Tag: review

Categories
Uncategorised

91st Academy Awards – Creative Awards (Part 2)

Continuing my roundup of this year’s Oscars, I will be discussing more of the Creative awards handed out on Sunday night. In my first blog I spoke about the acting awards (here) and the following posts looked at the creative awards (here). The array of topics from the winners and nominees show just how varied this year has been internationally. Without further ado, here’s my take on Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short, Best Short Documentary, Best Documentary, Best Animated Feature and Best Foreign Film.

Best Animated Short Film

It was obvious that this gong would go to Pixar short Bao. The first Pixar short created by women, it tells the story of a mother-son relationship between a woman and a dumpling. It is a beautiful metaphor that shows the ups and downs of family life as Bao grows up and eventually starts to make questionable life choices. This film wasn’t for everyone and it’s understandable why but I loved it and thought it was a very touching and maternal piece of work. It brought something new to the table at Pixar, whose repertoire as of late has consisted of sequels and prequels and showed why audiences fell in love with it in the first place by injecting the passion and originality voiced by the animators and artists who work there.

Best Live Action Short

The winner of this award was Skin, a story of modern day racism in American which follows a Neo-Nazi who is kidnapped by a group of African Americans after organising a racial attack of his own and he is then tattooed completely black. The win in this category shows the importance to tell stories about the racial divide that still exists today.

Best Short Documentary

Nothing felt better for my feminist heart than seeing a crowd of women fill the stage to accept an Oscar for a film about menstruation. Period. End of Sentence explores women living in India whose education had been cut short due to their periods due to a lack of access to sanitary pads. A group of women team up and begin to manufacture sanitary pads so young girls and women can go to school and worship at temples. It is a brilliant insight into global inequality and puts to rest the patriarchal belief that gender equality exists. It also opens the gate for non-white female filmmakers to talk about subjects that are considered taboo in the same vein as Pakistani filmmaker, Sharmeen Obaid whose film, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness that explores the so-called honour killings in her home country previously won an Oscar in the same category three years ago. The bravery that these women have to exploit these issues shows how powerful the medium of film is in communicating these topics to a society that tends to cover it’s ears to the problem.

Best Documentary

Free Solo follows rock climber Alex Honnold as he attempts to free climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The filming itself proved to be a challenge as the production team had to ensure that Honnold was in no way hindered by bulky microphones or other film equipment. To do this they had a sound technician who knew how to rock climb and climbed alongside him. This is shows real innovation in filmmaking and brings a unique angle on this story rather than just having cameras at the top and bottom of the mountain.

Best Animated Feature

This year saw a welcome departure from the usual Disney win with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse winning the gong. It proved to be hugely popular mainly due to its inclusiveness in narrative as well as the animation itself which differs from the usual large-eyed computer animation that we have become accustomed to. This year also saw Wes Anderson’s return to animation with Isle of Dogs which was absolutely brilliant. Although not as strong as Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs gave the most star-studded cast from any of this year’s films and injected it into a tale about the love between a young boy and his dog.

Best Foreign Film

This category was one of the big competitions of the night. The pundits rightly put their money on Mexico’s entry, Roma, but it would be wrong to ignore the ferociously strong competition from Poland’s Cold War and Japan’s Palme d’Or winning Shoplifters. This year was a tremendous year for international film and I think Roma’s popularity specifically proves that mainstream audiences want to see non-English language films. There’s been a lot of debate on whether Roma should even qualify for awards season given that it is a Netflix film but I personally feel that using streaming it on Netflix means that millions of people will have a chance to watch a film that they may not ordinarily watch. I do think this debate played apart to its loss in the Best Picture race as I feel that the Academy may have felt that the Best Foreign Film win would suffice; however, there is no doubt that Roma was one of the most discussed films of the year and it won’t easily be forgotten.

That’s it for my second Creative awards roundup. My next post will look at the last batch of Creative awards: best song, best score, best costume design, best makeup and best Production design.

What do you think of the winners? Do you agree? Let me know in the comments below!

Categories
Uncategorised

91st Academy Awards – Creative Awards (Part 1)

For this segment of my Oscars 2019 roundup, I am looking at the four “big” categories in the creative department – both adapted and original screenplays, director and best picture. I have previously discussed my thoughts on the acting categories here. The screenplay categories are my favourite categories in the whole of awards season and this year provided an array of offerings from industry veterans and newcomers alike but ultimately we saw the veterans win the day.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Blackkklansman was one of my favourite films of this awards circuit. I knew it didn’t really stand a chance against the other Best Picture nominees that appeared to be more popular so seeing this great film recognised for its killer script was a great feat and to see the genius Spike Lee win an Oscar in competition was one of my personal highlights of the ceremony. This truly was his moment and although set in the 70s, the script seemed as though it could have been set this year. The timelessness shows not only his skill as a filmmaker but also breaks the illusion that we live in a society that is “equal” or “more equal” to make ourselves feel better. Spike uses this film as a vehicle to hold the mirror up to society through techniques such as combining footage from the news today with racist propaganda film The Birth of a Nation. The protagonist is the only black policeman in his unit so we get to see how he is treated within the African American community as well as the white men in power.

