Hacksaw Ridge

I'm always a sucker for a great historical drama, so I was really excited to see "Hacksaw Ridge," one of this year's Best Picture nominees. I was amazed that Andrew Garfield was able to take on two major lead roles in 2016- the other role was the lead in Scorsese's "Silence," another astounding film that I don't think received enough credit. I used to write off Andrew Garfield as simply an okay actor. He gave a pretty good performance in "The Social Network," but it didn't leave a strong impression. He then got on my bad side when starring in "The Amazing Spider-Man," because no one does Spider-Man like Tobey Maguire. That being said, 2016 was the year of Andrew Garfield. I now have so much respect for him as an actor, as he gave an incredible performance starring in two of this year's biggest films.

"Hacksaw Ridge" told the true story of Desmond Doss, a WWII medic that refused to hold a gun let alone kill another man in war due to his faith. This film was directed by Mel Gibson, which frankly deterred many people from seeing the film. People's strong negative reaction to a film directed by Gibson truly demonstrates the importance of maintaining a positive reputation in Hollywood. Gibson is known for his anti-Semitic comments as well as alleged domestic abuse- these were bound to discourage many people from seeing the film. Believe me, I am equally horrified by Mel Gibson, but I am a strong advocate for separating work from personal life.

Desmond Doss, played by Garfield, was a Virginian Seventh Day Adventist who enlists in the army as a medic. His religious beliefs make him a very distinct WWII medic, however- he does not believe killing a man is ever okay, even in a time of war. Due to his strong beliefs, he refuses to even hold a gun let alone use one. His peers strongly react negatively to this seemingly odd behavior, making it very difficult for him to feel accepted in the army. I don't want to give away everything that happens in "Hacksaw Ridge," but essentially the film tells a compelling true story about a hero. There's something deeply moving in Garfield's portrayal of deeply spiritual Doss, a raw tenderness that is uncommonly found in films depicting war. Garfield played a priest in "Silence," so it was really fascinating to see him depict two very different characters that still had a common thread of spirituality.

Over all, I really enjoyed "Hacksaw Ridge." I don't think it'll win Best Picture, and I don't think it should. Yet, it's still a movie worth watching. The story, despite being about war, will lift your spirits. You're guaranteed to be amazed by Andrew Garfield's performance.

La La Land

Ah, "La La Land." The movie everyone loves to love. This movie, written and directed by Damien Chazelle, starred Ryan Gosling as Sebastian, a struggling jazz musician, and Emma Stone, an aspiring actress named Mia. Honestly, I have pretty mixed feelings about "La La Land." When I initially heard that Ryan Gosling was starring in a movie paying homage to traditional Hollywood, I jumped for joy. That being said, my initial love for the film has significantly diminished. I could provide commentary on what I thought of the performances, direction, cinematography, and other aspects of film that I traditionally touch on in my blogs, however I think it is much more important to express my frustration towards the reaction to "La La Land."

Don't get me wrong, I really liked "La La Land." I think it was a really exceptionally crafted movie and had a lot of fun watching it. However, I strongly take issue to the extreme positive reaction it received from critics, particularly in regards to award nominations. People have reacted to "La La Land" as if it is this novel idea to film- there is nothing original about musicals, in fact the intention of the film was to pay homage to musicals of the 1950s. "La La Land" is up for fourteen Oscars- that's almost unheard of. While I think "La La Land" was a strong film, I most certainly think that nearly every other Best Picture nominee is more worthy of a win. I genuinely think a lot of damage can be done if "La La Land" wins Best Picture this year. A lot of progress has been made following #OscarsSoWhite- formally beginning two years ago (although this has evidently been an ongoing issue). There's certainly been an increase in diversity in nominations. 7 minority actors were nominated for their performances this year. This improvement is significantly noteworthy- I distinctly remember being horrified two years ago that David Oyelowo wasn't nominated for his portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Ava DuVernay's "Selma." Although it is great that nominations for Oscars this year are more diverse, there is a strong likelihood that "La La Land," featuring a nearly all-white cast (with the exception of John Legend, playing a musician who in fact breaks away from traditional jazz), will sweep at the Oscars this year.

