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Listen to Me Marlon (2015)
Inspiring Documentary on the World's Greatest Actor
Marlon Brando, more than just an actor.
In Listen To Me Marlon, many of Brando's personal recordings are explored. The documentary delves deep inside the recordings throughout the duration of the documentary. We are given private information regarding Brando's personal life on and off the screen. Many of Brando's earliest interviews are shown as well, with Brando giving us his own perspective on his performances in his films. His love for Tahiti is explored as well, and we are given an in depth explanation as to why he refused to respect the 1973 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The entire documentary, in Brando's own words. Very worth a watch.
Overall: 10/10
Joy (2015)
Tedious, With A Few Decent Performances
Joy is a loosely based film on Joy Mangano, an entrepreneur and inventor who became an overnight success after inventing the miracle mop, but not without overcoming personal and professional obstacles.
Not much to like about this film. Joy is a very David O. Russell-Esque film, meaning that the film focuses so much on the characters that, at times, it can take away from the plot/storyline. American Hustle, also a David O. Russell film, has many scenes in which the characters are improvising in order to more powerfully express the character's feeling and emotions. Which can very affective, but films like these are always in danger of going off course plot-wise. This occurs as well in Joy, which works as a benefit for Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro, as they can use their superior acting skills to their advantage in films with a lot of improvisation. Other aspects of the film such as the music, screenplay, and the cinematography offer nothing special. If the screenplay had been balanced between character dialogue/improvisation, and actually plot, the screenplay would be a little better. But because of the focus mostly on the characters and less on the effectiveness of the story-line, the screenplay was not good enough. Overall, besides the relatively strong acting performances by Lawrence and De Niro, of course, the other aspects of the film only barely live up to average scores.
Direction: 6/10, Cinematography: 7/10, Acting: 8/10, Music: 6/10, Screenplay: 5/10
Overall: 6/10
Sicario (2015)
Slightly Above Average Revenge Film
Sicario follows an idealistic agent named Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), who joins the team of a CIA Special Activities Division undercover officer named Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), and his partner Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro). Macer, her partner Reggie (Daniel Kaluuya), and the team they tagged along with attempt to track down numerous drug cartel leaders and have them arrested.
There are many positive aspects of this film that deserve to be pointed out, such as the relatively strong cinematography and score. The direction out of Denis Villeneuve, especially compared to his previous film, Prisoners, is very average in Sicario. Benicio del Toro delivers one of his strongest acting performances in years, even though his character, Alejandro, does not have much dialogue in the final cut of the film (originally his character had more, but most of his lines were cut due to Villeneuve's artistic vision.) Josh Brolin does a fine job, and so does Emily Blunt throughout the film. The strongest aspects of the film are probably the cinematography and the acting performances. The story however, was a little slow, with not enough dialogue to get an in-depth description about some of the characters, especially the character of Reggie. This was not much of a surprise, however, considering director Villeneuve's preference of more character movement and action, rather than long dialogue sequences. Later in the film (spoilers) we learn of Alejandro Gillick's true intentions, tracking down and killing the man who murdered his wife and daughter. This was a slight disappointment, considering that this was only a revenge film in disguise for a good portion of the film. In conclusion, not bad by any means, but surely many people expected more from it plot-wise, below are the scores:
Direction: 7/10, Cinematography: 8/10, Acting: 9/10, Music: 8/10, Screenplay: 6/10
Overall: 7/10
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Top-Notch, Classic Tarantino Film
The Hateful Eight follows four hateful passengers and their stagecoach driver on their way to the town of Red Rock. Because of a terrible storm on their tails, the passengers are forced to stop at Minnie's Haberdashery and stay there for a few nights. There, they encounter four more hateful characters.
Because of how well-rounded this film is in almost all ways, The Hateful Eight deserves the full 10/10. The first half of the film is very character driven, with strong dialogue and great acting to help explain what each character is all about, where they are from, and who they are. The amount of hard work and time that Mr. Tarantino put into this screenplay is very apparent, and should definitely be recognized for creating yet another excellent screenplay. Throughout the entire film, racial issues are addressed and the tension between former union soldiers and confederate soldiers are apparent. Overall, the screenplay was very, very good all around. Mr. Tarantino and cinematographer Robert Richardson did an excellent job capturing the snowy, mountainous surroundings around the Haberdashery, especially beautiful in 70mm film. The acting in The Hateful Eight is probably one of the strongest acting performances by all the characters as a whole that cinema has seen in a while. Samuel Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Demian Blichir, Michael Madsen, and Bruce Dern, none of them blockbuster names, all did spectacular jobs along with the other characters introduced in the film. Lastly, the original score by Ennio Morricone in this film was fantastic. From the opening shot to the last shot of the film, Morricone's eerie, suspicious music really set the tone throughout the entire film. The Hateful Eight easily could be one of Tarantino's top three films as of 2016.
Direction: 9/10 Cinematography: 9/10 Acting: 10/10 Music: 10/10 Screenplay: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
The Revenant (2015)
Average Plot, Excellent Filmmaking
The Revenant is a drama/thriller film based on the story by Michael Punke about a frontiersman named Hugh Glass. Glass sets out on a path of revenge after witnessing his son's death at the hands of the man who left him to die. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.
The excellent cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki really brought this film to life on almost all levels. It greatly enhanced the acting by creating an immense sense of realism throughout the entire film. However, The Revenant easily could have been a 2 hour and 15 minute film, as opposed to 2 hours and 36, and still send the same message. Lengthy shots of Glass' surroundings and very little dialogue made this film feel a little longer than it was. The direction, however, was on point by Mr. Iñárritu the entire way, and every other aspect of the film was too, except for the plot. Very one dimensionally, the Revenant's entire storyline is focused on revenge, and that's about it, sure there was more dialogue and some beautifully choreographed action scenes in the beginning, but the rest of the film was mainly just Glass dragging himself hundreds of miles across almost impossibly tricky terrain. DiCaprio, Hardy, and Gleeson's performances were very good, along with the direction and the cinematography. It is a shame that these three actors, plus Mr. Iñárritu, and Mr. Lubezki, all teamed up for a film with a weak screenplay with not much too it. It would be great too see a similar combo of actors, directors, and cinematographers team up for a much more well-rounded film.
Direction: 9/10 Cinematography: 10/10 Acting: 9/10 Music: 8/10 Screenplay: 4/10
Overall: 8/10