Movie – The Wind Rises (2013)

The Wind Rises is purportedly legendary writer/director Hayao Miyazaki’s last film.  There are those people (I am among them) who hope that Miyazaki’s retirement announcement is like his previous five and he is inspired to return again.  However, if this is to truly be his final film then he made a great one to cap off a great career.  It has both a moving story and beautiful animation.  If anyone tries to tell you that only cgi animation can be stunning then show them this hand-drawn film.

Movie – Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Let me be honest right up front: I thought this was going to be the film that would break Marvel's winning streak.  A movie about a bunch of strange beings, including a talking raccoon, based on comic book characters that even someone like me, who at one time had read comics for years, knew almost nothing about?  Not a chance.  Marvel had finally reached too far.  Man was I wrong.  Not only was this a massive box office hit for them, it is a hugely entertaining film and it’s my pick for the best movie of 2014.

The Ten Best Films of 2014

Each year that I do this I seem to be a little more reluctant to draw a line and name my Top 10 films of the prior year.  I always want to watch just a few more movies, “knowing” that there’s another one out there that will make my Top 10.  It wasn’t any help getting over that feeling this year when I had not one, but two films that I saw within the last two weeks that are making my Top 10.  I still want to see just a few more, but this is already the latest into a year I’ve waited before posting, so here goes.

I believe I’ve seen most of the big mainstream movies and critically acclaimed films of the year that I felt I might like, including all four Oscar winning films (Picture, Animated Film, Foreign Language Film, and Documentary).  I’ve seen all the Best Picture nominees, all the Best Animated Film nominees, and all the Original and Adapted Screenplay nominees.  I have not seen any of the other Foreign Language Film or Documentary nominees, however.

If you are curious, a complete list of the 65 2014 films that I saw can be found at the bottom of this post.  That’s down from 77 films for 2013 and 101 films for 2012 at the time I posted those Top 10s, so this year’s list may be missing a great one I just haven’t seen yet.

Think the Earth is Big? Think Again.

I was reminded recently that I had saved these images.  They do a great job of illustrating just how big some objects out there in the universe actually are...and by comparison just how small the Earth is when you come right down to it.

Movie – Big Hero 6 (2014)

Big Hero 6 recently won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.  I have seen four of the five nominated movies, only missing Song of the Sea.  Of the ones I have seen I don’t feel there is a clear best film among them.  The Boxtrolls would be at the bottom for me, but this film, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya all have a similar level of quality and entertainment to them.  And all three have characters dealing with a loss at key points.  The other major awards reinforce the parity among the films.  The Annie Awards (ones specific to animation) also picked Big Hero 6, but the Golden Globes selected How to Train Your Dragon 2, and the BAFTA awards picked The LEGO Movie.  Regardless, Big Hero 6 is a good movie that can keep both children and adults entertained.

Movie – Citizenfour (2014)

Citizenfour won the 2015 Oscar for Best Documentary.  Even though I have not seen the other four nominees this did not surprise me.  The subject matter of this film is Edward Snowden – the man who exposed the fact that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had been spying on millions of Americans with no warrants and without even the broad “preventing terrorism” justification given to it under the Patriot Act.  And this was just the beginning; the revelations continued to come out and had a worldwide impact.  Guess what?  There was actually a person there with Snowden as it was breaking in the news and she captured it all on camera.  The result is an amazing inside look at the few days that shocked millions.

Steve’s Selections #3 – The History of Future Folk (2012)

Watching movies nowadays it sometimes feels like low budget filmmakers have forgotten what the primary point of a movie is – to entertain.  (A studio exec would say it’s to make money, but the best way to make money is to make an entertaining movie that people want to see over and over.)  The days of Robert Rodriguez making El Mariachi (1992) for $7,000 and Kevin Smith making Clerks (1994) for $23,000 are long behind us.  Instead, it seems today’s filmmakers feel that to make up for the lack of budget they have to make their movie “artistic”, which is a polite euphemism for “a film only their mother and some professional film critics could love.”  Then just when it seems like all is lost along comes a film like The History of Future Folk to rekindle hope.  I had a smile on my face for most of the movie, either from the humor, or just from the sheer fun of watching it.

Movie – Ida (2014)

Ida won the 2015 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.  It was streaming on Netflix Instant and only 82 minutes long, so it was easy to check it out.  I have not seen the other four nominees yet, so I cannot say if this movie was worthy of winning the Academy Award.  I will say that I wouldn’t consider it an Oscar-worthy movie.  I have a theory as to why it did win and I’ll go into that a little later.  Despite some flaws it is still a movie worth recommending.

