Best Picture this year is as unpredictable as ever with four frontrunners and the possibility of a barrier-breaking superhero movie winning.
Best Picture is an odd category at the 2019 Oscars. What is making this year more unpredictable is almost the opposite of last year. Instead of there being multiple films with valid chances of winning, this year it’s hard to find a movie that doesn’t have something working against it.
Even though we’re less than a month away from the Oscars, Best Picture is still an undecided category — it’s easily the wild card of the night. While there are three clear top contenders, you can make an argument for any of the eight nominees.
The BAFTA Awards might shed some light on what film is the frontrunner, but based on the other precursors, they might just confuse us even more.
It’s rare for a movie to win without at least a nomination in one of these three categories — Film Editing, Directing, and at least one acting category. Only three movies this year got all three — BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, and Vice. If you throw in the SAG Award Best Ensemble stat — only twice has a movie won without a nomination there — then you narrow down to just BlacKkKlansman.
Despite being snubbed for Best Director, Bradley Cooper hopes to win Best Picture for A STAR IS BORN
It would make sense as a winner. Spike Lee — despite being the legend that he is — has never won a competitive Oscar — he’s won a lifetime achievement award. It’s also a social issues movie that tends to do well at the Oscars — and unlike its competitors, it’s an uncontroversial one. Most importantly, BlacKkKlansman hit every precursor award it’s needed.
However, it needs to log a precursor win — WGA is its last shot.
Even though Roma surprisingly missed a Film Editing nod, it is BlacKkKlansman’s biggest competition. Not only did it run the gamut of critics awards, but director Alfonso Cuarón has also swept the director awards and it stunned with a surprise Best Supporting Actress nomination for Marina de Tavira.
Contrary to popular belief, I think Roma is going to do better on the preferential ballot — I explain how Best Picture voting works here — than people think. First of all, the people that love the movie LOVE the movie. Second, I think people that didn’t connect with it still respect the craft, which will land it a lot of 3rd, 4th, and 5th place votes. Its biggest baggage is that it’s a Netflix movie. If it wins, it would be the first movie released on a streaming platform to ever win Best Picture.
BLACK PANTHER could become the first superhero movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars.
Green Bookand Black Panther round out the competitors with the best shot to win. Green Book swept the Golden Globes and shockingly won the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Picture. This is notable because it’s the only precursor to also use a preferential ballot. But producers only make up a small part of the Academy and it’s been marred by tons of controversy. Still, it’s the type of light social justice movie that the Oscars tend to go for — think Crash or Driving Miss Daisy.
If Black Panther wins, it’ll break a lot of records. The first superhero movie to win Best Picture, one of the few movies to win without a Film Editing or Director nod, one of the few movies to not be nominated by the DGA to win. The list goes on and on. But I think it has a strong shot at doing well on the preferential ballot. I think the industry admires the movie and it has a strong underdog narrative. It could upset.
Velvet Buzzsaw has trouble balancing its satirical and horror elements, which results in an interesting, but unsatisfying Netflix original.
Velvet Buzzsaw doesn’t become the movie we want it to be until the last 30 minutes. That’s when it starts working effectively as an art-world satire and horror-thriller. The rest, though, has a hard time striking a balance between too. So much so that it strikes exactly the wrong balance.
However, there are interesting elements. The film reunites director and writer Dan Gilroy with Jake Gyllenhaal who plays Morf, a highly respected Los Angeles art critic, and Rene Russo as no-nonsense gallery owner Rhodora, both of whom he worked with in his film debut Nightcrawler.
With Velvet Buzzsaw, he trades the dark and shadowy crime underbelly of Los Angeles with the colorful and chic world of the art community. Everything is brightly lit, incredibly crisp, and fully saturated. And that’s a problem. Not only does it not create the tense atmosphere the movie sorely lacks, but it’s also a poorly shot movie. The cinematography is reminiscent of a CW primetime soap.
Zawe Ashton and Jake Gyllenhaal in VELVET BUZZSAW
What keeps it at least somewhat afloat is the intriguing plot. After discovering her neighbor dead in the hallway of her apartment building, art agent Josephina (Zawe Ashton) ventures into his apartment to find hundreds of pieces of artwork — some haunting and some disturbing. She takes them to Morf who confirms that they are all masterworks and should be worth millions.
It’s discovered that the artist was a man with a troubled past named Vetril Dease. Catching wind of the incredible portfolio, Rhodora convinces Josephina to let her sell the pieces in her gallery where they quickly become a popular fixture and sweep through the LA art scene.
However, these aren’t just paintings. They’re cursed. Anyone that profited from them is dying in increasingly horrific ways. No one seems safe. There’s gallery worker Bryson (Billy Magnussen of Game Nightfame), another art gallery owner Jon Dondon (Tom Sturridge), Morf’s art curator assistant Gretchen (Toni Collette coming off Hereditary), and Rhodora’s latest client Damrish (Daveed Diggs) who are all at risk.
All the while, Gilroy attempts a cutting satire of the often pretentious and self-involved community of high-end art. While it gets some good digs in that remind us just how silly art can be — there are incredible one-liners like “a bad review is better than sinking into the great glut of anonymity” and “critique is so limiting and emotionally draining” — it doesn’t really poke at anything we didn’t already know.
Toni Collette and Rene Russo in VELVET BUZZSAW
On the horror side of things, Gilroy fails to create much suspense or scares. The death scenes are interesting and reminiscent of the Final Destination series, but none are surprising or shocking. A large part of that is because the plot never truly gets off the ground. Morf spends some time investigating the mysterious artist Dease to try and unravel the mystery of the paintings, but it’s a subplot when it should truly be the main plot. Instead, we spend time on the relationship between the bisexual Morf and Josephina and intrigue around the ownership of the paintings.
That leads to the biggest problem Velvet Buzzsawhas. It’s filled with cold and pretentious LA art people that are hard to care about, including Gyllenhaal’s Morf who comes the closest to being a protagonist. Without an audience surrogate or relatable character at the center, it’s hard to even care about what’s happening the characters. There’s an attempt to make young assistant Coco (Natalia Dyer) that character, but she ends up not being used that way.
It’s frustrating considering the caliber of the actors in the cast and the intriguing premise. That being said, Gilroy mines enough ridiculous observations and stray one-liners about the LA art world that make it an entertaining enough watch. However, I think it had the potential to be great. With a name like Velvet Buzzsaw, I wasn’t expecting anything less.
Where to stream Velvet Buzzsaw: Available to stream on Netflix.
Alita: Battle Angel boasts exhilarating action scenes and a breakout performance by Rosa Salazar, but buckles under the weight of its complex plot.
Alita: Battle Angel gets one very important thing right: robots fighting. Director Robert Rodriguez — best known for the Spy Kids and Sin City franchises — knows how to direct an action scene. Even though they’re hyper-stylized with seemingly endless slow-motion CG shots, all of the setpieces have forward momentum, grounding in character, and are easy to follow — no Bourne Identity shaky camera to be found.
