Archive | February 2017
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KUBRICK @Feature #8: 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey
It’s probably a certainty that a better science fiction film will never be made. Certainly nothing smarter, more iconic, or more enigmatic. Yes, special effects will continue to improve over time. But, even for 1968, the stuff from “2001: A Space Odyssey” holds up remarkably well. The first moonwalk to the monolith is slightly unrealistic […]
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Nominated for Best Sound Mixing at the 89th Annual Academy Awards My instincts were strong that I shouldn’t even bother with this one. You know, I really don’t mind being wrong every now and then. But I wasn’t wrong here. Overlong, incoherent, and often amateurish in its approach, Michael Bay’s “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of […]
Florence Foster Jenkins
Nominated for Best Actress (Meryl Streep) at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Nominated for Best Costume Design at the 89th Annual Academy Awards To borrow from a piece I once did on Tom Cruise: I love Meryl Streep. I hate Meryl Streep. Oh, this has absolutely nothing to do with national politics, or awards show speeches. […]
Life, Animated
Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Like quite a few Oscar-nominated releases I’ve experienced of late, this documentary is a wonderful and interesting story, that nevertheless suffers from a few issues in its execution. However, “Life, Animated” does have a ringer, in the fascinating centerpiece personage of Owen Suskind. The […]
A Man Called Ove
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film (Sweden) at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Ugh. File under the “irascible old man loses a loved one, and then is forced to find joy again when kids move into his neighborhood” section. Honestly, the foreign films […]
Jim: The James Foley Story
Nominated for Best Original Song (“The Empty Chair”) at the 89th Annual Academy Awards This is a very tricky area for a film critic. What to say about a man, who performs so heroically in a variety of ways, and ultimately dies a horrific death at the hands of ISIS terrorists? In no way would […]
Lion
Nominated for Best Picture at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (Luke Davies) at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Nicole Kidman) at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Dev Patel) at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Nominated for Best Cinematography (Greig Fraser) […]
Captain Fantastic
Nominated for Best Actor (Viggo Mortensen) at the 89th Annual Academy Awards “Captain Fantastic” is infectious. It reminded me of the “Wilderness Family” movies I attended as a boy. Remember those? It was a trilogy from the 1970’s, about a family that ran away from life in the polluted, capitalistic, big city, and escaped to […]
Kubo and the Two Strings
Nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Travis Knight makes his directorial debut for Laika with “Kubo and the Two Strings”. Mr. Knight has worked as an animator on all of their features (“Coraline”, “ParaNorman”, and “The Boxtrolls”, before this), […]
Reviewed by Mark Leonard 