February Movie Status

I watched 33 new movies in February, plus rewatched 1 film.

I spent the month mostly concentrating on 2014 films and new entries from the just released 2015 They Shoot Pictures Don’t They list.  My thanks to Bert in The Netherlands for alerting me to the fact that the new list had been released, and especially for helping me track down the hardest to find new entries.  I also watched single entries from two other lists since the opportunity to see them happened to come up.  Finally, I watched a couple more of the new IMDB Consolidated Top 250 entries, but I still have three Indian films, with a combined running time north of 12 hours, left to finish off all the new additions.

As the month started I had 41 entries left to see in the TSPDT list.  I knew the updated 2015 list was coming very soon, so I didn’t bother watching any until that happened.  I was hoping some of the ones I didn’t want to watch might drop off.  In some cases that did happen (i.e. three Sirk melodramas), but not for all I had hoped.

The 2015 list had a total of 77 new entries added to it, many of them documentaries.  Because of the fact that some of the ones that dropped off were ones I had not seen, and because some of the ones added were ones I had already watched, I ended up with a net result of 45 entries I had left to finish the newest list.  That was only 4 more even though 77 had been added.

That was the good news.  The bad news is that I now had a total of a dozen new entries that were more than two hours long, including three that were over four hours long – one of which was nearly six hours in length.  Another entry was for only part 2 of a three part documentary series, but it didn’t make sense to watch just that, so I watched all three, which made for another lengthy time investment.

It wasn’t a complete waste because for the first time this year a list of “the next 1,000” movies was also released and the other two parts were on it.  These next 1,000 are not ranked, but simply listed in alphabetical order.  I have seen 412 of them already.  I don’t know when or even if I might try to work on this newest list.

I have added this “next 1,000” list to my TSPDT post at my Lists from Chip site.  I’ve also included the newest version of the main 1,000, as well as a list of the 435 former films that have dropped off it.  (I have seen 199 of those.  Combined with the 970 I have seen on the current list, I have watched a total of 1,169 of the 1,435 films that have ever been on a TSPDT main list.)

I’m figuring on completing the current version of the TSPDT list either this month or next month, depending on how much I concentrate on it.  I’ve still got 11 entries left that are more than two hours long, including five of the twelve new additions.  I did knock off the three new 4+ hour entries in February.

Here are the 33 new movies I saw in February.  Highlighted films are ones to which I would give at least three stars out of five.

TSPDT (16): A Diary for Timothy (1945), Taipei Story (1985), Grin without a Cat (1977), Doomed Love (1979), Moi, un Noir (1958), Lessons of Darkness (1992), Elephant (1989), La Commune (Paris 1871) (2000), The Battle of Chile Part 2: The Coup d’Etat (1976), The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987), Harlan County USA (1976), Ashes of Time (1994), The Age of the Earth (1980), Hamlet (1964), Arabian Nights (1974), Pickpocket (1997)

IMDB (2): Interstellar (2014), Gone Girl (2014)

101 Genre (1): The Time Machine (1960)

Ebert (1): The Terrorist (1998)

Other Movies (13): Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), Foxcatcher (2014), Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014), Chef (2014), Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984), Snowpiercer (2013), Calvary (2014), John Wick (2014), The Battle of Chile Part 1: The Insurrection of the Bourgeousie (1975), The Battle of Chile Part 3: The Power of the People (1979), When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), Art and Craft (2014), Miss Meadows (2014)

Rewatches (1): Forbidden Planet (1956)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) – Worthy sequel to first reboot.  The cgi on the apes is still impressive and the story is one that you could see happening.  3.5 stars

Interstellar (2014) – Nolan tries to do 2001: A Space Odyssey and for the most part succeeds.  The ending isn’t quite up to the rest of the film and there is one major section of plot that requires all of these extremely intelligent people to all not realize what time dilation’s impact is, even after they just got done explaining it.  4 stars

Gone Girl (2014) – Pretty good, but not great.  The trailer essentially gave away the reveal in the film, but thankfully that occurred about midway through the movie so the rest was not spoiled.   3.5 stars

Foxcatcher (2014) – Good, but not great.  I can see why it didn’t get a Best Picture nomination.  Carell is good, but Tatum is the real star and he didn’t get enough credit for the job he did on it.  3 stars

Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) – I loved the old Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon show when I was a kid, which included the skits of Sherman and Mr. Peabody time-traveling, so I was pre-disposed to like this movie.  3 stars

Chef (2014) – Jon Favreau writes and directs a thinly veiled cooking metaphor for his Hollywood career – critically acclaimed, but little known; then big budget and critics turned on him; then returning to his roots with this film.  3.5 stars

Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984) – The second of Steve’s Selections.  You can read my review here.  3 stars

A Diary for Timothy (1945) – Short done by the British on the hopes for the future now that WWII was winding down.   2.5 stars

Snowpiercer (2013) – Cult film that has good moments in it, but ultimately not one that made me understand the massive amount of fan talk that it has generated.  3 stars

Calvary (2014) – I had heard nothing but good things about this film, so I was very disappointed when it got done.  It had a great opening, a decent middle, and one of the stupidest character endings I have seen in a long, long time.  Yes, I get that it is a Jesus metaphor, but that story plays much better in an ancient world filled with myth and superstition, not our modern world today.   2 stars

Taipei Story (1985) – Slice of life among some Taiwanese people.  Early effort that the director got better at later on.  Watch his film Yi Yi, instead.  2 stars

Grin without a Cat (1977) – Pointless “documentary” that mostly steals clips from other documentaries, and also extols the virtues of communism and how it’s going to be the downfall of capitalism.  In fact, many of the new documentary entries had a very similar message.  1 star

Doomed Love (1979) – 1970s Portuguese TV miniseries loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, whose entry on this list appears to be for no other reason than enough people listing everything this director has ever done on the top-whatever lists and those lists then getting factored into the overall TSPDT list.  2 stars

Moi, un Noir (1958) – Sort of, but not really, documentary on what life was like for young black men in western Africa in the late 1950s.  It chronicles their work lives and then what they do with their free time.  It is actually a fictionalized version of the real thing performed by non-actors who actually did the jobs.  3 stars

Lessons of Darkness (1992) – Werner Herzog’s mostly silent images from after Iraq retreated from Kuwait and set thousands of oil wells on fire.  3 stars

Elephant (1989) – Short in which people randomly go around city streets and locations shooting other random people.  The first few times it is shocking, but then it just becomes tedious.  There is no dialogue and no explanation of why we are seeing this.  I read afterwards that it was a commentary on all the lives lost in Northern Ireland with the Catholics and Protestants killing each other.  The problem is that there is nothing whatsoever in the short with which to understand that so it ends up just being pointless.  Note: Gus van Sant’s film a few years later that is also titled Elephant, and which included a school shooting, had to have been inspired by and/or stolen from this short.  1 star

La Commune (Paris 1871) (2000) – Interesting concept – actors portraying people and journalists in the 1870s, including being in period dress, but with modern news such as TV, microphones, etc and it being done as if it is a newscast or documentary.  Unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me.  It’s also over four hours long.  And the overall message is about how great communism is. 1 star

John Wick (2014) – Better than average action/revenge film starring Keanu Reeves.  The director bucked the trend of using shakycam and instead shot all the action with steadycams, which really allows the viewer to appreciate the skill that went into them.  It also allows them to show that it is actually Reeves doing a lot of his own stunts, including much of the stunt driving.   3.5 stars

The Battle of Chile Part 1: The Insurrection of the Bourgeousie (1975) – Decent introduction to why elected Communist dictator Allende was overthrown by the military in Chile in the late 1960s.  Very biased.  2.5 stars

The Battle of Chile Part 2: The Coup d’Etat (1976) – The events surrounding the actual removal of Communist dictator Allende from power in Chile.  Extremely biased, and something the same director was still bitching about 40 years later when he made his documentary Nostalgia for the Light.  2 stars

The Battle of Chile Part 3: The Power of the People (1979) – Doesn’t really follow the first two parts chronologically, but instead focuses on how wonderful communism is and the nirvana Chile would supposedly have become had Allende not been removed from power.  1 star

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) – British attempt to capitalize on the success of Hollywood’s One Million Years B.C.  Other than seeing great looking women and men in what are essentially fur bikinis/trunks, there’s not much reason to watch this.  The stop motion effects on the dinosaurs were considered top notch at the time.  The dozen or so word vocabulary gets really old after a while as they keep repeating the words over and over and over.   2 stars

