Movie Review: Room

And coming in just under the wire (literally two hours before the Oscars), I can finally say I've seen every Best Picture nomination, finishing up with Room.

Holy cats this was an intense film, based on the 2010 novel of the same name written by Emma Donoghue (who also adapted the script), the film follows a young boy named Jack (played amazingly by Jacob Tremblay) who lives in a room with his Ma (played by Brie Larson - who I will be shocked if I can't say Oscar-Winner Brie Larson by the end of tonight - that was such an amazing job!)

I don't want to get too much into the plot, but if you have the chance, and can deal with some significantly dark material, it is well worth the watch.

Movie Review: Spotlight

Of the eight films nominated for Best Picture at this year's Oscars, Spotlight was the one I knew the least about going in.  I was aware of the original story, but I hadn't seen any of the trailers or advertising, so I went in about as cold as I'm likely to with a movie I've gone to see.

 Nominated for six awards, Spotlight follows the deep investigation team at the Boston Globe in the early 2000's as they uncovered and reported on the child abuse scandal in the Boston Archdiocese which opened up the topic for much of the world and ended up getting the series of articles a Pullitzer for public service.

The story, considering it largely takes place in offices with people reading and/or talking on phones, moves a a really great pace, and the acting is pretty amazing.  Having just one more Best Picture nomination to see, I feel pretty confident in saying Mark Ruffalo definitely deserves the Best Supporting Actor award for his work in the film.

A really great movie, and one I'm likely to see again.

Movie Review: The Big Short

Continuing my yearly trek through the various best picture nominees, my latest film was the Adam McKay directed The Big Short, which was an incredibly entertaining, and turn hilarious and heartbreaking look at the financial crisis of 2007-08.

The film is made up of three and a half interlocking stories about various investors who predicted the housing crisis ahead of time, and worked to find a way to beat the system. The movie is narrated by a trader named Jared Vennett (played by Ryan Gosling), who brings the three main stories together and helps the audience along with the trickier bits of exposition necessary for a film like this; by using celebrity cameos and analogies which are both highly disturbing and entertaining.

This was a movie I was a little sure of coming into, but left feeling pretty amazed; unlike character driven movies this year like Brooklyn, The Martian, and The Revenant, this film is focused largely on an event most of us affected by, but few of us fully understood (me included).

This was actually the second Adam McKay-directed film about economics I've seen the last few years, the first being The Unbelievably Sweet Alpacas, for the the online series We The Economy. That film was also pretty great, animated, and much more educational than expected. Check it out here!

Along with Brooklyn, this film may have been the most surprising to me from the nominees, as it's not my usual fare, but was an incredibly engaging film.

It's Oscar Season!

On Thursday this year's Oscar nominations were announced, and as I spend the rest of my year watching films featuring Zombies, Spaceships, or Unicorns, I tend to spend January and February watching a number of critically acclaimed Dramas.

This year, having already watched Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, and the delightful Brooklyn, I've only got five musts, The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, The Revenant, Room, and Spotlight. Afterwards, I tend to work my from most to least nominations, in terms of films I plan to see.

I'll do my best to review the films as I see them, and hope to see at least the eight films nominated for awards that I haven't already seen.