It was easy for critics to be charmed by "La La Land." It is a love letter to Los Angeles and the world of entertainment. I think there are several aspects of "La La Land" that are deeply flawed. For instance, Gosling's character, Sebastian, plays a jazz musician hoping to open his own jazz club. He spends much of the film explaining jazz to Emma Stone's character. It is important to recognize that jazz is rooted in African American culture. Its fundamental roots tie into oppression of black people. I understand the importance of reintroducing jazz into mainstream society, and think this film made a great effort to do so. My guess is, though, that jazz enthusiasts wouldn't necessarily think of this film as a progression in showcasing jazz. Jazz is a raw, emotional art form, and "La La Land" didn't attach much significant emotion to the music specifically. I think there could have been changes made to the film that could have made it so much more meaningful. Imagine if Sebastian, or even Emma Stone's character, Mia, was portrayed by a black actor. I'm really impressed that Gosling learned how to play great jazz piano music for this film, but I would have liked to see a relatively unknown black actor, perhaps one with an actual background in jazz, portray this character. We already see the story of white people succeeding in Hollywood time and time again. It would be revolutionary to create a production such as "La La Land" demonstrating a minority figure struggling and succeeding to make it in a predominately white industry. Instead, we see two exceptionally narcissistic white leads leaving behind true love to further their careers.

I do recognize that "La La Land" is a great film despite these flaws. I really didn't want to reiterate the million reviews already posted raving over it. I wanted to challenge the major issues that aren't getting talked about as much. "La La Land" serves to emphasize white favoritism in Hollywood. I just hope the Academy can recognize the critical and timely importance of the other best picture contenders. "Manchester by the Sea" tells a story of contrition. "Moonlight" tells a story of identity. "Lion" tells a story of raw hope. These themes, among others, have much more gravity and importance than the superficial themes of ambition in "La La Land." It's definitely a fun film worth seeing, but I do not think it's entirely worthy of the high praise it's receiving.

Moonlight

Personally, I am ecstatic about the success of "Moonlight". With the Academy Awards less than a week away, I still cannot believe that "Moonlight" has 8 nominations. I saw this film upon its initial release in the fall, and am kicking myself for not writing a review immediately after seeing it. That being said, it is a true testament to the wonder of this film that I am still so touched by the story that unfolded before my eyes so many months ago.

"Moonlight," directed by Barry Jenkins, tells the heartbreaking story of a young African American man's search for himself over three parts. Over the course of two hours, the audience sees main character Chiron experience agony, joy, pain sorrow, love, and nearly everything in between. Chiron is a black, gay man that continuously struggled with his sense of identity. This movie emphasizes the human struggle of finding one's identity. The true gift this film delivers to the audience is a deeply focused story on one boy's life, that ultimately delved into broader themes of human identity. Some of the other themes addressed in this film are masculinity, sexuality, and family. The amount of detail that went into this film continuously astounds me. This was a small budget film, costing around $5 million (as a point of comparison, Spider-Man 2 cost $200 million). Every single shot, every single line of dialogue, every single note in the soundtrack played a vital role to the film's overall success.

As previously mentioned, the film is divided into three parts, "Little," "Chiron," and "Black". These names serve as labels Chiron identified with throughout his life. In the first stage of the film, the audience meets a young Chiron hiding in a strange apartment from kids looking to beat him up. He was found by drug dealer Juan, played by Mahershala Ali. This moment marked the start of a relationship between the two, where Juan served as a father figure to young Chiron. The plot of the film gets more intertwined when we learn that Chiron's mother is a drug addict- in fact, her dealer is Juan. While this aspect of the film became more messy later on, Chiron's relationship with Juan became an integral part of his development as a child. Next, the film focused on Chiron as a teenager. It is even more evident at this point in the film that Chiron cannot seek any sort of emotional support from his family. Chiron then formed a relationship with a new friend, Kevin. His sexual confusion is heightened in the relationship between these characters- a confusion that will burden Chiron for a long time to come. This relationship will reappear with a larger significance in the third section of the film. Towards the end, the film focused in on the shift in Chiron and Kevin's relationship. As Chiron grew up, he grasped on to the aspects of masculinity that surrounded him in his world. This cloak of masculinity came as a surprise to Kevin when he began to know Chiron again. Through Kevin's reaction, it became apparent to Chiron that this front further complicated his self-identification. It is through Kevin's relationships with others that we are able to witness the complexities of self-identification. Chiron is in the midst of self-discovery throughout the entirety of the film, presenting the potential idea to the audience that people are forever changing and continuously working towards finding their true selves. While this colossal idea is presented to the audience, the message is in no way preachy. This is magically executed, as the entire story is focused around the way Chiron shifts his behaviors in efforts of finding himself, and allows room for the audience to find the message on their own.

