The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2016: Live Action (2016)

*Some Spoilers*

I think the idea of giving the Oscar-nominated short films a theatrical release is a good idea and a welcome trend. The crop of Live Action short films in 2015 was particularly good and though I found one or two flawed in some minor ways, they were nevertheless poignant and memorable. American and European directors comprised the majority of nominees in this category; the lone exception being a Palestinian. The themes spanned the political and the religious and sometimes both while stories of the more personal variety were also well-represented.

Ave Maria--Director: Basil Khalil
A Jewish man, his girlfriend and his cantankerous mother find themselves at the mercy of nuns in a monastery in the occupied territory in Palestine. Though the order is one committed to vows of silence, they find they must violate their oath to aid their Jewish interlopers, whose crashed car has toppled an icon of the Virgin Mary outside their doors. But the nuns find the Jewish man, Moshe, is bound by a religious oath of his own. The restrictions of Shabbat prohibit any usage of electronics, including telephones, which Moshe needs to call a taxi. A funny situation arises when Moshe asks a nun to make the call for a taxi, unaware that the request only disturbs the order's self-imposed silence further. How the nuns help the three Jews makes for a funny short, which in turn offers commentary about the intricacies of Middle-eastern culture with its multi-faith, politically combustible climate. The region's constrictive regard for gender roles is also addressed as Moshe discovers a young nun is more more resourceful than he when it comes to auto-mechanics.

It is astonishing how much Khalil packs into fifteen minutes.

His visual sense is also impeccable. One shot of what looks like blood trickling from the head of the icon is actually fluid flowing from the crashed car. Another visual gem is the final shot of the deserty expanse.

What statement Khalil is making about the various faiths of the region is food for reflection but I like that his approach is light and amusing. It isn't often that films on politics and faith in the Middle-east are so humorous.

Shok--Director: Jamie Donoughue
An Albanian man driving through Kosovo stops before an abandoned bicycle. The sight of the bike triggers memories of his childhood during the Serbian occupation and a friendship fraught with joy and tragedy. The friendship is tested when one boy dares to sell a contraband item to one Serbian soldier, which earns his friend's reproach. Their Albanian ethnicity is but one target of Serbian hostility, which the soldiers never hesitate to express when the boys are in their presence. The enterprising activity of one friend threatens to fracture their friendship until mutual sacrifice reestablishes their bond, though nothing comes without a high price in the Balkan conflict.
Director Jamie Donoughue, though hardly a witness to the conflict or a native of the Balkans, demonstrates a sensitivity for the politics and the mutual distrust between the various cultures of the region. But the power of the story is in its depiction of a friendship and its inviolability in the face of war and race hatred. The film's artistic success can mostly be ascribed to the performances of the two boys, who match the subject matter's intensity with intensity of their own.

Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)--Patrick Vollrath
Like Shok, which precedes director Patrick Vollrath's film, Everything Will Be Okay focuses on a child in crisis. A father, Michael Baumgartner (Simon Schwarz), arrives at a home to pick up his young daughter Lea (Julia Pointner) from his ex-wife's home. Their seemingly innocent, familial excursion becomes a nightmarish ordeal for Lea when Michael takes desperate steps to flee the country with his daughter for a flight to the Philippines. Knowing he is committing an illegal act, Michael makes haste to the airport but is informed his flight is cancelled. Promised a compensatory morning flight, he accepts an complimentary overnight stay at a local hotel, much to the bewilderment of his daughter, who has little idea what her father has planned. The next morning, the frightened girl uses her father's cellphone to call her mother. Sometime later, her mother arrives, with police in tow, demanding entry. When the police burst into the room, they are unable to pry Lea from her father's embrace.
What makes a seemingly simple story so powerful is Julia Pointner's wonderful performance. Lea's fear and anguish; her desperate, unheard pleas, leave one wondering how such a young actress could navigate the emotionally demanding aspects of the role. No less moving is Simon Schwarz's Michael, whose unyielding hold on his daughter contains so much unspoken fear and anxiety. We wonder what prompted such a extreme act, which makes him both on object of pity and horror.

Stutterer--Director: Benjamin Cleary
A man with an intense stutter but an eloquent internal voice texts a woman with whom romantic possibilities emerge. The man's crippling vocal affliction leaves him unable to complete a phone call or interact with people on the street. But inside his head we hear his thoughts, as he keeps a list of "snap judgements," personality profiles he forms while people-watching. From the texts, we can easily gather that his female texting partner shares his love for words.
After she proposes a meeting, he stalls; aware of the problem his stutter may present. After he finally agrees, he makes his way to her and spots her from across a street. What happens after is something I anticipated early in the short; a development I hoped the filmmaker would avoid. In spite of the story's improbably coincidental conclusion, I found the story to be quite affecting. The actor who plays the stutterer; Matthew Needham, has an unforgettable look. His shaggy hair and striking blue eyes, which project both vulnerability and keen intelligence, are a character unto themselves.
I liked the idea of a character who has so many words in his head and perspicacious thoughts but is unable to express them vocally. The voice in his head expresses multitudes but his condition shackles their potential.

Day One--Director: Henry Hughes
The last short in the overall film is the emotionally-wrenching Day One. An Afghan woman named Feda begins her first day as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. After an awkward moment out in the field when she has to relieve herself, a mine kills a motorcyclist on a road nearby. She is called to be an interpreter in the arrest of the suspect, only to find his wife is pregnant and worse, ready to deliver. Complications arise when the Afghan doctor present is unable to enter the room to assist (a strict moral custom about men being in a room with a woman not his spouse or family), leaving the interpreter in the role of delivering the baby, despite her lack of experience. The doctor and an American soldier are ultimately compelled to be in the room with the expectant mother and the suspect, who is granted temporary freedom to help his wife. After Feda finds one of the baby's arms protruding from the womb, she checks its pulse, only to find it is dead. The doctor, having to advise her from behind a wall, tells her it will be necessary to cut the baby's arm off, as well as the rest of its body for removal, to save the mother's life. This grim, unthinkable prospect horrifies her (and the audience); forcing her to balk at the task but situation being as it is, she sets out to perform the horrific dismemberment anyway. Before Feda can perform the cutting, she discovers the baby is actually alive and shortly thereafter, she helps deliver it. But in the aftermath, the story turns tragic before ending on a hopeful, life-affirming note.

As in Ave Maria, a cultural clash of sorts takes place.
We learn from post-film subtitles that the story was inspired by the director's own experiences as a soldier in Afghanistan. Layla Alizada, who plays the interpreter Feda, has a beautiful face one is unlikely to forget. Her lovely, dark features and expressive eyes compliment her terrific performance. I liked the story's intensity and the sudden turns of tragedy and hope. We see how one day actually changes the character's life irrevocably.

The nominees this year are a powerful lot. I don't envy the committee who has to award a prize; it seems criminal to deny any one of them an Oscar. This is a stronger group of films than last year, I think. As we all know, any one of the filmmakers could become a future household name. The various directors all showed they have solid storytelling skills while a few, like Basil Khalil, betray a knack for arresting, visual imagery.
Now we wait to see who gets the gold.

The Boy

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: William Brent Bell/Starring: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle and Ben Robson

It looks like another horror flick featuring a doll has made its way to multiplex screens. I've lost count of the films in recent years that have cast a doll as the antagonist and it would be foolish to think we've seen the last of them. The latest addition to this horror sub-genre is a film called The Boy: a pedestrian and mostly dull story whose few mildly, creepy scenes involve--what else--an expressionless doll that may or may not be the repository of a dead child's spirit. One might wonder what director William Brent Bell's film might have to offer that's new. You might be relieved to learn the film adds a twist to this shop-worn genre but you might also be disappointed to learn that his new take simply morphs into something Jason Voorhees-like, which might elicit a sigh from the audience.

Laura Cohan plays Greta Evans, a youngish American woman who has accepted a nanny gig for the Heelshires (Jim Norton and Diana Hardcastle); an elderly British couple living in their quaint, English manor. The manor's interior and exteriors are horror movie standard issue; dusty attics, taxidermal mountings and wood paneling. Or what one might also find in any episode of Scooby-doo.

Upon arrival, Laura makes the acquaintance of the man delivering groceries; Malcolm (Rupert Evans), who tells her a little about the Heelshires and their home. His immediate attraction to her is almost palpable. Soon after, Greta meets the elderly Heelshires themselves, who immediately introduce her to Brahms; a doll with the features of a young boy. Greta naturally feels she is being put on when the couple treat the doll as if it were indeed alive; talking to it, changing it's clothes, reading poetry to it and tucking it into bed. When Greta laughs, the Heelshires' withering glances preclude further mirth. She makes amends by talking to Brahms, which placates the couple. Mrs. Heelshire explains to Greta that the son they lost in his boyhood is living in the house still; a statement we are meant to take figuratively. We see that the couple's doting care for Brahms is the their way of keeping his spirit alive. We learn Greta is to care for Brahms for several months while the Heelshires are on holiday.

