with Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg
In 1947, successful screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston)
and other Hollywood figures get blacklisted for their political beliefs.
An interesting look into the Hollywood world during the Cold War, through the life of Trumbo, one of the most prolific Screenwriter of the Cinema history. It is definitely the story of an impossible fight against a government
which had lost their way, which finally was won through perseverance and
dare.
The performances are excellent. The mix of historic footage and reenactment are smooth and subtle. The portrayal of the nature of people, when put on a stand is quite fascinating, and the movie doesn't hesitate to describe the different positions public people took during this dark time, which feels honest for once.
with Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Edgar Ramirez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, Elisabeth Röhm, Dascha Polanco
A story of a family across four generations, centered on the girl
who becomes the woman (Jennifer Lawrence) who founds a business dynasty
and becomes a matriarch in her own right. Facing betrayal, treachery,
the loss of innocence and the scars of love, Joy becomes a true boss of
family and enterprise. Allies become adversaries and
adversaries become allies, both inside and outside the family, as Joy's
inner life and fierce imagination carry her through the storm she faces.
Joy... What a journey. What a great story of overcoming your fate and being curious beyond what people think and say. Knowledge is power. Attitude is power. Still with all this, it is not an easy path. All these success story we read about sometimes miss the most important step. The one where people fail, collapse. Because then comes the moment to stand back on your feet, and move forward. Jennifer Lawrence is really convincing as the overwhelmed matriarch. De Niro, Rossellini and Röhm are the wonderful negative forces that always surround you, the voices that tell you you cannot do it, you have to give up. They are so fantastically performing you hate them. And it is good to see Dascha Polanco in something else than Orange is the New Black.
with Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo, Marisa Tomei, Tracy Letts, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Byron Mann, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, Finn Wittrock
In 2005, Wall Street guru Michael Burry realizes that a number of subprime home loans are in danger of defaulting. Burry bets against the housing market by throwing more than $1 billion of his investors' money into credit default swaps. His actions attract the attention of banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), hedge-fund specialist Mark Baum (Steve Carell) and other greedy opportunists. Together, these men make a fortune by taking full advantage of the impending economic collapse in America.
This movie is another depressing look at how financial institutions across the board didn't do anything to prevent the economic crisis that winded up making 8 million people unemployed, and 6 million homeless. And yet it didn't change anything about their regulation to prevent the next bubble. Scary.
Somehow the movie makes us feel sympathy for these guys that looked for a way to make even more money out of the crisis (yes, some of them tried to go to the press and denounce the system, but still), which afterward gives you a bitter sense of justice. If those are the good guys?... The movie is strangely set with a mix of YouTube feeds, people addressing to the camera for education/fact purposes, teaching the financial jargon with a bimbo or a famous person so we would theoretically pay more attention (this is second degree sense of humor I guess, but it is sometimes borderline offensive). Steve Carell is amazing in , the rest of the cast is fine, and the story needed to be told. I guess this could be a winner for the Oscars.
with Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch
With support from his loving wife Gerda (Alicia Vikander), artist
Einar Wegener/Lili (Eddie Redmayne) prepares to undergo one of the first
sex-change operations.
It is sad that the frailty of Lili is performed with too much similarities with Hawking by Redmayne. There was therefor no way to believe that he was Lili and not just another performance of Redmayne. On the other hand, Alicia Vikander (who is everywhere: Ex Machina, U.N.C.L.E., Burnt, The Fifth Estate...) is amazing as a woman who has to evolve ahead of her time in a men's world and has to go through the emotional journey of see her husband transforming into a woman and supporting him through, despite the social convention of the time.
with Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, Sarah Snook, Adam Shapiro, Perla Haney-Jardine, John Ortiz
With public anticipation running high, Apple Inc. co-founders Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) and Steve "Woz" Wozniak get ready to unveil the first Macintosh in 1984. Jobs must also deal with personal issues related to ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan and their young daughter Lisa. Eventually fired, Jobs launches NeXT Inc. and prepares to release a new computer model in 1988. Ten years later, Jobs is back at Apple Inc. and about to revolutionize the industry once again with the iMac.
