2015 OSCARS: My Final Prediction Of The Winners In Top 8 Categories

Below are my predictions for the Top 8 categories for the 87th annual Academy Awards. Last year I correctly predicted 6 of the Top 8 categories. Below I put in red the movie or person I want to win, and in blue the person I think actually will win.

Best Picture

• American Sniper
• Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Selma
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash
• Foxcatcher

SHOULD WIN: The Imitation Game

WILL WIN: Birdman

Best Director

• Bennet Miller, Foxcatcher
• Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Theory of Everything
• Richard Linklater, Boyhood
• Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel 
• Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

SHOULD WIN: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

WILL WIN: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman

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

SHOULD WIN: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

WILL WIN: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Best Actor

• Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
• Benedict Cumberbatch,  The Imitation Game
• Michael Keaton, Birdman
• Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
• Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

SHOULD WIN: Benedict Cumberbatch,  The Imitation Game

WILL WIN: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Supporting Actress

• Emma Stone, Birdman
• Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
• Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
• Meryl Streep, Into The Woods
• Laura Dern, Wild

SHOULD WIN: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

WILL WIN: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor

• Ethan Hawke, Boyhood 
• Edward Norton, Birdman
• Mark Ruffalo,  Foxcatcher
• J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
• Robert Duvall, The Judge

SHOULD WIN: Edward Norton, Birdman

WILL WIN: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Original Screenplay

• Birdman 
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Nightcrawler
• Foxcatcher

SHOULD WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel

WILL WIN: Birdman

Best Adapted Screenplay

• American Sniper
• The Imitation Game
• Inherent Vice
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

SHOULD WIN: The Imitation Game

WILL WIN: Whiplash

My Top 10 Films (Released In 2014)

This post contains the list of the Top 10 films that I saw in 2014. The year before my favorite film was  12 Years A Slave. This year it was very hard to decide between the very best film of the year, with three contenders essentially tied with each other but each had a very powerful impact on me in their own way.

Anyway, here is my Top 10 list of the films released in 2014 that I saw last year. This year I saw roughly 17 films in the movie theaters and then another half dozen or so through other channels (at home on television via premium cable or iTunes) and on planes.

10. Blackbird. This is the latest film by Black gay wunderkind Patrik-Ian Polk (Punks, Noah's Arc). It stars Mo'Nique in her first film role after winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Precious and is a film adaptation of the classic book by the same name about a young Black boy coming of age in the South. Unfortunately, Blackbird still has not found a distributor but I was able to see the film twice in 2014, once at the Pan African Film Festival, and then several weeks later at Outfest Fusion. The main strength of this film is its authentic portrayal of a gay teenager's life and love, and even though the actual twists of the story are melodramatic, it felt good to see representations of Black gay men like myself on screen. If you get a chance to see Blackbird, grab it!

9. Snowpiercer. I had heard of Snowpiercer but it just looked like another bat-sh*t crazy Tilda Swinton movie. My interest was piqued when I discovered that the always fun to watch Chris Evans (Captain America) was also in it. Sadly, Evans has an extensive beard and shows almost no skin in the film but delivers an effective performance that grounds the film, even though, by any measure, Snowpiercer is a pretty wild ride of a film. It is reminiscent of other wild, visually arresting classics like Brazil, The Fifth Element and The Matrix. Just like those movies, the story doesn't make much sense but somehow you can not stop watching it. Definitely a movie I will remember years from now, probably more so than some of the higher ranked films on this list.

8. Big Hero 6. This was the best animated film that I saw in the theaters this year. (The LEGO Movie I saw on AppleTV soon after it left the theaters and despite what the Oscar voters say, it is better than Big Hero 6.) Like Edge of Tomorrow, Big Hero 6 is based on content from another source, this time a popular Marvel comic of the same name. The best thing about Big Hero 6 is the inflatable robot named Baymax, although the main character of Hiro Hamada (voiced by Ryan Potter) is a close second. I guess one of the main reasons why I liked Big Hero 6 is that it reminds me somewhat of one of my favorite movies, The Incredibles.

