“Man, I loved the hell out of Dogtooth. I wish Yorgos Lanthimos would make another movie that made me feel as elaborately horrible as Dogtooth” is not by any means the kind of statement that everybody could or should agree with, but it’s a strongly-held belief of your humble author. And as much as I adored the mirthless humor of 2015’s The Lobster, the Greek director’s first English-language film, neither […]
First things first: the sheer weirdness of watching a director whose work up till now has all been characterised by a glacial sheen of emotional remove from her characters and their behavior retelling a story of hothouse Southern Gothic sexuality during the U.S. Civil War – and maintaining that glacial quality! – is all it takes for me to declare Sofia Coppola’s remake of the also very weird 1971 Don […]
And here we are, with the Oscars are coming this very weekend. Gawk in wonder as three very different people all agree that La La Land will win absolutely no fewer than 8 awards, though we are bitterly divided on just how it will subdivide the sound categories. BEST PICTURE Arrival Fences Hacksaw Ridge Hell or High Water Hidden Figures La La Land Lion Manchester by the Sea Moonlight Tim […]
Here’s the complete list of nominees, along with my record for predicting right (and wrong) in every category. As for commentary – ah, no, you’ll have to wait for that till our next podcast! Best Picture Arrival Fences Hacksaw Ridge Hell or High Water Hidden Figures La La Land Lion Manchester by the Sea Moonlight My record: 9/9 Best Director Damien Chazelle, La La Land Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge Barry […]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces their nominees for the 89th Academy Awards tomorrow. I’m cutting it close, but I couldn’t let the very first Oscar season here at Alternate Ending go by without offering my predictions for what I expect to see get nominated Best Picture Arrival Fences Hacksaw Ridge Hell or High Water Hidden Figures La La Land Lion Manchester by the Sea Moonlight (I’m […]
It’s genuinely shocking to me that Lion is as good as it is, for as long as it is. It’s Harvey Weinstein’s duly-anointed champion for the Oscar season, which has only rarely been a good sign in the 21st Century and is frequently the biggest red flag I can think of. And that becomes an even more dire sign in light of the kind of Oscarbait this is: the Inspiring […]
It’s officially that most exciting time of the movie year: all of the most exciting stuff isn’t actually opening unless you are among the anointed within an easy trip of downtown New York or Los Angeles. And may I say that for all I would grouse and kvell about this (not always on this blog) when I lived in Chicago, my experience of last fall in Madison really brought how […]
There are three releases this month that have a real shot at huge blockbuster status, and yet doesn’t it kind of feel like the whole of November is a waiting game until that film comes out in December? It doesn’t help that the anointed Oscarbait of 2015 is almost uniformly the drabbest, least exciting sort of tosh. Anyway, let’s plow through while we’re waiting for that space picture.. 6.11.2015 Daniel […]
About the project JEFFERSON IN PARIS (James Ivory, France/USA) Screened in the main competition The first James Ivory/Ismail Merchant/Ruth Prawer Jhabvala joint after the pinnacle achievements Howards End and The Remains of the Day is nowhere near their equal. Jhabvala’s screenplay suffers from some jarring attempts at slave vernacular, particularly in the massively unnecessary framework narrative. And it’s obnoxious for a movie whose primary theme is that the Great White […]
The word that primarily suggests itself in respect to Paddington, roughly muscling out all other possibilities, is “charming”. A word which could certainly be employed with a certain level of condescension, sure, but not really in this case. For it is an earned charm, in Paddington; the screenplay by director Paul King, from a story he and Hamish McColl adapted from Michael Bond’s series of children’s books, reeks with lighthearted […]
Good movies here and there, as will always happen, but let us not mince words: the ending months of 2014 pretty well sucked for cinema. A new year now spreads before us, and it brings with us the promise that things will be better. Not right away, of course. I mean, January. It’s the dead zone. 2.1.2015 So speaking of death, the first movie of the year is a horror […]
October! The month of scary movies and the first self-conscious awards bait! We had a banner year for October releases which I absolutely do not expect to see matched; that said, October is also the month of the Chicago International Film Festival, about which I am particularly excited this year. But more about that in a week or so. 3.10.2014 So first up, the film that splits the difference between […]
