Best Female Performances of 2014

In this double feature, I will be counting down the best acting performances given by both male and female actors. They are separated by gender, because I really struggled to put a great male performance up against a great female performance and call it. So I have split them, and below you will find the top ten performances given by actresses, with an honorable mention.

This is all leading up to my Top Movies of 2014, which will be published in the days to come.

HONORABLE MENTION:  Meryl Streep- The Witch- Into the Woods

NOMINEE: ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Meryl Streep can do no wrong, and that's been proved time and time again. From the moment her name was attached to Into the Woods, the Oscar rumors began circulating. As you may remember, I did not like the movie. I thought it lacked a message, but I felt that the Witch had everything the movie needed. She had the inner struggle, she had the comedy, she had the great music numbers. She was the most memorable and compelling character in the film. Few deny she has serious acting talent, but it takes skill to escape a mediocre movie's pull and come out with a great performance.

Quote: "Stay a child while you can be a child."

#10. Scarlett Johansson- Lucy- Lucy

Lucy was actually the first movie I reviewed. Woman gets implanted with a drug, and she can use 100% of her brain. It's a wild head-trip of a movie, but one that deserves a lot of praise for its execution. It plays by its own rules. I could've given it to her for really enhancing her Black Widow role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But this is her highlight in my opinion. It solidifies her ability to drive a movie. It's definitely a straight-up action role, but her performance is able to stay grounded while her character is going all over the place.

Quote: "Ignorance bring chaos, not knowledge"

#9. Rene Russo- Nina Romina- Nightcrawler

I'm not going to lie. I had no idea who Rene Russo was going into Nightcrawler. I left the film thinking: "Who was that?!" I was informed that this was Rene Russo, and she was a big action star in the 80s in movies like Lethal Weapon. But she'd disappeared from the spotlight. Well, she's back. As Nina, she plays the corrupt TV executive that fuels the lead character's criminal acts, and it's all to get her the best headline and pay. She's scheming, and an intriguing character who thinks she is good, but is actually quite nasty and horrible. It's definitely a criticism of the entertainment system.

Quote: "Think of our newscast as a screaming woman, running down the street with her throat cut."

#8: Sienna Miller- Taya Kyle- American Sniper

I'm right there with everyone when it comes to American Sniper love. I thought the movie was fantastic, and I applaud Bradley Cooper's performance. But where's the attention for Sienna Miller? She was just as good as he was! Her role was equally as complex, and maybe even harder, as she could have come off as a stereotype or an unlikable character (think of the wife from Breaking Bad). Yet she's the one you sympathize with. I think Miller does a phenomenal job as Taya Kyle, and brings something to every single scene she's in. Without Sienna Miller, it'd be a very different movie.

Quote: "If you think that this war isn't changing you you're wrong. You can only circle the flames so long."


#7. Shailene Woodley- Hazel Grace Lancaster- The Fault in Our Stars

Shailene Woodley starred in not one, but two YA fiction adaptations. She played Tris Prior in Divergent, and Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars. But it's the latter that made the resounding impact with viewers. As Hazel, she plays a teenager losing her battle with terminal cancer. While at first negative, her romance with another teen affected by the disease shows her how important she and her life are. It's the role that could be done wrong very easily. Luckily, Woodley does everything right, and then some. She'll likely make you tear up, if not downright bawl in this heartbreaking turn.

Quote: "You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and for that, I am eternally grateful."

#6. Felicity Jones- Jane Hawking- The Theory of Everything

NOMINEE: ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS
Felicity Jones has a huge accomplishment with her role in The Theory of Everything. She plays the wife of Stephen Hawking, and her role is someone who could easily be a hated character. The film tackles a very tough subject of divorce, but Jones' performance as Jane Hawking is what really respectfully pulls it off. She gives such a subtle and tender performance, that you can't hate her, because she is able to give her reasons why she and Stephen will not work out. And when you think about it, that's easier said than done. Alongside Eddie Redmayne, who's giving a powerhouse performance, she's able to stand her ground and make the same impact with her character.

Quote: I have loved you. I can make this work. But I will no longer. I'm truly sorry for this inconvenience."

