The Oscar Project
A film that you hate from your favorite genreThis is such a hard category for me, and probably the one I struggled with the most when coming up with this list. The whole idea of picking something from my favorite genre is that I love pretty much anything from that genre. Picking my least favorite science fiction film is like picking my least favorite child. I love them all, even though they are all different. OK, maybe not quite like picking between my kids, but you get the idea. That said, I had to land on something for this category and it came down to two films from this franchise. I had been trying to steer away from Star Wars on this list as much as possible because I could easily fill just about every category with one of those films and be happy. But that would get boring and I wanted to have some variety. That said, I think this is probably my least favorite of the entire series, and that’s saying something with films like The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones to pick from. My main problem with The Last Jedi is that is suffers from the same ailment as The Empire Strikes Back, but in a way that detracts so much from the story that I can’t ignore it. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Empire Strikes Back, but if you stop and think about it, there is a bit of a continuity issue with Luke spending a bunch of time training with Yoda (is it weeks? months? Who knows?) and the rest of the crew (Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO) are simultaneously on the run from the Empire. Granted they have to travel slowly due to a malfunctioning hyperdrive, but does that mean it will take them weeks/months to get to Cloud City? Perhaps, but it doesn’t feel like that in film time. Jump forward to The Last Jedi and we have similar storylines where Rey is training with Luke on a remote planet no one can find, Finn and Rose are off to find a random gambler (this is starting to sound REALLY familiar) and the core group is being chased by the bad guys in big ships. While Empire deftly sidesteps the concept of time and the different durations that might take place in that film, The Last Jedi almost explicitly tells you how long it will be before the Resistance fleet has before it is overtaken and how long Rey spends with Luke. It isn’t necessary and hugely detracts from the story. Aside from the time aspects, I also abhor the waste of characters in this film in particular (but also the sequel trilogy as a whole). Captain Phasma should have been cool and a better replacement for Vader than Kylo Ren, but she’s relegated to a fringe role in this film and given a very unceremonious death. Supreme Leader Snoke is a poor fill-in for the Emperor, especially since we find out one film later that the Emperor isn’t completely gone. On the side of the good guys, Admiral Holdo feels like the light side version of Phasma, filling a plot point in this film and that’s about it. She doesn’t even get a cool tag-line like Admiral Ackbar (think traps…). From top to bottom, this film undermined The Force Awakens in many ways and diluted the product that could have been in The Rise of Skywalker. I have long been a proponent of giving J.J. Abrams the reigns for all three sequel films, just as George Lucas directed all three prequel films. Those three might not be perfect, but at least they tie together and tell a somewhat cohesive story without diverting too much attention to side quests and rabbit holes. I still love Star Wars, but The Last Jedi could have been so much more and for that it gets selected as a film I hate from my favorite genre. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is currently available on Disney+. Day 11 – A film you like from your least favorite genre | Day 13 – A film that put you in deep thought
0 Comments
A film you like from your least favorite genreAnyone who has followed this blog for any length of time probably already knows that I am not a huge fan of horror films. I should probably amend that to not being a fan of slasher horror, the blood and guts kind that is out there just to spray the camera with as much fake blood as possible. Psychological horror films are some that I have grown to enjoy over the past several years, and my absolute favorite in this arena is Get Out. I watched this as part of my journey to watch all the Oscar nominated films a few years back. I was initially apprehensive about it but was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt after all the positive buzz I heard from pundits and reviewers at the time. As is normally the case with anything above a PG rating in my house, I waited until after everyone was sounds asleep in bed and it was plenty dark to put on Get Out and remember sitting on the edge of my seat through most of the film. I don’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t seen the film, but just as Daniel Kaluuya’s character Chris can’t take his eyes off things later in the film, I couldn’t pull myself away from his predicament as the film progressed. Once I figured out what was going on, I felt paralyzed to