The Time Machine (1960) – Science fiction film that does a good job of adapting the book.  There were compromises for the time it was made in, of course, but overall it’s worth seeing as one of the classics of the genre.  3.5 stars

The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987) – Documentary ostensibly about a man trying to get the truth about two deserters from the Japanese Imperial Army that were shot three days after WWII ended.  The problem is the main subject. He feels his cause is righteous, so he is therefore allowed to do anything he wants because his actions will be righteous, too. At best this means being an asshole to most everyone he comes into contact with and at worst it means murder.  In retrospect he probably had a serious mental illness and should have been getting treated somewhere, not running around in front of a camera confronting and physically attacking people.  2.5 stars

Harlan County USA (1976) – Documentary about striking coal miners in the 1970s.  It includes the usual stuff with the aggressive tactics of the coal company to break the strike and how the workers valiantly hang on.  It’s easy to see how this was included among so many pro-communism documentaries that got added to the list this year.  3 stars

Art and Craft (2014) – I'm predisposed to like any film that shows just how much bullshit the art world and art "experts" are full of, so I went into this expecting to like it. It turned out to not be what I was expecting, but I still liked it quite a bit.  The main person in the documentary is a forger who is somewhat mentally ill and copies paintings almost without knowing why he's doing it. He doesn't sell them, though; he donates them to museums as the real thing because it makes him feel good.  He was discovered by a man at one museum who while researching the painting he had received found out that the same painting was already hanging in not one, not two, but five other museums. This man essentially made it his life's mission to expose the forger. There's more than a bit of Inspector Javert in him because the forger is actually doing nothing illegal and the only thing he's doing to upset people is making art curators embarrassed that they couldn't tell his forgeries from the real thing. I was reminded of the film F for Fake.  This is definitely worth a watch and it has something happen that made me sit there and think "only in the art world" - one of places fooled by him actually does a show on his work and has him there as a guest of honor.  3.5 stars

Miss Meadows (2014) – I liked the character and the concept of this dark comedy – emotionally childish woman tries to bring manners to everyone while also being a vigilante, but the film is let down by having an easy-out, clichéd ending.  3 stars

Ashes of Time (1994) – Wong Kar-wai period martial arts film that is unfortunately incoherent for much of its running time.  There are a number of beautiful shots in it, though.  2.5 stars

The Age of the Earth (1980) – What a complete waste of time and film.  If I went lower than one star this would receive it.   1 star

Hamlet (1964) – Well-done Soviet version of the Shakespeare story.  It was mostly faithful to the original play.  The setting was impressive.  Strangely, though, they had everyone dressed as if they were in Elizabethan England when the play was written, rather than 12^th century Denmark when the play was set.  3 stars

Arabian Nights (1974) – I will not call this the best Pasolini film I have seen, since that might be misinterpreted.  Instead, I will call it the “least worst” of his films.  If lots of full-frontal male nudity works for you then you will definitely want to check this out.   2 stars

Pickpocket (1997) – Slow moving slice of life in China about a young man who picks pockets and has not become a success like his friends who used to do the same thing.   2 stars

The Terrorist (1998) – Anyone who thinks a movie from India just means big song and dance numbers with a lighthearted plot should check out this film.  In an unspecified place, and during an unspecified conflict, a woman is selected to be a suicide bomber. All she's ever known is the fighting. While preparing for the assassination, though, she learns she is pregnant. The cinematography is great, and if you like water then you will love this movie since there are numerous scenes of waterfalls, raindrops on faces, on leaves, as well as the symbolism of water washing away sins and of giving life.  3.5 stars

Net Neutrality

Today the U.S. FCC five person panel determined that Net Neutrality should be enforced in this country.  This means that under their span of control (i.e. U.S. cable companies and telecommunications providers) that those providers will not be allowed to slow down internet connections to those people and companies who do not pay them extra to prevent it.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of the country supports Net Neutrality (or as you'll see John Oliver refer to it in the video below "Preventing Cable Company F*ckery") this decision by the FCC was far from assured.  Back when this video was originally broadcast in the summer of 2014 it seemed almost certain the decision would fall the other way - that cable companies would be allowed to create slow lanes for people and companies who did not pay higher rates.

Maybe Oliver's humorous, but real, exortations to get people to let the FCC know what they thought about the subject actually played a part in today's decision.  As you'll see in the second video, so many people tried to comment that it crashed the FCC's website for the better part of a day.