#5. Keira Knightley- Joan Clarke- The Imitation Game

NOMINEE: ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Keira Knightley is such a good actress. I've probably seen her in only a handful of movies, but I've still been able to classify her as simply incredible with all of her work. My personal favorite performance of hers is in Atonement, but she does not disappoint here, where she plays Joan Clarke, the brilliant mathematician working in Bletchley Park to crack the Enigma code. In the start of the movie, I didn't get the hype around her performance, but I left the theater in awe of what I just saw. She's subtle, but not subtle in the same way. A nuanced but showy performance that's incredible.

Quote: "You wish you were normal? The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren't born normal."

#4. Reese Witherspoon- Cheryl Strayed- Wild

NOMINEE: ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS
Reese Witherspoon is an actress who is almost all of the time a standout in every movie she touches. Wild is no exception, and here, she's the star of the show. In this true story based on the memoir, she plays a woman struck with huge tragedy, who hikes 1,000 miles to escape her life, find closure, and redeem herself. It's an incredibly heartbreaking premise, but Witherspoon brings just enough hope to her role to keep spirits alive, and make it a very compelling movie. You'll laugh at her, you might cry with her, but you'll ultimately leave the movie feeling like she taught you something about life.

Quote: "How wild it was to let it be."

#3. Emma Stone- Sam Thomson- Birdman

NOMINEE: ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
I've always been a fan of Emma Stone. From Easy A, to The Help, and even her outings as Gwen Stacy in the Spider-Man movies, I've loved her work. I've been waiting for her to get her big movie, one that she can steal the show and earn the respect she deserves. I'm happy to say in Birdman, she does that and SO much more. She plays the drug addict daughter of a fading movie star, and she's as foul-mouthed and short-tempered as they come. While she comes off as rude and unattractive to most everyone she meets, you can see the struggle she has, and Stone conveys this sometimes through just facial expressions. It's a complex role, and she gives one heck of a speech in the first half of the film.

Quote: "You're scared to death, like the rest of us, that you don't matter. And you know what? You don't. Get used to it."

#2. Rosamund Pike- Amy Dunne- Gone Girl

NOMINEE: ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS
There are three sides to the story in Gone Girl. His, Hers, and the Truth. And Amy's story is very different from her husbands. Who's the true crazy person in their relationship? Pike is able to portray a wife and woman who denies all stereotypes, and instead makes her own twisted ones. She's able to nail every single scene, and no matter how shocking or disturbing, your eyes are glued to her. Her "Cool Girl" monologue is the stuff of infamy now. She lost weight, she gained weight, she transformed her mind and body to play this very complicated character, and she deserves to be rewarded. She's the one who sells the Nick and Amy story, and she's the one who sold the tickets too.

Quote: "You think you'd be happy with a nice Midwestern girl? No way, baby! I'm it"

#1. Patricia Arquette- Mom- Boyhood

NOMINEE: ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Boyhood is a movie that the cast had to commit to. A week every year, for 12 years, to tell this incredible story of a boy growing up. It's almost as much about parenthood though, as it is about boyhood. Arquette plays the mother, who struggles to navigate a tough divorce and keep her children happy. You see her struggle with her kids, with her ex, and with herself to try and find a place for her children when she doesn't even know where she will end up. With two more failed marriages with abusive husbands, she doesn't even know what will happen when her son leaves for college. She's grown up with him, and while he knows what he's going to do, she doesn't. It's the deep kind of role that the whole movie gravitates around. She's won a Golden Globe, and she deserves an Oscar.

Quote: "I just thought there would be more. More than this, and more to me. And here I am, alone."

American Sniper Review

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller

I was sick last week, so I couldn't see American Sniper as early as I would've liked. Last week it broke numerous records with its nationwide debut, including smashing the January record with a $90 million weekend, and a $107 million MLK holiday weekend. It also has the highest opening ever for a drama, and now it has one of the highest second weekends ever. This movie shows that if there's a movie everyone wants to see really badly, they will go to it. There's a lot of untapped potential for Hollywood, but the studio that made this movie apparently did something right with its marketing. I went to a 12:30 showing, on a Sunday, and we got there a half hour early. Still, the theater was packed already. It also has amazing word-of-mouth. Everyone seems to love this movie. This means I have to be really careful with what I say here, because I don't want anyone to misunderstand. This is an excellent movie. Is it perfect? No it's not, but for what it's trying to do, it absolutely hits the mark.

