Give Emma Stone (La La Land, Battle of the Sexes) this year’s Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. This category is going to be STACKED for 2023-released, eligible movies. With six weeks left before the nominations, I have seen all films perceived as frontrunners. Lily Gladstone (Kill of the Flower Moon) was the thought-to-be shoo-in for most of the year heading into the fall. Gladstone delivers an award-deserving performance. However, I would rather see her considered in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category, where I think that performance fits better (at the time of this post, it is still being determined which category Gladstone will be submitted for. The others expected to be in consideration for Best Actress in a Leading Role are Greta Lee (Past Lives), Carey Mulligan (Maestro), Margot Robbie (Barbie), and Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall). Each is deserving of a nomination. No one in this group has a chance to beat Stone or Gladstone. Stone is my pick to win.
Category Archives: Mark Ruffalo
Zodiac (2007)
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Stronger) makes every movie he is in better than it would otherwise be, regardless of it it’s a great movie, a terrible movie, or anything in between. Director David Fincher (Se7en, The Social Network) doesn’t make bad films. With Gyllenhaal and Fincher together, along with an ensemble that includes Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man 3, Natural Born Killers), Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher, Spotlight), Anthony Edwards (Top Gun, NBC’s ER), Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Young Guns), Brian Cox, (The Ring, HBO’s Succession), and John Carroll Lynch (The Trial of the Chicago 7, Jackie), Zodiac was bound for success. While the film connected on all fronts, it felt like it left something to be desired, though this would undoubtedly be true for anyone familiar with the story.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Sad memories are the worst kind. Of all the memories, these are the ones that can flip the switch of a day at a moment’s notice. It could be the waft of a familiar fragrance once worn by a significant other who has since left your life. Or it might be a forgotten song that pops up on a playlist, instantly transporting you to the time and place you first heard it. Or perhaps it’s a photo, once a bookmark now wedged between a pair of books, that falls to the floor when reorganizing a room and evokes a memory you weren’t prepared to face on a particular day. If we could rid ourselves of our sad memories so that we no longer need to experience the pain associated with them, would we? Some of us would do this in a heartbeat, while others would never choose to do something so drastic. Most of us lie in between, and our resiliency to these emotional triggers places us somewhere along that spectrum. Michel Gondry’s (The Green Hornet, Be Kind Rewind) universally revered cult classic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Continue reading Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Dark Waters (2019)
Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher, Spotlight) continues to show that he is one of the more under-appreciated Hollywood heavyweights in Todd Haynes’ (Carol, Wonderstruck) new release. Dark Waters tells the true story of Cincinnati lawyer Rob Bilott’s extraordinarily long legal battle against the DuPont Chemical Company and the toxic waste it was dumping into the streams and rivers of West Virginia. This poisonous waste contributed to a high rate of cancer cases in the surrounding areas and contributed to an alarming number of deaths among cattle and other animals. The movie is exceptionally well-made. It should be seen by all as it hits on self-regulation, big business, medical disasters, and company cover-ups on such a grand scale that it seems hard to fathom as being possible in today’s world. In today’s society, there is so much scrutiny, regulation, and punishment for companies doing what DuPont did and almost escaped without punishment. Almost.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Why did the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin – W., Sicario) need to grab hold of the power of the six Infinity Stones to destroy the universe? I think it’s important to understand what causes a villain to do certain actions rather than just to have a bad guy. The stronger the villain’s arc and the more we sympathize with them on any level, the more we understand and appreciate the underlying of who they are. In Avengers: Infinity War (directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo), we have a powerful bad guy motivated by a tortured past and willing to destroy all the good guys in the universe to atone for it. After the planet Titan is no longer inhabited, he is not allowed to prevent things from destroying it; he thinks he will prevent it. Instead, he lost his planet and everyone on it. Vowing not to let something like that happen again, he makes it his mission to balance the universe by completely wiping out half of it. But to do so, he’ll need all six of the Infinity Stones that will power his Infinity Gauntlet, allowing him to bend time, space, energy, and the laws of physics and reality.