This past week I’ve been enjoying David McCullough’s nonfiction book “The Wright Brothers” and Sarah Waters’s novel “The Paying Guests” and will report back once I finish both. Have you read these? Meanwhile over the past few months I finished seeing the eight Oscar nominees for Best Picture and a few other films as well. Here are the last five movies I’ve seen:
“Room” — I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see this movie about a mother and son held captive in a shed for years, but I knew (even though I haven’t read the novel by Emma Donoghue yet) there must be something redeeming about the story, or else what’s the point of watching so awful a plot and subject matter. Indeed it’s the mother’s bond with her son and how she shields him from the horrors of the situation, creating an imaginative world in just a tiny room, that makes it special. The movie is reminiscent of the 1997 film “Life Is Beautiful” in which a father protects his son from the dangers in a WWII concentration camp. “Room” is not exactly an easy watch, but it’s definitely one of the most moving and heart-wrenching films of the year. My nails didn’t exactly survive in tact.
“The Revenant” — This revenge film — about a frontiersman (played by Leo DiCaprio) left for dead on a winter fur trading expedition in the 1820s — is brutal! Make no mistake about it! I’m not exactly sure I knew what I was getting into. What’s for sure is that Leo’s character has about nine lives in this movie. It’s rough to say the least, but for Leo I survived its Indian attacks, animal attack and its harsh conditions to make it through. But in reality I wouldn’t have survived one night in the frozen woods or five minutes in the river. “The Revenant” reminded me a bit of the 1972 film “Jeremiah Johnson” but had many more hardships to tackle. While I’d support Leo getting an Oscar for his performance, and liked the film’s cinematography, I’m not really rooting for the film to win Best Picture, though with its 12 nominations it’s likely the favorite.
“Carol” — While I liked and appreciated this film — about two women who develop an intimate relationship in the 1950s — for some reason for me it didn’t totally live up to all the hype I had heard about it. The performances by both Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett are undoubtedly strong as is the direction by Todd Haynes, but somehow I didn’t get totally ramped up about the power of the story, or didn’t feel I knew the characters too well. I guess I wanted to like “Carol” perhaps more than I did.
“Mad Max: Fury Road” — This high action sequel set in post-apocalyptic Australia was definitely quite a wild ride. It features big truck and motorcycle chases across the desert going full blast amid a lot of gunfire, and has Charlize Theron teaming up with Tom Hardy, which isn’t too shabby. It’s action-packed for sure with a tyrannical bad guy, but it sort of made me long for the old Mad Max days of Mel Gibson. The first “Mad Max” movie in 1979 scared the heck out of me. And while “Fury Road” is a decent action flick, does it really deserve a Best Picture nomination? I guess I didn’t think so.
“The Big Short” — The funny thing is I really didn’t want to see this film about four guys who predicted the U.S. economic collapse of 2008. I just thought a financial film about the credit and housing bust might be drudgery to revisit those days. Did I really want to return to “the worst downturn since the Great Depression” again? But how wrong I was! “The Big Short” takes quite a creative approach to get to the bottom of the complex fallout; it’s entertaining and the performances by the well-known cast of Steve Farrell, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale, in particular, are outstanding — as is the soundtrack. It seems either the film or the book by Michael Lewis should be required for all Americans. What a disaster for the country! I wouldn’t mind if it won a few Oscar awards including the big one, even though I don’t think it will.
What about you have you seen any of these movies — and if so what did you think? Or do you have a favorite film of 2015?
I read The Paying Guests a couple weeks ago and thought it was excellent, though the second half got a bit repetitive and dragged thru the court case.
I truly loved Room, the novel and look forward to the movie.
I saw Mad Max the other night. Boy did I ever miss Mel who managed to inject some humor, though Theron and Hardy were excellent. I felt the story got lost in all the violent action and I have never seen the attraction in endless chase scenes. Best Picture? No way!
I agree Judy, I didn’t see the big deal about Fury Road but thought Room impressive & very emotional. I should read the book! I’m liking the Paying Guests so far I hope it doesn’t drag too much in the 2nd half.
