Set in 1961 England, Carey Mulligan’s (Shame, Drive) breakout performance in Lone Scherfig (One Day, Their Finest) is a movie that resonates in a way that is completely independent of its time frame as well as location. Does this mean it’s a timeless classic? Well, when I think of timeless classics, I think of very different films than An Education. This beautiful film was on pace to be a timeless classic, one where everything is fine and dandy and one that I probably would not have enjoyed as much if not for a late twist. The setting of 1960s Europe doesn’t exactly perk my interest. If, as I write this in 2018, in my early 40’s when I am much more into the independents than I am the big blockbusters, the synopsis for this film doesn’t attract, I can only imagine what I thought going into it back in 2009. I honestly have no idea what piqued my interest in this movie or what even got me past the first 15 minutes. Sure, a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes will have some positive effect, but even that can only carry me so far. Whatever it was that encouraged me to continue with this movie even, when I suspect that I thought I was getting into some variation of Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, or one of the many other Keira Knightley movies, I am grateful. I want to say that this movie had a lasting impact on me because it did. However, upon watching it for a second time, with an eight-year gap between viewings, I can unequivocally say that how I thought I remembered this movie was considerably different than what actually happened. I think I like it the same, though I feel differently about it, especially how I view the final act.
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Category Archives: Carey Mulligan
Mudbound (2017)
An early and serious contender for 2017’s Best Picture is a movie that may not have found its way to a theater had it not garnered so much critical acclaim. Dee Rees’s (Pariah) Mudbound is a Netflix original movie, and had it not been for The Academy of Motion Pictures’ rule of all Oscar-nominated films be available to the public via movie theaters, who knows where it would have landed. This is not Netflix’s first movie to receive so much praise that the movie had to be released in the theaters. 2015’s Beasts of No Nation faced a similar fate. However, the kudos that Beasts of No Nation originally received faded as Oscar season approached, and the movie ultimately did not receive a single nomination. The same won’t be the case for Mudbound, which very well could earn a Best Picture nomination as well as nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Jason Mitchell Detroit, Straight Outta Compton), Best Supporting Actress (Mary J. Blige), and Best Adapted Screenplay just to name a few. Of course, it’s an early prediction, and I have yet to see any of the other contenders, but this does feel like a poor year for movies. I would be shocked if Mudbound is not nominated for Best Picture, and I would be surprised if it doesn’t win at least one award in one of the other categories before cinema’s biggest night of the year is complete.
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Suffragette (2015)
I’m not entirely sure how Sarah Gavron’s (Village At The End Of The World, Brick Lane) Suffragette could have been a film that I truly enjoyed. I’m not the biggest fan of British historical dramas, and this was not a movie I went to see for enjoyment. It was a film I went to see just because I always try to see every movie that potentially could receive a nomination for a Best Six Academy Award. I think it’s unlikely that this film will get any recognition, but there was some buzz surrounding it before its release. In any regard, I knew this would be a movie I would end up seeing. Is it a bad movie? Not at all. It’s actually a very educational movie that has some above-average acting performances. But, unfortunately, it was very predictable (which I expected) and not nearly as riveting as it probably could have been (also something that I expected). Also, if you are hoping to experience the annual Meryl Streep (Doubt, The Devil Wears Prada) Oscar nomination, this isn’t it. She has all of one scene and is on the screen for less than two minutes.
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The Great Gatsby (2013)
It would be an understatement to say that Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic, The Departed) killed it in 2013. Before his Academy Award-nominating role as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, DiCaprio portrayed Jay Gatsby, one of the most legendary characters in literary history, most sincerely and intensely. It was a performance that F Scott Fitzgerald would be proud of and almost make him forget all of the other subpar attempts to recreate his work of fiction that nearly all of us have read in high school.
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Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
For every one of their blockbusters (True Grit, No Country For Old Men) or every one of their movies with grandiose, almost absurd plots (Fargo, Miller’s Crossing), there are the more subtle, lesser-watched but still critically acclaimed movies (A Serious Man, The Man Who Wasn’t There) by director brothers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. In the mold of this last type of genre comes their first effort in three years, the simple yet thought-provoking Inside Llewyn Davis, a film that stars Oscar Isaac (Drive, Robin Hood) in, perhaps, the surprise performance of the year and the role that will land this talented young actor many more opportunities.
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