Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

As far as epic films go, this is the most epic of them all.  The ambitious scale of every aspect of this film is so enormously grand (including the length running nearly 4 hours), and it plays extremely well on 35mm film on the big screen.  You get a real sense of the expanse of the unforgiving and treacherous desert. Many shots show a tiny figure on the horizon or in a small corner with the rest of the screen is disproportionate amounts of sky and sand.  From start to finish, this is a visually stunning movie, capturing WWI-era Middle East, from the small port of Aqaba on the sea, to grand streets of Cairo.

More so than a film about the Arab revolt, this is really a character portrait of an enigmatic, complicated man.  There are times when his humanity is questioned, when his invincible God-complex takes over, and still others when the audience sees right through it to his ordinary core. Lawrence develops on both sides of the spectrum, presenting a nuanced story of a man affected by war.  In some ways, Lawrence can be compared to American Sniper, another portrait of a legendary war hero.  But Lawrence is more thoughtful about the effects of killing on the mind and politics of war.  Peter O'Toole gives a masterful performance, transforming emotionally and mentally and embracing the Arabian dress rather nicely to play Lawrence.

Don't Touch the Loot (Touchez pas au grisbi) (1954)

Jean Gabin makes his triumphal return to the screen as the quintessential tough guy, but now an aged man (still with great hair) he projects a different kidn of confidence. He is a jaded criminal, uninterested in the luxuries of life. He exudes power and control over his surroundings and commands respect. Riton, his partner in crime and in life, serves as a foil to Gabin's Max. Their relationship resembles that of an old married couple, highlighted in a scene in which the pair are hiding out in Max's spare apartment. The gangster Max is well prepared with an extra toothbrush, pajamas, linens and even a fridge stocked with champagne for a midnight snack of pate. These French gangsters are quite distinct from the American gangsters that we are used to. This film really popularized the gangster genre. The movie's depiction of women is not entirely unusual, but it is very aesthetically displeasing. The few women in this film are mere objects for hte men. It is so blatant that it is distracting and detracts from the film. Max slaps two women across the face, recalling his assertive slapping hand from Port of Shadows.

The Oscars 2015

Last year, I scored 23/24 categories in a ceremony that arguably had fewer close races, missing only in the Animated Short category (who foresaw Mr. Hublot pulling the upset over Disney?).  This year, I think Disney's Feast, which was shown along with Big Hero 6, will win Oscar gold.  This will be Disney's consolation prize when it loses the Animated Feature award to Dreamworks's How to Train Your Dragon 2.

This year's race has proven difficult to predict, especially with Birdman's late victories at SAG, DGA and PGA, then Boyhood's redemption at BAFTA.  The Picture and Director categories may split for the third year in a row and it could split in either direction.  But despite Birdman's late resurgence, it is appearing unlikely that Michael Keaton will be able to upset Eddie Redmayne.

Emcee extraordinaire Neil Patrick Harris hosts this year's ceremony, which will be filled with musical performances. Here are my full predictions, including who will win, should win (in my opinion), and honorable mentions for other standouts in the category:

Best Picture Likelihood of Winning
1. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
2. Boyhood
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. Whiplash
5. American Sniper
6. The Imitation Game
7. Selma
8. The Theory of Everything

Best Picture Personal Ranking
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Whiplash
3. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
4. Boyhood
5. The Theory of Everything
6. The Imitation Game
7. Selma
8. American Sniper

Best Director
Will win/Should win: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Honorable Mention: Alejandro Inarritu, Birdman & Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Actress
Will win/Should win: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Honorable Mention: Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything & Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Best Actor
Will win/Should win: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
Honorable Mentions: Michael Keaton, Birdman & Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game

Best Supporting Actress
Will win/Should win: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Honorable Mention: Emma Stone, Birdman

Best Supporting Actor
Will win/Should win: JK Simmons, Whiplash
Honorable Mention: Edward Norton, Birdman

Best Original Screenplay
Will win/Should win: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Honorable Mentions: Birdman & Nightcrawler

Best Adapted Screenplay
Will win/Should win: Whiplash
Honorable Mention: The Theory of Everything

Best Cinematography
Will win/Should win: Birdman

Best Costume Design
Will win/Should win: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Film Editing
Will win/Should win: Boyhood
Honorable Mention: Whiplash

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Will win/Should win: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Production Design
Will win/Should win: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Score
Will win: The Theory of Everything
Should win: Interstellar

