Over the years Jan & I have said we’d love to go the movies more. But, the reality was we never did much. A big part of this was my work life as a Unitarian Universalist parish minister and with the erratic hours that parish ministry meant doing something regularly was difficult. And, we chose to guard the time for our Zen community rather than anything else.
And time flows, and things change.
Now, in the first year of retirement we have started doing things that we just couldn’t put together. I cherish our near daily walks. I love being able to focus on the small details of shopping for ingredients and cooking.
And, we have on average seen a movie slightly less than three times a month. As it happens we managed to see eight of the nine films that have been nominated for best picture.
For me it really is hard to pick a favorite, one that I want, really, really want to win over all the others. Part of the problem is that the category is too broad. Comparing La La Land to Hidden Figures to Hell or High Water is a task beyond my skill sets. I can say I liked all of these movies that we saw. And, I’ve heard good things about the one we didn’t.
I have to say my favorite film of the year isn’t in fact on this list. It’s the documentary I Am Not Your Negro. Haunting, sad, lovely, and ultimately, in spite of everything, hopeful. I hope everyone sees it. And I hope it wins in the documentary category. As to the Best Picture nominees, I guess if I were forced to pick, my first choice would be Moonlight, followed and quite closely by a completely different kind of film, Arrival.
Soon we will know what the Academy with all its flaws chooses.
And for the run up I provide links to my reviews, plus a link for the one I didn’t do.
In the review of Arrival I cite Jan’s Facebook comment. “Just saw Arrival, with Amy Adams as the female xenolinguist protagonist. I would have loved it just for that, even if it weren’t the most thoughtful & moving science fiction film I’ve ever seen! Spoiler alert: no hand-to-hand with aliens, no vehicle chases.”
Of Fences, I wrote this “movie indeed turns on our woundedness. It is an exploration of how we survive within the circumstances of our lives, and particularly against the context of how we are shaped by hurt and disappointment, and, let’s use the word, injustice. At the same time it held up the dignity of our humanity.”
I wrote “Hell or High Water is what I guess we’d have to call a Western thriller, or, maybe it’s a Western chase flick. It is something of a boy fest, featuring four guys.”
I quote A. O. Scott of the New York Times, who reminds us, “There is something to be said for a well-told tale with a clear moral and a satisfying emotional payoff.”
La La Land is the film I see the most pushback from among my friends, many of whom focus on the real (and on occasion) imagined shortcomings of this musical fantasy. I felt differently. “Not exactly a throw back to an earlier era, but not not, either. La La Land brings tinges of musicals of days long gone. And, at the same time, it is very much a movie for our day. A pitch perfect entertainment.”
I wrote of Lion “I understood the story was to be about someone adopted from India, who returns as a young adult to find his lost birth family. The possibilities for a cheap emotional rollercoaster ride were pretty strong. Still, we went. And, I’m glad we did.”
I wrote, “Lee Chandler, played by Casey Affleck is called home to Manchester when his brother Joe, portrayed in flash backs by Kyle Chandler, dies from congestive heart failure. There he finds he has been appointed guardian for his sixteen year old nephew Patrick presented by Lucas Hedges. The ordinary sadnesses of Joe’s death and Patrick and Lee’s complicated relationship slowly are revealed as the tip of a large and looming iceberg.
Of Moonlight I wrote, “Can I say I liked this movie? I don’t think so. But, I hope you catch the complexity of the sentence. I’m glad I saw the movie. It is about the most beautiful film I’ve seen, among the most, anyway.”
Those were the films we saw.
And…
To round this out I provide a a link for the film we didn’t see. I decided on the review by A. O. Scott. As I’ve been doing these little appreciations, or, if you squint and hold your head sideways, reviews, I quickly learned the person I’ve learn most about reviewing from is Mr Scott.
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