Mrs. Heelshire leaves Greta a specific set of rules on how to care for Brahms; a list she intends Greta to follow faithfully. The Heelshire's departure is somewhat mysterious as their faces are shrouded in angst. Observing their gloomy departure, we are left to wonder if the couple has ulterior motives for being away.

In short time, we discover Greta's decision to pursue the babysitting position partly serves as a means of escape from a miscarriage and an abusive ex back home. Greta's lost-child backstory seems to dovetail with the Heelshire's a little too neatly but what the heck, we go with it.

After the Heelshire's departure, Greta becomes very casual about Brahm's care; ignoring the list and even tossing the doll contemptuously on a rocking chair. But soon strange things begin to happen as she begins to hear a young child's voice and thumpings and bumpings about the house. Brahm's blank expression also begins to unnerve her. When she suspects that the doll might be inhabited by the Heelshire's dead child, she tries to convince Malcolm that Brahms is moving on his own, which she accomplishes during one of his visits. As the sounds of a child fill the house, Greta's compassion for the Heelshire's lost son and Brahms awakens. She begins to follow the instructions faithfully.

Rejecting Malcolm's pleas to leave the house and Brahms and the house behind, Greta is set upon by another problem; the arrival of her ex-husband Cole (Ben Robson), who has little patience for Malcolm and even less for Brahms'. Expecting Greta to return with him to the states, Cole meets vigorous resistance from both Greta and Malcolm. Violence ensues, which leads Cole to smash the doll to fragments. The house begins to shake, leading one to believe the boy's spirit has been unleashed but we learn what has really been behind all the supernatural happenings. The rest of the film is Greta and Malcolm's flight from the real mystery of the Heelshire home; a silly and anti-climactic development. The real motivation for the Heelshire's flight from their home is also explained in the film's third act.

I can respect the screenwriter and the director's attempt to give the haunted doll story a new twist but a horror film has to dispense horror, which Bell's film fails to do. A woman alone in a large house with a doll that may or may not be spirit-possessed is a great set-up for a scary story but Bell can't make the necessary transition from creepy to terrifying. Some shameless horror film staples are given some air, like frightening moments turning out to be only dreams. He uses this dusty device twice and it is no less cheap the second time around.

Lauren Cohan doesn't depict a woman with a wounded psyche; one who seeks escape from both a miscarriage and an abusive ex. She doesn't seem to be running from anything more than Montana; her home state. Her performance is all surface and serviceable. Rupert Evans and Ben Robson are more convincing though their roles scarcely have more substance.

I liked that Bell refused to turn the Heelshire's home into something like the house in Crimson Peak; something cartoonishly Gothic, but little effort was made to make the house menacing; a place to dread.

By the third act, I found myself caring little for any of the characters or the story, save the mystery behind the doll. In the end, The Boy is just something I come to expect to see in January. It didn't help that a trailer for The Witch preceded the movie (see my blogpost on the film). That film, my friends, is a horror film, as you will soon discover next month.

Moving forward, I hope to see a moratorium on haunted-doll horror films, unless one can come up with something genuinely creepy, like Annabelle, which played back in 2014. Otherwise, let's keep the dolls in the toy chest, okay?

The Fifth Wave

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: J. Blakeson/Chloe Grace Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Maria Bello, Ron Livingston, Alex Roe, Maika Monroe and Nick Robinson

The Fifth Wave, based on the story of the same name by novelist Rick Yancey, is a hodgepodge of sci-fi movie plots welded together that work story-wise but is incapable of making the audience forget any of the films it shamelessly borrows or steals from. Films that immediately come to mind when watching Blakeson's film are: Independence Day, District 9 and the various movies about young people uniting to resist oppressive overlords, such as The Maze Runner and Divergent series. There isn't anything inherently wrong with a pastiche but The Fifth Wave (the title kept reminding me of The Fifth Element. Maybe someone will make a sci-fi movie called The Fifth of Jack Daniels) doesn't fuse what it plunders into anything original or thrilling. And what's worse, the movie seems like another greedy producer's calculated attempt to create a franchise cash-cow. And to give this franchise-manque credibility, some considerable talent was recruited; Chloe Grace Moretz, Liev Schreiber and Maria Bello; who have all acquitted themselves better elsewhere.

Has anyone noticed that in ALL alien invasion movies these days, we seem to see the same kind of massive spaceships floating menacingly in the skies above Earth? We see the same here though I noticed Blakeson was very sparing in how he deployed shots of the alien ships. Maybe the producers are saving more detailed images for the sequels they hope to mid-wive from this flick.

The whole plot can be summarized succinctly: aliens, referred to as Others, invade Earth, wreaking havoc in successive waves. One wave knocks out electricity and power, another visits Biblical-scale destruction across the planet in the form of literal waves; tidal waves, which is followed by the lethally mutated spread of the Avian virus, which is in turn followed by the alien infiltration of the human species while the last involves the use of children to carry out the mass extermination of humanity. A young woman named Cassie Sullivan (Chloe Grace Moretz) struggles to survive after her parents die in the initial waves. Her attempts to reach an air force base where her brother and other children have been taken for battle-training meet with danger, as she befriends a young man who displays superhuman fighting skills. Cassie manages to unite with her brother and the other children after they discover their military leaders are in fact Others who have recruited them for their plans of global conquest.

That is the story in its semi-concise form. The story does come with romance. Cassie is the focus of a triangle that includes her classmate Ben Parish (Nick Robinson) and Evan Walker (Alex Roe); said young man with extraordinary fighting abilities. The other burgeoning romance involves Ben and a tough, goth-ish girl named Ringer (Maika Monroe); who handles a gun as well as her army instructors.

About half-way through the film, it becomes clear the filmmakers want to ride the Hunger Games/Divergent/The Maze Runner wave of films about young people fighting totalitarian forces. I guess this attempt to draw young viewers makes sense but it really seems like a cheap and easy way to market future installments. I have to say I can't stomach many more of these films but then again, only young tastes count here, I guess.

It seems pointless to expect a movie like The Fifth Wave to be logical or uniformly plausible since the movies it sometimes mimics, like Independence Day, can't be troubled to play by the same rules. What bothers me about the aforementioned movie and Blakeson's film is what I call the Bumbling Advanced Civilization Syndrome. An alien race masters interstellar travel; overcomes all the paradoxes and problems of Einsteinian physics, arrives on Earth with superior weapons and the means to destroy the planet; only to suddenly become thwarted by the relatively primitive human race. If one has the power to create tidal waves that tower above coastline hotels and London Bridge and the means to knock out power world-wide, why does it suddenly have problems wiping out a survivalist village, particularly when it knows its location? Instead, it sends Others-controlled army soldiers to gun down the inhabitants of said village. Very sloppy and inefficient for an advanced alien race, que no?

One character says destroying the Earth isn't part of the Others' agenda, as they need our planet mostly intact. Okay, but if you've already wiped out most of the human race without destroying ALL life on the planet's surface, how hard would it be to wipe out the survivors? It does make sense that an invading alien race would employ an electromagnetic pulse to knock out our power, inundate the planet with quasi-natural disasters and create a pandemic to wipe out humans but I don't think it would suddenly be troubled by those same creatures when the resistance cells are comprised of children and teens.

Suspending disbelief and every mental faculty, one should still find the story thrilling but it didn't take an alien intellect to see where everything was headed and how it would get there. The movie became dull and I did little to resist the sleepy fairy that coaxed me into a brief state of drowsiness.

Mr. Blakeson, you'll forgive me if I don't bother seeing the sequels. The Hunger Games series satisfied any and all desires I had to see films like yours. But I'm sometimes stubborn and if a movie weekend happens to be painfully wanting, I just might pay to see A Fifth Wave sequel. But then again, I resisted The Maze Runner and Divergent follow-ups so I know my will power hasn't weakened.

The key word here is resist. If a determined unit of tykes can resist an alien invasion, I can resist a franchise. And I won't even need an M-16.

Dirty Grandpa

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Dan Mazer/Starring: Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Hough, Zoey Deutch, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Pally, Brandon Mychal Smith and Danny Glover

Now that 2015 is pretty much in the archives, film-wise--with some Oscar contenders still trickling into theaters--the Season of Swill (runs from January to roughly the end of April, unofficially) has begun in earnest. We are all familiar with the S of S because the films that studios dare not premier in late December are tossed like filthy rags into the January/February refuse pile. Usually the worst films of the year turn up here if they turn up at all. This time of year is toughest on cinephiles because the Oscar contenders have been consumed and digested by late January, which leaves us at the mercy of said Hollywood discards.

