Film Actually's Year in Review + 2015 Resolutions

Looking back on the year that was 2014, I feel nothing but pride for my accomplishments. It was truly a watershed year for myself and the blog, as many fortunate opportunities came my way. In the summer, I joined the staff of The Awards Circuit and soon after, I was also invited to join the African-American Film Critics Association. This gave me access to interviews and countless screeners and early press screenings. Throughout the year, my travels took me to Guyana, Baltimore and New York, where I met some more of my online friends (namely Andrew Kendall, Andrew Boyd Stewart, Clayton Davis and Joey Magidson). During those New York trips I also attended the Tribeca Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.

Of course, I couldn't do all this without the support of my wonderful readers, whose patronage allowed the site to hit 1 million views in October! I am truly humbled and grateful for anyone who has taken the time out of their day to read anything I've written.

Now for my 2015 goals/resolutions. In 2014 I managed to achieve 3 out of 4, but this year I expect a 100% success rate. Here they are:

- Finish watching every Best Picture winner.

- Read more. This includes cinema-related books, as well as general reading.

- Watch more movies!

I'm anticipating another wonderful year ahead, and I wish the same for you as well. Onward and upward.

REVIEW: Tangerines

Cinematic stories of war come in many different narrative forms. Some focus on the physical destruction of the battlefield, while others emphasize the lingering emotional and psychological impact of the conflict. Zaza Urushadze’s "Tangerines" mainly falls in latter description, examining how a brutal war affects four men in a small village.

Read more at The Awards Circuit

Happy Holidays!

Right now I'm getting ready to fly home (i.e. St. Vincent) to be with family for the Christmas holiday, so there won't be a "Movie of the Week" review today. However, you can check back later this week for new posts. In the meantime, I'd like to share season's greetings from myself and the African-American Film Critics Association. Happy Holidays!

COMING SOON: Timbuktu

As you probably know already, the Oscar shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film has been announced. One of those films is Abderrahmane Sissako's "Timbuktu", which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and will hit US theaters next month. This drama is about the oppressive occupation of Timbuktu by religious fundamentalists and its impact on the people. My fellow AAFCA members have already named it the Best Foreign Film of the year and many audiences have reportedly been moved to tears. I can't wait to finally see it. Check out the trailer below:



Timbuktu hits theaters on January 28th.

CONTEST: Predict the Oscar nominations

Film Actually is proud to announce the 2015 Film Actually Oscar Contest! This will be our third year and this annual event continues to get better and better. If you're a newcomer, the idea is simple - just predict as many correct Oscar nominations and you can win!
This year's contest will feature a grand prize of a $50 online gift card (USD, or the equivalent in another currency) for their relevant Amazon store (US, UK, Canada etc). In addition, there are other bonus prizes up for grabs (read below).

As usual, I will also be competing and I'm in it to win it! Read below for further details.

OSCAR WATCH: Predicting the Foreign Language shortlist

Best Foreign Language Film is one of the trickiest categories to predict for the Oscars. If there’s one thing that’s guaranteed, it’s that there will be surprises on the 9-film shortlist which precedes the nominations. That list should be arriving any day now, so I decided to take on the foolish task of predicting which films will show up.

Read more at The Awards Circuit

Sundance films set for big Oscar comeback

Way back in January, I wrote an article decrying the loss of the "Sundance movie" in the Best Picture conversation since the AMPAS rule change. It was written in response to the hyperbolic praise for "Boyhood" after its premiere at Sundance 2014. After "Fruitvale Station" and another Linklater film "Before Midnight" failed to make it after a similar response the year prior, I found myself being immediately pessimistic about its Oscar potential. Even after I finally caught "Boyhood" in August, I was very conservative with my predictions (I didn't anticipate traction for Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for example).

Well, I was wrong. Not only is "Boyhood" an Oscar contender, it looks like it may walk away with the whole damn thing! Many pundits expect it to win Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay at the very least. "Boyhood" isn't the only film representing the Sundance brand however. "Whiplash" - this year's winner of the Grand Jury and Audience prizes - has also come on strong. At the moment, it seems like a likely Best Picture nominee and will potentially feature in other categories too. If you've been following the awards season, you'll know that J.K. Simmons already seems unstoppable as this year's Best Supporting Actor frontrunner.

