And The Oscar Will/Could/Should Go To..

The Academy announces their yearly nominees every year on January 24^th. That changed this year in order to give the members more time to see the nominated movies and the new day became January 10^th. While I find the idea absolutely ridiculous, it created some unintended consequences this awards season. The first is that it made movies that opened in late December have to really push to get their films seen before the deadline (Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained, The Impossible). The second one is interesting because it deals with the infamous Golden Globes. While the Golden Globes are generally considered a joke and not having an impact on the Oscars, the Academy decided to make them feel less important by announcing their nominees before the Globes occur. This completely backfired because although the Globe winners didn’t get an extra spring into the nominations, they were instead able to springboard the night’s improbable winner into the probable Oscar winner with Argo. As I have previously mentioned Ben Affleck’s snub for a Best Director nomination was both shocking and unfounded, but it was probably the best thing that happened to the movie during the race for Oscar gold. One of the more unpredictable Oscar races turned boring quickly, in large part because of Argo (and Affleck’s) win at the Globes that jumpstarted their winning streak. The extra time didn’t seem to make much of an impact on some races and unprecedented impact on others. Here is my look at who will, could, and most importantly should be taking home Oscar this Sunday.

Best Animated Feature

This one is probably closer than most people think in a very solid field. Of the five movies nominated 4 of them could win and I would endorse it no question (sorry Pirates).

Will win: Wreck-It Ralph

Could win: Frankenweenie and to a lesser extent Brave, but never count out a Pixar film.

Should win: Paranorman (I’m a sucker for stop-motion animation and prefer it to Frankenweenie)

Best Supporting Actress

This race became even more dull due to the additional two weeks of campaigning and was never in doubt.

Will win: Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)

Could win: Anne Hathaway (Les Miseables)

Should win: Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) I told you it was dull.

Best Supporting Actor

In the exact opposite of the supporting actress category, there has never been a true front runner and of the experts I have, all five names have been predicted winners. It doesn’t help that all the nominees are very well deserved and have earned major honors while competing against each other.

Will win: Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln) He wins as a cap to a great career for an actor not too likely to make it back to this stage.

Could win: Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Alan Arkin (Argo), or Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Should win: Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)

Best Actress

When the nominations were announced it was a two person race with Jessica Chastain out in front and Jennifer Lawrence right on her heels. Oh how things have changed. Chastain is now looking to be playing third fiddle and the oldest nominee in history is a 13^th hour favorite.

Will win: Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)

Could win: Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)

Should win: Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) Although I am a little biased as a huge fan of her work in the past two years. If not for her I would be pulling for Naomi Watts (The Impossible).

Best Actor:

If any race was more boring than Best Supporting Actress, this would be it. It was decided the moment casting was announced.

Will win: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Could win: Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)

Should win: Any other year I would say Joaquin Phoenix (The Master) but not against Daniel Day-Lewis.

Best Director:

The front runner for this category is Ben Affleck, except as I stated, he didn’t get the nomination. The remaining nominees will forever have an unofficial asterisk next to their name.

Will win: Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)

Could win: Ang Lee (Life of Pi)

Should win: Of the nominees? Ang Lee. Actually win? Your pick: Ben Affleck (Argo), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), or Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained).

Best Picture:

I pretty much broke this down in the opening paragraph so I will just get right to it.

Will win: Argo

Could win: Lincoln, but it would be a big upset

Should win: Zero Dark Thirty. No question, but unfortunately a very non-political film is being blamed for being too political and glamorizing torture. Watch it and I promise that won’t be the resolution you come to.

Film Review: Hansel & Gretel: WItch Hunters

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters was clearly conceived as a way to cash in on the trend of revisionist rewrites of well known fairy tales and stories. In the last couple of years we have been given two retellings of Snow White (Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman), and one of both Red Riding Hood (Red Riding Hood) and Abraham Lincoln [Lincoln (just kidding, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter)]. The aforementioned films have all had varying levels of financial and critical success and with society’s current obsession with the supernatural (vampires, werewolves, and superheroes) it seems like the perfect time to strike while the iron is hot. Not to mention casting Jeremy Renner who has won men over in films such as Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and women with his good looks while playing Hawkeye in The Avengers was a stroke of brilliance to help make this movie an easy pitch to a movie executive. Throw in some 3D and action sequences and studios had to be salivating at this opportunity. Let Then they made the movie.

