Selma has a movie that will leave many audience members clapping as the film concludes. It’s a feel-good movie and an important one for all generations to see. Older generations maybe we have forgotten some of the critical details over the years. Younger generations may be being exposed to this for the first time, or at least the first time outside of maybe a textbook or one of those dry 45-minute, made-for-education documentaries. I am happy this movie received a PG-13 rating rather than an R one. It is an essential movie for everyone to see. I am not one who will ever cheer or hoot and holler at the end of a movie. That isn’t my style. I was talking with my mom the other day, and she said people stood and clapped at the end of Unbroken. I found Unbroken to be one of the most overrated, bland movies. Selma certainly isn’t that, and I was happy there were some cheers at the end of this movie. I think I’m just seeing it at a time in my life where, outside of a select few movies (including none in 2014…still some hope for American Sniper, though) where I am just not going to be moved in the same things that a typical audience might be. My favorite movies these days are dark, psychological thrillers (Foxcatcher) or movies about either wrecked relationships/less than perfect relationships (Blue Valentine, Take This Waltz, Revolutionary Road, All the Real Girls) overcome diversity to find a way (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Painted Veil). So just where I was with my mental state, I had sort of had a mental block going in. I was confident I would like the movie, but I was by no means ready to see it was going to win all of these Academy Awards for which it will likely receive nominations. The nominations it will receive. The wins, I think, could become hard to find.
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Category Archives: Year of Release
All the Real Girls (2003)
Director David Gordon Green is quietly creeping into the upper echelon of movie directors. However, he is probably a name most people still have not heard of. Green is known for doing these smaller, independent, character-driven movies that are often set in Anytown, USA. To me, the movies are incredibly realistic because they dive so deep into raw, everyday emotions, explicitly dealing with love and lust and jealousy and anger and hurt. Keep in mind as I say this that he has also directed stupid humor comedies like Pineapple Express, The Sitter, and Your Highness, but that shows how ultra-talented the man is. The movies I am talking about are George Washington, Undertow (which I didn’t like but appreciated), and Snow Angels, a film I admire in every aspect. I’d need to go back and watch Snow Angels again (a movie I watched for the second time ever, no more than 3 or 4 months ago) before deciding if I like it or All the Real Girls better. To me, both of these movies capture the pureness of simple film-making.
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Unbroken (2014)
In my opinion, the two best series of trailers for 2014 have been Unbroken and American Sniper. These were two of, if not the, most anticipated movies of the year for more. I apologize to Foxcatcher, which had a fantastic trailer and was a movie I was looking forward to. It not only met but exceeded expectations. These two Christmas Day movies have had me buzzing for months. Unfortunately, as the reviews began pouring in, I realized these movies would probably fall short of expectations. American Sniper is currently in the 70% range on Rotten Tomatoes, while Unbroken was way down at around 50%. I have not yet seen American Sniper, but based on the small reviews I have read, I believe I know where it was going to fall short. I think that if outsiders had screened this movie before its completion, there could have been some influence on the film’s sequencing that would better tell Chris Kyle’s story after his tours of duty. Again, this is my prediction before viewing the movie, but I have a feeling I’m going to say that it was a good movie that could have potentially been in my top ten of all time. Unfortunately, I did not feel the same way about Unbroken. The trailer didn’t live up to the movie, and I’m not sure any editing could have changed that. I found this movie to be very disappointing.
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Sure David Fincher’s (Fight Club, Se7en) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is Forrest Gump meets Legends of the Fall. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great movie. I saw this movie opening weekend six years ago and remember being intrigued by the premise but not exactly sure how I’d react to it. The trailer was superb, and Brad Pitt is excellent in almost everything he does. This movie was screaming Academy Award Nomination for him, and this would prove to be his first Best Actor nod. I’m also very high on Fincher and Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine, Elizabeth: The Golden Age). At nearly three hours, this movie is way much too long, but, at the same time, I’m not exactly sure what I would cut it out. To me, each scene is integral to the story. And while Forrest Gump achieved more critical acclaim (6 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor and six other nominations), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button fared very well (3 wins and ten more nominations). Are the stories similar? They are. And while Brad Pitt’s character in this movie isn’t quite the same as his character in Legends of the Fall, his Benjamin Button character does follow many of the same fight versus flight battles that Tristan faced. If I had to rank these three movies, I think I would still go Forrest Gump first, Legends of the Fall second, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but that is one heck of a list. All three of these movies currently rank in my All-Time top 125, and I think each of these movies will continue to stand the test of time, meaning I don’t see these movies sliding down as I revise my list yearly.
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The Imitation Game (2014)
The one movie of 2014 that I was not looking forward to seeing but knew I had to see was, without a doubt, The Imitation Game. I learned early in the year that this would end up being one of the movies to beat, but there was something about the trailer that told me that the movie would probably be well made and tell a great, true story but also be incredibly dull and long. I was wrong. The first thing to point out was that this movie was only 110 minutes. I love a film that can tell its story in under two hours. I understand the standard tends to be closer to 2 hours and 15 minutes (with many movies pushing or exceeding 3 hours), but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Secondly, this movie was never dull. In the wrong hands, this movie as being a complete snooze-fest. It was anything but. This is why I am ready to give without having seen some of the probably Oscar-nominated movies yet to be released (notably Unbroken, American Sniper, Selma, Mr. Turner, and Into the Woods), Morten Tyldum a Best Director nomination. The only other nomination I have cemented is Richard Linklater (Boyhood). The direction in this movie was outstanding, and I am confident there will not be three better-directed movies in 2014 that I have yet to see.
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