do anything to stop the action, flailing along as an innocent bystander but just as invested in “getting out” as the characters in the film. One of my favorite parts of this film was the casting and how many of the roles are populated by people I associated with comedies. When I think of Catherine Keener, my mind immediately goes to The 40-Year-Old Virgin and while Bradley Whitford is probably best known for his role on The West Wing, I first knew him as the weasily Eric Gordon in Billy Madison. Another small role goes to Stephen Root, who I first think of as the bumbling Gordon Pibb in DodgeBall. All these actors are playing against type in this film and it is awesome to see. If you haven’t seen Get Out, you need to “get out” there and see it right now. Don’t worry if you’re not a big horror fan, this one is not your typical slasher and I don’t think there’s really any blood to speak of. There is plenty to terrify you though which is the whole point. Day 10 – Your favorite superhero film | Day 12 – A film that you hate from your favorite genre Your favorite superhero filmThere are so many films to choose from in this category, and thankfully the superhero genre has gone through a bit of a renaissance in the last decade or so. Many people credit Iron Man with updating the superhero films and bringing them a bit more into the mainstream, but I honestly think 2005’s Batman Begins set the stage even more. When Christopher Nolan took over the Batman franchise, he placed it in a world that felt more real than anything else in superhero films of the past. There were some elements of fantasy at work, and Batman Begins is probably the most “comicbooky” of his three Dark Knight films, but it was a different way of looking at the character that many people enjoyed. Fast forward to 2008 and the release of The Dark Knight. If you thought the story in Batman Begins was dark and gritty, Nolan took things to an entirely different level with his second installment. This film has it all. While the first film featured Bruce Wayne’s ascension into the role of Batman, while this featured him wrestling with the need to retain the Batman persona, while also running his millionaire empire. There is the love triangle of Bruce, Rachel and Harvey, whom we all know becomes Two Face. And there are the dual father figures of Michael Caine’s Alfred and Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox. There are so many strings to pull on with this film, and I haven’t even mentioned Heath Ledger yet. One of the few actors to receive an acting Oscar posthumously, his work on this film was rightly praised. While Cesar Romero portrayed the Joker as a prankster in the 1960s Batman television show and Jack Nicholson turned Batman’s nemesis a bit darker in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman, it was Ledger who truly transformed the character into a sinister psychopath. It is a shame that he didn’t live to receive the acclaim for the role, but his Oscar is well deserved. Ultimately, the story unfolds, and we discover, along with Bruce, that he and The Joker are two sides of the same coin. As throughout the comics, they almost can’t live without each other. While in prison, Ledger’s Joker even throws out a Jerry Maguire reference when he tells Batman, “You complete me.” I had several films in my final grouping before selecting The Dark Knight as my favorite superhero film. Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse was an option, as was Logan, for very different reasons. Avengers: Endgame also landed near the top for the way it was able to pull together storylines from dozens of different characters and almost as many writers and directors into one grand finale. Even the first Iron Man and Thor: Ragnarok came to mind, but in the end, my choice was clear. The Dark Knight is currently available on HBOMax. Day 9 – A film you hate that everyone liked | Day 11 – A film you like from your least favorite genre A film you hate that everyone likedLet’s start off by getting all the hatred out of the way with this one. It’s a category designed to cause some controversy, but this was a no-brainer for me. Napoleon Dynamite was suggested to me back in 2004 or 2005 when it was originally popular. The person who recommended it knew my taste in movies, knew my sense of humor, and surely thought this would be right up my alley. Sadly, this could not be further from the truth. At the time, I watched the movie with my girlfriend (now my wife) and we endured the entire 95-minute runtime of the film without much comment other than a few odd chuckles here and there. Once the credits rolled, we looked at each other, both trying to gauge the other’s reaction and fortunately were both in agreement that we had just wasted an hour and a half of our lives. Now, that was 15 years ago, and I was willing to revisit this film again to see if my feelings changed any. I really wanted to change my mind and find some enduring qualities in the film, but there wasn’t much for me to grasp onto. The one bright spot I must highlight is the acting in the film. It takes a special level