The first few minutes of Hansel & Gretel show some true promise. Hansel (Renner) had some corny lines that got legitimate laughs out of the audience and I immediately thought this was a great idea: Play the tongue-in-cheek “we know this movie is cheesy and we will give you everything you’re here for” card. This worked well for films like Snakes on a Plane and Piranha 3D. Unfortunately after those first few lines you realize that this is no joke. There is no winking at the audience and there is no real entertainment either. I don’t fault Hansel or Gretel (Quantum of Solace’s Gemma Arterton) for their inability to save the film because the script they were given was helpless. The plot twists are predictable as soon as they set them up. Example: the magic used by witches have no affect on Hansel or Gretel and they have a mom who they mysteriously knew very little about before her death. As I was typing this I could feel people knowing the connection before the sentence was even finished. The plot is almost non-existent, but what pieces are there are completely formulaic. I don’t even blame the writer/director Tommy Wirkola for the abomination that became Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters. I lay my rest solely on the studio who wanted to simply turn a profit. They gave a B-movie writer/director and asked him to make a blockbuster film because he was cheap and had done well on the B-movie circuit. The studio saw a chance to make money and that’s all this film ever was to them. And unfortunately for the paying public, it’s all it ever will be.

D.

Oscars Get it Wrong. Again.

The common phrase for actors around Oscar season is “it’s just an honor to be nominated.” Well there is one actor who should no longer agree. Leonardo DiCaprio has long been considered one of the best actors of his generation, and for good reason. The man has turned from the teen heartthrob from Romeo + Juliet and Titanic to a bonafide star and quality actor. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has managed to nominate him three times for his efforts. While three sounds like a decent amount for an actor still in his 30s, I argue that it is a disgrace and almost a mockery of the awards system I so dearly love and yet have so much hatred for.

The three nominations DiCaprio has earned were for Supporting Actor in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Best Actor in The Aviator and Blood Diamond. The issue I have here is that he has been in seven movies that have been nominated for Best Picture (Titanic and The Departed which won as well as Gangs of New York, The Aviator, Inception, and now Django Unchained)  and five others that were recepients of Best Picture hype before the nominations were ultimately announced (Catch Me If You Can, Blood Diamond, Revolutionary Road, Shutter Island, and J. Edgar). Overlooking Titanic because I truly don’t believe his work was worthy of a nomination that year, that is a total of 11 movies starring DiCaprio that vied for the top prize in Hollywood over the past 10 years and he was only nominated twice during that time. I understand the politicking that occurs with these awards: The young rarely get nominated because “they will have their chance later” and the older are getting the awards to make up for the fact that they overlooked their amazing work earlier in their career. This should be the point where DiCaprio is getting nominated every 2-3 years, not every 5. In fact his last nomination came 6 years ago. It was looking like he had a chance with Django, playing a villain for the first time but unfortunately he was outshined by Christoph Waltz and had to deal with a split vote from Samuel L. Jackson as well. This was somehow too much for the far too talented actor to overcome. While being in these films is by no means a guarantee that the actor is any good, he is always riveting in his performances. None of the films released in the last 10 years have I felt that he was phoning it in when he so easily could have. In Gangs of New York he held his own with Daniel Day-Lewis who is rightfully considered the best actor possibly ever. In The Departed he went up against Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon, was better than both of them and was ignored again.

