The best part of James Marsh’s (Man on a Wire, Shadow Dancer) Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything is the stunning performances of Eddie Redmayne (My Week With Marilyn, Les Miserables) and Felicity Jones (The Invisible Woman, Like Crazy). Both performers have been on the scene for quite some time, but this movie will open some doors for years to come. Redmayne is a shoo-in for Best Actor, and based on what I’ve seen so far, he’s the leader to win. I do believe that his lead will be short-lived, though. I plan on seeing Foxcatcher this weekend, and I think that Steve Carell will give the performance of his career and be the clear-cut favorite heading into awards season. However, I don’t think I’ve been more disappointed in any other year than I have been with the movies of 2014. I feel as if nothing, thus far, has exceeded expectations and that only a few films (Nightcrawler, Kill the Messenger) have even met expectations. There have been a couple of movies (most notably The Lunchbox and The Drop) that had little fanfare surrounding them beforehand and ended up being pleasant surprises. But for the most part, 2014 has been a massive letdown. This year still has potential, but with each passing week and average movie, that hope is slowly but surely dwindling. So it might seem like I wasn’t overly impressed or was even disappointed with The Theory of Everything. However, that’s not necessarily true. It was a good movie and one that I recommend seeing.
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Category Archives: Academy Award Nominees
Boyhood (2014)
The first movie of 2014 likely to earn a Best Picture Oscar nomination, save for perhaps The Grand Budapest Hotel, is Richard Linklater’s (Before Midnight, Before Sunrise) Boyhood. Boyhood is unlike any movie ever made or likely to be made again anytime soon. It had been quietly filmed for over 12 years and only recently (six months or so before its release) started making noise and getting people talking. Linklater shot scenes for this movie once a year for the last 12 years and let the fictional character of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) literally grow up before our eyes in the span of two and a half hours. This film’s uniqueness and the way it perfectly captures the story of one American boy growing up in the state of Texas during the first 12 years of the 21st century. He responds to both world events, and his life’s predicaments are breathtaking. The story itself is not one that I think would wow anybody if it were shot like an average movie. But the story isn’t the movie. The story is about about Mason and how he ages from a 6-year-old to an 18-year-old.
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Closer (2004)
What a depressing movie Mike Nichols’s Closer was. And this is coming from a guy who loves this genre. But I’m not a fan of movies where all of the lead characters intentionally hurt other people just so they can feel better about themselves, just like I’m not a fan of people hurting other people intentionally in real life. But this movie was all of that and a bag of chips. I THINK I knew that was going on. I remember seeing previews for this way back in 2004 and thinking that this was not a movie that I had any interest in seeing. It made me think of the Woody Harrelson/Demi Moore movie Indecent Proposal for some reason, a film that I saw in theater at age 17 that I had no business seeing as a 17-year-old. Talk about a couple of movies that destroy the sanctity of marriage. So while this movie held my interest, primarily because of the actors involved, it’s a movie I’ll remember for a while that I wish I could forget instantly.
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Captain Phillips (2013)
The movie of 2013 that I think I found to be most disappointing was Captain Phillips. This was by no means a bad movie, but I approached this movie with the belief that this was going to be THE movie of the year. It was anything but the movie of the year. It wasn’t even a top 10 movie of the year. After all, is said and done, it most likely won’t even be a top 20 movie of the year for me. I’m not entirely certain what the main reasons were that I didn’t like it. I will rattle off a couple during this review, but I think that, ultimately, it came down to not meeting my extraordinarily high initial expectations.
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Philomena (2013)
Philomena is a fine little movie that has somehow been classified as a great movie worthy of Best Picture and Best Actress (Judy Dench – Notes on a Scandal, Shakespeare In Love) nominations. In my opinion, neither are deserving. This movie, though only 1 hour 38 minutes, never felt super slow, but it still did feel long. I think that had to do with the story not winning me over. In a year where there were many decent movies but not many great ones, Philomena will not be remembered. I think when people go back and remember 2013, the list isn’t very deep. People will remember 12 Years A Slave, Gravity, and possibly Frozen (I’m not an animated movie type of guy, so I won’t see this movie, but I understand how great others think it is).
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