5 ideas about 5 movies

Good morning my dear readers!

In a few days, I will be posting a really long blog post dedicated to the awards’ season. It will be my final post on this topic. Differently from the actual voting system, I will be telling you not only my own personal winners in all the major categories, but I will list all the other films as well. So, you will be able to know my subjective runner-ups and losers. I am mainly doing it this way because 1.it is more of a challenge and I like a cinematic challenge; 2.the majority of these films would have made it into my Best movies of 2015 list but didn’t because I haven’t seen them before January 1st.

In addition, my categories will be very broad – I am picking films that have been nominated for a variety of awards and not just the Oscars. I have rounded up my list to 20 films – 15 of them have been reviewed separately, but I hadn’t given you my thoughts on the rest 5. So, this is where this post starts to make sense – I will give you my brief opinion on the 5 films that I didn’t review before. I am doing 5 reviews in one because I don’t have time to write separate posts for each and every one of these motion pictures. Also, I feel like this type of reviewing (a few reviews in a single post) is a nice callback to my older style of reviewing, when I was just starting to write about films.

So, without further rambling, let’s talk about Concussion, 45 years, Beasts of No nation, Ex-Machina and Straight Outta Compton.

Concussion: directed and written by Peter Landesman (only his 2nd feature film) and starring Will Smith, Concussion, to me, was the biggest snub at the awards’ season. Not only did Will Smith should have received a Best Actors nomination (it was his best performance I have seen in years – his emotional expressions were amazing and the weird accent was, surprisingly, really authentic), but Landesman also deserved to get the Best-Adapted Screenplay nomination. As a fan of sports and movies about sports, I was pleased with Concussion, as it helped me to get one step closer to understanding American football. If you want to watch a few other films, starring Will Smith, may I suggest The Pursuit of Happyness. If you want something lighter in tone and something newer, check out Focus. His and Margo Robbie’s chemistry is amazing in that film – I can’t wait to see both of them in Suicide Squad. Rate: 4.5/5, trailer.

45 Years: this movie was the last film I watched this awards’ season. It was slow yet nice love story, written and directed by a brit Andrew Haigh.  Two silver screen veterans Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay did subtle and nuanced performances, but I, personally, couldn’t connect with the film, as the subject matter (the 45th wedding anniversary) was so far out of my reach. Nevertheless, the timeless values like love, loyalty, and honesty were portrayed clearly. Rate: 3.5/5, trailer.

Beasts of No Nation: to begin with, I applaud the creators of this film for being modern and releasing this film digitally (on Netflix). The majority of the Hollywood filmmakers are still against the phenomena of digital release, and while I do understand their worries and concerns, I nonetheless think that they should (at least) try to adapt to the changes if they want to stay relevant. Speaking about the actual film, it was  written, shot, and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. Why he didn’t get more recognition from the critics and other awards’ voters is beyond me, as he did a spectacular job. Never have I been shocked by a film as much as I was appalled and astonished by Beasts of No Nation. It was both very eye-opening to the cruelty of the contemporary world and sad because of the role that children have in war. The dream/drug sequence was a visual feast (those colors were indescribable) and the performances of the lead Ghanaian young actor Abraham Attah as well as Idris Elba in a supporting role were breathtaking. Rate: 4/5, trailer.

Ex-Machina: A very early 2015 release, Alex Garland’s Ex-Machina slipped my attention while I was compiling my best movies of 2015 list, so I was really happy that the Academy didn’t repeat my mistake because this film deserves all the recognition. It was an amazing and original sci-fi motion picture in a year of shitty sequels and reboots – basically, this film was the savior of all the science fiction fans last year. Ex-Machina was also a great example that a great filmmaker doesn’t need a huge budget to make an amazing film. Newcomer Alex Garland mixed his artistic vision with scientific imagination and created a movie that can be viewed both as a mainstream sci-fi flick and as a serious film that raises deep existential questions. Lastly, the up-and-coming trio of Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander and Oscar Isaac also should be praised for their stellar performances. During 2015, all of these actors not only appeared on my radar but quickly found themselves in my personal best actors list. Vikander blew me away in The Danish Girl, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Testament of Youth and in an older film that I have only watched this year – Anna Karenina, Gleeson appeared in a bunch of films this year, most importantly, The Revenant and Isaac was the fan-favorite and one of my personal favorites in the new Star Wars. Can’t wait to see what these actors will do next with their careers, as I will be following them closely. Rate: 5/5, trailer.

Straight Outta Compton: the biggest surprise of the summer, Straight Outta Compton was the movie that I skipped when it was first released, and only watched when it started to get some recognition from the critics. As someone who never liked rap music and who knows nothing about the black culture, I thought that I wouldn’t particularly care about this film. I was so so wrong. Director Felix Gary Gray, who is set to direct Fast and Furious 8, and a cast of newcomer actors made me interested in the subject and made me the characters that I could never identify with. That’ an example of true filmmaking. Rate: 4/5, trailer.