The Oscars: 2017

Quite frankly there is only one place to start and that’s right at the end. Up until that point, the ceremony was a quite predictable affair, but when Moonlight was announced as the actual Best Picture only minutes after La La Land was announced as the winner, it was a twist ending that M.Night Shyamalan would have been proud to pen. 

Even though La La Land would have been an acceptable winner, Moonlight is the better film as its a more profound piece of cinema whilst La La Land serves as excellent escapism. Not that that’s a bad thing, movies are just as much about escapism than they are about tackling profound and important issues. I do feel credit has to be given to the La La Land nominess on stage during that awful mix up for the graciousness in the way they handed the award over to Moonlight. I also feel great sympathy for Warren Beatty who, in hindsight, perhaps should have announced it was the wrong card (he clearly realised something was amiss) but blame can’t be attached to him as he’s not a professional presenter.

Lion

A young Saroo goes out with his brother for work late at night, his brother tells him to wait at the station but he never returns. Saroo wakes up alone and struggles to find his brother and falls asleep on a train parked at the station. He wakes up on the train traveling to Calcutta, miles away from home and no idea where to start looking, Saroo has to contend with a tough life on the street. He is then taken in my orphange and adopted by an Australian couple. In his adult life, Saroo tries to find his biological family and it becomes an obsession.

Thursday Movie Picks: Shakespeare adapatations

When Thursday dawns it means that a new Thursday Movie picks is due, this week is adaptations of the works of some famous English playwright named William Shakespeare.

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Hacksaw Ridge

Despite courting some controversy throughout his career Mel Gibson has proven himself to be a pretty competent film director. Hacksaw Ridge shows off his talents at directing large scale battles (as he also showed in Braveheart) but he flounders slightly in the build up to the brutal second half of the film. Hacksaw Ridge tells its story in a way that most have come accustomed to in such a genre (a love interest, his fellow squad members slow build a growing respect for him despite making him a target of bullying at the start are staple parts of the genre). The film it reminded me most of was Sergeant York (without the central hero killing the enemy) in which a simple country boy finds the love of his life, marries her and goes on to become a war hero.

The Underrated, Underappreciated, and the Unseen

Here are a number of films from the year 2016 that I feel haven’t quite hit the heights they deserve, be it from low box office takings, positive critical reviews and getting the appreciation it deserves.

Worst 10 movies of 2016

The worst films of the year list is sometimes more enjoyable than the top 10 or 20 best films of the years lists of the year because people do like reading about how much someone hates something. Personally, I don’t like being negative but I disliked these films such much that they prop the list of films I saw from 2016 (which is well over 120) as the worst of the lot. My much more positive top 20 list will come soon after I have seen the likes of Lion, Fences, and Hidden Figures. I want the most complete list as possible.

Thursday Movie Picks #134: Movies About Artists (Painters)

Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks, this week it’s all about artists, specifically painters. Please visit - http://wanderingthroughtheshelves.blogspot.co.uk/