Review: Carol (2015)

* * * *
Director: Todd Haynes
Starring: Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett

It isn't until Carol's final, breathtaking scene that you can appreciate just how masterfully director Todd Haynes has controlled the film's tone. For most of its 118 minute running time, it's a tightly contained piece that holds a lot back, but in that final moment the dam finally breaks and it becomes clear that the degree of restraint Haynes has demonstrated in unfolding the story up to that point has been very much a deliberate choice. In terms of the story, it's also a wholly appropriate one, given that the narrative turns on something which must remain hidden due to circumstance, but which ultimately can't be denied. While Carol might seem at first to be too cold and closed off to connect with, it tells such an inherently simple and human story, and is so profoundly moving, that in the end connection becomes easy.

Review: The Big Short (2015)

* * * 1/2
Director: Adam McKay
Starring: Steve Carell, Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling

Writer/director Adam McKay is best known for his broad comedies, having now made several with Will Farrell (both Anchorman movies, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, and The Other Guys), so on the surface he might not seem like the obvious choice to tell a story about the 2008 financial crisis which resulted in the collapse and subsequent bailout of the United States' major banks. However, if The Big Short wasn't a comedy, its story would be too damn depressing to watch. McKay, who adapted the screenplay with Charles Randolph from the book of the same title by Michael Lewis, takes a self-referential, aside-heavy approach to the story that, in its way, seeks to be educational in addition to entertaining and largely succeeds. It's just sort of a shame that the inescapable fact of the story is that, in the end, the joke isn't on any of the characters in the film (or the real people some of them are based on) but on all of us.

Review: Ant-Man (2015)

* * *
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll

Sooner or later, the superhero movie bubble is going to burst simply as a result of saturation. It's bound to happen and possibly quite soon as from 2016 to 2019 there are already 21 such movies planned, with seven coming out in 2016 alone. A feeling of "sameness" is going to start setting in sooner or later, especially when the same story beats keep getting hit over and over again across multiple films. Now heading into the third phase of its cinematic universe films, Marvel has the genre down to a science, but it's also reaching the point where its films could start taking on an assembly line quality. A film like Ant-Man (and, arguably, Guardians of the Galaxy before it), which probably seemed a lot less essential during the planning stages than a film like, say, Captain America because there's a lower awareness of the character in terms of the general moviegoing audience, nevertheless brings something crucial to the whole Marvel project. It's sillier and lighter than a lot of other Marvel movies, but it's also a nice break from the series of movies where the fate of the entire world is at stake and everything gets resolved with a huge battle in the sky.

Review: Brooklyn (2015)

* * * 1/2
Director: John Crowley
Starring: Saoirse Ronan

In less volatile times, a film like John Crowley's Brooklyn, adapted from the novel by Colm Toibin, might seem too gentle to be really important in the wider social context of our day-to-day lives. Right now, released in theaters at a time when politicians are competing with each other to see who can take the most vile and closed-minded position about people who didn't have the good fortune to be born in a place of democracy and/or opportunity, it's a film that touches a nerve and is a reminder that the vast majority of those people who have in the past and are right now undertaking the long journey away from everything that they have ever known and starting over in some place where everything is entirely foreign to them are doing so not to hurt anyone or destroy anything, but to try to have a better life. Brooklyn is, at its core, a love story, but it's also an immigrant story about the bravery it takes to pick up and move into the unknown half a world away, and the opportunities for kindness available to be taken by those who already happen to be there.

Road to Oscar: Winners and Nominees So Far

The awards are still rolling in, with the critics from St. Louis, Kansas City, Utah, Nevada, and Vancouver weighing in (all listed below). In addition, the Critics Choice Awards have made the rare move of adding a nominee to their Best Picture lineup after the fact, making room for a nomination for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Here's how things are stacking up:

Review: Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013)

* * *
Director: David Lowery
Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Ben Foster

Writer/director David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints is like a Terrence Malick movie for people who wish that actual Terrence Malick movies dialed back his stylistic tendencies by about half. It's meditative and beautifully shot, but less elliptical and slightly more driven by plot. Parts of it are really, really good, but overall it feels poorly paced for its 97 minute running time, dragging in many places whereas Malick, at his best, unfolds his films in a way that sweeps the viewer into its current and then floats them along through to the end. This is all to say that while Ain't Them Bodies Saints is ultimately a fine film, it's a bit derivative and generally unexceptional.

