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1917

Since this is my first movie review, I wanted to first explain the process I am going to use to grade each movie. I will focus on the four aspects that I personally find to be the most important: the story, the original music, the cinematography, and the overall performance by the actors and/or actresses. Then, I will average those numbers together to create an overall number.

This is just my opinion, I truly respect the work each cast and crew member put in to every movie I will review. Also, because of that respect I will do my best to not give away any important details of the story, as I think everyone should watch a movie and make their own judgements.

Synopsis: At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers, Schofield and Blake, are given a seemingly impossible mission. In a race against time, they must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers—Blake’s own brother among them.

Story: 8/10
Original Music: 10/10
Cinematography: 10/10
Actors Performance: 8/10
Overall: 9/10

Story: The story was written by Sam Mendes (also the director) and Krysty Wilson-Cairns. If you are looking for a fast paced, in your face, battle after battle war movie than this is not the movie you are looking for. However, if you are looking for a story focusing on the people who actually have to go to battle, and how war affects their lives, than this movie will do exactly what you want. The story was a bit drawn out at times, as there were a lot of longer scenes between just a handful of actors. However, I felt it was nice to see how the characters connected, and to see what lengths they were willing to push themselves to fight for their country and try to save the lives of others.

Music: While John Williams is one of the most recognized names in Hollywood when it comes to original scores, the Newman family certainly should not be overlooked. From brothers Thomas and David, their cousin Randy, their Father Alfred, and so many more Hollywood musicians; The Newman family is synonymous with Hollywood. I hesitate using this word, because this is my first review after all, but Thomas Newman’s Original Score for this movie was perfect! At any given moment, he gives you exactly what you want. From moments of complete and utter silence, to rhythmic strings and percussion driving through the battle sequences, Thomas does a fantastic job at matching what is going on visually. One of my favorite things about Thomas Newman’s style is his simplistic/minimalistic nature. For some people, there may not be enough melodic material, but I truly felt it fit this movie perfectly! I loved his use of reoccurring musical ideas throughout the film, that matched perfectly with the visual sequences.

Cinematography: I loved the lighting and camera shots in this movie! There are several longer scenes in which the characters are just walking from one place to another, which in and of itself can seem pretty boring. However, the objects the camera focuses on tells a story all by itself! There is one scene in-particular that was breathtaking; It was shot at night, and the Germans were shooting flares in the sky to be able to see anybody walking down the streets. The shadowing of broken down buildings caused by the flares moving through the sky was amazing! There are several other sequences that I am still not sure how they managed to capture it on film as they seem like one flawless scene, but it would be impossible to do without multiple cameras. I guess some credit should be given to the editing of the film as well for that!

Acting: I was very impressed with the acting in this movie considering there isn’t a major actor in either of the larger roles of the film. Yes, Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch are both in the film, but they have extremely minor roles. However, even though they have minor roles, I think they did a great job at portraying the militaristic attitude needed for their characters. George MacKay was fantastic throughout the film, there were several scenes where his emotions were top notch! I did, however, have a few small issues with believability a couple times. I found myself yelling in my head “Why are you doing this?!” or “there is no way a soldier would make that decision”, but it was really only in one scene, and it is very possible that was just my opinion. Dean-Charles Chapman was amazing! I thought he was very believable in everything he did, with the exception of one small scene. However, I don’t know if it is fair to point the blame at him for some of the decisions his character made, or if that lands on the shoulders of the writers.

Overall: I really enjoyed 1917, I thought it did a great job at showing some of the horrors of World War One. It took people who had regular lives and put them into a setting that they just weren’t mentally prepared for. I mean, can you really be fully mentally prepared to take another’s life? Outside of being a movie about war, it was simply beautiful to watch and listen to. The Cinematography and Music were phenomenal, and they complemented each other so well! I will be shocked if Thomas Newman doesn’t win an academy award for best original score. However, I do still have to see Little Women with Alexandre Desplat’s score to truly judge that.

Sources:
1917 Image - https://www.1917.movie/
1917 Synopsis - https://www.1917.movie/synopsis/

2020 Academy Award Thoughts

I really enjoyed the Oscar’s this year! Overall, I felt that the award presenters and “hosts” did a really good job. I would have loved to have seen Steve Martin and Chris Rock host the entire Oscar’s, I thought their opening comedy monologue was really enjoyable, but I get that the Academy would prefer to go “hostless” for now. Also, the surprise performance from Eminem performing “Lose Yourself” was awesome! Being from Michigan, Eminem is pretty big around here, so it was fun to watch him perform! Also, I thought that Billie Eilish had a very good performance of “Yesterday.” So very often performers have a tendency to try and do some sort of huge elaborate performance, and I thought her choice to do a low, mellow, very emotional rendition was fitting to draw focus to those who have passed away.