This script was my pick by far for the adapted screenplay award so I am thrilled that it won.

Best Original Screenplay

This winner was both a surprise and a disappointment in my personal opinion. Peter Farrelly won for the script for Green Book which was a very mixed film for me. My main issue with the film was its script. The story was lifted by the charisma of the actors rather by being lifted by the words they were saying. Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali did a fantastic job of carrying the film but sadly it seemed that they were driving a cardboard car rather than a real one.

My pipedream is to one day win the gong in this category so it tends to be the one I follow the most. My vote would have gone to The Favourite. The humour and depth of all three leads is unlike anything I have seen and to see a film treat three women with such vigour and respect was really refreshing. In my eyes, this was one of the major robs of the night.

Best Director

There was no doubt that Alfonso Cuaron would take the trophy home for Best Director. Whether or not Roma was to everyone’s liking, it cannot be doubted that this was the film Cuaron was born to make and could only be made by him. The vision was truly his as he took over practically every aspect of production including cinematography (which he also won) and co-editing. It’s rare that a film brings a first time actor award attention yet Cuaron created a star in the form of film lead Yalitza Aparicio, a recently graduated teacher who had no plans to enter acting and happened upon the audition by chance. Within the last six Academy Awards, Mexican filmmakers have won this gong with this being Cuaron’s second win in this category. In an industry where diversity still has a way to go, those statistics show good promise for the future of film.

Although Cuaron undoubtedly deserved his win, my personal pick would have been Yorgos Lanthimos for The Favourite but I knew Cuaron would take the gold and I am really happy for Roma’s success. Also, considering Lathimos had been largely left out of the director races for other awards, I was thrilled that he received a director nomination at all.

Best Picture

Now for the big one! We know the eventual winner of the big prize (Best Picture) went to Farrelly’s Green Book which some have viewed as deserving but others have already deemed will go down as one of the biggest mistakes in the Academy’s history. I think it’s too early to see whether it’s one of the biggest mistakes in the Oscars history but I do think it was the wrong choice. Usually this category tends to be a race between two (sometimes three) films but there was an array of films that had a chance this year all for different reasons. Green Book was among these but given that it was being consistently recognised for Mahershala Ali’s performance which I think is a huge bulk of its eventual win in this category, I didn’t think it would actually take it. I do feel strongly that this award should have gone to Roma or The Favourite because these films were experimental and yet had a lot of heart and love in them. I’m not sure I felt the same way about Green Book. As I said above, the script was too bland for my liking but also the context of production put me off. The fact that the film has all white male producers, director and screenwriters is already problematic. How do you make a film about the black American experience without a major black figure of authority behind the camera? I know I speak from a white female perspective but it just seemed so strange to me when you had other films in the mix such as Blackkklansman and Black Panther which proved to be popular with audiences and critics alike. On another note, I really feel that If Beale Street Could Talk should have been included in the nominees and considering films like Bohemian Rhapsody were included, there’s no reason why it was omitted.

I would have loved to see The Favourite or Roma take this award. I felt more of a connection with them. Both were films that stretch the imagination and remind me why I love films so much.

That’s it for this post. My next blog will look at another batch of creative awards including Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best Foreign Film as well as the shorts.

What did you think of the winners and losers in these categories? Do you agree? Let me know in the comments below!

Categories
Uncategorised

Suspiria (1977)

Dario Argento’s iconic jewel coloured splatterfest has truly stood the test of time in terms of changing the game for horror films and maintaining its thrills and scares 40 years on. The film follows Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) a young ballerina who attends an esteemed dance school in Freiberg. Suzy soon realises that there has been a lot of supernatural activity occurring and she finds herself wandering down a spiral of magic and danger as she faces a coven of witches that rule the school. One of the most recognisable horror films that helped to put Italian horror on the map, Suspiria remains iconic to this day thanks to Argento’s signature use of colour, Goblin’s brilliant score and the innovative death scenes that will surprise even the biggest gore fans. Directed by Argento and co-written by Argento and partner, Daria Nicolodi, Suspiria remains a firm favourite of horror fans around the globe thanks to its unique style and revolutionary effects.

