American Sniper Review


            With the heated political debate going on over Clint Eastwood’s latest film, American Sniper, ever since it picked up six Academy Award nominations last Thursday it seems like the actual film has gotten lost a little bit amongst the discussion.  If you forget about politics for a second (which is hard to do considering all of the commotion going around about this film), American Sniper turns out to be a compelling war drama that may not represent some of the best work in the genre but at least strives to be among the best.  The War on Terror has given us very few great narrative films, but with a great handling of its intensity and a career best performance from its lead, American Sniper is one of those few films.

            American Sniper is adapted from Chris Kyle’s autobiography about his life as the deadliest sniper in American history.  The film specifically follows his missions in Iraq and his attempt to kill a Syrian sniper working for the insurgents before the Syrian sniper can kill him and other Americans.  While the events involving the Syrian sniper are largely fictional, the additions to Kyle’s narrative to the film result in a much more cinematically interesting storyline that allows director Clint Eastwood to deliver his best film in nearly a decade.  Eastwood’s directing of the action sequences is really good.  They are very reminiscent of Kathryn Bigelow’s work on The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty(which if you can’t be better than the best you might as well take inspiration from the best).  Also, Eastwood and his editing team’s handling of the large narrative of Chris Kyle’s life results in a very intense film (if you can get past the clunky opening involving Kyle’s childhood).

            This film is nothing, however, without Bradley Cooper’s performance.  In recent years, Cooper has been an A-list star that has luckily been able to get some baity roles even if he hasn’t been that compelling in them.  This time it’s different.  You can clearly tell the dedication that Cooper brought to the role through just how much he disappears into the role.  His accent feels natural and his physical presence (not just the added muscle but the way in which he moves around throughout the entire film) is just as realistic.  While the supporting cast is short on memorable performances, Sienna Miller does bring some authenticity to a rather one-note role as Kyle’s wife.

            The one fault that this film ultimately has is that it just throws away many of the more interesting elements it was focusing on in the final twenty or so minutes in order to give an unnecessary canonization of Chris Kyle.  The complex portrayal of PTSD disappears completely, and what we are left with is an ending to a superhero movie rather than the gritty and thematically interesting ending that the rest of the film seemed to be leading to.


            That being said American Sniper is an impressive film that shows that Bradley Cooper is here to stay and that Clint Eastwood isn’t quite done yet.

8/10

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: 87th Academy Awards Nominations


THE GOOD
-This is one of the more unique Best Picture fields that we have had in a while.  Sure, the category definitely could have used a blockbuster (Gone Girl? Or even a long shot like Guardians of the Galaxy?), but it’s nice to see that we have two films that were known quantities by January (Boyhood and Whiplash), a box office success story from March (The Grand Budapest Hotel), a true cinematic achievement (Birdman) and the zeitgeist movie of the moment (Selma) to go along with the typical Oscar fare.

-Foxcatcher may have missed on a Best Picture nomination, but this quietly fantastic film did score a surprise nomination for director Bennett Miller and a much-deserved nomination for Steve Carell’s performance along with Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo), Original Screenplay and Makeup & Hairstyling nominations.

THE BAD
-An Editing nomination for Birdman and an Adapted Screenplay nomination for Gone Girl were considered safe bets.  Both somehow were missing, and that’s a shame because both displayed exemplary work.

-Jessica Chastain had a huge year with well-received performances in A Most Violent Year, Interstellar, Miss Julie and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby.  I have only seen Interstellar, but even in that one film she gave an Oscar nomination worthy performance.  She didn’t get a single nomination.

-Hoyte van Hoytema helped Interstellar to be one of the most gorgeous looking films in recent memory.  Oscar voters followed the ASC’s lead in not giving him any reward.

-Godzilla has story, acting and pacing issues, but it had easily the best sound design of the year and some very good visual effects work.  It didn’t get a single Oscar nomination.