That’s why he was the perfect fit to tackle the long-gestating adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s classic manga Battle Angel Alita. Taking place in the 26th Century as the cheeky opening logos set, Alita: Battle Angel follows a disembodied core — think of it as a brain and heart in one — who is found and given a new body by Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz). With no memory of the post-apocalyptic world she wakes up in or her name, Dr. Ido names her Alita.
Rosa Salazar plays the cyborg heroine through a surprisingly strong motion-capture performance that translates her facial expressions and emotions vividly. Much of the first 30 minutes is dedicated to world building. We’re introduced to a cyberpunk version of Earth where many people have been fused with machinery and dream to make it to Zalem — a utopia floating above their crumbling city.
The world is fantastically realized. From the costumes to the production design to the character design, every detail feels perfectly drawn out.
However, for all the great directing and visuals on display, Alita has one very obvious flaw — and it’s a flaw one of the movie’s contributor brings to all his movies. That contributor is James Cameron and the flaw is the screenplay. As is evident in every screenplay he’s written — Avatar and Titanic being the most notable — Cameron completely overthinks every aspect of the story. That’s why Alita is inundated with clunky exposition throughout the entire running time.
Keean Johnson (left) and Rosa Salazar (center) in Twentieth Century Fox’s ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.
It’s a delight to watch Alita play the role of the girl in an alien world discovering new things — she takes a bite of an Orange peel! And she’s never had chocolate! But the attempt to also introduce the main characters and get the plot of the ground end up derailing any of the goodwill being built up from Salazar’s stellar performance.
Eventually, Alita meets Hugo (Keean Johnson), a fully human boy who teaches her the ropes of Earth. He also helps her piece together the mystery of her past. But it’s not all fun and games.
Alita learns that Dr. Ido is also a hunter-warrior — a league of dangerous bounty hunters who will do anything to collect their payment. After following him out one night, Alita and Ido are attacked by a group of cyborgs who almost kill Ido. However, out of nowhere, Alita fights (and destroys) them using an incredible fighting technique and astonishing strength.
It catches the eye of Vector (Mahershala Ali) — a man who rigs Motorball combat matches (think of it as roller derby with robots) — who is being used a vessel for Nova — the man who controls Zalem and keeps a close eye on Earth. He takes notice of Alita and wants her dead, to which he tasks the massive cyborg Grewishka (Jackie Earle Haley) with.
There are multiple intersecting storylines including one involving another hunter-warrior cyborg called Zapan (If Beale Street Could Talk’s Ed Skrein — quite good here) and Ido’s ex-wife Dr. Chiren (Jennifer Connelly — the best of the supporting cast), but it all ends up being incredibly muddled as the screenplay switches and loses focus constantly.
Rosa Salazar (Alita) and Keean Johnson (Hugo) star in Twentieth Century Fox’s ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL. Photo Credit: Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox.
When the movie is focused on Alita and her journey of self-discovery in the face of real danger from Nova and Grewishka, it works. Unfortunately, that journey is often cast to the side.
A lot of the emotional core of the movie falls to the relationship between Hugo and Alita. Salazar does her best with the material — a lot of which feels forced. Johnson, on the other hand, stumbles often and doesn’t make a compelling romantic or heroic lead. Because of that, there’s a lack of chemistry between the pair that sucks the life out of any character development — we’re being told they care for each other instead of being shown.
If Alita: Battle Angel stopped thinking and just delivered great robot fighting action with a simple, but compelling, plot, it would be a fantastic exercise in sci-fi instead of an over-complicated mess. I appreciate so much of what Rodriguez is doing. He should have been allowed to let his imagination run wild. Instead, it felt like he kept getting dragged back down to Earth by the screenplay.
Alita: Battle Angel comes out a little bit better than the similarly high-concept sci-fi action-adventure Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets mostly thanks to Salazar’s performance and Rodriguez’s masterful handling of the action sequences. I think it bodes well for a sequel that won’t be burdened with world building. This is a great story. It’s just not told the way it deserves.
Alita: Battle Angelwill be in theaters on February 14th.
Though it’s nearly two decades old, The Blair Witch Project still holds up as a modern classic
With the second installment (second because let’s just forget about that horrid Book Of Bleh) of The Blair Witch Project coming out in a few weeks, aptly titled Blair Witch, I thought it would be appropriate to review the original.
I first watched the movie when I was at the oldest 7 or 8 in my cousins’ basement. At that point, the virality of the movie had just calmed down, but it was still widely known as one of the most horrifying movies of all time. This is proven by the fact that I nearly broke down crying when the main menu came up. The second time I watched it I was in high school and still nearly broke down crying (or did).
However, now that I’m at a point in my life that I am confident in my abilities a fan and studier of cinema I am seeing The Blair Witch Project as a landmark cinematic experience. While I think a lot of the early acclaim was because of the viral marketing and debate behind its authenticity, looking at it through the lens of a film proves that it is a modern classic.
If you somehow have been lost in the woods in Maryland for two decades, The Blair Witch Project tells the story three amateur filmmakers — Josh, Heather, and Mike — who embark into Burkittsville, Maryland to create a documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch. Much of what we learn about the legend and experiences of the town folk are through interviews with actual citizens of townspeople who recount the terrifying tale of a witch that lurks in the woods.
The trio venture into the forest searching for the legendary witch only to find that the legend may not be so mythical after all.
As the “documentary” unfolds, one thing is strikingly clear. The filmmaking style and performance still feel so real that I found myself at some points still being tricked into thinking this was actual found footage. Of course, this lends itself to the way it was filmed. But you have to appreciate the vision that the directors had to have had before beginning production and incredible talent that these actors possess for improvisation.
Now, here’s the thing. There are very few movies that I have become emotional during. However, there are parts of this movie that I became physically unnerved for the characters and frankly saddened for them. At some point, the movie because less about the witch and more about the fragility of the human psyche. What are you thinking? Who do you blame? The scenario unfolds with so much real and raw emotion that it feels claustrophobic. You feel trapped in the forest with them.
While the concept may feel outdated or overdone you have to remember that this is the first time a movie like this ever existed. Yes, mockumentaries predated The Blair Witch Project, but no movie has come close to even committing this type of immersive experience to film. The viral marketing and cultural phenomenon aside, the movie still holds up as a masterclass in tension, atmosphere, and horror.
While the style has been copied countless times from degrees of success — the first Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield, Chronicle — to questionable — The Chernobyl Diaries, all the other Paranormal Activity movies — it has never been replicated and probably never will be.
The Blair Witch Project isn’t going to hold up as well for everyone. We’ve come to the point in horror that our senses need to be assaulted for us to feel anything. Turn off all the lights, close the blinds, turn off your phone and tell me that the experience of watching it isn’t terrifying. I dare you.
