Requiem for a Dream or mother!

10/21 – Suspiria (1977) – 8 – Pageant Chico – Directed by Dario Argento – Written by Dario Argento, Thomas De Quincey, and Daria Nicolodi – This movie is odd. The lighting is absolutely astounding, the music is legitimately awesome, the actors are bad, the dubbing is TERRIBLE, but it all works because it’s a horror film and all these elements make it feel like a movie from another planet. Horror-fantasy done marvelously right. Can’t wait to watch more Argento movies. Seeing this in the theater was a revelation.

11/8 – Blade Runner: The Final Cut (1982) – 8 – Oak – Directed by Ridley Scott – Written by Hampton Fancher, David Webb Peoples, and Philip K. Dick – A marvel of production design. It took me a while to get through this because it’s so slow (not a bad thing) but it’s absolutely worth it for the beautiful world, bleak yet cozy atmosphere, and one of the best ending monologues ever put to film. If you’re going to watch it, make sure you watch the Final Cut even though Ridley Scott is a total hack and insists on undercutting the very themes that make this movie great by inserting scenes to entertain fan theories that came after the fact. Luckily, even Ridley Scott can’t ruin this. He can ruin everything else he touches but he can’t touch Blade Runner. (I would like to clarify that Ridley Scott is a great visionary and director, just a bad storyteller)

11/8 – Blade Runner (2049) – 9 – Cinemark Chico – Directed by Denis Villeneuve – Written by Philip K. Dick, Hampton Fancher, and Michael Green – Move over Toy Story 2, this is the best sequel ever made. I had always heard great things about Blade Runner so on November 8th I decided to watch Blade Runner and 2049 back to back on the last day it was in the theater. On this very rainy day I put BR: Final Cut on, after it was done I went to a local ramen place and ate noodles while looking out into the neon-lit street, then I went to the theater for a 2.5+ hour sequel that I had only heard great things about. Even with moderate to high expectations and a very unfortunate bathroom break I was completely blown away. Denis Villeneuve is one of the best directors working today and Roger Deakins does some of his best and most creative work on this movie. Just fucking incredible (because Ridley Scott wasn’t involved). If you’ve seen Blade Runner you NEED TO SEE THIS MOVIE. It’s so so so so good and I can’t wait to see it again.

11/10 – Boogie Nights (1997) – 9 – Oak – Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson – Written by Paul Thomas Anderson – Starring Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, John C. Reilly, Julianne Moore, Thomas Jane, Heather Graham, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, and Don Cheadle – Had to include the cast again because look at the sheer talent Paul Thomas Anderson is able to attract. One of my favorite films of all time and absolutely incredible for only being PTA’s second film, Boogie Nights is a true masterpiece in every sense of the word. Everyone is great in this—even Mark Wahlberg, though maybe that’s because he plays an inexperienced actor with an inflated ego. Even though it feels too long I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

11/14 – Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – 8 – Oak – Directed by Jon Watts – Written by John Francis Daley, Jonathan M. Goldstein, Erik Sommers, Chris McKenna, Christopher D. Ford, and Jon Watts – The first half is my favorite spider-man movie by a considerable margin. There are a ton of flaws and feels overlong in the second half but Vulture is a great villain and everyone is great. This is what a spider-man movie should be.

11/21 – Lady Bird (2017) – 9 – Ventura Downtown 10 – Directed by Greta Gerwig – Written by Greta Gerwig – The best coming-of-age film because it’s such an honest depiction of life in your late teens told through a series of disjointed, chronological vignettes. It’s just extremely good and I don’t know what else to say. I guess I could say: Greta Gerwig? More like Better Greta Oscar.

11/22 – Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – 8 – Ventura Downtown 10 – Directed by Taika Waititi – Written by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Stephany Folsom, and Eric Pearson – This movie is hilarious. Taika Waititi absolutely steals the show in every scene he’s in and this is clearly the best marvel movie since Guardians of the Galaxy. Just pure fun from start to finish.

11/23 – Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987) – 8 – Ojai – Directed by John Hughes – Written by John Hughes – I’ve been wanting to watch this on Thanksgiving for years now so I’m glad I was finally able to because now I know where all those references came from.

11/24 – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) – 8 – Century Riverpark 16 – Directed by Martin McDonagh – Written by Martin McDonagh – I really liked this initially but some people made some pretty good points that I can tell will definitely sour this on rewatch. I bought it the first time but I don’t think I’m going to be able to the second time. It’s definitely tone-deaf (makes sense since it wasn’t written by an american but takes place in the american south) but I’ll need to watch it again to comment accurately on it and update the rating. I really liked this when I saw it though and it’s one of the better movies of the year if you don’t think about the characterization. I do think the “real people don’t talk this way” argument is fucking stupid though.

11/30 – The Boss Baby (2017) – 2 – Oak – Directed by Tom McGrath – Written by Marla Frazee and Michael McCullers – 100th movie of the year! Lmao this movie is bad and the protagonist Tim is a piece of shit. The kid has a perfect family life with his 3 stories, 4 hugs and 5 ego strokings every night and then he acts the fuckin fool when boss baby comes around and his parents have to,, idk,, take care of a fucking baby?? Like first of all, imagine being a kid with a broken family and being so excited to see your biennial movie in the theater and the first thing you see is this spoiled-ass kid with the most obnoxiously perfect life ever depicted. I had a pretty great family life and I felt shitty watching this so I can’t imagine what most kids seeing this would think. Then when boss baby literally strolls up to the house, Tim gets extra hella buttmad over dumb bullshit and it makes him the most incredibly unlikeable character like why is he the protagonist.