As with any awards show, there were a few things that disappointed me this year. Usually, I can connect with one or more of the songs chose for best original song. But this year I didn’t really feel any of them. I loved the performance by Cynthia Erivo of “Stand Up,” and based off of that performance I would have liked to see that win. However, I can’t really argue with an Elton John song winning, as he is one of the best songwriters of modern pop music.

I could write all day about every category, but I would like to just talk about a handful of them. Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Original Score.

Best Original Score: I did see all the films that were nominated in this category. The winner this year was Hildur Guðnadóttir for her score for the film “Joker.” I did watch this film, I actually saw it twice in theatre’s, and once at home. While the music for the film did fit the theme and mood that the director and actors set, I did not find the score to offer as much melodic content as I would have liked. I think Hildur Guðnadóttir is a very talented Cellist, and Composer. I just don’t think this film required a melodic heavy score, which in turn just didn’t allow the music to resonate much with me personally once I left the theatre. Also, because the mood for Joker is pretty much the same throughout the entirety of the film, their wasn’t much variety in the score either. Again, he music fit the mood of the movie, I just felt Joker was a bit one dimensional of a film. Personally, I would have chosen Thomas Newman with the film “1917.” I just felt his score in that film did such a fantastic job at setting the mood throughout the film, which changed several times. He gave you melodies that related to different things, and came back and helped reference a previous situation. The score was much more complex, and much more important to the film. Without his score, I think you lose a lot of the effect of the movie.

Best Actor: I saw all of the performances my each actor, except for Antonio Banderes for “Pain and Glory.” I really want to watch it, just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Joaquin Phoenix won this year for his performance as Arthur Fleck in the film Joker. Phoenix did an absolutely amazing job in this film, and I felt he absolutely deserved to win the Oscar. However, I think the other performances by the other Actor’s were absolutely outstanding! Adam Driver’s performance in “Marriage Story” was definitely one of my favorites. He did such a great job at showing multiple sides to a character, and there are several scenes that are just amazing! Leonardo DiCaprio remains one of my favorite actors of all time. I am always captivated by what he does, and his job in “Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood” was no exception! Jonathan Pryce did an fantastic job in “The Two Popes,” and if you haven’t had a chance to see that film yet, I strongly suggest it!

Best Actress: I only had the opportunity to watch Scarlet Johansson and Saoirse Ronan this year. I am still planning on seeing Harriet, Bombshell, and Judy I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Renée Zellweger won for her performance as Judy Garland in the film “Judy.” From the clips that I have seen, she definitely seems to truly dive into the role of Judy Garland, and I am very excited to get the chance to watch it soon (hopefully this week). That being said, I just want to mention Johansson and Ronan’s performances, since I watched them both. Scarlet Johansson was phenomenal in “Marriage Story.” She was so believable, and the acting between her and Adam Driver was perfect, if you are looking for a movie with great leads, this is definitely a must watch. Saoirse Ronan was absolutely fantastic in “Little Women!” Little Women has an all star cast, but Ronan absolutely stands out as the lead. There is a reason why Saoirse Ronan has four Oscar nominations for acting already. I cannot wait to see her future performances!

Best Director: I saw all of the films that were directed by the nominees. Bong Joon-Ho won for the film “Parasite.” I was so excited to see that Bong Joon-Ho won! Parasite was a fantastic film, and the decisions he mad as director (and writer) were fantastic. While the other directors also made very good films, I felt that he absolutely deserved this win! One tough subject this year was that there was no female directors nominated for best director. I don’t want to get to detailed into discussing that, as it could be a post all and of itself, but if the academy is only going to keep five nominees for best director, the question comes in to play; did one of the female directors have a better film than one of the five films that were nominated? Out of all the female directors who have been mentioned (Greta Gerwig – “Little Women”, Lorene Scafaria – “Hustlers”, Lulu Wang – “The Farewell”, and Marielle Heller – “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”) I would say there is a strong case for Greta Gerwig to have been nominated over Martin Scorsese, or Todd Phillips. Not that either of them did a bad job as director, but I personally think Greta Gerwig did a better job with “Little Women.” For the record, I did see, “Little Women”, “Hustlers”, and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” I just didn’t find “Hustlers” or “A Beautiful Day…” to be close to the same level to those other six films.