THE UGLY
-This was a very good set of Oscar nominations on the whole, but not everything was awesome.  The LEGO Movie may have got an Original Song nomination for the catchy “Everything is Awesome”, but in the Animated Feature category, where it was considered the frontrunner, it was nowhere to be found.  Big Hero 6 and How to Train Your Dragon 2 are solid efforts, and the foreign films in this category tend to be good too.  However, The LEGO Movie is one of the most original animated films in recent memory, and plays really well on rewatch, which isn’t something like the unique film and former winner of the category, Rango, can say.  It doesn’t look good on the Oscar voters without this among the nominees.

-The documentary category continues to shortlist some really great films only to have voters not vote them into the final stage.  Excellent documentaries such as The Case Against 8, The Internet’s Own Boy, The Kill Team and Life Itself were nowhere to be found this morning.  Something needs to be changed in this category’s voting process.


In terms of predictions, I had a very great day.  I went 95 for 121 in all categories (78.5%, which is a new personal best surpassing my 72.1% total from the 85thAcademy Award Nominations) and 37 for 43 in the Big 8 categories (86%, which is 0.4% off from my personal best set last year).  I also got Best Supporting Actor and Best Production Design completely right.

Final 87th Academy Awards Nominations Predictions


BEST PICTURE
-American Sniper
-Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Boyhood
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Imitation Game
-Nightcrawler
-Selma
-The Theory of Everything
-Whiplash

BEST DIRECTOR
-Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Ava DuVernay, Selma
-Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Richard Linklater, Boyhood
-Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

BEST LEAD ACTOR
-Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
-Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
-Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
-Michael Keaton, Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

BEST LEAD 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 or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
-J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
-Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
-Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
-Rene Russo, Nightcrawler
-Emma Stone, Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
-American Sniper
-Gone Girl
-The Imitation Game
-The Theory of Everything
-Whiplash

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
-Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Boyhood
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Mr. Turner
-Nightcrawler

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
-Big Hero 6
-The Boxtrolls
-How to Train Your Dragon 2
-The LEGO Movie
-Song of the Sea

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
-Citizenfour
-Finding Vivian Maier
-Last Days in Vietnam
-Life Itself
-Virunga

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
-Force Majeure
-Ida
-Leviathan
-Timbuktu
-Wild Tales

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
-The Bigger Picture
-Coda
-Duet
-Feast
-Me and My Moulton

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
-Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
-Joanna
-Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace
-The Lion’s Mouth Opens
-White Earth

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
-Boogaloo and Graham
-Butter Lamp (La Lampe Au Beurre De Yak)
-My Father’s Truck
-The Phone Call
-SLR

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
-Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Imitation Game
-Mr. Turner
-Unbroken

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Immigrant
-Into the Woods
-Mr. Turner
-The Theory of Everything

BEST FILM EDITING
-American Sniper
-Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Boyhood
-The Imitation Game
-Whiplash

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Guardians of the Galaxy
-The Theory of Everything

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
-Gone Girl
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Imitation Game
-Interstellar
-The Theory of Everything

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
-“Big Eyes”, Big Eyes
-“Glory”, Selma
-“I’m Not Gonna Miss You”, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
-“Lost Stars”, Begin Again
-“Mercy Is”, Noah

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Imitation Game
-Interstellar
-Into the Woods
-Mr. Turner

BEST SOUND EDITING
-American Sniper
-Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Edge of Tomorrow
-Interstellar
-Unbroken

BEST SOUND MIXING
-American Sniper
-Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Guardians of the Galaxy
-Unbroken
-Whiplash

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
-Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
-Guardians of the Galaxy
-Interstellar
-Maleficent

-X-Men: Days of Future Past

Unbroken Review


            Louis Zamperini’s life story is one of the few “this is so amazing it’s hard to believe this is true” real life stories that filmmakers have not used up.  There have been documentaries and TV movies about Zamperini, but it is world famous actress Angelina Jolie that has delivered our first true cinematic depiction of Louis Zamperini.  While the film she has crafted in Unbroken isn’t as stunning or unique as Zamperini’s life, Jolie delivers a film that feels like a Hollywood epic of old.  It certainly isn’t a flawless film, but there is a majesty to it that is able to give Zamperini his due on film.