Absolutely nothing in this movie makes sense and it’s batshit insane. They were too cheap to 3D animate like half the dream sequences in the first quarter of the movie, instead using a hybrid 2D/3D drawn style that changes styles between each sequence, so I was always confused what was real and what was actually happening. You’re led to believe that there’s a modicum of reality outside of the dream sequences but then the boss baby shows up and he’s definitely real and wearing a suit for real so like this universe completely blurs the lines between subjective and objective but ONLY SOMETIMES and just expects you to accept that the movie is written like shit.

Also there’s a ton of boss baby ass in this movie. No one asked for implied anal penetration in the first ten minutes and no one wants to see some boss baby powder ass-slap bullshit or a puppy muzzle-deep inside the boss baby’s asshole while he’s wearing the skin of a dog. NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS. Then the pacing is so baffling that I literally thought the movie was going to end and it was only HALFWAY OVER. It’s lightning fast until about 30 minutes in when it skrrts to a slow crawl. There are two finales, a pedophile in a dog costume, a plan to distribute hundreds of immortal puppies all over the world by literally throwing them from a rocket, and references (steals from) lord of the rings, every Pixar movie, raiders of the lost ark, and minions. Then the movie just sort of ends with boss baby and Tim becoming gay dads before setting up a Boss Baby Lady sequel. Also the pedophile steals a baby. Also also the music was done by HANS ZIMMER.

This movie,,,,,, is extremely bad but it was so funny (often unintentionally) so I’d recommend it if you want to laugh at a ridiculous kids movie. I won’t fault a children’s film centered around a talking baby in a tiny suit for being ridiculous but I will fault it for being totally incoherent and needlessly stupid when other animated films manage just fine.

12/6 – The Dark Knight (2008) – 8 – Oak – Directed by Christopher Nolan – Written by Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, and David S. Goyer – This is probably the best Nolan Batman movie but it definitely has the problems present in most Christopher Nolan movies. Tonal inconsistencies and plot holes galore but “it’s a comic book movie so whatever.” The last half gets kind of muddy and I’m wondering if an 8 is too high but it’s arguably the best Batman film ever made and it definitely has the highest highs of the Nolan Batman trilogy so whatever.

~Winter~

12/17 – The Disaster Artist (2017) – 6 – Cinemark Chico – Directed by James Franco – Written by Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber, and Greg Sestero – The only good things about this are James’ performance as Tommy Wiseau and the little lines from the Room peppered throughout this to show that Tommy is just as wacky as the Room’s script would lead you to believe. Uninspired camerawork and a plot that doesn’t begin to do the actual story justice. In the end this exists as nothing more than a bitter reminder that we will never get a proper Disaster Artist adaptation. Why James Franco, why?

12/19 – Call Me by Your Name (2017) – 9 – Arclight Sherman Oaks – Directed by Luca Guadagnino – Written by James Ivory and André Aciman – One of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen. Romantic, heartfelt, honest, and it has not one but TWO Sufjan Stevens songs.

12/20 – Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) – 5 – Ridgecrest Cinemas – Directed by Rian Johnson – Written by Rian Johnson – As far as technical achievements go, The Last Jedi is awesome and it looks incredible. All the action is fun and intense as hell and it’s enough to keep most people from realizing how poorly written this movie is. Even the coolest space battle can’t save this from being a failure in creating tension or making sense on the most basic of levels.

I originally had a LONG and scathing review but it was really mean spirited and I don’t feel comfortable posting it so I’ll just say I liked it when I saw it but the plot, dialogue, writing, and editing fell apart the moment I started thinking about it. The plot of this movie only works because the characters are written to be complete idiots and every conflict is so contrived that nothing matters. There’s no stakes and no tension because Disney Star Wars movies NEED to have quippy dialogue that undercuts all dramatic tension because they think it’s a marvel film. Because of this, the First Order is a non-threat who aren’t taken seriously at all. In the first 6 movies we were supposed to fear the Empire and the Sith and the dark side but every time any Rebels die in this we have BB-8 zipping around like a fool to remind us to not give a shit about any of this because it doesn’t matter. None of the decisions any of the characters make matter and the entire Finn and Rose plot happens for no reason (and SPOILERS, gets everyone killed because of their stupidity, which they don’t learn from or reference ever again because nothing matters). I honestly think Rian Johnson should have gotten past the first or second draft of the script before he started filming but hey, what do I know. It’s full of plot holes, anachronisms, and cringe dialogue and it’s just a badly written. It’s too bad you can’t judge the quality of a film based on how “fun” it is.

On the flip side; Kylo Ren, Rey, Luke, and Poe actually had character arcs and everything involving them was great and the lightspeed jump scene was the coolest shit even though it was completely unearned. Overall a deeply flawed film that’ll probably get retconned in the very near future what with its relative box office failure and the impending bomb of Solo. Call me crazy but maybe placing one of the most anticipated movies from one of the most well known franchises into the hands of a single dude wasn’t a good idea. It’s certainly a mistake Disney won’t make again.

12/22 – La La Land (2016) – 9 – Home – Directed by Damien Chazelle – Written by Damien Chazelle – I love this movie.

