Quirky, Fun, and Populaire (Foreign Film – France)

Populaire is a cute and fun little romantic comedy set in post World War II France about a small town girl with big aspirations to become a secretary.

Director Régis Roinsard clearly takes a lot of ideas from the wonderful Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn musical classic, Funny Face.  If you haven’t seen it check it out on Netflix currently.  From the color palette play he chooses to the time he takes us back to this is definitely the French director’s ode to that beautiful Hepburn films, which just so happens to be my favorite of her movies.

Romain Duris plays the boss, Louis Echard,  at the office he sees something greater in small town girl, Rose Pamphyle.  The art of speed typing.  He decides to train her to compete.  Duris is a brilliant actor and here is no different.  From being the asshole misogynistic boss at first to falling head over heels for young Pamphyle.  The guy has quite the repertoire as well if you haven’t seen any of his previous work.

Pamphyle is played by the cute Déborah François and she captures the tone magnificently.  She plays the klutzy little secretary perfect.  Hopefully she has more to show us.  She was started her career in the critically acclaimed L’enfant in 2005 that was directed by Belgian brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.  She’s definitely hopped up on my tracker to watch.  With a film role done well like this her career could take off in the trajectory of Hepburn’s, at least in France for now, then hopefully over here to the US.  Then again Duris has chosen to mostly stick to the French films.

Bérénice Bejo, nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards for The Artist, has a small supporting role here as well.

This is quite the quirky romantic comedy and a soft French love letter to days past.

3.5/5

Oscar Predictions

Tonight’s the night! We are gonna see if Michael Keaton made a comeback and if a 12 year experiment works out as a Best Picture winner!

Below are the nominations with my predictions in all categories!

* Means I have picked them to win.

Best Picture:

American Sniper

Birdman*

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Whiplash

Best Director:

Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Birdman*

Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher

Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

Original Screenplay:

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Foxcatcher

Nightcrawler

Birdman*

Boyhood

Adapted Screenplay:

Inherent Vice

Whiplash*

American Sniper

The Theory of Everything

The Imitation Game

Best Actress:

Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night

Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore, Still Alice*

Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Actor:

Steve Carell, Foxcatcher

Bradley Cooper, American Sniper

Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game

Michael Keaton, Birdman*

Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Supporting Actress:

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood*

Laura Dern, Wild

Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game

Emma Stone, Birdman

Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Supporting Actor:

Robert Duvall, The Judge

Ethan Hawke, Boyhood

Edward Norton, Birdman

Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher

J.K. Simmons, Whiplash*

Animated Feature:

Big Hero 6

The Boxtrolls

How To Train Your Dragon 2*

Song of the Sea

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Documentary Feature:

Citizenfour

Finding Vivian Maier*

Last Days in Vietnam

The Salt of the Earth

Virunga

Foreign Feature:

Ida, Poland

Leviathan, Russia*

Tangerines, Estonia

Timbuktu, Mauritania

Wild Tales, Argentina

Animated Short:

The Bigger Picture*

The Dam Keeper

Feast

Me and My Moulton

A Single Life

Documentary Short:

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

Joanna

Our Curse

The Reaper (La Parka)*

White Earth

Live-Action Short:

Aya

Boogaloo and Graham

Butter Lamp (La Lampa au Beurre de Yak)

Parvaneh*

The Phone Call

Original Score:

Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel*

Alexandre Desplat, The Imitation Game

Johann Johannsson, The Theory of Everything

Gary Yershon, Mr. Turner

Hans Zimmer, Interstellar

Original Song:

“Everything is Awesome” , The LEGO Movie

“Glory” , Selma*

“Grateful” , Beyond the Lights

“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” , Glen Campbell… I’ll Be Me

“Lost Stars” , Begin Again

Cinematography:

Roger Deakins, Unbroken

Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal, Ida

Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman*

Dick Pope, Mr. Turner

Robert D. Yeoman, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Editing:

American Sniper

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

Whiplash*

Costumes:

The Grand Budapest Hotel*

Inherent Vice

Into the Woods

Maleficent

Mr. Turner

Make Up:

Foxcatcher*

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Guardians of the Galaxy

Sound Editing:

American Sniper*

Birdman

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Interstellar

Unbroken

Sound Mixing:

American Sniper

Birdman

Interstellar

Unbroken

Whiplash*

Production Design:

The Grand Budapest Hotel*

The Imitation Game

Interstellar

Into the Woods

Mr. Turner

Visual Effects:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Guardians of the Galaxy*

Interstellar

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Finally Met Allen’s Annie Hall

Finally got around to viewing Woody Allen‘s Annie Hall.  Took long enough!