The first element to talk about is how beautiful the use of colour and set design is. Argento expresses the moods through an exaggerated use of colour, in particular reds and blues. His aesthetic is heavily influential amongst filmmakers and it’s easy to see why. He treats his film as though it were a piece of art and he isn’t afraid to make something beautiful and contrast this with an extremely grotesque image. The juxtaposition of these enhances the horrors that happen onscreen particularly the opening murder sequence. Colour and set design is a signature of Argento’s, particularly during this period and in Suspiria he masters creating a world that seems detached from regular society. The only scenes that are relatively “normal” are those where Suzy seeks outside help but the aesthetics for the school and the scenes in which the witches use their powers feel as though they take place elsewhere in a different universe.

In the leading role we have Jessica Harper as aspiring ballerina, Suzy Banyon. Having travelled from America to Germany, Suzy is immediately isolated and thrust into this situation where fellow students are mysteriously disappearing one by one. What makes Suzy a great character is how outspoken she is from her first interaction with the Headmistress and her inability to simply blend. Her curious nature is what eventually puts her in harm’s way but she approaches the mystery with intelligence. Harper’s performance personifies the Argento character perfectly as she is highly expressive whilst also remaining believable in the terror. Overacting roles is often found in Italian horrors of that time and while some people may not like this aspect, I think that it adds a charm to Suspiria and gives it a whimsical feel.

One thing that comes to many minds when thinking about Suspiria is the soundtrack by Goblin. It could be argued that the score has helped Suspiria to garner such praise and makes it a memorable film because of how well it works with the film as a whole. For a film that is so unique in its set design and writing, the music has to reflect the absurdity. From the opening track that features the immediately recognisable drumroll followed by the iconic theme that includes the whispers of “witch” which feed into the overall expressionism of the film. The tension that the music builds is relentless and refuses to allow you to feel at ease which makes it as much of a character in the film.

Overall, Suspiria is a must see for horror and gore films alike. I’m assuming if you are a horror fan then you’ve seen this and if not, do so immediately! But even if you’re not a horror buff, I would definitely recommend watching it if you can handle the gore. It’s such a unique film watching experience and gems like this don’t come around often.

What do you think of Suspiria? Let me know in the comments below!

Categories
Uncategorised

The Master (2012)

Paul Thomas Anderson is known for his track record of spectacular films, never once making a bad film. His filmography includes breakthrough classics like 1997’s Boogie Nights and the iconic 2007 effort There Will Be Blood just to name a few. However, the one film that strikes a cord with me on a personal note is his 2012 star studded cult study The Master in which Joaquin Phoenix plays Freddie Quell, an alcholic, sex addicted ex-marine who struggles to adjust to normal life after World War II. After an unfortunate incident in which he arguably poisons and kills someone with a toxic alcoholic drink, he escapes and sneaks onto a boat that is currently home to members of The Cause, a cult ran by the titular character, also known as Lancaster Dodd (played superbly by Philip Seymour Hoffman). The Master was severely overlooked on release but has gained a reputation in recent years as one of the best films of the 21st century so far and deservedly so. With striking direction and a flawless screenplay, it’s a film that shows the plight to belong and find that place of belonging and where you fit in the world.

Directed and written by Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master is my favourite of his films and is his own personal favourite as well. With the direction having a keen focus on Freddie and his journey to self acceptance while refusing to fully conform to what The Cause expects from him, this is a film that is deep in manipulation and questionable motives. Anderson’s screenplay does a great job of providing the mystique behind The Master and what his motivations are when it comes to Freddie and bringing Freddie in to The Cause. It is halfway through when we find out his real name as the allure surrounding him begins to crumble and Freddie starts to see the reality of The Cause and how society actually views them.

Leading the cast is Joaquin Phoenix as Freddie Quell in what is a career best performance. A sex-addicted alcoholic veteran, Freddie is a deeply troubled character who deals with physical and mental illness whilst also being unable to adjust to regular society following the end of the Second World War. He is erratic and unpredictable, making him the perfect guinea pig for The Master’s new techniques. What Phoenix always does so well is really delve into his characters to a point where he can contort his physicality to become that character and we forget that we are watching an actor. Marking the first of two collaborations between Phoenix and Anderson (the second was 2014’s Inherent Vice), The Master was a perfect pairing for this highly intensive study into a character who seemingly has no place to belong.

