Hands down, the best romance of 2015 is John Crowley’s (Intermission, Boy A) terrific Brooklyn. This movie features no wining and dining. There are no passionate, hot and heavy, sometimes stir a little in your seat scenes that you might be used to in movies like Titanic, The Notebook, Pretty Woman, Before Sunrise, (500) Days of Summer, Dirty Dancing, or Ghost. This isn’t R-rated. It isn’t PG-rated. It is very appropriately rated as a PG-13 movie. It’s the closest thing to the process of two people meeting by chance, getting to know each other casually before moving on to a deeper level, and eventually falling into an intense, meaningful love that feels both believable and beautiful. I did not know this was a love story going into the film. My mantra this year is to know as little about a movie as possible going into it. That doesn’t mean I’ll see just anything. I do have to see first that the film is getting positive reviews. But if it has decent reviews and Oscar buzz, I’ll make every effort to see it. Brooklyn was a movie that was the most straightforward film in the world to understand, but at the same time, almost impossible to truly comprehend. And in a word, that is love.
All posts by bryanbuser
Spotlight (2015)
There are several ways to begin the review for Spotlight. Let’s talk about the cast (quite the ensemble cast of the year). I could talk about the hypocrisy that is organized religion. I will mention both of these in this post. However, I will begin with the old-fashioned newspaper reporting that was once our primary source of reliable news. In many ways, it is unfortunate that newspapers are no longer what they used to be, nor will they ever be again. With the invention of the Internet, it was only a matter of time before most newspapers folded, while others had to majorly trim their staff, editions, and the number of pages produced with each issue. Where will The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and The New York Times be in 20 years? Well, if the changes in the previous 20 years are any indication, these newspapers will not even be around in 20 years. If they are, they might be entirely electronically based. There will still be a place for prominent metropolitan newspapers, but it will not be in the print variety. There are still things that interest me in the Washington, D.C. area that can only be fully addressed in a publication like The Washington Post. Still, I haven’t purchased a physical newspaper in over a decade and only read one if I happen to see it sitting at a bar while eating dinner, in the school library, or elsewhere.
Suffragette (2015)
I’m not 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 because I always try to see every movie that could receive a nomination for a Best Six Academy Award. It’s unlikely that this film will receive any recognition, but it generated some buzz 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. However, unfortunately, it was very predictable (which I had expected) and not nearly as riveting as it could have been (also something I had 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 only one scene and appears on screen for less than two minutes.
The Railway Man (2014)
The biggest flop of 2014? Possibly. Jonathan Teplitzky’s (Burning Man, television’s Broadchurch) grossed under $5 million in the theaters but cost $18 million to make. This movie should have been great. But then again, so should have been Unbroken, the underwhelming Angelina Jolie vehicle that showcased the 47-day survival of two men living on a raft after their plane was shot down during World War II, only to be held in a prisoner of war camp. This movie did just fine at the box office (doubling its budget costs), but it still did not come close to expectations. The Railway Man had fewer expectations than Unbroken, but it did have a better cast and weaker competition at the time of its release. A 66% on Rotten Tomatoes isn’t bad, but usually, you want to see a slightly higher (at minimum) rating for a true story-based historical drama. I am uncertain of why I watched this film. I had convinced myself I was not going to. However, it appeared on my Showtime OnDemand list one day when I was searching for a movie to watch and decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did. It is certainly not a great movie, but it is better than expected. It is a much more complete film than Unbroken.
I Smile Back (2015)
Remember when reading the book used to make you excited about seeing the movie? I used to love watching the film in English class after finishing one of the classic novels we had just finished. It was always interesting to see how a filmmaker’s version of a movie differed from the vision that I had formulated in my mind. Nowadays, if I am made aware of this with enough advance notice to see the film, I’ll try to read the book. To say I do this as many of my English teacher friends would be a lie. Still, recent books that I have been able to read before seeing the movie were The Martian (a great film, but even better book) and The Maze Runner. I also recently read Paper Towns, which I disliked so much that I will skip the movie.
Also, a few years ago, I read In The Heart of the Sea. With apologies to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, this was THE most descriptive book I have read in my entire life. I had no idea when I read it that a film version would also come, and I am super excited to see this Ron Howard-directed movie when it comes to theaters in a couple of weeks. In any case, the movie rarely lives up to the quality of a good book. It’s impossible to condense the essence of a great book into a two-hour film. Recently, I’ve seen a couple of movies where I’ve wanted to read the book afterward. These have included American Sniper, Room, and Amy Koppelman’s novel I Smile Back. There is a difference, however. American Sniper was my number one movie of 2014, while Room is pushing for that spot on my 2015 list. I Smile Back was a book that I could see myself loving and relating to better. The movie, however, was highly disappointing.