Archive for March, 2016

Working Title Films, Artémis Productions, Kvinde Films,

Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch, Amber Heard, Matthias Schoenaerts

Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander) is a Danish painter. She paints her husband, Einar (Eddie Redmayne) in woman’s clothing, and is beginning to gain attention as a popular artist. But Einar is finding himself more and more comfortable as Lili, his female character that he developed, and he finds he is losing himself and becoming more and more Lili. Since childhood, Einar has felt different and as if he was really a woman trapped in a man’s body. Seeking help, all the professionals declare him insane and try to cure him by driving the desire to be female out of his head. But through the love of his wife, Gerda, he is able to find a German doctor who is anxious to try doing a two surgery process to change Einar into Lili permanently. At this point in time, it’s heresy and is unacceptable to society, and especially the religious community.

This is a startling love story that is really sweet and well done. Based on the diary that Lili kept, and published after her death, this story really shows the great amount of love between these two. It’s sad as Gerta is losing her husband, but she’s willing to do anything to make him/her happy. Eddie Redmayne was nominated as Best Actor for his role in this film, but it was his co-star who rightfully won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Gerda. She really was able to pull off this role and was spectacular and certainly deserved it. But I think she was probably the best part of this movie. She really nailed it, and her range of emotional scenes from love, to despair, to worry, to desperation, she covered them all. This was a really well written script, and filmed in a way to leave the touching moments alone while still showing the terrifying parts. This is an unusual tale, and like one of the filmmakers stated in the extra features, it’s amazing that it has remained hidden this long as it is a really powerful story. Despite the R rating, this is a good film, and I can recommend it for mature audiences.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Element Pictures, No Trace Camping,

Sean Bridgers, Joan Allen, Brie Larson, William H. Macy, Jacob Tremblay

Ma (Brie Larson) was kidnapped by Old Nick (Sean Bridgers) and held hostage in a converted tool shed in the back yard of her captor. She has since had a small son, Jack (Jacob Tremblay) who has grown up in “room” which is his whole world. Only one small skylight in the ceiling is his view of the world, which he calls TV, because there are two things in his life, things in Room and unreal things everywhere else in TV. Eventually Jack is able to escape room, and his awe at a world he does not understand is incredible. This is based upon a popular novel, this is an amazing story that could have been pulled from the pages of the newspaper.

Room in an emotional roller-coaster. It has ups and downs throughout the story. I am not sure if life was harder for Jack and Ma inside the shed or out in the whole big world. There are many issues with each of the many relationships. Jack, being only 5 years old, is used to life in room, and certainly is not prepared for what’s outside. Things that he could never even imagine face him every day. But Ma has no easy time either. It’s hard for everyone to deal with all of the emotional scars in this story. Naturally all the attention at the Academy Awards was focused on Jacob Tremlay who is a very charming 7 year old who did an unbelievable job playing Jack. This is really his movie, and he was eating up every second of the attention. But this is Brie Larson’s movie as well, and her role was certainly not an easy one, and she carried it like a champ. For the largest portion of the film, it’s only Jack and Ma together in this little room. There is another role I want to mention. William H Macy plays Jack’s Grandfather and Ma’s Father. He has a very distasteful role to play as a father who doesn’t want to accept or face what has happened to his daughter, and though you will hate him for how he does it, William H Macy pulls it off very well. Though hard to understand his character, he plays it pretty well. The suspense is rather good, but the key to this film is the emotional ride we take with the characters and the way they are so well portrayed. This is an amazing film and unless you are not comfortable watching the dark and depressing situation they lived in for all those years, be sure to catch this one. Thought provoking, yet something we all have wondered about as we heard the stories of people who have been held hostage for a decade or more. Once they are freed, it’s not often we get to experience their story like we do in this fictional account of what it must be like. I recommend this one as certainly one of, if not the Best Picture of the year.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday March 29, 2016

  • Concussion
  • Exposed
  • The Hateful Eight
  • Point Break

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Anonymous Content, First Look Media, Participant Media,

Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci, John Slattery

Based on a true story, Spotlight is a special team of of investigative journalists working at the Boston Globe. They take on stories that take extra time and effort, sometime up to a year to seek out all the facts and prepare a special story or series of stories. Led by Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton) the Globe get a new manager from Miami who wants to improve sales. One his ideas is for Spotlight to investigate the policy of the Catholic Church to reassign priests who are known pedophiles, molesting young boys and girls. As the dig into the story, the find much more than they ever expected. This is true story of how they managed to go against all the odds to bring this story to light in one of the most groundbreaking stories of all times.