Best Song
Will win: Glory, Selma
Should win: Lost Stars, Begin Again

Best Sound Editing
Will win/Should win: American Sniper

Best Sound Mixing
Will win/Should win: Whiplash

Best Visual Effects
Will win/Should win: Interstellar
Honorable Mention: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Best Animated Feature
Will win/Should win: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Honorable Mention: The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Documentary
Will win: Citizenfour

Best Foreign Film
Will win: Ida, Poland
Honorable Mention: Relatos Salvajes (Wild Tales), Argentina

Best Animated Short
Will win: Feast

Best Live Action Short
Will win: The Phone Call

Best Documentary Short
Will win: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

Check out the article I wrote for the JHU News-Letter with some of my predictions for the Oscars: http://www.jhunewsletter.com/2015/02/19/best-picture-nominees-compete-for-2015-oscars-18833/

Update: So 18/24 isn't so bad but definitely not as well as I was hoping for.  Birdman is the big winner tonight, with Alejandro Inarritu winning 3 statues himself.  Boyhood goes home with just one award for Patricia Arquette, leaving Richard Linklater nothing.  And Wes Anderson's film gets a surprise win in score to complement its artistic awards, but Wes Anderson himself goes home empty handed.  And NPH was great as expected.

Treme (2010-3)

David Simon paints an exquisite portrait of New Orleans post-Katrina, showcasing New Orleans culture of music, food, corruption and of course Mardi Gras.  I admit that I now have a much better appreciation for jazz, both traditional and modern. The show and city are filled with music; my favorite scenes featured Delmond's modern jazz trumpet.  My least favorite music came in Davis's strange punk-jazz-folk-opera concoctions; he also does not have a very pleasing singing voice.  I also was not a big fan of Annie's French-folk fiddle.  Really, I did not enjoy the non-Jazz genres.

The show tackles lots of prevalent issues that arose in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane.  A recurring theme was police corruption and the frustration of civil rights lawyer Toni Bernette and clean cop Terry Colson over the lack of accountability.  Our character of interest was Nelson Hidalgo, a well-connected, money-hungry, neoliberal, professional schmoozer "carpetbagger venture capitalist" from Texas.  He makes a ton of money (from the government) in the demolition and rebuilding efforts of the city, but nothing ever actually gets done.  The Jazz Center that was his focus for much of the final two seasons never gets off the ground.  And by the series end, he packs up and leaves New Orlenas for good, moving on to Galveston devastated by Ike to run a similar scheme and make a second fortune.

Simon has a very interesting manner of narrative storytelling.  There is arguably no main character in the series (New Orleans itself is the protagonist, so to speak, omnipresent and never changing).  There are several characters with independent, sometimes intersecting story lines.  The scenes alternate between characters, such that we never get a full story till the end of the season.  Of course, some characters have more interesting plot lines than others and some you just dread seeing on screen.  Because of the slow pace, you really have to be committed to watching the whole season lest the story just unravel too slowly.  It picks up a little in season two, but the third season was a bit of a lull.  The final season gives a fitting farewell to everyone.  The final season was nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries after the Miniseries/TV Movie split.    

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?

The Woman Who Dared (Le Ciel est a vous) (1944)

I enjoyed this film very much.  Compared to the depressing gloom of Port of Shadows this movie is more uplifting and positive.   Curiously, this film was made during the Occupation of France and it is typical for its depiction of gender in the time period.  This film portrays a happy family being forced to move away from their home because the land is being seized (a metaphor perhaps?) for a new airfield.   There are some rough patches along the way but overall from start to finish, the husband and wife's love for each other grows.   Both genders get to show a range of emotions and their elation is contagious.  Pierre is a "gentle" male figure and Therese is an independent and ambitious woman set on beating the flying world record.  It is just pure fun.

There is a subplot involving the daughter's piano lessons.   It is not always apparent why it is relevant but you can draw parallels between the mother-daughter relationship and the grandmother-mother relationship.   However,  the story line is never resolved by the end of the movie.   It is forgotten.   But the filmmaker is too careful to have simply left the story open.   I must believe there is ambiguity for a reason leaving the next fate of the next generation unknown as it was during the Occupation. 

Wild (2014)

This movie features a whole lot of hiking.   Hiking is a very slow sport.  To make matters worse, Reese Witherspoon is hiking in the middle of nowhere up the Pacific Crest Trail.  So for starters, this was not really my type of movie.  But I can appreciate what hiking means for Witherspoon's character Cheryl Strayed, whose memoir this movie is based on.  Hiking has a regenerative power.  She is giving herself new life and accomplishing a massive feat to prove that she can make it on her own.