Let the preceding paragraph serve as a preamble to Dirty Grandpa, director Dan Mazer's rarely funny but hyper-crude comedy about a grandfather; Dick Kelly (Robert De Niro) and his efforts to bond with his grandson Jason (Zac Efron). It is reasonable to assume the film is inspired by Bad Grandpa; which starred Johnny Knoxville as a grandfather who is often a very bad role model for his grandson. Mazer's film doesn't restrain its anti-pc approach to comedy. Everyone and everything is fodder for dumb jokes about homophobia and Jason's lack of manly resolve. A few jokes test the boundaries of good taste, such as a naked Jason being mistaken for a pedophile on the beach. I've never been a prude and I do appreciate filth when it is actually funny (Matt Stone and Trey Parker's Team America made me laugh heartily) but the dirt in Mazer's film is dirty but it's smut of the gratuitous variety; and yes, not very funny at all. Some scenes and some characters earned a few chuckles but for the most part, the movie is dull and nigh tedious.

The story and characters themselves are mostly plucked from an assembly line and follow a predictable course. Jason, an uptight, preppy-ish stiff is set to marry Meredith (Julianne Hough); a squeaky-clean, very white (why they made her Jewish is puzzling; she's all WASP) more uptight version of himself. His job at his father's law firm is firmly set; a perfect life seems all but assured.

Jason's grandmother has just passed away, which brings together his father, David (Dermot Mulroney) and his grandfather Dick (Robert De Niro); who has been mostly absent from his son and grandson's lives.
Though tensions between Dick and his family are rife, he insists one of his wife's last wishes was to see him unite with his grandson. And though Jason is a week from his wedding, Dick coerces him into driving him to Florida as part of a bonding experience. Highly reluctant, Jason agrees, knowing his grandfather's cataracts have denied the ability to drive himself.

From the outset, we see Dick is hardly shy about slinging F-bombs about and is even less shy about expressing his desire for sex. The film goes to great lengths to feminize Jason; to make him seem like his wife's castrated puppy. Dick is ever ready to call attention to his grandson's prissy nature; even mocking the vehicle they are forced to drive to Florida: Meredith's hot-pink Mini-Cooper (an easy target, eh?). It also doesn't help that the khakis, polo shirt and a sweater wrapped around his neck make Jason look and seem positively asexual.

At a restaurant stop along the way, Dick derides Jason's decision to become a lawyer at his father's firm and mentions that his grandson once had a passion for photography. The moment we learn of Jason's real avocation, we know precisely where his character will go. One of Hollywood's mustiest cliches is the character who has forsaken a creative, artistic pursuit for a legal or corporate career, which is funny when one considers how the studios are run almost exclusively by both types.

At a table out of earshot, two young women and a young black guy deride Jason's preppy get-up, which inspires word-play such as "he looks like Abercrombie f-ed Fitch." One of the young women, Shadia (Zoey Deutch), recognizes Jason from a school photography class. When she approaches him, he mistakes her for the waitress and hands her the money for the bill. Miffed at being ignored, she and her friends run off with the money. Discovering his mistake, he sees the three making a hasty escape. When he catches up with them, Jason finally recognizes Shadia. Romantic embers begin to burn. We also know where this is headed. Earlier, in the restaurant, Shadia's friend Lenore (Aubrey Plaza) stated her sexual objective of sleeping with three different kinds of men, one of them being a professor. When Dick introduces himself as such outside the restaurant, she is frank about what she wants to do to him, which he hardly finds insulting. Their black, gay, friend Tyrone (Brandon Mychel Smith), immediately becomes the butt of Dick's gay jokes. Tyrone's gayness and blackness is Hollywood's efficient way of meeting a minority quota.

En route to Florida, Dick forces Jason to stop in Daytona Beach to satisfy his single-minded goal of getting laid. Jason resists, reminding his grandpa of the wedding. Of course Dick finds Meredith to be all wrong for Jason and never hesitates to let him know. Jason and Dick run into Shadia, Lenore and Tyrone at which point, the rest of the story is laid (excuse the expression) before us while the characters and situations settle into the expected.
We already know Daytona and its spring break distractions and Shadia's presence will test Jason's commitment to his career and engagement as Dick does his level best to show his grandson a wild, rollicking time. Lenore continues her seductive designs on Dick, even after she learns he isn't a professor, and Jason discovers Shadia belongs to hippy-ish environmental group that studies the effects of global warming on the ocean. Naturally the love-interest would turn out to be an artist and a hippy; two things the straight-arrow Meredith could never be. And a whole bag of issues bundled together are dealt with in the remaining half-hour, including the grandfather-son-grandson relationship and Jason's career and engagement, which we know will be altered forever under Shadia's influence.

Most of the characters I found amusing were the more peripheral ones, like the surf-shop owner/drug dealer Pamela (Jason Mantzoukas), who turns up often in the film, always peddling drugs or encouraging others to use them. Another amusing character is Jason's cousin Nick (Adam Pally), who has a funny habit of saying exactly what's on his mind; usually something obscene. Unfortunately I didn't find the other characters, particularly De Niro's or Efron's, very funny. Danny Glover's cameo is puzzling and almost pointless and strange; leaving us to wonder why the filmmakers bothered to include his character at all.

As I state earlier, the film's crude humor didn't bother me so much as Mazer's inability to find the material's comic potential, which is strange; given that his writing credentials include Borat and Bruno; two films that found much hilarity in daring and risky situations. Dirty Grandpa has dirty talk but a prudish walk and becomes slave to its Hollywood comedy conventions. Even Dick, who can't open his mouth without sexual comments or profanity spewing out early on, turns out to be just an elderly man who misses his wife and who longs to re-establish a relationship with his family. Aside from a few moments, the theater was gravely silent throughout the film, which always says much about the quality of a comedy.

Zac Efron and De Niro have proven elsewhere that they can be funny but this film let them down. Still, they gave it the old college try. Maybe another time.
Yeah...maybe another time.

T-Rex

Directors: Zachary Canepari and Drea Cooper

Claressa "T-Rex" Shields; a young, female boxer from Flint, Michigan, is the subject of directors Zachary Canepari and Drea Cooper's observant documentary T-Rex. What makes their film so emotionally engaging is its equal measures of heartbreak and triumph. T-Rex isn't another entry into the now popular sports docs genre one sees fairly regularly in any given cinematic year but a story that is sensitive to problems gripping a family in the once-thriving but now economically-distressed little sister of Detroit. If the documentary is about a young woman achieving a seemingly impossible dream, it is perceptive enough to see that realizing a dream isn't necessarily isn't the same thing as solving all of one's problems. And for a young, black woman from a city in perpetual decline, the problems she faces are always a persistent and aggressive threat.

We see Shields early on in the film; sparring in the ring. Her coach and father figure, Jason Crutchfield; a former professional boxer now trainer, is ever attentive.
We learn that Shields took to boxing at the age of eleven and under Crutchfield's tutelage, she became a national champion. If a documentary can be said to have a first act, then Shields' training for a spot on the fledgling U.S. woman's boxing team could be said to be just that. Her goal to box at the 2012 London Summer Olympics is a dream she pursues with a burning passion. The fact that she is a 16-year-old high school senior (at the time of filming) isn't an obstacle, but the stresses of living in Flint and contending with her mother's substance abuse problem, a father with a prison record and being thrust into the role of a mother to her dysfunctional family all threaten to derail her plans.
Adding to her troubles is her sparring partner Ardreal Holmes Jr., with whom Shields is smitten. Seeing the potential danger of pregnancy, Crutchfield's continuous efforts to steer Shields away from Holmes requires his constant vigilance.

We also learn something about Crutchfield himself; his former career, his serendipitous love for coaching young kids and his telescopic focus on Shields' nascent boxing career. We also see him at work as an electric company technician when he isn't in the gym. Securing a spot for Shields on the newly-created Women's Olympic boxing team is a dream which he, like his pupil, tirelessly pursues.

Shields is given a chance to qualify for the Olympics in a competition held in China. Finishing in the top eight automatically earns her a spot. With a sterling record of 24-0, Shields chances of making the team are excellent but in competition, she encounters a taller, British boxer with a longer reach who she is unable to overcome and thus, a painful first defeat is dealt. The devastating loss is somewhat mitigated by the fact that Shields is still able to qualify by virtue of her opponent's subsequent victory in the competition.

Shaken but not despondent in defeat, Shields begins training in earnest. But more family troubles arise when Shields must decide how to handle a potentially combustible situation with her mother and step-mother, who vie for her affection and a chance to travel to London. Heeding Crutchfield's sage advice, she opts to leave both behind to preempt any distractions.

Scenes of Shields' competing in London are thrilling and tension-filled. Because Olympic rules only allow Shields to have the U.S. Olympic boxing coaches at ringside, Crutchfield is forced to shout instructions from the stands. Her earlier defeat in China leaves the audience with some doubt as to whether Shields would stand up to top international competition.

