My dad was in town over Thanksgiving weekend, and we took the opportunity to do a movie marathon!
Sylvester Stallone hasn't been a symbol of quality in a long, long time, so it's easy to forget that the original
Rocky (1976) won Best Picture, and was a pretty great film.
Creed (2015) is a spin-off of the original
Rocky series, and it captures much of the heart of the original. Stallone plays a supporting role as the aging champ helping out his deceased friend's son, and the film is better for it. It was a pleasant surprise. Recommended.
My favorite film of the weekend was
Trumbo (2015), starring Brian Cranston (
Breaking Bad,
Malcolm in the Middle) as the eponymous character. Dalton Trumbo is probably the most famous of the blacklisted screenwriters during the Red Scare of the 1950s, having won multiple Oscars while writing under pseudonyms. It's a very political film, focusing on free speech issues (a subject very dear to my heart), but manages to be incredible entertaining at the same time-- this film oozes with old Hollywood charm. Highly, highly recommended.
Brooklyn (2015) stars Saoirse Ronan as a young Irish immigrant in 1950s New York. It's hard to go into the film too much without oversimplifying it, but I will say that this film has some really wonderful dinner table conversations. The movie is a romance, both about people and places, and it doesn't wrap up in a tidy way. It will leave you thinking, so bring someone along to talk about it afterwards.
Newspapers have been dying, so it's no surprise that we don't see movies about newspapers so much, anymore. But that's a shame, because there's something thrilling about a group of intrepid reporters fighting the system and uncovering corruption.
Spotlight (2015) revives that tradition as it details how the
Boston Globe uncovered the full extent of the Catholic child abuse scandal. It's not perfect-- I think it sometimes goes overboard trying to make active visuals while relaying key information-- but it's a worthy entry in the genre.
It's odd that the movie is called
Victor Frankenstein (2015), because it's really about his assistant-- though I can understand why naming it
Igor Stravinsky might be a bad marketing move. Daniel Radcliffe plays this revisionist version of Igor, which brings a lot of humanity to the character. I really appreciated the first part of the film, which explored his origins in the circus and his love for one of its acrobats. James McAvoy is well cast as the mad scientist who enlists Igor's help in conducting some horrific experiments. The last act is a bit overdone and deviates from the focus on Igor, but it will satisfy those who need a spectacular climax. Overall, it's a pretty neat take on the
Frankenstein story.
I prefer to see films in the theater, but we did rent the local film
Ink (2009), which depicts a dreamworld where the benevolent Storytellers try to protect us from the Incubi, who bring only nightmares. One little girl slips into a coma as the mysterious creature, Ink, kidnaps her unconscious mind. Will the storytellers retrieve her soul? Will her absentee father return to help out? This was locally done in Denver, and won Best Colorado Film from the Denver Film Critics Society. It's an uneven film, but visually it's stunning and creepy.
Sylvester Stallone hasn't been a symbol of quality in a long, long time, so it's easy to forget that the original Rocky (1976) won Best Picture, and was a pretty great film. Creed (2015) is a spin-off of the original Rocky series, and it captures much of the heart of the original. Stallone plays a supporting role as the aging champ helping out his deceased friend's son, and the film is better for it. It was a pleasant surprise. Recommended.
My favorite film of the weekend was Trumbo (2015), starring Brian Cranston (Breaking Bad, Malcolm in the Middle) as the eponymous character. Dalton Trumbo is probably the most famous of the blacklisted screenwriters during the Red Scare of the 1950s, having won multiple Oscars while writing under pseudonyms. It's a very political film, focusing on free speech issues (a subject very dear to my heart), but manages to be incredible entertaining at the same time-- this film oozes with old Hollywood charm. Highly, highly recommended.
Brooklyn (2015) stars Saoirse Ronan as a young Irish immigrant in 1950s New York. It's hard to go into the film too much without oversimplifying it, but I will say that this film has some really wonderful dinner table conversations. The movie is a romance, both about people and places, and it doesn't wrap up in a tidy way. It will leave you thinking, so bring someone along to talk about it afterwards.
Newspapers have been dying, so it's no surprise that we don't see movies about newspapers so much, anymore. But that's a shame, because there's something thrilling about a group of intrepid reporters fighting the system and uncovering corruption. Spotlight (2015) revives that tradition as it details how the Boston Globe uncovered the full extent of the Catholic child abuse scandal. It's not perfect-- I think it sometimes goes overboard trying to make active visuals while relaying key information-- but it's a worthy entry in the genre.
It's odd that the movie is called Victor Frankenstein (2015), because it's really about his assistant-- though I can understand why naming it Igor Stravinsky might be a bad marketing move. Daniel Radcliffe plays this revisionist version of Igor, which brings a lot of humanity to the character. I really appreciated the first part of the film, which explored his origins in the circus and his love for one of its acrobats. James McAvoy is well cast as the mad scientist who enlists Igor's help in conducting some horrific experiments. The last act is a bit overdone and deviates from the focus on Igor, but it will satisfy those who need a spectacular climax. Overall, it's a pretty neat take on the Frankenstein story.
I prefer to see films in the theater, but we did rent the local film Ink (2009), which depicts a dreamworld where the benevolent Storytellers try to protect us from the Incubi, who bring only nightmares. One little girl slips into a coma as the mysterious creature, Ink, kidnaps her unconscious mind. Will the storytellers retrieve her soul? Will her absentee father return to help out? This was locally done in Denver, and won Best Colorado Film from the Denver Film Critics Society. It's an uneven film, but visually it's stunning and creepy.
You leave me hanging, Dave. Why is ink uneven?
ReplyDeleteThe visuals are fantastic, the details of the dreamworld are very interesting, and I liked the parallels they draw between the dreamworld and the waking world. But the dreaminess may have been too well done, because I found my attention wandering a lot. I didn't feel drawn to the father or daughter as characters-- in fact, I was kind of rooting for them to stay apart. That being said (and I may sound like I'm contradicting myself if you see the film), I found the emotional climax for Ink (the character) to be rather moving.
DeleteIf you see the film (or if you have seen the film), let me know what you think.