In comparison, Tom Cruise has fallen hard from popularity since his 2005 couch-jumping, “I LOVE THIS WOMAN” manic episode, a dissapearace from film, and a return to primarily blockbuster movies instead of the ones that look for Oscar glory and yet he has managed to score three nominations in his career as well. While I personally think Cruise deserved more during his heyday, but when comparing the talent between the two, DiCaprio wins hands down. Most interestingly, DiCaprio has managed to blur the line between an awards-bait film and a film for the masses. Of the 11 movies that had Best Picture hopes in the past 10 years, the average box office gross is over $100 million. Please note I again did not include Titanic in this total, if I did the total would be over $150 million per movie. Considering every year the Academy tries to appeal to the younger, bigger audiences, nominating the man who grew to stardom by being idolized by an audience that is now in their mid-20s starring in a movie that is averaging $100 million at the box office might be the way to go. Once the Academy finally gets that step down, don’t make him jump through hoops and allow more time to pass, give him the award. He has truly earned it.

Note: I wrote this entry on Tuesday, but held off posting it with the hope of a pleasanst surprise yesterday morning. Alas, that did not happen.

Excuse Me Mr. Oscar, You Forgot These Guys!

It’s Oscar season! Nominations came out 2 weeks earlier than the normal timeline, preventing the Golden Globe winners from getting a potential bounce towards a nomination. The upside to this is that the Globe winners will now get a bump towards winning, not just a nomination, however, with the Oscar ceremony still six and a half weeks away there is plenty of time to forget about Sunday’s Globes. The nominations have never been universally accepted and this year was no different. There were also some pleasant surprises that came from this morning’s announcement but since we have the next 45 days are going to be widely focusing on these I figure I will use today’s entry simply to make my gripes about how I feel some things should have gone so we can then forget about them and move on to those still in contention for Oscar glory.

The biggest snub this year is not a single name but instead an entire category: Best Director. Katherine Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty), Ben Affleck (Argo), Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained), PT Anderson (The Master), and Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Rises). Looking at that list I would say that 2013 would be the strongest selection of directors we have had in years. Not a single one of those names will be announced as the winner of an Oscar in 2013. None of them were nominated. The only choice from the Academy’s list that I fully agree with is Ang Lee (Life of Pi). Out of five nominees the Academy got four wrong. I can even accept Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild) because his work was phenomenal and the movie deserves some glory, but I don’t know how he skipped over all five names from my list. In a strong year for directing the statue has practically been handed to Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) for allowing Daniel Day-Lewis to act as president. It’s something that truly baffles me.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Bernie, and Magic Mike all were getting a late push for some nominations and yet were shut out completely. While Bernie (Screenplay) and Magic Mike (Supporting Actor Matthew McConaughey) were pushing for one spot, it was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that had an outside shot for a Best Picture nomination and legitimate hope with Best Supporting Actress for Maggie Smith, and Screenplay and walked away with nothing. While I personally don’t mind these films getting ignored, it was surprising none the least to not see them have their names called at all.

Moonrise Kingdom gets nominate for Best Original Screenplay, and nothing else. When I first saw the film and was hailing it my favorite (for about 2 hours) of 2012 I also claimed that if the list was still a guaranteed 10 nominations I would guarantee it’s place in the field, but with a fluctuating total I didn’t see it happening. I managed to truly foresee the future as nine Best Picture nominees were announced (a surprise in itself) and it is widely believed that Moonrise Kingdom was the next film in line if it would have been 10. Sad to see such a great film get such little recognition.

Speaking of screenplays, the two I was pulling for the most both got left out leaving them completely ignored by the Academy. Looper was in contention for original screenplay while The Perks of Being a Wallflower was hoping to claim one of the adapted screenplay nominations. It looked like they both had a decent chance late in the game, but ultimately they were left off. While not completely surprising for a movie involving time travel and a movie about high school, it would have been icing on the cake.

As you have probably heard by now, Seth MacFarlane is hosting the show on February 24^th. This is clearly done to try and attract a larger and younger audience trying to tap into the success of Ted (which did get a nomination for original song). Unfortunately, they still don’t get what drives viewers: The nominated movies. Nobody is going to tune in to see if The Avengers is going to win for their special effects, and while I don’t think the film was near Best Picture worthy, Skyfall was. There was even talk that it had a shot to break into the mold, which would be a first for a Bond film. Ultimately, this was not to be. Skyfall did receive five nominations but none in the major categories and none that will get Bond fans to tune in.