We see Shields' homecoming is joyous but soon after she finds that anticipated endorsements are hardly guaranteed and people unfairly perceive her as having accumulated wealth. Television and radio appearances abound but problems at home persist. Shields is also confronted with the dilemma of turning professional or pursuing another Olympic run.
For Crutchfield, he finds he is unable to keep the Shields/Holmes romance at bay, which forces him to play a stern, fatherly role.

Later in the film, we hear much reflection about Shield's success and how it has effected her family. We also hear Crutchfield's perspective on the Olympic experience's impact on his life, which is decidedly unromantic and level-headed. As to what Shields' plans will be, the subtitles clue is into her plans for Rio in 2016.

So much of the film's power derives from its refusal to look away from Shield's home-life and all its disappointments and challenges. The ring becomes a metaphor for the greater fight that awaits her out of the ring; the struggle to keep her family afloat. The city of Flint could serve as an effective metaphor for Shields' family, with its constant threat to decay and collapse.

The plaintive comment heard most frequently in the film is one's hope of leaving Flint. For poor, black residents like Shields' family, the thought of escaping the city seems virtually impossible. But Shields' success at least leaves the exit door slightly ajar. For Shields herself, who has traveled to China and London, the dream is more substantial.

I was genuinely moved by the film and found it to be superior to Hollywood's boxing narratives from 2015; Creed and Southpaw. Canepari and Cooper's film is the real thing and Shields herself is a more compelling individual than the main characters of the aforementioned films.

T-Rex is a profound portrait of a tough, determined fighter whose fiercest opponents are often outside the ring. Will she make it to Rio and if so, how will she fare? Shields' future, like her nascent boxing career, remains uncertain. The film makes us care enough to keep tabs on her. Shields is an extraordinary young woman; an indisputable fact anyone sees this film will plainly see.

Some Brief Thoughts on the Oscar Nominees

It's that time of year when gripes and grumbles become common modes of expression. Of course I'm talking about movie-lovers reactions to the Oscar nominations, which always leave those who care about movies disgruntled about who did or didn't get an Oscar nod. I myself am one of those people though it's axiomatic that Oscars mean nothing and have little to do with artistic merit. But I must say, I can't remember of a year when the Academy was more spot on with the nominees. Though I have some problems with omissions and inclusions, they are fairly minor. This year's crop was quite excellent and I was pleased that some of the most deserving--Room and The Martian, weren't overlooked.

But there are other reasons to grumble; the glaring absence of minority nominees. It's hardly a shock; Hollywood's lack of equal opportunity is ever a constant. Maybe that will change next year...nah, that would mean an industry that is almost exclusively liberal would have to actually be liberal.

So here I am again to offer some thoughts and reflections on the nominees. And again, I relegate my commentary to the most attention-grabbing categories--my apologies to the other nominees--to spare what few readers I have my endless musings.

So here we go:

BEST PICTURE--
I can only grouse about two nominations here: Bridge of Spies and Mad Max: Fury Road. I think it's safe to say the former was nominated because Spielberg was at the helm while the latter...? I didn't blog on Bridge of Spies because I found it to be one of Spielberg's dull history lessons. It was well done and the film got better as it went along but I also had to fight off the drowsies. It is an interesting story but the film just seems meager next to the more deserving nominees. Mad Max: Fury Road was a huge head-scratcher. I thought it was mildly entertaining but the over-the-top, operatic busy-ness onscreen didn't add up to much (I thought) though I did like the character of Furiosa. Why this film and not Love and Mercy or Ex Machina, which had more in their heads than George Miller's film? I have no quibbles with the other nominees but I have little more to add to what I've written about them already.
Could have been nominated: Steve Jobs, Straight Outta Compton, Love and Mercy, Ex Machina, Youth and Carol
In a perfect world: Stanford Prison Experiment and The Walk

BEST DIRECTOR--
Again, I have few quibbles here. Though I wasn't wowed by Mad Max: Fury Road, I still think George Miller's direction is phenomenal. I think a glaring omission was Ridley Scott for The Martian. I think he did some of his best work in that film. Inarritu is on a roll and seems to get better with every film. I'm glad the Academy didn't forget Lenny Abrahamson for Room; a film some major critics seemed to have no use for.
Could have been nominated: Ridley Scott (The Martian), Todd Haynes (Carol), Spike Lee (Chiraq), David O. Russell (Joy), Paulo Sorrentino (Youth), Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight), Danny Boyle (Steve Jobs), Bill Pohlad (Love and Mercy) and Alex Garland (Ex Machina).
In a perfect world: Tim Talbott (Stanford Prison Experiment), Sean Baker (Tangerine) and Spike Lee (Chiraq)

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE--
The competition (yes, contrary what the Academy will have you believe, it is a competition) here is pretty fierce. The only character here not based on a real person is Matt Damon's in The Martian. Michael Fassbender's Steve Jobs was criticized for having little to do with the real person but still, didn't Fassbender play the hell out of that role? If that wasn't Steve Jobs, it was somebody as fascinating as the real thing. Many films about transgender people appeared on-screen in 2015 so it seems natural that Eddie Redmayne would be nominated; which he deserved. He was certainly more interesting in The Danish Girl than The Theory of Everything. I was pleased the Academy overlooked Johnny Depp for Black Mass; a performance that was mistaken for fine acting.
Could have been nominated: Michael Shannon (99 Homes), Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina), Michael Keaton (Spotlight) and Samuel L. Jackson (The Hateful Eight).
In a perfect world: Jason Segel (The End of the Tour) and Paul Dano (Love and Mercy).

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE--
Thank goodness the Academy didn't nominate Meryl Streep for her role in the unbearably smelly Ricki and the Flash and let's be grateful they didn't find the most absurd excuse in which to nominate her for something else, like breathing. The competition in this category is not only more fierce than its male counterpart, but all the performances here were superb. There isn't a weak nominee in the bunch. Whoever wins should have the other nominees in this category engraved on the statuette.
Could have been nominated: Carey Mulligan (Far from the Madding Crowd), Rachel Weisz (Youth)
In a perfect world: Teyonah Parris (Chiraq)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE--
This is probably the most problematic category. Critics and movie-goers made too much out of Mark Rylance's performance in Bridge of Spies. He was good but not great and quite frankly, a dozen other actors could have nudged him out of this category. The fact that Creed was better than everyone expected meant someone was probably going to get nominated. Do I have a problem with Stallone's nomination? No, but why didn't they also nominate Michael B. Jordan, who really carried the film? It is interesting that Stallone made something out of a character he's played in half a dozen Rocky movies. Good for him. Mark Ruffalo's performance was up to his high standards but I wasn't blown away. Tom Hardy was almost unrecognizable in The Revenant. Jesus, this guy seems incapable of shoddy acting.
Could have been nominated: Paul Giamatti (Straight Outta Compton or Love and Mercy), Anyone else in The Big Short, Tom Courtenay (45 Years), Matthias Schoenaerts (Far from the Madding Crowd) and Michael Sheen (Far from the Madding Crowd).
In a perfect world: The principle cast members of Straight Outta Compton, Billy Crudup (Stanford Prison Experiment) and John Cusack (for either Chiraq or Love and Mercy)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE--
The only weak nomination in this category is Rachel McAdams in Spotlight. It isn't that her performance was mediocre, it's more that she didn't have enough screen-time but having one's fair share of frames is tough in any ensemble cast, particularly one that is male-dominant. The lone female in an all-male cast is usually a thankless role but McAdams held her own. It's nice to see that she's left the romantic comedy refuse behind (let's hope it's permanent) to take on more challenging roles. Rooney Mara, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kate Winslet and Alicia Vikander were all exceptional. Alicia Vikander could have easily won a nod for her work in Ex Machina. In less than a year, she has gone from virtually unknown to household name. No doubt she will continue to impress years hence.
Could have been nominated: Joan Allen (Room), Jessica Chastain (The Martian), Lily Rabe (Pawn Sacrifice) and Elizabeth Banks (Love and Mercy).
In a perfect world: Angela Bassett and Jennifer Hudson in Chiraq and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor from Tangerine.

I've probably overlooked many performances and films but the best stuff really arrived in the latter part of the year. Please bear with me for my own omissions. Looking over my blog list from 2015, it wasn't difficult to single out the stand out films and performances. Drek always threatens to overrun the levee between January and October, though gems surfaced here and there.

Nothing to do now but wait for the envelopes to be unsealed. I'll compare notes with you after the telecast. See you then.