7. Edge of Tomorrow. If you had told me when I wrote last year's Top 10 list that a Tom Cruise science fiction flick would be one of my favorite movies of the year I would not have believed you. But Edge of Tomorrow also stars Emily Blunt in a big screen adaptation of a Japanese graphic novel with a fiendishly clever script, directed by a well-respected action director (Doug Liman, known for his work on the Bourne series starring Matt Damon). Since the film was so badly marketed I went it to the theater with low expectations, which were happily easily exceeded.

6.  X-Men: Days of Future Past. This latest entry into the X-Men franchise was directed by animating force behind the reboot: Bryan Singer, which is a good thing. The key feature of this movie is that it featured Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart from the first set of X-Men films as well as Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy playing the same characters (Magneto and Professor Xavier, respectively). It's really fun to have both sets of actors in the film, even though they basically have no scenes together (since they are playing the same characters in different eras). Another strength of this film was the plot which, although it depended on a somewhat cheesy time travel device allowed the film to be mostly set in the early 1970s, which was an inspired choice. 

5. The LEGO Movie / Guardians of the Galaxy. At the beginning of the year I guess I might have been one of the many people who did not know the name of the actor who plays the young, tall, goofy white dude on Parks & Recreation but there are very few people who don't know who Chriss Pratt is now after he appeared in not one but two of the biggest box-office hits of the year. The LEGO Movie sounded like it would be a painfully bad attempt to leverage a well-known nostalgic brand (Battleship, anyone?) but instead was a surprisingly clever romp strengthened by the voice talents of Pratt and Morgan Freeman, the silly but hyper-infectious theme song "Everything is awesome!" and a snarkily satirical script. The Lego Movie was fun and a huge hit but since Pratt does not physically appear in the film it took the summer blockbuster
Guardians of the Galaxy to really send Pratt's profile into the stratosphere. Guardians of the Galaxy  can not be considered a surprise sleeper hit like The Lego Movie since it is one of the Marvel suite of comic-book movies but even in that context, Guardians of the Galaxy is a surprisingly effective entertainment. And Pratt is front and central to the movie's runaway success, in all his attractive goofiness.

4. Gone Girl. Regardless of what Oscar voters think, in my opinion David Fincher's representation of Gillian Flynn's blockbuster mystery novel was one of the best directed  and most thrilling movies I saw in 2014. Even though I read and quite enjoyed the book, I was very impressed with how much of the book was able to be included in the film. There are very strong performances by a bevy of well-cast actors, starting with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike as the (un)happily married couple Nick and Amy Dunne at the center of the film, and also including Carrie Coon as the suspicious detective who investigates Amy's disappearance,  Neil Patrick Harris as Amy's obsessive childhood crush and even Tyler Perry as Nick's buffoonish but media savvy defense attorney. Fincher's film also includes a wickedly dark sense of humor that adds oomph to the impression it leaves on the psyche.

3. The Imitation Game.  This film was another one of my most anticipated films of  2014 that also lived up to my expectations. Additionally, it also provided a fair number of surprises by giving information about the story of Alan Turing's life and work that I was unaware of even though I was generally familiar with the broad outlines of his heroic contributions to society and the tragedy of his personal biography. In fact one of the key strengths of The Imitation Game is its ability to present a British period piece in a way that is both compelling and suspenseful, even though we know how the story ends. Another major strength are the performances by Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley as well as the structure of the screenplay adapted from Andrew Hodges classic biography.

2.  The Grand Budapest Hotel.  This is the only film that I saw multiple times throughout the year and was also one of my most unexpected pleasures at the cinema all year long. I have not been a huge fan of Wes Anderson's work in the past (I still have not seen Moonrise Kingdom) but was convinced by friends to see this one and found it absolutely delightful. The screenplay is so clever, and the film is anchored by the hysterical and self-possessed performance of Ralph Fiennes  as M. Gustave, the concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel as well as an impressive debut by Tony Revolori as the Lobby Boy. Additionally, the huge supporting cast (Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, F. Murray Abraham, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Edward Norton) and surprising cameos (Bob Balaban, Jude Law, Tom Wilkinson, Jeff Goldblum, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Fisher Stevens) present an inexhaustible supply of smiles and giggles that cement this film as one of the most enjoyable films of the year.