Some Observations on the 2015 Oscar Results and How I Did With My Picks

This year I picked 15 of the 24 winners, not quite as good as last year’s 17 for 24, but I’ve had fewer than 15 correct in other years.  I got Best Picture winner Birdman correct.  I’ll review all the winners and my picks below.

First, some observations:

No film dominated the show, or was even a clear frontrunner.  The Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman tied with four Oscars apiece.  Whiplash, with three wins, was the only other film to receive more than one.  And in what I believe is a first since the Oscars expanded to more than five nominations, every single Best Picture nominee won at least one Oscar.

On the other end of the spectrum, Foxcatcher (5 noms), Mr. Turner (4), Into the Woods (3), Unbroken (3), Inherent Vice (2), Wild (2), and Guardians of the Galaxy (2) were shut out.  Interstellar (5) won only for Best Visual Effects (and it didn’t deserve that.)

Despite tying with four Oscars apiece, Birdman is the “winner” over The Grand Budapest Hotel because it took home Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay among its four wins.  This was a trifecta for director/co-writer/co-producer Alejandro Inarritu.

My 2015 Oscar Predictions

The Academy Awards ceremony is tomorrow night on ABC.  Check your local listings. 

I first tried to pick the Oscar winners four years ago.  I got a respectable 16 out of 24 correct.  The next two years I tried to really do my homework and see as many nominees as possible.  The result?  I dropped to 14 out of 24 then 12 out of 24.  Last year I didn’t really have time to research probable winners, so of course I did my best yet with 17 out of 24 winners picked correctly.

This year I’ve seen most of the major nominees, although several of the acting nominations were in films where that was the only one from the movie.  I haven’t seen some of those yet.  Regardless, I will do my best to make selections for every category.  Good or bad I will do a follow-up post on how I did.

Oscar Quiz: Best Picture Nominee or Adult Film? Can You Tell By Just the Title?

I did this quiz last year and it got a good reaction.  Here are fifty more films for you to try.  If you didn’t do that well last year then hopefully you, um, boned up for it this year.

Here’s a little quiz to see how well you know your Oscar nominees.  I will list a series of real film names, grouped by related titles.  Some of them will be ones nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and others will be on AVN’s list of the Top 101 Adult Videos.  Can you tell which is which?  Score one point for every correct answer.

Religion:

All About Eve

All This and Heaven Too

The Bells of St. Mary’s

The Bishop’s Wife

Body & Soul

Dark Angels

Devil in Miss Jones

The Nun’s Story

The Resurrection of Eve

Seventh Heaven

Splitsville:

Bad Wives

The Divorcee

The Gay Divorcee

An Unmarried Woman

When the Lights Go Out:

In the Heat of the Night

It Happened One Night

Neon Nights

Night Trips

One Night of Love

A Little Naughty:

As Good As It Gets

Conflict

Flirtation Walk

Friendly Persuasion

Love Affair

The Love Parade

Nothing to Hide

One Hour With You

Scent of a Woman

Scoundrels

Secrets & Lies

A Touch of Class

Getting Freaky:

Awakenings

Bound for Glory

Dangerous Liaisons

Dr. Strangelove

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Hidden Obsessions

The More the Merrier

Underworld

Wild Things

Miscellaneous:

Bus Stop Tales

Double Feature

Naked Came the Stranger

Raw Talent

Realities

Reel People

Watchers

West Side

Wild Goose Chase

Zazel

Answers:

There are a total of 27 Best Picture nominees and 23 Adult Films in this quiz.  They break down as follows:

Religion: All About Eve, All This and Heaven Too, The Bells of St. Mary’s, The Bishop’s Wife, The Nun’s Story, and Seventh Heaven are the nominees; Body & Soul, Dark Angels, Devil in Miss Jones, and The Resurrection of Eve are the adult films.

Splitsville: The Divorcee, The Gay Divorcee, and An Unmarried Woman are the nominees; Bad Wives is the adult film.

When the Lights Go Out: In the Heat of the Night, It Happened One Night, and One Night of Love are the nominees; Neon Nights and Night Trips are the adult films.

A Little Naughty: As Good As It Gets, Flirtation Walk, Friendly Persuasion, Love Affair, The Love Parade, One Hour With You, Scent of a Woman, Secrets & Lies, and A Touch of Class are the nominees; Conflict, Nothing to Hide, and Scoundrels are the adult films.

Getting Freaky: Awakenings, Bound for Glory, Dangerous Liaisons, Dr. Strangelove, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and The More the Merrier are the nominees; Hidden Obsessions, Underworld, and Wild Things are the adult films.