NOMINEES IN MAJOR CATEGORIES:

BEST PICTURE: THE MARTIAN, BRIDGE OF SPIES, THE REVENANT, THE BIG SHORT, BROOKLYN, ROOM, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, SPOTLIGHT

BEST DIRECTOR: ADAM MCKAY (THE BIG SHORT), GEORGE MILLER (MAD MAX: FURY ROAD), ALEJANDRO G. INARRITU (THE REVENANT), LENNY ABRAHAMSON (ROOM), TOM MCCARTHY (SPOTLIGHT)

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE: EDDIE REDMAYNE (THE DANISH GIRL), MATT DAMON (THE MARTIAN), BRYAN CRANSTON (TRUMBO), MICHAEL FASSBENDER (STEVE JOBS), LEONARDO DICAPRIO (THE REVENANT)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE: CATE BLANCHETT (CAROL), BRIE LARSON (ROOM), JENNIFER LAWRENCE (JOY), CHARLOTTE RAMPLING (45 YEARS), SAOIRSE RONAN (BROOKLYN)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: CHRISTIAN BALE (THE BIG SHORT), TOM HARDY (THE REVENANT), MARK RUFFALO (SPOTLIGHT), MARK RYLANCE (BRIDGE OF SPIES), SYLVESTER STALLONE (CREED)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE; JENNIFER JASON LEIGH (THE HATEFUL EIGHT), ROONEY MARA (CAROL), RACHEL MCADAMS (SPOTLIGHT), KATE WINSLET (STEVE JOBS), ALICIA VIKANDER (THE DANISH GIRL)

Omniflick Farewell: My Favorite Multiplex

I've seen several movie theaters in my area close in the last ten years. Though it's too soon to declare the death of cinema as a social phenomenon, it's also difficult to be optimistic about the future of movie-going.

When I learned back in '15 that my favorite multiplex was to close in January 2016, I was devastated but hardly surprised. A couple of years ago, a fellow cinephile, who also frequents the same multiplex, shared my forebodings about its imminent closing though we hardly expected it to happen so soon.

I realize its seems unseemly to mourn a multiplex, which have always been a symbol of Hollywood crassness but I've seen many great films at said multiplex--most recently The Revenant.

So on Monday, January 18th, 2016, one of favorite theaters will close its doors to make room for a forthcoming Audi dealership because the world needs more space for over-priced machines that help pollute the atmosphere. The theater chain's sister venue, which resides a couple of miles down the street, will remain open. Driving to that theater, past what is soon to be Audi-land will mean seeing the ghost that was once a cinephile's refuge. Other than a cinema art house where I spend the other half of my movie time, it's safe to say I've seen more movies at said multiplex than any theater in my life. That's fairly significant, considering a typical movie-going year for me consists of 250 films, more or less.

No, the multiplex stuff was not all bad, as most multiplex fare tends to be. The first time I saw Gone With the Wind was at this multiplex. I was also part of many test-audiences there; one film being Notting Hill, which I really like. I also saw the re-release of The Exorcist and on a more tragic note, the last crappy Star Wars Trilogy. I first saw Election and Rushmore; two films I now own on DVD, on those screens and can remember many others. No matter the quality of the selections, the theater's spacious lobby always seemed warm and welcoming.

But those experiences will be consigned to distant memories in a few days time. If I sound sentimental, it's because I am. As a great Kurt Vonnegut character was wont to say...and so it goes.

With the closing of this Showcase Cinema theater, the number of movie houses that have shut down in my area comes to four in the last decade. I find that sobering fact to be quite troubling.

As T.V. screens assume wall-sized proportions and binge watching becomes the dominant form of entertainment, movie-going is slowly/rapidly becoming a quaint pastime. There's no stopping that. For now, all I can do is lament the demise of a place I really liked for twenty years. The lesson to be gleaned from the closing is that one should never trust in permanence.

So goodbye, good ol' multiplex; I'll not see the likes of you again.

But if Audis' are your thing, I can tell you where to go to find one...and I can suggest another place you can go.

The Wave (Bolgen)

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Roar Uthaug/Starring: Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torp, Jonas Hoff Oftebro, Fridtjov Saheim and Edith Haagenrud-Sande

A film like The Wave (Norwegian title; Bolgen); Norway's candidate for the Oscar's Best Foreign film shortlist, might have been rejected due to its disaster-flick premise, which probably scared the not-always-adventurous Academy committee. But though a natural disaster is the narrative centerpiece of Norwegian director Roar Uthaug's pulse-quickening, riveting film; this is hardly schlocky, Hollywood nonsense. Uthaug's film is touching and intelligent; emotionally invested and more closely connected to science and real-world natural phenomena. The Wave might call to mind films like Force Majeure or The Impossible; stories of families sundered or brought together by a disaster or near-disaster, but Uthaug's story calls attention to a real, imminent catastrophe; one lurking in Norway's future.

Kristoffer Joner plays Kristian, a Norwegian geologist in the process of retiring from a station that monitors mountain seismic activity in Norway's fjords, more specifically, the Geiranger fjord. When the film begins, we see archival footage of two disasters that literally shook Norway in the early part of the 20th century; devastation wreaked by the collapse of two separate mountain sides, which triggered massive tsunamis; claiming many lives and reducing property to rubble.

Kristian's wife, Idun (the lovely Ane Dahl Torp), his son Sondre (Jonas Hoff Oftebro) and young daughter Julia (the unbelievably charming Edith Haagenrud-Sande) busy themselves with the logistics of a move, which will take them from their idyllic mountain home to their new digs in the city. We see the emotional impact the move exacts on Sondre, whose sentimental attachment to rural life leaves him a little resentful of his father. Though Idun's position at a tourist hotel in the area is directly effected by the move, she is supportive of her husband's career move as a consultant for a prominent oil company.

While Kristian's colleagues celebrate his send-off with cake and heartfelt sentiments, he becomes troubled by what he sees on the stations seismic monitors, which track and measure all movement on the steep mountain side of the Geiranger fjord. Any collapse of the massive rock face threatens to unleash a deadly tsunami 80 meters high; a frightening prospect to tourists and residents of the fjord.

Kristian's colleagues dismiss his anxieties about the anomalies in the station's data, which temporarily allays his fears. But as every disaster flick aficionado knows, a scientist's forewarning is usually ignored, to the detriment and danger of all.

But Kristian isn't easily deterred. An anxious moment en route to their new home causes Kristian to abandon the drive to revisit the station, where his forceful admonishments urge a field inspection of one massive rock face, which threatens to separate from the mountain.

Kristian's detour to the station becomes a protracted affair, causing his son and daughter to abandon his vehicle for the hotel his wife manages. As their move is temporarily delayed, Sondre accepts his mother's offer to stay in the hotel while Julia joins her father back at their now-empty home.

We know sooner or later, the worst will come to pass; which is what happens while Kristian and his daughter make ready to leave the family home. The tension and drama Uthaug has painstakingly developed pays off in a terrifying way as Kristian, Julia and scores of motorists seek higher ground while Idun desperately urges the hotel guests to board a shuttle to safety. Complicating her efforts is Sondre, who wanders the basement with his headphones on, unaware of the commotion above.

The ordeals that follow for the residents and tourists, not to mention Kristian and his family, are unbelievably harrowing. Filmed with technical precision and a fidelity to realism, the family's struggle to survive the tsunami's fury translates to exciting and gripping drama. And unlike the cartoonish characters and situations in all Hollywood disaster movies, there is nothing cartoonish about what we see in Uthaug's film. Hollywood disaster flicks avoid the ugly aspects of death; opting for long shots of urban devastation, earthquakes and tidal waves that leave the audience emotionally detached. The Wave shows us how the struggle to survive a catastrophe means becoming intimate with death in all its unforgiving aspects.

I had a few, albeit minor problems with the story on which I can't elaborate, for fear of giving away too much.

Many might say the film is The Impossible set in Norwegian fjords, which is true only in the most superficial ways. I must say I detested that film in spite of its technical brilliance. I didn't feel any emotional connection to that family and the film made a white family's survival of paramount importance when thousands of Thailanders lost their homes and lives. In Uthaug's film, all lives matter (though in fairness; they are all white).

Another quality that separates Uthaug's film from scores of other disaster films is its commitment to science and scientific accuracy. For once, scientists in a disaster film sound and behave like people who understand the technical terms and jargon they utter.

The end subtitles tell us a collapse is inevitable though scientists are unable to tell when it may happen.

If one is to make a highly realistic film about a natural disaster, it is necessary to have a cast who can be affective while executing elaborate stunts on rubble-strewn sets. The roles must have been physically and mentally demanding and in Joner, Torp and Oftebro's respective cases, grueling feats of endurance were probably necessary (I won't elaborate on that either).

Though Uthaug's film got short-changed on the Oscar ballot, that hardly diminishes its power. The Wave is the kind of film that induces a sense of wonder. It shows us nature at its most implacable and humans at their best and worst but most importantly, it is an absorbing story.

