Mimosas (2016)

Suffice it to say I didn't get it. It's very pretty to look at the expansive landscape shots. I often lost the tiny characters on the backdrop of sand and rock. The film is divided in 3 acts, the first sets the scene and is coherent. We are dropped in two different Moroccan scenes: a city and the mountains, and we are unsure how the two will come together. But there is enough there to piece it together. But once the second act begins, it loses all coherence. It was unclear to me what drives these characters? Without fully understanding their motivations, it was hard to decipher what they were even doing. Not to mention the very slow pace. And why is it called Mimosas?

Mozart in the Jungle (2014-18)

Amazon took a chance on a niche show, a romantic comedy centered around the dynamic world of classical music. It is admittedly a pretty terrible show but it has its moments. I think the biggest problem was that it focused on the romance between Hailey and Rodrigo, which was decidedly less interesting than the relationship between the orchestra members. The show shone best just watching the inner workings of an orchestra, including the quirky musicians, the union issues, the funding issues, and their day-to-day struggles. Gael Garcia Bernal deserved all the praise he got, playing the Gustavo Dudamel-like conductor, a hard-to-handle musical genius. However, the protagonist was arguably Hailey, played by Lola Kirke. I found that I didn't really care about her story, which sort of revolved around the orchestra but was never within the orchestra. She eventually ditched the oboe for conducting and her conducting acting was entirely unconvincing. I understand it's hard, but she looked kind of spastic.

I binged the first three seasons within a couple days. Despite it not being great TV, it's very watchable, it goes by very quickly. It has its moments. There were some excellent episodes: Ichi Go Ichi E, The Rehearsal, You Have Insulted Tchaikovsky, and the Pilot. And there's some fun traveling episodes, in Mexico, Venice and Japan. It is a fun show, even if not a great one.

Contempt (Le Mepris) (1963)

I admittedly haven't seen all that much Godard. I saw Masculin Feminin, which is barely comprehensible. I watched ten minutes of Adieu au Langage on Netflix and it was unwatchable. Maybe I'm just not a Godard fan. But Le Mepris is gorgeous. To begin with, there is a plot! The music is super emotional. The characters are complex. And the cinematography is visually stunning. The whole movie was kind of mesmerizing.

It is supremely European. Giorgia Moll plays interpreter for the group of English, French, German and Italian speaking characters. The characters speak in their own languages without regard for the others and the very impressive interpreter must act as the go-between. Kind of interesting that only the French was subtitled, and only if it wasn't also translated orally in English. So you really have to pay attention to who is saying what.

Godard's editing style is rather unique. I wonder if he thinks in the same way he cuts together his movies because some of the montages are otherwise inexplicable. The introductory credits is like a unique behind-the-scenes take with narration. There is some voice-over in the middle too when Camille and Paul discuss the dissolution of their marriage. That whole long apartment scene is masterful. It feels natural. There is one unnatural part at the end of the movie. That is the car accident. The car accident is inexcusably dumb. There is no way he didn't see a giant truck, especially to ram into the section of the truck that drags the huge semitrailer. Also, even though there is plot, the gun never pays off; you don't introduce a gun in act two if it never gets used...

A Pure Formality ( Una Pura Formalita') (1994)

It's a far cry from Tornatore's masterpiece Cinema Paradiso. Here he takes a different approach using a twist ending. I just didn't really like the twist. I was guessing it was kind of Shutter Island-ish but it was a slightly different twist. There are some good things about the movie though. This is a two-hander, with both Gerard Depardieu and Roman Polanski giving excellent performances. One minor quirk I don't understand is why they speak French but all the on-screen text is in Italian. The production design gives you a miserable feeling, making you feel uncomfortable (and damp as the rain is incessant and the police station is leaking and flooding all over).

Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009)

Damien Chazelle's first movie makes his love for jazz and film.
Besides the obvious thematic similarities to La La Land, some of the music is even the same.Filmed on grainy black-and-white 16mm, there are some really wonderful moments. There are three musical numbers, all kind of enchanting.  There are lots of close-up shots, which I didn't mind, and some awkward zooms.

As for the story, it was barely coherent. The movie interestingly starts with the breakup and we see how he got there and how he mends it. Having read the synopsis after watching the movie, I kind of get it, but there are lots of extraneous scenes that muddle the plot. Understandably, this was his first movie. And he very quickly worked out those kinks. In this movie, Elena's subplot doesn't really fit into the story. She serves as a distraction for Guy, but as Chazelle discovered later in Whiplash and La La Land, it is jazz itself that is the passion incompatible with a relationship.