Where to stream The Blair Witch Project: Available to stream on Showtime. Also available to rent or buy on Prime Video or
The Fog is a short and effective ghost story told by horror master John Carpenter. Now, it returns beautifully restored in a collectible steelbook thanks to Shout Factory.
The Fog opens on a campfire surrounded by a group of engrossed kids and an old maritime storyteller regaling them with the tale of a ship that crashed on the shores of Antonio Bay, right near where the storyteller was telling the tale. The storyteller, an old man dressed like the specter of a lighthouse keeper, speaks in a slow, gravelly voice with a foreboding tone. “11:55, almost midnight. Enough time for one more story,” he says. “One more story before 12:00, just to keep us warm.”
This cold open was not in the original cut of the film. Legendary director John Carpenter, hot off the success of 1978’s Halloween, decided to include it after being unhappy with the finished product. That decision propels The Fog from a good horror movie to a minor classic within Carpenter’s legendary career. With the cold open, Carpenter sets an eerie, indelible atmosphere for the rest of the film. The Fog feels like a ghost story being told around a fire. The kind where you lean in slightly, put your chin on your hands and find yourself lost in the tale.
The Fog returns via a stunning HD transfer available on blu-ray steelbook thanks to Shout Factory. And with the first new Halloween movie in more than a decade coming out this year, it’s a welcome reminder of the breadth of work Carpenter has under his belt outside of his most remembered films. And The Fog is a perfect example of how Carpenter could do so much with so little. Though made for just $1.1 million, the tiny seaside town of Antonio Bay, California looks more sweeping than it actually was.
The Cast of John Carpenter’s THE FOG
The Fog begins on the 100th anniversary of the founding of Antonio Bay. Right as the clock strikes midnight, mysterious paranormal incidents begin happening around town — car alarms suddenly go off, televisions turn to static. All this while station owner and DJ Stevie Wayne (Adrienne Barbeau gives a standout performance) is finishing her show at the KAB radio station located in the Antonio Bay lighthouse.
Meanwhile, a group of fisherman just offshore are relaxing and enjoying a drink while listening to Stevie’s show. However, they’re disturbed by a mysterious fog bank that is rolling past their boat. Out of the fog emerges a ship out of the 1800s and shadowy figures that kill the men. Elsewhere in Antonio Bay, Nick Castle (Tom Atkins) picks up Elizabeth Solley (Jamie Lee Curtis) who is hitchhiking down a dark road. All seems normal until suddenly all the windows of the car shatter.
However, at one in the morning, all the paranormal activity stops. Carpenter harnesses the silent dread that stalked so much of Halloween in a whole new way here. Michael Myers already felt like an apparition, so dealing with actual apparitions in this movie feels like a natural extension. The next morning, Stevie’s son finds a plank of wood with the word “DANE” carved into it.
Meanwhile, Nick and Elizabeth venture out to find the missing Seagrass, the fishing vessel that went missing in the middle of the night. Elsewhere in town, Kathy Williams (the legendary Janet Leigh, who also happens to be Curtis’ mother in real-life) and her assistant Sandy (Nancy Loomis) prepare for the town’s centennial celebration.
Eventually, these stories will come together. Along the way, there are creeps and scares that show again why John Carpenter is a master of horror. In particular, a scene involving the plank of wood in the radio station is pure horror without any loud clangs in the score or sudden jumps. Speaking of the score, it is iconic as any other Carpenter score. He is a master of mood and he perfectly matches his synthesized score to the ghost story quality of the movie.
The Fog doesn’t go particularly deep into its characters and doesn’t have much in way of themes. However, a lot of that is to its benefit. It’s a breezy 89 minutes of horror with a compelling story and background. There is tension throughout and great scares, it’s an easy movie to watch and one that’s hard not to enjoy. The final act is a bit of a letdown after the effective build up. That’s where the shallowness of the characters and themes betray it. But overall, The Fog is an underrated movie in the Carpenter canon and on that should get its due. Hopefully, it will with this new beautiful steelbook release.
Where to watch The Fog:Available to buy or rent on Prime Video or
You can get the limited edition Blu-Ray steelbook here!
Glassis a wildly ambitious conclusion to M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable trilogy that succeeds and fails in many ways.
Glass — the finale of M. Night Shyamalan’s surprise Unbreakable trilogy — is ambitious and wild. It works completely in some aspects and fails in others. But I’m glad that it exists. Shyamalan took the initiative and self-financed the film, but it’s the kind of risky movie that I want to see coming from studios.
After the critical reevaluation of the original Unbreakable that has pushed it to become the #filmtwitter default pick for M. Night Shyamalan’s best film and Split’s surprise twist of being in the same universe as Unbreakable, it was only natural that Shyamalan finished his comic book film series as a trilogy.
Though, that begs the question of whether or not a third film was actually necessary. Unbreakable is driven by the mystery of whether or not David Dunn (Bruce Willis reprising his role) is actually a superhero — spoiler: the answer is a resounding yes — and Split works completely in a vacuum as a kidnapping thriller. So, what’s the point of merging the two?
I’m not sure Shyamalan even knows the answer to that other than that it would be cool to have David Dunn — now known as “The Overseer” — go up against James McAvoy’s “The Beast” introduced in Split. The result is a muddled but interesting story that could have been tightened up as the pacing revs up and slows down throughout.
Glass picks up 19 years after the events of Unbreakable and three weeks after the events of Split. David Dunn, with the help of his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark reprising his role from the original), is continuing his work as a vigilante in Philadelphia. With superhuman strength, near invincibility, and the ability to sense evildoings in people past, he is a proper superhero.
Elsewhere, Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) — the body that houses 24 distinct personalities including a nefarious group called “The Horde” and a human-animal called “The Beast” — has taken four cheerleaders for a sacrifice.
Dunn tracks “The Horde” to an old factory after weeks of searching. After releasing the cheerleaders he goes head to head with “The Beast” in a near perfect matchup. However, they’re soon incapacitated and taken by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) and a SWAT team.
There is so much to admire about the movie. For the first act, Shyamalan essentially gives you want you wanted — an Unbreakable and Split crossover with David Dunn going up against “The Horde.” It’s the kind of white-knuckle suspense that he does so well.
From the cold open where David incapacitates a pair of neighborhood hooligans who knock out people for fun to Joseph helping him track down “The Horde” to the warehouse brawl, Shyamalan reminds us why he was such a successful director in the first place. It’s kinetic and tense and scary. So when Dr. Staple takes over the movie it’s a jarring switch.
David and “The Horde” are locked in a high-security mental institution — David in a room that would flood him with water (his one weakness) if he tried to escape and “The Horde” with a flashing light that incapacitates them and switches the personality in control.
