Oscars final review

Yesterday night was The Night we were expecting since ... oh well, last year?
After the amazing success of Moonlight and, most of all the infamous loser La La Land, the 89th Academy Awards were hard to forget.
The 90th edition was tough since its beginning: the ME TOO movement and some scandals concerning female abuses (remember James Franco's exclusion?) and Guillermo De Toro being accused of plagiarism by Paul Zindel's son, who claimed Toro had copied his father's 1969 masterpiece "Let Me Hear You Whisper".  And, to be frank, the doubt was reasonable !

Let's start with a few words on the red carpet.  Nothing to do with the 2015 Red Carpet, with capital R and C, when Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Rooney Mara and Margot Robbie stayed... or the 2016 success of Viola Davis and Emma Stone... yesterday night, in my opinion was way above all this memories. Anyway, Nicole, looking fabulous in her Armani, and the sober "old but not cold" Meryl Streep in total red, were my favorite.

I'm happy with all the results besides best movie. How come that Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri didn't win Best Picture?  Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell won their category! And, let's say it, the story of Three Billboards was original, yet conveyed a contemporary message: the denunce of a dysfunctional justice system and, once again, violence against women. That's all? No, because Frances portrayed the strength of a lone - wolf women, who finds the strength to pursue her aim fighting the system form the inside. And The Shape of Water? A strange love story between a women and a monster, even if, in reality, the real monster was not the fishy creature but the carnal scientist. Interesting... but moving? In my opinion, Toro's work was well balanced in rhytm, music and surprising effects - even the monster itself was quite "sweet"-but, even though the story was enjoyable, it didn't leave nothing to me.

Your thoughts? Comment below so we can finally share opinions.

The Florida Project

The Florida Project (2017) directed by Sean Baker , among its stars Willem Dafoe- nominated in the category of Best supporting actor at the 90th Oscars.

In the Florida Project the cam follows the steps of a group of kind who lived near DisneyLand, and, in particular of the 6 yo Moonee, the daughter of the screwed up young hooker Halley. The two of them used to spend their summer holidays in the Magic Castle motel in Kissimmee, where Moonee every year reunited with her young partners in crime Scooty and her bae Janey. The cam shows them while fooling around mocking tourists and other inhabitants, trying to picture the normal life of this unfortunates people who survive thanks to offers and favors that Bobby (Dafoe), the manager, saves for them.

• Near by a magical place, real people struggle. I liked the contrast between the imagined Florida represented by the idealistical DisneyLand, which is shown only in the final scene as a contrast to the fact that normal people live in a shade that (obviously) tourists ignore. Is Florida so magical as we imagine? The answer is no, and we see it in the Magic Castle motel, where young girls are already mother of 6 yo babies and have to do full time jobs or to sell their body in order to survive.
• Food. What effort worths a hot meal? Well, Halley feeds Moone with Waffles and Take Aways, but, as long as Halley has the opportunity she knocks at her mother’s door to pass a pleasant night, sleep under a decent roof and eat some heart-made dish. On the other hand food is a coagulant factor for Halley and Mooney, that spend their ¾ of time together eating, as food could fulfilled their lack of affection, or, on the other hand, food is seen a mean of power, as we see in the scene where Halley argues with Scooty’s mother.
• Almost abandoned kids that fool around all day, become piromanes without even realize the consequence of their actions because nobody told them.
• Bobby aka Willem Defoe who as the interesting role of both being the owner of the Magical Castle and the one who seems to be the great father, trying to fix troubles for Halley and other mates.
• The emotional final scene, gives back to Moonee and Janey their stolen childhood.

Movie rating: 4/5.

TB to 2016 and 2017 Red Carpet

The Oscars is not only about movies, screenplays and directors. Let's make a little #TB at the 2016 and 2017 Red Carpets. Here we go ladies !