The Dark Knight Rises was never a legitimate Best Picture threat. It was never going to get Christopher Nolan nominated as director. However, considering the reason there is no longer a rigid five Best Picture nominees is the perceived snub of The Dark Knight there was hope that there would be some nominations to acknowledge the trilogy as a whole. Sadly this didn’t happen. Wally Pfister didn’t get looked at for cinematography, Jonathan Nolan didn’t get recognized for his screenplay, and the effects were apparently not Oscar-worthy. The Dark Knight Rises received a total of zero nominations.

Leonardo DiCaprio. I could go off on a giant tangent here, and I will, but not today. Expect a much more in depth look at this blasphemous snub tomorrow.

The Best of 2012

 

And so it has come. 2012 is over and I have now seen the films I deem necessary to name a definitive list of my ten eleven favorite films of 2012. Unlike the list of under producing films this list requires fewer rules, one to be exact: If it’s released in 2012 it is eligible. Since I am already behind (thanks to delayed Washington releases of Zero Dark Thirty, The Impossible, and Promised Land) I will cut my introduction short and reveal my list.

11) The Perks of Being a Wallflower

This was my favorite book in high school, so when I heard there was a movie being made I decided to approach with hesitance and tempered expectations. After all, how many movies are even comparable to the book? Even after hearing that Stephen Chbosky, the author of the book, was writing the screenplay and directing the film I wasn’t quite sold. I didn’t trust a first-time director with a story that was going to need hands-on direction. Suffice to say, I was wrong to doubt Chbosky. Not only did he keep the major points of the book in the screenplay, but he managed to complete the much tougher task of capturing the tone and feel of the book. The definitive scene from each iteration of Perks involves standing in the back of a truck, speeding, a tunnel, the perfect song, and a feeling of infiniteness. If the scene didn’t work, the movie wouldn’t work but it did. Most impressively I managed to get 8 sentences into this blurb without mentioning the strong performances by the cast. While Logan Lerman and Emma Watson performed above expectations, it was Ezra Miller as Patrick, a character I could never fully picture in the book, that stole the show. He played his part to perfection and truly deserves some love (that won’t come) from the Academy. While the film couldn’t crack the top 10 I couldn’t justify leaving it out completely.

10) Looper   

While I managed to temper my expectations for Perks, Looper was a whole other animal with some outrageous hopes. These expectations came from a combination of things; first there was Joseph Gordon-Levitt who has been a favorite of mine for years, there was his reteaming with director Rian Johnson, director of my second favorite film Brick (also starring Gordon-Levitt), Emily Blunt was the third-billed star, and finally the trailer and premise alone were enough to get the blood boiling. As I sat in the theater watching the film play out the ending became very obvious. Considering Johnson’s two previous films had excellent endings, it felt disappointing that in a movie full of twists and turns the ending could be seen coming a mile away. The true twist was even though you know it’s going to happen there is so much emotion involved and it was so well scripted, it didn’t matter. I was moved and thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

9) The Master   

Technically speaking The Master is one of the most masterful displays of movie making. P.T. Anderson’s direction, Mihai Malaimare Jr.’s cinematography, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, and Amy Adam’s performances are all some of the best of the year. The only flaw in The Master was its lack of enjoyableness. Watching The Master once was a gift. There was so much to take in, and the fact that it was shot in glorious 70mm film made it absolutely stunning. Watching The Master twice is much more akin to a chore. That is not to say the film isn’t great, because it is, but more so saying that it takes a particular mood to take in. I love all of Anderson’s films and this one is no different, although for different reasons. As an avid filmgoer I have learned to appreciate the art of making a movie and make no doubt about it, Anderson is a true artist. There are few movies that can be this perfect in their craft. It feels as though everyone knew they were part of something special and they gave everything they had to keep the perfection but as I learned from The Adventured of Pete & Pete, perfect isn’t always perfect.