The acting in this movie is a major part of what makes "Moonlight" a success. It was a risky move to break the film into three stages of one character's life. When casting three actors as the lead, filmmakers have to feel confident that three different people can portray the same character. These actors are not only believable as the same character, but while doing so they demonstrated the growth of a character. The acting in "Moonlight" was remarkable across the board. The portrayal of Juan by Mahershala Ali has my vote for Best Supporting Actor. Naomie Harris, who played Chiron's mother, also delivered a powerful performance. It comes as no surprise to me that Ali and Harris are contenders for Best Supporting Actor/Actress.

In addition to the acting, I was also blown away by the cinematography. In an interview I read, the cinematographer, James Laxton, wanted to make the film look "dreamlike" as opposed to looking like a documentary. He believes that it is common for many social issue indie movies to try to take that approach, and wanted to break off from that. His lighting designs brought out multiple dimensions of color from the actors' faces. The bold colors in this film are not only evident in the actor's faces, but in the bright Miami scenery as well. Vibrant palm trees in the background add a new dimension to the dreamlike image Laxton sought. I don't personally know much about lighting and methods used in cinematography, but I do know that the cinematography left a strong impression on me.

Another strong component contributing to the wonder of "Moonlight" was the soundtrack. I tend to neglect soundtracks in my movie reviews, but I think "Moonlight"'s soundtrack really added a new dimension to the film. Listening to the soundtrack, an audience can hear Chiron's sensitivity and tenderness. It may come to a surprise to some that "Moonlight"'s soundtrack consists of classical music. People tend to associate black youth with rap and hip hop, therefore it was a very deliberate decision to incorporate classical piano into the film. It plays into Chiron's confusion about masculinity.

As a whole, I feel as if people gravitate towards "easy" movies. The "feel-good" movies. I've heard from several people who've only seen "La La Land" out of all the nominations for best picture this year- "Oh who wants to see a sad movie? La La Land has music, that sounds fun!" People like to forget about the realities of the struggles people face in their lives. People go to the movies for an escape, and a lot of the time they only want to escape to a happy place. I believe, however, that there is so much more beauty in struggle.

Arrival

I usually avoid sci-fi movies like the plague. I am still scarred from my childhood viewing of E.T.- that alien is scary and I will never understand how this movie is suitable for full grown adults let alone children, but that's another story. There is always the occasional best picture nominee that I am less than thrilled to see, and this year that movie was "Arrival".

"Arrival", directed by Denis Villeneuve, told the story of mysterious alien spacecrafts touching down on various points on Earth. The main character, Dr. Louise Banks, is played by Amy Adams. The other lead characters were played by Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. To be frank, throughout maybe 85% of my viewing experience I was less than impressed with "Arrival". That being said, the ending made the entire movie worth it. I don't want to spoil the ending, but once you know what happens the end, the first thing you'll want to do is rewatch the entire movie knowing what you now know.

In addition to the incredible ending, I also immensely appreciated how real this science fiction film felt. To my surprise, "Arrival" was a very emotional film. Throughout the plot of alien intruders, emotional aspects of Dr. Banks's life are weaved in. "Arrival" differed from many science fiction films in existence. It has a more hopeful tone, as opposed to the typical "end of the world" depiction frequently seen in science fiction movies. The aspect of capturing a glimpse of humanity in science fiction movies has been a recent development (previously seen in movies such as "Interstellar" or "Gravity") which I personally think provides greater depth and meaning to the genre as a whole. These films make us question our place as humans in the greater context of the universe. 

More than science and aliens, this movie was actually about communication and the art of language. In the film, we see a great juxtaposition of Amy Adams's portrayal of a linguistic specialist and Jeremy Renner's portrayal of a physicist. The emphasis on language as opposed to science may have been a personal bonus to me, someone who avoids science at all costs, but in general this reinterpretation of a science fiction film showcased the depth possibility in the world of film. I was impressed by the use of communication through language and not action in a science film.