Great dialogues. Great great dialogues. A bit brainy and of course nerdy, but great. That said, it is strange to see the career span of Danny Boyle, and it is harder and harder to understand its trajectory. One of the unusual traits of this movie is almost the lack of climax... Because when the presentation starts, we are out. Because the success story outcome is not part of the movie. Because the movie focuses on the process, the personal journey and the relationships Jobs has over the year with his employees, collaborators, investors and family. Somehow after the end of the second segment, we get the pattern and the movie looses its rhythm, so attached to the structure it becomes a constrain. Kate Winslet's character Joanna Hoffman (and most likely the real Hoffman) is irresistible in clashing with Jobs, and the best part of the movie. And of course, as an Apple user since my first computer, I found the behind the scene of the development of what became a successful brand and product fascinating.
with Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson, Lukas Haas
While exploring the uncharted wilderness in 1823, legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) sustains injuries from a brutal bear attack. When his hunting team leaves him for dead, Glass must utilize his survival skills to find a way back home to his beloved family. Grief-stricken and fueled by vengeance, Glass treks through the wintry terrain to track down John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), the former confidant who betrayed and abandoned him.
Beautiful movie, with beautiful music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and at the same time, tough movie with a character that has only left his revenge, and therefor doesn't offer much in terms of emotions, to allow to relate to the characters. The journey is interesting as you are learning along the way the politics of the time, the survival knowledge of the original owners of the land, how nature can be beautiful or destructive. I get that DiCaprio and Iñárritu might win the Oscar, but I hope they give the Award for best movie to someone else.
with Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Billy Magnussen, Austin Stowell, Sebastian Koch
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers' only hope is New York lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks), recruited by a CIA operative to negotiate his release. Donovan boards a plane to Berlin, hoping to win the young man's freedom through a prisoner exchange. If all goes well, the Russians would get Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), the convicted spy who Donovan defended in court.
Another Fascinating piece of history, and one of the first movie I see that showcase both sides of Berlin, portrays the issues the GDR encountered with its creation and its lack of recognition, and somehow the differentiation they needed to exist apart from the USSR. The topic is of course interesting in terms of justice, and the twisted turns of history that made this story so relevant. The movie is quite stylized, in a good way, but sometimes, Spielberg tends to add so much violin and emotional symbols it feels he is controlling the way we are supposed to feel. It is bothering.
with Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d'Arcy James, Billy Crudup
In 2001, editor Marty Baron of The Boston Globe assigns a team of
journalists to investigate allegations against John Geoghan, an
unfrocked priest accused of molesting more than 80 boys. Led by editor
Walter "Robby" Robinson (Michael Keaton), reporters Michael Rezendes
(Mark Ruffalo), Matt Carroll and Sacha Pfeiffer
interview victims and try to unseal sensitive documents. The reporters
make it their mission to provide proof of a cover-up of sexual abuse
within the Roman Catholic Church.
The movie is unpretentious, and takes us through the investigation process without taking us for stupid nor embellishing the story with climax and stylized cinematography. Its characters are real people, not heroes, the bad guys are not one-sided a-holes, or demons... It is a very particular theme as it unveils one of the toughest battle against the Catholic church and its almost absolute immunity. The historical context is also quite fascinating as it comes at a time where the main focus of the news is the attack on World Trade Center. Still, the impact the story had and the continuing research to convict those men who abused over the years children under the protection of the church is a definite must tell. Performance are impeccable, script is solid, definitely a contender for the Oscars.
with Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr, Nicholas Hammond, Heather Menzies-Urich, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner, Kym Karath
A tuneful, heartwarming story, it is based on the real life story of the
Von Trapp Family singers, one of the world's best-known concert groups
in the era immediately preceding World War II. Julie Andrews plays the
role of Maria, the tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey who becomes a
governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children,
and brings a new love of life and music into the home.
Oh what a delight... And finally, after 32 years (yes...), I finally saw it. And "Edelweiss" finally was put into place (so many reference throughout the years I have missed :).
And I don't even mention "These are a few of my favorite things" line that somehow the next day, a friend was posting on facebook in regards to, well, some of her favorite things.
The story is of course very cute and naive (read right after the discrepancies that the movie has with the real life of the Von Trapp), and the love dynamics between the Captain and Maria are well, not really a very feminist view, but the songs and Julie Andrews are so pretty, and lovely, and refreshing.
The parallels between Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music are quite interesting, which quite explains why it has been hard to see Julie Andrews as anything else but a beautiful and perfect young nanny. But who cares, this movie is a fresh breathe in this movie making factory of Hollywood that these days fails to care about good stories and still make us laugh. So much drama, or in the comedy genre, so much stupidity. No wonder why it is still to this day the most watched movie in history.