It's really encouraging to see these small indie movies can still have a strong presence in the machine that is Oscar season. As of right now, I see "Boyhood" and "Whiplash" getting nods in many major categories. Take a look at my latest predictions:

MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Dear White People

My top pick this week is an exciting debut feature that has found many fans since its Sundance debut in January. Curiously titled "Dear White People", Justin Simien's film is boldly up-front about its intentions. For those who are slow on the uptake, the tagline spells it out for you, reading "A satire about being a black face in a white place".

The setting for this satire is a fictional Ivy League college called Winchester University. Winchester is a predominantly white institution, with a small but vocal population of black students. The loudest of them is Samantha White (Tessa Thompson), the host of a radio show called "Dear White People" and the new president of the campus' all-Black residential hall Parker-Armstrong. When she's not drawing attention to racial insensitivity through her show, she's rallying support to prevent the marginalization of black culture that will come when her residence becomes homogenized like the others. As she and other characters come to terms with their racially-based pressures and biases, an upcoming black-themed party threatens to cause unrest within the student body.

As someone who experienced a similar college situation in the US - I doubt we even had enough black students to fill a residential hall - "Dear White People" immediately rang true to me. Like Lionel Higgens (played by Tyler James Williams) in the poster, I had a white best friend/roommate who was fascinated by my hair, likening it to Velcro. To make matters worse, I was a foreign student. So I also received the obligatory "Do you have roads/electricity/internet where you're from?" Most of us black/international students just shrugged off these comments (they often came from a place of genuine curiosity). We didn't have a Samantha White to publicly call out the ignorance. Heck, even some of the black American students could have used some education on the African diaspora.

What's great about Simien's script then, is how it accurately captured that diversity among the black students. It's no coincidence that Issa Rae (star and creator of the YouTube sensation "Awkward Black Girl") has a brief cameo in the film. Simien and Rae are artists who are cut from the same cloth, featuring black characters in their work who are generally underrepresented in mainstream media - the awkward, quirky types. As such, one of the film's most interesting black characters is Lionel, who struggles to fit in anywhere by virtue of being gay and not relating to black culture. Though the film's title explicitly addresses white people, it also calls attention to the pressures that black people place on ourselves.

In addition to Lionel, the 3 other main characters struggle with expectations of blackness. Namely, there's Samantha (who overcompensates for the shame of being only "half-black"), Coco (who hides her less fortunate background by feigning affluence) and Troy (who's afraid to show any weakness as the model black man). Altogether they present positive images of black people as smart and complex and crucially, imperfect. In this regard, the script is refreshingly free of religion (Christianity being the default of course).

In a sly reversal of the norm, the white characters are much more one-dimensional. They are mostly resigned to expressing a bogus belief that racism no longer exists. As can be expected, it results in many humorous confrontations, especially with each role being so perfectly cast and performed. What's even more impressive is how introspective the film is. It goes further than satire, giving us a universal story about the pressures (relationships, parental expectations, personal ambition, social acceptance) that young minds face in a college environment.

Apart from the film's satirical merits, its craft elements are also deserving of praise. I love the warm amber hues of the cinematography and the way the camera changes angles to key you in to the shifting perspectives and the power dynamics between the characters. I love the score, which accentuates the tone without ever overpowering the scene. I love the bright intertitles that maintain the film's playfulness. Finally, I also love the character-specific details in the hairstyling and costume design. The latter especially, for how it rejects some of the outdated stereotypes (XXL t-shirts, FUBU etc.) as expressed in the film's pivotal scandal.

"Dear White People" announces Justin Simien as a fresh voice that we need in contemporary cinema. This is a film that's quirky, funny, sexy and oh so cool. I look forward to seeing what he'll do next. Until then, I'm sure I'll be revisiting this one.

OSCAR WATCH: Critics Choice Nominations

Another day, another lovefest for "Boyman" as the Broadcast Film Critics Association announced their Critics Choice nominees for 2014. Interestingly, The Grand Budapest Hotel is right up there with them, as the film earned a whopping 11 nominations, only 2 nods behind Birdman. For the most part, it seems they were up to their usual Oscar predicting ways, including a revival for Unbroken in Best Picture and Best Director. Oh BFCA, never change. The various Oscar categories are starting to come into focus, but I'm still quite stumped as to which films will eventually fill out Best Picture.