First off, I've never left a movie quite the way I left American Sniper. It was literally like leaving a funeral. So many people in one theater, and everyone was just silently shuffling out of there. It really resonates with you after. I'm still processing it. If any movie I've seen has most convinced me that war is horrible, it's this one. I'm sure I'll be proved wrong by better war movies made in the past, but for now this is it for me. I've also never seen the present day wartime shown better than it is here. When Chris Kyle and his wife were watching the Twin Towers go down, she was crying, but he just stared at the TV. He was furious. He knew he had to go back to war now. I think director Clint Eastwood did a very good job depicting his addiction to war. Yes, he was addicted to it, and in a bad way. He needed the adrenaline, and he needed to protect and avenge the lives of his fellow soldiers. They say snipers are like angels, and I'd say he took that to heart too much. He put far too much pressure on himself, and it ended up almost destroying himself and his family. He made so many dangerous decisions that risked his personal life with his wife and kids. All for combat.

The acting in the movie is spectacular. I've been a fan of Bradley Cooper ever since Silver Linings Playbook, but what a completely different role! I was shocked by his physical transformation. He looked different, he talked differently, he even walked differently! He completely became his character. A lot can be said for Sienna Miller as well, who plays his wife Taya. She really sells her role, and I think it's a hard role to come off completely believable in. She nails it. For those who know the tragic ending of American Sniper, Clint Eastwood handles it very well and very respectfully. I think he also foreshadowed incredibly well in the movie, so I could guess when a couple things would happen. Many of Kyle's PTSD episodes or mannerisms were incredibly believable. Cooper and Eastwood both need to be commended for their work bringing this incredible story to life.

My only problem was the pacing. Call me crazy, but the movie lost me a couple times. It just was a little slow in parts, and my mind wandered and I got bored really fast. That's never a good thing for a movie, and it's not just me feeling this way. But I also know a lot of people who really love the movie, which is always good. The Oscars will definitely gain a lot of viewers by including this movie in top categories like Best Picture and Best Actor for Cooper. Can it win either? I think it's a huge long shot for both, but you never know with the Oscars. For everyone saying that they "feel bad" for American Sniper's competition, see the other seven movies and you will NOT be saying that anymore. I think it'll miss out simply because there are four of five movies that are easily better than it. It's still a well-made movie that's certainly got a lot of people behind it. As for the controversy, I think it's all stupid. Whether Chris Kyle is a hero or not is up to interpretation. The movie really lets you decide, as it neither celebrates nor condemns him, but presents evidence for either side. He did some heroic things, and some that weren't so much heroic. Whether he's really a hero or not is entirely up to you.

Rating:

The Imitation Game Review

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Charles Dance

When I walked into The Imitation Game I had very high expectations. This is a movie nominated for 8 Oscars, 5 Golden Globes, 3 Screen Actors Guild Awards, and that won the Toronto Film Festival Best Picture, which is a huge award. So I had a gut feeling this was going to be a good movie. I just hadn't imagined it would be as good as it is. The Imitation Game is an excellent film. It's powerfully acted, well-written, thematically thrilling, and just an all-around interesting movie to watch. And it's empowering as well, and gives justice to a man who's been robbed by history. Alan Turing was a British cryptographer asked to help the government with Enigma, the code all Nazis used for WWII communications. He knows he can break it, but only if he builds a machine to defeat a machine. He built the prototype for what's now known as the computer, and in doing so broke Enigma and won the war. But why does no one know his story? The answer may make you shake your head with disappointment. It might even anger some people. And some people surely won't go along with it, but go ahead and keep reading as I dive into the inner mechanics of this well-oiled machine.

The highlight of the movie is definitely Benedict Cumberbatch's performance as Alan Turing. It's amazing when you think about how far Cumberbatch has come. A couple years ago only BBC fans knew him as Sherlock Holmes on Sherlock, but he's starred in the perfect storm of movies since. Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave, August: Osage County, The Hobbit franchise, and Star Trek: Into Darkness to name a few, all leading up to this Oscar-nominated performance, which is his first nomination. Alan was always different, and he never did get along with people. This made it hard for him to work with any of his team when they had to work together to break Enigma. The biggest thing was that he was a closeted homosexual, in a time and place where it was considered "indecency" and prison was definite. So the man who broke Enigma ended up being the biggest enigma himself. The only friend he really had while working was Joan Clarke, played (amazingly) by Keira Knightley. Joan is different, like Alan. She's not gay in a society where gay isn't accepted. She's a woman in a society where women really can't do anything. Alan gives a test to the public in a local newspaper to find potential people to help, and Joan isn't even believed when she solves the test, simply because she's a woman. And in these two stories, I think acceptance becomes a big part of this movie's story.