A look at the life of philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt,
who reported for The New Yorker on the war crimes trial of the Nazi
Adolf Eichmann.
I was looking forward to watch the movie, after recording and editing a segment for the DVD release in the US, featuring Margarethe von Trotta, Barbara Sukowa and Janet McTeer.
The movie surprised me by creating an internal conflict between what we are politically correctly thinking and what she stood for, in a philosophical way. She was indeed quite a thinker, and in a way, a free woman, free from her origins, free from her upbringing, and freed from her own past. Yes, she might have written all the bitterness and pain the people trialing Eichmann felt, but she detached herself from the personal, and studied the situation as in a world where people would behave in an expected manner, and modeled it to understand what has gone wrong. Her accusations are hard to take, and perhaps her expectation for a entire community to unite and remain organized in a total chaos targeting them are a little high. And on the other hand, her views of the Nazi regime authorities were a little too much about organization and not so much about people's personality. But as hard to believe as it is, it indeed created two complete opposites that in her argument created one of the worse chapters of our history.
I forgot to mention the performance of Sukowa which is very good, on top of it because she is performing in English most of it, and developing complex ideas in an intelligible way. It is a pleasure to attend what could have been one of Arendt classes and lectures. Her husband played by Axel Milberg is amazing in creating that intimacy that helps us see Arendt beyond her lack of sensibility as a philosopher. Janet McTeer is the most unusual character, reflecting on the superficiality and brilliance of the mind of Mary McCarthy.
with Barbara Sukowa, Janet McTeer (Portrait of a Marriage, Albert Nobbs), Julia Jentsch, Axel Milberg, Ulrich Noethen, Michael Degen, Nicholas Woodeson, Victoria Trauttmansdorff, Klaus Pohl
This dramatic rendering of a real-life tragedy recounts the final hours of Oscar Grant, shot by San Francisco transit police on New Year's Day, 2009. In portraying the energy Oscar brought to life, the film mourns the tragic loss of a unique soul.
This is not a movie I was going to watch, and when I did, It reminded me of the recent excesses of the police in Ferguson, and how justice is often slipping away from its true definition. Racism is still overly present, and with a minority of African American in the police, the police isn't doing a great job proving itself impartial. Anyway, another sad story it is important to hear, to see... The tragic end of Oscar Grant isn't a pattern that we can't change.
This adaptation of Larry Kramer's riveting stage drama is a love story set against the dark background of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, centering on a gay activist who tries to raise public awareness but encounters myriad obstacles.
A powerful story that beyond the political struggle to be heard is a very human story, with impressive performances from all the cast, through frustration, despair, incomprehension, loss, and vague moments to beauty and hope. This movie is sad, the tragic following and the nowadays situation make the story even more powerful.
Jamie Foxx portrays rhythm and blues legend Ray Charles, who rose from obscurity to become world famous despite losing his eyesight at age 6, a hardscrabble upbringing, repeated struggles with racism, romantic letdowns and his own heroin abuse.
What I love about the movie is the combination of amazing music, and the incredible journey that has been the life of Ray Charles. If is filled with choices, definition of right and wrong over the course of a century, how someone can define his own existence, and somehow change the life of so many other, become a symbol of what a man can overcome, without ever making it a cliché or a perfect American story. It follows him in a way that is human, and never looses this perspective. Beautiful. And Jamie Foxx has in it the performance of his life.
Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, the film is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys - seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 - possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind's greatest achievements.
Sometimes, a movie is just really good, because of the actors, the direction, the cinematography, the script... It doesn't necessarily gets a lot of attention, tho important, or funny, or both... This one is one of them. It is familiar, the cast looks like they had a good time, and so do you. Perhaps, this is the main goal of a movie, getting into it and having a good time. Additionally, this one highlights how so much of the art was looted during WW2 and later found in an attempt to return them. Fascinating.
Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker delivers a powerful performance as Cecil Gaines, who served as the White House butler under eight presidents. His three decades of service unfold against a backdrop of unparalleled change in American history.