12/22 – Bright (2017) – 3 – Mike’s House – Directed by David Ayer – Written by Max Landis – “There’s boring, there’s bad, and then there’s ‘Bright,’ a movie so profoundly awful that Republicans will probably try to pass it into law over Christmas break” –David Ehrlich. Paper-thin premise that attempts to set up the logical extension of “what if medieval fantasy but modern” without thinking for more than 5 seconds about what that kind of universe would actually look like or the major implications therein. It’s formulaic, predictable, and fails terribly at trying to comment on racism but it was super entertaining and fun to mock with friends so I give it a 3/10. Max Landis retire bitch.

12/23 – Coco (2017) – 8 – Ridgecrest Cinemas – Directed by Lee Unkrich – Written by Adrian Molina, Matthew Aldrich, Lee Unkrich, and Jason Katz – Wow Coco is so good! A major return to form for Pixar and I definitely almost cried. Definitely see this ASAP.

12/23 – The Meyerowitz Stories (2017) – 8 – Oak – Directed by Noah Baumbach – Written by Noah Baumbach – Starring Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Grace Van Patten – This movie was great. High recommend if you like Noah Baumbach or Woody Allen type movies or want to see Adam Driver say, “SUCK A DICK OH GOD” and Adam Sandler yelling, “just let me eat my FUCKING BANANA.” One of the best Netflix Originals by far.

12/24 – The Peanuts Movie (2015) – 7 – Home – Directed by Steve Martino – Written by Bryan Schulz, Craig Schulz, and Cornelius Uliano – This movie is delightful and stays true to the art style of Peanuts while using 3D animation in a fun and innovative way that looks beautiful. Solidly enjoyable despite the contemporary pop songs that will date this horribly in years to come.

12/24 – Zodiac (2007) – 8 – Home – Directed by David Fincher – Written by James Vanderbilt – I can’t believe it took me this long to see Zodiac. Solid film with solid acting and a solid story. Gyllenhaal, RDJ, and Mark Ruffalo were great and if you haven’t seen this I highly recommend it just because it’s David Fincher and it’s kind of required viewing at this point.

12/26 – The Shape of Water (2017) – 8 – AMC Thousand Oaks – Directed by Guillermo del Toro – Written by Vanessa Taylor and Guillermo del Toro – This was not at all what I was expecting and that’s a really good thing. Color is a big part of this so pay attention to that and make sure to see this when you can. It’s kind of cheesy (as all Del Toro films are) but it comes off as stylization, which makes it more than tolerable.

12/27 – Phantom Thread 70mm (2017) – 9 – Arclight Hollywood – Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson – Written by Paul Thomas Anderson – Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, and Vicky Krieps – The score is beautiful, the performances are great (as if there were any doubts), and for the most part I didn’t know what the hell was going to happen but I liked how it panned out. My heart was pounding during the climax and I’m happy we’re seemingly getting more of the PTA lovers-linked-across-space-time stuff. I’ll definitely need to see this again next year. My only complaints were that there weren’t enough tracking shots and not enough giant cowboy hats. (It gets even better on rewatch holy shit it’s SO good the second time)

12/29 – Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) – 6 – Ridgecrest Cinemas – Directed by Jake Kasdan – Written by Chris McKenna, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinker – This movie was pretty fun. If you’re wondering, it’s completely its own thing aside from the name and it really translates well to a video game. I’m delighted this wasn’t a total piece of shit tbh. Also very thankful for the surprise cameo that could have easily been spoiled by the marketing but wasn’t. That’s super rare.

12/30 – Wind River (2017) – 8 – Home – Directed by Taylor Sheridan – Written by Taylor Sheridan – Someone told me this movie sucked when it came out so I never saw it in the theater and I regret it now. This movie is good but real fucked up so be prepared. Like a modern western but in Wyoming and by the same guy who did Sicario and Hell or High Water. It deals with the stealing of native lands as well, which is extremely underrepresented in films (hmmm I wonder why).

12/31 – The Lego Batman Movie (2017) – 7 – Home – Directed by Chris McKay – Written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Seth Grahame-Smith, Jared Stern, and John Whittington – This movie looks amazing! The first half is noticeably better than the second but it’s really good and all the meta-humor is fun. It’s definitely not as good as the Lego Movie but it’s pretty alright.

12/31 – World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts (2017) – 8 – Home – Directed by Don Hertzfeldt – “It was not its fault it was an insect; an incomplete creature without any backup copies. All of its experiences are gone forever. We can never know them. If there is a soul, it is equal in all living things. We all cling to the same brief, flickering windows in the infinite darkness... except for clones. Clones are better.” This was just what I needed to end 2017: a thoughtful look at consciousness, memory, and the burden of being alive and searching for relevancy. 2017 was a year of reflection so hopefully 2018 brings more contentedness and less depressive nihilism.