So am I just saying this is a mushy gay rights biopic? No, because this is an empowerment movie second, and a war movie first. It's all about Alan Turing, and yes he's gay. But I like that the movie doesn't ground itself on his homosexuality.  It's a major point of the movie (so if you feel passionately against this stuff you'll likely struggle) but the main theme is his work for the war, and the code at hand. I love how they treat the code as if it's a thinking human being, freely thinking. Which is why Alan needs to build his machine to decrypt it. It's smarter than any man, except he's the first man to actually admit it, and realize only something of its kind can beat it. The movie gets its name from "The Imitation Game" which is a test he invented to discover if something is human or machine. The test gives an identity, which is something he cannot give himself. Is he a genius? Is he a war hero? Is he a criminal? Is he comfortable with his sexuality? A big theme is how Alan relates himself to the code. The real enigma isn't the code. It's the man.

I can't say enough good things about this movie. I'm currently writing a list of my favorite movies of 2014, and expect this to be pretty high. It's also one of my favorites going into Oscar season. I'm especially rooting for it for Best Original Score, which was such a standout, I may have to listen to the soundtrack on repeat for a little while. The score really blends with the movie so well. Also, the cinematography. Many will have no idea what this is, but it's how the movie looks (in a nutshell).  The film flashbacks between different timelines as well as wartime scenes of destruction, and everything looks amazing. The U-boats, the planes, the tanks all look incredible. It really sets the tone. This is a movie for people interested in war movies, espionage movies, or even empowerment. If you're a fan of great acting you're going to see two top-notch Oscar-nominated performances, both of which could easily win the award. I can't recommend this enough, so if you're not already convinced, I don't know what else to say!

Rating:

2015 Oscars: Snubs and Surprises!

So if anyone's read about the Oscars, there's some really good movies that got nominated. There's also some really horrible snubs, and some surprises. Some I'm okay with and some...not so much.

Here are some notable snubs and surprises, with a full list of the major categories at the end.


SNUB: The LEGO Movie for Best Animated Feature

This is just absolutely ridiculous. I have NO idea where this snub came from. The LEGO Movie without a doubt was one of the best movies of the year, and one of the most popular ones too. So what do they gain by not nominating it? All they're doing is ALIENATING their core audience. This is the snub I'm most angry about because it's crazy. It doesn't make any sense. There's so much heart and substance in this movie. It's just a shame they didn't see it.

SURPRISE: Laura Dern for Best Supporting Actress

What a nice surprise! I didn't think she'd make the cut, but Laura Dern was nominated for her turn as the deceased mother in Wild. If you've seen the movie, there's no way you can argue that she isn't spectacular in the movie. I just thought she'd be overlooked. This is really the only love for Wild besides Reese Witherspoon who got an expected nomination in the Lead category, but it's deserved.

SNUB: Gone Girl for....anything

Upon its release, Gone Girl was a frontrunner. It has everything working for it (I gave it a 5 star review!) and was expected to score across the board. And it walked away with one nomination today, for Rosamund Pike's performance as the (SPOILER ALERT) sociopath titular "gone girl". That was a lock, but so was Best Original Score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' eerie music, and Gillian Flynn's script adapted from her own novel. And David Fincher for Best Director, and the film itself for Best Picture. What happened?! Obviously the Academy didn't like the movie, or maybe it's just the graphic scenes...but then again, the stuff Rosamund Pike does is pretty disturbing. And she still got nominated.

SUPRISE: Marion Cotillard for Best Actress

Marion Cotillard was nominated for her performance in Two Days, One Night. You're probably asking yourself the same question I am: "What the heck is that movie?!" I've never heard of this. Never. And while Rosamund Pike, Julianne Moore, Reese Witherspoon, and Felicity Jones were all definite locks, the fifth spot was up for grabs. And they go with HER? It's a movie that's not even English, it's completely French. Many know Cotillard for her roles in Inception and The Dark Knight Rises and she's won before for the French biopic La Vie en Rose. They must really like her.

