While it may not end up in my top five movies of the year, Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea was almost perfect. I said the same thing when I started my review for Nocturnal Animals a week ago. Both movies could potentially be serious contenders, but both had some serious holes. While Nocturnal Animals will likely not receive any nominations com, Manchester by the Sea will likely earn multiple ones. Manchester by the Sea will likely finish as one of my five favorites of the year, but boy, did it have the possibility to be number one.
Category Archives: Year of Release
Allied (2016)
While a 65% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests a movie should be checked out, sometimes you wonder why the score isn’t higher. Allied, the Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, The Walk) World War II love story set in Casablanca and London about two intelligence officers from opposite sides of the world says a lot. The movie has been loosely referred to as Mr. and Mrs. Smith (because of Brad Pitt) meets Casablanca. While I understand the reference, this is far from the truth. I was not too fond of either of these other movies. While I did not particularly like either of those movies, I enjoyed Allied.
Cassandra’s Dream (2007)
Not being the biggest Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Match Point) fan, I’ve always felt that his romance and dramas needed more substance than he offered. Cassandra’s Dream is a movie I would never have given a chance when it was released back in 2007. Likewise, Colin Farrell (The Lobster, In Bruges) and Ewan McGregor (The Impossible, Incendiary) are not my biggest fans. Ferrell has grown on me by shedding his bad boy, box office revenue-chasing persona and doing more indies. I am surprised I even watched it. I’m grateful I gave it a chance after it was released. It was a nice, simple film that entertained me the whole time.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016)
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is not your typical Ang Lee (Lust, Caution, Hulk) film. It doesn’t have the effortless flow near the sweeping landscapes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Life of Pi, or Brokeback Mountain. While these three movies netted the legendary director three Best Director Academy Award nominations, including two wins, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk likely will not earn him nomination number four. It’s awkward and clumsy at times. It has unnecessary elements in it. Most importantly, it lacks any immediate or emotional impact that the trailers lead you to believe it has. The premise felt very much like Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Father. I expected much more from these movies than from what was delivered. Nevertheless, there were some good things about Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. It is much better than its current 43% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Nocturnal Animals (2016)
Almost perfect. While it may not even end up in my top five movies of the year, Tom Ford’s (A Single Man) Nocturnal Animals was almost perfect. I liked it so much in this movie, and Ford almost created a masterpiece, but it fell short. An A- for sure. Maybe even an A. But it won’t be the 49th movie I’ve seen that would classify as an A+. Jake Gyllenhaal (Love and Other Drugs, Everest) is better than ever, and he could end up with an Oscar nomination for this film. In a perfect world, he would, especially since he may have been the odd man out in 2015 (Nightcrawler) and 2016 (Southpaw) for a Best Actor Academy Award. But with four of the five slots pretty much locked up (Tom Hanks – Sully, Denzel Washington – Fences, Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea, Joel Edgerton (Loving), that leaves only one more nomination between Gyllenhaal, Ryan Gosling (La La Land), Warren Beatty (Rules Don’t Apply), and Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge). And, honestly, while his performance was excellent, it wasn’t nearly the performance he gave in either Nightcrawler or Southpaw. Ford’s chances for a Best Directing nod look even dimmer, and an impressive performance by Amy Adams (The Fighter, American Hustle) may be overlooked entirely because she will likely receive a nomination (and may even be the frontrunner) for Arrival, a movie that was released just a week before Nocturnal Animals.