The Plaid Silhouette: 2016

Showing posts with label 2016. Show all posts

Monday, February 27, 2017

2017 Academy Award Winners

In an epic flub that drew gasps of horror — and joy — at the Dolby Theater here, Faye Dunaway mistakenly named “La La Land” best picture at the 89th Academy Awards on Sunday night, but in reality “Moonlight” won the top prize.

The producers of “La La Land” were still thanking their families and fellow artists when the interjection came that “Moonlight” had in fact won, as everyone wondered if that was a joke. But it wasn’t, and the “La La Land” people quickly exited the stage as producers and stars of “Moonlight,” just as stunned as everyone else, walked on.

20th Century Women (2016)

The new critically acclaimed comedy-drama, from writer/director Mike Mills . It tells the story of a single mother, in 1970s California, who asks her two friends to help her raise her son. The movie stars Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, Lucas Jade Zumann and Billy Crudup. It's received mostly rave reviews from critics, and it's also been nominated for several prominent awards. I absolutely loved it.

The film is hilarious at times, and there's several all-time classic scenes in it. The performances are all great (especially Bening and Gerwig) and the characters are all likable . The movie is also extremely touching, and involving. I cared a lot for all of it's main characters; I really wanted them all to succeed, and be happy.

Lion is based on Saroo Brierly's book "A Long Way Home," which chronicles his search for his biological mother from whom he was separated under strange and devastating circumstances when he was five years old. This film has been on my to-do list since I first noticed it a couple of months ago. And it turned out this movie is the best tear jerker movie of this year for me.

The story tells about 5-year-old, vulnerable Indian boy Saroo who gets lost on a train and travels thousands of miles across India away from his dear family. Saroo faces many hardships of life all by himself. Eventually he is taken in and adopted by a caring Australian couple. Years later Saroo feels a part of himself missing and is filled with murky memories of his past as a young child in India. Using Google Earth, Saroo is determined and passionate to find his lost family through the use of this tool.

BAFTA 2017 Winners

This year's Bafta Film Awards boasted a particularly formidable line-up of nominees. La La Land led the pack: 32-year-old director Damien Chazelle's nostalgic Hollywood musical has been nominated in 11 categories, and won in four, including Best Picture and Best Director.

British director Ken Loach has finally won his first non-honorary Bafta for gritty benefits drama I, Daniel Blake, which had already bagged the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In his acceptance speech, Loach attacked the "callous brutality" of the UK government.

Hidden Figures

This is the true story of three African-American women who worked for NASA on the Mercury program in the early 1960s. Solid performances by all, some laugh-out-loud scenes, and some very emotional moments. It's also an important look back at the civil rights issues of the time period. The climax is a bit Apollo 13ish, and I'm fairly certain some scenes were embellished, but who cares. You should walk away from this film smiling.

The movie takes place in the 1960s where sexism and racial discrimination is still at a high. There is fear of the Soviet Union since they already have the technology to send astronauts into space, though there is still hope for America. Hidden Figures deals not just with their work at NASA but also the challenges they face in their personal lives, both as friends and individually as wives and parents.

Screen Actors Guild Awards are sometimes dismissed as just another stop on the long road to the Oscars—but Sunday night’s ceremony was anything but business as usual. Outrage against President Trump's new immigration ban took center stage at the Screen Actors Guild Awards — even though the ceremony was full of shocking upsets and surprise winners.

Captain Fantastic (2016)

At first glance, Matt Ross' Captain Fantastic appears to be yet another low-budget independent, festival-friendly effort from a former actor that employs a 'quirky' sensibility and approach to humor, as well as roughing up a popular actor and having them play against type. Yet this tale of a family raised as survivalists by their liberal father who is attempting to shield them from the consumerist society he loathes is one of the most touching films of the year, and one that is careful not to over-simplify the difficult subject matter of how to raise your kids.

Jackie tells the story of former First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, as she struggles to cope with the assassination of her husband, John F. Kennedy. While many people are concerned with the magic bullet theory, Jackie is concerned with the life of the woman behind the 35th President of the United States after she endures having to watch her husband die in that now infamous car ride in Dallas. There is no room for macho-ism here.

I was interested in seeing this film because not only am I a sucker for a good musical, but I'll admit to being a big fan of Ryan Gosling as well as Emma Stone and I was intrigued to see what the director of Whiplash would do with a musical picture to make it fresh and unique. The premise of the story is that Stone is a young actress who has moved to LA to wait tables while auditioning to try and 'make it', while Gosling is a jazz purist who plays the piano in bars to make a living and dreams of opening his own Jazz bar. Or to put it succinctly - "Two young artists meet and fall in love while chasing their dreams". The musical flows thematically from first love to heartbreak and every other emotion between, with great music throughout.