1. Interstellar. When I started thinking about this list I did not place Christopher Nolan's film at the number one spot, although I was pretty sure it would be somewhere in my Top 5. However when I went back and looked at my written reviews I saw that I had basically felt that The Imitation Game, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Interstellar were all essentially tied as my favorite films of the year. Then as I reflected more upon the three I realized that Interstellar was not only my most anticipated film of the year it was also the film that had the strongest emotional impact on me after viewing. It was not a perfect film (some of the dialogue is painfully bad) by any means but there's no question that it was the film which had the most memorable visuals of anything I saw in the theaters all year long. The suspenseful plot and the always rock-solid performances by Sir Michael Caine, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Matthew McConnaughey are other impressive strengths. I still do not think it was as compelling conceptually as Nolan's Inception (2010), which possesses one of my all-time favorite soundtracks and is a film that I have seen and enjoyed multiple times.

 There ya go. There are still some very well-regarded 2014 movies which I have yet to see, such as Boyhood, The Theory of Everything, Selma and Foxcatcher.

Some Honorable Mentions that could be on this list are Divergent (mostly for Theo James' hotness), and Birdman (although overall I think it is somewhat self-indulgent and a bit too-"inside Hollywood" for me).

Looking forward to seeing more movies in 2015!

2015 OSCARS: Actual Nominations Announced

Below are the actual nominations for the 87th annual Academy Awards. You can compare the actual nominations to my predicted nominations from yesterday.

American Sniper
Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler

Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash
Foxcatcher

7 correct predictions, 3 wrong.

Best Director

• Clint Eastwood, American Sniper
• Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
• Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
• Richard Linklater, Boyhood
• Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Ana Duvernay, Selma
• Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

3 of 5 predictions correct.

Best Actress

• Amy Adams, Big Eyes
• Marion Cotillard, Two Days One Night
• Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
• Julianne Moore, Still Alice
• Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl 
• Reese Witherspoon, Wild

4 of 5 predictions correct. I had actually gone back and forth between Cotillard and Adams for the last slot and just picked the wrong one at the last moment.

Best Actor

• Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
• Benedict Cumberbatch,  The Imitation Game
• Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Michael Keaton, Birdman
• Mathew Oyelowo, Selma 
• Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
• Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

3 of 5 predictions correct. I had intended to include Redmayne in the Selma slot.

Best Supporting Actress

• Emma Stone, Birdman
• Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
• Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
• Meryl Streep, Into The Woods
• Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer
• Laura Dern, Wild

4 of 5 predictions correct. I had really hoped that the academy would recognize Swinton's amazing work in Snowpiercer.

Best Supporting Actor

• Ethan Hawke, Boyhood 
• Alfred Molina, Love is Strange 
• Edward Norton, Birdman
• Mark Ruffalo,  Foxcatcher
• J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
• Robert Duvall, The Judge

4 of 5 predictions correct. I underestimated the Academy's love for Duvall.

Best Original Screenplay

• Birdman 
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The LEGO Movie
• Nightcrawler
• Foxcatcher

4 of 5 predictions correct. I had really thought that the Academy would recognize the surprising brilliance of The LEGO Movie.

Best Adapted Screenplay

• American Sniper
• Gone Girl
• The Imitation Game
• Inherent Vice
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

4 of 5 predictions correct. I was convinced that The Academy would recognize the brilliance of Gillian Flynn's adaptation of her own book Gone Girl but I completely underestimated the mutual antipathy between David Fincher and Oscar voters.

Overall I predicted 26 of 35 correct (74%) of the top 7 categories. If you consider the that I got 7 of the 8 Best Picture nominations correct then my percentage goes up to 76.7%.

