A couple of my favorite gems
Welp, the Oscar nominees were announced last week… it was pretty disappointing.
There were so many good movies out this year so I knew it wouldn’t go as I would hope but I didn’t expect ‘Joker’ to get so many nominations. It got 11, some of them didn’t even make sense. While I did like ‘Joker’ I DO NOT think that film is in any way Best Picture worthy. Come fight me on this. There are so many other movies that could’ve taken its place that were much more deserving. I will be very upset if that wins the Best Picture award. Don’t get me wrong, some of the awards were deserving like Joaquin Phoenix for Best Actor… I fully support that, he was amazing. Original score? I wouldn’t say it was original… it was basically just dark foreboding music throughout. Nothing “original” about it. I did like the songs they paired with the movie, I thought that was well done. But the score? Nah. Ok ‘Joker’ rant over.
I am also extremely salty about the amount of white men nominated. There are literally only 2 POC that were nominated this year. The lack of POC nominated for Oscars isn’t a new thing but for there to only be 2?! It’s just shameful when there were so many great actors and films to choose from (*cough* ‘The Farewell’ *cough* ‘Just Mercy’ *cough* *cough* ‘Hustlers’). ALSO not to mention there were ZERO female directors nominated. What the fuck?! In a year where so many amazing female led films were released how can there be zero??? The movie ‘Joker’ just perpetuates and encourages violence among white men who are “nice guys” that can’t get a girl. People thought that was worthy of 11 awards while a female empowering film such as ‘Little Women’ only received 6.
The only silver lining for me was the nominations for ‘Parasite’. It is the first Korean film to be nominated for Best Picture. It also got the Best Foreign Film nomination as well. This was one of my top 10 favorites of the year and I thought for sure it would get snubbed but ended up walking away with a total of 6 nominations!
So instead of writing about any of these Oscar nominated films, I am going to review 2 of the best films this year that got completely overlooked.
Uncut Gems (RT 91%)
Cut to the chase: An anxiety induced film about a man who can’t stop making high-stakes bets that jeopardize every single person he comes into contact with.
This has to be by far one of the most stressful films I’ve sat through in my life. Not since ‘Gone Girl’ have I been literally on the edge of my seat for its entirety of 2 hours and 15 minutes. Greg came up with a pretty good synopsis of the movie: “it feels like if you took the ending helicopter scene in ‘Goodfellas’ and stretched it across an entire film”.
The movie stars Adam Sandler as Howard Ratner in what is my opinion the best role he has ever played. The beginning scene goes from a beautiful psychedelic animation sequence to being inside our main characters very graphic colon. I have to quote what a fellow Letterboxd user wrote about the beginning of this film since it is accurate and so well put. “This movie starts us right off with a psychedelic colonoscopy to signify how clenched our asses will be for the next 2 hours and 15 minutes and i call this.... and i cannot stress this enough............... poetic cinema” - maria. I couldn’t agree more. From then on we follow Howard as he runs from place to place making insanely risky sports bets. I’m not super familiar with how these types of bets are made but they do a subtle way of explaining it and I was able to follow along. The fast paced, shakey shots coupled with the strangely fitting electronic score are enough to make you frustrated and enthralled at the same time. I got so lost in Adam Sandlers’ performance that I kept forgetting that it was him. I can’t believe he didn’t get the nomination for Best Actor at the very least. His acting blows every single one of those men nominated out of the water.
The film centers around a gem - specifically a black opal - which Howard gets delivered to his high-profile jewelry store sent from who he describes as “black Ethiopian jews”. When basketball icon Kevin Garnett comes in to visit Howard’s store, he shows off the gem and after explaining the rarity of it, KG (who is my all time favorite basketball player btw) insists that he has to have it. Howard declines because he wants to put it up for auction so he can jack up the price. This film takes place in 2010 when Garnett was still playing on the Celtics so he begs Howard to lend him the gem for the game that night with his NBA championship ring as collateral. The second that KG leaves his store, Howard immediately pawns the ring for cash. Then he takes all that cash and bets it all on the game that night. The film continues to play out this way for pretty much it’s entirety. Howard is a garbage person that makes you hate him but also root for him in a strange self mutilating way. Through the course of this film he ruins almost every relationship that he has and completely destroys his marriage and family. It all ends with such a shocking conclusion that I could hear everyone in the theater gasp. It’s one of the best films I’ve seen in a while and one of those stories that stick with you for hours or even days after the end credits roll.
