The Oscar Project Reviews
It's rare that I watch an animated film, especially a short film with a unique animation style, that doesn't land with me. Navozande is the rare exception.
Don't get me wrong, I love the animation style of this film, but just didn't connect with the story being told. I get that there is some long lost love trying to be recaptured, but it feels like the actual plot, or what little there is, takes too long to develop. If not for the animation in this short film, I would rate it much lower. But the animation is beautiful in its simplicity. The images feel like they are a classic tapestry or parchment drawing come to life. That's what makes it even more frustrating for me. Because I loved the animation so much, I wanted more out of the film and was disappointed by the story connected with the images. I was not surprised to see director Reza Riahi's name attached to a previous animated film about this part of the world, the Oscar nominated feature from 2017, The Breadwinner. I remember this film connecting with me a bit more, perhaps because of a more modern subject, but I hope that Riahi will continue to craft animated stories like this. He has promise and his art style is there, I just think he needs to refine his directorial approach a bit. 6 out of 10
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This is a fascinating documentary look at the crazy media obsessed culture we live in today and the immediate effects our reliance on social media has on our ability to digest and be critical of information.
Wait, this isn't a documentary? That just makes it even more depressing. Don't Look Up is a fantastic political/social satire that gets right at the heart of the problems facing the world today. The horrible part about this film is that nearly every beat is fully believable. The pop-star going on a trendy talk show to spend 20 minutes discussing her recent public breakup followed by a short segment of the same show on a pending cataclysmic event that no one even pays attention to. Yet even as horrible as this is, it's also the genius of the film, getting us to look at this by presenting it in a way that is utterly ridiculous, but completely plausible at the same time. This film is unique in that nearly every character has their likeable moments and their moments when you hate their guts (yes, I said nearly for a reason). The cast is stellar from top to bottom including the likes of Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Timothée Chalamet, and Jonah Hill. It's also nice to see several of these actors playing somewhat against their standard roles. Streep plays the ruthless president, more interested in her party winning the midterm elections than the end of the world. Even Chalamet sheds the meek young man and shows up in the final act as a grungy kid from the street stealing booze from the liquor store. My only qualm with the acting actually comes from DiCaprio's character, but it's more the script or the direction than Leo's fault. His portrayal of Dr. Randall Mindy at the beginning and end of the film is spot on, but he spends the middle third of the film in what seems like a different character that was cut from the script and blended into Dr. Mindy. That small qualm aside, the film made me laugh out loud, ponder my own technology usage, and wonder to myself how much of what we see on the screen actually goes on behind closed doors, or possibly even right out in the open, without most people even noticing. The film is a wake up call of sorts for me and one that will stick with me for some time to come. 9 out of 10
Kingsman: The Golden Circle falls into some of the same traps as 2014's Kingsman: The Secret Service, but manages to salvage the story in much the same way as the original.
Picking up the story of british secret agent Galahad, aka Eggsy (Taron Egerton), Golden Circle introduces a number of new characters starting with the new villain/drug lord Poppy (Julianne Moore). After the Kingsman organization is attacked, Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) seek help from a related organization called Statesmen, based in Kentucky. Here they meet American agents Tequila (Channing Tatum), Whiskey (Pedro Pascal), Champagne "Champ" (Jeff Bridges), and Ginger Ale (Halle Berry). The two agencies combine forces to find and fight against Poppy's evil plan to hold a enormous swath of the human population hostage through the drugs she distributes around the world. As with any good spy flick, there are plenty of misdirections and some double crosses before finally figuring out where all the allegiances lie. Two things work against this film. First, the lengthy cast list. I already mentioned a number of them above and it feels like some of these roles were put in just for the sake of developing a part for the actors that inhabit them. Don't get me wrong, they are all great in these roles, just not all entirely necessary. Secondly, it's a bit long for a popcorn flick like this. There are moments when it feels like it's trying to take itself seriously like a Bond film, but then other moments when it knows full well that it's a campy romp. If it was serious throughout, it may have justified the longer run time, but as something fun, it would have worked better by losing 25-30 minutes. That said, the campiness ends up working in the end. Most of the action scenes are so over the top that you just have to sit back and enjoy the insanity of what's happening on screen. Realizing that these stories are based on comics makes it a little easier to swallow. The action is very reminiscent of comic books and that makes it feel OK in the end. While Golden Circle is not a great film, it is a fun adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat. 6 out of 10 While the film is now nearly a decade old, some of the annoyances remain, but the film as a whole remains a solid adaptation of excellent source material. Why The Hobbit novel was distributed across three films is still a mystery to me, but watching this for a second (or maybe third) time, I appreciate the