Total Nominations

1. Birdman (10) Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel (9)
2. Boyhood (9) The Imitation Game (8)
3. The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything (7) The Theory of Everything, Boyhood, American Sniper (6)
4. Selma,  Gone Girl, Interstellar, American Sniper, The Grand Budapest Hotel (5) Interstellar, Foxcatcher (5)

2015 OSCARS: My Predictions For The Nominations

Here are my predictions for the nominations in the Top 8 categories in the 87th Academy Awards that will be announced publicly at 5am PDT on Thursday January 15.

American Sniper
Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler

Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Best Director

• Clint Eastwood, American Sniper
• Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
• Richard Linklater, Boyhood
• Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Ana Duvernay, Selma

Best Actress

• Amy Adams, Big Eyes
• Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
• Julianne Moore, Still Alice
• Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl 
• Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Actor

• Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
• Benedict Cumberbatch,  The Imitation Game
• Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Michael Keaton, Birdman
• Mathew Oyelowo, Selma 

Best Supporting Actress

• Emma Stone, Birdman
• Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
• Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
• Meryl Streep, Into The Woods
• Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer

Best Supporting Actor

• Ethan Hawke, Boyhood 
• Alfred Molina, Love is Strange 
• Edward Norton, Birdman
• Mark Ruffalo,  Foxcatcher
• J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Original Screenplay

• Birdman 
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The LEGO Movie
• Nightcrawler

Best Adapted Screenplay

• American Sniper
• Gone Girl
• The Imitation Game
• Inherent Vice
• The Theory of Everything

Total Nominations

1. Birdman (10)
2. Boyhood (9)
3. The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything (7)
4. Selma,  Gone Girl, Interstellar, American Sniper, The Grand Budapest Hotel (5)

FILM REVIEW: The Imitation Game

The Imitation Game is the cinematic adaptation of Andrew Hodges' Alan Turing: The Enigma,            a biography of the British mathematical prodigy who was primarily responsible for breaking the supposedly unbreakable Enigma code used by the Germans in World War II, thus shortening the war and saving millions of lives. Turing was also a gay man and he was persecuted by his government after the war when his sexual orientation became known to the authorities, forced to undergo hormonal treatment and eventually he died (presumably by his own hand, intentionally) at the tender age of 41. Turing is played in the film by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness, Sherlock, August: Osage County). Cumberbatch's main co-star in the film is Keira Knightley.

The film is divided into three time lines: one thread takes place between the Great Wars when Alan Turing is attending a private boys' boarding school where the shy, awkward Alan is tormented by most of the boys but feels an intense bond with another boy named Christopher. Another thread (the main one) takes place at the height of World War II when Britain is slowly being starved to death by the Axis forces' blockade and survival will only occur if some way can be found to crack the German's Enigma code. The third thread takes place in the early 1950's during the early Cold War era when homosexuality was not only considered a taboo in British society but also treated by authorities as a dangerous perversion which should be criminalized.

The screenplay deftly cuts between the three threads to maximize the dramatic effect of each. The vast majority of screen time is spent on the World War II events, which are absolutely enthralling because even though we know The Good Guys win the war, we don't know the details of how they won.

This thread is also the best part of the film because it involves the most interaction between the heavy-hitting actors in the film: Cumberbatch and Knightley (of course) and Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), Matthew Goode (The Good Wide) and Mark Strong (Zero Dark Thirty). However, Cumberbatch is clearly the lead actor and is almost every scene of the film (except the boarding school scenes, of course).

This is a very good thing, because Cumberbatch is mesmerizing to watch, depicting Turing as a mathematical genius who is clearly somewhere on the Asperger spectrum with his difficulty in connecting with other humans, even other people who are also extremely intelligent and accomplished puzzle solvers. Even though Turing is a genius, he can't break the Enigma code by himself, and the story of how the team at Bletchley Park was able to achieve the impossible by working together is extremely compelling.

The fact that after the war everyone who was involved in the Bletchley Park project was sworn to secrecy and how Turing was mistreated by his government because of society's bigoted beliefs about his sexuality are heartbreaking and elevate The Imitation Game far above mere entertainment.