In support we have Philip Seymour Hoffman as the titular character and Amy Adams as his wife, Peggy. Both deliver exceptional performances and were my top picks for their respective Acadeny Award categories. Hoffman’s performance has helped in making one of the best original characters put to screen. A quiet performance that is heavily layered, we don’t never fully understand why The Master acts the way he does or what his motivations are as his techniques are always changing. Touring the country and meeting followers, his reputation and inability to remain calm towards critics begins to surface and the mask begins to slip. Where Freddie doesn’t know where he belongs, The Master has created his own place of belonging and is determined to thrust his point of view and his agenda onto those who can be influenced, especially in high society.

One of the highlights in terms of the crew is the soundtrack which was composed by Anderson’s frequent collaborator, Jonny Greenwood. Having seen a lot of success for his score for There Will Be Blood, Greenwood takes inspiration from the 1940s and 50s period and incorporates instruments that are reminiscent of the marines such as woodwind which helps to elevate that atmosphere. We can see the film purely through the music because it helps to paint that picture.

Overall, what makes The Master such a brilliant film is the amount of detail that is in the direction and screenplay. The interpretative nature means that you can watch it and come to a conclusion then watch it again and come to an entirely different conclusion. It’s not an easy film to watch but the best films never are. Beautiful and poignant with a timeless quality, The Master is sure to go down as a classic in years to come.

What do you think of The Master? Let me know in the comments below!

Categories
Uncategorised

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

When it comes to Disney’s history as a pioneering animation studio, there are plenty of key films that helped to make the company the leader in the industry today. I would argue that few of their feature films hold as much significance as their debut feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Released in 1937 to international acclaim from critics and audiences, Snow White is still a very much loved installment in the Disney filmography. It remains my favourite Disney film for a variety of reasons that makes it a hugely important presence in my film journey as well as how I view the filmmaking process. As a child who grew up on the films of Disney and Don Bluth, no other film affected me than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This is thanks to the special edition VHS I received for my birthday that had a mini documentary at the end which explored the making of the film. Viewing this glimpse into the film industry, how it works and how hard all of the departments worked to get a feature length animation out made the film viewing experience so much more exciting.

For those who may not know the plot, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs follows the titular character who is forced to run away from the Evil Queen after the latter becomes jealous of the former’s beauty. Snow White finds sanctuary in a small cottage inhabited by seven dwarfs who then do what they can to protect Snow White and hide her from the Queen. Based on the fairytale by the Brothers Grimm, Disney’s interpretation takes away the horror from the source material such as the apple core getting stuck in Snow White’s throat and makes it accessible for all audiences while incorporating the iconic designs often associated with Snow White in succeeding adaptations. This remains the most iconic adaptation of the fairytale with the designs and songs recognised around the globe.

As mentioned earlier, the reason why I love Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs so much isn’t necessarily due to the character development or the script but the innovation and approach to creating the film. Tasked with making sure that audiences are going to be attentive enough to sit through 80 minutes of animation, Disney had to be extremely calculated when it came to the plot. This is one of the reasons why the plot and the script is simple and linear so as not to challenge the audience too much. It’s a film that is showing off the latest in animation rather than boasting in depth characterisation. The craftsmanship that went into creating every scene is above and beyond complex and this is what draws me in time and time again. Even against the latest Disney releases, Snow White holds its own thanks to the detail and beauty in every frame. I think it’s easy to forget that it was the first ever technicolour animated feature film. That’s a huge feat in film history.

One aspect that I love the most is the use of colour and the various palettes used throughout, particularly in the expressionist forest scene when she is running away from the Evil Queen. Despite this being Disney’s first feature film, he doesn’t play it safe as the forest transforms and becomes a culmination of nightmares. The trees have faces and logs become alligators as Snow White runs deeper and deeper into the forest. The green, grey and black palette than opens up to a brighter spectrum as the eyes that have been following her are revealed to be friendly woodland creatures. The visual style is designed to put the audience at a state of unease as we flit to and fro between the happy, joyful moments with the dwarfs and the plotting Evil Queen who transforms into the Old Hag in a bid to kill Snow White.

Another iconic aspect of this film is the music. Drawing inspiration from the woodland creature trills for “Whistle While You Work” to incorporating the sound of the mine digging into “Heigh Ho”. Even if you haven’t seen this film, chances are that you have heard the songs at some point which shows how Disney was already pioneering not only the animation field but also defining the musical genre.

Overall, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has earned its place in film history and deservedly so. The chances are that you have seen the films or are familiar with the characters and songs if you haven’t because it has become so iconic. Although there are issues in terms of how it’s female protagonist is portrayed, Disney are showing improvements on this ground with their latest Princess films that feature more assertive and explored in more detail but what makes Snow White such a brilliant film isn’t necessarily the story but the amount of time and work that went into its creation.

What do you think of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Let me know in the comments below!