Hall was the Oscar winner for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay in 1978 (for the year of 1977).  Allen defeated Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope for Picture and George Lucas for Director and Original Screenplay.  Allen himself is one of the leads and Diane Keaton is the titular Annie Hall.  Keaton took home that golden statuette that Academy Award Ceremony night and man did she deserve it.  She is wonderful as Hall.

The film is a wonderful romantic comedy about a comedian and a singer’s relationship in the Big Apple.  Allen’s witty neuroticism and anti-semitic humor is clearly seen throughout.  He has a magical way with dialogue that has always captured me in the films of his I have seen.  You can see that he must have experienced some of these things in his actual life as seems to be true of a lot of his work.

The comedy and writing are great but it is definitely Keaton’s marvelous performance that steals the show.  Everything about her natural evolution through the film from start to finish is magnificent.  So glad I finally got around to checking this out!

4.5/5

Dolan’s Mommy is Intense (Foreign Film- French-Canadian)

Xavier Dolan‘s fifth feature Mommy is incredibly intense.  Dolan, who is 25 years old currently, has proven his claim to rights of being an marvelous filmmaker.

Anne Dorval plays the titular character Diane “Die” Després who is bringing her son back home from juvenile hall.  Her son, Steve, is a wild card.  He has high functioning ADHD  and can burst into fits of violence.  Together they seem to be an even bigger mess as Die is trying to get her life back in order after losing her job.  In comes Kyla, their shy neighbor with a stutter.  Kyla helps Die by homeschooling Steve for her during the day so Die can go out job hunting to pay the bills.

All seems clear that Kyla is a huge benefit to the two wounded Despres until once again Steve snaps.  Antoine-Olivier Pilon plays Steve wonderfully.  You can see how hard he tries to fight his ADHD and bursts of anger and violence.  He’s trying but is definitely too far gone.  Suzanne Clément plays their neighbor, Kyla, who falls in deep with both Die and Steve.  She gets sucked into friendships with both and basically becomes a surrogate mother to Steve at times.

The acting is phenomenal on all their parts but the biggest feat here is Dolan’s mastery of the camera.  He does some amazing work with the aspect ratio and his musical ear is a beauty to behold as has been in all his films I’ve seen.  This film got robbed at the Academy Award nominations, as did a few others that I won’t mention.  Jealous that he has done so well at his age having made five feature films already and working on his sixth as you read this.  Good on him though!  Keep making great movies!

4/5

A Haunting Ida (Foreign Film- Poland)

Pawel Pawlikowski‘s Ida is a haunting black and white film about two women searching for answers in post World War II Poland.

Ida is a very slow film as well as not in color and not shot in the widescreen ratio we have become accustomed to as of late.  Throw into the mix that the film is in a foreign language whereas you have to read the subtitles and most people wouldn’t want to see this.  The film is beautiful beyond that.  The cinematography is so crisp for a black and white film.

Agata Kulesza and Agata Trzebuchowska are wonderful as the older, cynical Wanda and the young, naive Anna/Ida respectively.  Hard to believe this is Trzebuchowska’s feature debut as an actress.  Hopefully she has more work to show and one day branches into the American film market.

Quiet and nuanced, Ida is a visually striking film that deserves it’s Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Feature category.

4/5

A Patriotic American Sniper

Clint Eastwood‘s return to military film is his best directorial effort since the underrated Gran Torino in 2008.  American Sniper is great but not amazing.