Here are your Critics Choice nominees:

Best Picture
Birdman
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Nightcrawler
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Whiplash

Best Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton, Birdman
David Oyelowo, Selma
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress
Jennifer Aniston, Cake
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
Josh Brolin, Inherent Vice
Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Bidrman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer

Best Director
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay, Selma
David Fincher, Gone Girl
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
Angelina Jolie, Unbroken
Richard Linklater, Boyhood

INTERVIEW: Philippe Muyl

Philippe Muyl’s The Nightingale is easily one of the most surprising selections in this year’s foreign language Oscar race. While the film is set in China with Mandarin dialogue, he is actually the first non-Chinese director to be submitted to represent the country. I recently caught up with Philippe for a Skype interview where we discussed the circumstances that led to his eventual Oscar submission.

Read more at The Awards Circuit

REVIEW: The Dark Valley

A dark silhouette traverses a mountainous landscape. It’s a lone rider of unknown origin, but the upbeat music immediately lets you know that he’s someone important. His face is soon revealed as he approaches a little Austrian town tucked into the valley between these hills, ready to set the plot into motion.

Read more at The Awards Circuit

FOREIGN OSCAR GUIDE: Europe

We’ve come to our final set of contenders in the 2014 Foreign Oscar Guide and it’s a group that could conceivably claim all 5 spots in the nominations. It’s no secret that this category has traditionally been very Eurocentric over the years. Of course, this may just be a result of the sheer number of submissions they send each year, usually accounting for about half the entire field. But there’s no denying that the quality of the continent’s cinema has a lot to do with it too. Who can argue with winners like "The Lives of Others", "All About My Mother" and "Cinema Paradiso"? Once again, the European films this year are high on quality and quantity, already boasting many awards heading into the Oscar race.

Read more at The Awards Circuit

GOLDEN GLOBE REACTIONS: Ruben Östlund and Pawel Pawlikoswki

Hollywood was abuzz today as the Golden Globes announced their 2014 nominees for film and television. Among those waking up to good news were the nominated directors for Best Foreign Language. The Awards Circuit was able to get reactions from two of them, via phone interview with Ruben Östlund from Sweden and a written statement from Pawel Pawlikowski...

Read more at The Awards Circuit

OSCAR WATCH: Golden Globe Nominations

The HFPA chimed in with their nods today and...they're not half bad! As expected, "Boyman" is still very strong but some other films got a big boost today. These include Selma and The Grand Budapest Hotel, with both getting the crucial Picture-Director combo as well as slew of other nods throughout. It's clear that Selma is indeed in our Top 5 for this Oscar race, despite the SAG slipup yesterday. Foxcatcher pulled out a key mention too, finding its way into a tight Best Picture lineup. Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo are also looking good at this stage. Apart from that, most of the other frontrunners claimed their expected spots.
Of course, everyone can't be a winner so let's talk about today's losers. The big story is the complete shutout of Angelina Jolie's Unbroken, which seemed like a no-brainer considering this group's usual taste. I mentioned in my review how uninspiring the film turned out to be and that's clearly playing out in the awards season so far. The starry American Sniper also took a significant knock, with no mentions to speak of. We'll see if the Critics Choice Awards will revive these films on Monday, but I get the sense that the field is already narrowing down. Have a gander at what the Golden Globes brought to the table:

Best Picture (Drama)
Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Best Picture (Musical/Comedy)
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Into the Woods
Pride
St. Vincent

Best Actor (Drama)
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch, Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo, Selma
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actor (Musical/Comedy)
Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Bill Murray, St. Vincent
Joaquin Phoenix, Inherent Vice
Christoph Waltz, Big Eyes

Best Actress (Drama)
Jennifer Aniston, Cake
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Actress (Musical/Comedy)
Amy Adams, Big Eyes
Emily Blunt, Into the Woods
Helen Mirren, The Hundred-Foot Journey
Julianne Moore, Maps to the Stars
Quvenzhane Wallis, Annie

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
Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Best Director
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Avu Duvernay, Selma
David Fincher, Gone Girl
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
Richard Linklater, Boyhood

