This movie will be on Netflix in December and it's supposed to be another really good biopic (the second this year) about the early life of our president. I will definitely be watching it but everything related to politics in any way makes me sad and despair these days. Still, I can already tell that this actor captured his essence in a very real, naturalistic way.
REVIEW: "Arrival" (2016) Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner. Dir. Denis Villeneuve
Arrival is a new sci-fi movie that takes a serious science fiction approach to the topic of visitors from another world. We're all used to seeing these beings come down ready for a fight and it being up to the military and a rag-tag band of heroes to come together and defeat them for the good of the world. Well, this is different. Arrival's angle is to go far more wondrous and even celebratory in the discovery of advanced beings, with characters wanting to understand and communicate with these creatures, who may very well have a positive end goal in mind for the human race.
It takes elements from some of the non-battle sci-fi films of the past, movies like Contact or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This is an adult drama with intelligent characters played sensitively and sympathetically by Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. Adams is the star of the film, a linguistics expert named Louise Banks, who's done translation work for the military before and is called on to help the government when twelve UFO's land in geographically different sites around the globe. Louise teams up with Ian Donnelly (Renner), a theoretical physicist, and the two work around the clock for months to figure out a system of communication with the creatures in their pod, who resemble massive, gray, scaly claws that write and think in images.
The wonder of language is detailed expertly in this film, an aspect of science that is rarely featured in the movies, while Louise is haunted by memories of her late daughter, a subplot that will inform the film in emotional and unexpected ways. The emotional depths this movie plunders are breathtaking, precisely because you're not expecting it to hit so hard. The pain of memory, life, death, and love are wrought out of every inch of the story, along with sequences that don't bother to bowl you over with extravagant special effects, but instead focus on the realism and shock that would come from genuine otherworldly contact with humanity. The screenplay makes use of every plot point involving the world powers' competition to make contact with their arriving visitors, and ties all threads together for a finish that gives us a conclusion that's both simpler and more satisfying than anything we saw in puzzle box movies like Interstellar or Inception. It's also a celebration of science and international cooperation in a similar fashion to last year's The Martian, but takes its subject seriously and with enough self-assured realism from director Denis Villeneuve to not have to rely on 70's pop hits or manufactured jokes aimed at attracting a mass audience.
Amy Adams turns in yet another steady, affecting performance that's trickier than it looks to pull off, given the nature and timing of certain revelations in the script. As one of our most reliable and underrated actresses, she brings us along for this character's emotional journey and inner conflict more convincingly than anyone else could have. She is the heartbeat of this film, and without her presence the gutpunching nature of the movie's climactic resolution would not exist. An adult, intelligent drama that manages to convey scientific resolve, hope, wonder and emotion is a rare cinematic feat.
* * * *
Luc Besson Takes Us to Another World in 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets'
Luc Besson is nothing if not an interesting director. His movies range from Nikita to The Professional, The Fifth Element and Lucy, so him taking on this epic sic-fi story based on the graphic novel is reason enough for me to look forward to it. I guarantee you that even if it doesn't work completely, there will be things in this to like, and the last thing you will be able to say about it is that it's formulaic or studio driven. It's not even a Hollywood movie, since no studio would green light this- it's actually a French film. I'm in.
King Kong is Back in New Look at 'Kong: Skull Island'
Okay, so this looks pretty stupid but the first appearance of what looks to be a thousand foot Kong made me chuckle, and it's the first thing that has in days, so thanks for that. But yeah, this looks dumb. On the other hand, it seems to also kinda know it's dumb, maybe in a Jurassic World kind of way? The presence of John C. Reilly and Samuel L. Jackson seem to hint at that. And recent Oscar winner Brie Larson gets not one word in this trailer! Guess we'll have to wait for Captain Marvel for her to shine as an action heroine.
Asghar Farhadi's New Film 'The Salesman' Gets a Trailer
This dour tale looks a little more like something I'm in the mood for these days. Farhadi, who directed A Separation and The Past, is now out with another film, the Iranian submission for foreign language film at this years Oscars. Looks intense, twisted, dark and not exactly life-affirming. Perfect.
Oscar Buzz Builds for 'Hidden Figures' as Final Trailer Drops
I'm looking forward to this, but this is another one where I see that it's obviously such an inspirational true life story that I've always wondered about, and then it just makes me depressed about the present day. Who wants to look back at a time when people had hope for the future and progress and then know what happened? It all feels so pointless and fills you with despair. You think things are always going to move forward and then something like this happens, dragging everything decades back. Anyway, I digress. The movie looks great, and apparently it does give you a good couple hours of escapism and false hope. The real life people would also be vomiting right now as well, but let's not think about that.
Scarlett Johansson Steps Back into Robot Mode for 'Ghost in the Shell'
This movie has already been receiving controversy for months due to the total whitewashing of the story, which comes from a classic animated Japanese film. Many believe the story itself is so inherently Japanese that it could never translate properly into an Americanized, English language version. Yet they're going for it anyway. And of course, if you need a half naked robot running around kicking ass, who else is going to step in but Scarlett Johansson, right? Her typecasting at this point is almost ridiculous. I haven't seen the original film, but I probably should before this comes out, so I know what I'm getting into. This comes out in March of next year.