Title: The Imitation Game.
Director: Morten Tyldum.
Running Time: 1 hour, 54 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some sexual references, mature thematic material and historical smoking.
Release Date: December 25, 2014.
Viewing Date: December 26, 2014.

Writing: A.
Acting: A+.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: A+.

Overall Grade: A (4.083/4.0).

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Golden Globe Nominations Announced

The Golden Globe nominations were announced yesterday as Hollywood's award season is now in full swing on the inexorable march towards the Academy Awards.

Here are the important categories:

MoviesBest motion picture -- drama"Boyhood" "Foxcatcher" "The Imitation Game" "Selma" "The Theory of Everything"
Best motion picture -- musical or comedy"Birdman" "The Grand Budapest Hotel" "Into the Woods" "Pride" "St. Vincent"
Best directorWes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" Ava DuVernay, "Selma" David Fincher, "Gone Girl" Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Birdman" Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"
Best screenplayWes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel" Gillian Flynn, "Gone Girl" Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Birdman" Richard Linklater, "Boyhood" Graham Moore, "The Imitation Game"
TVBest TV series -- drama"The Affair" "Downton Abbey" "Game of Thrones" "The Good Wife" "House of Cards"
Best TV series -- comedy"Girls" "Jane the Virgin""Orange is the New Black" "Silicon Valley" "Transparent"

Some of the notable nominations are Ava Duvernay for directing "Selma," becoming the first Black woman to be nominated for a Directing Golden Globe. People are suggesting that "Selma" may get several Oscar nominations as well. Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" was snubbed, garnering a single nomination for it's score. Both of the main actors in the reboot of BBC's "Sherlock" were nominated, for different things. Martin Freeman was nominated for his work in the miniseries "Fargo" (which I have been slowly catching up with online and it appears to be really really good) while Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for his role as Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game."

So far of the Best Picture nominees I have only seen "Birdman" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" but I do intend to see everything in the Drama category, especially "Foxcatcher" and "Boyhood."

In the television categories I'm constantly surprised by the snubs that "The Walking Dead" (which is the highest rated drama series on television) gets from the awards. I'm glad to see that someone is recognizing the consistent excellence of "The Good Wife" and of course "Game of Thrones" is probably my favorite show.

It's not clear that the Golden Globes can have that much of an impact on the results of the Oscars (the Screen Actors Guild awards are more closely correlated since the actors' branch is the largest branch of the Academy).

WATCH: Trailer for Alan Turing Drama The Imitation Game Starring Benedict Cumberbatch

There's finally going to be a big Hollywood movie about gay icon Alan Turing released this year. It's called The Imitation Game and it stars Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC's Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness). The trailer is out now. The film will be released November 21, 2014.

My Top 10 Best Films Seen in 2013

This post contains the list of my Top 10 films that I saw in 2013. Last year my favorite film was A Separation. This year it was very hard to decide between the very best film of the year, with the two contenders being very different from each other but each very powerful in their own way.

