Inspired by the true story of a young Hong Kong baseball team, this film is set during a time of much change in Hong Kong. The film itself doesn’t really offer much of any commentary on these changes. Instead it’s a fairly expected coming-of-age story with a team sports setting. Somewhat low-budgety at times, I […]
Stylistically I just can’t get into later career Kubrick. I had tried watching this years ago, at that time ending during the home invasion scene, but my current commitment to watching Oscar films is relentless. I’m not turned off by the excessive violence, though I find no interest in Alex as a character, since it feels very cartoon-ish. Instead, it’s the mod-y but futuristic British vibe that runs through the film. I think I need to keep a list of films that give off that vibe; Tommy is another. 
Oscar Nominations: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Film Editing
The first time I watched this I was mostly annoyed because I found the 1962 version vastly superior. This version is flashier and prettier and more blatant in its story telling, but I appreciated all that much more this time around. The story of a United States Army unit of soldiers being brainwashed by a multinational organization wanting to gain more power and influence fits too well in these modern times of fake news, alternate realities, and foreign influences across societies. It takes some interesting twists but the ending is a bit unsatisfying. But, there’s also no denying that there is an incredible amount of talent in all levels of the cast: Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Jeffrey Wright, Ann Dowd, Ċ½eljko Ivanek, and so many more.
As someone who is middle aged, I spend more time than I wish to admit assessing my own physical decline and fearing any level of dementia that the future may hold for me. I thought Still Alice was tough enough to experience. Told from the point of view of the person suffering the disease, this film is my nightmare. Though I would have given the Oscar to Chadwick Boseman, I could not fault Anthony Hopkins’s performance and how he deftly portrays the various emotions such a person would experience every day.
Oscar Wins: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Adapted Screenplay
Oscar Nominations: Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Production Design
Filing this one as another Oscar film encouraging me to learn more about events I know nothing about, in this instance the Kosovo War. The film centers on the story of two school-aged friends and their experiences with a handful of Serbian soldiers. It’s rather manipulative and heavy-handed, but sadly many nominated short films are.
Oscar Nomination: Best Short Film, Live Action
This movie is hard to write about. The atrocities committed by American soldiers sanctioned by the government, particularly during the War on Terror, is both frightening and unsurprising. There’s an incredible sadness for anyone who finds themselves in the crosshairs and helplessness to do anything about it. The world needs to be better.
Oscar Win: Best Documentary, Features
Loaded up with maybe all of her earthly possessions, a woman boards a train. And that’s about the last of what I understood was going on in this story. That experience seems to be the same for the woman as well. The animation is fascinating and full of small details.
Oscar Nomination: Best Short Film, Animated
I haven’t decided yet if I really intend to review all of the films I have logged or watched. This is one of those films that make me lean toward not. I just don’t have a lot to say about it. It follows 20 years in the life of a boy and his family who […]
Two Oscar categories take me on journeys that I would probably not partake without my commitment to Oscar watching: documentaries and foreign films. Without documentaries, I would not have learned about the life of Paul Pena, the blind blues musician best known for writing “Jet Airliner”, nor the existence of Tannu Tuva, Richard Feynman’s slight obsession with it, and the culture of Tuvan throat singing. There’s a bit of this that feels like watching people’s travel videos, but it’s still an interesting journey. I took away from it a new appreciation of artists and ways of paying tribute to others’ cultures. 
Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features
I love the original 7th Heaven. The story itself is overly sweet, but in the original, the chemistry of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell makes it work. In this version, they do not. I do love James Stewart, but generally that’s for when he’s an American guy next-door, not a Parisian sewer worker. He does look so very young and trustworthy. I gradually warmed a bit to her in this part and some of it might be her accent sticking out amongst the rest of the cast, but Simone Simon’s voice and acting was like that of a whiny child through too much of this.