Miscellaneous: Bus Stop Tales, Double Feature, Naked Came the Stranger, Raw Talent, Realities, Reel People, Watchers, West Side, Wild Goose Chase, and Zazel are all adult films.  There are no nominees among these miscellaneous movies.  As Bugs Bunny would say, “Ain’t I a stinker?”

How Did You Do?

0	Seriously?  You didn’t even get Dr. Strangelove?
1 – 10	At least you got Dr. Strangelove.
11 – 20	You might want to explore more Oscar nominated films.
21 – 30	Not bad.  You must have seen your share of films.
31 – 40	Damn good.  You really know your stuff.
41 – 49	Very impressive.  You are an expert on Oscar nominees.  (Or adult films.)
50	That IMDB sure is a handy site, isn’t it?

If you are interested, here are my prior Oscar quizzes:

2013 – Match the Oscar winner to their less than Oscarworthy film

2014 – Best Picture Nominee or Adult Film?  Part 1

Ranking the 2015 Best Picture Nominees, Plus Some Observations

I have now posted reviews for all eight films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. 

Here is where I would normally say that I am not done reviewing Oscar nominated movies; that I am going to do more right up to when the Oscars are handed out.  This year, though, the ceremony is coming earlier than usual.  There’s only a little over a week left and I still need to do posts for this year’s Oscar quiz, and one on my predictions for the winners.  On my “post 2-3 times a week” pace that will fill up the time between now and then.  I may still review other Oscar nominees after the ceremony this year.  I haven’t decided yet.

In regards to ranking the eight nominees, right off the bat I have a tough time picking not only the best film of the year, but what order to put the best three in.  My top three are American Sniper, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and The Imitation Game.  It’s almost impossible to compare them because you could probably not pick three films more unlike each other.  One is an examination of the toll war takes on a person, another is a comedic, quirky tale about the misadventures of a hotel concierge, and the third is an historical drama based on the life of Alan Turing and his code breaking efforts during WWII.

Movie – The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The Grand Budapest Hotel allowed writer/director Wes Anderson to finally break through and receive Best Picture and Best Director Oscar nominations.  Oh sure, he had received nominations before, but it was almost always in the Best Original Screenplay category, so the Academy was saying, “We like your stories, but the movies aren’t mainstream enough for us.”  You can debate how mainstream The Grand Budapest Hotel is, but one thing is for sure, it’s definitely Anderson’s most popular film.  In addition to tying Birdman for the most Oscar nominations this year with nine, it has also achieved the biggest box office of any film Anderson has done.  And it’s the only true comedy among the eight Best Picture nominees.

Steve’s Selections #2 – Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984)

Steve and I each happened to include a martial arts film when we picked movies for each other.  I like these kinds of films, but I think Steve probably likes them slightly more than I do.  Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (don’t bother trying to figure out what the title means) is a traditional genre film from the legendary Shaw Brothers.  Rather than have any number of martial arts skills and weapons on display this one almost exclusively features fighting with lances.  There’s not a lot of plot – it’s a time honored tale of revenge – but there is plenty of fighting to watch.

Movie – Birdman (2014)

The first thing that I noticed about Birdman was that it appeared as if the movie never cut away from a scene.  After a bit it became obvious that while there were long takes going on – some of them several minutes in length – the film was disguising the edits to make it seem as if the entire movie was one long continuous shot (ala Timecode or Russian Ark).  After realizing this I actually was distracted for a while as I was watching to catch the hidden edits, almost as if it was a game.  I finally settled down and started watching it as an overall movie, not just a bunch of clever camera movements.  When I did I discovered a film that works on multiple levels and one that I feel has the greatest chance of winning Best Picture because of what it has to say regarding the performing arts.

Movie – Whiplash (2014)

Whiplash is the kind of movie that will probably polarize some people.  The rating on IMDB is stratospheric, so apparently the young males who predominate on that site are buying into the story in this film.  On the other hand, there’s a really, really bad message that is being presented by the movie – that being on the receiving end of unrelenting abuse is ultimately good for you.

You can tell that writer/director Damien Chazelle wants us to see this as a similar story to An Officer and a Gentleman, where the stern taskmaster is just trying to bring out the best in the raw recruit.  The thing is, this is far closer to Full Metal Jacket where the person with the authority just selects someone to heap abuse on until he destroys him.  In fact, Whiplash is actually worse than Full Metal Jacket in that respect because it’s not a film about the military; it’s set in a music school and the abusive relationship is between a teacher and a student.