Best Picture: I did get a chance to see all of these films, some multiple times. Since there were so many nominees this year I won’t talk too much about them all individually. I was so excited that “Parasite” won for best picture. It was a fantastic film! Ever since I saw it for the first time in November I told everyone I got a chance to go see it in theatre’s. If you got the chance to watch it and enjoyed it, I would strongly encourage you to go and watch Bong Joon-Ho’s other film “Okja.” It is an incredible film that is half in Korean, half in English. It also has a fantastic cast, and a very good story as well! It should still be on Netflix. Had “Parasite” not won, I would have been very happy to see either “1917” or “Little Women” win. I thought both of those films were fantastic. There were only a handful of things (like one or two) that I didn’t enjoy about those films, but overall they were absolutely great films. Every film that was nominated for best picture, I felt, was a fantastic film, and was absolutely worth the time.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my thoughts on the Oscar’s this year. I am very excited to see what the films of 2020 will bring us this year! Stay tuned for some more movie reviews later this week!

Oscars!

It’s been a while since I last posted, I have been avidly watching movies, but have been busy with school starting and with winter drumline competition season starting. Nevertheless, I will be posting again soon; starting with a recap of the Academy Awards tonight! I hope everyone is as excited as I am to watch them and see who wins!

Jojo Rabbit

Synopsis: A World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy named Jojo whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler, Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.

Story: 9/10
Original Music: 7/10
Cinematography: 7/10
Actors Performance: 8/10
Overall: 7.75/10

Story: The story was adapted by Taika Waititi, and was based off of a novel by Christine Leunen called caging skies. By just reading the synopsis you might not realize that this movie is indeed a dark comedy. If you are unfamiliar with that genre of movie, it is basically when a writer takes a serious topic, and purposefully adds humor. I thought that Waititi did a great job at making Jojo Rabbit the perfect blend of comedy and drama. There are some very serious moments, and others that I found quite funny. One of the great things about this movie, I felt, was the development of each character. Even if the character had a minor role, the writing was done in a way that gave each character some level of significance. Fair warning, the humor in the movie is not for everybody. If you are sensitive to dark humor, you may not enjoy this movie as much as others.

Music: Michael Giacchino is a fantastic composer, his writing on Lost is one of my favorites for a tv show. One thing that he does well here, and that I always expect him to do, is take a theme or two and use them throughout the movie in different ways. Sometimes it’s twice as fast, sometimes its on a different instrument with different orchestration behind it, but the theme keeps coming back. A lot of times you don’t even realize that it came back, but it gives you the same feeling you had the first time you heard it. He is great at doing that! However, there wasn’t a lot of original music in the movie. Most of the movie used popular tunes, and just did German versions of the songs. I definitely would have liked to have had more original music, but the music written by Giacchino fit the movie quite well. One thing I really enjoyed was as the movie progressed the music changed moods to fit Jojo’s emotion.

Cinematography: There are several moments in the movie where the camera does a great job at catching your attention to things that you don’t know are important until later. You don’t need to be on the lookout for anything, as Mihai Mălaimare Jr. (the cinematographer) does a good job at setting things up for you. However, to me, it didn’t seem like there was much risk in trying to take the camera work to the next level, I would have liked to have seen a little more uniqueness to the cinematography.

Acting: Overall, I felt the acting was quite good. Especially from the younger actors in the movie. This was the first acting performance for Roman Griffin Davis, and he did a fabulous job at showing a variety of emotions throughout the film, especially considering this is his first performance. Thomasin McKenzie did a very good job as well. The relationship between Thomasin’s character and Roman’s character was constantly changing throughout the film, and I felt they did a great job at creating some amazing scenes! Scarlett Johansson, who was nominated for best supporting actress for this role, did a very good job, but, to me, it wasn’t her greatest performance. I felt she did a much better job in the Netflix movie Marriage Story (she was amazing!!!). Sam Rockwell had my favorite performance by an actor in the movie. His character was a very complex character, and it required a large variety of different acting skills. My biggest complaint about the acting was the inconsistency with the German accent throughout the film. Sometimes, you could hear the actors natural accent, other times it almost sounds French. Overall, I felt Taika Waititi’s accent was the most accurate throughout the film.

Overall: Jojo Rabbit is a great film! It has a tremendous message about the importance of acceptance, and also a reminder of what we as humanity have done in the past, and how important it is not to allow that to happen again. The driving force for this movie is the wonderful story. To sum up my feelings on the film I would actually like to quote what Taika Waititi says about it himself: “Children are not born with hate, they are trained to hate. I hope the humour in JOJO RABBIT helps engage a new generation; it’s important to keep finding new and inventive ways of telling the horrific story of World War II again and again for new generations, so that our children can listen, learn, and move forward, unified into the future. Here’s to putting an end to ignorance and replacing it with love.”