of dedication on the part of the actors to dive into the characters of this film so fully that the audience believes they are such loveable losers. I’ve seen Jon Heder in a few other roles and it’s clear that he can play other characters, even if he will forever be defined by Napoleon Dynamite. I understand some of the memorable lines from the film that people quoted for some time after its release, but I don’t hear them much anymore. There certainly was a cult following in the mid to late-2000s, but time has faded that a bit and I’m not sure younger audiences connect with the film they way people did 15 years ago. I don’t really know what else to say about this one. I didn’t like it the first time I saw it. I don’t like it now after seeing it again. If you’re a die-hard Dynamite fan, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one. Day 8 - A film where you like the soundtrack more | Day 10 - Your favorite superhero film A film where you like the soundtrack moreIt was very hard for me to pick a film where I liked the soundtrack more than the film itself because so many of my favorite films feature incredible scores. But to say that I like the soundtrack of those films better than the films themselves would be a hard sell. It’s likely that most of the films in this category feature scores by John Williams, James Horner, Hans Zimmer, and Jerry Goldsmith. Then comes the Howard Shore score for the film The Score. (Say that one five times fast. Go ahead, I’ll wait.) This wonderful heist film features an extremely limited cast of Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Angela Bassett, and none other than Marlon Brando, appearing on screen in his final film role. For a film that has probably gone under the radar of many viewers, you can’t assemble a much better cast than that. The story is simple. De Niro’s character Nick has decided to retire from his life of crime but is convinced to do “one last job” by Max (Brando) with a new accomplice Jack (Norton). I haven’t watched this one in a while, but the one thing that sticks with me is the music that accompanies the movie. Yes, there is a bit of sameness about each track if you listen to the score on its own, but the entire thing has a mello jazz feel to it, a feeling that De Niro mirrors in his portrayal of the lead character. That calmness allows the seasoned veteran thief to plan ahead and work around some of the complications that arise during the climactic heist.
A film that you will never get tired ofMy first of two Christopher Nolan films on this list comes with Inception. I could probably populate this list with even more of his films, but I’m trying to keep things spread out a bit, giving love to as many possible films, directors, and actors as I can. Inception is certainly not a perfect film. It leaves many people very confused and there is a whole corner of the internet focusing on finding ways to visualize the various levels of dreams that the characters go through during the third act of the film. To call it the third act isn’t even really fair. The whole second half of the film represents the heist that Leonardo DiCaprio’s crew is trying to pull off, while the first half sets the stage and give as much exposition as you’re going to get for a mind-bender like this. For a quick recap, well, I’m not going to try and explain it. You just have to watch the film. The basic idea is that a team of corporate espionage experts have to hack into someone’s dreams to plant an idea deep in the victim’s subconscious in order to get them to do what the client wants. I’m not sure how someone even comes up with an idea like that, but it’s truly wild ideas like this that make many of Nolan’s films so memorable. I have to give an honorable mention and shout out here to the first Nolan film I saw, Memento. Released in 2000, Memento tells the story of a man who suffers from short term memory loss and relies on a complex system of notes and tattoos to remember who he is, who he can trust, and why he is where he is. Another truly mind-bending concept, executed to perfection by Nolan. But back to Inception. I love this film many of the reasons outlined above, in addition to the great cast. DiCaprio is cool and calm (most of the time) while his team made up of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, and Dileep Rao provide a good group to pal around with for two hours. Add in Ken Watanabe as their client Saito and Cillian Murphy as the mark, and Marion Cotillard as DiCaprio’s deceased wife, you’ve got a phenomenal cast that knocks this story out of the park. I used this as the film I never get tired of and it’s true. The number of times I have stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning watching this because I caught it on TV late at night is more than I care to admit. I think I’ve only seen it from beginning to end once or twice, but the entire heist sequence is one I can’t tear myself away from and I just have to watch it to the end. Inception is currently available on Amazon Prime. Day 6 - Your favorite animated film | Day 8 - A film where you like the soundtrack