Silence (2016)

This movie has been Scorsese's passion project that he has literally been trying to get made for over two decades. It is an introspective movie that asks the big questions about religion. I didn't know that Scorsese was so deep into religion. It's no simple praise god kind of movie. It is not so unilateral. It is a huge, challenging movie. You can tell that he must think about spirituality a lot.

The movie is beautiful. Torture and death never looked so stunning. The cinematography is definitely a standout. When you have two and a half excruciatingly painful hours, it better look good. It's a lot to take. It batters you emotionally and mentally. It is not easy to watch, but I couldn't look away.

The acting is very good too. Andrew Garfield plays a Jesuit priest (another religious character in Japan, coincidentally similar to his role in Hacksaw Ridge this year).  He is the protagonist but I actually wish Adam Driver had a bigger role (proportionally), because I think he was very good, even better than Garfield. Issey Ogata plays the grand inquisitor. When you first hear his rather high pitched voice, he sounds like a caricature of a Japanese person speaking English. I don't think that is intentional, that might just be how he talks? I'm not sure, but it's worth drawing attention to at least.

The movie had me thinking a lot about religion naturally. What the Japanese did to the Christians was obviously terrible. And you can't compare tragedies. But I found myself recalling the Spanish Inquisition, in which the violence and torture was reversed. It is terrible, but it is certainly not unique to the Japanese, as the Christians too committed atrocious acts (in the name of God, compared to the logical but perhaps unsound reasoning of the Japanese). They speak in competing metaphors that keep the questions coming. And in the end, there are no answers, just more questions. It is a fascinating movie that will continue to marinate in my mind.  

Nocturnal Animals (2016)

Tom Ford's second feature film has the visual style that you would expect from a designer. The cinematography is striking. The use of color and bold costuming is fitting with the dark theme of the movie with the West Texas twang. The acting is phenomenal across the board. I especially liked Michael Shannon's performance, but he is good in everything. Aaron Taylor-Johnson surprisingly won the Golden Globe--no one was predicting that. He is good, as a crazy person, but the role isn't as interesting as Shannon's. The casting of Isla Fisher is brilliant because it's like a little inside joke that she looks exactly like Amy Adams. At first, I couldn't tell if she was supposed to be playing a young Amy Adams, but it's a separate story line (though very purposeful). The writing is drawn out making the film thrilling and suspenseful and multilayered. Tom Ford is a storyteller too. He can just do it all. I was at the edge of my seat the whole time. Every time Amy Adams had to close the book and just take a break, I was breathing deeply right in sync, my heart beating fast. 

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. 

Divines (2016)

I'm so glad that the Camera d'Or winner from Cannes is now on Netflix. Erin raved about this movie when she saw it and it has been high on my list. Let's first deal with the ending. Without giving too much away, it is absolutely devastating. I was so taken by surprise not because there is a twist, but because these foreign films are not afraid to take the film to a depressing end. I was visibly shaken and this movie stayed with me. The movie is made by a first time director, with non-professional first time actors, who are excellent. They play these tough French girls who exude confidence, perhaps a little too much confidence for hubris ultimately leads to the conclusion. But don't get me wrong, it's not all depressing. It's actually quite charming and funny. It made me genuinely smile. 

The BFG (2016)

I don't really remember the book very well, but I do recall that it was one of my favorites growing up because of its imaginative story. Roald Dahl was always very creative. On the whole though, I was kind of unimpressed by the film. It was alright, but I didn't think it was anything special. Didn't excite me. Children's movies nowadays are not so simple. Even family films have depth, and the BFG was sort of shallow.

Mark Rylance plays the BFG and the motion capture technology is quite incredible. Fresh off his Oscar-winning collaboration with Spielberg in Bridge of Spies, he continues to do fine work. It's a good thing that we can capture his expressions and likeness because he's a theater actor and he expresses a lot more than he did as the low-key spy.

Loving (2016)

Loving is a beautiful movie I missed at Cannes. It is an understated love story directed deliberately with such control. The movie is not about the case that made them famous. That is almost an afterthought in the final act of the film. It is not a legal drama. It is a movie about love and life, simply following their daily life. The audience is never allowed to forget that our heroes thrust into the spotlight are just people. They just want to go on with their lives normally. Love is love. Joel Edgerton plays his role with sensitivity. And Ruth Negga is simply radiant, acting with careful restraint. The movie doesn't build up to some grand big monologue. No, it's thoughtful, it simmers and it stays with you. It is people like this that foster change in our society, who are brave enough to quietly fight the system. The relevance of the film in today's society is not lost on Jeff Nichols. 

Suicide Squad (2016)

Suicide Squad was pretty terrible, not as bad as everyone said, but by no means good. There is definitely a style, but it's a strange one. The opening, a montage of origin stories, looks cheap with the punk video game writing on the screen. Viola Davis is too good for this. Margot Robbie is even too good for this. She does what she can with the little she is given. And Jared Leto is a maniacal freak. He scared the heck out of me. Despite a more unique idea, the execution of the film is poor. The plot is borderline boring. These superhero, or super villain, movies just aren't exciting anymore. 

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980)

The Russia and Eastern Europe Club at school hosted a screening of this foreign-language Oscar winner from the Soviet Union. We watched a video off the internet that came with ads, making an already long movie even longer. Interestingly, the ads alternated between American burger ads and Italian fashion ads. The most frustrating thing was that it took us so long that they cut the power on us with 10 minutes to go. It wasn't even that late, maybe 10:30pm. I thought cutting the power on movies was something that only happened in third world countries. But I had to go home and finish it myself.

The movie is a portrait of Soviet life. I can't really remember too much about the movie anymore. I remember it was kind of funny, kind of sad, mostly sad. Reagan supposedly watched this movie to get a better understanding of the Russian sentiment. I watched a clip of the Oscars when the film won. And the filmmaker did not attend in 1980. Instead they sent someone from the Russian embassy, who made a short standard speech. It was a show of Russian soft power at the height of the Cold War. Russia did not project an environment of free speech, and they weren't about to let the filmmaker go off-script on the world stage. That's my theory anyways.