The Impossible is flat-out the best movie of 2012. I went into the movie thinking it would be one of the ten best of 2012, but I didn’t think it would crack the top five, let alone take over The Dark Knight Rises. As I’ve stated many times, a great movie has an advantage over other great movies if it is based on a true story. Not “inspired by a true story” or “based upon true events” but “based on a true story.” A great movie can lose a lot in my book if it turns out that much factual information is exaggerated or incorrect. Remember The Titans went from being in my all-time top 25 to fall out of the top 150 because of how factually incorrect it had been. Rather than winning the state championship on the game’s final play, as depicted in the movie, the TC Williams Titans won that game handily 27-0. And while I haven’t sought out any discrepancies between what was shown in The Impossible and what happened, I haven’t heard anybody say that the events were untrue.
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Category Archives: Academy Award Nominees
Les Miserables (2012)
So it turns out, to no big surprise, that I’m not a fan of musicals. I have yet to see Moulin Rouge! or Chicago. Even though I’ve been told how great both movies are, I have yet to find the desire to give either film a chance. There was something about Les Miserables, however, that piqued my interest. I think it was the Anne Hathaway trailer. I’ve repeatedly said on my blog that Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams are the two best actresses in the world. I’ll go out of my way to see any movie in which either actress stars. I thought the Hathaway “I Dreamed a Dream” trailer was perfectly made. It won me over on the spot. I put aside any reservations and promised myself I would see it.
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Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Silver Linings Playbook was a great movie I would have seen if I had done more research ahead of time. I have known for months now that Jennifer Lawrence is a candidate, if not the favorite, for this year’s Best Actress Academy Award and that Bradley Cooper could snag one of the five nominations in the Best Actor category. The movie might land a spot in the Best Picture category, though it would have little chance of winning. So the Oscar buzz was one reason that got me to the theater. The other was that the movie centered on mental illnesses and broken relationships. Those movies often, but not always, engross me. I saw drama and comedy as words associated with this movie. Perhaps naively, I did not see a romantic comedy. While there was a bit of drama and some attempts at comedy (which I found to be weak), this slowly but surely turned into a romance. By the movie’s conclusion, I was very, very okay with that. Though flawed at times, it came together nicely and felt reasonably original to me. If ten movies are nominated for Best Picture this year, Silver Linings Playbook will and should be one of them.
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My Week With Marilyn (2011)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine, Brokeback Mountain) once again proves she is one of the finest actresses in her generation in Simon Curtis’s endearing drama My Week With Marilyn. Williams shines as Marilyn Monroe. Williams is so good at portraying the perplexing and often misunderstood sex symbol of the 1950s. With her blond hair, red lipstick, recognizable little giggle, and famous wiggle, it is easy to see how boys and men of all ages could fall in love with this woman they knew they would never meet. I can’t think of a better actress who could have played Monroe and the talented Williams.
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A Better Life (2011)
Demian Bichir (most recognized in America for his role as ruthless and corrupt Tijuana mayor Esteban Reyes in the Emmy Award Nominee Showtime series Weeds) is an undocumented Mexican immigrant named Carlos who works as a day worker, landscaping the yards of large yards in the affluent Los Angeles neighborhoods. He migrated from Mexico some 16 years ago after marrying. His 15-year-old son Luis (Jose Julian) is everything to him after his wife left him to experience a more exciting life in America that Carlos could not provide. A Better Life is exactly what its title suggests: a father trying to give himself and his son a better life.
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