2015 Academy Award Nominees is a Complete Joke for the So-Called “Best Films”
Something Is Rotten In Hollywood!
I just finished watching most of the films that were sent to me by the Academy. I was extremely impressed by a few of the smaller films about which I had previously blogged. They include the exceedingly brilliant, “The Danish
Girl”—
Amazing writing, photography, acting, directing and producing. A fifteen year development jewel. Next, I lauded several highly dramatic, well-produced films:
“The Big Short”
“Spotlight”
“Legend”
“Concussion”
A special blog was posted about that incredibly daring, self-critical script/movie—“Trumbo”—a must see for all Americans---starring two outstanding stars: Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren. This movie was both enlightening and extremely entertaining with outstanding performances across the board. Unfortunately, Hollywood is trying to hide its past; or, something else is going on—no mention whatsoever of this great film.
Another film that I thought was worthy of mention but I did not have the time to write about was “Creed”-starring Michael B. Jordan, an extremely talented young actor; as well as, the all-time favorite, Sylvester Stallone. Special mention has to go to Ryan Coogler, the young director/writer who did an outstanding job of creating some very exciting scenes. This film brings back both the pathos and vitality of the original “Rocky” franchise, first created some 40 years ago.
I did not write about the films that I thought should never be considered for an academy award; let alone a film that should have never been made in the first place [real chutzpah on my part!]. I held back from writing my list of “stinkers” until I saw the chaotic Golden Globes Awards which was often an unfortunate presage of the flops that would be considered as best films for 2015. Here is my list of bad movies that somehow won Globes. Avoid paying to watch the following movies, save them for a real off night if nothing else is available:
“The Revenant”—the fact that the title was so esoteric gave me a hint that at best, this film by the non-talented Alejandro G Inarritu; whose former film, “Birdman,” spoke volumes about inanity in films that lack drama, cohesion or raison d’etre. This time around Alejandro was true to his genetic coding for pretentious social messages which should be relegated to half-hour documentaries. This time around, the Mexican director engaged the talents of one very talented producer, Arnon Milchan [an Israeli gunrunner with 130 films credited to his name]. At the same time, two of the most talented actors, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy [“Legend”] were the leading stars in this ersatz National Geographic film of a bear tearing a man apart. Other than a very long boring chase scene through the woods, nothing compels this film to be anything other than mediocre—at best.
“Carol”—a tepid, boring movie about a 1950’s Lesbian love affair. An outdated film that spends most of its time on the road going from one run-down motel to another one. Harvey Weinstein could and should do a lot better.
“The Martian” starring the very talented Matt Damon and directed/ produced by the formidable Ridley Scott is a dud! This film was not even worthy of being made. It’s basically a monologue interspersed with some unimpressive scenes of a planet. The film is bereft of drama, action, tension. So if you want to see Damon talking to himself for an hour or more; and you have nothing better to do than watch this film and go to sleep five minutes after it starts.
“Joy” another paean to the blessed unholy relationship among the neurotic writer/director David O. Russell and the two talented actors, the underpaid Jennifer Lawrence [ a mere $53 million] and Bradley Cooper. If anyone wants to learn how to sell a mop on the Home Shopping Network [HSN], please see this discombobulated film which should never have been made.
“Bridge Of Spies”—A 1950 spy film produced/directed by Steven Spielberg and written by the two moribund, overrated clones—Ethan Coen and Joel Coen made a fictional account of a one of the most boring episodes in the history of spydom –the Russian’s destruction of the U2 spy plane. This movie sounds highly contrived and has the deadly beats of dialogue that only two brothers completely bereft of any skills; other than to write about their boring solipsistic world.
“Room”—despite solid performances from Brie Larson and child actor Jacob Tremblay, the film lacks drama, touted for reasons beyond my limited comprehension. It’s as bad as it is claustrophobic.
“Brooklyn”—cute, non-eventful film about an era in Ireland that was long forgotten because it was and is not very important.
“Steve Jobs” –written by Aaron Sporkin, the talented play wright who should have remained writing long, tedious dialogues that belong in an Off-Broadway play. This is boring film that explores nothing more than the constant harangues of the talented actor, Michael Fassbender shouting to the equally gifted actress, Kate Winslet. As for the British director, Danny Boyle, he has a clear inability to dramatize the life of a real SOB as he goes from one Silicon Valley company to another one.
That’s my round up of the films that I suggest that you watch on your DVD or NETFLIX and the ones to save until you are desperate. It will be interesting to see how far afield I am from my colleagues in the film industry, who presumably should know better than I. Academy Awards Ceremony is on February 28.
Well my brief and unimportant career with American intelligence was supposedly about psychological "warfare" and reading what's going on in a society by examining it's dominant media.
ReplyDeleteSo here it goes...
American society is in serious crisis on many levels. Most Americans are beyond cynical, they are apathetic and have given up altogether. Those not continuing to live in hopeless generational poverty are stuck in a grey existence of corporate tyranny at their jobs, where they spend fifty or more hours a week at lower wages than their parents and with both spouses doing so without vacation days until they both get cancer from vitamin D deficiency and end up in hospitals where their insurance companies spend millions, more than these patients ever made in their lives as employees, on useless cancer treatments. It's the fact that most of what an American obtains from their labor is in the form of medical insurance benefits at the end of their lives. A tiny fraction of the grey hallowed out middle class wins the lottery or less common become millionaires themselves by using Mexican laborers to defaud general contractors on plumbing or drywall subcontracts and similar scams. It is true that more middle class people rise to become millionaires by such frauds then sink into poverty. But the grey middle class has never been this small in over a hundred years in America.
So against this backdrop of gloom and helplessness what do Americans want to see to make them feel good about their country?
TOLERANCE! INCLUSION!
WE HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO BUT WE ARE BETTER THAN OUR PARENTS!
WE DO NOT HURT OTHER PEOPLE ANYMORE JUST BECAUSE OF THEY ARE DIFFERENT !!
WE ARE IN A BETTER PLACE THAN EVER..EVER..EVER.
YES!
More of the same from Hollywood and the "feel-good" programming reminding us all of these important lessons.
As a self professed Nazi, MIT I'm surprised you didn't mention the "Trump Phenomenon" as it relates to "authoritarianism" namely;
DeleteAuthoritarianism- Since the rise of Nazi Germany, it has been one of the most widely studied ideas in social science. While its causes are still debated, the political behavior of authoritarians is not. Authoritarians obey. They rally to and follow strong leaders. And they respond aggressively to outsiders, especially when they feel Threatened.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-2016-authoritarian-213533#ixzz3xeUWvJV2
I commented at the onset of the Trump phenomenon that he parallels the rise of Hitler, and for similar reasons.
DeleteThere are many things to be understood about authoritarianism under the Nazis.
First, Germans are trusting of their leaders because unlike other societies German leaders are not corrupt. In fact no one in Germany is corrupt. Germans are not skeptical much less cynical about their leaders because they have no reason to not trust them and they believe that their leaders have only the best interests of everyone in mind. Sounds silly but that's the way Germany and Sweden and Denmark and Norway happen to be. There's just no public corruption in these places.
Secondly there was no tradition of democracy in Germany at that time, and it was novel and didn't work at all. Germans love to join clubs and associations so when the Weimar Republic was formed the professional associations everyone belonged to formed political parties so there were hundreds of parties and they were all fragmented and it made for utter chaos. They never really formed workable parties except for the Communists, the Nazis, and the Socialists and a couple of others, but most people belonged to parties like "The Party of Vegetable growers in the Rhine Valley" and other such ridiculous associations.
The public likes strong leaders at any time, not just during a crisis. I think the reason why Trump leads among the Republicans now isn't because he exudes authority but because he's voicing the complaints that the Republican base feels and no one else is expressing it. For example, the Republican base doesn't want any more muslims in America, even if there were no terrorist problem. They just don't want such a strange culture implanted into our America with its established values and way of life. Personally I don't blame them. This is OUR country and we have the right to pick and choose the kind of people we let in here. If they have a way of life strange to us we have no obligation to let them in. Terrorism or not.
Yes indeed you did, my oversight.
DeleteOr more to the point..
ReplyDeleteConcussion and Creed would never have been made except for their protagonists being negros who are not like the 90% of real negros today who are born out of wedlock and stuck in ghettos taking crack or meth everyday.
The Danish Girl or HeShe or whatever was only made because of the same facination with transgenders as fostered Katlynn Jenner.
Trumo is again about the evils of anti-communism, this time used as an example of all kinds of intolerance against anyone who is different.
Blah blah blah it's behind almost all films on this dreadful list.
The only film I can recommend this year is SICARIO, a authentic story about a REAL ISSUE OF IMPORTANCE TO AMERICANS TODAY!!
AND POLITICS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT
THIS IS ABOUT CRIME AND SADISM AND EVIL AND NOT POLITICS
Racial and gender discrimination are the evils that Mexican crimainal gangs are, so lets have a look at this story of an honest Mexican prosecutor who's family is butchered by a criminal and then is retrained as an elite assassin by the CIA. It's the kind of thing that goes on in reality everyday...including the angle that CIA is in the business of supporting some drug cartels and opposing others...
How about a little true these days because in order to make these cases for inclusion and tolerance in other films there has to be a whole lotta distortion going on such as in last year's favorites "Tweleve Years a Slave" and "Django"
Correction,
Delete"are NOT the evils that..."
Agree, Sicario was a great movie.
DeleteMaybe next years 'hot' film will be an everyday story of black transgender folk inventing a new dating App and making a million, maybe 'The Joy of Sext'.
ReplyDelete