8) The Dark Knight Rises   

With The Dark Knight Rises Christopher Nolan’s truly epic Batman trilogy came to a definitive, slightly open-ended, close. Before going any further there are some questions I feel I should answer about the movie. Is it better than The Dark Knight? No. Are there numerous plot holes and issues? Yes. Wasn’t it obvious from the beginning that Marion Cotillard was playing Talia and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the next Batman in training? Yes. Was Bane a disappointment? Maybe a little. Was it all Arthur’s dream? Okay maybe that one was a joke but the others are both valid and not simultaneously. Why? Because it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the movie is able to overcome the expectations, plot holes, obvious casting choices, and a mediocre villain to create a highly entertaining and fitting end to the trilogy of superhero movies that changed the way we look at super hero movies. The Avengers never happens without Batman Begins and while the final installment may be the least of the three, it’s the strongest weak link in a trilogy this side of Toy Story. And those of you who are still complaining about Bane’s voice get your ears checked. His lines are perfectly understandable. Surprisingly, the best part of this fantastic movie is Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of Selina Kyle. Her performance is shifty and moving and one of the best in a series that contains a bevy of Oscar winning and nominated actors. But most impressively, the story told throughout the trilogy truly comes full circle and shows that it was a story worth telling. Luckily for us, it was also a story worth watching.

7) Moonrise Kingdom    

Quirky movies are nothing new. Neither are quirky movies about quirky couples. In fact, Sundance is filled with them every year. To my recollection however, quirky romantic comedies centering on 11 year olds is fairly new. Wes Anderson’s tale of young love and runaways never gets too cute with itself and never becomes cliché. In fact, the movie tends to break many of the clichés that have fallen on the rom-com genre. With all of the staples of a typical Anderson film, from the yellow fonts, eccentric characters, star-studded supporting cast, Bill Murray, perfect soundtrack, and spoonfuls of the aforementioned quirk factor it’s hard to explain what sets this movie apart from his others. Although it is hard to place, there is the omnipresent “it” factor associated with this movie. Both hilarious and heart-warming, Moonrise Kingdom makes a name for itself.

6) Silver Linings Playbook   

I honestly don’t know how to explain this movie in a way that sounds appealing. A film about a man ends his court ordered stay in a mental hospital and heads home to his Philadelphia Eagles obsessed family and tries to win his separated wife back by agreeing to dance with a recently widowed woman. Yeah that doesn’t sound like a watchable movie to anyone. But it is. Maybe it’s the Oscar worthy performances from Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert de Niro, and Jacki Weaver. Maybe it’s David O. Russell’s newfound resurgence as a filmmaker. Maybe it’s Chris Tucker making his first non-Rush Hour appearance in 13 years. Maybe it’s none of these things or maybe it’s all of them. Whatever it is, it works very well. The movie takes a group of flawed characters and makes you care about them and ignore the ridiculous sit-com presence to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Just ask Bret Easton Ellis, who is already naming it Oscar's Best Picture winner.

5) Argo        

This movie was billed as being such a crazy premise that it had to be true and that only in a movie would an idea this ridiculous actually work despite it’s true story background. As the U.S. embassy is being protested and eventually raided in Iran six workers manage to escape out a back door and take refuge in the house of a Canadian ambassador. The word gets back to U.S. authorities and they come up with a plan to get them out of the country and back home to safety: Location scout in the area for a fake sci-fi movie named Argo. The theory is they will all have legitimate reasons to be in the country as long as they can memorize their aliases in the short time frame given. Interestingly, while watching the film play out you only realize that this could truly work, not that it is an absurd idea that shouldn’t have a chance. Yes, liberties are taken with the true story portion to make the movie more dramatic, but the over-dramatized parts are the ones that make the movie stick and the reason the movie made my top five.