On Tuesday morning, La La Land rode a wave of critical love to tie the record for most nominations received by a single film—14, the same number as Titanic and All About Eve—and it might just be impossible for any other movie to stall its tuneful front-runner momentum. At the same time, a major overhaul of the Academy and 12 months of recovery from #OscarsSoWhite led this year’s awards rise to the occasion by celebrating a diverse pool of actors and assorted film-industry creatives, including Arrival’s Bradford Young, one of the few black cinematographers ever nominated for an Oscar.

All the nominations for the 89th Academy Awards, which take place on 26 February at the Dolby theatre in Hollywood

BAFTAs 2017: full list of nominations

Amy Adams' two films Nocturnal Animals and Arrival are the closest competitors with nine apiece, and she will face her own battle in the category for Leading Actress for the latter, against Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep and Natalie Portman.

Arrival takes nine nominations, which shows that this visually ravishing sci-fi drama about Amy Adams’ linguistic professor trying to understand aliens might well make much more of an impression on Bafta voters than on the electors of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Award Race Calendar 2017

On Thursday (Jan. 5), academy members begin casting their Oscar nomination ballots. They only have nine days to decide on their picks for best pic as well as their favorite achievements in their respective branches. During that time, we’ll hear from the producers, directors, cinematographers, costume designers, makeup artists & hairstylists, sound mixers and visual effects wizards as to their top choices. Before Oscar balloting began, the film editors, casting directors and writers unveiled their slate of contenders while the art directors did on the first day of voting.

You know I am a big fan of sci fi and something related to drama, alien, and space. Thank you to Apollo 13 the first movie that made me obsessed with this genre. Arrival is a mystery, sci-fi movie, directed by Denis Villeneuve, who also directed two other critically acclaimed movies I loved watching: "Prisoners" and "Sicario". This time, Villeneuve takes on the subject of extra-terrestrial life, and the communications between humans and aliens from another planet, starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whittaker in the lead cast.

Sunday night's Golden Globe awards was all about La La Land, with Damien Chazelle's L.A.-set musical winning a record seven awards. But a number of other multiple nominees weren't as lucky. Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea, which went into the evening with six and five nominations each, respectively, only one won award apiece. To be fair, the prizes they did take home were big ones: best motion picture drama for Moonlight and best actor in a motion picture drama for Manchester's Casey Affleck. Experts had Moonlight also winning either best supporting actor (Mahershala Ali) or best screenplay, with Manchester tapped as the nominee that should win for screenplay and best motion picture drama.

HACKSAW RIDGE (2016)

I am not a fan of Mel Gibson,but sure as hell he did make a good movies. Mel Gibson returns to the director's chair with this war epic based on the true life story of Private Desmond Doss, who served in the Army as a medic during the Battle of Okinawa during World War ll. He also happened to be a pacifist, someone unwilling to partake in violence due to his religious beliefs. There at the Battle of Okinawa, one of the bloodiest battles of WWII, Doss ended up saving the lives of many of his fellow soldiers resulting in him being the first conscientious objector in American history to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

I just lower any expectation in my life and that includes when I watch movie. I watch this movie because I love romance and I like the idea of space ship drama. I strongly disagree and totally cannot understand why there are many critics addressed towards this movie. Passengers was wrapped with a beautiful and entertaining atmosphere. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence was very outstanding on the movie. The chemistry between those 2 main character was charming.

Assassin's Creed (2016)

"Assassin's Creed" gamers may be the only ones who truly appreciate the cinematic adaptation of Ubisoft's popular game franchise. No, I've never played "Assassin's Creed," but I've seen the movie and that's enough for me. While critics are being really, really hard on the film, the movie isn't good either.

You couldn't ask for a more prestigious cast. Michael Fassbender continues to defy typecasting, while Jeremy Irons indulges himself as a malevolent villain in a turtleneck. Marion Cotillard finds herself somewhere between Fassbender and Irons, but her character neglects to grasp the realities of her predicament. Her father and she suffer from a rift that neither want to admit until the climax. Charlotte Rampling and Brendan Gleeson lurk ominously on the periphery. Mind you, you won't find a bad performance. Just bad written characters

Okay, Let's say I went to cinema watching this movie with low expectation. But I am a big fan of Felicity Jones's works ( I was there before she got Oscar nom!), so I have to believe in this movie. This has to be the best space battle ever and every actor exceeded expectations. This is a Film that we should all be able to agree exceeds the expectations of Disney and the actors themselves did far better than many would expect.

2017 Golden Globes Nominations: The Full List

Okay, like I said it always been more than a year since my last post. And I will start it with 2017 Golden Globes Nominations. There was lots of love for La La Land and Moonlight from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Some might agree, some might not (because I do think about that as well) Some even laughable and mind blowing. Here it is the full list