SNUB: Ava DuVernay for Best Director

As you will soon discover, Selma was basically completely shut out. Undeservedly so, I might add. It did manage a Best Picture nomination, but that's about it. Ava DuVernay does a fantastic job directing, and many thought she was a frontrunner to win. Guess not, since she's not even nominated. They had a real chance to make history here, as she'd be the first woman of color to be nominated. Actually there are very few women or really ANY people of color nominated at all. Oprah's the only one and she's over in Best Picture as a producer for Selma. I thought we were past all of this...

SURPRISE: Bradley Cooper for Best Actor

I'm already pretty stoked to see this movie, so this makes me even more excited. American Sniper did incredibly well this morning, and it's poised to open huge this weekend. Bradley Cooper's supposed to be amazing, and this is his third nomination in three years. First was his performance as a bipolar man in Silver Linings Playbook, then a manic FBI agent last year in American Hustle. He's being set up to someday take home the gold, maybe even for this movie!

SNUB: David Oyelowo for Best Actor

I don't really understand how you nominate Selma for Best Picture for its lone major nomination, and don't nominate Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo. She's the driving force offscreen, and he's the driving force onscreen. Not recognizing either is like nominating Selma just because they feel they "have to" which I can't even believe. This was a great movie. He was great. He played Martin Luther King!! How many other times will anyone ever do that and be as good as he was? Missed opportunity

SURPRISE: The Grand Budapest Hotel gets the most nominations

The film just won Best Picture from the Golden Globes, and it's obviously going to try its hardest to win the Oscar too. With 9 nominations, it ties with Birdman for the most. For a movie, a comedy nonetheless, to get this many nominations when it was a dark horse at best a month ago is surprising to say the very least.

SNUB: Gillian Flynn for Best Adapted Screenplay

This is another shocking snub that's probably based on the dislike of the movie. Without a doubt, Gillian Flynn had one of the best scripts of the year with Gone Girl. Murder, deceit, twisted characters, exciting twists at every turn. What was there not to enjoy? She made a 3 hour movie go by fast. And she adapted her own book. Where's the love for this woman?

SURPRISE: Bennett Miller for Best Director

This might just be because he got the Cannes Film Festival Best Director. I'm not sure, but I do know that directing was a strong point in Foxcatcher. I'm not angry about this, this is a nice surprise.

SNUB: David Fincher for Best Director

If you haven't got it by now...Gone Girl was pretty unfairly shut out. And directing was incredibly strong in this movie. Fincher directs great actors. Especially when a great script makes for some really troubled characters. Frank Underwood in House of Cards, Tyler Durden in Fight Club and Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo just to name a few. Amy Dunne might be one of Fincher's greatest characters, and to not nominate him for his great camera skills and direction is a shame.

SURPRISE: Nightcrawler for Best Picture

No, I did not think Nightcrawler was a great movie. I did not enjoy it either. But it's surprisingly grown on me over time, and I feel like I need to see it again. Which is an incredibly good sign for the movie. I didn't originally think it even qualified for a Best Picture nom, but now I believe it did. Maybe it's just because the movie is too edgy that it didn't score anywhere.

SNUB: Amy Adams for Best Actress

Big Eyes suffered from a strange array of publicity. It was named an early contender for Best Picture, and Amy Adams would win for her portrayal of artist Margaret Keane. Then the movie came out, and everyone said it was bad. Then it was theatrically released and got great reviews. It was good again but not "awards worthy". And then Amy Adams won Best Actress at the Golden Globes. She still didn't get nominated, and usually that makes you a definite nominee.

SURPRISE: Whiplash love

If I were to tell you any movie that would be completely embraced by the Academy, it would not be Whiplash. The tale of an abusive music teacher and his radical ideas of fame doesn't seem like the thing the stuffy Academy would buy into. Even after seeing it, it's a great movie but is far too graphic to be a movie of that kind. And yet it was nominated for 5 awards across the board. From the group that didn't nominate Nightcrawler and Gone Girl, this is incredibly strange.

SNUB: Rene Russo for Best Supporting Actress

While she was an outlier at best, there's no denying Rene Russo finally made a comeback with Nightcrawler. Her portrayal as a desperate news member was great, and stood out in her crowd of Supporting Actress contenders. I guess the movie was not embraced.