Phantom Thread (2017)

Since I saw The Master five or six years ago, I have evolved. My taste has changed and I've learned to appreciate different kinds of movies. I think it might be time to revisit The Master, widely praised as one of the greatest films of the century (for some reason). I clearly was too young to appreciate Paul Thomas Anderson back then. And now? Well I didn't hate Phantom Thread; in fact, I really liked it. Anderson is so carefully deliberate in crafting this film with a delicate hand as Woodcock crafts his dresses. The sumptuous orchestral score by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood paired with Daniel Day-Lewis's effortless acing is just marvelous. I'm not sure how they play together so well if it was Greenwood composing in Day-Lewis's style or vice versa. More likely it is Anderson's meticulous direction. Early on in the movie, there is a delightful scene in which Woodcock is ordering food at a restaurant and it's difficult to explain why but the combination of the music and acting just make me smile. What I liked most about the film is the tone that it evokes through these elements. I don't know how he pitched the movie because I'd have a hard time telling you what it's about. The trailer for the movie put forth a premise of a dressmaker hiding things in his dresses--maybe I missed the point but it turned out to be a relatively minor part of the movie. At its core, the movie is a romance and the fashion setting, while gorgeous, is secondary. Perhaps most baffling is the left turn it takes in the last fifteen minutes. I don't want to simply chalk it off to love is strange but romance is strange, isn't it?

The Oscars (2018)

After the fiasco that was the presentation of Best Picture last year, Jimmy Kimmel is back (and I think Pwc is too). This year's race is wide open. The Shape of Water is the leader with 13 nominations. But Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri won the Golden Globe over The Shape of Water. On the one hand, Three Billboards does not have a directing nomination which should be a death knell. But remember Argo? Argo won Best Picture arguably BECAUSE voters thought Ben Affleck was snubbed and voters wanted to honor it elsewhere. That is conceivable this year too.

Best Picture
My Top Films of 2017: 

1. Blade Runner 2049
2. Dunkirk
3. Faces Places
4. Lady Bird
5. The Shape of Water
6. The Florida Project
7. The Meyerowitz Stories: New and Selected
8. Get Out
9. The Disaster Artist
10. Chasing Coral
11. Columbus

My Ranking:

1. Dunkirk
2. Lady Bird
3. The Shape of Water
4. Get Out
5. Call Me By Your Name
6. The Post
7. Phantom Thread
8. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
9. Darkest Hour
   

My Predictions:

1. The Shape of Water
2. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
3. Get Out
4. Dunkirk
5. Lady Bird
6. Phantom Thread
7. Call Me By Your Name
8. The Post
9. Darkest Hour

Best Director:
Will Win: Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Honorable Mention: Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk

Best Actor:
Will Win: Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Should Win: Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Honorable Mention: Daniel Day Lewis, Phantom Thread

Best Actress:
Will Win: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Should Win: Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Honorable Mention: Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

Best Supporting Actor:
Will Win & Should Win: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project


Best Supporting Actress: 
Will Win: Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Should Win: Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Will Win: Call Me By Your Name
Should Win: The Disaster Artist

Best Original Screenplay:
Will Win: Get Out
Honorable Mention: Lady Bird

Best Cinematography:
Will Win & Should Win: Blade Runner 2049


Best Costume Design:
Will Win & Should Win: Phantom Thread


Best Film Editing:
Will Win: Dunkirk
Honorable Mention: Baby Driver

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
Will Win & Should Win: Darkest Hour


Best Production Design:
Will Win: The Shape of Water
Honorable Mention: Blade Runner 2049

Best Score:
Will Win & Should Win: The Shape of Water
Honorable Mentions: Phantom Thread and Dunkirk

Best Song: (maybe the toughest category this year and I don't really love any of them)
Will Win: Mighty River, Mudbound

Best Sound Editing:
Will Win: Dunkirk

Best Sound Mixing:
Will Win: Dunkirk
Possible Spoiler: Baby Driver

Best Visual Effects:
Will Win: War for the Planet of the Apes
Honorable Mention: Blade Runner 2049

Best Documentary:
Will Win: Icarus
Should Win: Faces Places

Best Foreign Language Film:
Will Win: The Square, Sweden

Best Animated Feature:
Will Win & Should Win: Coco

Best Animated Short:
Will Win: Dear Basketball

Best Documentary Short: 
Will Win: Heroin(e)


Best Live Action Short:
Will Win: DeKalb Elementary

Update: I scored 18/24 this year, which is a respectable 75% but...I feel like my mistakes were avoidable. If I had been less stubborn and just picked the favorites to win, I'd have a higher score. I made some easy mistakes...Always next year