level of detail Jackson includes. It makes more sense to watch this trilogy AFTER the Lord of the Rings trilogy of a decade prior even though the events happen many years before The Lord of the Rings. There are many callbacks to the earlier films, and a few subtle hints to the events that follow in the timeline of Middle Earth, even while the story of Bilbo and the Dwarves is unfolding near Laketown and The Lonely Mountain. The cast in the film is outstanding, particularly Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular dragon, Smaug. Cast in this role prior to his success in the Marvel films as Dr. Steven Strange, Cumberbatch brings a true menace to the character which can't be understated. Martin Freeman's reprisal of Bilbo from the first film holds the piece together and it is always welcome to see Sir Ian McKellan gracing the screen as Gandalf. A fitting cameo from Cate Blanchett as Lady Galadriel and a strong performance from Luke Evans as Bard of Laketown help bolster this roster. The dwarves themselves tend to blend together as they did in the first film, but Richard Armitage stays strong as their leader Thorin. The Desolation of Smaug is a stunningly beautiful film, as are all Peter Jackson's films set in Middle Earth. It was true serendipity that Jackson hails from New Zealand, the country probably most analogous to Tolkien's world that we have in our earth. While there are plenty of wonderful vistas, there are also plenty of times when the true beauty of the land is enhanced through technological means. Unfortunately, this often comes at the cost of being compared with The Lord of the Rings, which set the bar so high as to be unreachable by anything else. The only other place where Desolation of Smaug falls a bit short is in the screenplay. It is too long, and spends too much time making big deals out of small passages (or non-existent ones) from the book. I understand that Jackson was given carte blanche in making these films, but this is one instance where less would probably have been more. I've long argued that these films should have been a duology at most, and the padding included in this installment just speaks even more to that theory. In the end, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a passable film with good performances from some excellent actors. The choices that bring it down a notch happened well before filming ever started and the filmmakers involved with the production provided their best with the material at their disposal. 7 out of 10 Angelina Jolie's return to the action/thriller genre leaves quite a bit to be desired and neither the visual effects of blazing forest fires nor the Oscar-winning actress can save a script that begs for some cohesive elements to hold it together. Jolie stars as Hannah Faber, a hard drinking, "one of the guys" smokejumper in the American west who has nightmares of a group of boys she was unable to save in a recent forest fire. She is relegated to a fire tower in the wilderness, responsible for spotting potential fires and approaching storms while dealing with her dreams in isolation. On the other side of the country, Owen Casserly (Jake Weber) and his son Conner (Finn Little) set off on a cross-country trek when Owen learns of the death of his boss because of accounting information Owen himself uncovered. He fears (correctly) that he will be the next target and hits the road in an attempt to save himself and Conner from the pair of assassins (Nicholas Hoult and Aidan Gillen) following them. Conner ends up by himself and finds Hannah who he must decide to trust with his life, or continue running on his own. Add some supplemental characters in the mix including the local Sherriff who is Hannah's ex-boyfriend/Connor's uncle and his pregnant wife who runs a survival school in the backwoods and a random appearance by Tyler Perry (who also produced the film) and it feels like a mishmash of stock characters that have little chemistry together and who change their character make-up too much for the audience to get truly invested in who they are. I had high hopes for this film, but it fails to deliver. Director Taylor Sheridan set the bar high with earlier films including his writing efforts on two Sicario films and Hell of High Water, for which he received a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Even his previous directorial outing Wind River had more intensity to it and a strong story. I can't truly recommend this film, but do elevate it from a 4 to a 5 based on the acting of young Finn Little. While I think the directing lacked a bit, his portrayal of Connor feels real and he pulls it off very well, especially opposite an actor such as Jolie. There are just too many things where I stopped and said "that could never happen" in this film, and it took me out of the story. There is potential here, but unfortunately it is not realized with this outing. 5 out of 10 Those Who Wish Me Dead is playing in theaters and available to stream on HBOMax. It's not often I come across a film that makes me step back and consider a new way to experience the world around me. "Feeling Through" does just that and does so in many unexpected ways in its short 19-minute run time. This is the story of a homeless teen named Tareek (Steven Prescod) trying to find a place to crash for the night. After leaving some friends, he notices a deaf and blind man named Artie (Robert Tarango) on a street corner holding a sign asking for help crossing the street. Tareek hesitantly helps the man get to the bus stop before deciding to wait for the bus with him and make sure the bus driver knows to alert him when they reach the correct stop. In some ways, this film is a classic combination of two misunderstood individuals that have little in common on the surface, but discover interesting bonds as they get to know one another. There is also a level of uncertainty throughout the film, and I could not help but question how difficult it is to trust someone that you can neither see nor hear, but can only sense by their touch. I know it would drive me crazy, but someone like Artie doesn't know any different. It is a true testament to the strength of humans that we can adapt to live in any way we need to. What many would term a severe disability is not that, but truly an ability to experience the world in a way that few people ever can. Tarango, the actor who plays Artie, is also DeafBlind and makes history as the first such actor to play a leading role in a film. That alone is reason enough to see this film, but it does not disappoint and I highly encourage anyone to check out this film and imagine how your unique situation affects how you feel your way through the world. 