4) Skyfall      

While watching Skyfall I noticed many similarities to The Dark Knight. With the significantly darker tone, the willingness to put the characters in actual danger, the unexpected humor, the Hans Zimmer-esque score, and the overall themes the film almost comes off as more of a sequel to the Batman story than the actual sequel. And it works. I say almost because this movie is still definitely a James Bond film. No longer is the Daniel Craig iteration of the character trying to be Jason Bourne, instead, he is comfortable in his own skin. However, the pieces that Sam Mendes seemingly lifted from The Dark Knight only help heighten the movie. They took what works for a real world super hero and gave it to a man who is larger than life, but not necessarily indestructible. With some new old friends (welcome back to the franchise Q and Moneypenny) Skyfall managed to be a breath of fresh air. As the 23^rd Bond film in 50 years, that is quite a feat.

3) Safety Not Guaranteed   

After becoming my favorite film of 2012 back on its June release, Safety Not Guaranteed’s run as #1 came to an end Christmas day. That said, I find the film no less entertaining, fun, moving, or beautiful than it was that first June day I saw it. In my experience when you watch a great film, the next movie you watch rarely makes much of an impression on you. This is probably because it’s rare to watch two exceptional movies in a row. On that hot June day I went to the theater in a poor mood and was just hoping to be distracted for a few hours. I saw Moonrise Kingdom and proclaimed it my favorite movie of the year (I literally sent a text message saying as much). Two hours later that was no longer the case as the credits for Safety Not Guaranteed were rolling. Needless to say I ended up leaving the theater in a much better mood and was able to enjoy my third and seventh favorite films in all of 2012 back to back. I cannot get enough of this movie and still feel like placing it third on this list is unjust to the amount of entertainment I have gained from it.

1a) Django Unchained    

Django Freeman, the fastest gun in the south. A superhero origin story for a man without a super power. The latest installment in Quentin Tarantino’s filmography does service to the western and revenge genres while keeping his record as spotless as ever. The first time I watched Django I loved it. The second time I watched it I was able to appreciate it. The more you watch (good) movies, the more you notice the little things that directors put in and catch foreshadowing in obscure lines. Tarantino’s movies are always good for multiple viewings and will hold up every time. This movie has proved to be no exception and I will be happy to revisit Django trying to rescue his lovely bride Broomhilda anytime.

1b) Zero Dark Thirty  

Back in 2009 Katherine Bigelow and Quentin Tarantino released movies that would go on to garner plenty of awards nominations. Both films were fantastic and made my top 10 lists, but there was no doubt in my mind that Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds was the superior film to Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker. This year my decision is not nearly so black and white. I really don’t know how to make a true comparison. So I cheated and listed two movies at number one (in alphabetical order for the record). What I do know is that Zero Dark Thirty cranks up the intensity, impressive for a film with an ending that is public knowledge. I also know that Jessica Chastain gives her best performance to date and considering her 2011 included Coriolanus, Take Shelter, The Help, The Debt, and The Tree of Life that’s saying something. I know that it isn’t always easy to watch but it’s also impossible to turn away. I also know that the top Oscar prize is unlikely to fall on either film, I will gladly call Zero Dark Thirty and Django Unchained the best two films of 2012.

Honorable mentions: Lincoln, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi

Film Review: The Impossible

The Impossible does everything it can to let you know that it is based on a true story. After showing the obligatory sentence stating as much the rest of the sentence fades and the words “true story” remain on the screen for a few seconds longer. The first few scenes are just the typical shots to show this is a typical English family on a typical Christmas vacation going through the typical issues of work problems, children fighting, and overbooked hotel rooms. These scenes are necessary but boring typical and only used to establish that this family is typical (if typical looks like Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor). But the second that a blender’s power dissipates and the fruity concoction inside is no longer spinning the movie takes a turn away from the typical.

