There aren’t many MUST SEES out right now, but don’t miss They Shall Not Grow Old. The Wife and I have been catching up on the Oscar nominees and recently saw Black Panther, which is excellent for the super hero genre (faint praise from me). We also caught Bohemian Rhapsody, a perfectly fine movie that has no business being nominated for Best Picture. I’m looking forward to seeing Green Book again this weekend, this time with The Wife – she’ll love it.
Somehow, more of my family and friends have, despite my advice, seen The Favourite. One of my friends, a professional filmmaker and opinion leader among cinéastes, liked it; everyone else hated, hated, HATED it. Really hated it.
OUT NOW
- In They Shall Not Grow Old, Lord of the Rings filmmaker Peter Jackson has, for the first time, layered humanity over our understanding of World War I. By slowing down the speed of the jerky WWI film footage and adding sound and color, Jackson has allowed us to relate to the real people in the Great War. This is a generational achievement and a Must See.
- Roma is an exquisite portrait of two enduring women and the masterpiece of Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien). Will win multiple Oscars. It is streaming now Netflix.
- Green Book: Tony Lip is a marvelous character, and Viggo Mortensen’s performance is one of the great pleasures of this year in the movies.
- Vice: in this bitingly funny biopic of Dick Cheney by writer-director Adam McKay (The Big Short), Cheney is played by a physically transformed and unrecognizable Christian Bale. A superb performance, .pretty good history, biography from a sharp point of view and a damn entertaining movie.
- Stan & Ollie: Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel and John C. Reilly as Oliver Hardy deliver remarkable portraits of a partnership facing the inevitability of showbiz decline.
- Pawel Pawlikowski’s sweeping romantic tragedy Cold War is not as compelling as his masterpiece Ida.
- The Favourite: Great performances by three great actresses, sex and political intrigue are not enough; this critically praised film didn’t work for me.
ON VIDEO
This week’s Stream of the Week is my pick for 2010’s best film, the Oscar-nominated, searing drama Incendies: a young man and woman journey from Quebec to the Middle East to uncover family secrets from the Lebanese civil war. You can stream it from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
ON TV
This month, Turner Classic Movies features all Oscar-nominated movies its 31 Days of Oscars, and I recommend Blow-up on February 19. Set in the Mod London of the mid-60s, a fashion photographer (David Hemmings) is living a fun, but shallow, life filled with sports cars, discos and scoring with supermodels (think Jane Birkin, Sarah Miles and Verushka). Then he discovers that his random photograph of a landscape may contain a clue in a murder and meets a mystery woman (Vanessa Redgrave). After taking us into a vivid depiction of the Mod world, director Michelangelo Antonioni brilliantly turns the story into a suspenseful story of spiraling obsession. His L’Avventura, La Notte and L’Eclisse made Antonioni an icon of cinema, but Blow-up is his most accessible and enjoyable masterwork. There’s also a cameo performance by the Jeff Beck/Jimmy Page version of the Yardbirds and a quick sighting of Michael Palin in a nightclub.