Also in the facility is Elijah Price — aka Mr. Glass — who was David’s arch-nemesis in Unbreakable. However, he has been heavily sedated and unresponsive for years. Though his mother Mrs. Price (Charlayne Woodard — fantastic here) still tries to visit him.
Samuel L. Jackson in M. Night Shyamalan’s GLASS
We learn that Dr. Stapler is a specialist in people with the specific delusion of being a superhero and was given three days to convince the trio that they don’t actually have powers. So, much of this section of the movie — the largest section — is monologuing about the very nature of superheroes. Glass continues to explore the mythology started in the first movie about comic books being records of the remarkable things that people can actually do.
More interestingly, though, it forces David and “The Horde” to actually reconsider their importance in the world. They truly question whether they are just normal people with very specific traumas. The movie becomes a dance between Dr. Staple, “The Horde,” David, and Mr. Glass — who might be more aware than he lets on.
The plot stalls in a way that will divide audiences. Truthfully, it didn’t entirely work for me. But it completely worked for my boyfriend. And I can see how someone would be completely taken with the movie. The pacing didn’t work for me, but all the punches it was taking landed.
The final act is something of a marvel. What the movie pulls off is quite a stunner, which is why I end up being more positive on the movie as a whole than negative. Glass is not structured like a movie “should” be, but it somehow still builds towards a satisfying finale involving Joseph, Mrs. Price, and Split’s Casey Cooke (the great Anya Taylor-Joy). Let’s just say that Shyamalan still knows how to pull off a twist — or a couple.
I owe Glass another viewing. It’s ridiculous and ambitious and unexpected, which are all reasons why I didn’t connect with it this time around. I have a feeling knowing what I’m getting into will make me understand it more. Either way, whatever you think of M. Night Shyamalan, you have to appreciate what he’s done here. He maybe doesn’t have all the skills to pull something off, but he certainly has the guts. And sometimes that’s all it takes.
All These Small Moments is a charming, well-acted New York City coming-of-age set against a family-in-crisis drama.
There’s something so charming and idealistic about movies set in New York City. There’s a different kind of energy that they give off. Something homey. All These Small Moments is no exception. It’s a testament to first-time director Melissa Miller Costanzo. The movie feels lived in — the central family’s cluttered Brooklyn brownstone feels real and intimate.
All These Small Moments follows the Sheffield family. Teenager Howie (Brendan Meyer) and his younger brother Simon (Sam McCarthy) have been noticing that their parents — Carla (Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club legend Molly Ringwald) and Tom (Spotlight’s Brian d’Arcy James) — have been sleeping separately.
Like any parents with the best intentions, they try to maintain an air of normalcy for their kids even though things clearly aren’t. As a coping mechanism, Howie has become infatuated with a woman — we eventually learn her name is Odessa (Jemima Kirke) — he sees every morning on the bus. One day, he ditches school to follow her. What he finds unsettles him — his father in a cafe with another woman.
Sam McCarthy, Brian d’Arcy James, Molly Ringwald, and Brendan Meyer in ALL THESE SMALL MOMENTS.
From there, the movie unfolds as a familiar coming-of-age story of a kid dealing with the typical teenage angst issues against his parents’ crumbling marriage. It’s never melodramatic, though. It has all the feelings we’ve come to love from a light-hearted New York City drama — all the sentimentality, cynical humor, and longing.
Miller Costanzo has a focused and classic style that makes the little moments in All These Small Moments work — the brothers sharing the bathroom sink, their parents arguing over asking a waiter for bread at a restaurant.
Like Lady Bird, the movie is built as a series of vignettes that follows the characters growing and changing. Each scene building on the last to complete a portrait.
Brendan Meyer in ALL THESE SMALL MOMENTS.
If anything, the movie’s biggest issue is that it’s too controlled. Unlike Lady Bird and other successful recent teen coming-of-age movies like The Edge of Seventeen and Eighth Grade, there are never those moments when you can feel real life happening on screen.
In particular, there are cut-ins to Carla and Tom in marriage counseling that ring a bit false and scenes between Howie and Lindsay (Harley Quinn Smith) — a classmate he verbally spars with often — are more whimsical than real.
All These Small Moments hits a lot of the beats you’d expect of a movie with this plot — the kids listening to their parents argue on the stairs, a young teen infatuated with an older woman — and some you don’t expect. Still, it’s a solid enough family and coming-of-age drama that shows a lot of promise for a new director.
From “Shampain” to “Blue” and The Family Jewels to Froot, here are the 13 best Marina and the Diamonds songs!
If you can’t tell, I adore Marina and the Diamonds, and I am pretty sure I could have justified every one of her songs to be on this list; but I tried to restrain myself. I mean, the list was originally supposed to be only 10 songs, but that clearly got out of hand when I kept looking at the track listing for her three albums.
All in all, the queen of indie pop has not ceased to amaze me. After seeing her in concert, I can say she is one hell of a performer, and I encourage you all to if you ever get the chance to see a true diamond shine. Covering all three “eras” of the pop princess’s breadth of work, here are the 13 best Marina and the Diamonds songs.
Honorable Mentions: Literally all of them
“Savages” — Froot
There is beauty in darkness, and that is exactly what this song is. Macabre and poignant, “Savages” ponders the truth of humanity. Are we just some beast hiding under the facade of picket fences and wedding rings, learning how to crawl? Every day we turn on the news or read a paper and are instantly inundated with the atrocities of this world. Rape, murder, lies, deceit, savage intentions; it’s inescapable. But some individuals like to pretend we are all safe behind our manicured lawns.
I’m not the only one who
Finds it hard to understand
I’m not afraid of God
I am afraid of Man
from “Savages” by Marina and the Diamonds
Besides this song being beautiful in its own melodic and lyrical way, the social message is just extremely prevalent. Every word of this song utters a philosophical reflection about our current society. School and public shootings have become far too familiar to us all. The true fear in this world is in every single one of us. Marina ponders how we have gotten to this point in our “evolution.” Has something so deep inside of us finally buckled and come apart within our psyche, or are we truly just barbarous creatures with only one prerogative? Self-preservation. In the end, no one really has the answer, but with this song, Marina has brought such a dark, serious subject to the forefront of our minds. What are our true faces behind our masks?
Is it a human trait, or is it learned behavior
Are you killing for yourself, or killing for your savior?
Lies – Electra Heart
I’m not entirely sure who broke Marina’s heart, but I am completely confident that he is crazy. But I cannot be mad that such a gorgeous, melancholy song came from it. Its alright, Marina. You know we all love you!