Anomalisa

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman/Voices: David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tom Noonan

Charlie Kaufman is one of film's great screenwriting talents. His screenplays for the films Being John Malkovich, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Synecdoche, NY and Adaptation reflect the thoughts and emotions of an intellectually curious mind. His new film; Anomalisa, which is based on his radio play of the same name and for which he shares a directing credit with Duke Johnson, is an affecting drama told in an unconventional way. Rather than film in live action, Kaufman and Johnson employed stop motion animation puppetry and miniaturized sets to tell the story of a man who feels emotionally disconnected from a world populated by people whose voices appear to be all the same.

Though the use of stop motion puppetry wouldn't seem like the most ideal story-telling medium, it proves to be quite an effective on film. And in choosing an offbeat manner in which to tell their story, Kaufman and Johnson manage to create a cinematic experience that is both moving and profound.

Anomalisa tells the story of author Michael Stone (David Thewlis, voice); who has just arrived in Cincinnati to deliver a speech at a conference on customer service. We see Michael walking through the airport terminal; indifferent to the faces and bodies he brushes past.

Michael's encounter with a cabby is disconcerting. The driver refuses to make eye-contact but accepts the fare. Michael's weary patience with the cab driver's incessant chatter is sorely tried by the repetitive comments about the Zoo and Cincinnati's famed chile. Michael's mood hardly improves when the bellhop at the hotel continues the stream of seemingly endless prattle.
A phone call to his wife and child, which is mostly perfunctory, also ends disappointingly. All alone, Michael orders room service but decides to call a woman from his past; a former lover who happens to be living in Cincinnati. The phone conversation is naturally awkward but Michael asks her to the hotel for a drink; an offer she warily accepts.

At this point in the film, one will notice that all the voices not Michael's are the same; male and female. Actor Tom Noonan lends his non-threatening, flat, nasally voice to all the characters, even Michael's former lover. This eccentricity is at first puzzling, as the audience might wonder why the filmmakers would deliberately have everyone sound the same. And when Michael meets his former lover in the hotel bar; a woman he hasn't seen in ten years, her voice also bears the same lifeless tone we hear in everyone else.

Their conversation is naturally awkward at first as she asks what has prompted Michael to reach out to her after ten years. Michael talks about his problems, mainly his doubts about his mental health and his feelings of loneliness. Before long, the conversation turns to their failed relationship. Old wounds are reopened as his former lover asks why he walked away from their relationship. A conversation already fraught with tension escalates into anger when Michael invites her to his room. Her anger prompts a scene-making exit where Michael is left alone at the table, embarrassed and dejected. Michael returns to his room and looks out his window. He sees a man in a building across the street; sitting before a computer, preparing to masturbate; which does little to alleviate his feeling of isolation and loneliness.

Not long after, Michael hears a voice while in the shower. He steps out, dons pants and a shirt and hurries into the hallway to locate the person he believes he's heard. Finding no one, he knocks on several doors, only to come upon one room with two women who happen to recognize him from his book. The women mention they are also in town to attend the customer service conference and are keen to mention his speech, which they are eager to hear. Of the two women, Michael finds one has a distinctive voice unlike the others he's heard. He notices that the voice, which belongs to a woman named Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh, voice) is pleasing to his ear. Enchanted by her voice, Michael invites both women for drinks in the hotel bar. While the friend is eager and coquettish, Lisa is shy and tentative.
After drinks, the evening nearly comes to an end until Michael invites Lisa back to his room for a nightcap. Urged on by her friend, whose ego is somewhat bruised, Lisa agrees to his invitation.

Their conversation, fueled by Lisa's nervous volubility, exhilarates Michael, who encourages her to carry on. As they become more intimate, Michael notices a scar over one of Lisa's eyes. She preempts any questions about it with her firm refusal to discuss it further.

While she talks, we see that Lisa is self-deprecating; speaking disparagingly about her lack of smarts and how she needs a dictionary to understand many of the words in his book. In spite of her lack of self-confidence, Michael becomes rapturous as he listens to Lisa verbalize and at one point in their conversation, he asks her to sing a Cindy Lauper song when she mentions how much she likes her music. The scene where Lisa sings Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun is one of the film's most touching moments; as is what follows after during an amorous joining.

The next morning, as the two enjoy breakfast in the hotel room, the euphoria both Michael and Lisa felt the night before is doused by harsh reality as their respective, annoying, behavioral tics begin to emerge. What is worse, the enchanting voice that excited him the night before begins to bear traces of the flat voice he hears everywhere else until it overlaps with Lisa's voice.

Michael's talk at the conference becomes surreal as his angry, agitated outbursts about the lack of human connection mingle with the more mundane aspects of the speech. What is actually said and what does the audience hear? Reality and madness begin to blur.

In returning home to his wife and son, Michael finds a surprise party in his honor but though his wife tells him that everyone present loves him, the idea holds little succor. The final, unsentimental shot of Michael sitting on his stairs; alienated from the people and the party, makes any happy resolution impossible. But in spite of Michael's tragic condition, the final shot in the film belongs to Lisa, whose irrepressible good nature allows her something less gloomy.

I'm not sure the film would have been as powerful had the story employed live action. One may notice that the puppets had deliberate seams in their faces, as if everyone were wearing masks. Earlier in the film, Michael's anxiety about his face becoming detached to reveal a robotic one underneath gives the audience the sense that everyone may be automatons beneath their epidermal veneer.

I don't know what vocal criteria Kaufman and Johnson had in mind for their characters but I must say the casting was exceptional. David Thewlis' voice has a plaintive quality, which is ideal for Michael's anxious disposition. Lisa's voice, which she uses to mask a psychic wound like the facial scar she tries to hide, often sounds like that of a little girl's; vulnerable and uncertain. Jennifer Jason Leigh's vocal performance captures all the nuance in Lisa's personality.

Unfortunately for Michael, no answers or comforting solutions to his existential suffering are forthcoming. One of the film's sad ironies is that a man whose success is predicated on customer relations--human relations--is desperate for meaningful, human connection.

It is interesting to consider that one of the most touching dramas in American film in 2015 relied on puppetry to tell its story. The puppetry might have only been a cute gimmick if the film lacked a poignant story. Though the faces we see on-screen remain artificial, the emotions, anxieties and thoughts communicated are wonderfully and tragically human.

The Revenant

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Alejandro Inarritu/Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Forrest Goodluck, Duane Howard and Melaw Nakehk'o

Another eagerly-anticipated film from late 2015, which is only now making its way to screens nation-wide, is Alejandro Inarritu's extraordinary The Revenant. The trailer alone promised adventure, amazing visual sweeps of snowy mountains and frozen frontier, as well as a juicy revenge tale; not to mention a harrowing bear attack (more on that later). I am pleased to say Inarritu has delivered one of 2015's very best films. He is on a roll now; his preceding effort being the excellent Birdman. Though Tarantino's The Hateful Eight was filmed in 70mm--very few scenes in that film warranted a higher film gauge--The Revenant would have been a more suitable candidate for that visual format.
As for the story itself, Inarritu's film is a compelling depiction of nature's dual personality; its beauty and savagery.

Based partly on actual events and Michael Punke's novel of the same name, Inarritu's film tells the story of the legendary Hugh Glass (Leonardo Dicaprio), a guide and trapper during the early 1820s' who joined a fur-trapping and trading expedition along the Missouri River, which spans Montana and North and South Dakota. Hired as the expedition guide, Glass' knowledge of the terrain is prized by the expedition leader Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson), as well as other trappers. Accompanying Glass and the expedition is Glass' half-Pawnee son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck).

When the story begins, the expedition's camp is a bustle of activity as we see animal skins being severed from carcasses and stored thereafter in large sacks. While the men busy themselves about the camp, Glass and Hawk hunt in the forest. Unbeknownst to them, the camp has been attacked by Arikara tribe warriors, whose angry leader searches for his abducted daughter. Glass and Hawk return to camp to join the fight. Aware they're outnumbered, the expedition's survivors make haste for their boat just before being overrun.

Racing away down river from the Arikara, Glass advises the Captain that the boat must be abandoned for an overland trek back to the fort. The plan is mocked by John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), the expedition's malcontent. Knowing the journey back to the fort will be impossible with the large sacks of animal pelts, the Captain advises the men to hide their take until they can return for them. The men set the boat back on the river to drift downstream to deceive the pursuing Arikara.

Though the Arikara seem to be the story's hostile antagonists, we also see events from their point of view as Elk Dog's (Duane Howard) violent actions are prompted by valid motivations. Allied with the Arikara is a competing French fur-trapping expedition. In a scene where Elk Dog pleads with the French expedition leader for more guns and horses, we get a sense of how native tribes were bullied and exploited. When Elk Dog's request is met with a petulant refusal, he reminds the French leader how the white men have taken so much from them.