SURPRISE: Superhero movies get on the board

 Superhero movies are notorious for getting no love from awards, or maybe just a Visual Effects nod. The Dark Knight changed all of that by getting 8 noms, and a win for Heath Ledger as the Joker, but superhero movies have always struggled here. Guardians of the Galaxy got 3 nominations, for Best Visual Effects and Makeup/Hairstyling, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier and X-Men: Days of Future Past also pulled off Visual Effects nominations. That makes half of the category superhero movies!

SNUB: Jake Gyllenhaal for Best Actor

If anything about Nightcrawler was going to be nominated it was Jake Gyllenhaal. He's incredible as this mentally disturbed crazy person becoming an LA nightcrawler. In a movie I didn't originally love, I even admitted that he was phenomenal and deserved to be a frontrunner. Again, politics played a role here I think.

FULL NOMINATIONS:

Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Best Director
Wes Anderson- The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alejandro González Iñárritu- Birdman
Richard Linklater- Boyhood
Bennett Miller- Foxcatcher
Morten Tyldum- The Imitation Game

Best Actor
Steve Carell- Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper- American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch- The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton- Birdman
Eddie Redmayne- The Theory of Everything

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard- Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones- The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore- Still Alice
Rosamund Pike- Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon- Wild

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall- The Judge
Ethan Hawke- Boyhood
Edward Norton- Birdman
Mark Ruffalo- Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons- Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette- Boyhood
Laura Dern- Wild
Keira Knightley- The Imitation Game
Emma Stone- Birdman
Meryl Streep- Into the Woods

Selma Review

Starring: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Carmen Ejogo, Tim Roth, Oprah Winfrey, Common

Selma is the story of Martin Luther King Jr, and his freedom marches and demonstrations in Selma, Alabama. There are many remarkable things about Selma. The movie itself is a huge achievement in filmmaking. But the message is also remarkable. We are at a point in our society where Selma and Martin Luther King's ideals could not be more painfully relevant. We look at Ferguson as a horrible tragedy, but after actually seeing a depiction of what happened in Selma 50 years ago, I can honestly say it makes what's happening now look incredibly small. That's not to say that Ferguson is not horrific, because it is. But after having to witness the brutal beatings and racist bigots shown in Selma, I can say that we are lucky that while racism is still a problem, we've come a long way since the Selma riots. Martin Luther King's message is still alive, but maybe we've lost track of what it really means. Selma is a movie that captures that meaning, that essence, and is a profoundly moving film.

In the scene pictured above, a peaceful demonstration led by King is being held in front of the Selma town hall to get the sheriff's attention. There were voting rights for African-Americans in Selma, but they were not allowed to vote by registration. The sheriff descends into the crowd and starts shoving a young man, and Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey) gets up and hits him in the head and knocks him down. The officers come down and grab her, smash her head down into the ground and furiously beat her. And everyone's arrested. So by no means is this a comfortable movie to watch. It's PG-13, but its depiction of police brutality is particularly disturbing and graphic. Dr. King is played by David Oyelowo, and he does an amazing job acting. He's originally British, but you can't even tell, as he takes on King's dialect as if it were his own. He delivers the big speeches with ease, and is as powerful a force onscreen as Martin Luther King would be in real life. Other great performances come from Carmen Ejogo as his wife Coretta Scott King, Tom Wilkinson as the stubborn Lyndon Johnson, and Tim Roth as the fanatically racist George Wallace. There's a conversation that Johnson and Wallace have in the White House, where the president asks the governor to stop. After all, eradicating the blacks was not his original policy, and yet here he is with Confederate flags hung up and down the Montgomery streets. His reply was that the blacks will take control of everything, and he exposes how narrow a view he has, and how his motives are fueled only by hatred. Tim Roth must be a great actor, because he made George Wallace pretty hateable.

The real standout for Selma is director Ava DuVernay. I think she deserves to win Best Director, and she actually might from how things are looking. She directs with such a skill, her presence is felt in every scene. And that's hard as a director, to really let your audience know you're there without taking away from the movie. Selma is expertly directed, and we should have had the first woman of color nominated for Best Director. What impressed me even more was how she told Martin Luther King's story. The movie does not end with his assassination. It does not begin with his birth. It starts with his Nobel Peace Prize, and ends with his final speech in Montgomery. It also ties in footage from the real marches and attacks, and every single time he leaves a building or makes a phone call, letters appear onscreen saying "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. left his house at.....LOGGED" just as if the FBI was watching his every move. There are just so many working parts that make this a great movie.

