Image = Best of 2016 & Pre-Oscar Rants

My Best Movies of 2016:

Manchester By the Sea
La La Land
Denial
Florence Foster Jenkins
Captain Fantastic
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Other People
Sing Street
A Man Called Ove
The Meddler
 
Honorable Mention:
 
Hidden Figures
Lion
20th Century Women
Café Society
Genius

I’ve said this before and it needs to be said again. Katharine Hepburn won 4 Academy Awards (which is a solitary record) and she never attended a ceremony or campaigned in any way. And they weren’t all in the early part of her career. Kate won her 4^th Oscar in 1981. I HATE that The Oscars have become both a popularity contest and an annual exercise in “Who do we owe this year?” Here’s my soapbox about both the great and the overrated this year.

Casey Affleck

1 – Manchester by the Sea is a masterpiece. Kenneth Lonergan dramatizes and beautifully directs the subject of extreme grief with humor, humanity and an incredible use of eclectic music. Lonergan’s original script needs to win the Oscar for screenplay because there is nothing else like it. And here’s the blatant truth: Casey Affleck has been in the trenches in mostly supporting roles for 20+ years. His leading performance as a tortured man in Manchester is restrained and beautiful and the bottom line is… It is Casey Affleck’s year. I don’t care what has unearthed from his personal life during this awards season. He is THE Best Actor of 2016. Period.

2 – La La Land is also a modern masterpiece because Damien Chazelle achieved making a romantic musical in 2017 that is visually stunning and (spoiler alert) does not have a happy ending! The actors (Emma Stone & the great Ryan Gosling) are honest & vulnerable and it takes guts to sing on screen with naturalistic singing voices. The film deserves a lot of acclaim for being unique, ambitious & absorbing. I’ve seen it twice and it was better the second time.

3 – Now for the bitching:

Fences is a play on film, not a movie. Denzel Washington & Viola Davis did it on Broadway in 2010 and both won Tonys so I don’t see why it needed to be made into a film – except maybe vanity. The film is very dramatic but not at all cinematic. Denzel the Great as Director does nothing interesting with his film adaptation. His acting is interesting but not compelling because there is not enough editing. Denzel already has 2 Oscars (#2 owed to him). He does not need a 3^rd for this movie. I LOVE and greatly respect Viola Davis but I feel like the Oscars (and all the major awards this year) are making up for the incredible injustice of NOT giving her the award for Best Actress for The Help in 2011. I would give the award for Best Supporting Actress this year to either to Michelle Williams in Manchester or Naomie Harris in Moonlight.

Arrival is one of the worst movies I have EVER seen. Unbearably slow, boring, nonsensical and badly written. I don’t understand ANY of the acclaim for it.

And I know this is not going to be a popular comment – but – both Loving & Moonlight are so slow I stopped caring what happened on screen. The stories are significant but the filmmaking is so tedious that I cannot appreciate the finished product. I can acknowledge certain performances though – and I think Joel Edgerton was brilliant as usual, as were Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris.  

4 - Some major oversights this year:

Maybe the most underrated actress alive Annette Bening in Mike Mills’ lovely tribute his own mother, 20^th Century Women.

The entire cast of Denial. Tom Wilkinson, Rachel Weisz, Timothy Spall & Andrew Scott. All brilliant, as is the film.

Hugh Grant in Florence Foster Jenkins. I would give him every Supporting Actor Award for graciously holding his own opposite Dame Meryl Streep. And if not Hugh, runner up is the gorgeous & vulnerable breakout performance by Lucas Hedges in Manchester. Although another flagrant oversight is the remarkable 5 year old non-actor Sonny Pawar, who carries the first hour of Lion with ease.

Shafted for TWO great performances was Janelle Monae. Wonderful in Moonlight and scene stealing in Hidden Figures. It's shocking that she didn't get a nomination for Supporting Actress. 

The Meddler is arguably Susan Sarandon’s greatest role ever and the film got NO recognition. It’s wonderfully written & poignant. Susan & the movie are just brilliant. See it.  

And lastly - one awesome thing:
Because I am watching the Indie Spirit Awards right now, I have to say that I LOVE that Molly Shannon won for Best Supporting Actress for the very affecting Other People. Justice for a tiny little indie and an actress who can do both comedy and drama.

Image = Best of 2014

The Fault in Our Stars
Birdman 
Obvious Child
Whiplash
The Theory of Everything
The Imitation Game
Pride
Magic in the Moonlight
The Skeleton Twins
Wish I Was Here

and this is why...


The Fault in Our Stars is my favorite movie of the year because it was the most satisfying film going experience I had all year.  Fault is wonderful all around - one of the best written films EVER and the performances are simply stunning.  Shailene Woodley is rapidly becoming a seriously great actress and Ansel Elgort seemed to come out of nowhere this year to be both radiantly charismatic & heartbreakingly vulnerable in this film.  It is a beautiful story of first love which was made for 12 million dollars and has already grossed ten times that.  It is proof that real stories about real people, when done well, can perform at the box office.

Birdman is definitely the best picture of the year because there is nothing else like it.  It is a technical marvel.  It deserves Best Picture and Best Director and every technical award it can get.  All the performances are great as well – especially Michael Keaton and Edward Norton.  I love Michael Keaton and would love to see him win an Oscar, but this year Redmayne edges Keaton out.

I wrote a whole blogpost about how remarkable Eddie Redmayne is in The Theory of Everything and how he SHOULD win Best Actor. He simply is THE best actor this year.

Whiplash is the most aptly named film of the year.  It is one of the most distinctive, exciting and unpredictable films I have ever seen.  Everything about it is electrifying, including JK Simmons, who deserves every award for Best Supporting Actor.

Obvious Child is bold, honest & hilarious and I want Jenny Slate to win Best Actress at the Independent Spirit Awards because she is wonderfully dimensional and this is the epitome of a great, low budget, female helmed indie.

The Imitation Game is a gorgeous, very British, tragic period piece and Benedict Cumberbatch does an impressive job in the lead.  Keira Knightley also matured as an actress in her role.  Amazing to me is the fact that Mark Strong is not getting any acknowledgment for his supporting performance.

Pride is the little indie that could.  It’s great.  A true story of the unlikely alliance of an LGBT club and a group of miners.  Wonderful ensemble led by breakout Ben Schnetzer and including Paddy Considine, Bill Nighy, Dominic West and the always superb and underrated Imelda Staunton.  Just see it.

I wrote a blogpost about how special Magic in the Moonlight is.  The best part is the extraordinary script and how Colin Firth commands attention every moment he is on screen.

The Skeleton Twins is another great indie – a dramedy about survival and the resilient connection between siblings.  It was great to see Bill Hader take on more serious material and the whole film, whether it makes you laugh or cry, is emotionally impactful.   

And – after all the hoopla about Zach Braff raising money on Kickstarter, Wish I Was Here is an exceptionally funny and sweet movie about the definition of family and finally growing up in your 30s.

2014 was another great year for films big and small – but mostly small.