I am so scared to see Chi-Raq because I had such high expectations for it (the subject matter is something that upsets me immensely) but the general meh attitude the world seems to have taken to it has made me very nervous that it will disappoint. I'm going to try and watch it this week, but I'm also trying to clear out the main Oscar categories, so I don't know if I'll have time.
Saw three movies today:
The Good Dinosaur - Or, we didn't write a story, so we better animate the hell out of this thing. Honestly, might be Pixar's most beautiful film, but the plot was about as absurd as
Cars was, and that's something I don't like out of Pixar. They've always been good about having a sense of realism to all of their films,
Cars aside. And now this. But damn, it's gorgeous. Biggest complaint, though, was the same one I had from the first trailer I ever saw. Why does EVERYTHING look so good except for the main character? He really looks like shit compared to all of the depth they put into the rest of it. His scales have no 3D to them, they look flat, his entire body looks comical, his color doesn't match the palette of the rest of the film, etc. I get that you want your main character in an animated film to stand out, but he looked like he was from a completely different universe. And I never got used to it over the course of the film.
6/10
Creed defied my expectations. Well...kinda. I had SUPER high expectations, and then Travis and a buddy of mine from work lowered them by messing with me about my aversion to reading any reviews for the film. They both led me to believe the film was getting panned, and I managed to avoid finding out that wasn't true until today, after I finished watching it. Just added to the experience, really, though, to be caught by such surprise. Jordan was great, but Stallone, oh my. I never really thought of him much as an actor, but I thought he conveyed so much emotion in this, plus his timing was so great, and he really just...got me. Got me into the whole thing. I wish Jordan had been nominated for Actor, and the film for Best Picture, but, alas.
Only real complaint was how quickly they tied up the
I feel like they should've dragged that out just a bit.
8/10
Room - I loved it. It made me feel such strong emotion. Thought Larson was incredible. Thought the kid was great too, I don't know how much praise he's getting, but I was impressed. Great emotion conveyed without slapping you in the face with it. Thought the way they brought the POV stuff from the book (I hear, I haven't read it) to the film was a nice frame. Loved the direction. I have
nothing to complain about with this film, so for that reason I'm giving it a 10, but it's not my favorite movie of the year. It's just...I can't give it anything lower. I really like it, and of the best picture noms, it's my favorite.
Though I still have to see
The Revenant and
Brooklyn. I'm getting a copy of the latter tomorrow. I went to see the former in theaters last week, but it was after a Galentine's Day brunch where I'd had too much of the bottomless mimosas,and I passed out 10 minutes into the damn thing and slept all the way til the last ten minutes. So...I know how it ends, but...oh well.