While the American fur-trappers set out for the fort, Glass encounters a pair of grizzly cubs in the forest. Before he can wander away he hears an ominous sound which turns out to be a charging mother grizzly. What may become the most talked about sequence in the film is Glass' mauling, which is interrupted when the hulking, ursine attacker becomes convinced of his prey's death. As Glass lies still; battered and beaten; the grizzly rests a massive paw on his head, which elicits a groan. When the mother grizzly returns to her young, Glass reaches for his rifle. When she returns, Glass shoots her in the shoulder, inciting her to greater viciousness. Seeing her wound, Glass plunges his knife repeatedly into her wound until she stops her attack. He rolls down the hill into a gully, where the dead grizzly follows soon after, pinning Glass to the ground.
The party finds him soon after, only to become aware of his severe and life-threatening wounds. Fitzgerald, hardly a compassionate soul, suggests they put him out of his misery; a comment that elicits disgust from the Captain, who draws on his medical experience to treat Glass' wounds. The Captain nearly executes Glass until his conscience gets the better of him. Needing to press onward to escape the wintry cold and the Arikara, the Captain asks for volunteers to remain behind to bury Glass if the need arises. Though Hawk's decision is a given, both Bridger (Will Poulter) and Fitzgerald stay behind. But we see Fitzgerald has no intention of sticking around to watch over Glass. When Bridger and Hawk step away from Glass, Fitzgerald sees an opportunity to kill him but is thwarted by Hawk. In trying to fight off Fitzgerald, Hawk is stabbed to death while Glass looks on helplessly; unable to speak or be heard. Fitzgerald hauls off Hawk's body into the forest to hide his treacherous act. When Bridger returns, Fitzgerald lies to him about Hawk's whereabouts. He also lies about an advancing party of Arikara, which prompts a quick departure but not before Fitzgerald drags Glass' body into a shallow grave previously dug, where he shoves a thin coating of dirt over the body; leaving the face exposed. Bridger, feeling pangs of guilt and remorse for leaving Glass behind, reluctantly joins Fitzgerald in his flight; believing all he is told about Hawk's disappearance and Glass' imminent death.

Though his condition be dire, Glass survives and begins to crawl away; a bleeding wound in his neck and a broken leg his most salient problems.

Eager to exact revenge for his son's death, much of the film becomes Glass' struggle to return to the fort and survive, which is made all the more difficult by his lack of survival gear; his gun and supplies having been lifted by Fitzgerald. His journey back to the fort is nothing less than harrowing and thrilling, as the pursuing Arikara, the bitter cold and the absence of food all conspire against him.
Along the way, Glass is haunted by the specter of his deceased Pawnee wife. We see in flashback how she and her tribe were slaughtered by French soldiers while Glass and a young Hawk manage to escape.

Some of the film's most indelible images are seen in Glass' journey; spectacular mountains; staggeringly beautiful shots of the snow-covered landscapes and the grim images of European and American depredations. A startling shot of Glass standing before a pyramidal mound of perfectly-placed bison skulls is eloquent commentary on the rapaciousness of white hunters and an ominous harbinger of what awaits the American frontier. Glass' desperate efforts to return to the fort make for some of the film's most gripping moments, as narrow, death-defying escapes and the constant search for food provide searing drama.

Fitzgerald's deception is eventually discovered after he and Bridgers return to the fort, which prompts his flight and a robbery of the safe in the Captain's office. The search for Fitzgerald serves as the film's riveting, climactic finale.

I thought I had already seen the year's best films until Inarritu's made an 11th hour appearance. Not a tedious, gratuitous moment is to be found in its formidable 158 minutes. Accompanying the striking images is a brilliantly plotted story that never flags for a second.

Though excellent performances are a norm in the film, it is difficult not to single out DiCaprio and Hardy's acting. Much of DiCaprio's performance is physical. Crawling through snowy production locales in Canada, Argentina and Montana couldn't have been easy. It isn't often that we see Native American actors in any films but they too make a tremendous impact. Forrest Goodluck's Hawk is fully Pawnee in appearance but is very much American in manner and expression. Duane Howard's Elk Dog shows terrific nuance; his seeming violent implacability is tempered by his compassionate resolve.

My earlier comment about Terrence Malik is apt. Inarittu's cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki also served as cinematographer on Malick's Tree of Life and The New World; other films where his powerful aesthetic was in evidence. The Revenant would be worth seeing for the images alone.

Inarritu's film is masterful. I haven't been able to shake it since I saw it recently and I doubt I'll be able to forget it anytime soon. It will be necessary to see it again on the big screen; one viewing seems woefully insufficient.

Joy

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: David O. Russell/Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Virginia Madsen, Edgar Ramirez, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Ladd and Elizabeth Rohm

Jennifer Lawrence gave us not one but two strong characters in 2015; one of course was Katniss Everdeen, while the other is from David O. Russell's late year release, Joy. Katniss was always the reluctant leader and hero of her story while Lawrence's new character; Joy Mangano, is hardly shy about asserting her authority. Both women epitomize female empowerment but though Katniss is a terrific fictional character, Joy is based on the real life inventor/entrepreneur who overcame considerable resistance to realize her dreams and ambitions.

But don't mistake Russell's film for an uplifting, sentimental, Horatio Alger story. Joy is a beautifully-acted, powerful drama with its share of triumphant moments. The film's brilliant focal point is Jennifer Lawrence's marvelous performance. Lawrence is quickly laying claim to the title of America's best actress.

Based on the real life experiences of Joy Mangano, Russell's film opens in late 70s' New York. We see Joy struggle to support her mother Terry (Virginia Madsen), her ex-husband Tony (Edgar Ramirez) and two children. While Terry does little all day but watch soap operas, Tony clings to a fading dream of becoming a singer. In spite of their divorce, Joy tolerates Tony's presence in her house; an issue that irks her father Rudy (Robert De Niro). While Terry and Tony do little to help financially, Joy finds it necessary to take on all tasks and chores related to her house; including home repairs and maintenance.

Long divorced from Joy's mother, Rudy meets Trudy (Isabella Rossellini); an Italian woman who has just inherited her late husband's fortune.

Demonstrating an innate flair for invention, Joy designs a self-wringing mop which she draws up--utilizing her daughter's crayon--in a primitive sketch. Having parts crafted from her design by some of her father's shop workers, Joy is able to create a working prototype but lacks the capital to proceed with production. Tapping into Trudy's inheritance, she is able to hire workers to assemble the various parts in mass quantity.

Before she can patent her invention, Trudy recommends Joy consult a lawyer of her acquaintance to investigate the possible existence of a similar invention elsewhere--which elicits a warning from Tony, who thinks it a mistake to involve someone who doesn't specialize in patent law. The lawyer informs Joy that a similar patent does indeed exist, which makes royalty payments necessary. Joy then hires a company used by her co-patent holder to manufacture the parts she needs for her mops.

Joy's workers create a stock of mops but she discovers that generating interest in her invention is exceedingly difficult. An impromptu demonstration in a K-Mart parking lot draws few buyers and worse still, the store management has the police force her from the premises but not before confiscating her mops.

Having taken out a mortgage to pay her workforce, Joy's debts begin to accumulate but an opportunity to bring her mops to the public's attention is made possible by Tony, who for once manages to be useful to his ex-wife. Tony arranges a meeting for Joy with Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper); an executive for QVC; the home-shopping network, at their company headquarters and studios in Pennsylvania. The meeting goes swimmingly; as Walker is impressed not only with Joy's invention, but her gumption. After Joy's awkward demonstration before QVC personnel, Walker agrees to have her mop on a QVC broadcast. But when the product goes live, she discovers to her horror that the man chosen to present the mop on air bungles the demonstration, which results in zero sales. Furious, Joy drives to Pennsylvania, where she barges into a QVC executive meeting to confront Walker. She demands that her mop be given a second demonstration, performed by herself. Walker reluctantly agrees.

After some cosmetic and sartorial preparation--Joy rejects the latter for her own choice of on-screen attire, she goes live on QVC. She stammers at first but then eases into the demonstration. Moments later, the sales display lights up, causing Joy's family and friends watching at home to rejoice. The joyous, heady moment is a wonderful moment in the film.

But still more setbacks await when Joy discovers her half-sister Peggy (Elizabeth Rohm) has conducted business with the company manufacturing the mop parts, making payments to offset rising interest costs. Joy angrily tells her sister to never conduct business on her behalf again.

The various relationships in Joy's life have some effect, negative or positive on Joy's ambitions. While Peggy proves to be a sibling competitor with ambitions of her own, Terry is a constant burden and Tony a vexing impediment to her success until he proves otherwise. The one anchor in her life is her grandmother Mimi (Diane Ladd--where has she been?); a motivating influence whose unshakable faith in Joy remains a constant to her grave. And though Rudy is initially encouraging, he shows his true colors after Joy is forced into bankruptcy when she discovers the mop part manufacturer refuses to pay for its shoddy work; a problem exacerbated by their unlawful appropriation of her molds. In a moment that calls for fatherly support, Rudy instead expresses his regrets about ever encouraging Joy.