I need to quote that one, I never do and for once, I cannot even tell who wrote that. So here is from the person who wrote on Netflix "Good intentions don't necessarily make good movies. Forest Whitaker is very good but all the stunt casting (to cite a famous critic) made some of it seem like an SNL skit. Robin Williams is Robin Williams as Eisenhower. Oooh look! It's Jane Fonda! And Oprah should NEVER try to act. [...]" and 95 out of 96 members found this review helpful! I found it hilarious and right on... Here is another one: "[...] HEAVY-handed -- but then, anything Oprah puts her stamp on is! And, a horrible choice of actors to play the presidents -- John Cusack as Nixon??? Robin Williams as Eisenhower??? What were they thinking??? And please... stop casting Mariah Carey in anything!" Although I would add it is a good way to summarize the changes in politics in the US.
Based on the 2009 investigative book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, PHILOMENA focuses on the efforts of Philomena Lee, mother to a boy conceived out of wedlock - something her Irish-Catholic community didn't have the highest opinion of - and given away for adoption in the United States. In following church doctrine, she was forced to sign a contract that wouldn't allow for any sort of inquiry into the son's whereabouts. After starting a family years later in England and, for the most part, moving on with her life, Lee meets Sixsmith, a BBC reporter with whom she decides to discover her long-lost son.
Philomena is an interesting movie, told with a very naive point of view, but of a terribly tragic story. One that reveals a society of the 60s when religion was able to make you a sinner for the rest of your life, but also a powerful business administration, where poverty was just a facade. The story of the son is also symbolic of how the 80s in their own way were backward. Philomena, as naive as she may look like, is also a nurse who has seen it all, so it definitely is confusing when it comes to her fundamental views and shame. Steve Coogan is excellent, Judi Dench as Philomena is definitely unsettling, but I don't know if it is because of her character and how extreme are the different positions she takes over time, or if there is a discontinuity in how she portrays Philomena, and I know how amazing is Judi Dench, so definitely, the movie left me unsettled.
Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stockbroker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government. A New York stock broker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case that includes mob infiltration into Wall Street and the corporate banking world.
Irritating... It felt like Scorcese worked a lot in some scenes, wanting us to get the smaller picture, the day to day, the more personal perspective... but the characters don't evolve and you feel you are just stuck with very long repetitive scenes, with huge gaps between them. The performances are so exaggerated that you get confused to the point that you might actually be looking at a film like Bridesmaids or Superbad, except that this time, you are watching a true story.
Loosely based on true events, this drama follows Ron Woodroof, who refuses to accept he'll die in 30 days when he's diagnosed with AIDS in 1986. He extends his life and eventually helps many other AIDS patients by smuggling medications from abroad.
Yes, McConaughey and Leto's transformations are impressive. And it helps understand the drastic situation the characters are in, so close to death. The time that is portrayed is an important one in the fight against AIDS but also the fight the people with AIDS had to do to confront homophobia, fear of all kinds in the matter of how that illness is transmitted, but most of all, the fight against the thin line between government and pharmaceutical companies, once more (see Puncture).
The autobiography of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was abducted from New York state and sold into slavery in the mid-1800s, serves as the basis for this historical drama. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Northup, and Brad Pitt plays an abolitionist.
This is a powerful movie, and it portrays the endurance of someone who knew freedom and got back to slavery. It is interesting that this story is not about good and bad, but how you slowly can loose your humanity surrounded by horror, and do things you'd never knew you were capable of. There is a wide range of white people from the South and the North portrayed, to make you rethink the different mentalities, and how bad can be worse, in perspective. The acting is so impeccable that there is nothing you can do not to hate Michael Fassbender, be as lost as Chitewel Ejiofor... No matter if you last saw Ejiofor in Kinky Boots or Fassbender in Prometheus... The only weak character that was a little moralistic was played by Brad Pitt, who guest stared as the Southerner with ideas of the North. He is so handsome and feels so much like the producer who wanted to have the good role, that it breaks the flow, although thanks to his character, Fassbender makes an important point: it wasn't that easy thinking differently in the South.
When Walt Disney sets his sights on obtaining the rights to the children's classic "Mary Poppins," he reaches out to the book's author, P.L. Travers, only to find that she proves a tough nut to crack.
As a Disney's production, this fits perfectly, with caricature characters and a happy ending story. The movie abuses of violins and clichés to make you cry... The story although is an interesting one, since it is part of the history of the making of "Mary Poppins", and definitely was well documented since its author, Travers, required that every meeting would be recorded. It shows the fascinating behind the scene, how the songs and the movie evolved from an initial draft, who and how the character were to become... Definitely a story that had to be told.