Top 10

1 – Blade Runner 2049

2 – Lady Bird

3 – Phantom Thread

4 – Dunkirk

5 – Call Me By Your Name

6 – The Beguiled

7 – Coco

8 – The Shape of Water

9 –  The Big Sick

10 – Get Out

Bottom 10

107 – Star Wars: The Last Jedi

108 – Alien: Covenant

109 – The Mummy

110 – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

111 – Life

112 – Bright

113 – The Discovery

114 – Annabelle: Creation

115 – Boss Baby

116 – Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Honorable Mentions: Frances Ha, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Spirited Away, Possession, The Thing, The Big Lebowski, Dr. Strangelove, Casablanca, Chinatown, Apocalypse Now, Paris Texas, Texas Chainsaw, 20th Century Women, Enemy, The Prestige, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Watchmen, There Will Be Blood, mother!, Day of the Dead, Suspiria, The Room

2014 – 92 movies

2015 – 124 movies

2016 – 77 movies

2017 – 116 movies

Final thoughts: This year I did relatively well, watching 39 more movies than last year. Depression killed my motivation to watch things and then I was extremely busy with school in October so I wasn’t able to do some of my intended short term goals like watch a movie every day in September or 31 horror films in October. My goals for next year are to watch even more (shooting for 150 but we’ll see) and to start knocking out a considerable number of old movies on my watchlist since I tend to watch newer things. As far as taste goes I’m a total pleb but it’s mostly because I gravitate towards easily accessible films, which skews modern. I didn’t get around to a bunch of movies released this year like Kedi, Logan, Raw, The Blackcoat’s Daughter (it was okay, also not released in 2017), The Little Hours, A Ghost Story, Good Time (good movie, NOT a good time), The Florida Project, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Square, Murder on the Orient Express, Justice League, or I Tonya (it was okay) but I’m sure I’ll get around to em in 2018.

Thanks for reading and follow me on twitter, insta, or letterboxd @thejoeydavis

[njawaidofficial]

How '47 Meters Down' Went From Potential Home Video Obscurity to $40M-Plus Box-Office Hit

http://styleveryday.com/2017/07/27/how-47-meters-down-went-from-potential-home-video-obscurity-to-40m-plus-box-office-hit/

How '47 Meters Down' Went From Potential Home Video Obscurity to $40M-Plus Box-Office Hit

When 47 Meters Down was released on June 16, the shark thriller, in which Mandy Moore and Claire Holt star as two sisters on a diving expedition gone horribly wrong, took an unexpectedly large bite out of the domestic box office.

Its opening weekend of $12 million wasn’t at all bad for a $5 million to $6 million indie — shot by writer-director Johannes Roberts, mostly in a water tank in the decidedly unglamorous British town of Basildon (exteriors were done in the Dominican Republic) — and a film that had unceremoniously been served a C rating by CinemaScore.

The following week, 47 Meters Down didn’t just manage to avoid sinking, but actually rose a place — from fifth to fourth, leapfrogging All Eyez on Me, while week three saw the film drop just 34 percent, the best hold of any film in the top 10. A month from launch, it currently boasts a domestic haul of more than $42 million, a major achievement given its early tracking of around $13 million to $14 million.

“We were written off along the way for sure,” admits Wayne Marc Godfrey, managing director and co-founder of Fyzz Facility, the prolific U.K.-based financier that fully backed and produced the film. Godfrey had been brought the project by Mark Lane and James Harris of production house The Tea Shop & Film Company, which in 2016 joined the Fyzz family as The Fyzz Facility Pictures. “To catch a wave and hit an audience and maintain a presence in theaters is such a feat. I think it took a few people by surprise.”

But this success is all the more remarkable given the story behind 47 Meters Down‘s release and the eleventh hour rescue mission involving a Weinstein and a last-minute DVD recall that saved it from potential home video obscurity.

After the project secured a few presales off the back of a VFX teaser, U.S. rights were picked up by Bob Weinstein’s Dimension Films, which came aboard 47 Meters Down at script stage in 2014. Dimension also contributed more money further down the line to help enhance the film.

“But there was never any theatrical release commitment or requirement under their deal,” says Godfrey. “The film was made at a budget that was really positioned as a high-end home entertainment movie with the potential for theatrical.”

However, after the film was shot in 2015, the positive reaction from test screenings convinced Fyzz — which Godfrey set up in 2010 with Robert Jones — that 47 Meters Down deserved a shot in cinemas.

But by this stage, Dimension had already set a home video release date of Aug. 2, 2016. The Weinsteins were also having a troublesome summer, with a number of underperforming films and a failed TV sale. In July 2016, TWC shunted wide theatrical launches of two major titles — Tulip Fever and The Founder — to the following year, with insiders telling THR that there simply wasn’t the money to support their 2016 release.

Adding to the complications, June 2016 also saw the release of another shark survival thriller. The Shallows, starring Blake Lively, did phenomenal business, earning some $55 domestically ($119 million worldwide) off a $17 million budget. According to Dimension at the time, the initial plan had been to release 47 Meters Down before The Shallows, which had been completed afterwards, but when this proved impossible they opted to scale back. 

“We decided to go with a more conservative release strategy that would take place this summer,” said Dimension’s senior vp production and creative affairs Matthew Signer.

“For whatever their reasons were, Bob and Dimension just couldn’t work out the right kind of plan and scheduling to do the release in the way we felt the film deserved,” says Godfrey. “Nothing against their view of the movie. I just think their strategy within Dimension at the time didn’t tie up with where we as filmmakers believed it could go.”

While it was widely agreed that the timing was wrong and cinemagoers weren’t ready for two shark films in quick succession, Fyzz was prepared to wait.

Enter Entertainment Studios, Byron Allen’s TV production and distribution banner, which in 2015 had acquired indie film distributor Freestyle Releasing.

Following weeks of discussions, on the exact day of the original release on Aug. 2, 2016 and as DVDs were (probably) being put on shelves in Walmart, a deal was finally closed between Dimension and Entertainment Studios — reportedly for seven figures — that would alter the course for 47 Meters Down.