That power outage of course was the result of the impending tsunami that struck Thailand in 2004 is coming and takes about thirty seconds to hit the posh beachside resort where our typical English family (consisting of the aforementioned Watts and McGregor as the parents to three boys aged between 5 and 10) is staying. Once it hits, with effects so breathtaking it will make you forget about the only memorable part of Hereafter, we are shown Maria (Watts) clutching to a tree with rapidly moving water trying to pull her away. She hears and sees her oldest son Lucas (Tom Holland making a phenomenal acting debut) floating downstream quickly and lets go in order to save him. In the process we see her get stabbed in the ribs by a tree branch that will make you wince for her After quite the episode, the two are finally united and find their way to safety. The adrenaline dies and we see just how hurt Maria really is and that she is powering through simply to save her son. In a very emotional exchange while looking for shelter Lucas and Maria hear someone crying for help. Maria wants to look for the unidentified voice while Lucas, who was made queasy by seeing his mother’s leg wound is adamant about saving themselves. The exchange is the first of many highly charged scenes that are sure to pull at your heart strings as Maria tries to reason that she is only acting as she hopes someone else would for her other sons Simon and Thomas. Lucas meanwhile screams at her that they are dead and the top priority should be to get to safety since the next wave that comes is sure to kill them. Needless to say the mom always wins and they end up finding a young boy named Daniel who is very loving towards both Maria and Lucas. These three manage to find a tree to get some sleep and a floating soda can to help with their thirst. They are found by a local tribe who take care of the trio and end up taking Maria and Lucas to the hospital while caring for Daniel. The acts of courage and kindness that the locals show are the equivalent of American idealism and show that it isn’t just America that rises to the occasion in times of tragedy, but the human race as a whole. While Maria is lying in the hospital in and out of consciousness she tells Lucas to that he should help people, take care of them, as he has proven to be very good at that so far and she isn’t going anywhere. Another moving scene involves him going through the hospital taking down names of missing relatives from those who are searching and he goes through the many areas of the hospital calling out the names trying to reunite anyone he can. This is all before we even see Henry’s (McGregor) point of view from the whole storm. He is left at the resort looking for his missing family members and risking his life in the process. He explains his reasoning for the risks by telling one of the two sons that have survived with him at the resort that the scariest part of the storm was not the water hitting, but when he first came up and was completely alone. It was when he saw his two youngest clutching to a tree that he was able to be strong. During his search he is stuck with multiple difficult decisions that no person should ever have to make.

There is so much to this movie that should make it completely cliché, including the first act, but the powerful performances by the cast, some well done writing, and a clear vision from director Juan Antonio Bayona (who’s only other full length film was the underrated The Orphanage) are able to pull the film up into something emotional and special. The tears the audience members were audibly shedding were not due to the typical contrivances that so often plague these tear jerking true stories, but due to the raw performances put on screen. Reese Witherspoon sent an open letter thanking Watts for her incredible performance and while she wasn’t wrong, Watts is great and deserving of her impending Oscar nomination on Thursday, the true star was Holland as Lucas. As I was watching the movie it was impossible to not feel like this is Lucas’ story and everyone else is just the supporting cast in one of the defining moments of his life. Giving that much power to a child actor who has never been on film before was a bold risk, and one that clearly paid off. Without his powerhouse of a performance (coupled with Watts) this could have become the second coming of the previously mentioned and mocked Hereafter. With them, however, The Impossible has given it a new, much more respectable spot as one of the better disaster survival movies out there.

B

Film Review: Zero Dark Thirty

“I don’t go to the movies to watch a reenactment of the news.” I was recently given this as an explanation as to why someone was not going to go see Zero Dark Thirty, and fair enough. I understand everyone has different tastes when it comes to their movie choices and I will respect that. When given this as an explanation I watched the trailers again and noticed an apparent issue with the advertising campaign: Zero Dark Thirty is not the story of the raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, it is about one woman who has dedicated her life to a mission and will do absolutely anything in order to complete it. Yes that mission is to find and kill Osama bin Laden, but that isn’t the point. This could very well be the story of a woman who wants to become president, this version just happens to be true. I also noticed the trailers almost go out of their way to not show that side of the story with Jessica Chastain having one spoken like (that did not make the final cut of the film) and less than ten seconds of screen time combined. Meticulously researched and considered to be remarkably accurate, Zero Dark Thirty will long be considered the definitive account of what occurred the years leading up to bin Laden’s death, at least until the official reports are declassified. In 2010 Katherine Bigelow had teamed up with her The Hurt Locker partner Mark Boal to create a film known as Untitled bin Laden Project. In 2011 the movie took a new ending and, from the sounds of it, a very different plot due to the successful raid on bin Laden’s Islamabad bunker. While I know nothing of what the original plotline entailed, I can’t imagine it would have been anything nearly as well done as this.