more Your favorite animated filmPretty much anything that Pixar puts out over the last 25 years has been an instant classic, from Toy Story launching the genre of animated feature into the computer generated age, to visual spectacles like Finding Nemo taking us under the ocean and WALL-E taking us into deep space. On the surface, Pixar films are about animals, robots, monsters, or toys, but they all tell an essentially human story. None is more human than exploring the emotions that each of us deal with on a daily basis and what better vehicle for this exploration that looking through the lens of a young girl going through some of the biggest changes and toughest challenges of her life. That is what Inside Out gives us and does it with perfection. This film does it all. It makes you laugh (and get slightly annoyed) any time the Triple Dent gum jingle comes up. It makes you get angry right along with Riley when her dad is too busy with work to spend time with her (guilty). And don’t even get me started on Bing Bong’s sacrifice to help Joy. If you can watch that part of the film without at least tearing up, then you’re not human. It gets me every time and I’m honestly getting a little choked up just writing about it now. Now, I’ve watched a ton of animated films in my time (anyone with kids knows how it works) and I can honestly say this is the best I’ve ever seen. Other films hit on some elements that you find in Inside Out, but none of them hit all the notes. Toy Story doesn’t really anger me or sadden me, unless you’re talking about the finale of Toy Story 3. The classic Disney animated princess films were never really intended to run this range of emotion. Films like An American Tale and The Land Before Time hit many of the emotions, but don’t stand up to the test of time visually. If you’ve seen Inside Out, you know the emotional roller coaster of watching it as an adult. If you have kids, I hope you can use it as a vehicle to talk with your kids about their emotions. Call out when your family members are starting to burn up like Anger or express their displeasure like Disgust. In the end, Inside Out is about each and every one of us. We all have those variety of emotions inside us, and part of living a fulfilling life is understanding that all those emotions need their time. We can’t be happy all the time, just as we can’t always be angry, sad, disgusted, or afraid. It’s the balance of these aspects that makes us who we are. Inside Out is available on Disney+. Day 5 - A film where a character had a job you want | Day 7 - A film that you will never get tired of A film where a character had a job you wantFor someone who grew up wanting to go to space (and still does), Apollo 13 made that a reality, even if only on screen for a few hours. Ever since I was old enough to know what a “job” was, I wanted to be an astronaut. I didn’t really know what the job entailed, but the idea of floating around in space, free of anything else, was so inviting to me. I’m often amazed at how well certain films about true events keep you on the edge of your seat, even though you know what’s going to happen. Case in point, I remember a certain member of my family (who will remain nameless) asking me in the middle of this film whether the astronauts make it back alive. I was the source for this information in our family, having read every book on space from my school library and attending space camp during spring break a few years before the film was released. I assured my relative that the men did make it back, since the film was based on a book by one of the characters, Jim Lovell. For those who don’t know, Apollo 13 tells the true story of Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise as they carry out the third mission to land men on the surface of the moon. En route to the moon, there is an explosion onboard their ship which leaves them with a limited supply of oxygen. The disaster forces the astronauts to abandon their landing and the men and women on the ground at NASA to find a way to keep the astronauts alive with enough breathable air to get them back to Earth safely. I think one of the things that makes this such a great movie for me is the all-star cast. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton are fantastic as the three astronauts, with support from Gary Sinise as Ken Mattingly, the grounded Command Module Pilot who’s spot was taken by Swigert and my favorite supporting role of the film, Ed Harris as famous NASA flight director Gene Kranz. If you’ve ever seen interviews with the real Kranz, it’s clear that Harris nailed his performance. The film was made 25 years ago now (which incidentally is the same amount of time from the events to the film’s release) and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the visuals hold up today. Key moments of the film including the rocket launch and the segments in space where the three astronauts float around inside the craft are well done and captured the feeling of being in space. As I mentioned before, the film holds the tension of the experience, and while the actual events