Review: A Fantastic Woman
This is a cross-post with Third Coast Review. It’s often said that film is the most collaborative of arts. It takes a village, so to speak, to create ninety minutes of story and visuals that move us, inspire us, scare us, entertain us. When everything comes together seamlessly, no one aspect of the film overshadows any other. There are those cases, of course, where a certain element of the production trumps all others. Sometimes it’s the score that soars over every scene, or the cinematography that breathtakingly captures a world on screen.
Review: The Breadwinner
This review originally appeared on Third Coast Review. Every year, after the Oscar nominations are announced, the dust settles and a few titles rise to the top as head-scratchers. How the heck did that get nominated for an Academy Award? There’s one such movie in this year’s Best Animated Feature category, although mercifully it is not The Breadwinner. (I’ll give you three guesses which it is…it starts with a B and ends in …oss Baby.) From the studio that created The Secret of the Kells and Song of the Sea, both masterpieces in their own right and both also nominated for Oscars, The Breadwinner is a universally stirring drama about a…
And the Oscar Goes to…
…someone on this list. That’s right, it’s Oscar Season! Arguably entirely meaningless in the face of a crumbling democracy, a deteriorating planet and so much else, I’m nevertheless going to put far too much thought into the nominations announced on Tuesday morning and the meaning behind them all. You’ve been warned.
Watch This: The Salesman
For years promoting the U.S. releases of foreign films, again and again I heard them described as “quiet.” Quiet and compelling. Quiet and taut. Quiet and affecting. It’s no wonder so many worthy imports fail to reach a large audience. Who wants to spend two hours watching a lot of quietness – which is to say, a lot of nothing – on screen? Which is why, even though it is in many ways, I will not describe Asghar Farhadi’s arresting new drama The Salesman as quiet. Yes, it employs more than one long stretch of dialogue-free action, and yes, the power of the film is in its nuances, the reaction…
If I had a vote…and let’s say I do
The Oscars are a tricky beast. There really is no way to know who the Academy gods will favor, and any effort to hazard a guess is all but pointless. So let’s!
Giving you fair (cinematic) warning.
Over the years, wherever I happen to be blogging at the moment, I tend to take time in the Fall to share my excitement about the coming movie season. Because Fall and into the Winter is a veritable candy store of the best films of the year. If you happen to be a kid who loves movies like most kids love candy. With the Oscars (and every other major awards) hitting in the beginning of the new year, studios release their heaviest hitters at the end of the year (so Academy voters remember them come voting time). Besides, with rare exception in the likes of special effects categories, no one…