Not only was ES prepared to wait until June 2017, but it backed up its commitment to 47 Meters Down with a promise of a 2,500-screen launch and major P&A spend (Godfrey says the company spent more than $30 million on the release). 

But, like any true thriller, it wasn’t exactly a smooth ride to get there. Godfrey admits that he had a “dramatic few days,” and the film’s foreign sales agent, Altitude, had to jump on the phones to convince the foreign buyers — which included eOne in the U.K. and Square One in Germany — to come on board and hold off on the film’s release.

“If you make an investment in 2013, 2014 to buy a movie, thinking you’re getting it in 2016, then are held back for another year, that can create massive problems for your internal cash flow and budgeting,” he admits. “So we’re very grateful.”

In another curious twist, the film experienced a dramatic name change followed by a swift reversal. When it was still with Dimension, at the last minute the title was switched to In the Deep, bizarrely the original name given to The Shallows. Actual review copies were sent out bearing this name. But when ES came on board, with a theatrical release plotted, it went back to 47 Meters Down (the actual depth of the shark-strewn sea floor the film’s main characters sink to).

A year on from the nail-biting late nights, Fyzz’s belief in the film seems fully justified. 47 Meters Down is now being considered one of the summer’s indie hits, with a $42 million domestic box office, a third-place opening in South Korea at $2.2 million and some of the biggest international markets yet to come (it launches in the U.K. on July 26).

“It’s a great story,” says Godfrey, who is now working on upcoming Fyzz productions including the Rosamund Pike, Joel Kinnaman and Clive Owen-starring Three Seconds, as well as Final Score, starring Dave Bautista and Pierce Brosnan, alongside its slate of investments, which he says will hit around $150 million this year (recent films include Wind River and Martin Scorsese’s Silence).

“We’re not pretending this is the best film ever made, but it’s a fun summer thrill ride. And everyone’s made money, everyone’s won. The conversation now starts about whether there’ll be another one.”

As to whether there will be a sequel to 47 Meters Down, Godfrey says: “It looks like we’re working toward it.”

Box Office Updates 47 Meters Down

[fandumbstuff]

Top 15 Films from 2016

1. La La Land

Directed by Damien Chazelle

Within the first two minutes, I had a silly smile on my face that I couldn’t wipe off for the rest of the movie. Because within the first two minutes, I knew Damien Chazelle had made my favorite movie of the year. While La La Land may be a tribute to musicals of a bygone era, it is entirely original. In terms of it’s themes, it’s music, and it’s core relationship, it is a bonafide modern musical. The first one in a long time. And it’s anchored by the assuredly strong performances of two modern renaissance stars- acting, dancing, and singing their way into all our hearts.

2. Moonlight

Directed by Barry Jenkins

A beautiful interplay of lighting, color grading and emotionally driven camera movements make Moonlight a visual masterpiece. Barry Jenkins artfully crafts a film that finds tenderness in the harshest environments. Portraying a character with minimal dialogue the three lead actors lend strong performances, bringing a wealth of emotions to the subtlest of mannerisms. Ultimately, Moonlight is a document that speaks volumes in our troubled times. About the cruelty of discrimination, and the power of love and compassion.

3. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Directed by Gareth Edwards

Rogue One is the most unique film you will see in the Star Wars saga, and one that I am so glad got made. It is a far cry from the mystical fantasy of the force or the accidental heroism of Han Solo. It is dark and brutal at times, highlighting the real costs of the Empire, or the Rebellion- the lives lost, the shady strategizing and politics. Amongst modern blockbusters, Rogue One shines through as a film that is willing to show the emotional consequence of reckless heroics. Coupled with some of the sharpest cinematography you will see from the franchise by Greig Fraser, and a solid ensemble cast of heroes and villains (both CGI and live action) and we are left with a brilliant addition to the franchise that will forever stick out (proudly) as a sore thumb.

4. Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Directed by Taika Waititi

With Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Taika Waititi sets his signature wit in the tangled landscape of the New Zealand bush, allowing us to revel in the childhood sense of adventure instilled by his lead character. It is truly an enjoyable film- hilarious and moving in well balanced form. It has a slower pace than Waititi’s last film- What We Do in the Shadows- and he takes the opportunities to give his characters more melancholic moments of development and create a touching, humorous film.

5. 20th Century Women

Directed by Mike Mills

Mike Mills has created a refreshingly unique coming of age film with 20th Century Women. He focuses the movie on Dorothea, the strong willed single mother – seemingly based on Mills’ own mom. He trusts in Annette Bening’s incredible talent and tells a story that clearly reflects his passion. Every cast member shines because they’re all given wonderful and unique backstories to make their motivations and their very mannerisms seem believable and create genuinely interesting and likeable characters. Mike Mills uses montage and voiceover to not only convey a character’s thoughts, but also situate them in the broader cultural spectrum of 1970s California. Direction, performances, cinematography, soundtrack and solid screenwriting all come together to create an incredibly touching film.

6. Everybody Wants Some!!

Directed by Richard Linklater

In typical Richard Linklater form, he manages to create something incredible out of nothing. Everybody Wants Some isn’t really about anything. We just spend a couple days with some baseball jocks as they prepare for the first day of college. And while this hardly seems like an interesting premise, it’s Linklater’s incredible script and his faith in a strong cast that help create an entertaining film. Every character is given a moment to shine with pseudo-intellectual musings, frat boy shenanigans, and a great deal of humour.