You’re too proud to say that you’ve made a mistake
You’re a coward ’til the end
I don’t wanna admit that we’re not gonna fit
No, I’m not the type that you like
Why don’t we just pretend?
from “Lies” by Marina and the Diamonds
“Teen Idle” — Electra Heart
Oh, our youth with ill-gotten memories, sorrowful reflections, and insurmountable desires. Being a teenager, for me, was one big desire. I want to be this, that, funny, liked, and the list goes on. As paradoxical as it was, I wanted it all. I wanted to follow every possible road life had for me. I wanted to be my idiosyncratic self, and I wanted to be nothing like who I was.
I wanna be a virgin pure
A 21st century whore
I want back my virginity
So I can feel infinity
from “Teen Idle” by Marina and the Diamonds
To me, Marina put a finger on this feeling of impermanence and confusion. She touches on the desire to live unencumbered, to internalize the eternal party, to live like those “teenagers” you see on the silver screen.
I wanna drink until I ache
I wanna make a big mistake
I want blood, guts and angel cake
I’m gonna puke it anyway
from “Teen Idle” by Marina and the Diamonds
“Hollywood” — The Family Jewels
You were right! “Hollywood” really did infect my brain, Marina! Ah, Hollywood, all its glitz, glam, and garbage. I think it is safe to say we are all completely enamored in Hollywood and its warped ideals. Just like Marina sings, we want to be kissed in the rain and have our live fit the contrived sense of a movie scene. In a world full of hollowed Instagram models and capricious socialites, be a Marina!
A fat security making place for me
Soon as I touch down in old L.A.
He said, “Oh, my God, you look just like Shakira!
No, no, you’re Catherine Zeta.”
“Actually, my name’s Marina.”
from “Hollywood” by Marina and the Diamonds
“Happy” — Froot
At one point or another, we have felt alone. Whether we were alone in isolation or a crowded room, we were alone nonetheless. To those that have not found their other half, partner, husband, wife, lover, whatever you crave, there is happiness for you yet, without finding it in another.
So now you know, you know it all
That I’ve been des-desperately alone
I haven’t found the one for me
But I believe in divinity
This song, in my opinion, would have been a perfect closer to the album because it is this slow, melodic crescendo of a song that builds you up and empowers you as her lyrics soar. I’ve found what I have been looking for in this song: satisfaction in myself.
I believe in possibility
I believe someone’s watching over me
And finally I have found a way to be
Happy, happy, happy
from “Happy” by Marina and the Diamonds
“The State of Dreaming” — Electra Heart
I love a song that can be so upbeat, catchy, and infectious, with such, well, sad lyrics. For a good period of my life, I was living in a contrived state of what I thought my life should be, feigning my role in a mechanized play.
If only you knew my dear,
How I live my life in fear
If only you knew my dear,
How I know my time is near
from “The State of Dreaming” by Marina and the Diamonds
And did I mention the song is just utterly catchy? It’s hard to write a song with a purpose; it’s hard to write a song that is infectious. It’s even harder to do both, but, for me, Marina never fails.
“Blue” — Froot
I do not know how this song was not one of the first singles off the album. It is by far one of my favorites from Froot, with its effervescence and 80s-like pop sound. Each and every time that I hear this song, I cannot help but do the little shoulder dance that she does in the video when the beat drops.
No, I don’t love you
No, I don’t care
I just want to be held when I’m scared
And all I want is one night with you
Just cause I’m selfish
I know it’s true
from “Blue” by Marina and the Diamonds
“Buy The Stars” — Electra Heart
https://youtu.be/Vf8e3OozHlI
To me, this song reminds me slightly of “Teen Idle,” with its sorrowful, thoughtful tone. Marina touches on some similar topics like loneliness, while crafting such a soothing, ethereal song.
Oh we don’t own our heavens now
We only own our hell
from “Buy the Stars” by Marina and the Diamonds
“Can’t Pin Me Down” — Froot
No one likes being told who to be or what to say. And that is what Marina makes abundantly clear with this song. On top of being an incredibly fun, spunky song, “Can’t Pin Me Down” just asserts Marina as the bad ass queen we all known her to be.
Do you really want me to write a feminist anthem
I’m happy cooking dinner in the kitchen for my husband
from “Can’t Pin Me Down” by Marina and the Diamonds
“Living Dead” — Electra Heart
https://youtu.be/CCELnFwUVXE
Macabre and dark. They are beguilingly entrancing words. Humans have an obsession with the morbid and grotesque, just look at our fascination with “American Horror Story” and basically every movie with some facet of the story being a tragedy. Marina creates this sort of at-times-light and at-times-heavy song, which immediately ingrained itself in my mind after hearing it. After all, we are all living a little dead.
I haven’t lived life
I haven’t lived love
Just bird’s eye view
From the sky above
From “Living Dead” by Marina and the Diamonds
“How to be a Heartbreaker” — Electra Heart
Apparently there are only four rules to be a heart breaker, but I am pretty sure they do not work out that well unless you’re drop-dead gorgeous and Marina herself. This is one of the first songs that I heard by Marina, and it made me fall in love with the pop princess because it is such a silly, energetic, entertaining song.
Boys they like the look of danger
We’ll get him falling for a stranger, a player
Singing I lo-lo-love you
At least I think I do!
from “How to Be a Heartbreaker” by Marina and the Diamonds
“Homewrecker” — Electra Heart
Hey, at least the song is honest! Maybe her life is a mess, but she is pretty damn sure she looks good while being said mess. This song sort of addresses the anti-fairy tale, the “happy-never-after.”
Girls and their curls and their gourmet vomit
Boys and their toys and their six inch rockets
We’re all very lovely ’til we get to know each other
As we stop becoming friends and we start becoming lovers
from “Homewrecker” by Marina and the Diamonds
“I Am Not A Robot” — The Family Jewels
Spoiler alert: none of us are robots. We all have feelings, despite how jaded some are with theirs. I love this song because it sort of deconstructs the “devoid of emotion” image that some people try to don. We are all terrifyingly adept at lying to ourselves and masking our true feelings. This song just calls us all out on our bluffs.
You’ve been acting awful tough lately
Smoking a lot of cigarettes lately
But inside, you’re just a little baby, oh.
It’s okay to say you’ve got a weak spot
You don’t always have to be on top
Better to be hated than loved, loved, loved for what you’re not
From “I Am Not A Robot” by Marina and the Diamonds
Tessa Thompson and Lily James star in the crime thriller, Nia Dacosta’s film debut Little Woods.
Little Woods writer/director Nia Dacosta has had one hell of a breakout in the last few months — and her debut film hasn’t even been released yet. She made waves when it was announced that she would be directing a reboot — and “spiritual sequel” — of the 1992 horror classic Candyman. Oscar-winner Jordan Peele will be producing.
In April, her debut film Little Woods will be released in theaters by Neon.
Tessa Thompson — who has had a banner couple years with Thor: Ragnarok, Annihilation, Sorry to Bother You, Janelle Monae’s Dirty Computer, and Creed II — stars as Ollie, a woman who is on her last days of parole for running prescription drugs across the Canadian border.
