Category Archives: Aaron Taylor-Johnson

The Wall (2017)

First things first, if you think you’re going into this seeing a John Cena movie, you will be sorely disappointed. This movie is similar to a movie like 127 HoursCast Away, I Am Legend, or All Is Lost in the sense that it revolves almost entirely around a single character. There are a couple of major differences, though, between this one and those just stated. There are no flashback scenes. This movie is done almost entirely in real-time. And it occurs in a single location, though 127 Hours, for the most part, does as well. The Wall is similar, though, in the sense that each of the mentioned movies experiences EXTREME periods of hopelessness during a part of or a majority of the movie. The Wall isn’t nearly as good as these other movies, but it was unique enough that it held your interest. Whereas 127 Hours was based on a true story, where All Is Lost is easily believable, and where I Am Legend is more of a science fiction movie that we have to suspend our belief for, The Wall falls somewhere in between. I loved that it was just 81 minutes long. It didn’t need to be any longer, so why drag something out when it doesn’t have to be? And the first 20 minutes were completely engrossing. I knew a little bit about the movie, but not enough to know where it was going. But then it took a turn for the weird that took the believability aspect out of it and turned it into a game of cat and mouse that, while entertaining, was not something I’d expect out of my war movies.
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Nocturnal Animals (2016)

Almost perfect. While it may not even end up in my top five movies of the year, Tom Ford’s (A Single ManNocturnal Animals was almost perfect. I liked it so much in this movie, and Ford almost created a masterpiece, but the movie just felt short. An A- for sure. Maybe even an A. But it won’t be the 49th movie that I’ve seen that I would classify as an A+. Jake Gyllenhaal (Love and Other DrugsEverest) is better than ever, and he could end up with an Oscar nomination for this film. In a perfect world, he would, especially since he very well may have been the odd man out both in 2015 (Nightcrawler) and 2016 (Southpaw) for a Best Actor Academy Award. But with four of the five slots pretty much locked up (Tom Hanks – Sully, Denzel Washington – Fences, Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea, Joel Edgerton (Loving), that leaves only one more nomination between Gyllenhaal, Ryan Gosling (La La Land), Warren Beatty (Rules Don’t Apply), and Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge). And, to be honest, while his performance was great, it wasn’t nearly the performance he gave in either Nightcrawler or Southpaw. Ford’s chances for a Best Directing nod look even dimmer, and an impressive performance by Amy Adams (The FighterAmerican Hustle) may be completely overlooked because she will likely receive a nomination (and may even be the frontrunner) for Arrival, a movie that was released just a week before Nocturnal Animals.
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