The narrative is told with a lot of narration and time jumping, so to speak. I imagine the narrations giving us first-person insight into her thoughts are reflective of the story's origin in a book.  Strayed's hike is linear, but there are many flashbacks interspersed in the movie.  These are powerful memories, that don't only cause her to remember but take Strayed back emotionally.  She is emotive, expressing fear and frustration and moments of bliss.  Reese Witherspoon gives a gritty performance as the solo hiker. We see her anguish and her perpetual pain out in the desert.   Laura Dern, too, as Strayed's optimistic mother is good in the few scenes that she's in.

Whiplash (2014)

Pure, unrelenting intensity.  This film reminded me a little of Black Swan.  At their cores, both films are about the unstoppable pursuit of perfection  And the path to success is thrilling and nerve-wracking and slightly mortifying.  It reinforces to young artists that greatness is not easily achieved.  It requires persistence, determination, concentration, hours of practice and a teacher to push you beyond the limit.

The acting in this movie is phenomenal.  JK Simmons is the scariest band conductor you could imagine.  All of his students are terrified of him and avoid eye contact at all costs.  Simmons is really quite monstrous, inhuman.  And Miles Teller just takes it.  He uses the yelling and the insults to motivate him to be better.  He, too, deserves recognition for pushing himself to the limits--you can see it clearly in his facial expressions.  Both are helped by smart writing.

Damien Chazelle adapted his own short film into a feature length film.  What is the message that Chazelle tries to convey?  It is semi-autobiographical, and obviously he had a bad experience in band. The teacher has a lasting negative impact psychologically.   But perhaps Chazelle agrees that the teaching style brings out the best in the musicians.

The excitement level is helped by some really sharp film editing and cinematography.  The jazz rhythms dictate the fast and rhythmic cuts.  Each shot is beautifully composed.  My favorite shot is of Teller's character intensely practicing at his drum set. We see his face on the right half of the screen at an upward angle and the left half of the screen is blocked by the cymbal.  Who knew that drumming could be so exciting?  

The Grammy Awards 2015

In my opinion, this year's crop of Grammy nominees is relatively weak.  I do not think the major categories have five-way races--more like two-way races between two far ahead front runners. The one constant at the top of all four major categories is Sam Smith.  I think he will come away with multiple Grammys on Sunday.

Best New Artist
Sam Smith will win. No contest.

Song of the Year
Sam Smith's Stay With Me will win and deserves to. Perennial Grammy favorite Taylor Swift is in the race with Shake If Off, but it is unlikely that she will top Smith.

Record of the Year 
Again, Sam Smith's Stay With Me with its unique gospel-inspired sound will and should win.  Perhaps Sia can challenge him with her hit Chandelier but it is unlikely.

Album of the Year
This could be a potentially interesting race.  I do not think Sam Smith will sweep all four categories. Beyonce with her fantastic self-titled surprise album is my pick to win as she should.  However, she is hurt by the fact that Drunk in Love was shut out of the Song and Record categories.  If Beyonce does not win, Sam Smith probably will.

Update: I scored 3/4, missing on Album of the Year when Beck's Morning Phase pulled the upset.  

Port of Shadows (Le Quai des brumes) (1938)

Marcel Carne made a very sad movie that epitomizes French cinema in the 1930s.  This movie boldly portrays La Havre for what it was in the foggy and gloomy interwar period.  It does not shy away from the depressing atmosphere of the time.  But there is a different kind of sadness that pervades through the film as well.  For example, the scene inside Panama's bar is poetically sad.  The artist really dampens the mood talking about suicide (romantic fatalism), but he speaks in beautiful language in rhythm.   In the background, Panama strums his guitar playing a melancholy tune.  This film is a prime example of the poetic realism style.

Jean Gabin plays the quintessential tough guy with the cigarette sticking out the corner of his mouth.  He carries himself and stands up to the gangsters and anyone who threatens him.  Apparently this is the type of character that Gabin was known to play in all of his films.  And yet he also has a soft spot.  In the opening scene of the film, he saves a dog from an oncoming vehicle. This dog becomes his shadow for the duration of the film.   I am conflicted about the tragic ending which comes very suddenly but perhaps it is only in keeping with the sadness of the time.