Anyway, here is my Top 10 list of best films seen in 2013

1. 12 Years A Slave. This was the best film I saw all year. Although it is a difficult movie to sit through, and despite the fact it is a cinematic rendering of a terrifying and terrible historical period, 12 Years A Slave has a lot to say to contemporary audiences. Unlike last year's Lincoln, which was another one of Steven Spielberg's forays into historicized verisimilitude in pursuit of racial reconciliation, I never felt like I was completing a dutiful chore by experiencing Steve McQueen's version of Solomon Northrup's stranger-than-fiction life story. A free black man who gets kidnapped and manages to endure and then escape any Black person's worst nightmare is the source material for a work that you would think would mostly resonate with predominantly black audiences, but from the rapturous critical responses and significant Academy Award recognition (Nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress). I hope that it wins as many awards as it can but regardless of what happens on Sunday March 2nd, the value of 12 Years A Slave is not measured by the number of Oscars it wins but by the number of people who are impacted by the film now and in the future.
2. Gravity. Although I did not end up ranking Gravity as the best film of the year I would not be upset if the Academy disagrees with me and recognizes it for  the technological tour de force that it is. Structured around a gripping performance by Sandra Bullock, the central mission of the film is director Alfonso Cuaron's desire to make the experience of watching the film to be a truly immersive experience. This is an especially effective and ambitious goal because the film is set in space and only the voices of four individual actors (and live faces of two) are ever seen on screen. I saw the film in 3-D but it is my understanding that even watching the film in other formats the strength of the film to suck you in and make you believe that you are also in space along with Bullock as her character encounters an unfortunate sequence of harrowing events which literally set my pulse racing.
3. Prisoners. The most suspenseful moments I spent in the theater in 2013 were watching this film from Denis Villeneuve, who made my favorite film of 2011, Incendies. The cast is incredible, with memorable performances by Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Viola Davis, Terence Howard and Paul Dano. The story is about the the kidnapping of two little girls (Jackman and Bello, and Howard and Davis play the parents) investigated by police detective Gyllenhaal with Dano as a strange guy who is the prime suspect in the kids' disappearance. Prisoners explores how far decent "regular" folks will go when faced with extraordinary circumstances as Jackman's character begins to unravel under the pressure of the diminishing chances of survival of his beloved daughter as time elapses and the desire to do something, even the unthinkable, in order to see his child alive again.
4. American Hustle / Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Even though these two movies were released in two consecutive years they are linked together in my mind because they are made by the same director (David O. Russell) and feature some of the most noteworthy performances stars of both years. In fact, both movies star some of the same people: Jennifer Lawrence (who won her Best Actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook and who is nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her work in American Hustle) and Bradley Cooper (who was nominated for Best Actor for Silver Linings Playbook and for Best Supporting Actor for American Hustle). Russell has a richly deserved reputation as an actor's director, since in his last two movies actors received Oscar nominations in all four of the acting categories. Of the two films, I think that American Hustle is superior, and this is primarily due to the presence of Christian Bale and Amy Adams as well as a more compelling storyline, which is a comedic depiction of the infamous AbScam scandal of the 1970s. The film is both richly entertaining and quite suspenseful, as Bale and Adams inhabit their characters with such vivacity that the audience becomes quite invested in what happens to them,
5. Zero Dark Thirty (2012). This was Kathryn Bigelow's follow-up film after her Oscar-winning turn in The Hurt Locker about the search for Osama bin Laden which made Jessica Chastain an above-the-line movie star. This would have been near the top of my list of best films for 2012 but I didn't see the film until January. It's quite extraordinary that Bigelow is able to make such a suspenseful, engaging film about a story in which we already know the ending. 
6. Dallas Buyers Club. This film was a pleasant surprise, centered around two astonishing, transformative performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.  The powerful story is a clear-eyed depiction of some of the darkest days of the AIDS crisis when people had to be creative to get access to potential life-saving drugs against the wishes of a heartless government bureaucracy. Jennifer Garner (Mrs. Ben Affleck) has a key role as a doctor who abandons the establishment for the good of her patients. Both Leto and McConaughey give revelatory performances and one and perhaps two of them may receive Oscars for their work.
7. Fruitvale Station. This film is a heartbreaking depiction of the last few days of the life of Oscar Grant, who was fatally shot in the  back by a BART officer while he was face down in the early hours of 2009. Grant is portrayed powerfully by Michael B. Jordan and the film is effective at humanizing a story that could have easily become an unwatchable hagiography but instead  is as compelling and horrifying as a slow-motion car crash.
8. Star Trek Into Darkness. My favorite action film of the year was this entry into the Star Trek franchise directed by J.J. Abrams and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain. There's an exciting twist to this movie which fans of the earlier Star Trek films willl greatly enjoy. There's great chemistry between Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine as Kirk and Scott and Simon Pegg basically steals the movie as Scotty.
9. Her. This film features one of the most creative screenplays of recent memory, another Spike Jonze joint. The story is about  a man played by Joaquin Phoenix who falls in love with an operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson in a near-future time where this event is not remarkable. In addition to the very original screenplay, the production design and vision of Los Angeles are also remarkable. 
10. Lee Daniels' The Butler. Although some people dismissed this film as "the Black Forrest Gump" due to the travelogue version of history it depicts of great moments of the civil rights era, it features compelling performances from Oprah and Forrest Whitaker. Additionally, there are amazing cameos from  a dizzying array of actors portraying real historical figures.