The film also stars Lily James — a highlight in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver — as Ollie’s estranged sister Deb.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Ollie (Tessa Thompson) is a reformed drug runner in an economically depressed small town in North Dakota, who was caught coming back from Canada with medicine for her terminally ill mother and has been toeing the line ever since. After her mother dies, Ollie’s sister Deb (Lily James) shows up on her doorstep with a hungry child and an unplanned pregnancy. Ollie can only see one viable option: quickly raise money to pay back the bank and hold onto their mother’s home, so Deb can raise her family safely away from her abusive ex. But to do that, she’ll need to return to the dangerous way of life she thought she’d left behind.
from Neon
Thompson has become one of the most consistent stars in Hollywood and is already in store for a packed 2019 — she’ll also appear in Men In Black: International, Avengers: End Game, and voice “Lady” in the live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp — and Little Woods finally gives her the chance to lead.
The film also stars Luke Kirby, James Badge Dale, and Lance Reddick.
From the post-apocalyptic to the not-so-distant future, here are the ten best sci-fi movies of the decade (so far)!
Sci-fi is one of the most interesting and innovative genres because it poses a specific challenge. How do you show tomorrow while commenting on today? At least, that’s what good sci-fi tries to do. Look at Alien and its sexual politics or Children of Men and its now eerily commentary on xenophobia. Though they’re both formally wildly different, they both challenge certain pitfalls of our society by adding or subtracting an element — adding the Alien and subtracting children.
However, in my opinion, we’ve tapped into a new potential for the genre. We have the ability to go places where we never thought we could go before — the tesseract in Interstellar or the wasteland in Mad Max: Fury Road. That’s why I thought it’d be the perfect time to countdown the best sci-fi movies of the decade.
For this list, I decided to mainly look at the sci-fi elements of the movie and how they affect into the narrative as a whole. So, just because it’s a great action movie, doesn’t mean it’s one of the best sci-fi movies. The other parameter I looked at was how its vision of tomorrow supported its commentary of today. Whether that’s thematically or technically. Here are the best sci-fi movies of the decade (so far)!
Coherence (2013)
What it’s about: Coherence follows a group of friends at a dinner party on the night a mysterious comet passes overhead. As the night goes on, increasingly unsettling and mind-bending events occur.
Why it’s great: Though the twists and turns in Coherence may pale in comparison to the big budgets of some of the other movies on this list, its virtue is its minimalism. It’s a small movie with big concepts. And it keeps itself grounded despite that.
Playing on the classic Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” Coherence is as much about the mistrust and paranoia as it is about the mysterious cosmic event at its center. Boiled down, it’s a social experiment that is entertaining to watch, but you’d never want to be a part of.
Where to stream Coherence: Coherence is available to stream on Prime Video, Hulu, or Shudder.
Gravity (2013)
What it’s about: While circling above Earth doing a spacewalk, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) become untethered after the debris from a destroyed satellite strikes destroys their shuttle. Now freely floating through space, the pair must do whatever they can to survive and somehow get home.
Why it’s great: By the time the nearly 17-minute one-shot opening sequence of Gravity concludes, you barely have time to breathe again before the next thrill begins.
However, that’s not what makes it one of the best sci-fi movies of the decade. It’s almost impossible to describe the movie without using the word groundbreaking. That’s because Alfonso Cuarón gave us one of the most immersive trips into space to date.
Even though it is narratively simple, the pure craft involved is enough to elevate the movie. We’ve seen man survive at sea and on a desert island. It’s about time we saw a woman have a chance to show her strength.
Where to stream Gravity: Gravity is available to stream on IndieFlix. It is also available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
Snowpiercer (2013)
What it’s about: After a failed global-warming experiment kills off most life on the planet, an ever running train called “Snowpiercer” houses a mini-society that still has rich and poor — overseen by the second-in-command Mason (Tilda Swinton). However, an uprising is coming led by Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, and John Hurt.
Why it’s great: Sure. Maybe a constantly moving bullet train around the world isn’t the most efficient form of preservation during a post-apocalyptic ice age. But that element of Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer is simply the catalyst for the class struggle at the center of the film.
The mythic title train provides the perfect setting for the assault on the class system that suppresses those at the back of the train. However, the real standout is the whimsical and nearly surreal world that the movie takes place in. It’s the type of place where you’d want to adventure again.
The relationship between man and artificial intelligence has always been a point of interest in sci-fi. And while 2001: A Space Odyssey pretty much reached the pinnacle of the discussion of the subject, Spike Jones revived it with his humanist take on AI. What if AI existed? And what if we fell in love with it? Jones’ vision of the future almost feels too close for comfort. Her is as much a tender love story as it is a meditation on the not so distant future. It’s the delicate balance act of those two genres that make it one of the best sci-fi movies of the decade.
While Her studies artificial intelligence from the perspective of the heart, Ex Machina tackles it from the brain. If man plays god, what does its creation think of itself? Of its creator? Those are the questions at the center of Ex Machina. At a high-level perspective, it’s a modern take on Shelley’s Frankenstein However, this time, the monster is more machine. The movie keeps its card close to its chest unfolding like a three-person play. However, digging deeper proves fruitful because the themes don’t just stop at man versus machine. It’s subtle in almost every way. That’s what makes it so brilliant.
Creating a follow-up to a film as technically dazzling and thematically rich as Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic Blade Runner seemed like a fool’s errand. That is until Denis Villeneuve (Arrival) stepped into the director’s chair. What makes the film one of the best sci-fi movies of the decade is it continued to explore the themes of humanity, while also delving into new directions, most interestingly involving Ryan Gosling‘s K. Though it has a nearly 3-hour running time, it’s endlessly engrossing as its mysterious plot reveals itself. What differentiates it from the original, though, is it has a strong emotional center that catches you off guard and brings warmth to an otherwise cold world.
Arrival (2016)
Jodie Foster’s character in Contact is a woman who knew she were good enough to do the job, but gender politics said she wasn’t. On the other side of the spectrum, Amy Adams’ linguist character in Arrival is a woman who feels in over her head, but is given the power she needs to succeed. It’s a subtle contrast for two movies that have a lot in common. But what pushes Arrival into the pantheon of great sci-fi movies is its scale juxtaposed against its own sentimentality. It’s an alien invasion drama that we’ve never seen before. Still, one of its most groundbreaking elements are the humanist ones. When faced with a common enemy, will we corporate with each other or close off? Is language what bonds us together or tear us apart? At the surface, those are the questions. But then, when you go deeper, they become even more existential. I won’t spoil those for you. Arrival is a movie that begs to be discovered — emotionally, scientifically, cinematically. And still, it never fully reveals itself all at once. Its mystery is its greatest asset. And Denis Villeneuve guards it with everything he’s got.
