I went back digging through old blog posts before I sat down to write this. The first blog I wrote about the Oscar Nominees was short and sweet. Back then they only had 5 nominees. Those were the days, when I didn’t have to carve out time to watch 9 movies (and didn't have a kid to deal with), like I did this year.
I think there were a number of good movies in 2016, but not a lot of great ones. I still hold 1994 as the best year of movies in my adult life, for anyone who cares to know that information.
I’ve been able to find the time to watch all the Oscar Nominees again this year, and have ranked them by my preference.
Here we go...
I’m not normally one to cry during films, but there is a certain kind of relationship in films that always get to me. Scenes that involve mothers, children, and loss on film are my Achilles heel. I still tear up every time I see this scene, I tear up.....
If this film wasn’t such an emotional gut-punch for me, I don’t think it would be anywhere near this high on my list. I was shocked at how much this film affected me. I went into it not thinking I would like it. As a parent of an adopted child, watching a film about a guy looking for his birth mother, I was positive it would ignore the parents that raised him. The film was so much more than that. There was so much about how he lost his birth family and how hard he tried to find them, as a young boy. Seeing that part of his life really made me feel for his longing to find where he came from.
I want our kid to see this movie when she’s old enough to get it. It’s a movie that will stick with me for a long time.
My sister said she didn’t like Moonlight as much as she thought she would. Her comment got me thinking that maybe this is a film most appreciated by black men. I don’t personally know of any white people in my life that have seen this movie, so I’d be curious to hear their thoughts.
This is the movie from 2016 that I most want to see again. It’s not a movie that can be described by plot; there isn’t a plot, but there is a theme. It’s about a guy, who has grown up in not-so-great circumstances, who is most likely gay, but can’t admit that to himself.
For me, the 3 actors to play main characters at three points in his life, each gave heart-breaking performances. If film awards were not given to the person performing the role, but to the character, Chiron is my character of the year.
I also liked the way the movie ended, and I may be in the minority there, but I like that it gave me something to wonder about at the end.
This is a film I thought was great while watching it and for about 48 hours after watching it, but I know I won't remember it in a year.
I don’t know what it is about a type of movie set in or around Boston that has this effect on me: Mystic River, The Departed, Gone Baby Gone, The Town. I remember really liking every one of these movies but could tell you almost nothing about any of them now.
I like Casey Affleck and always have (he was one of my favourite things about Good Will Hunting, and that’s saying a lot, because I love that movie). I thought he was great in this and I thought Michelle Williams really pulled out all the stops for the scene that got her an Oscar nomination. One thing I didn’t care for was Lucas Heghes. He’s getting a lot of praise for his role, but I didn’t care for his performance much.
Again, good movie, liked it a great deal, but won’t remember it by summer.
I happened to see the mother of one of our kid’s friends shortly after seeing this movie and she asked what I thought. Her one line review of the movie sums up very well how I feel about it: It’s definitely more about style than substance.
When I watch a film, the story, and the way it’s told have to both be great for me to think the film is great. This story did an excellent job of telling a story; I loved the movie as a musical, I thought the songs were great, I thought the actors showed range of talent (though John Legend put them to shame on the singing front the second he opened his mouth). But the story under all of this was a pretty basic story.
Again, I liked the movie, but didn’t love it.
This film was the opposite of La La Land. It’s all about substance and not so much about style.
As the film ended I thought to myself, that I’d really like to see the play on stage; I think I would have liked it more.
The performances were exceptional, but the film felt very ‘stagey’, as I guess it should, since it’s based on a play. This stagey feel took something away from me, but I’m not sure how it could have been improved.
Great performances, would be great on stage. As a film though, something was lost for me.
I think I read/heard too much about this film before I saw it. I thought it was just OK, to be honest.
There was talk of a twist ending, but I thought it was fairly well explained and therefore not a twist. I kept waiting for a twist that never was. Maybe I saw something people didn’t see, but Lauren had the same thoughts I did, so I can’t be just me.
The thing I liked most about this film was the score. I’m not a score person, but this score and that of Moonlight stayed with me. Scores don’t usually do that for me.
I saw this film, I thought it was decent, I didn’t really like it that much, but feel like I should see it again because I feel like I’m missing something.
There is an interesting plot line in this movie about why two brothers are robbing specific banks, and it winds up with an interesting....I don’t know if I’d call it a twist, but an interesting way things end up.
This movie got a lot of good reviews (98% on Rotten Tomatoes), and I’m wondering if it’s that thing about the plot that people really like, or the performances (which I just thought were OK), or what.
I just didn’t connect with this film, and a second viewing might be in order to better appreciate it.
I was leaving work when I saw the list of Best Picture nominees on Twitter. My first thought when I saw the list? ‘Dammit, I’m going to have to see Hacksaw Ridge’
To me, knowing almost nothing about the story, this was some religious film directed by Mel Gibson, who has been known to hit you over the head with religion and violence in his films. I didn’t really feel hit over the head with the religion aspect of the film; it is a true story and has religion as a major part, so I guess you have to go with that part of it. The violence was a bit much, but I would imagine that is what war looks like. It was gory, very gory, but again, if that’s what war is like, you have to go with it. And the war scenes were very well done, in my opinion.
I did have some problems with the story and how the guy got to the point where he wanted to join the army (I didn’t feel like the film really explained well enough his reasons) and why it wasn’t a problem for his brother to join the army and not worry about killing people - I think exploring the relationship between the brothers would have been good, but that would have added significant amount of running time.
It was better than I expected it to be, to be honest, but I won’t go championing it to people, because it’s not for everyone. You have to like war movies, and not be bothered by religion playing a role in a film to go for this.
Hidden Figures suffers/benefits from the same thing Beasts of the Southern Wild did, in my opinion. I felt that latter got a lot of praise because it was done on a low budget with untrained actors. I feel that Hidden Figures is getting a lot of praise because of the message and history behind it, and not the film itself.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great message movie, about true events, and I think every pre-teen girl (especially minority pre-teen girls) would benefit from watching this movie. That being said, I’m not a pre-teen girl and I felt like I was watching a movie for pre-teen girls. It felt like a Disney movie (even though it’s not). It was very soft around the edges, with very cliche scenes.
After watching this, I kept thinking I would have liked a film about the same subject a lot more, if it had Ava DuVernay behind it; she would have made it a much grittier film, and one not so much for pre-teen girls.
The film that got no love
It didn’t get a best picture and didn’t get nominated for either of the sub-categories it may have qualified for (animation and documentary). The film is Tower. I thought this film was amazing and was disappointed it didn’t get any Oscar love. Here's the trailer...