7. The Nice Guys

Directed by Shane Black

In many ways, this is the spiritual sequel to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I’ve always wanted. It’s hard for me not to enjoy a buddy cop comedy with two immensely talented leads, but it’s all the supporting aspects that make it so great- the patented Shane Black voice over, the surprisingly well written child character, and a particularly thrilling shootout with a creepy Matt Bomer that really make this movie shine. And it all comes from Shane Black’s immensely impressive screenplay.

8. The Handmaiden

Directed by Park Chan-wook

Gorgeously shot by cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung, with strong lead performances, and lavish costuming and set design under the impeccable direction of Park Chan-wook, the Handmaiden is a visual feast that is not to be missed. Through simple use of perspective, Park hides plot twists until the most pivotal moment, drawing us further into the immensely engaging story. Riddled with his signature flair for dark humour; the Handmaiden is a wholly entertaining ride, thrilling all the way through, building to an utterly satisfying climax.

9. Hell or High Water

Directed by David Mackenzie

Hell or High Water is a modern day western with very tragic circumstances. By spinning immense consequences out of small actions, screenwriter Taylor Sheridan takes us on a whirlwind of adventure that is at times violent, heart-wrenching and poignant. Jeff Bridges provides us with an assuredly great performance, but it’s the more quiet, stubborn sense of righteousness from Chris Pine that really shines in what is probably the best work of his career.

10. Silence

Directed by Martin Scorsese

A very hard movie to watch, Scorsese delves into the most brutal and horrific consequences of faith under persecution. Catholicism has been a consistent theme for most of Scorsese’s career, but with Silence it is very much at the forefront, in a more meditative and contemplative tone that he hasn’t used in a long time. There’s a sense of patience to the entire movie- in the scope of it’s cinematography, in the length of it’s shots. We’re forced to consider the matter at hand. The dark nature of prejudice and the relentless spiritual pursuit of understanding and peace.

11. Zootopia

Directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore

The other great buddy cop movie of the year comes from Disney, taking a break from the morality fairy tales for a crime caper (with a fair dose of morality). But honestly, Zootopia’s script is a joy to see brought to life. A genuinely interesting work of detective fiction with comedic dialogue timed perfectly, it is one of the best screenplays of the year. Dealing with a concept that is inherently funny, and finding an emotionally resonant theme within it, Zootopia is another freshly unique addition to the Disney saga.

12. Arrival

Directed by Denis Villenueve

This is an incredible movie simply for it’s utter originality. It creates an extraterrestrial experience that is so far removed from the “little green men” trope and creates something that is not humanoid, and is extremely difficult to comprehend. It depicts an encounter that restrains from clichéd hostility. It focuses on something that would seem so mundane and twists it into an stirring revelation. Cinematographer Bradford Young deserves a great deal of credit for lighting and framing scenes to be totally unearthly and believably so. Amy Adams delivers a committed performance to create a character that we fully invest in. This is a science fiction marvel, and one that will stand the test of time.  

13. Paterson

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

As a film that is primarily about poetry, Paterson is commendable for how poetic it is. At first glance it seems like Jim Jarmusch is committed to a symmetrical visual formula. But it’s the small deviations from this symmetry that are so compelling. An intricate and beautiful visual composition that is married with the poetry in the screenplay. Not just Paterson’s written poetry, but the dialogue itself, and Jarmusch’s whole approach to the screenplay. At the centre of it all is Adam Driver’s performance, carrying the entire concept on his shoulders to make it as amiable and captivating as it is.

14. Manchester by the Sea

Directed by Kenneth Lonergan

Set against the beautiful backdrop of coastal Massachusetts, Manchester by the Sea is a drama of the most humanistic levels. Kenneth Lonergan leaves his sharp screenplay entirely in his audience’s hands. Sure, there are the downright tragic moments underpinned by Lesley Barber’s mournful score, but we are left with quiet subtle moments of such an innately human nature that it is entirely our judgement to laugh or cry in reaction. His restraint in directing leads to an entirely compelling experience- one that we make for ourselves.

15. Love and Friendship

Directed by Walt Stillman

Probably the funniest Jane Austen adaptation I’ve seen, entirely due to Walt Stillman’s willingness to be subtle. Period dramas tend to get carried away by the glamour of the costuming and production design. However, Love and Friendship rarely does this. Instead Stillman focuses on his actors and lets them have fun with a script that is so inherently funny. Kate Beckinsale delivers an effortlessly charming performance, supported by a strong cast and a particularly hilarious Tom Bennet.

Honorable Mentions:

The Witch (Directed by Robert Eggers), Captain America: Civil War (Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo), Moana (Directed by Ron Clements and Ron Musker), Kubo and the Two Strings (Directed by Travis Knight), The Edge of Seventeen (Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig), Doctor Strange (Directed by Scott Derrickson), Hidden Figures (Directed by Theodore Melfi) Fences (Directed by Denzel Washington), 10 Cloverfield Lane (Directed by Dan Trachtenburg), Star Trek Beyond (Directed by Justin Lin) 

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“Please Lord, help me get one more”

It’s been a while since my last film ranting. Over the past six months, a handful of movies I have seen – movies have been among the rare things can help distracting the mind. Worthy to speak of afterwards were not many, since some were good for a while, some last until the credit screen appear, but this one – it’s worthy of more than just a bookmark on IMDB listing.