Clint’s Sniper is based on the true story of Chris “Legend” Kyle the greatest sniper to live.  Bradley Cooper is hypnotic.  From his accent to his build to his movement, Cooper did a fine job of immersing himself into Kyle.  The surprise factor here is Sienna Miller, who happens to be in two phenomenal films this year without anyone noticing apparently.  The other film being Foxcatcher.  Miller is riveting as Kyle’s wife struggling to raise their two children while he’s away and deal with his indifference to being home and with his family when he’s back from overseas.

Before watching the film, it was unbeknownst to myself that the real life Kyle had been helping veterans out who had post traumatic stress disorder.  I have, and do know many military men who have fought for our country and there are aspects that never leave them.  Almost as if it’s a sixth sense they can’t get rid of.  Not always a bad thing though the moment anyone hears PTSD the fear has already been instilled.  That being said, the film has a minute portrayal of Kyle helping out.  That part should have had much more light shed on it.  The film shouldn’t just be a glorification of battle, and it felt like it wasn’t going to be, but there were a few chords missed with the omission of more about the aftermath.

Clint did amazing work with the tension throughout the entirety of the movie.  Everytime the pressure was on you can feel your heart race as if it were Cooper’s as Kyle’s.  Some of the decisions he had to make felt nerve wrecking as well.  Clint may have another nomination on his hands with this.  This film puts the “America” in American.

4/5

An Incredible Whiplash

Damien Chazelle‘s Whiplash is absolutely incredible.

Miles Teller leads the film as Andrew, a first year student at a prestigious and extremely difficult music college.  Andrew will stop at nothing to be the best drummer of his generation.  He is willing to bleed, even die for his dream to come to fruition.  His professor Fletcher, played magnificently by J.K. Simmons, is the most cutthroat teacher at the college.  Fletcher drives makes life extremely difficult for the ambitious Andrew.  He’s driven nearly mad.

Teller is highly impressive as the young dreamer.  Simmons steals every bit of the show when on screen though.  Watching the two of them go head to head is remarkable.  Their final performance’s crescendo is one of the most beautiful and powerful scenes in a film that I’ve seen.  That Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination is basically Simmons’s and Teller just continues to show his amazing acting range.  This isn’t the last we will see of Teller for sure.  Paul Reiser has a supporting role as Andrew’s father and Melissa Benoist of Glee fame shows up as Nicole, a short term girlfriend of Andrew’s.  Can’t wait to see what other magnificent stories Chazelle may have up his sleeve after Whiplash‘s brilliance.

5/5

The Imitation Game of Alan Turing

Morten Tyldum‘s English language debut, The Imitation Game, is a marvelous adaptation.

Tyldum’s previous effort, Headhunters, was a magnificent film about an art heist.  Go rent it if you haven’t seen it.  Here he takes on a real life story.  The story of Alan Turing and how he and a small team solved the enigma code and helped bring World War II to an end.

This isn’t just a story about solving the enigma code though.  Tyldum and his star, Benedict Cumberbatch, also give us insight into Turing’s life.  Turing was a brilliant mathematician who helped create the first “computer”, named Christopher.  Cumberbatch is a marvel as Turing.  This film is clearly an Oscar vehicle for him to get nominated, which is perfect because it’s well deserved.    Turing was a man covered in a veil of secrets upon secrets upon secrets.  He treated the cracking of the enigma code as a giant puzzle that ,in a way, was fun for him but also helped him help the Allied Forces.  He did his best to keep from letting his biggest secret out, his homosexuality, for then  he would have been spurned and killed for it was “illegal”.  The reveal of his secret in the end finally tore him apart as it had been from the inside out.  The supporting cast is brilliantly fleshed out with Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister of Game of Thrones fame), and Mark Strong in the lineup.  This Oscar contender is an interesting and entertaining view into this time period and the situation.

4.5/5

Road to Oscar Gold Week 4

Once again sorry for being a few days late! In 10 days we will find out who gets nominated! The Golden Globes are this weekend. Apparently now Whiplash is a competitor in Best Adapted Screenplay not Original which may hinder its chances.  The films I have seen are linked to my reviews.

(Note: If there is an asterisk* by the contender it has been viewed)

BEST PICTURE:

Finally got some catching up done for the Oscar race over the holidays.  Films are gaining steam with the PGA, SAG, and Golden Globe nominations.  There’s also a few losing steam.