2013 was an even better year for movies than 2012. I hope that 2014 turns out to be just as good!

FILM REVIEW: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The Other Half and I kicked off our annual end-of-year moviegoing season with Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. This is the second film in the trilogy of movies which are a film adaptation of The Hobbit, the young-adult book that is a prequel to the Lord of the Rings. Last year we saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which generally was viewed by most as unnecessarily long. Many fans of the books and the movies are scandalized that Jackson is turning one (frankly, not very long) book into three relatively long movies.

We saw The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at the Arclight Cinemas in Pasadena, not in 3-D or HFR but just regular 2-D.

The interesting difference between The Hobbit movies and the Lord of the Rings movies is that the former is based around dwarves as the main characters. This is useful because hobbits and dwarves are supposed to be about the same (short) height and so there are much fewer odd height juxtapositions in these films. However, there are some characters from the first series of films that also appear in the second: Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) and, Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), VERY briefly.

The key character in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is of course, Smaug, the dragon. Amusingly, Smaug is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch (of Sherlock and Star Trek Into Darkness fame) while Martin Freeman (who plays Watson to Cumberbatch's Sherlock) plays Bilbo Baggins, the sole hobbit member of the dwarf expedition to reclaim their treasure stolen by Smaug.

The second edition in the The Hobbit trilogy is significantly better than the first. The action is sharper and the story more focused. Another positive addition to the film is the character of Tauriel played by Evangeline Lilly, a fierce elf that we meet in Mirkwood, the dark, enchanted forest our heroes have to get through in order to reach the Lonely Mountain.

Once they do finally get to the Mountain and encounter Smaug the action does tend to drag on a little and then the film suddenly ends without the quest having been resolved. For that, we will have to wait until next year's The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

Title: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
Director: Peter Jackson.
Running Time: 2 hours, 41 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images.
Release Date: December 13, 2013.
Viewing Date: December 20, 2013.

Writing: A.
Acting: A.
Visuals: A+.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: A (4.0/4.0).

FILM REVIEW: 12 Years A Slave

The film 12 Years A Slave has been getting a lot of attention from critics and moviegoers, primarily for its incredibly realistic depiction of slavery, and the fact that it is based on a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story of Solomon Northup. Northup was a free Black man from New York who in 1841was kidnapped and transported to the South against his will, somehow survived 12 years as a slave and then published a book detailing what happened to him. Black British filmmaker Steve McQueen discovered the incredible story and decided to make his 3rd feature film an adaptation of Northup's book into a movie starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup and sports a cast with celebrated white actors Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano and Benedict Cumberbatch. Another key character in the book is a female slave named Patsey played by Lupita Nyongy'o.

The Other Half and I were able to see 12 Years A Slave at our new favorite theater (Arclight Cinemas in Pasadena) recently. We both agreed with the enthusiastic reactions from the people at rottentomatoes.com (96% critics, 93% audience) and disagree with critics who call the film extremely difficult to watch. There are some scenes which are extremely intense but the film is very well paced and the screenplay cleverly splits the story in such a way that it begins with Northup in bondage in Louisiana but then quickly shifts to show his life as a prosperous Negro gentleman with a wife and two young kids.

From the title of the film we know that Northup survives, but since we don't know what indignities and deprivations he suffers in slavery there is still significant suspense in the audience as we watch the film. And the fate of every other Black person in the film is subject to the whim (no matter how deranged, prejudiced or arbitrary) of any White person in the film.

Additionally, as a Black person, the sonic assault of the use of the n-word is somewhat disturbing, especially coming out of the mouths of so many recognizable (and well-liked) actors like Paul Giamatti, Cumberbatch, Dano and Fassbender.

Despite that aspect of the film, the overall experience of sitting in a theater and watching a visual representation of what slavery was actually like unspool before you for roughly two hours is incredibly rewarding and educational simultaneously. I hesitate to use the word obligatory, but for people who are genuinely interested in issues that involve race, going to see 12 Years A Slave is an edifying and virtuous act, and that is meant as a compliment to the film and the filmmakers.

Title: 12 Years A Slave.
Director: Steve McQueen.
Running Time: 2 hours, 13 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for violence/cruelty, some nudity and brief sexuality.
Release Date: October 18, 2013.
Viewing Date: November 16, 2013.

Writing: A.
Acting: A.
Visuals: A+.
Impact: A+.

Overall Grade: A+/A (4.16/4.0).

FILM REVIEW: Star Trek Into Darkness

I finally saw the latest Star Trek movie when I got back from my Caribbean vacation at my favorite theater in Washington (the AMC Courthouse Plaza 8) and then saw it again with the Other Half back home in Los Angeles at the movie theater closest to our house (Edwards Alhambra Renaissance 14).

Star Trek Into Darkness is a sequel to 2009's Star Trek directed by J.J. Abrams which attempted to re-boot the Star Trek movie franchise, mostly successfully. However, a key weak point in that movie was the villain, played by Eric Bana, and the script. The strongest aspect of the reboot was the casting of all the legendary characters such as Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Bones (Karl Urban), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Sulu (John Cho) and Chekhov (Anton Yelchin).

So, this second film in the new Star Trek movie franchise has a good base on which to start from and uses it to excellent effect. One of the brilliant aspects of the film is the casting of the villain, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. He is introduced to us as John Harrison but he will be much better known by true Star Trek fans by another name (which I won't mention here because it is the key spoiler to the film's plot). In fact, the story is one of the best parts of this film, even if it was apparently constructed by the team of Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (the creative team behind Fringe) & Damon Lindelof (the longtime showrunner behind Lost and one of the writers of last year's Prometheus).

Without talking about the plot, I can review other aspects of the film which highlight why it is so enjoyable. As a result of events that happened in the 2009 film, this version of Star Trek is in a very different time line from the Star Trek universe that we have been accustomed to from the multiple television series and subsequent films. In this parallel universe, there are several important differences, such as 1) Planet Vulcan (Spock's home world) has been destroyed and 2) Spock and Uhura are in an actual relationship between Kirk and Spock, and 3) There is still a cold war between humans and Klingons.

Essentially the film is a sci-fi action film built around a buddy flick between Spock and Kirk. Quinto and Pine have a good chemistry between them and there is non-stop action which will sate any summer blockbuster junkie. Combined with a clever plot and what you have is a very enjoyable time at the movies!

Title: Star Trek Into Darkness.
Director: J.J. Abrams.
Running Time: 2 hours, 9 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence.
Release Date: May 17, 2013.
Viewing Date: June 5, 2013 and June 15, 2013.

Writing: A.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A.
Impact: A.

Overall Grade: A/A- (3.917/4.0).

WATCH: Trailer for Next Star Trek Movie

The third trailer for the new Star Trek movie directed by JJ Abrams indicates that Star Trek Into Darkness will be one of the most anticipated movies of the year. Abrams did a good reboot of the Star Trek franchise with his 2009 film (see my A- review) but the plot was a mess and Eric Bana was somewhat disappointing as the villain. Chris Pine (Kirk), openly gay Zachary Quinto (Spock) and Zoe Saldana (Uhuru) were well-cast and quite good, asare John Cho as Sulu and Simon Pegg as Scotty.

Hopefully in his second at bat, Abrams will be able to use his cast in the service of a good story and exciting entertainment. Hot British actor Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) joins the cast as the villain.

Check out the trailer!