The story

As usual, you always can find the plot, written in much more precise language and expression, just by Google its name. Long story short, Hacksaw Ridge is 2016 biographical war drama film about Desmond Doss, an American pacifist combat medic, a Seventh-day Adventist Christian (among sets of doctrines there is Ten Commandments), refusing to carry or use weapons of any kind, because he deeply believed in and faithfully followed the Seventh Commandment – “Thou shalt not kill”. Doss became the first and only conscientious objector (an individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service, on grounds of freedom of thought, conscience or religion) to be awarded the Medal of Honor – America’s highest military honor for acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.

The movie is directed by notoriously black-sheep public figure Mel Gibson. As much as highly lauded for his works as a director: Braveheart (1995), The Passion of the Christ (2004), Apocalypto (2006), he remains known for domestic-violence accusation, allegedly racist viewpoint and alcoholism issue. Now, forgive me if I paint the director in unfavorable light, but if the man who creates a masterpiece is a scumbag – does it make the piece of art itself less worthy? Well, you gotta use your own eyes and mind to seek the answer for that. Speaking of movies, I wouldn’t dwell too much on the director, or cinematography, or film-making techniques whatsoever, ‘cause it’s way out of my league, yet I do have a thing for good movies that decently made, good script and acting – those things speak straight to your heart, evoke your emotions, leave you thinking about it and feel touched by it. Hacksaw Ridge can really do the job that not many can these days, if the job is as simple as keep your eyes fixed on screen and not look down to your phone.

Andrew Russell Garfield has officially shrugged off his boyish charm, playing the fragile-looking Desmond Doss but having the strongest heart and will of all. Garfield, born 1983, has started his acting career since 2004, gained international attention since 2010 with The Social Network, became insanely famous for his portrayal as the title character The Amazing Spiderman in 2012. Being a professional actor, he works hard, he works smart – he doesn’t let himself being typecasted as a charming, quirky face to become safely famous, but choose to invest more time and effort in movies/script that requires dedication, sacrifice but does not guarantee success. Hacksaw Ridge won’t be the only historical drama you see Andrew starred in, he also played in Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese. It’s a coincidence when in both movies, he was casted as a man of faith who is in crisis. For Hacksaw Ridge, Garfield devoted three months of prep to the Gibson film, studying a documentary about the man he portrays and retracing many of the steps of his life.

I’m not a religious person, I don’t understand his frustration nor his pain while he was asking for his God’s instruction. I do know, when a person possesses a strong and devoted belief, sometimes miracle happens. In Desmond’s case, he was successfully rescue a total of 75 left-behind-and-injured soldiers, by his own hand and under the unceasing rain of fire of Japanese army. For every soldier Desmond lowers down the ridge to safe place, he prayed: “Please Lord, help me get one more”. All he asked, was one more person he could save. He did not ask for himself to get out of that hell safe, he did not ask for war to end, he did not lay down in despair. He only focused his mental and physical strength in one thing - bring as many people as possible to safety without questioning whether he could walk out of there alive. It’s a miracle indeed, one that is impossible to imagine even in fictions. But true events have always been stranger than fictions, it’s just not our turn to witness it yet.

Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of Desmond Doss was convincing, from the silent endurance upon being picked on by his fellow soldiers, keeping to his principles to the point of eccentric stubbornness, to the unexplainable determination to save rather to kill for survival – all such expressions were depicted in most natural way of acting. Garfield became one with his character “Desmond” through the eyes of a man of faith, who believes in his God, believes in God’s way of planning things out, and he just needs to follow the commandments and principles as stated. It’s hard to say how the same man with this strong belief can be seen during this modern day; but when trouble comes, when hardship hits us, the feeling of being lost without a spiritual support is understandable. It makes us weak, and scared. Whatever your belief is, it does matters that you believe in something and stand by it, put your whole heart in it and see that faith blossoms into something beautiful.

How Desmond prayed “Help me get one more” is equally important to each of us to remember: “Help me get through one more day”. It is not easy, it is not a bed of rose, it is not a child’s play, it is the hardship we all must endure, overcome, find a way to deal with before we can breathe a sigh of relief. It is wonderful to be alive, and we will have to do it while being hurt by it. After all, nothing worth having comes easy. 

Further reading:

http://www.hacksawridgeresources.com/desmond-doss.html

http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/hacksaw-ridge/

http://www.vulture.com/2017/01/mel-gibson-best-director-oscars.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/peter-travers-hacksaw-ridge-movie-review-w447541

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/hacksaw-ridge-review-mel-gibson-world-war-2-andrew-garfield-conscientious-objector-a7544996.html

(*) http://collider.com/hacksaw-ridge-things-to-know/#mel-gibson

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Screenwriting Lessons from December Blockbuster Movies

Dear Writers,

The end of the year is always an exciting time. People celebrate various holidays and wish each other the very best of health and happiness. They look back to consider the ups and downs of the past year, and look forward to a year yet to unwrap itself. Best of all, aspiring screenwriters get to take their inspiration from blockbuster holiday movies the studios release just in time for Christmas season viewing fun. If you are writing a movie script, be sure to spend extra time studying these December films, and think about what they have that makes them such a hit with audiences, or, in some cases, what might be lacking.