OSCAR WATCH: SAG Nominations

And so it begins. The Screen Actors Guild has spoken and they've really thrown some curveballs at us this year with their nominations. As expected, Birdman (4 noms) and Boyhood (3 noms) had strong showings but almost every category had some surprises. Sure they seemed like possiblities, but was anyone confident about The Grand Budapest Hotel (Ensemble), Jake Gyllenhall (Actor), Jennifer Aniston (Actress), Robert Duvall (Supporting Actor) and Naomi Watts (Supporting Actress)? In terms of snubs, I'm sure the teams behind Selma and Unbroken will be very concerned after this shutout. Should we dismiss them as potential Best Picture winners? Taking the ultimate prize without a SAG ensemble nod is incredibly rare. We have lots to ponder, folks. In the mean time, here are your SAG nominees:

Best Ensemble
Boyhood
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything

Best Actor
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress
Jennifer Aniston, Cake
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
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Naomi Watts, St. Vincent

REVIEW: Human Capital

Italian cinema has long been fascinated with the lives of its rich and famous. From the works of Federico Fellini to recent films like The Great Beauty and I Am Love, filmmakers have attempted to use film as a way for audiences to empathize with society’s elite. One of the latest entries into this canon is Paolo Virzi’s "Human Capital".

Read more at The Awards Circuit

MOVIE OF THE WEEK/OSCAR WATCH: Unbroken

After months of waiting, "Unbroken" is finally upon us. This ambitious biopic from Angelina Jolie couldn't have entered this fall/winter movie season with higher expectations. Assembling a dream team of collaborators to work on this incredible true life story, many pundits even labeled it as an inevitable awards magnet. Of course, perception and reality and two different things. Now that it's finally here, did this ambitious production live up to its considerable potential?

"Unbroken" tells the story of Louis Zamperini, an American Olympian who became a prisoner of war during World War II. His journey begins in
New York, the son of Italian immigrants with an older brother and two younger sisters. Initially an aggressive, unruly boy (a response to constant school bullying) his life soon takes a drastic turn. Upon the urging of his brother Pete, he becomes a competitive runner, finding a new sense of self-discipline he never had before. Eventually he makes it on to the 1936 Olympic team, with hopes of making an even greater push at the following games.

Unfortunately, his athletic ambitions were curtailed when he enlisted to fight in World War II. This sent him on the awe-inspiring journey that makes up the majority of this film. After surviving a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean, him and two other survivors spent 47 days stranded at sea, before being captured and placed in Japanese war camps. He eventually survives to tell the tale in his best-selling Unbroken biography, aptly subtitled "A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption."

As you can imagine, there's a lot of dramatic material to be found in this tale. With its vast geographical scope, intense wartime scenes and the highs and lows that come with it, the film's narrative arc is truly of Homer-ific proportions. It's easy to see why Jolie was so passionate about this project.

Unfortunately, she lacks the goods to bring it all together. Make no mistake, "Unbroken" looks and sounds good and its basic story is inherently captivating. Kudos to Roger Deakins' cinematography and Alexandre Desplat's mood-setting score in that regard. Yet it lacks the astute directing sensibilities to give it that extra "oomph". From an editing standpoint it's poorly assembled, lacking the narrative flow that would lend it gravitas. The initial non-linear cross-cutting of scenes is most ineffective, as the flashbacks barely seem to inform the scenes around them. As a result, the film never gets to build any cumulative impact. Say what you want about Christopher Nolan's bombastic style, but at least he knows how to build momentum in a story.

What it all boils down to is a film that is emotionally flat. As Zamperini, Jack O'Connell is certainly up to the task, but he's completely under-served by the screenplay. Perhaps there were simply too many cooks in this stew (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson) because this script was disappointingly mediocre considering the pedigree of its screenwriters. For each section, the screenplay is only able to give our lead one note to work with - bright-eyed determination at home, tired optimism at sea and endless misery in the war camp. The one potential saving grace (Zamperini's spirituality and faith) seems to have been mostly excised from the script, leaving O'Connell to play a character without sufficient depth or nuance. Still, he does his best with what he's given, especially in terms of the role's physicality. The same can be said about the significant supporting players - Domhnall Gleeson, Garett Hedlund, Finn Wittrock and Miyavi (in a strong but uninspired debut performance).

It's no spoiler to reveal that "Unbroken" ends with images of the real life Louis Zamperini, overlaid by an uplifting original song by Coldplay. In this moment it accomplishes something that the preceding film didn't...it inspired. Jolie's final product is a commendable effort - it's nowhere near as mawkish as it could have been - but she clearly needs some more practice before she can tackle these big stories. In the right hands, I suspect there's still a great film to be made about this subject. I'll be right there if that happens.

