the home stretch?
I am trying, but it's getting tough to watch all these movies in time for the Academy Awards - it doesn't help that most of them are really depressing. But I continued undeterred and have recently seen Nightcrawler, The Judge, and Birdman.
The Judge had a monster cast and was really great. I didn't know what was going to happen and the twists were interesting and kept me intrigued. Robert Downey Jr. gets snubbed a lot during awards season - he is great. Robert Duvall was good but nowhere near as good as JK Simmons in Whiplash, so I hope Duvall doesn't win. That said, I think that movie should have been nominated more - a Best Picture nod would have been nice or at least something else - it was like those older legal movies from the 50s in the way it was shot and I really enjoyed it. It felt professional and polished.
Birdman was... not my kind of movie. Just like The Grand Budapest Hotel, I am not the desired audience for the film, and I'm not really sure who is. It reminded me almost too much of Black Swan with the weird angles and internal monologue and nauseating camera work. But the story wasn't as polished and although the script was funny, it was overall kind of meh. Edward Norton was refreshingly good and I guess Michael Keaton was good, but he didn't really seem like he was acting - and not in a good way. I wish there was more of him thinking he was moving objects with his mind and more with the actual Birdman (whose voice just sounded like Christian Bale's Batman). The weird stuff wasn't weird enough and the normal stuff was a little dull. It's nominated like crazy - Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Directing, Cinematography, Sound Editing (yeah, if one guy playing jazz drums for 2 hours counts), Sound Mixing, and Original Screenplay. I'm not sure it deserves too many of those. The real problem is the Best Actor category, because I'm not sure anyone deserves the win.
Except Jake Gyllenhaal for Nightcrawler. Holy crap that movie was terrifying, creepy, and fantastic. I'm not sure what kind of twisted mind writes and then decides it's a good idea to produce that movie, but it was really great. It's the kind of movie that should be nominated for tons of awards, but is shockingly only nominated for Original Screenplay. People can talk all day about Jennifer Aniston and Selma getting snubbed, but it's this film that really got screwed. I don't even want to talk about any of the details because it might spoil it and I was thoroughly impressed. I would definitely say Jake Gyllenhaal deserves the Best Actor award, hands down.
The Judge had a monster cast and was really great. I didn't know what was going to happen and the twists were interesting and kept me intrigued. Robert Downey Jr. gets snubbed a lot during awards season - he is great. Robert Duvall was good but nowhere near as good as JK Simmons in Whiplash, so I hope Duvall doesn't win. That said, I think that movie should have been nominated more - a Best Picture nod would have been nice or at least something else - it was like those older legal movies from the 50s in the way it was shot and I really enjoyed it. It felt professional and polished.
Birdman was... not my kind of movie. Just like The Grand Budapest Hotel, I am not the desired audience for the film, and I'm not really sure who is. It reminded me almost too much of Black Swan with the weird angles and internal monologue and nauseating camera work. But the story wasn't as polished and although the script was funny, it was overall kind of meh. Edward Norton was refreshingly good and I guess Michael Keaton was good, but he didn't really seem like he was acting - and not in a good way. I wish there was more of him thinking he was moving objects with his mind and more with the actual Birdman (whose voice just sounded like Christian Bale's Batman). The weird stuff wasn't weird enough and the normal stuff was a little dull. It's nominated like crazy - Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Directing, Cinematography, Sound Editing (yeah, if one guy playing jazz drums for 2 hours counts), Sound Mixing, and Original Screenplay. I'm not sure it deserves too many of those. The real problem is the Best Actor category, because I'm not sure anyone deserves the win.
Except Jake Gyllenhaal for Nightcrawler. Holy crap that movie was terrifying, creepy, and fantastic. I'm not sure what kind of twisted mind writes and then decides it's a good idea to produce that movie, but it was really great. It's the kind of movie that should be nominated for tons of awards, but is shockingly only nominated for Original Screenplay. People can talk all day about Jennifer Aniston and Selma getting snubbed, but it's this film that really got screwed. I don't even want to talk about any of the details because it might spoil it and I was thoroughly impressed. I would definitely say Jake Gyllenhaal deserves the Best Actor award, hands down.
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