Bet On It:

Birdman*

Boyhood*

The Grand Budapest Hotel*

The Imitation Game

The Theory of Everything*

Highly Possible:

American Sniper

A Most Violent Year

Foxcatcher*

Gone Girl*

Inherent Vice*

Nightcrawler*

Selma

Whiplash

Big Maybe:

Interstellar

Unbroken

Under the Skin

Wild

Don’t Bet On It:

Big Eyes

Chef*

Exodus: Gods and Kings

Fury*

The Gambler

Mr. Turner

Rosewater

Snowpiercer*

Best Director:

After my catching up I am certain of my original picks for the two sure hits.  I’ve removed the Don’t Bet On It category here because their chances dropped severely off the map.

Bet On It:

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Birdman*

Richard Linklater, Boyhood*

Highly Possible:

Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice*

Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel*

Damien Chazelle, Whiplash

Ava DuVernay, Selma

Clint Eastwood, American Sniper

David Fincher, Gone Girl*

Big Maybe:

J.C. Chandor, A Most Violent Year

Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler*

Angelina Jolie, Unbroken

James Marsh, The Theory of Everything*

Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher*

Christopher Nolan, Interstellar

Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

Best Actor:

Tight race here.  Finally got to see Keaton’s performance.  I can guarantee he gets his nomination here.

Bet On It:

Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game

Michael Keaton, Birdman*

Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything*

Highly Possible:

Steve Carell, Foxcatcher*

Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler*

Oscar Isaac, A Most Violent Year

David Oyelowo, Selma

Big Maybe:

Ben Affleck, Gone Girl*

Chadwick Boseman, Get On Up

Bradley Cooper, American Sniper

Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel*

Tom Hardy, Locke*

Jack O’Connell, Unbroken

Joaquin Phoenix, Inherent Vice*

Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner

Miles Teller, Whiplash

Don’t Bet On It:

Alfred Molina, Love is Strange

Bill Murray, St. Vincent

Channing Tatum, Foxcatcher*

Christoph Waltz, Big Eyes

Best Actress:

I still haven’t had a chance to catch up with many of these roles unfortunately.  All I’m basing these off of is charts and theories that I’ve seen and heard.  As well as the actual nominations themselves so far in the precursors.

Bet On It:

Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Highly Possible:

Jennifer Aniston, Cake

Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit)

Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything*

Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl*

Big Maybe:

Hilary Swank, The Homesman

Shailene Woodley, The Fault in Our Stars*

Amy Adams, Big Eyes

Don’t Bet On It:

Juliette Binoche, Clouds of Sils Maria

Emily Blunt, Into the Woods

Anne Hathaway, Interstellar

Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Belle

Best Supporting Actor:

After seeing two more of these I’m getting a clearer view on the category.  I still haven’t caught Simmons who I still believe is the front runner even though I haven’t seen the film.

Bet On It:

Edward Norton, Birdman*

Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher*

JK Simmons, Whiplash

Highly Possible:

Josh Brolin, Inherent Vice*

Ethan Hawke, Boyhood*

Tyler Perry, Gone Girl*

Big Maybe:

Robert Duvall, The Judge

John Goodman, The Gambler

Logan Lerman, Fury*

Tom Wilkinson, Selma

Don’t Bet On It:

Albert Brooks, A Most Violent Year

Tommy Lee Jones, The Homesman

Best Supporting Actress:

This category doesn’t have much change going on once again. Most subjects haven’t moved.