January Movie Status

I watched 15 new movies in January, plus rewatched 1 TV show season.

After making a push last month to finish the year with less than 50 entries left on the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They list, I barely watched any this month.  Instead I switched over to trying to see the Oscar nominated films, as well as other 2014 films to prepare for my coming Top 10 of 2014 list.  As a result, I liked almost every movie I saw in January.

I also didn’t try to finish off the new entries to my Consolidated IMDB List, other than the films also on the Oscar list.  In general, I took it easier in January.

There is a new TSPDT list coming in February, so I may not see too many more films from it this month, either.

Here are the 15 new movies I saw in January.  Highlighted films are ones to which I would give at least three stars out of five.

TSPDT (3): Wings (1966), The Woman Next Door (1981), 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

Oscar (7): The Imitation Game (2014), The Theory of Everything (2014), Selma (2014), American Sniper (2014), Boyhood (2014), Whiplash (2014), Birdman (2014)

Other Movies (5): Surprised By Love (2015), Life Itself (2014), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), Lucy (2014), Citizenfour (2014)

Rewatches (1): Archer Season 5

Surprised By Love (2015) – Generic Hallmark movie that I stumbled upon while flipping channels and got a few laughs from.  Not quite enough to recommend it, though.  2.5 stars

Life Itself (2014) – Great documentary on Roger Ebert by the same man who did Hoop Dreams.  When they started filming no one realized Ebert would succumb to cancer in less than a year.  This is a moving review of his career, as well as a man’s struggle with the illness that ultimately takes his life.  4 stars

Wings (1966) – Soviet film about a female former pilot who now is an administrator at a school.  While respected, she is not liked.  Despite the title there are few aerial shots, but what ones they have are beautifully shot, especially one with two planes that is the best scene in the film.  3 stars

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) – The first of Steve’s Selections.  3 stars  You can read my review here. 

The Woman Next Door (1981) – Lesser Truffaut about a couple moving in next door and the wife is the former lover of the neighbor husband.  It ended badly for them years earlier.  It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see things are going to end badly again.  2 stars

The Imitation Game (2014) – Best Picture nominee about Alan Turing.  4 stars  You can read my review here.

The Theory of Everything (2014) – Best Picture nominee about Stephen and Jane Hawking.  3.5 stars  You can read my review here.

Selma (2014) – Best Picture nominee about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s march on Selma.  3 stars  You can read my review here.

Lucy (2014) – Luc Besson action film with Scarlett Johannson as a woman who accidentally gets injected with a substance that opens up the complete potential of her mind.  The big box office for it probably made Marvel regret the decision not to do a Black Widow film among the dozen or so they have planned through 2020.  3 stars

American Sniper (2014) – Best Picture nominee about Chris Kyle.  4 stars  You can read my review here.

Boyhood (2014) – Best Picture nominee famously filmed over 12 years.  4 stars  You can read my review here.

Whiplash (2014) – Best Picture nominee about one asshole who wants to become a great jazz drummer, being mentored by another asshole who is a psychopath.  3 stars  My review will be posted in a couple days.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) – Controversial film with a Romanian woman trying to get an illegal abortion in 1987.  Her roommate helps her and ends up much the worse for wear.   3 stars

Birdman (2014) – Best Picture nominee about a former action star trying to adapt, direct, and star in a serious Broadway play.  4 stars  My review will be posted a couple days after the one for Whiplash.

Citizenfour (2014) – Oscar nominee for Best Documentary.  It is about Edward Snowden, the man who blew the cover off the fact that the NSA was spying on millions of American citizens who had no connection whatsoever to terrorism.  This was filmed in the Hong Kong hotel room with him as the stories were actually breaking in the news and is quite a view into those events.  I haven’t watched the other four nominees, but I can’t imagine how this would not win the Oscar – the subject matter is that important.  4 stars

Movie – Boyhood (2014)

Boyhood is one of the most well known of the 2015 Best Picture nominees.  That is because of how it was made.  Writer/director Richard Linklater filmed it over the course of 12 years, shooting for a week or two each summer.  The result is that we see the characters age throughout the film, especially the main character who goes from six to eighteen during the movie.  The result is a film that requires evaluation on two different levels: as a movie and as a unique undertaking by Linklater.  I’ll start with the latter.