Road to Oscar: The Winners and Nominees So Far

The Critics Choice Awards nominees have been announced and even more critics awards have been handed out in the last week, including the Phoenix Critics Circle, Chicago Film Critics, and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society. Here's how things are stacking up:

21st Century Essentials: How to Survive a Plague (2012)

Director: David France
Country: United States

As little as 30 years ago, a government could openly stand back and willfully ignore a health crisis that decimated a community because that community was considered morally and politically undesirable, and hospitals could turn away the sick and dying, refusing them treatment for the same reason. 23 years ago, a President could go on the record as saying that those living with AIDS were suffering as a result of their own “behavior,” a statement which, at best, reads as him saying, “It’s not my problem, so I don’t care,” and at worst as him saying that gay people deserve to be punished for being who they are. When I first saw David France’s How to Survive a Plague about 3 years ago, what surprised me the most was how, in the span of 3 decades, public opinion could go from “let them die” to “let them marry.” Now, having endured so many months of Donald Trump uttering rhetoric that verges on hate speech and becoming more popular as a result, and having seen some reactions to Charlie Sheen’s announcement of being HIV positive that were so ignorant it made it seem like it was 1995 rather than 2015, nothing really surprises that much. Oh, except for a clip in this film of Pat Buchanan on Crossfire where for a moment he actually seems like a reasonable human being before turning it around and reminding you of exactly what kind of closed-minded reactionary he really is.

More Critics Award Winners

A whole slew of awards have been given out by various critics groups in the last couple of days, including the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association, Detroit Film Critics Society, Indiana Film Journalists San Diego Film Critics Society, Southeastern Film Critics, and Online Film Critics Society. Here are their winners (spoiler alert: there's a lot of Mad Max)

Best Picture
Mad Max: Fury Road
San Diego Film Critics Society
Online Film Critics Society

Spotlight
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association
Detroit Film Critics Society
Indiana Film Journalists
Southeastern Film Critics

Critics Choice Nominees

The winners will be announced January 17th. Here are the nominees:


Best Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Sicario
Spotlight

Ten Years Later... King Kong (2015)

The world didn't necessarily need a new King Kong in 2005, but the advances in technology by that point being what they were, I can understand Hollywood's inclination to revisit one of cinema's most iconic characters. I'm not sure why anyone thought it needed to be 3 hours long, particularly when it tells essentially the same story as the 1933 version which ran at a fleet 100 minutes, but I can definitely understand why it was tempting to have another go at the story. Coming off the massive success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, director/co-writer Peter Jackson had the luxury of indulging himself and so he created a King Kong that is more padded than it needs to be, and yet so artful and, at times, so soulful that those self-indulgent stretches are easily forgiven.

Road to Oscar: Post-Globe and SAG Nominations

More critics awards have been handed out since last week, including today's announcements of the picks from Toronto and San Francisco (included in the lists below), but the big news is the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations. Tomorrow the nominees will be announced for the Critics Choice Awards, but until there here's how things are stacking up:

Netflix Recommends... The Paperboy (2012)

* * *
Director: Lee Daniels
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Zac Effron, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, David Oyelowo

The Paperboy was one of the most critically reviled films of 2012, a film lambasted for everything except Nicole Kidman's performance, which received Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe nominations and at the time seemed to be a real threat for an Oscar nomination. When it showed up in my recommendations from Netflix, I was more intrigued than anything, and after watching it I was greatly surprised because it's actually not terrible. It's lurid and trashy, but it's lurid and trashy by design not by accident, and there's something weirdly admirable about Lee Daniel's willingness to get right down there in the swamp with his characters, making the film as down and dirty as the people within it. Parts of it are pretty gross, parts of it feel undisciplined and self-indulgent, but if there's one thing The Paperboy isn't, it's boring.

Review: Amy (2015)

* * * 1/2
Director: Asif Kapadia

By the time of her death in 2011 at the age of 27, Amy Winehouse had long since transitioned to the phase of celebrity when a person ceases to seem like an actual human being and starts to become a pop culture caricature of celebrity excess. If nothing else, it is to director Asif Kapadia's credit that Amy immediately re-establishes its subject as a real person, one with talent and dreams and painful experiences, and then maintains that sense of genuine humanity even as it charts her very public descent from a star embraced for her undeniable gifts to a punchline and tabloid curiosity. Because we know how it ends, Amy is a somber viewing experience, sometimes difficult movie to watch, but it's also totally engrossing and often moving.

Golden Globe Nominations

Best Film, Drama
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Best Film, Musical or Comedy
The Big Short
Joy
The Martian
Spy
Trainwreck

Screen Actors Guild Nominations

The nominees for the Screen Actors Guild Awards:

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Brie Larson, Room
Helen Mirren, Woman in Gold
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Sarah Silverman, I Smile Back

Best Actor
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Johnny Depp, Black Mass
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl

Best Supporting Actress
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Helen Mirren, Trumbo
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Michael Shannon, 99 Homes
Jacob Tremblay, Room

Best Ensemble
Beasts of No Nation
The Big Short
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton
Trumbo

Washington DC Film Critics Winners

More for Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road, Amy, Inside Out, and Son of Saul as the Washington DC Film Critics weigh in. Their picks:

Best Picture: Spotlight

Best Director: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina

Best Supporting Actor: Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation

Best Ensemble: Spotlight

Best Youth Performance: Jacob Tremblay, Room

Best Adapted Screenplay: Room

Best Original Screenplay: Inside Out

Best Documentary: Amy

Best Animated Feature: Inside Out

Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul

Best Production Design: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Cinematography: The Revenant

Best Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Original Score: Sicario

Road to Oscar: The Winners So Far

A whole bunch of awards have been handed out in the last few days, with something like consensus already forming in the Best Picture (Spotlight), Documentary (Amy), Foreign Language Film (Son of Saul), Animated Feature (Inside Out), Screenplay (Spotlight), Supporting Actress (Kristen Stewart), and Supporting Actor (Mark Rylance) races. The Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe nominations will be announced on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, further solidifying certain contenders, but until then here's how things are shaping up so far:

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Winners

Spotlight has quickly emerged as the consensus choice for Best Picture. Here are the winners from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association:

Best Picture: Spotlight

Best Director: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Actress: Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years

Best Actor: Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina

Best Supporting Actor: Michael Shannon, 99 Homes

Best Screenplay: Spotlight

Best Documentary: Amy

Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul

Best Animated Film: Anomalisa

Best Cinematography: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Editing: The Big Short

Best Production Design: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Musical Score: Anomalisa and Carol

New York Film Critics Online Winners

Chalk up another win for Spotlight. Here are the winners from the New York Film Critics Online:

Best Picture: Spotlight

Best Director: Tom McCarthy, Spotlight

Best Actress: Brie Larson, Room

Best Actor: Paul Dano, Love & Mercy

Best Supporting Actress: Rooney Mara, Carol

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

Best Ensemble Cast: Spotlight

Best Screenplay: Spotlight

Best Foreign Film: Son of Saul

Best Documentary Feature: Amy

Best Animated Feature: Inside Out

Best Use of Music: Love & Mercy

Best Debut Director: Alex Garland, Ex Machina

Best Breakthrough Performance: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

Boston Society of Film Critics Winners

Boston Society of Film Critics picks:

Best Picture: Spotlight

Best Director: Todd Haynes, Carol

Best Actress: Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years

Best Actor: (tie) Paul Dano, Love & Mercy, and Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Best Supporting Actress: Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

Best Ensemble: Spotlight

Best Screenplay: Spotlight

Best Cinematography: Carol

Best Documentary: Amy

Best Animated Film: (tie) Anomalisa and Inside Out

Best Foreign Language Film: The Look of Silence

Best Film Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Use of Music: Love & Mercy

Best New Filmmaker: Marielle Heller, The Diary of a Teenage Girl

21st Century Essentials: Amal (2008)

Director: Richie Mehta
Starring: Rupinder Nagra
Country: Canada

In 2008, a film came out about a young man living in poverty in India who finds himself with the opportunity to come into a great deal of money, but who is far less interested in those riches than he is in reuniting with the woman for whom he would do anything. That movie was uplifting and widely celebrated and would eventually be rewarded with the Oscar for Best Picture. But in that same year that Slumdog Millionaire won hearts and minds, another film was released, one with a similar premise but which is ultimately as different from Slumdog as night is from day. In comparison, Richie Mehta’s Amal is a much quieter and slower movie, lacking the glossy high energy of Slumdog, but beautifully telling the story of a good man surrounded by greed and despair, and of the power of money to insulate us from hardship but also isolate us as human beings. It’s a simple story, a modern fable in some ways, but it’s incredibly moving in that simplicity.

Boston Film Critics Online Winners

Another day, another win for Mad Max. Here are the winners from the Boston Film Critics Online:

Best Picture: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Director: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan, Creed

Best Supporting Actress: Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria

Best Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Best Ensemble: Spotlight

Best Screenplay: Spotlight

Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul

Best Documentary: Amy

Best Animated Film: Inside Out

Best Cinematography: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Original Score: Mad Max: Fury Road

New York Film Critics Circle Winners

And they are:

Best Picture: Carol

Best Director: Todd Haynes, Carol

Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Spotlight

Best Supporting Actress: Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

Best Screenplay: Carol

Best Cinematography: Carol

Best Animated Film: Inside Out

Best Non-Fiction Film: In Jackson Heights

Best Foreign Language Film: Timbuktu

Best First Film: Son of Saul

National Board of Review Winners

Let the onslaught of end of the year awards begin. Here are the winners selected by the National Board of Review, announced earlier today:

Best Film: Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Director: Ridley Scott, The Martian

Best Actress: Brie Larson, Room

Best Actor: Matt Damon, The Martian

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight

Best Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Best Original Screenplay: The Hateful Eight

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Martian

Best Animated Feature: Inside Out

Best Foreign Language Film: Son of Saul

Best Documentary: Amy

Best Ensemble: The Big Short

Best Breakthrough Performance: Abraham Attah, Beasts of No Nation, and Jason Tremblay, Room

Best Directorial Debut: Mediterranea

Spotlight Award: Sicario

NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Beasts of No Nation & Mustang