I'd like to touch upon something I said earlier, and that's the fact that the movie doesn't end with Dr. King's death. This movie is not about Martin Luther King Jr. It's about Selma, Alabama, and the Voting Rights movement. But actually, it's about all he stood for, and why he even came to Selma in the first place. The movie does not try to make this a biography and only shows glimpses into his relationship with Coretta. It doesn't even show his murder, which is a compelling part of his story. But it's not even a factor in the story being told. I walked out of this movie and was instantly thinking. What can I do? What can we do? Where did we go wrong? The difference today in racism is that we don't really have a figure like Martin Luther King leading us. But the movie makes it very clear that he is only leading them, and that they are doing the fighting. Maybe we just need to fight a little harder. And that does not mean we have to burn hospitals and murder policeman. That's not what he stood for. Selma just really makes you look at the life we all live now, and think about what's happened in our country in the last 50 years. Are you honestly okay with it?

Rating:

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Review

Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving

I've been so consumed with prestige movies, that The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies got pushed back in my mind. In a sense, I doubted the movie, so I felt like I needed to see the "good" movies first. Well, some of my most anticipated movies ended up being bad, so on the last day of vacation, I turned to Bilbo and co. And I was surprised at how spectacular this movie was. I am a huge fan of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that's without reading the books. I have read The Hobbit so I knew what to expect. And like most fans, I was angry that they split it up into not two, but three films. Once I saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I was so done with Middle-Earth and Peter Jackson. It was slow, dull, and nothing like the book. I didn't even see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug until it came out on DVD. And I was blown away by how good it was. My faith restored, I was adamant I would see this one in theaters. Until the trailers came out and it looked nothing like the book...overblown so as to give the franchise a strong finale. Is it overblown? Probably. But to Middle-Earth fans, you will be taken away on a magic journey, and won't complain.

The plot of this film draws very little from the book. Smaug the dragon has escaped, and he's going to burn down Lake-town. Once Smaug has been defeated, the rightful owner of his mountain is disputed. The dwarves, who have made the long journey to reclaim the mountain and treasure as their own, have the obvious upper hand, it being there land after all. But the people of Lake-town want the mountain as a shelter, because the dragon has completely obliterated their whole village. The elves want the gold and jewels. So while the elves and humans join forces to take down a power-drunk Thorin and his dwarves, the Orcs plan to bring back Sauron (the dark lord/eye in the LOTR movies) and attack the mountain. The fifth army I'll leave as a surprise. So anyways, all these armies are fighting over the mountain and its riches, and that's basically the entire movie. I'm serious, the battle is about 5/8 of the movie. It's so epic, if you're a fan like me, you will be flipping out on the inside.

Everyone does incredibly well, and in all three movies, I think this is Martin Freeman's best performance as the titular hobbit. While he was stiff in the first film, and not the forefront in the second one (Smaug stole every scene), Bilbo was a huge part of this movie. And Freeman did a very fine job. I prefer Bilbo over Frodo any day. Ian McKellan is always amazing as Gandalf. Nothing new was brought to the character, but he was great nonetheless. Benedict Cumberbatch has about 20 minutes max in this movie, and he makes such a huge impression as the dragon Smaug. Once you know it's him, you can tell, but otherwise you'd never guess. Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, and Hugo Weaving appear as cameos in a part not from the book (and a little ridiculous) but give solid performances for those fans who know Galadriel, Saruman, and Elrond so well. The only other things that are ridiculous are some of the action sequences that are just out of this world crazy. But I was okay with it, since I was totally in the zone. It's just a fun movie. A bunch of giant rams just appear and the dwarves jump on them and ride them into battle. A bridge collapses in slow motion so Legolas can jump from one side to the next defying physics. It makes no sense, but it's a fantasy movie that's allowed to do things like that. I hope Peter Jackson makes LOTR spinoffs. I don't want to have to say goodbye to Middle-Earth. But this is a very formidable farewell to such a magical film series.