took place over the course of nearly six days, the film does an excellent job of compressing those events into a run time of just over two hours. While not entirely accurate from the perspective of all the historical nuances, the film tells the story of the brave men both in space and on the ground that seemingly achieved the impossible. Day 4 - A film with a number in the title | Day 6 - Your favorite animated film A film with a number in the titleToday's film title literally IS a number but also often stylizes the title as Se7en instead of Seven. I missed this one when it originally came out and I have to credit my wife for recommending it a few years back. I often shy away from the psychological thriller films, just out of habit, but often find them surprising by how much they grab my attention and make me think, even when they steer toward popcorn flicks. While all the lead actors in this film had been working for some time, the film came out before Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, and Gwyneth Paltrow were the fully household names they are today. The pairing of the youngster Pitt with the veteran Freeman was perfect, and they played well off each other as they chased down John Doe, played to perfection by Spacey. Of course, Spacey has seen a fall from grace lately, but this is one in a long line of complete asshole characters on his resume. The one thing I remember about the film is just how gritty it is. Granted, the subject matter is dirty and grisly, but the whole feel of the film was one of being dirty, surely an intentional ploy by the filmmakers to get the audience to search through their own feelings, trying to figure out which of the seven deadly sins they are most apt to fall victim to. <SPOILERS AHEAD> For those who have seen the film, the ending hits you right where it counts. The fact that Pitt ultimately kills Doe in a rage feels both satisfying and infuriating at the same time. Satisfying because it’s probably what most people would feel like doing upon finding out your girlfriend was killed, and the killer is right in front of you. Infuriating because as the audience, we want Pitt’s character to rise above the bait, to prove that even in that moment of rage, anyone is capable of being better than the evil Doe. Available on HBOMax. Day 3 - A film that has more than five words | Day 5 - A film where a character had a job you want A film that has more than five wordsThis is one I haven’t watched in probably 20 years but remember loving it when I first saw it in one of my high school history classes. Thinking back, I was initially a bit surprised we were even allowed to watch it in school until I re-watched it recently. This is considered a classic film from the 1960s and one of director Stanley Kubrick’s best (along with 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange) yet it’s one that I bet many people have never seen. It is a bit of an odd duck, and while some parts of it feel dated (discussions of fluoridation in the water, simple model planes superimposed over sped up background footage) there are many piece that feel just as relevant today as they were 56 years ago when it was released. For those unfamiliar, the basic premise of the film is one of pending nuclear war, which moves from pending to reality when the base commander for the bombers armed with nuclear warheads goes rogue and orders those planes to attack Russia (aka the Soviet Union) without the proper authorization from the president. The commander locks down the base and cuts off all communication, including to the Pentagon so no one can countermand the orders he’s given. The American president manages to contact the Russian Premier and assures him that they are doing everything possible to recall the planes before they can drop their bombs. The Russians manage to shoot down several planes and all the rest are turned back with the exception of one that has a damaged radio. That plane flies on and eventually drops a bomb on an alternate target with the pilot riding the bomb out of the bottom of the plane. There are so many iconic parts of this film it’s hard to get them all down here. From the over-the-top acting of George C. Scott in the role of General Buck Turgidson to the multiple roles played by Peter Sellers, to the stark set used for the scenes in the bowels of the Pentagon, you could go on for days about this film. One of my favorite appearances here is that of James Earl Jones as the bombardier for one plane that doesn’t turn back. If you haven’t seen this classic, I strongly recommend checking it out. It’s a quick watch at only about an hour and a half and feels like even less. It’s a great introduction to Kubrick’s work and much less esoteric than his science fiction follow-up 2001: A Space Odyssey. Available on TCM.com. Day 2 - A film you like that starts with the first letter of your name | Day 4 - A film with a number in the title |
AuthorI'm just a film buff who wants to watch great movies. Where else to find the best, than the list of those nominated by the Academy each year? Archives
May 2023
Categories
All
|