I also greatly appreciated that the hero of the movie was in fact a heroine. Dr. Banks served as the translator in the film, working towards decoding the messages the aliens were delivering to Earth. The heroine created in this movie differed in many ways from ones we've seen in films previously. Amy Adams's character is soft spoken, logical, and methodical. It was great to see a female character exhibit her true characteristics in a manner that led to a breakthrough. Amy Adams was a wonder in this role. She is such a versatile actress, and this movie allowed her to showcase that even more. She delivers a performance that is simultaneously stoic, thoughtful, and sensitive. Dr. Banks worked towards learning what these aliens, the Heptapods, wanted, and did so in a manner that was true to herself, regardless of her objecting colleagues. Despite the continuing chaos surrounding her, Dr. Banks stuck to her guns and continued to work through the madness in order to get the answer she wanted- the answer that humanity needed. The subtleties of Amy Adams's character are truly the driving force of this film.  

Another aspect that really surprised me was the smoothness and beauty of the cinematography. I always associate science fiction films with insane CGI depicting crumbling buildings and terrifying aliens. The cinematography in this film however felt pure. It had a much more natural feel to it than traditional science fiction cinematography, which was another very pleasant surprise. 

Regardless of whether or not you like science fiction films, the shock value of the final scene in combination with the performance delivered by Amy Adams will truly make your viewing experience worth it.

Lion

After nearly accomplishing my goal of watching all of the best picture Oscar nominations, I am long overdue to share my thoughts on these films. My personal favorite film of the season was "Lion" directed by Garth Davis. I may have found this to be my favorite Oscar contender, yet there has been surprisingly little press coverage and box office success upon its initial release. 

There is an important aspect to film success that people cannot discredit- marketing. The best movie in the world can be released, but what good does that do if no one goes to see it? While I think that "Lion" has generated more buzz since its release, initially they did very little marketing. Even when Oscar excitement started in December, I never saw an ad in a magazine or newspaper, or even a trailer on TV. Think about the marketing utilized in other nominated movies- "La La Land" billboards everywhere you turn, beautiful print ads depicting the Fences cast, even low-budget "Moonlight" effectively utilized social media. When relentlessly asking my friends about the movies they've seen lately, few people even heard of "Lion" let alone bought a ticket to it. That being said, as the days leading up to the Academy Awards narrow down, "Lion" is doing remarkably well at the box office and overall has remarkably improved and expanded its reputation.

Now onto my commentary on the actual movie! "Lion" may not have the highest critic scores of all the best picture nominees, but there are countless aspects of this film that place it highest on my scale. "Lion" depicts the true story of an Indian child named Saroo who gets separated from his family. The audience is exposed to the heartbreaking survival methods Saroo endures in hopes of being reunited with his mother. Later in the film, Saroo is 25 years older and living in Australia. In all that time, he has not given up on his dream of being reunited with his mother in India. He uses Google Earth technology in attempt to find her. I won't give away what happens at the end!

One aspect of the film that most impressed me was the acting. The first half of the movie stars 8-year-old Sunny Pawar, playing Saroo as a child. I am always blown away when a child can take on such an extensive role and give such a powerful performance. Your heart will break as Saroo travels about India, unable to communicate with the people around him, anxious to get food in his belly in order to survive another day to look for his mom. You feel what he is feeling- lost, afraid, unsure. It is really incredible and difficult seeing a trusting and vulnerable child undergo so much tragedy. The second half of the movie stars Dev Patel, most commonly known for his part in "Slumdog Millionaire" (another favorite of mine). I think it was a fairly risky move to separate the movie into two parts- one depicting Saroo's childhood, the other depicting Saroo utilizing Google Earth decades later. However, the casting of Pawar and Patel allowed for this decision to go off without a hitch. Both deliver such emotional, powerful performances. It was very easy for me to process them playing the same character at different stages in his life. Patel showcases his exceptional acting abilities by demonstrating immense vulnerability. He channels the emotions conveyed by Pawar in the first half of the film, such as hope, resourcefulness, and this rare beautiful blend of realism and optimism.

Many reviews wrote off "Lion" as a been-there-done-that storyline, tragedy and childhood heartbreak that results in a happy ending. It is crucial however to remember that this film is based off of a true story. Rather than thinking of this storyline as overdone, I like to think of it as universal. "Lion" is an exceptionally emotional film that, let's be real, will probably bring you to tears. It is a beautiful story, and luckily this film does the story justice. "Lion" tells the story of a boy becoming a man, finding himself in the midst of looking for his family.