9 out of 10 "Feeling Through" is available to stream on the official film website, www.feelingthrough.com. The most important part of this film is the conversation, but the concerto serves as a jumping off point for the conversation to take place at all. The conversation between co-director Erik Bowers and his grandfather Horace Bowers Sr. comes in the run up to Erik being the featured composer at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. When he sits down with his grandfather, he uncovers a family history that goes back to the Jim Crow south, winds through the mid-20th century when Horace negotiated life as a black business owner, and eventually led to Erik's achievement and recognition as a black composer today. The film is important and hopefully spurs many young people today to have deep conversations with their own grandparents and parents about what things were like when they were young. We take a lot for granted about where the world is today, often forgetting that things were much different just a generation or two ago. By having these conversations, we can hopefully learn from the lessons of the past, and apply them to continue improving our society moving forward. While the film is only 13 minutes long, I would be happy to have a much longer conversation like this in a feature length film. 9 out of 10 "A Concerto is a Conversation" is available on YouTube. There are times when you should just stop reading a review and go watch the film. This is one of those times. No seriously, you probably already have a Netflix account, so go watch this film now before reading another word. Once you've watched the film, please click here to read my review. As the second nominated film from Pixar's "SparkShorts" program, "Burrow" is a cute and family friendly film, but it stops short of being groundbreaking. If you've seen these films on Disney+, you know they are cute and slightly different than the typical Pixar animated shorts we've seen over the years. Like last year's nominee "Kitbull," "Burrow" is a more traditional 2D animated film instead of the 3D animation Pixar has become known for. The film focuses on a young rabbit who has dreams of building her dream burrow, complete with a picture to help her as she digs. She begins to construct her home, but ends up running into all sort of other creatures who have already set up residence in the ground. She tries to avoid these other creatures and soon ends up digging too deep, impacting the water table underground and threatening the entire burrow neighborhood. She must act quickly to try and avoid catastrophe for all the creatures she encountered in her dig. While the story is cute, the resolution is a bit predictable. "Burrow" is not the strongest SparkShort to come out of Pixar in the past year and I was a bit disappointed that neither "Loop" nor "Out" received a nomination. 6 out of 10 "Burrow" is available to stream on Disney+. Part documentary, part rumination on a subset of our world that have been left behind, Nomadland is an absolute gem of a film that must be seen to be understood. On the face of it, it's difficult to see how a nearly two hour film about a woman who lives in her van can be engaging and interesting, but director Chloé Zhao delivers in this meditative film. The story is simple as it follows Fern (Frances McDormand) as she travels from place to place, after losing her husband and her job. She is new to the nomadic lifestyle, but is learning quickly as she interacts with fellow nomads across the country. She eventually meets Dave (David Strathairn) at one stop and the pair strike up a friendship that brings their paths across one another several times throughout the film. You might be asking, where's the conflict in this film? It was a question I consistently asked before watching it, but was surprised to see it materialize on the screen in unlikely places. There is the obvious pull of the relationship with Dave when he decides to settle down with his son and grandson, but there are other smaller things as well. Fern has to learn how to dispose of her own waste on the road. She has to deal with a flat tire and more serious mechanical issues with her van which she turns to her own family for help. While some of these elements are certainly manufactured for the film, they felt real and natural things for someone living this lifestyle to face. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the cinematography and scenic nature of this film. The majority takes place in the Western United States, out on open roads and vast deserts with mountains in the distance. Only when Fern has to ask her family for help do you get any sense that anything larger than a one stop-light town exists in this world. It's extremely refreshing and the entire film has a casual pace that lets the viewer relax and be at one with their own thoughts. If I didn't know who McDormand and Strathairn were and you put this film in front of me, positioned as a documentary about nomads, I would completely believe you. There is nothing forced in the film and that's what feels so great about it. The two leads are surrounded by actual nomads used to shoot the film and these lend an air of credibility to it. The film is well deserving of the many accolades it has already received and I expect it to bring home several more at the Oscars in April. 9 out of 10 Nomadland is available to stream on Hulu. |
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