The year was 2003, and a quiet little movie named The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won the Academy Awards biggest prize, winning Best Picture. Some will argue that this was the culmination of a pretty darn good trilogy, and that will ensure that the Peter Jackson franchise was worthy of its share of accolades, although maybe Best Picture of the Year wasn’t one of them. I can’t give my opinion on that one because I have yet to see the film as of this writing (February 2019). I liked the first two enough and didn’t have a reason for not seeing the third other than length. I should probably watch The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers again beforehand.
Category Archives: Year of Release
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
To say that the Jonathan Demme-directed Rachel Getting Married is the role that Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries, Love and Other Drugs) could be considered the ultimate compliment and, simultaneously, something that you hope isn’t true. I say that for a couple of reasons. First, if this is her crowning achievement, then what a movie to hang your hat on. With all due respect to 2012’s Les Miserables, Hathaway’s one performance as of the end of 2018 that has earned her an Academy Award win, I have a difficult time comparing that movie to Rachel Getting Married for no other reason than because while I have from time to time, I don’t typically review musicals. Much like documentaries or animated movies I never review, I wonder if I have much insight or more to offer regarding a singing film. With that said, I reviewed Les Miserables and found Hathaway’s scene-stealing performance as Fantine to be the highlight of a movie and a story I enjoy.
Operation Finale (2018)
Operation Finale, a film that chronicles the 1961 top-secret raid to capture the notorious Adolf Eichmann, the highest-ranking living Nazi official from World War II, is probably the best movie of 2018 that you’ll never hear about. Under-publicized and just a little north of neutral on Rotten Tomatoes’ aggregate film rating site, Operation Finale was released during a period (late August) when quieter movies don’t do so well at the box office. Plus, this movie doesn’t have an A-list headliner. While it is true that Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina, A Most Violent Year), who, in 2018, is one of our finest working actors, is not quite a household name. At least not yet. Sure, he plays the recognizable Poe Dameron in the latest Star Wars trilogy (episodes VII, VIII, IX), but a respectable actor must be more than that. And Isaac is in the actor circles but isn’t well-known enough to the public. And while he stars opposite a widely respectable actor in Ben Kingsley (House of Sand and Fog, Gandhi), his elder counterpart’s best years are far behind him. At 74, who knows how much longer his career will continue? If this is Kingsley’s final role, it’s a good one.
Continue reading Operation Finale (2018)
The Favourite (2018)
Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing of the Sacred Deer) is not my favorite director. His latest film, the Olivia Colman (Murder On The Orient Express, Locke) led The Favourite, is not my favorite film. His style doesn’t work for me. I like creative movies. I like unique films. I sometimes like eccentric movies. But weird movies are hit or miss, and his are mostly a miss for me. Ironically, The Favourite is probably his most “normal” to date. But I found myself disinterested in it from the start. Just as ironically, the much lesser recognized Mary Queen of Scots, which was released within a week or two of this movie (and a film that I enjoyed), was widely disregarded by critics and audiences alike (63%, 44% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to 94%, 61% for The Favourite). I’m only reviewing this movie because it will likely get nominated for many Academy Awards, and sadly, Best Picture will be one of those.
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Adapted from a 1974 James Baldwin novel of the same name, Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk follow-up to his 2016 Oscar winner for Best Picture Moonlight is a soft tale of two African American lovers set in 1970’s Harlem. After the critical success of Moonlight, Jenkins more or less could have picked whatever movie he wanted to do next and received the green light and the funding. If anything, I am glad that he only waited about a year to begin his next project. If Beale Street Could Talk is a fine little film. As good as it is, I expect that the novel was even better.