In this newsletter, I provide some thoughts about scriptwriting for a December release, and as examples look at two films that are making a big splash this year. I also take a look back at what happened for The Story Solution in 2016.  If you are looking for more screenwriting tips, or know someone who wants to be a screenwriter, my book, “The Story Solution,” makes a great holiday gift!

Screenwriting Lessons from December Blockbuster Movies

I’m sure scriptwriters know there are two huge times of the year for movie releases – summer and December. These seasons can make or break studios, and launch stellar careers for screenwriters. While summer leans toward the action genre, December movies tend to be more thoughtful and are often the best movies of the year. Audiences flock to local cinemas to see the latest Hollywood offerings, looking for cinematic heroes, drama, comedy, meaning – and a script that draws them in.

I advise my scriptwriting students to write each script as if the movie will be released in December. Here are some reasons why you should shoot for this goal, too:

Award season is fast approaching: Winning a major award can catapult a movie and its screenwriter into the stratosphere. December movies are often the last chance to generate awareness and build momentum for an Academy Award nomination. If you write with a December release in mind, you’re automatically motivating yourself to produce Oscar-worthy material, because end-of-the-year releases must be very well written.

The movie business rewards a December release: Because of the stakes at hand, movie production and distribution politics are at an all-time high during this season. A break-out script or star can change the entire outlook for a studio, so getting a December release slot is not easy.  That means you need to study the kinds of stories being offered in December.

Shorts work well, too: If you’re not yet ready for a full feature film, keep in mind that December is the month when movie theaters run more shorts from student filmmakers, in order for those shorts to qualify for Oscar consideration. It’s good to try your hand at bringing a short script from idea to reality – and THEN try your hand at directing it. But in film directing there’s also a whole lot to learn. Read, take some classes, be prepared to stretch your directing wings! Just have your short film finished long before December, of course. Plan ahead.

Study movies that are released in December, because they are usually well written and frequently high concept, with an eye toward an Oscar nod. This is also why movie studios would rather NOT release a fantasy action around this time of year, and usually wait until late spring or summer for the younger audiences of superhero movies. A couple of December movies which are already generating a lot of Golden Globe and Academy Award buzz include:

La La Land: Release date: December 9, 2016 (USA). Starring Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend and Rosemarie DeWitt. Director Damien Chazelle is a 31 year old screenwriter/director who might have a huge hit on his hands. Already nominated for seven Golden Globes, including Best Screenplay, La La Land is the musical story of an aspiring actress and a jazz musician, who are struggling to achieve success in Los Angeles. The film takes viewers through the course of the first year they are together and then, in a unique story move, jumps ahead to compare what happened for them with what could have been. The script covers the joy and agony of pursuing your dreams, and leaves the audience wondering whether fame or love is more important.

Silence: The film was previewed November 29, 2016 at Vatican City and is scheduled for a limited release in the U.S. on December 23, then wide release in January.  Starring Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Tadanobu Asano, and Ciarán Hinds. Screenplay by Jay Cocks and director Martin Scorsese, based upon the 1966 novel. Scorsese invested over 28 years into bringing this novel’s vision to life. His efforts have already been rewarded with a 2016 National Board of Review award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Set in the late 1600s during the time of “Hidden Christians” in Japan, the movie tells the story of two Portuguese Jesuit priests who face the ultimate test of their faith when they travel to Japan in search of their mentor. The script explores the difficulty of pursuing conflicting goals of personal enrichment and spiritual transcendence, and is a testament to Scorsese’s dedication to searching for an answer.  It’s also an object lesson for all screenwriters: getting movies actually made from your scripts takes a long – sometimes incredibly long – time.  I personally wrote one original feature screenplay that took twelve years to get produced.  Your commitment to your craft must be deep.

A Year in Screenwriting Tips

Updated Website: I’ve revamped and updated my website to make it easier and more effective to use.  More to come.

Expanded Download Library: Visitors to my website can access many screenwriting resources, including my complimentary Hero Goal Sequence breakdowns for popular movies. Already available are “Bridesmaids” and “Back to the Future,” and I’ve recently added “Finding Nemo.” Visit now and learn how my Hero Goal Sequencing process applies to these – and all – megahit movies.

Blogs: I’m constantly sharing information on screenwriting. Look for my blog updates for inspiration and insights.

Interview for (Virtually) Everything Story: I was thrilled to be asked to provide an exclusive interview for this first-of-its-kind virtual story conference, talking about “Building Powerful Movie Stories.” I got to share my secrets for writing movie scripts that get deals. And don’t miss the interview my dear friend, Michael Hauge, and Laura Leigh Clarke conducted with Will Smith to learn about his insights into storytelling.

AND – the year ended on an extremely high note when I announced our new partnership with Final Draft®, the world’s most popular screenwriting software. My Hero Goal Sequences® Story Structure Paradigm is now a downloadable template included in Final Draft® 10.

My very best to you this holiday season, and I look forward to finding even more ways to help you become a great screenwriter in 2017.

Happy Holidays!

Eric Edson

About The Story Solution: Eric Edson’s The Story Solution provides screenwriting tips for those interested in screenplay writing. Seen as one of the best books on screenwriting and currently #1 in its category on China Amazon, Edson outlines 23 actions used to create three dimensional heroes. Visit the website at  http://www.thestorysolution.com to learn about writing a movie script. “Like” the Facebook page to receive tips on scriptwriting. Call (818) 677-7808 for information about writing a movie script.