Phantom Tread

Happy Valentine’s day to all our readers! Ciak Movies comes out with a special review: today, guess what, we are talking about L-O-V-E. Platonic love, carnal love, true love, who cares? Love is love, people. And one thing is for sure: we all love Cinema. So movie lovers, take a seat, and perpared yourself to read a special review. Never heard about Phantom Thread?

Phantom Tread (2017) written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Daniel Day-Lewis (Reynolds), Lesley Manville (his sister Cyril) and Vicky Krieps (Alma).

Set in 50s London, the movie presents an a-typical life , the one of the legendarian (and odd) couturier Reynolds Woodcock who passes his time drawing mezmerizing dresses for some royal highness around the globe, and the rude, illeterate, stranger young waitress Alma. The more Reynold lives according to schemes and schedules, the more Alma is rebel, unpolite and noughty. The two fell in love, a strange but strong love that lead the two to marriage, even if Reynolds, after a short period of time, get tired of his girlfriends and seems incapable to love anything (if we exclude his sister Cyril), besides his dresses. On the other hand, Alma is exaggerately gelous and reveals her mental instability to both the spectator and her beloved couturier. Isn’t love blind? Or crazy? Or inexplicable?

The movie gained a great number of nominatons: 2 at the Golden Globes and 6 at the 90th Academy Awards-Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Day-Lewis (his final role before retirement), and Supporting Actress for Manville.

• Daniel Day Lewis is worth watching, delivering one of the most sincere representation of the season, even though the strange behavour of the man is quite annoying. All the world and the camera seems to be round him . In fact, even Alma and Cyril who are two strong female characters belonging to different social levels and age, but are united by Reynolds presence. Phantom tread is a one man show.
• In some moments of the movie you will feel ill, just like the main character. The tone is quite pale and nothing occurs, besides the couturier being poisoned a few times. LOL. 
• Alma being the perfect muse. At first she is shy, then, suddenly turned out to be a role model. 
• Lesley Manville and her few facial expressions. Cyril you are a rock of impassivity. 

Movie rating: 3/5.

The Post

The Post (2017) is a political thriller directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, Bob Odenkirk (as Ben) and Sarah Paulson. A great cast, a great story. The Post is running for 2 statuettes at the 90th Academy Awards - Best Picture and Best Actress for Meryl, and it is already included in top 10 movies of the year list.

But is The Post as interesting as the critic claims?

Well, firstly let’s introduce the story: in the ‘70s the journal The Washington Post decided to post the sensitive and top secret docs of the controversial Pentagon Papers – regarding Vietnam’s war, after the Ny Times was put out the games because of an injunction that restrained reporter Neil Sheehan to continue publishing its investigation. It is the Post’s reporter Ben Bagdikian who produced a dangerous super-scoop in order to salve the reputation of the paper.

• This movie advocates the right to tell a story and the “constitutional” free press. Untrustworthy government and political uncertainties are the basis of this 70s crisis but are problems that clearly deal with nowadays administration.
• If I had to choose a great actress in order to portray the 70s’ only woman in the press room, which one I would choose? Meryl, you rock the house. Lucid performance and once again, nominated.
• The movie itself in spite the message and the theme covered, The Post is all but entertaining and funny, as the official critic liked to write black on white. Other journalistically/ inquire movies have been made recently, as Academy Award Winner in 2015 “Spotlight” or “Truth”, which were, in my opinion not only more “moving” but also more interesting in the storytelling. But Vietnam is Vietnam, right?
• Boring, boring and… BORING. Great cast, great director, good story. That’s not enough to make a good movie ! The scenes are too long, the narration is as slow as Dante climbing Purgatory’s hill. 
  The only one which outstanded, in my opinion was, Bob Odenkirk. My reaction when I first recognize him after years and years not seeing his face (remember lawyer Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad series?) was “oh god, how old is he now?”. That was the only moment when I’ve felt alive during this movie.

Movie rating: 1.5/5 stars- One point for Meryl, an half for the story.

