A Ghost Story (2017)

The cinematography is beautiful. The soundtrack is beautiful. The aspect ratio works. That one monologue is delivered at such an impactful pace, constantly moving forward, and deeply spelling out the point of the movie. That all said, damn is this movie slow and boring. I'm impressed as anyone that Rooney Mara ate a whole pie, but it does not make for interesting footage. I also can't stand Casey Affleck, even under a sheet when you can't see him. It is beyond me how he won an Oscar; he literally just plays his own low-energy self in this role and in the one that won him an Oscar.

Lion (2016)

Lion is an incredible true story about a young Indian boy, played by a radiant 6 year-old Sunny Pawar, who gets lost and is eventually adopted and raised by an Australian family. The second half of the film is about the college-aged boy searching for his birth mother via Google Earth. It is a very emotional movie, as you could imagine. There is a lot of soul searching. It is really emotionally devastating--at the beginning, at the end, and in the middle. You cry in the sad parts and in the happy parts. It's unrelenting.

The first half is carried by a 6-year-old. I cannot emphasize enough how good he is. A lot of these scenes are characterized by silent acting, and he shows emotions without words. The cinematography in the Indian scenes is absolutely stunning. The poverty is overwhelming but each shot is just beautiful. There is an underlying theme of child trafficking in the first half of the movie. I don't know if it is detailed in his memoir, but I can't imagine that he would have known so much detail at such a young age. Surely, it is incredible that he fended for himself for so long and I don't doubt that his child's intuition was leaps and bounds beyond what I'm capable of, but I think there was some artistic license there to give the movie a theme and purpose.

Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel, too, give excellent performances. The movie really should've been in the running for a hair styling Oscar. I didn't really need the subplot with Rooney Mara, but it does give Patel's character a little more conflict, as if he needs more conflict in his life. This is kind of a spoiler, but after all the methodical searching, he seems to stumble upon the right spot just by magic. There is a whole process that goes straight out the window, and then just by coincidence it all clicks. It's a little too perfect and implausible of a scene. It is a very crucial scene upon which the movie hinges that fails for me.

And finally, the music is really good too. Sia contributes a song to the end credits. The score by Dustin O'Halloran is enchanting, definitely taking some influence from Indian music but crafting a beautiful soundtrack that is uniquely his own. 

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

This has been an excellent year for animation, and in an off-year for Pixar at that (Finding Dory was good but uninspiring). And amid all these excellent animations, this one is surely the most beautifully done. This stop motion has some very impressive visuals, and it is rightly on the shortlist for the Oscar for Best Visual Effects It plays on the theme of origami and you could only imagine how difficult it must be to do stop motion in origami. There is a seamless combination with computer generation that you legitimately cannot even tell the difference.

On top of that, I love the music. Kubo plays his two-stringed instrument with magic powers. The Italian translation incorrectly titles the film Kubo and the Magic Sword, but it's not about the sword at all. What makes it so special is that his weapon is a beautiful cultural instrument. This film embraces Japanese culture and puts it on display in a beautiful homage.

The imaginative story is wonderfully complex, and unexpectedly sad and powerful. The range of emotion is Pixar-level, bombarding these kids with more than might understand. Maybe Laika will pick up the torch of creativity where Pixar left it and become the new cornerstone for the medium.

Carol (2015)

Carol is a gorgeous love story by Todd Haynes,  a pure romantic drama at its core. Haynes is a master of his craft, creating a beautiful depiction of 1950s New York (the costumes!). Haynes loves the time jump and there is one major time jump in the beginning that is not immediately obvious but very important and well executed. We start in the future and witness the dynamic between Carol and Therese from a third party perspective. Then we go back to see how their relationship evolved interestingly alternating perspectives between Carol and Therese.

The screenplay is very well written. The story moves along very slowly, but that is all the better to bask in its beauty. What moves the film forward is the music. I love the score. The piano plays heavy chords in the recurring theme that are mostly steady save for a single measure that is played in double time. It is subtle, but it builds anticipation just enough. The music adds to the mysterious atmosphere, along with the clever cinematography. Many of the images are indirect, like how Therese sees the world through her camera and how we watch reflections in murky windows. It adds to the aura, as does the divine (yet undoubtedly mysterious) Cate Blanchett.

Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are both brilliant. They both show extraordinary vulnerability and immense passion for each other. Their love is forbidden in their time and it tortures them so. They show restraint. They are simply a joy to watch.