This blog is alive and well.
I’ve included
Oscars and Golden Globes. Low standard deviation this year. No complete duds, but not as
strong at the top either.
Carol – A
lot of ideas packed into this one, yet so many dramatic pauses.
Grade: B-
The Martian
– I can’t tell whether I’m being too hard on it because it didn’t replicate the
book, or too easy on it because I can’t separate it from the book. I’ll err on
the side of being critical because Kapoor was played by a black man and Mindy
Park was played by a white woman, which is ridiculous, if not outright racist.
Visually impressive, but eh.
Grade: B-
Brooklyn –
Interesting glimpses into the period, dull at times, not great writing, maybe
not even good writing, but a tidy enough take on the joys and fears of starting
over.
Grade: B-
Big Short –
Good enough to watch, but like The Martian, the book was so much more complete.
The film leaves out key players—I don’t think AIG was even mentioned—and makes
Goldman Sachs look dumber than they were. I’d even recommend the NPR Planet
Money special as a shorter and more comprehensive summary of the housing crash, but if you want it dramatized, this is entertaining, and still fairly
informative, albeit incomplete and mildly deceptive.
Grade: B
Bridge of
Spies – Humanizes aspects that we don’t often see, clichéd at times
when it didn’t need to be—probably to pay for those big name actors. An
enjoyable watch nevertheless.
Grade: B+
Mad Max:
Fury Road – If you like action, it probably doesn’t get any better than this. I
can’t imagine the budget. (I googled it, it doesn’t even rank in the top 100 budgets
of all time—or the top 50 inflation adjusted.) (I’ve only seen 3 of the top 50
(Titanic [3], Avatar [11], The Dark Knight [46].)
Grade: B+
The
Revenant – If you appreciate directing, this might be the one for you.
Incredible long takes and amazing scenery, and I’m sure they overcame all kinds
of crazy challenges trying to shoot this in the elements using only natural
light. In terms of plot, I preferred it the first time around when it was
called Gladiator, but that said, it was still good enough to keep us up later
than we normally stay up.
Grade: B++
Room – I
had no idea what this was going to be about and was pleasantly surprised by the
range of emotions it took me through.
Grade: A-
Spotlight –
A testament to the role of local newspapers and maybe a final rallying cry that
we all need to be paying subscribers or else investigations like this will
cease and we’ll all turn into brainwashed idiots who watch cable news. As far
as the story itself, I didn’t find it particularly gripping except for a few of
the ancillary characters. I’m guessing the movie’s excessive hype is due to the
fact that almost all professional reviewers work for newspapers, and this movie
is essentially a plea to keep newspapers alive—which is a critically important
topic.
Grade: A-
Extra:
Café
Society – After Magic in the Moonlight and Irrational Man, I was beginning to
fear that Woody Allen was done. But Café Society, while not in his top two
tiers, was watchable (in part because of great acting and beautiful cinematography.) The writing was downright lazy at times, but Allen might still have something
in the tank.
Grade: B
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