Sometimes, when you see a movie that you know nothing about, you are treated with an unknown little treat – a film that will stick with you forever. Ex Machina is the movie this year. My comparison here is to the Brad Pitt/Morgan Freeman gem Seven. It was a movie I knew nothing about. I had only heard that it was a movie I must see through word of mouth. Seven probably has a place in my all-time top 25 forever. That’s how good it was. But a lot of this initially high rating was because of how in awe I was when I saw it in such a small, rickety stage theater converted into a movie theater in Lexington, VA, in the fall of 1997. Now, Ex Machina is not in the class of Seven. But like Seven, it is a gripping, carefully scripted movie that will stay with you long after you watch it. Ex Machina will challenge for best movie of the first half of 2015.
Category Archives: Mystery
The Harvest (2015)
It’s never really a good thing when your movie is released on Video on Demand the same day it opens in the theater. This is slowly changing and becoming more widely accepted because it helps some independent movies earn more money. However, it still means that, regardless of how good a movie is (in any category), it is not eligible for an Academy Award nomination. So if it is a movie you think will be great, you wouldn’t make it available on OnDemand until after it leaves theaters. With that said, all those involved with this movie (regardless of whether you loved it or hated it) knew that it would never be in contention for an Oscar award. The Harvest is a movie I would not have seen in theaters, and had it not been on OnDemand at the same time as its theatrical release, I would have missed it altogether. Their release plan was good. The film, on the other hand, was meh.
Transcendence (2014)
After months of hype, Wally Pfister’s directorial debut, Transcendence, received a 19% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I remember looking forward to this movie when I first heard about it. However, my hopes quickly extinguished when I saw how poorly it was received by critics and how poorly it did at the box office. It grossed only $23 million domestically (though it went on to gross $103 million worldwide, surpassing its $100 million budget by a hair and making it a slightly profitable movie). That movie was not disappointing at all, but maybe misunderstood. It was slow (one of its significant gripes), but honestly, not any slower than Interstellar (which critics loved, made a ton of movies in the United States, and was released just a few short months earlier). I know I am in the minority when I say that, despite its limitations and shortcomings, which I will discuss, you should give the movie a chance.
Nightcrawler (2014)
It’s getting closer and closer to awards season, and I have continued to wait for that one movie that will establish itself as the movie to beat before the real crop of contenders comes out between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Unfortunately, some of those I thought would show themselves, especially Boyhood, Gone Girl, or Birdman, have failed. So, the movie to beat at this point is still The Drop. But first-time director Dan Gilroy has made his claim with the creepy Jake Gyllenhaal (Brothers, Prisoners) Nightcrawler. I am sure this will be just one of two movies I’ve seen thus far that will wind up in my end-of-year Top 10. Others are there now that, I’m hoping, will fall as we get into the meat and bones of December. But The Drop and Nightcrawler seem to have cemented their spots.
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Gone Girl (2014)
Halfway through Gone Girl, I thought I was watching this year’s movie to beat. It had everything I wanted in a terse murder mystery/thriller. First, it had the small town file (which I love). We know who the main potential suspect may be from the film’s opening minutes. But this likely suspect may also be the film’s protagonist. And we are left guessing about his guilt or innocence throughout most of the film. We like him. We don’t like him. We hate him. We love him. We go through the gamut of emotions, leaving us exhausted as we sit on the edge of our seats. But the movie unravels in the last 45 minutes with more absurdities than a Jim Carrey movie. Suddenly this well-thought-out thriller becomes a bit of a mockery of itself in an attempt to separate it from other whodunit movies.
Continue reading Gone Girl (2014)