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 too long, but I’m not sure what to cut. 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 6 other nominations), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button fared very well (3 wins and 10 nominations).
Category Archives: Year of Release
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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Wild (2014)
Wild seems to be the type of movie I am drawn to these days. Recently, I’ve been going for heavy dramas, movies about self-discovery, films with acting performances that are Oscar-worthy, and movies based on true stories. Wild had all four of these things, yet it was a dissatisfying movie. It was not a bad movie, but it was severely flawed. And the idea that it could earn so many award nominations this year (though I’m predicting it will earn none) shows just how weak this year has been for movies.
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Whiplash (2014)
There’s one main reason to see Damien Chazelle’s (Grand Piano) Whiplash. Despite its outstanding 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s not a movie that offers anything original. It’s a good film, but not a great movie. However, it does deliver one of the finest (if not the finest) supporting performances of the year. We’ve seen this story in books, on television, and the big screen hundreds of times. The content changes, but the story stays the same…a young person trying to do whatever they can to win the approval of someone they are trying to impress. In this case, the young person is Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller – The Spectacular Now, 21 and Over), a first-year drumming major at New York’s Shaffer Conservatory of Music, one of the top music prep school’s in the country. And the person he is unsuccessfully trying to win over is Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons – television’s Oz, television’s The Closer), the school’s most well-known teacher and maestro of the school’s top jazz ensemble. It’s well-known that if you can succeed in Fletcher’s group, you’ve got the potential for a great career as a musician. The movie is good. Continue reading Whiplash (2014)
Chef (2014)
The feel-good movie of the year so far and one that completely flew under the radar (despite its 88% fresh rating and $31 million box office gross) without question is Chef, a movie written, directed, and starring Jon Favreau. Yes, that Jon Favreau. The same guy you’ve seen in character roles in films like Swingers, The Wolf of Wall Street, John Carter, Elf, and the Iron Man franchises for the last 20 years. Unbeknownst to me until a couple of days ago is that he is an accomplished director. He’s directed Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and Elf, among others. All three were satisfying movies that earned well over $150 million at the box office. I enjoyed all three of these movies. And while I would still rank the first Iron Man as his best film, Chef is an absolute gem. It is heartwarming, funny, poignant, and original. It does for 2014 what The Way, Way Back did for 2013. Both movies were lesser known. Each earned about the same amount of money at the box office. And each had about the same rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While I was a big fan of The Way, Way Back, there was something about Chef that has reserved a permanent place in my 2014 Top Ten list.
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