Friday, January 31, 2020

2019 Oscar Nominees


-->
Weaker than average crop, but here goes, worst to first:

Black Panther – Interesting premise, but got silly—bloodshed seemed avoidable. They probably could have talked through their problems rather than engage in more black-on-black violence. Maybe I’m just too old for this. Grade: C+

Vice – Christian Bale was amazing as Cheney, and Steve Carrel was hilarious as Rumsfeld. It had some great scenes, but few revelations. Grade: B-

Bohemian Rhapsody – Entertaining, but full of inaccuracies. They took the formula for a rock star bio-pic, plugged in a few details from Mercury’s life, and overdramatized the rest. Grade: B-

Green Book – Great acting, good story, but I’ve seen a lot of ‘white hero in the face of racism tales’, and so have you. That shouldn’t take away from the story, but, Grade: B

Roma –This was borderline-boring at times, and I think filming in black and white is a cop out, but ultimately it was unique and memorable. Grade: B

The Favourite – I had no idea what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised by its humour. Grade: B+

Blackkklansman – I enjoyed it, and from what I read after, it is faithful to the real story. Grade: A-

A Star is Born – I didn’t realize this was the 8,000th remake, but it’s the first I’ve seen. I suppose you can argue it follows the rockstar biopic formula too, but at least it didn’t pretend to be a true story, and was contemporary, and had good original songs, and great directing—I especially loved the opening scene. Grade: A

No comments: