Film critics Carrie and Chris on who will – and who should – win the 91st Academy Awards
The 91st Academy Awards air this Sunday, February 24th, on ABC at 5:00 pm PST (with the requisite pre-show fashion assessments starting hours before). As they did last year, Spinning Platters film critics Carrie Kahn and Chris Piper share their predictions – and hopes – for the major categories. Guild awards – often harbingers of Oscars to come – have been all over the map this year, so there may actually be some genuine surprises. Tune in on Sunday to see how things play out, and to find out if we correctly read the minds of Academy voters.
After almost two weeks of screenings that ran daily from 8:30 am to midnight, the Sundance Film Festival wrapped up last weekend with its awards presentation. All the winners can be found here, but below I present my personal highlights from my week exploring the Fest’s good, bad, and downright weird. Some of these may be widely released during the year, so I offer my advice on the films you should SEE or SKIP.
1.) Most Over the Top Rip Off of The Office that Feels Like it Was Written At 3:00 am After Smoking Way Too Many Joints: Corporate Animals (Category: Midnight)
Corporate Animals.
Not only does director Patrick Brice (who also directed the much better Sundance offering The Overnight) use a corporate retreat setting for his horror satire, replete with a who’s who of standard office types (Demi Moore as the hard driving boss; Jessica Williams as the dispirited protégée; and Callum Worthy as the eager to please intern, to name a few), but he even casts Office alum Ed Helms as a guide who leads the team on a caving expedition that goes awry, to put it mildly. Trapped deep in a collapsed New Mexico cave (the scenery at least holds its own), the cast is forced to deliver too many stereotypical jokes, especially at the expense of Moore, whose cutthroat boss is little more than a caricature. The group’s descent into cannibalism is played for laughs, but the film isn’t half as edgy as it thinks it is, and the entire exercise feels like writer Sam Bain somehow managed to get his snickering Office fan-fiction greenlit. — SKIP Continue reading “Film Feature: Highs and Lows from the 2019 Sundance Film Festival”
What were your favorite films of 2018? There were lots of worthy contenders, and choosing just ten can be challenging, but Spinning Platters Film Editor Carrie Kahn has given it a go. Below Carrie shares her ten favorite films of 2018, presented in descending rank order. You can also check out her list from last year, here.
Aquaman (Jason Momoa) strikes one of his favorite poses.
Yes, I know that headline is a real groaner, but so is the movie that inspired it, so fair is fair. Aquaman is the latest DC Comics superhero to headline his own picture, and, unfortunately, this idea is one that never should have floated to the surface. Australian director James Wan (of the Fast and Furious and Saw franchises) throws in a bit of everything with Aquaman, but ends up with a whole lot of spectacle, and — if you’ll forgive me another water pun — not a lot of depth. Continue reading “Film Review: Aquaman“
From left: Elizabeth Debicki, Viola Davis, Michele Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo in Widows
Steve McQueen’s new film Widows opens high above a modern Chicago, in a lofty lovers paradise of pearly white sheets, bodies in contact, and a feeling of time standing still. It’s a cunning and perplexing opening. It leads us to place of hope and optimism, and sets us up for the dark brutality to follow.
Passion gives way to the realities of the day, and Veronica (Viola Davis) and her husband Harry (Liam Neeson) part ways, she to her job as a school district administrator, and he to his gang’s heist of two million dollars.
Presidential candidate Gary Hart (Hugh Jackman) faces intense media scrutiny after rumors of an extramarital affair surface.
To watch The Front Runner is to be amazed at how much the political climate has changed in 30 years. Back then, the well-regarded, young, smart, Kennedy-esque Colorado senator Gary Hart, widely considered the front runner for the Democratic nomination, had his campaign derailed by just the whiff of an extramarital affair. Fast forward to today, and a candidate with multiple accusations of affairs harassment, and vulgar language has no problem staying in the race, and, ultimately, winning. How far we’ve come. But director Jason Reitman’s (Young Adult; Juno; Up in the Air) new film is less a treatise on changing public perception, and more a study of how journalism has changed, opening the door to what is now considered acceptable and expected scrutiny of candidates’ private lives. And for that, the film is worth seeing. Continue reading “Film Review: The Front Runner“
Queen, and their subjects, during Live Aid, July, 1985.
Bohemian Rhapsody, the new film about the English ’70’s and ’80’s supergroup Queen, is a lot like band’s output: overwrought, overproduced, painfully bombastic, and musically too self-conscious. But, like those songs we all know, the film has an undeniable energy and vibrancy, and is so technically consistent that one can’t help but feel satisfied, if a bit played.Continue reading “Film Review: Bohemian Rhapsody“
No need to forgive Heller, McCarthy, and Co.: Their film is terrific
Bookshop owner Anna (Dolly Wells, l.) and writer Lee (Melissa McCarthy) form a tentative connection.
“As an unknown, you can’t be such a bitch, Lee,” book agent Marjorie (Jane Curtin) says to her down-and-out client, author Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), in director Marielle Heller’s terrific new film Can You Ever Forgive Me? But the great strength of this based-on-a-true-story picture is that Lee is a hard personality; unlikable, acerbic, alcoholic, and misanthropic, Lee is tough and complicated. She’s far from a typical charming and redeemable female protagonist, which makes Heller’s film both unusual and refreshing, and McCarthy’s performance here one of her best to date. Continue reading “Film Review: Can You Ever Forgive Me?“
Break out the tissue: Carell and Chalamet are superb in wrenching addiction drama
David (Steve Carell, r.) comforts his struggling son Nic (Timothée Chalamet).
Screenwriter Luke Davies knows a thing or two about writing tearjerkers — his adapted screenplay for the missing boy drama Lion was nominated for an Oscar last year — so it’s no surprise that his follow up is equally adept at pulling the heartstrings. Also based on a true story, Beautiful Boy is a gut-wrenching portrait of a son’s battle with addiction and his father’s unwavering quest to help him. With Oscar nominees Steve Carell (Foxcatcher) and Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) as the father and son, respectively, Belgian director Felix Van Groeningen scored in the talent department, and it’s hard to imagine two other actors doing justice to the roles. Continue reading “Film Review: Beautiful Boy“
Chris Powell (Ike Barinholtz, center) and his wife Kai (Tiffany Haddish, top r.) preside over a very tense family Thanksgiving.
Comedian Ike Barinholtz (best known as Nurse Morgan on The Mindy Project) makes his big screen writing and directing debut with The Oath, a very timely, very funny, yet very dark comedy in which he also stars. A razor sharp take on today’s charged political climate, Barinholtz’s pointed comedy resembles Jordan Peele’s (a producer here) Get Out in terms of its satiric edge. While some viewers may find the satire a little too grim, Barinholtz has definitely made a think piece worth talking about, and for that reason, his film is worth a look. Continue reading “Film Review: The Oath“
