A film shot over more than 15 years, even as separate vignettes, doesn’t seem like it’d be as cohesive as this one is. There are a lot of themes that flow through the eleven stories that go beyond the simple idea of small groups of people drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes together. Not surprisingly Bill […]
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, Željko Ivanek, and so many more.
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
Max takes a bit of time to get started, but once it has, it’s a compelling story of a young, neurotic Adolf Hitler. Torn between the call to be an artist and the pull towards German patriotism, Noah Taylor plays Hitler with the agitated jumpiness of a desperate tweaker. John Cusack brings a higher quality […]
It is incredibly hard to know what to do with someone who is tormented simply from living in this world. Support for them and for their loved ones is the best we can do but sadly sometimes that’s not enough. This film is about a boy who found life so insufferable that he was contemplating suicide from a very young age, eventually falling prey as a teen. Drugs sometimes help, but with all medication there are compromises that are made. Unfortunately it is the ones left who are then forced to deal with the pain and emptiness that is now an unavoidable part in their life.
Directed by Louis Kahn’s son Nathaniel, this film is essentially two separate stories. The first is a tour of the architect’s works, which is intriguing in its own right for this rather light fan of architecture . The second is the director’s attempt to come to terms with his father’s personal life and general absenteeism as a parent. Filled with interviews with an array of renowned architects and acquaintances of Kahn, the film is weaker for trying to meld these two disparate bits together, but for me was still worth it to be exposed to Kahn’s work.
Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features
During the Bosnian War, men from both sides of the fight find themselves trapped together in a trench between battle lines. The UN is impotent to help, as mere observers to the war going around among them. There are a number of light moments in this satire, but it would be a disservice not to offer the spoiler that the ending is as bleak as it can be. War is futile.
Oscar Win: Best Foreign Language Film
Stupid Oscars compulsion making me watch more Woody Allen films. This one is filled with unlikeable characters: unlikable crazy Spaniards and the extremely unlikable pretentious Americans who invade their country and their lives for the summer. This has Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Chris Messina, and Patricia Clarkson. There are dozens of better films to watch them in.
Oscar Win: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Brooklyn’s Finest is filled with cop clichés: the veteran officer only days from retirement, the undercover cop getting pulled into the crimes he’s supposed to investigate, and the mostly good guy who is sadly forced to go bad by the circumstances of life. Despite the weak story, the cast, including no less than Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere, Lili Taylor, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Wesley Snipes, does its best with the material at hand. The various stories all come together in a terribly contrived climax that attempts to make the whole thing cohesive.