I’ve been suffering through these weird stomach problems for the past month and the day we went to see this I walked in feeling so nauseous I was already thinking of a game plan for how I would exit the theater if I needed to throw up. This was the first movie I have seen in a while that I didn’t get popcorn for. In hindsight I don’t know if I would’ve even had time to eat it if I had it with the amount of anxiety I felt while watching this. All the nausea went away once I was 15 minutes into the movie. My mind was absorbed into this movie that I completely forgot about my stomach. I can’t recommend this film enough! It’s not playing in my theater anymore but being a Netflix produced film, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until you can watch it on there. Get ready for a wild and crazy ride.
The Lighthouse (RT 92%)
Cut to the chase: A mind bending thriller about two lighthouse keepers that takes place in the late 1800’s on a remote island in New England.
I caught this film a little late. It came out a few months back but I wasn’t able to watch it in the theater so we got a download to watch at home. This one comes in a close second to ‘Midsommar’ as my favorite horror film of 2019.
Directed by Robert Eggers, this film was shot in black-and-white with a 1.19:1 aspect ratio which added to the unsettling and claustrophobic feeling you get while watching it. It stars William Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as the lighthouse keepers who are committed to live in and maintain the lighthouse. This is the best acting I've ever seen from Robert Pattinson. I was really impressed and think he's shaping up to be an iconic dramatic actor. This movie was a surreal trip. There were so many weird innuendos and moments that made me feel really uncomfortable. Everything about this film just felt cold and wet. At a certain point it makes you start to question your reality and how long they have really been at the lighthouse. William Dafoe's crazy Davy Jones-type accent was so well done that at times I felt like I needed to put on subtitles. I actually went online to read the script afterwards to see if there were parts I misunderstood. What starts out as an easy to follow story spirals down a deep rabbit hole that at times can be hard to follow. It was one of those movies that I googled "lighthouse ending explained" immediately after it ended. Even though I didn't quite get the ending initially, after researching it I was really impressed with it. I don't want to spoil anything but I recommend looking it up after you finish to read up on the story more. If you are a fan of psychological horror films I'd recommend checking it out but it's not for everyone.
Hope you enjoyed reading! Catch ya next time.
There were so many good movies out this year so I knew it wouldn’t go as I would hope but I didn’t expect ‘Joker’ to get so many nominations. It got 11, some of them didn’t even make sense. While I did like ‘Joker’ I DO NOT think that film is in any way Best Picture worthy. Come fight me on this. There are so many other movies that could’ve taken its place that were much more deserving. I will be very upset if that wins the Best Picture award. Don’t get me wrong, some of the awards were deserving like Joaquin Phoenix for Best Actor… I fully support that, he was amazing. Original score? I wouldn’t say it was original… it was basically just dark foreboding music throughout. Nothing “original” about it. I did like the songs they paired with the movie, I thought that was well done. But the score? Nah. Ok ‘Joker’ rant over.
I am also extremely salty about the amount of white men nominated. There are literally only 2 POC that were nominated this year. The lack of POC nominated for Oscars isn’t a new thing but for there to only be 2?! It’s just shameful when there were so many great actors and films to choose from (*cough* ‘The Farewell’ *cough* ‘Just Mercy’ *cough* *cough* ‘Hustlers’). ALSO not to mention there were ZERO female directors nominated. What the fuck?! In a year where so many amazing female led films were released how can there be zero??? The movie ‘Joker’ just perpetuates and encourages violence among white men who are “nice guys” that can’t get a girl. People thought that was worthy of 11 awards while a female empowering film such as ‘Little Women’ only received 6.
The only silver lining for me was the nominations for ‘Parasite’. It is the first Korean film to be nominated for Best Picture. It also got the Best Foreign Film nomination as well. This was one of my top 10 favorites of the year and I thought for sure it would get snubbed but ended up walking away with a total of 6 nominations!
So instead of writing about any of these Oscar nominated films, I am going to review 2 of the best films this year that got completely overlooked.
Cut to the chase: An anxiety induced film about a man who can’t stop making high-stakes bets that jeopardize every single person he comes into contact with.
This has to be by far one of the most stressful films I’ve sat through in my life. Not since ‘Gone Girl’ have I been literally on the edge of my seat for its entirety of 2 hours and 15 minutes. Greg came up with a pretty good synopsis of the movie: “it feels like if you took the ending helicopter scene in ‘Goodfellas’ and stretched it across an entire film”.