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Unbroken Review

Starring: Jack O'Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Miyavi, Garrett Hedlund, Jai Courtney

Six months ago, I decided I would make a stab at the Oscars, which were about another eight months away. I'd seen only one movie that could be considered: Boyhood, and almost all of the others had no trailers out, so I was going in blind. I picked that Unbroken would win Best Picture, Best Director, and be nominated in almost every single category eligible. I mean, Angelina Jolie is directing a movie written by the Coen Brothers (directors of Fargo, True Grit, and No Country for Old Men) and based off of a great story. It tells the incredible true story of Louie Zamperini, an Olympic athlete who fought in WWII, until his plane crashed in the ocean and he spent 47 days on a life raft with two other men. They were discovered by the Japanese, and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp brutally tortured. The movie is based off of Laura Hillenbrand's biography of the same name, which is one of the most profound books I've ever read. So now that I've seen it, what do I think? Can it win big? Absolutely not. This movie will be lucky to get nominated for any Oscars outside of technology achievements. It's not bad, but it's not great either, and that's due to some major problems.

First, what did I like about Unbroken? Not much to be honest. The visual effects are really great. The movie opens with Zamperini and his crew in a plane, and that was the highlight of the whole movie for me. The plane's mechanics were great to watch, and the whole thing was very visually pleasing. And I would say that's the best part because there's no real story at that part. The team behind the film is what really gets in the way. I would also say the acting is fine. Jack O'Connell, who plays Zamperini is okay. I think he was very stiff for a lot of his big scenes. Whenever he shouted it just sounded fake and strained. But throughout most of the movie he did well. Miyavi was good also. He plays The Bird, the relentless leader of the POW camp. While reading the book, he was described as much older and much more brutal. This depiction looked about 18 years old, and instead of brutal he was just pretty creepy. He got the point across, and was good in his role, but it was very different from the book's version of The Bird, which is, of course, the true version.

I'm surprised I've gone this far without revealing who was really the problem here. Angelina Jolie. First off, in a year where I've seen such great directorial skills displayed in Boyhood, Birdman, and Gone Girl to name a few, everyone displayed immense talent and you could actually feel the director's presence. I think Unbroken directed itself for the most part. Second, I have an extreme issue with the movie's PG-13 rating. This was a harrowing story with mature themes. I think a lot of Jolie's choices were based off of money alone. She wants to make money, and the movie has, but it loses so much in the process. The only reason it's PG-13 is because Jolie wants everyone to see it, foolishly thinking that people won't see an R rated movie if it's actually good quality. Without the R rating it loses a lot of the great themes. For one, religion is an extreme theme in Zamperini's life. He was incredibly religious, and spoke to God throughout his ordeals. He lost sight of his faith in the POW camp and actually rediscovered religion in his method of recovering from PTSD and forgiving his captors. That was also the best part of the book. But Jolie scrapped that, and the movie hints at religion maybe twice, in a very vague fashion, and never even goes to the second half of Zamperini's story where the real meat is. No PTSD, no religion, just the incredibly clichéd story she creates, that's actually far from the truth, and cringeworthy at times.

I'll explain how clichéd this movie is. First off, I hate clichés. I'd rather a movie show the realism of life, than become a Lifetime movie full off fluff that gives people false expectations. And Unbroken is so full of fluff sometimes it's laughable. People around me and behind me in the theater were actually laughing at some of the scenes because they were just so ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, some of teh scenes are executed well, it's just not consistent. Louie sets his head down, and then he has this vision of just his naked upper body in a white world running in slow motion to the tune of some organ music. That was a "what the heck?" moment for me, which is never a good thing in a movie trying to be serious. I was also never once immersed in Zamperini's story. Yes, it's incredible that this actually happened to this man, but this was not a worthy adaptation of his life. My mind wandered constantly. Technologically it's great, and the story is good at some parts but it's not consistent. The pace is also painfully slow. The POW camp is interesting, even if not realistic at all, but they spent too long on the raft. I've seen Life of Pi, so I know that being alone at sea on a raft is not a boring premise, they just failed to execute it well. I cannot recommend this to anyone unless they like sappy movies. Because there's a whole lot of sap here. And liking sappy movies is not a bad thing, it's just not the kind of movie I would ever want to see. Which is why I have to give it the rating I believe it deserves.

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