Faced with almost certain defeat, Joy summons her natural smarts and tenacity to look further into the patent claims by the rival company. To her dismay and delight, Joy discovers that no competing patent was ever filed which prompts a meeting with the man who made a competing claim on the patent. The scene where Joy confronts the man responsible for said fraudulent patent claim is riveting. Attending the meeting with confidence and resolve--and a dramatic hair self-styling, Joy secures from the man a sizable payment for the crime committed on herself and company.

The story ends happily for Joy, though subtitles tell us members of her family saw fit to sue her for various reasons. The final scene where Joy sits at desk, listening to a prospective female inventor pitch a product brings the story full circle and is a touching end to a powerful film.

David O. Russell is an actor's director. Though plot is never an afterthought in his films; people are always Russell's main concern. Supporting Lawrence's superb performance is Robert De Niro, who has done his best work in recent years under Russell. The same can almost be said for Bradley Cooper, who never hits a false note. It was great to see Rossellini, Madsen and Diane Ladd, who all made their presence felt. Edgar Ramirez probably redeems himself for the unfortunate Point Break remake.

Russell's film could serve as a metaphor for the plight of actresses in Hollywood; who, in their struggles to be cast in choice roles, always run into a near impenetrable wall of male power that seeks to diminish them rather than allow their talent to flourish.
What the movie ultimately celebrates is female empowerment; Joy's persistence in the face of resistance. The shot of Joy walking toward the camera; looking bad-ass in sunglasses and leather jacket, tells us everything about her refusal to be anyone's fool or doormat.

Russell's film is well on its way to the award empyrean but awards really mean little in the broader scheme of things. What really counts most is a film's endurance. I hope the film resonates with movie audiences.

The Hateful Eight

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Quentin Tarantino/Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth, Walton Goggins, Demian Bichir and Zoe Bell

Happy New Year folks! And what a way to cross the threshold into another 365 with Quentin Tarantino's new film The Hateful Eight. The release of any Tarantino film is always a much-anticipated event. Tarantino's films guarantee a good time and his new western is anything but a snoozer.
It's axiomatic that westerns, particularly Sergio Leone's variety, occupy a prominent place in Tarantino's movie pantheon. Even his crime films contain allusions to Spaghetti westerns. Though his new film doesn't feel entirely like a Spaghetti, it nevertheless nods in that direction at times. The most conspicuous connection to the Italian westerns is in the soundtrack; an exceptional score by the man who helped make that western subgenre famous; Ennio Morricone.

Things we can expect from every Tarantino film are: colorful characters, colorful dialogue, violence; often times very graphic and his penchant for showing a sequence of events from different perspectives. And none of these indispensable Tarantino elements are crafted without his keen intelligence, which help mold these disparate features into something compellingly cohesive.

Subtitles tell us The Hateful Eight is Tarantino's eighth film, which is followed by a seque to a shot fit for the 70mm format proudly advertised in trailers: the white, wintry mountains of Wyoming (Colorado in actuality). In long shot, moving against the inert, silent surroundings is a stagecoach struggling through the deep snow.

Up close, we see the coach stop for a black man blocking the road who stands near several bodies, piled high. When the coachman stops the coach, the black man asks if he might ride along. The coachman tells him only the man who has hired the coach can decide. When the coachman turns to shout toward the interior of the coach, a heavily mustachioed man sticks his head out and inquires about the identity of the prospective rider. He makes the black man, who introduces himself as Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), walk slowly to the side of the coach but not before asking him to lay his his pistols down on a rock. Warren explains to the man, who introduces himself as John Ruth (Kurt Russell), that he has bodies he intends to collect a bounty on and is in need of a ride. Ruth tells Warren, in a forceful manner, that he intends to take the woman sitting in the carriage; Daisy Domergue (an excellent Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock to hang and isn't partial to having company along. The sight of Daisy's face; ragged and black-eyed, isn't mitigated by her gruff manner, which she extends to Warren in the form of racist comments. After further cajoling, Warren convinces Ruth to allow he and his bounty bodies a ride to Red Rock.

Along the way, Ruth and Warren get better acquainted; having met casually once before in the past. In their conversation, which is tinged with mutual suspicion and distrust, Warren tells Daisy about Ruth's reputation for bringing captives to hang, thus earning him the nickname John "The Hangman" Ruth. Warren's past is also revealed when we learn about his role as officer for the Union in the Civil War. Their conversation moves along and is only disturbed periodically by Daisy's comments, which elicit Ruth's violent responses; one being a hard elbow to the nose. Though she is slated to hang, we don't learn of Daisy's crime until the latter part of the film though we know murder is involved; which seems likely, given her rough appearance and rougher tongue.

In their ride through the Wyoming snow, they see a man waving to them from a distance who is also in need of a ride. Ruth is immediately suspicious; believing the man to be a secret associate of Warren's but changes his mind when they make his acquaintance. The man, with whom Ruth is more than familiar, is Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), who explains that he is en route to Red Rock where he is to become the sheriff. Ruth scoffs at the claim; explaining to Daisy and Warren that Mannix belonged to a Confederate guerrilla party whose airs of legitimacy were challenged by those who say the unit were no more than marauders. While Ruth eyes Mannix suspiciously, the would-be sheriff rankles Warren with his southern, racist comments.

After reluctantly taking on Mannix, the blizzard worsens until the group is forced to stop at a place called Minnie's Haberdashery; a lonely establishment serving as a kind of outpost.

Upon entering we see the name of the establishment is kind of a joke, as no haberdashery is anywhere to be seen; only what looks to be a crude version of a country inn. Seated in the establishment are a few men who are scattered about the place. The ferocious, cold winds makes it necessary for the occupants to nail small, wooden planks on the door to keep the door from bursting open. The fact that everyone entering the haberdashery must first bust open the door then nail planks to keep the door from opening becomes a running gag throughout the film.

As Warren, Ruth, Mannix and Daisy become situated, they (and we) meet the mysterious gathering who have also become thwarted by the storm:

• Bob (Demian Bichir); Minnie's Mexican employee, who informs the arrivals his boss has gone away on business; a statement Ruth finds more than a little suspect.
• Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth); an English executioner, who is to serve at Daisy's hanging.
• General Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern); a former officer for the Confederacy, who looks upon Warren and his Union blue with disgust.
• Joe Gage (Michael Madsen); a cow puncher who is as dubious everyone else.

Held captive by the weather, animosities emerge, such as that between Warren and Smithers, which eventually escalates into violence. Smithers finds an ally in Mannix, whose esteem of the officer reaches obsequious proportions.

Unsure of the other lodgers, Ruth investigates the identities of those already in the Haberdashery. And not long after Ruth begins to suspect that one or more of the lodgers are in cahoots with Daisy, which only intensifies his distrust of all present.The film then becomes a mixed-genre of western and mystery as the riddle of who might be Daisy's collaborators becomes the narrative focus. A killer locked in a sealed room with other people is a well-worn plot device peculiar to mystery novels, but it works well here. Tarantino is a master at drawing tension and drama from such situations as he did in Reservoir Dogs, where a near-empty warehouse becomes a stage in which criminals try to identify the cop in their gang.

After Warren's showdown with Smithers, we learn the coffee has been poisoned, which claims the lives of two characters. Who the culprit might be becomes the mystery within the mystery and as we draw closer to learning the identities of those who might be Daisy's accomplices, the film becomes more violent and bloody. Later, another character emerges at which point all mysteries unravel and a savage climax is ushered into the narrative.

Very few directors can keep a 168 minute film enthralling. Tarantino seems to have few difficulties accomplishing this feat. How he manages this is yet another mystery, though the answer seems deceptively simple. Considering most of the film is dialogue and exposition, one might think the story would become monotonous but in Tarantino's hands I found my attention fully engaged.

The beautiful exterior shots of a pristine, white snowscape stand as a terrific contrast to the Haberdashery interior; particularly later, when blood seems to splash over all the characters and nearly every surface. Tarantino's long-time cinematographer; Robert Richardson, does his profession proud with the 70mm palette he is given to work with.

Ennio Morricone's scores are always memorable; his music here is no exception. At 87, his compositions show no sign of becoming stale.

Jennifer Jason Leigh doesn't have much dialogue but she manages to be a forceful presence, nevertheless. The sight of her bloodied, maniacal face is one of the more memorable images from the film. Samuel L. Jackson, the real scene stealer of Pulp Fiction (not Travolta), commands our attention early and holds it.

Tarantino says he will retire after his tenth film. After seeing The Hateful Eight, I felt his retirement target to be premature. I hope he reconsiders. His new film demonstrates his edginess is still intact and robust.
Tarantino would have been a great playwright. What is an essentially a chamber piece feels like a really exciting play.
His film is one of the last significant movie releases of 2015. It is a helluva way to end the year and an exceptional film to have as a first blog-post for 2016.