This movie won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2016. Surprisingly, this is the second film in a row starring Michael Keaton to win Best Picture. This is a very well done Docudrama and won an award for being most accurate portrayal of a real story, and the actors certainly put a LOT of effort into making the depictions of the real characters very lifelike. In fact, many of the reporters hung around the set and were amazed at how accurate the settings and depictions were done. Best film of 2015? I doubt that, but it is a good film. Hollywood types have a strange way of jumping on the bandwagon to to vote for a cause instead of a film, but this is not the worst Best Picture I have seen them choose. But it is popular to bash the Catholics these days. Most of the reporters who investigated the real story were, in fact, Roman Catholics, and they went to great lengths to show the hard choice of telling the story, even if it harms the church that has done a lot of good for the city. This is a conundrum, for sure. The agony in the faces of the folks is very well portrayed. From what I read, the actors did so well in portraying the people, that many of them remarked that it was like looking in a mirror. Robbie Robinson said that if Michael Keaton robbed a bank, the Boston Cops would be standing by ready to put the cuffs on Mr. Robinson in a blink of an eye. It was a nice compliment to the performance Michael pulled off. Basically, the subject matter is hard to take, and they may have been able to spend a little more effort on the victims, instead of all about the reporters, but that is how they chose to show it. All in all, this is a very well done movie and well worth watching. It’s a very serious topic, but very well done.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures,

Raymond Ochoa, Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Steve Zahn, Anna Paquin, Sam Elliott, A.J. Buckley, Marcus Scribner, Jack Bright

Many Pixar films start out with a concept. The concept here is simply “What if the meteor that killed the dinosaur’s missed?”. This film is the view of what Earth might be like if the dinosaurs never left and mankind was not allowed to grow to the top of the food chain. The story centers around a young family of dinosaurs, a Father and Mother, and three children who are farmers and grow crops to survive the winter. The youngest of the three kids though is Arlo and he’s a bit of a shrimp. Scared of the chickens and afraid of his shadow, Dad wants to make him grow up and make his mark on the world. Instead, he gets lost in a raging river and has to fight to survive and find his way back home in this animated Pixar film that is as cute and funny as all the rest of their gems.

Not only does Pixar start with a concept, but they also recognize that it’s all in the story, and this is a very, very well told story. The characters are extremely well voiced (and drawn) and this is a darling little film. The only problem that keeps this, in my mind, from being one of the best Pixar films is the fact that the story is rather derived from both Land Before Time and An American Tale. Granted the idea of a small one, lost and fighting to survive on his own is not all that original. Now that I think of it, isn’t that what Finding Nemo was about too? There are certainly similarities in the story, but I think most of it is fresh enough, and with enough tweaks and adjustments to make it very enjoyable. Like all Pixar films, I suspect folks of any age from 2 to 102 are going to really enjoy the story. It’s adult enough in it’s humor that grown ups will get a kick out of some of the characters, but it’s sweet and charming enough that the little ones will like it too. Note that this is PG, and though PG films are really mild nowadays, there is some violence and scary parts in this movie that might scare the little ones. Personally I think my younger grandchildren would be able to handle much worse than this without being afraid, but be alert if they are getting frightened to help them through a couple scary scenes. For example, when Arlo gets washed away in the river, it’s very intense, and there are a couple of vulture like pterodactyl like creatures that give Arlo a rough time. But there are many learning moments as well that stress things like helping, caring, needing to ask for help, and such that are very valuable gems. This is a really sweet movie, a very exciting adventure, and another Home Run for Pixar.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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