Why it’s great: When thinking about the top spot on this list, I really had to consider my guidelines. While I think the insane post-apocalyptic steampunk future that is Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the best movies of all time, I think its sci-fi elements are overshadowed by George Miller’s incredible action scenes and unforgettable filmmaking. That’s not to take away from the world that Miller created. It’s one of the greatest practices of world-building since Star Wars first blasted onto our screens.
His incredible attention to detail in all departments brought the world to life and immersed us from the first epic beats of Junkie XL’s iconic score. And though the world included souped up oil tankers and radiation infected war boys, it still felt like a future familiar to us.
Whether it’s the fact that the cars all used scraps you might find in a post-apocalyptic future or because thematically it’s actually more relevant than ever, Mad Max: Fury Road is just one of those movies you give yourself into.
Where to stream Mad Max: Fury Road: Now streaming on TNT or TBS with cable login. It is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
Interstellar (2013)
What it’s about: In the not-so-distant future, Earth is on its final legs as widespread famine and drought threaten the human race. After a mysterious wormhole appears in the far reaches of the solar system, a group of explorers (Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Wes Bentley, David Gyasi) must evaluate potential new homes for the planet.
Why it’s great: Just when you thought Inception was going to be Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi magnum opus, along comes Interstellar. Upon first viewing, it may seem like it buckles under the weight of its ambition. However, when you take a close look, the brilliance of its plot reveals itself.
The world is falling apart. So, as always, we look to the stars. It’s a simple enough premise. However, the concepts that Nolan explores are not only complex — they’re astrophysics, after all — but accurate. It’s an epic in every sense of the word. It’s a space adventure with a keen sense of its characters, their motivations, and an idea of what it would be like to be put into their position.
“It’s as grand as it is introspective and as grounded as it is existential,” as I said in my review. Nolan doesn’t water down the science as Gravity does. Instead, he embraces it. It’s something shockingly rare in the genre today.
Interstellar is something we’ve never seen before and presented in a way that fully takes advantage of everything filmmaking has to offer. However, it doesn’t forget that we exist. That at the center of great sci-fi is humans. That’s what makes it the best sci-fi movie of the decade.
Raw is a body horror movie like no other with its dark tone that allows for moments of levity and profound themes
Note to self: never attend French veterinary school. If it’s anything like Julia Ducournau depicts in Raw, then I’m not sure how France has any veterinarians at all. That’s because the often bloody hazing and jaw-dropping foray into cannibalism — literally, my jaw dropped at points — are filmed unflinchingly and almost too convincingly to get past.
However, the brutality of the visuals in the film is offset by the surprisingly profound subtext of the film’s coming-of-age narrative. Raw will shock and surprise you in the way you expect, but also there is truly no preparation for the experience that follows when you begin the movie.
Shot with a certain sense of surrealism in its world, Raw follows first-year veterinary student Justine (Garance Marillier — she’s quite a revelation) as she navigates the truly mad world of hazing that the prestigious school (the one her parents attended) holds so dear — even the teachers turn a cheek. Some of the hazing rituals include kidnapping students in the middle of the night, dumping blood on them like it’s the prom in Carrie, and making them eat raw rabbit liver.
Garance Marillier in RAW.
That last one is particularly a problem for Justine considering she and her family — Mother (Joana Preiss), Father (Laurent Lucas), and older sister Alexia (Ella Rumpf), who is also a student at the school and part of the later years who are carrying out the hazing — are vegetarians. However, Alexia forces her to eat it.
This opens her up to the craving of raw meat — she’s later seen devouring raw chicken — and eventually cannibalism. One horrifying Brazilian wax gone wrong later and Justine is quickly spiraling out of control as she attempts to fill her appetite.
What makes Raw so unique from other body horror movies is its symbolic root in a coming-of-age story. It portrays a woman coming into her sexuality in a way we’ve certainly never seen before — we rarely see sexual awakening from the female perspective and because of the… well, cannibalism. In one scene we see Justine dancing in front of the mirror uncomfortable to a song that has the line, “I like to bang the dead.” We all go through our awkward phases.
Garance Marillier in RAW.
Throughout the lean running time of Raw, we watch Justine blossom into her feminity as her taste for flesh also blossoms. However, if you strip away the horror elements of the movie, you still have a compelling character study of a girl learning about herself set against the backdrop of the insanity of French veterinary schools.
Ducournau finds humor in even the most horrifying scenes in the movie and beauty in the overall bleak location. It’s a virtue in her directing. She makes the most of every beat of this movie. That is also thanks to Marillier’s strong performance. And thankfully for us, though I think there’s a pretty clear interpretation that works for me, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t other ways to view Raw.
Even taken at face value, it’s an incredibly compelling horror movie that feels fresh in a way that many horror movies in this Golden Age have felt. It’ll surprise you, make you laugh, and make you cringe in all the best ways. And in the final moments, it’ll make a grab for your mind and stay with you long after it cuts to black.
Beyond the Night is an engrossing thriller filled with strong characters and an intruging central mystery that keeps you guessing.
Beyond the Night is a dark slow-burning supernatural thriller set in a small coal-mining town in rural Pennsylvania. It’s the perfect setting for the movie’s mystery to be set against. The gray, frozen landscape adds to the tense atmosphere as does the fact that seemingly everyone and their grandma owns a gun — this is an important note.
A lot of the movie reminded me of Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special— down to the 80s-soaked synth score and the story of a father doing everything in his power to protect his son who is displaying supernatural abilities.
However, the movie is more grounded than it sounds. Ray (Zane Holtz — quite good here) is an army man who returns to Philadelphia after his wife is killed in a car accident leaving him to take care of their son Lawrence (Azhy Robertson) — who is marked with a port-wine stain over the left side of his face.
Ray isn’t equipped to take care of Lawrence. Granted, Lawrence has his behavioral quirks to go along with his birthmark — he often sings random notes to himself and lashes out at precisely the wrong moments.
Chance Kelly in BEYOND THE NIGHT.
Ray often losses his patients with Lawrence and becomes frustrated with him. However, he has his moments as a father. At one point, a woman in a store sees Lawrence and says to her daughter, “don’t look at it, baby girl.” Like any parent, Ray takes a tire iron to their windshield. Not exactly parent of the year material, but Lawrence certainly appreciates it.
The father and son move to Ray’s hometown in rural Pennsylvania where they both deal with their grief with the support of Ray’s sister and town deputy Caroline (The Invitation’s Tammy Blanchard — fantastic as always).
To complicate matters, Lawrence begins to exhibit even stranger behavior than usual — staring at random people and things — and eventually causes a stir when he mentions the name July Rain to a woman at his mother’s funeral reception, which causes the woman to storm out.