            The film picks up with Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) on a bombing mission in World War II.  It flashes back and forth between his earlier life and his trials during the war including his survival at sea and his stay at a series of Japanese concentration camps.  The World War II storyline is where this film excels as it appears that it is where Angelina Jolie and her crew of screenwriters (who include the Coen brothers, Richard LaGravenese and William Nicholson) have the most interest in.  This part of the film is gripping, intense and truly cinematic, and all of it is carried by Jack O’Connell in a monumental breakthrough performance.  You can’t really blame Jolie and company for allowing these segments to get a bit repetitive because they just work so well.

            The main problem with the film is its implementation of the flashbacks.  Fortunately, most of them take place early on in the film, but the film takes a while to get going because of this.  The boyhood flashbacks feel completely misplaced and completely uninteresting.  Meanwhile, the flashbacks to Zamperini’s time at the Olympics feel shortchanged.  They go by really quickly and we are never given much reason for why they were included in the particular storyline that this film used.


            Ultimately, Unbroken comes across as some of the better “Oscar-bait” to come out this year.  The film doesn’t break any new ground, but Jolie’s direction and O’Connell’s performance make it seem like they are really trying to honor Zamperini, which gives the film a sense of integrity.  It is also nice to see that the film does take some risks, especially in the brutality that is put on display.  Miyavi does a great job of bringing this to the film as a Japanese concentration camp commander.  So Unbroken is a film that is better than its faults.

7.5/10

The Imitation Game Review


            Benedict Cumberbatch has emerged as one of the biggest talents in recent years.  Yet oddly he hasn’t had many major starring vehicles.  Cumberbatch has proven his worth in many supporting roles.  Meanwhile, Sherlock contains his breakthrough performance and has offered him a perfect vehicle for his talents, but it is not a motion picture and has more of an Internet following then a true mainstream following.  His only other starring vehicle has been the little seen The Fifth Estate.  That is until now.  The Imitation Game is the film that finally puts Cumberbatch in the A-list.  Like Sherlock, the film gives him an eccentric role that allows him to display his full potential while never making it seem like he is hamming it up.  Just his performance alone makes The Imitation Game interesting.  Yet The Imitation Game still feels like a slightly missed opportunity.  The film is a barebones approach to a rather fascinating subject, and it is done in such a straightforward way that it is constantly fighting to stay above a movie-of-the-week level.

            The Imitation Game follows mathematician Alan Turing as he tries to crack the Nazi Navy’s enigma code with much resistance from the military establishment in Great Britain.  This plotline is bookended by another plotline set later in Alan Turing’s life when the local police investigate a break in at his house.  The format is actually an interesting direction from director Morten Tyldum and screenwriter Graham Moore as it sets up a mystery to spice up the story.  Unfortunately, Tyldum and Moore handle it in such a fashion that the film’s answers appear right on its sleeve.  What could have been an interesting mystery is anything but, and it feels rather amateurish.  It even takes up time from another storyline involving Turing’s childhood relationship with a fellow student that actually works well even without Cumberbatch’s presence.

            The main storyline also suffers from being another standard approach to a biopic as it just goes from major point in Turing’s life to the next with too much saying instead of showing why these accomplishments are so important.  Nor does it give us much insight into Turing.


            The Imitation Game is ultimately just another solid addition to the Oscar bait genre.  It is certainly entertaining and the great cast (Mark Strong is probably the highlight of the supporting cast in an against type role as an MI6 agent) really beefs up the material, but there are clearly a lot of missed opportunities to turn this into something really special.

7/10

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