New 'Beauty and the Beast' Trailer Shows Off a Lot of CGI
I don't know why I was expecting anything different, but this new, full look at Disney's live action version of one of their greatest ever animated features looks to me like a big, garish mess, similar to Maleficent and most of their other stuff. Why does everything have to have so much CGI? Is there anything wrong with using sets and maybe a guy in a costume? The household objects look weird too- in a live action version of this, their scale seems totally off somehow. Emma Watson of course, might be the sweetest person ever but cannot act to save her life, as usual. And not too impressed by the beast's look either. I don't why everyone has to be British. And this is a full on musical, so why are they hiding the singing? Basically I'm not into this, but I know that everyone else will be. Give me the '91 original any day.
Natalie Portman Vies for Best Actress in 'Jackie'
As difficult as it is to watch anything involving politics or history at the moment, given the epic tragedy our nation has just befallen, I hear that Natalie Portman does turn in a fantastic performance as Jackie Kennedy in Pablo Larrain's biopic, which we finally have a full trailer for. It's apparently much more of an art film than a straightforward biography, which explains the raves from critics. She's for sure headed for at least another nomination, if not an outright win. But for me it's hard not to look at the people the actors are portraying in this reimagining of the days after JFK's death, and picture all of them dry heaving if they were forced to witness what just happened to the country they once served as presumably professional, adult human beings. Caroline Kennedy is probably the one doing so at the moment.
Another 'Rogue One' Trailer Increases the Hype
Every trailer for this movie has improved on the last one so far, so I don't know if that means the reshoots improved the movie or not, but I do think it's looking like this could be better than The Force Awakens (another very popular movie I wasn't that crazy about). I'm sure it's going to have the same amount of attention paid towards it, especially with Darth Vader and young Han Solo and all those guys showing up, right? Plus, Mads Mikkelson's involvement in something will always up my own excitement.
'Moonlight' and 'Manchester By the Sea' Lead the Gotham Award Nominations
It's that time of year again, when the first of what will be many end of the year awards nominees start coming out. The Gothams are in some ways the prelude to the Independent Spirit Awards more so than the Oscars, but there are usually some films in here that make the cut and go on to bigger things. It's definitely a good sign for indie darlings Moonlight and Manchester By the Sea, which were recognized in several categories. Interesting that the big pre-nomination favorite La La Land didn't get a single nod, even for acting. But that probably indicates that these particular critics already don't think that film (which is an indie and is eligible here) needs the boost that these early awards can provide. So in a way that's a good sign for it.
BEST FEATURE
- “Certain Women”
- “Everybody Wants Some!!”
- “Manchester by the Sea”
- “Moonlight”
- “Paterson”
BEST DOCUMENTARY
- “Cameraperson”
- “I Am Not Your Negro”
- “O.J.: Made in America”
- “Tower”
- “Weiner”
BEST SCREENPLAY
- “Hell or High Water,” Taylor Sheridan
- “Love & Friendship,” Whit Stillman
- “Manchester by the Sea,” Kenneth Lonergan
- “Moonlight,” Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney; Screenplay by Barry Jenkins
- “Paterson,” Jim Jarmusch
BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR AWARD
- Robert Eggers, “The Witch”
- Anna Rose Holmer, “The Fits”
- Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, “Swiss Army Man”
- Trey Edward Shults, “Krisha”
- Richard Tanne, “Southside with You”
- BEST ACTOR
- Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
- Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
- Adam Driver, “Paterson”
- Joel Edgerton, “Loving”
- Craig Robinson, “Morris from America”
BEST ACTRESS
- Kate Beckinsale, “Love & Friendship”
- Annette Bening, “20th Century Women”
- Isabelle Huppert, “Elle”
- Ruth Negga, “Loving”
- Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
- Lily Gladstone, “Certain Women”
- Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea”
- Royalty Hightower, “The Fits”
- Sasha Lane, “American Honey”
- Anya Taylor-Joy, “The Witch”
BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – LONG FORM
- “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”
- “The Girlfriend Experience”
- “Horace and Pete”
- “Marvel’s Jessica Jones”
- “Master of None”
BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – SHORT FORM
- “The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo”
- “Her Story”
- “The Movement”
- “Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People”
- “Surviving”
There are some interesting nominations in here, and if I had to guess I'd say that in addition to good Oscar bets like Moonlight and Manchester, we will also see Natalie Portman, Isabelle Huppert and maybe the screenplay for Hell or High Water make it further in the race. It's also notable that the Gothams added two TV categories this year to recognize the growing excellence in the medium- go Jessica Jones!
New Obama Biopic 'Barry' Comes to Netflix in December
Well, this could make for a nice little companion piece to Southside With You. The new "young Barack Obama" biopic movie, Barry, got good reviews at Toronto and was bought by Netflix, set for release December 16th. I don't know if these movies that get bought by streaming services and never get theatrical releases are actually seen by more people in the end, but they're definitely available to more people. This is a quick teaser for the movie, but a longer trailer will certainly come out in the next month.