OSCAR WATCH: AAFCA Awards

Today, the African-American Film Critics Association (of which I'm a member) announced its picks for the Best of 2014. Unsurprisingly, Ava Duvernay's "Selma" emerged on top. The film won awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Song. Here's the full press release:

AWARDS SEASON: A Man Among Men

Is Boyhood ready to join the pantheon of Oscar winners?

Well, awards season is now in full swing after today's blitz of critics awards. It's only going to get even busier this week though, as two of the most influential awards bodies announce their nominees (SAG and Golden Globes). I've always felt that these televised awards shows signify the true start of the season, as the public platform allows contenders to galvanize support with their speeches.

INTERVIEW: Rebecca Cremona

Last week, I had the pleasure of chatting with the lovely Rebecca Cremona, director of the film "Simshar". Cremona is having quite an exciting year, as "Simshar" holds the dual distinction of being her debut feature, as well as being Malta’s first ever Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film. It tells the tragic real life story of a fishing trip gone wrong and the unfortunate sociopolitical implications surrounding it. In our interview, we discussed the making of the film and many other interesting tidbits.

Read more at The Awards Circuit

PLUG: Devils in Disguise

In an increasingly competitive environment for film production, many indie filmmakers have turned to crowdfunding to help finance their films. Success stories include "Finding Vivian Maier", "Dear White People" and "Wish I Was Here". Recently, another new film (currently in post-production) has been brought to my attention after a favourable response at the Cannes Film Festival. Read below for more information:

MOVIE OF THE WEEK: St. Vincent

In preparation for my upcoming voting in the AAFCA awards, I decided to catch up on a number of indies I missed earlier in the year. This past weekend in particular was like a private film festival for me, as I watched a total of 6 films, which included genre hits ("The Guest"), arthouse faves ("Only Lovers Left Alive") and topical dramas ("Black or White"). Yet out of all these, the one that I liked the most was the decidedly mainstream comedy "St. Vincent".

"St. Vincent" is a story about an old man named Vincent and a little boy named Oliver. St. Vincent (played by Bill Murray) is a grumpy old war veteran who lives alone and enjoys all manner of debauchery (drinking, gambling and prostitution). Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher) on the other hand, is as sweet as they come, a frail kid who gets bullied at school. One day, these different individuals are brought together when Oliver and his mom Maggie (played by Melissa McCarthy) move in to the house next door to Vincent's. As a single parent working long hours to provide for her family, Maggie needs someone to help watch over Oliver after school. In desperation, she therefore turns to the reluctant Vincent to offer him the job. As expected, he's initially annoyed by the prospect, but he needs the money to maintain his lifestyle. The relationship is therefore strictly business, until the two open up to each other and strike up a friendship over the course of the film.

As you can see, "St. Vincent" isn't anything you haven't seen before. Just a few weeks ago I lamented the lack of originality in "The Nightingale", another film that hinges on a burgeoning friendship that bridges a generational gap. So what was so special about this one that made me respond to it so well?

For me, comedies live and die by their performances. If the actors are feeling it, then I'll feel it to. Such is the case in "St. Vincent" and its delightful ensemble. It has Naomi Watts in a bawdy - and largely inconsequential - role as a pregnant (for Vincent, no less) Russian stripper/prostitute. Then you have Melissa McCarthy giving perhaps her best dramatic performance. There's also Jaden Lieberher's adorable debut, showing good comic timing. Finally, there's the highly amusing Bill Murray as this obnoxious curmudgeon. It's thanks to them that the film is so enjoyable, especially when it comes to the chemistry between Murray and Lieberher.

Of course, I could easily dissect some of the script's nagging choices. For example, there's the typical "the things we learned" ending that's blatantly manipulative. Admittedly, the reveal of the meaning behind the film's title did get me teary-eyed, but it's emblematic of a film unwilling to embrace the full potential of its mean-spirited central character. Indeed, a better film could have been made if there wasn't the obligatory sentimental backstory to redeem him. It would have been less universally agreeable but so much more outstanding.

"St. Vincent" is a comedy that isn't especially funny or moving, but it's commendably effective within its PG-13 constraints. It made me laugh and it made me cry. This year I've become increasingly receptive of more challenging works in my cinephile diet, but I'll always have a place for these familiar comforts.