Ray learns that July is a 15-year-old girl who went missing years prior and whose case — despite Caroline’s and Sheriff Hirsch’s (Skipp Sudduth) best efforts. He is convinced that his son must have heard the name from someone else. But then, Lawrence begins to recite information he should not know. Confused and fearful — July’s father was local redneck thug Bernie (Chance Kelly) — Ray and Caroline team up with child psychologist Dr. Sheryl Bomont (Enid Graham) to unravel the mystery.
Director and writer Jason Noto drew inspiration from Denis Villeneuve’s (Arrival) films Prisoners and Enemy. And that is obvious. Beyond the Night is a slow unraveling mystery that gives you the pieces to solve it throughout. And while it’s not as smart as those films — I found that the movie gives you too much — it’s a wholly effective and well-directed thriller.
Tammy Blanchard in BEYOND THE NIGHT.
A lot of that comes from the well-drawn characters — particularly the supporting cast. Blanchard’s Caroline is torn between duty to her brother and duty to her job, which leads to an interesting internal conflict.
Neal Huff portrays the town’s pastor whose storyline deals with faith and all the complexities that come with it. Not to mention Chance Kelly’s menacing performance as a local gangster who is terrifying, but given moments of humanity specifically around his daughter.
I think there are some mistakes as can be expected from a debut. The plot doesn’t always flow well and sometimes some information is unclear. But the style is there. Noto gets his point across well enough. If anything, I wish the lean 98-minute running-time was expanded so we could explore the characters and story more.
Beyond the Night’s greatest virtue is its characters. And the father-son relationship at its core is a major driver of that. Ray’s growth as a father throughout is the main propulsive point of the film. While the mystery is what makes the movie interesting, that relationship is what makes it engrossing.
Beyond the Night is now playing in limited release.
Dumplin’ is the cinematic equivalent of comfort food. It’s warm, filling, satisfying, and exactly what you’d expect, but that’s why it works.
Dumplin’ fills a feel-good movie shaped void in 2018. And while it doesn’t completely subvert the formula it applies it incredibly well to this touching coming-of-age story of self-love directed by Anne Fletcher—best known for directing the 2009 romantic-comedy The Proposal.
Based on the Julie Murphy novel of the same name, Dumplin’ follows Willowdean “Will” Dickson (Danielle MacDonald), the daughter of 1991 Miss Teen Bluebonnet and current director of the pageant Rosie Dickson (Jennifer Aniston), as she navigates life in her mother’s shadow.
While her mom is a mini-celebrity in their small Texas town, people are shocked to find that the overweight and unglamorous Will is Rosie’s daughter. However, Will finds strength from her late aunt Lucy—she instilled confidence in Will through their shared love of Dolly Parton (her music is a big reason why the movie works)—and her best friend Ellen (Lady Bird’s Odeya Rush—quite good here).
After being suspended for defending a fellow overweight girl named Millie (Maddie Baillio), Will decides to sign-up for the Miss Teen Bluebonnet Pageant as both an act of defiance against her mom who was absent from her upbringing and in support of her aunt Lucy, who wanted to try out when she was 16 but didn’t.
The first act is the kind of breezy setup that makes these kinds of movies so enjoyable to watch. Every character is carefully etched from the aloof Rosie and the enthusiastic Millie to the edgy feminist Hannah (Bex Taylor-Klaus)—she also joins the pageant in protest—to the steadfast Will.
Danielle Macdonald in Netflix’s Dumplin’
However, it also diverts from the formula a bit. Will’s romantic storyline with her love interest Bo (Luke Benward) reaches a climactic point early on in the movie as does her relationship with Ellen. Plus, the movie focuses primarily on the dynamics between Rosie and Will—who is called Dumplin’ by her mother much to her dismay—and Will’s inner struggle towards self-love.
It’s fitting that a lot of the growth in the character of Will comes from her interactions with a group of drag queens—Rhea Ranged (Harold Perrineau) and RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Ginger Minj—since so much about the art form comes from self-love.
However, the second act of the film meanders a bit and the final act, while completely uplifting and satisfying—reverts to the formula that we know. But that’s okay.
Dumplin’ is cinematic comfort food. It’s warm, filling, satisfying, and exactly what you expect. Here and there it surprises you—particuarly the strong performances from Aniston and Macdonald, who is having a great year between this and Bird Box—but overall it works because you know the story and can call its shots.
Netflix is becoming a powerhouse in these types of movies. Just this year they had To All the Boys I’ve Loved Beforeand Set it Upas examples of entertaining crowd-pleasing fare. Dumplin’ is yet another sequenced and southern fried feather in its cap.
The Golden Globes, the first televised awards of the season, are this Sunday. Here are our predictions for every film category.
The first major awards show of the season, the Golden Globes, is this Sunday! Vice leads all films—drama and musical or comedy—with 6 nominations including Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy.
Not far behind is Oscar favorites The Favourite (with nominations for all three leading actresses), Green Book, and A Star is Born (including nominations for Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper).
If our predictions are right, Vice and A Star is Born will lead with 3 wins apiece.
With her main Oscar rivals Olivia Colman (The Favourite) and Emily Blunt (Mary Poppins Returns) in the Comedy or Musical category, Lady Gaga (A Star is Born)has an easy path to the win.
The Golden Globes love a musical performance, and this category has two—the reason they’re not in the comedy or musical category is because the studios opted to submit the films as dramas. This race is a toss-up between Rami Malek’senergetic portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody and Bradley Cooper’s southern drenched alcoholic country star in A Star is Born.
The Globes—unlike most critics—loved Bohemian Rhapsody, so I think Malek has the edge.
Though it’s been a bit dormant during critics season, this is A Star is Born’s chance to shine. Plus, the Golden Globes always go with the Oscar frontrunner. If there is an upset, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman—it overperformed in nominations—is the most likely to pull it off.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays an art critic that is haunted by an artist’s work (literally) in the trailer for Dan Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw.
Velvet Buzzsaw reunites Jake Gyllenhaal with his Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy and co-star Rene Russo. Here’s the plot description:
Velvet Buzzsaw is a thriller set in the contemporary art world scene of Los Angeles, where big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce.
Netflix
I was a huge fan of Nightcrawler. It was one of my favorite movies of 2015 and features Gyllenhaal’s best performance — he was egregiously snubbed at the Oscars (still mad).
While that movie was essentially a neo-noir crime thriller, Velvet Buzzsaw looks like it’s delving a bit into horror. It makes sense considering there were a lot of horror elements in Nightcrawler — Lou Bloom, Gyllenhaal’s character, was truly terrifying at points.
Gyllenhaal thrives when he’s playing characters falling into madness/obsession — Nightcrawler, Zodiac, Prisoners — which bodes well for the movie.
It also helps that he’s joined by a stacked supporting cast including Daveed Diggs, Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer, Bird Box‘s John Malkovich, and the current reigning queen of horror Toni Collette — following up her stunning performance in last year’s Hereditary.
Velvet Buzzsaw has a lot going for it.
It will be released on Netflix on February 1st. It will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