Before the screen shows any images the words “September 11, 2001” appear and for the next minute or so the screen remains black and we hear sounds of news reports, 911 calls, and the panic and hysteria that surrounded the day. There is a telephone call to a 9-1-1 dispatcher describing the intense heat and how scared she was. We hear a loud sound. The dispatcher says “Hello?” Nobody answers. Make no mistake, I am very much opposed to the idea of using 9/11 to draw a connection to characters (just ask me about another movie that does this, I will go on a tirade) and that is not Bigelow’s intention. She uses this minute to remind us what the world was like on that day. The aforementioned panic and hysteria, the entire world focusing on a solitary event, the sadness that followed, the lives lost. When we cameras first start rolling we are now in 2003 watching a POW being interrogated and tortured by Dan (Jason Clarke) with Maya (Chastain) watching on her first day in the field. The torture, including waterboarding, is clearly taking its toll on Maya, who is on her first day, but she refuses to watch from the monitor outside. She will get through this and she will prove to be strong and worthy of the job. Later in the film we find out she is so headstrong when the director of the CIA (James Gandolfini) asks when Maya was approached by the CIA. She says that she was recruited directly out of high school. He then asks what jobs she has been given since signing on and all she says is “to find bin Laden.” It’s the only job she ever had, and presumably the only one she ever wanted. She is perfect for it, or as one of her bosses puts it, “she’s a killer.” The torture does not directly lead to any useful information, however when they lie to the prisoner and tell him his info saved a lot of people and fed him solid food he decides to give the name of a messenger: Abu Ahmed. This single name would be Maya’s major point of emphasis over the next 8 years. Maya is convinced that this name carries significance and will lead her to where she wants to get. As the years go by she is present at a hotel bombing, her car is shot at, and her friends die. All this time passes and her lead is a dead end and bin Laden is still out there.

The rest of the story is well documented and unnecessary to go over here. What is necessary to mention is the brilliance of Chastain. She manages to become unrecognizable in her portrayal of Maya. This is without using prosthetics, massive weight gain/loss, or any of Hollywood’s other makeup tricks because she doesn’t physically transform at all. The mentality and power of her performance left me forgetting I was watching an actress at work and instead had me believing this was just Maya. She manages to stand out among an all star cast of supporting characters in Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Harold Perrineau, Mark Strong, Fredric Lehne, Mark Duplass, James Gandolfini, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Taylor Kinney, and Mike Colter. I came into the movie as a big fan of Chastain from her work in Take Shelter and The Tree of Life, not to mention her Academy Award nominated work in The Help, but I left the theater as a believer that she is one of the best actresses currently working. The perfect examples is after Maya has found what she believes to be the compound where bin Laden is staying she decides to write 21 in red on her bosses window for the number of days that have passed without anything happening. She is shown multiple times changing this number and she brings something new and more frustration each time it happens. It’s a small thing, but those are where actors show their true skill.

As far as the movie is concerned, ignore the Senators debating about the realism of the torture scenes, the fact that you know how it ends, and the idea that this is just glorifying the murder of a man (justified or not) and realize this is a movie about something much smaller. The president who declared the war on terror is never screen or mentioned and the president who ordered the raid is never mentioned by name and is only shown on a television explaining to an interviewer that the U.S. is a peaceful nation that will not torture people, while Maya watches with a look that practically screams “but then we could get somewhere!” This movie was not made from the left or right-wing perspective and it was not made to glorify or damn torture. It was made to show one woman’s remarkable fire and determination through a 12 year journey. 40% of her entire life was spent for this one mission and she has given everything for it. The final scene after she gets what she wants, what she was recruited and trained to do, tells us everything we need to know.

A