  

Get Out

Get Out (2017) is a comic/ horror written and directed by Jordan Peele, starring Daniel Kaluuya (Chris) and Allison Williams (his girlfriend Rose). The movie earned 2 noms at the Golden Globes and is running for 4 statuettes at the 90th Academy Awards- Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor for Kaluuya.

The movie tells the misadventures of Chris, a black young photographer who agrees to meet his girlfriend’s parents who live a beautiful colonial house in the countyside. Mom and Dad turn out to be the worst kind of racist psychos cunducting illegal experiments on Rose’s love interests.

• Get Out is the first movie I have seen in this award season. And I have enjoyed it because it deals with current topics, such as racism still is in nowadays’ society and illegal scientifical experiments on human beings. But yet, Get Out makes you think&laugh in a comical entertaining way. But it scares you at the same time. How come that illegal experiments are made without no-one notice it? Or worse: a) no one seems to really care, b) where are the authorities?
• Daniel Kaluuya gives his face to a complex character. Chris is an ambicious photographer who lives a common, decent life. When things get dangerous, he does not suspect on his beloved girlfriend, does he? But then Chris manages to wake up and manages to get out this horrific reality. A black guy who is smart, fast and “good” in a subdle racial movie where the blacks are not only restrained to play the part of the victims. Chris’ role in the movie jumps of the opposition of colors, making us reflect more on the cruel experiments. We don’t tolerate them because they are injustly applied on black people or we don’t tolerate them at all? I mean, even if applied to asian people/european/caucasian or on the environment and the animals? Kaluuya’s acting portrays all this. Intense interpretation.
• Rose’s family. I mean, wow. How is it even possible that a revival colonial house exists in 21th c? The parallelism between the 2 “worlds”, contemporary and colonial is very interesting.
• Classical horror effects, music and… tools.

Movie rating: 5/5 stars.

In my opinion, one of the most complete movies of the season, even if its early screen opening seems to cut Get out out of the awards game. Be scared of outsiders.  

OSCAR NOMINATIONS 2018

OSCAR NOMINEES BEST PICTURE

• Call Me by Your Name
  Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges and Marco Morabito, Producers

• Darkest Hour
  Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten and Douglas Urbanski, Producers

• Dunkirk
  Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
• Get Out
  Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr. and Jordan Peele, Producers
• Lady Bird
  Scott Rudin, Eli Bush and Evelyn O'Neill, Producers

• Phantom Thread
  JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson, Megan Ellison and Daniel Lupi, Producers
• The Post
  Amy Pascal, Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers

• The Shape of Water
  Guillermo del Toro and J. Miles Dale, Producers
• Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
  Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, Producers

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Timothée Chalamet- Call Me by Your Name

Daniel Day-Lewis- Phantom Thread

Daniel Kaluuya-Get Out

Gary Oldman-Darkest Hour

Denzel Washington-Roman J. Israel, Esq.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Sally Hawkins-The Shape of Water

Frances McDormand-Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Margot Robbie-I, Tonya

Saoirse Ronan-Lady Bird

Meryl Streep-The Post

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Willem Dafoe-The Florida Project

Woody Harrelson-Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Richard Jenkins-The Shape of Water

Christopher Plummer-All the Money in the World

Sam Rockwell-Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Mary J. Blige-Mudbound