Sources:
Jojo Rabbit Image -
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2584384/mediaviewer/rm3972044545

Jojo Rabbit Synopsis - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2584384/plotsummary

Taika Waititi's Quote - 
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/jojorabbit/

The Nomination Process

So, I have seen many articles the past few days talking about how shocked people are that a movie could get nominated for best picture, but somehow not get nominated for best director, best actor, or best actress. People also are surprised when a movie might get a Golden Globe nomination, or a BAFTA nomination, and then not get one for the Oscars (Academy Awards).

One article in particular that I read, was talking about how Greta Gerwig deserved to be nominated for best director. Now, Greta Gerwig is a fabulous director! I really enjoyed Lady Bird, and was glad to see her receive several nominations for that movie a few years ago. I am also very excited to go see Little Women this weekend, and I imagine I will enjoy it when I go see it. However, all the other directors who were nominated for best director (Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Todd Phillips – Joker, Bong Joon-Ho – Parasite, Martin Scorsese – The Irishman, and Sam Mendes – 1917) are great as well, and I enjoyed all of their movies this year too!

What a lot of people don’t realize is how exactly it is the academy goes about nominations. For starters, the academy is fairly secretive about who exactly is part of the academy in and of itself. We do know that there are over 7,000 members. We also know they are required to have been in the industry, and have recognition in the credits of a film. The easiest way to become a member of the academy is to simply be nominated for an Oscar. There is a lot more to it, but that at least gives us a starting point.

Also, the academy is broken into different sections, this is how a film might be nominated for best picture, and not be nominated for best director. Every member of the academy gets to vote for best motion picture. But, only certain members can vote for a sub category, such as director.

A good example of this can be found in a recent tweet by Stephen King. I’m only going to quote the first part of his tweet right now because it has to do with voting directly. King said; “As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay.” With what we know already, his writing status only allows him to vote for Adapted, and Original Screenplay. His Academy membership is what allows him to vote for Best Picture. He has no say in any other category, such as Best Director. With that in mind now, it’s fairly easy to understand how there can be discrepancies in different categories.

No award show nomination process is perfect, but The Oscars (Academy Awards) are widely considered to be the most prestigious. I know I have always looked forward to watching them for as long as I can remember!

Here is an article I found that talks about the Oscars, and several of the other award shows. https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/guide-important-film-award-shows/

My first blog!

With today being the day the Oscar nominations were announced, I figured I would start my blog by talking about a sort of tradition I have done for the past several years now. This post won’t be much a review, but it is movie related, so stay tuned for my official first movie review later!

Every year when the Oscar nominations are announced I make a list of movies I have yet to see that are on the best picture list. For the most part I have succeeded in watching every best picture nominee, with just a few exceptions. With all of the movies I have already seen this year, I only have three movies on the best picture list that I need to watch!

Because I only need to watch three movies this year, I have decided to alter my goal slightly. My plan is to watch as many movies nominated for an Oscar as I can, not just the ones nominated for best picture.

Here is the list of the movies I am planning on watching before the Oscar’s this year:

1917 – Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Visual Effects.
Jojo Rabbit – Nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Editing.
Little Women – Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Costume Design.
Pain and Glory – Nominated for Best Actor, and Best International Feature Film.
Richard Jewell – Nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
Bombshell – Nominated for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Les Miserables – Nominated for Best International Feature Film.
Corpus Cristi – Nominated for Best International Feature Film.
Honeyland – Nominated for Best International Feature Film, and Best Documentary Feature Film.
Judy – Nominated for Best Actress, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Harriet – Nominated for Best Actress, and Best Original Song.

If I am able to watch all of these before the Oscar’s on February 9th, I will have watched every movie nominated in every category this year except for Animated Films, Short Films, and Documentaries! Most of the movies on the list are still in theatre’s currently, so I should be able to see those within the next few weeks. The Best International Film category is what I am having the most difficulty with. Pain and Glory, Les Miserables, and Honeyland are all available for streaming, so those will be easy enough to watch. However, I cannot find the movie Corpus Cristi (2019) right now. There isn’t a DVD release date, or an American release date yet either. I am hoping sometime before the Oscar’s it will be released, but we will see!

If you have any thoughts on these movies, or any other Oscar nominated films, please feel free to leave a comment on this post!

Hello, My name is Nathan!

Where do I begin… Movies are so much more than just something I do to pass the time. I love getting the chance to watch a new movie, regardless of what others may think about the film. Sometimes, the movie isn’t as good as you hope, and other times you can find yourself surprised. There are several aspects of movies that I really enjoy. A few of my favorite aspects are; watching the actors performance and seeing how well they are able to express their emotions to get the audience to connect with them, seeing how a story develops throughout the film, and also listening to the soundtrack that the composer has added to the film.

If anyone has a movie they would like for me to watch, please let me know, I love watching new movies!