I spend most of my time reading and I often miss the buzz about movies. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about these films.
http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2016/01/childrens-multicultural-book-day.html
Yeah a few of these are worth seeing! Thanks Deb. I will stop by.
I do not get a chance to watch a lot of films these days. I did see fury road. It really should not be up for best picture. With that, as a fan of the older Mad Max movies, I loved it.
A lot of people are talking about it from a cultural point of view and I agree it is an important film in that aspect. The fact that Max aligns himself with a group that can be described as Matriarchal who are fighting a group of tyrannical rapists who see women and people who are different as “things” has sparked really interesting and lively conversations and commentary on social media, in articles, on blogs, etc.
I also loved the Guitar Guy:)
Ha the Guitar Guy, yeah that was funny. Yeah the biker women were pretty good. I guess I still missed the Mel days. That first Mad Max in ’79 was haunting.
I did enjoy Carol, but probably because I had no expectations. And I always enjoy Cate Blanchett, and wondered what Rooney Mara would be like in a role so different from Lisbeth Salander.
Now I’m definitely curious about The Big Short, as, like you, I thought it would be drudgery, but sounds like it isn’t.
I haven’t read ROOM, but I do want to see the movie…if it ever comes here! LOL
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Hi Laurel: I liked Carol too, just didn’t love it. That Room movie was powerful! I hope it gets to you. The Big Short is pretty good too.
I haven’t seen any of these, but am hoping to eventually get to see Room (I loved Life is Beautiful!) and Carol. I knew that The Big Short has been doing really well, but I wasn’t really even sure what it was about until now. Now I want to see this one, as well. I never thought I would say that about a movie about economics.
Yeah Naomi I hope you get to see Room! The Big Short is quite surprising; who would have guessed I’d have liked it either?!
I haven’t seen any of those; it’s been ages since I’ve gone to the movie theater. That said, I’ve tried to keep up with the movies as they are released for rental. One that caught my attention was Pawn Sacrifice. I gave it four and a half stars; I’m posting about it this coming week on my blog. If it had been up to me, I would take out The Martian from the Oscar race and insert Pawn Sacrifice.
Tonight I’m going to watch Straight Out of Compton and will tell more about it if it makes enough impression to write a post. There is controversy about that one as it deserved recognition but wasn’t nominated. I’ll tell what I think as soon as I see it.
I will stop by your site Carmen. Good to know about Pawn Sacrifice and I’m also curious about the Compton film. Both seem like good rentals.
I haven’t seen any of these movies, although Carol is on my “To Be Seen list”. I just can’t see myself going to see the Revenent, and from your description I was right. Brooklyn is on my list to see too. Thanks for sharing these!
Yeah Suzanne, the Revenant was harsh! But I think you’d like Brooklyn — it’s a good film.
My husband went to see The Big Short this week and I decided not to go… sounds like I made a big mistake!
I enjoyed The Paying Guests on audio. Juliet Stevenson’s narration was fantastic.
Oh JoAnn if you’d seen the Big Short – I could’ve conferred with you on it. What did your husband think? Oh I’m listening to the audio too of The Paying Guests, loving the narration. A friend told me to get it.
We saw The Revenant (brutal) and The Big Short (loved it). We also saw : Concussion and Spotlight which were excellent and Joy, which was okay IMO.
Oh thanks for the feedback Diane. So glad to hear you shared some of my reactions to these films. I also loved Spotlight. But I haven’t seen Concussion or Joy yet. Concussion seems a must for sure. I admit to being a football fan but I know it’s brutal on the players. sigh.
I doubt I will be seeing any of these any time soon. I am intrigued by Joy though, if only because I do love JLaw. I finally got around to seeing The Martian. It still is not as good as the book – I was irked by some of the changes they made – but it was a pretty decent movie.
I’ve seen The Big Short. I thought it was really good even though I didn’t understand all of it. There’s a reason why I got C’s in my college finance classes!
I hope to see Room this weekend. I loved the book – I hope the movie lives up to it.