Movies in this Post:
Boyhood | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Get On Up
A Most Wanted Man | Magic in the Moonlight
Boyhood | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Get On Up
A Most Wanted Man | Magic in the Moonlight
You might say ‘It’s only September!’ and wonder why you should be getting distracted by the Academy Awards this soon. Here are five solid reasons why. Not every film that is destined to be part of the big Oscar conversation will have a twenty million dollar campaign and for your consideration ads. There are movies in theaters right now or even in the RedBox that definitely contain some of this year’s great performances and some of them are certain to be rewarded with nominations and heavy gold man statues. There is even a film that pundits say could well sweep the two headed Best Picture/Best Director race even though over half of the likely contenders haven’t even been seen yet, and you can go see it right now!
The real deal, as they say, this movie is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. ‘Boyhood’ is a fictional film about a real boy created by filming for a week or so every year of actor Ellar Coltrane’s life with Linklater’s long time collaborator Ethan Hawke and an incandescent Patricia Arquette over 12 long years. This is is an absolutely unique narrative experiment that never draws attention to itself so natural is the unfolding of the film and so gentle is its observation of the minutiae of life itself. This is certainly one of the most ingenious conceptions of how to make a film anyone has ever executed. That Linklater pulled it off is a triumph. No, this is not just reality television or anything like the ‘up’ series; this is smart utterly engaging filmmaking with actors at the top of their game engaging with a talented newcomer to create something that is transcendent. The miracle of the art of ‘Boyhood’ is how Linklater created his script to somehow enfold and enrich real-life events that surround his characters that he could never have anticipated when he began the project over 14 years ago.
If you have never darkened the door of a movie art house, now is your chance. You will not be baffled or condescended to. The astonishing freshness of this film will pull you in and you will wish that you could drop in on ‘Boyhood’s’ Mason for the rest of his life. You will also find yourself part of the 2015 Academy Awards conversation because ‘Boyhood’ just might snatch both Best Picture and Best Director statues from the grasp of assembled heavyweights like David Fincher, Clint Eastwood or Paul Thomas Anderson. |
Buy Tickets (right now!):
http://www.fandango.com/boyhood_173860/movieoverview
Rated: R for language including sexual references, and for teen drug and alcohol use
Metacritic Score: 100 (yes, you are reading that right)
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/boyhood
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 99% (yes, it is that good)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/boyhood/
Official Site(s):
http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/boyhood
http://boyhoodmovie.tumblr.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/boyhoodmovie
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/IFCFilms
http://www.fandango.com/boyhood_173860/movieoverview
Rated: R for language including sexual references, and for teen drug and alcohol use
Metacritic Score: 100 (yes, you are reading that right)
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/boyhood
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 99% (yes, it is that good)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/boyhood/
Official Site(s):
http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/boyhood
http://boyhoodmovie.tumblr.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/boyhoodmovie
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/IFCFilms
Streaming Now: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JB3O6H0/?tag=kuzleemcom-20 iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-grand-budapest-hotel/id828777452 Rent it from RedBox: http://www.redbox.com/movies/7560 Rated: R Metacritic Score: 88 http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-grand-budapest-hotel Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 92% http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_grand_budapest_hotel/ Official Site: http://www.grandbudapesthotel.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGrandBudapestHotel Twitter: none that I can find |
A serviceable biopic from the director of ‘The Help’ raised to dizzying heights by Chadwick Boseman’s jaw dropping performance as the Godfather of Soul, not an impersonation (Eddie Murphy’s is still the greatest of the many James Brown impersonations out there); this is an embodiment, soul-deep of the workings, mannerisms, and persona of the legendary band leader and creator of funk. |
Buy Tickets: http://www.fandango.com/getonup_170266/movieoverview Rated: PG-13 Metacritic Score: 71 (not high enough) http://www.metacritic.com/movie/get-on-up Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 78% (not high enough) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/get_on_up/ Official Site: http://www.getonupmovie.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GetOnUpMovie Twitter: https://twitter.com/getonupmovie |
This performance by the great Philip Seymour Hoffman (in his last serious role from the mind of the equally great John le Carré) playing a dour German master spy is nothing short of enthralling. ‘A Most Wanted Man’ is a taut, precise, slow-boiling, tense look at the spy game taken to its highest level by Hoffman’s central performance. And ‘no’, before you ask I’ll just put it out there; he does not appear to be stoned though he doesn’t look healthy either. Consummate actor that he is; he simply folds his own flushed infirmity into the character. Bearing in mind that Hamburg was in fact the place where Mohamed Atta and his cohorts planned the 9/11 attacks; this look at the dark machinations of the spy game has a resounding ring of verisimilitude. |
Buy Tickets: http://www.fandango.com/amostwantedman_170527/movieoverview Rated: R (for language) Metacritic Score: 74 (I think this is a bit low) http://www.metacritic.com/movie/a-most-wanted-man Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91% (that’s about right) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_most_wanted_man/ Official Site: http://amostwantedmanmovie.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AMostWantedMan Twitter: https://twitter.com/AMostWantedMan |
Don’t listen to those nay sayers! The problem is that Woody Allen sets a very high bar when you compare his films to one another, but compare this film to virtually any out there and it’s miles more interesting and charming and even beautifully photographed than any I can name. Not laugh out loud funny, this actually very smart philosophical treatise is wrapped in whimsical comedy and is one long pleasurable smile from end to end. This is a date movie, a movie for people that would never even dream of taking out their phone and texting during a movie, an intelligent movie, it’s a movie with Colin Firth - and basically he’s playing Mr Darcy again, how about that! Like Allen’s famous love letter to old love Mia Farrow Alice he lightly plays with movie magic to create illusions that the characters are taken by; but - like in that earlier great movie - the real illusions are the ideas that we cling to even when reason dictates otherwise. Remember that the quality of a minor Woody Allen film is something most film-makers dream in their sleep of attaining.
Buy Tickets:
http://www.fandango.com/magicinthemoonlight_174535/movieoverview
Rated: PG-13
Metacritic Score: 54 (absurd)
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/magic-in-the-moonlight
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 48% (ridiculous)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/magic_in_the_moonlight/
Official Site:
http://www.sonyclassics.com/magicinthemoonlight/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MagicInTheMoonlightMovie
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MMoonlightMovie
http://www.fandango.com/magicinthemoonlight_174535/movieoverview
Rated: PG-13
Metacritic Score: 54 (absurd)
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/magic-in-the-moonlight
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 48% (ridiculous)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/magic_in_the_moonlight/
Official Site:
http://www.sonyclassics.com/magicinthemoonlight/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MagicInTheMoonlightMovie
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MMoonlightMovie