- Take Shelter – Michael Shannon’s breakthrough lead performance, and still his best role to date, sees him star as Curtis, a middle-aged man, working class, blue collar husband and father who begins having terrifying dreams about an encroaching, apocalyptic storm. He chooses to keep the disturbance to himself, channeling his anxiety into the obsessive building of a storm shelter in their backyard. But the resulting strain on his marriage and tension within the community doesn’t compare to Curtis’ private fear of what his dreams may truly signify. Faced with the proposition that his disturbing visions signal disaster of one kind or another, Curtis confides in Samantha, testing the power of their bond against the highest possible stake. Missing out on Oscar nominations were Shannon, Jessica Chastain (support actress), sound mixing, and original screenplay just to name a few.
- 500 Days of Summer – Best Lead Actress, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor are the four that I always think about when I think of this gem of a movie. But in a day and age when the long dramas fair better than any sort of witty comedy, it didn’t surprise me to see that this film was shutout. It’s a crowd pleaser more than an award winning film, but not even one nomination? I do think this film was overlooked by the Academy.
- True Romance – Before Quentin Tarantino started writing AND directing mega-blockbuster/Oscar nominated movies (and he has more than a few), he wrote this tiny love story featuring Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette). This breakthrough movie has, quite possibly, the greatest support cast in the history of cinema. Check out this list of names of actors who were in at least one scene: Val Kilmer, Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Walken, Michael Rapaport, Bronson Pinchot. It’s a wild ride from start to finish and feels very much Tarantino, but no so far over the top as he does with the movies he has directed.
- Shutter Island – this movie was creepy, original, contained big stars, had twists, had that small town (island) feel. Simply, Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a US Marshall who investigates the disappearance of a murderer from a hospital for the criminally insane. Director Martin Scorsese could have been nominated. This movie could have been nominated for best adapted screenplay from the Dennis Lehane novel of the same name. It could have been nominated for best visual effects, sound editing, best production design, best cinematography. As good as the leads were, I don’t think they should have been nominated in the acting categories, though DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo told a story OVER the film’s actual story. So there is that. This movie was released way too early in the year (like February I think). Voters had completely forgotten about it when award season came around.
- The Painted Veil – a movie I almost certainly would never have seen had my friend Shawna not mentioned it to me after we shared our love of the movie 500 Days of Summer, the Edward Norton/Naomi Watts vessel The Painted Veil is a love story not to be missed. It’s a story of falling in love and falling out of leave with either a person that you know very much or someone you wish that you would never know at all. You’ve got to meet this movie halfway but devoting your full attention to it. But if you do, the payoff will be there for all of those hopeless romantics out there.
- Southpaw – As of the end of 2019, Jake Gyllenhaal is still hunting for his second Oscar nomination (Brokeback Mountain). My first ever six pack entry was on his six best performances. Southpaw was a movie in that mix, but I could have included a handful of other performances. The premise is simple enough…A champion boxer fights to get his daughter back from child protective services as well as revive his professional career, after a fatal incident sends him on a rampant path of destruction. There have been many excellent movies made around the sport of boxing and many of these have included spectacular sequences involving fighting in the wrong. Southpaw takes it up a notch. From a visual standpoint, I don’t think there has been a better movie at showcasing the action in the ring than Southpaw.
Movies I Watch That Inspire Me to Critique!