Allison Janney-I, Tonya

Lesley Manville- Phantom Thread

Laurie Metcalf-Lady Bird

Octavia Spencer-The Shape of Water

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

The Boss Baby

Tom McGrath and Ramsey Naito

The Breadwinner

Nora Twomey and Anthony Leo

Coco

Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson

Ferdinand

Carlos Saldanha

Loving Vincent

Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman and Ivan Mactaggart

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Blade Runner 2049

Roger A. Deakins

Darkest Hour

Bruno Delbonnel

Dunkirk

Hoyte van Hoytema

Mudbound

Rachel Morrison

The Shape of Water

Dan Laustsen

COSTUME DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast

Jacqueline Durran

Darkest Hour

Jacqueline Durran

Phantom Thread

Mark Bridges

The Shape of Water

Luis Sequeira

Victoria & Abdul

Consolata Boyle

DIRECTING

Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan

Get Out

Jordan Peele

Lady Bird

Greta Gerwig

Phantom Thread

Paul Thomas Anderson

The Shape of Water

Guillermo del Toro

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

Steve James, Mark Mitten and Julie Goldman

Faces Places

Agnès Varda, JR and Rosalie Varda

Icarus

Bryan Fogel and Dan Cogan

Last Men in Aleppo

Feras Fayyad, Kareem Abeed and Søren Steen Jespersen

Strong Island

Yance Ford and Joslyn Barnes

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

Edith+Eddie

Laura Checkoway and Thomas Lee Wright

Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405

Frank Stiefel

Heroin(e)

Elaine McMillion Sheldon and Kerrin Sheldon

Knife Skills

Thomas Lennon

Traffic Stop

Kate Davis and David Heilbroner

FILM EDITING

Baby Driver

Paul Machliss and Jonathan Amos

Dunkirk

Lee Smith

I, Tonya

Tatiana S. Riegel

The Shape of Water

Sidney Wolinsky

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Jon Gregory

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

A Fantastic Woman

Chile

The Insult

Lebanon

Loveless

Russia

On Body and Soul

Hungary

The Square

Sweden

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Darkest Hour

Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick

Victoria & Abdul

Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard

Wonder

Arjen Tuiten

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

Dunkirk

Hans Zimmer

Phantom Thread

Jonny Greenwood

The Shape of Water

Alexandre Desplat

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

John Williams

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Carter Burwell

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

"Mighty River" from Mudbound

Music and Lyric by Mary J. Blige, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson

"Mystery Of Love" from Call Me by Your Name

Music and Lyric by Sufjan Stevens

"Remember Me" from Coco

Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

"Stand Up For Something" from Marshall

Music by Diane Warren; Lyric by Lonnie R. Lynn and Diane Warren

"This Is Me" from The Greatest Showman

Music and Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast

Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer

Blade Runner 2049

Production Design: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Alessandra Querzola

Darkest Hour

Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer

Dunkirk

Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Gary Fettis

The Shape of Water

Production Design: Paul Denham Austerberry; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau and Jeff Melvin

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

Dear Basketball

Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant

Garden Party

Victor Caire and Gabriel Grapperon

Lou

Dave Mullins and Dana Murray

Negative Space

Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata

Revolting Rhymes

Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

DeKalb Elementary

Reed Van Dyk

The Eleven O'Clock

Derin Seale and Josh Lawson

My Nephew Emmett

Kevin Wilson, Jr.

The Silent Child

Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton

Watu Wote/All of Us

Katja Benrath and Tobias Rosen

SOUND EDITING

Baby Driver

Julian Slater

Blade Runner 2049

Mark Mangini and Theo Green

Dunkirk

Richard King and Alex Gibson

The Shape of Water

Nathan Robitaille and Nelson Ferreira

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Matthew Wood and Ren Klyce

SOUND MIXING

Baby Driver

Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin and Mary H. Ellis

Blade Runner 2049

Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill and Mac Ruth

Dunkirk

Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker and Gary A. Rizzo

The Shape of Water

Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern and Glen Gauthier

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Stuart Wilson

VISUAL EFFECTS

Blade Runner 2049

John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert and Richard R. Hoover

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner and Dan Sudick

Kong: Skull Island

Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza and Mike Meinardus

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould

War for the Planet of the Apes

Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon and Joel Whist

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

Call Me by Your Name

Screenplay by James Ivory

Screenplay by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber

Logan

Screenplay by Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green; Story by James Mangold

Molly's Game

Written for the screen by Aaron Sorkin

Mudbound

Screenplay by Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

The Big Sick

Written by Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani

Get Out

Written by Jordan Peele

Lady Bird

Written by Greta Gerwig

The Shape of Water

Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro & Vanessa Taylor; Story by Guillermo del Toro

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Written by Martin McDonagh