The movie stars Adam Sandler as Howard Ratner in what is my opinion the best role he has ever played. The beginning scene goes from a beautiful psychedelic animation sequence to being inside our main characters very graphic colon. I have to quote what a fellow Letterboxd user wrote about the beginning of this film since it is accurate and so well put. “This movie starts us right off with a psychedelic colonoscopy to signify how clenched our asses will be for the next 2 hours and 15 minutes and i call this.... and i cannot stress this enough............... poetic cinema” - maria. I couldn’t agree more. From then on we follow Howard as he runs from place to place making insanely risky sports bets. I’m not super familiar with how these types of bets are made but they do a subtle way of explaining it and I was able to follow along. The fast paced, shakey shots coupled with the strangely fitting electronic score are enough to make you frustrated and enthralled at the same time. I got so lost in Adam Sandlers’ performance that I kept forgetting that it was him. I can’t believe he didn’t get the nomination for Best Actor at the very least. His acting blows every single one of those men nominated out of the water.
The film centers around a gem - specifically a black opal - which Howard gets delivered to his high-profile jewelry store sent from who he describes as “black Ethiopian jews”. When basketball icon Kevin Garnett comes in to visit Howard’s store, he shows off the gem and after explaining the rarity of it, KG (who is my all time favorite basketball player btw) insists that he has to have it. Howard declines because he wants to put it up for auction so he can jack up the price. This film takes place in 2010 when Garnett was still playing on the Celtics so he begs Howard to lend him the gem for the game that night with his NBA championship ring as collateral. The second that KG leaves his store, Howard immediately pawns the ring for cash. Then he takes all that cash and bets it all on the game that night. The film continues to play out this way for pretty much it’s entirety. Howard is a garbage person that makes you hate him but also root for him in a strange self mutilating way. Through the course of this film he ruins almost every relationship that he has and completely destroys his marriage and family. It all ends with such a shocking conclusion that I could hear everyone in the theater gasp. It’s one of the best films I’ve seen in a while and one of those stories that stick with you for hours or even days after the end credits roll.
I’ve been suffering through these weird stomach problems for the past month and the day we went to see this I walked in feeling so nauseous I was already thinking of a game plan for how I would exit the theater if I needed to throw up. This was the first movie I have seen in a while that I didn’t get popcorn for. In hindsight I don’t know if I would’ve even had time to eat it if I had it with the amount of anxiety I felt while watching this. All the nausea went away once I was 15 minutes into the movie. My mind was absorbed into this movie that I completely forgot about my stomach. I can’t recommend this film enough! It’s not playing in my theater anymore but being a Netflix produced film, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until you can watch it on there. Get ready for a wild and crazy ride.
Cut to the chase: A mind bending thriller about two lighthouse keepers that takes place in the late 1800’s on a remote island in New England.
I caught this film a little late. It came out a few months back but I wasn’t able to watch it in the theater so we got a download to watch at home. This one comes in a close second to ‘Midsommar’ as my favorite horror film of 2019.
Directed by Robert Eggers, this film was shot in black-and-white with a 1.19:1 aspect ratio which added to the unsettling and claustrophobic feeling you get while watching it. It stars William Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as the lighthouse keepers who are committed to live in and maintain the lighthouse. This is the best acting I've ever seen from Robert Pattinson. I was really impressed and think he's shaping up to be an iconic dramatic actor. This movie was a surreal trip. There were so many weird innuendos and moments that made me feel really uncomfortable. Everything about this film just felt cold and wet. At a certain point it makes you start to question your reality and how long they have really been at the lighthouse. William Dafoe's crazy Davy Jones-type accent was so well done that at times I felt like I needed to put on subtitles. I actually went online to read the script afterwards to see if there were parts I misunderstood. What starts out as an easy to follow story spirals down a deep rabbit hole that at times can be hard to follow. It was one of those movies that I googled "lighthouse ending explained" immediately after it ended. Even though I didn't quite get the ending initially, after researching it I was really impressed with it. I don't want to spoil anything but I recommend looking it up after you finish to read up on the story more. If you are a fan of psychological horror films I'd recommend checking it out but it's not for everyone.
Hope you enjoyed reading! Catch ya next time.
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