Bet On It:

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood*

Emma Stone, Birdman*

Highly Possible:

Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year

Laura Dern, Wild

Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game

Big Maybe:

Melissa McCarthy, St. Vincent

Rene Russo, Nightcrawler*

Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer*

Katherine Waterston, Inherent Vice*

 Naomi Watts, Birdman*

Don’t Bet On It:

Carrie Coon, Gone Girl*

Anna Kendrick, Into the Woods 

Jessica Lange, The Gambler

Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Adapted Screenplay:

Bet On It:

Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice*

Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl*

Anthony McCarten, The Theory of Everything*

Graham Moore, The Imitation Game

Highly Possible:

Damien Chazelle, Whiplash

Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese, William Nicholson; Unbroken

Jason Dean Hall, American Sniper

Big Maybe:

Andrew Bovell, A Most Wanted Man*

Nick Hornby, Wild

Steven Knight, The Hundred-Foot Journey

James Lapine, Into the Woods

Peter Landesman, Kill the Messenger

William Monahan, The Gambler

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, The Fault in Our Stars*

Jason Reitman, Erin Cressida Wilson; Men, Women, and Children

Jon Stewart, Rosewater

Original Screenplay:

Bet On It:

Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness; The Grand Budapest Hotel*

Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo; Birdman*

Richard Linklater, Boyhood*

Highly Possible:

J.C. Chandor, A Most Violent Year

Ava DuVernay, Paul Webb; Selma

E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, Foxcatcher*

Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler*

Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan; Interstellar

Ira Sachs & Mauricio Zacharias, Love is Strange

Big Maybe:

Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski; Big Eyes

Woody Allen, Magic in the Moonlight

David Ayer, Fury*

Steven Baigelman, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth; Get On Up

Jon Favreau, Chef*

Steven Knight, Locke*

Mike Leigh, Mr.Turner

Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, The LEGO Movie*

John Michael McDonagh, Calvary

Damián Szifrón, Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes)

Animated Feature:

Bet On It:

Big Hero 6*

How to Train Your Dragon 2*

The LEGO Movie*

Highly Possible:

The Boxtrolls

The Book of Life*

Big Maybe:

Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Penguins of Madagascar

Rio 2

Song of the Sea

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Foreign Feature:

Bet On It:

Ida, Poland (director: Pawel Pawlikowski)

Force Majeure, Sweden (director: Ruben Östlund)*

Leviathan, Russia (director: Andrey Zvyagintsev)

Highly Possible:

Accused, Netherlands (director: Paula van der Oest)

Corn Island, Georgia (director: George Ovashvili)

The Liberator, Venezuela (director: Alberto Arvelo)

Tangerines, Estonia (director: Zaza Urushadze)

Timbuktu, Mauritania (director: Abderrahmane Sissako)

Wild Tales, Argentina (director: Damián Szifrón)

The Eerie Foxcatcher

Foxcatcher was an incredible biographical drama that gives some “insight” into the events that took place between John du Pont and Olympic wrestling brothers Dave and Mark Schultz.

The three actors; Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum, make remarkable transformations to portray du Pont, Dave, and Mark Schultz respectively.  Carell is near unrecognizable under the prosthetic nose to start with.  His performance is terrifying.  Du Pont is basically a lonely child who gets whatever he wants in a grown man’s body.  You see his temper tantrums and his need for affection shown many times.  He grooms Tatum’s Mark into becoming his “friend” at first with money and then with power and promises of glory.  His mother seems to be at the point where she could care less of what John does yet also has men making sure he gets what he wants no matter what.  Everything about the character raises goosebumps of fear and that is attributed to Carell’s wonderful performance.

Ruffalo steals the limelight many times here as gold medalist Dave Schultz.  The moment you see him walk onto the screen he looks as if he’s Ruffalo but acts as a completely different individual.  The way he walks and talks and holds his hands in the “velociraptor” position just proves his skill as an actor to become completely immersed in his role.  He plays not just an older brother figure but a father figure as well to his kids as well as Mark.  The wrestling scenes are incredibly choreographed and worked through by both actors.

Tatum is wonderful with his “big oaf” walk and major anger issues.  These very issues are the mainstay of what allows du Pont to keep him as a pet.  Du Pont likes his pet Schultz very much and continually treats him like “man’s best friend” more than a real human being.  Once again everything about his movement and speech is a complete alteration of the actor.

Bennett Miller does a fantastic job directing here.  The subtleties throughout the movie drive the eeriness straight down your throat.  The portrayals he helped drive out of the actors are clearly marvelous work but not just his doing so brought it out.  The silence Miller uses when necessary to make your spine tingle makes for another magnificent directing decision he made.

4.5/5