The Lost City of Z (2016)

The biggest problem about this movie is that it's so slow. It moves at such a slow pace that I hesitate to even categorize it as an adventure film. Sure, I guess when you're actually an explorer, things don't happen fast all at once. Maybe it's a more realistic depiction. But he spends so much of the film back in Britain. Those adventure-less scenes are decidedly less interesting than the rainforest scenes. I get it, it's about his obsession with the New World. That he's always clamoring to get back. I just didn't think that was particularly interesting. I understand that he was a real person and this is biographical. But it was hard to keep my attention. And despite the slowness, you feel like they skip a lot of things in the middle--like how he is in the jungle one minute and docking back in Britain the next. And I hated how accurately British everyone was--the white man's burden is infuriating. Now for what I did like, the visuals in the rainforest. It is a beautifully shot film. And it is well acted. Charlie Hunnam plays obsessed in a way that's not overdoing it. 

Burnt (2015)

What I really dislike about this movie is that it preys on our love of food. That's how they get you to watch the movie, but it is not worth your time. Bradley Cooper is entirely unlikable as an irrational and erratic chef. It is one thing to be mean in the kitchen--we can watch Hell's Kitchen. But Bradley Cooper's chef is really unbearable, as are most all of the other characters. I don't think that's the fault of acting, rather poor development of already uninteresting characters.The beginning especially is just a series of short vignettes that seemingly come from nowhere, introducing a series of supporting characters to dislike.  I found it hard to pay attention or care. 

American Sniper (2014)

The opening scene of American Sniper is intensely suspenseful. We have already seen the opening in the trailer and still I sat at the edge of my seat.  However, I was a little disappointed when the scene abruptly cut to a flashback before Chris Kyle enlisted and then the movie works its way forward in time till it returns to the opening scene.  I admit the second time around was not as suspenseful.  But every scene in the war zone of Iraq is suspenseful, not knowing what awaits behind the door or when the sniper is going to pull the trigger. Including a battle scene in the middle of a sandstorm, in which at times its even a little difficult to tell what is going on. Much like the soldiers, all we see is sand and can barely make out shadows.

War takes a harrowing toll on the human body and mind.  Kyle does several tours in Iraq and the scenes in the United States between tours give the audience a glimpse at the suffering returning soldiers face. Even those physically unharmed are haunted by post traumatic stress.  It ends back at home away from the battlefield, but these soldiers haunted by PTSD bring the war home.  And in war, anything can happen in an instant.  The ending is just as abrupt as the beginning.  This is very much an anti-war movie, highlighting the destruction, physical and mental, wreaked by war.

Bradley Cooper plays Chris Kyle, the deadliest sniper in US military history. He nails the Texas drawl and does a good job showing his post traumatic stress emotionally.  The scene in which he sits in a bar alone speaking on the phone with his wife is surely the reason for his Oscar nomination.  The movie also takes us into the mindset of Kyle.  Despite many protests from his wife Taya, Kyle keeps going back to Iraq.  Kyle is not alone in his mentality. Many soldiers, dare I say most soldiers, go to battle to protect their brothers in arms.  Though they may fight in the name of democracy and freedom and protecting the USA, their true motivation and core desire is to protect their fellow soldiers.  Clint Eastwood captures this mindset of a killing machine and thoughtfully asks his audience to ponder: why do we go to war?

Foxcatcher (2014)

I was looking forward to this highly anticipated movie but was disappointed.  It was slow-paced and dare I say boring.  The characters, especially John DuPont and Mark Schultz, go through extreme transformations; however the movie fails to depict the process of transformation, only showing the before and after with very little transform-ing.   We never get inside the heads of these disturbed characters.  This doesn't make the movie any more difficult to follow, but it certainly makes for some sudden transitions coupled with some awkwardly fast cutaways.

That being said, all three leading men give excellent, gritty, dark and disturbing performances. Steve Carrell is unrecognizable in his breakout dramatic role behind loads of makeup.  Mark Ruffalo is perhaps even better than Carrell.  Some of the best scenes are when Ruffalo as David Schultz coaches his younger brother.  It is in these scenes, such as the silent sparring one, in which we see their relationship in its rawest form.