Mike Goes To Movies

Parasite: Ushering In A New Era For The Oscars? Last night's Best Picture win by Parasite was a major milestone for the Academy Awards. It marked the first time in history that a foreign-language film won the Oscars' highest accolade. As many voices are currently discussing, this may be the precursor to a new era of internationalism for the Academy Awards, as well as, for Hollywood and Western cinema.  Firstly, let's just say with certainty that Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite deserved the myriad of awards it received last night: Best International Feature, Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. Notably, making the wins even more special was the fact that it was the first time a South Korean had been nominated for either Best Picture or International Feature. Parasite really is a marvelous film though, and one that should be seen by all. The film is about a 'parasitic' lower-class family who slowly infiltrate an upper-class family through various i...

1917 (2020) My first theatre-film of 2020 and it couldn't have started off stronger. Sam Mendes' 1917 very much does for the First World War what Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan did for the Second World War. It is a hauntingly beautiful depiction of a bygone era of warfare - one that sucked into its depths a tragically-young generation of men and threw them into what is likely one of the closest things we have seen to 'hell-on-earth'. What came from this are stories of bravery, the fight for survival and comradeship - all of which is depicted in a majesty here that only a cinematographer such as Roger Deakins could conjure onscreen. Though it is only the very beginning of the new year, I anticipate 1917 will remain one of the best films of the year, not to mention, being one of the best films about war ever made. 1917 follows the story of Lance Corporals Blake and Schofield (Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay, respectively) who are given the task of cros...

Free Solo (2018) So, I'm not going to lie here... at no point last night was I comfortable watching this year's Best Documentary winner, Free Solo . Yes, it is an incredible documentary, but I personally do not do great with heights and so this documentary was a bit of an endeavour for me to get through. Throughout the entirety of my watching experience my hands were doused in a perpetual layer of sweat and my stomach wrenched tightly in my chest. Unlike Alex, my amygdala was very much being stimulated, perhaps to a dangerous degree, as I watched him free climb a number of mammoth and unrelenting sheer rock faces including the plat du jour, El Capitan. Free Solo really is an utterly remarkable documentary though. It is an adrenaline-pumping, majestic and fascinating look at one man, Alex Honnold, an interesting character himself, and the limits he must push himself to in order to conquer El Capitan, a mountain that has never before been free soloed. The training, both m...

9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) It's time that Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry work together again. It's as simple as that. It our unfortunate world, that will likely not happen as Kaufman seems to have obtained the confidence, and also the skill, to direct his own manic narratives since this film came out. And so, we will have to hold tightly onto their only child, Eternal Sunshine, and take it for all its got. There is no doubt that Eternal Sunshine remains an example of two of cinema's most idiosyncratic voices working in some kind of symbiotic / synergistic relationship to create a  film that is wholly unique and fun, absurdly creative, heart-wrenching and heart-warming and, above all else, memorable. As with many of Kaufman's scripts, this movie plays with the audience's expectations, subverting what we think is happening or where we think things are heading, based on our collective film-going experiences. The film is a story about a ma...

Today is the big day! For now, I am going to keep this post more positive and optimistic and simply talk about this year's nominations and my predictions and hopes. In another post I may discuss some of my disappointments with this past year's general output of quality films. I have now officially seen all of the Best Picture nominees as well as a healthy dose of other general nominees. Generally, I am going to predict all of the categories, even though, for some of the categories, I have not seen any of the nominations at all. Therefore, for a category such as Best Documentary Short, my thoughts will likely be quite arbitrary and possibly based on something as trivial as the name or subject of the piece... Jump further down the list for the 'bigger' awards. Short Film (Animated) Prediction - Bao Hope - Bao Short Film (Live) Prediction - Skin Hope - Fauve Production Design Prediction - First Man Hope - The Favourite Makeup and Hairstyling Predictio...

Green Book (2018) My first proper review! Last night, I finally got the chance to see the past year's hottest ticket, Green Book, ahead of its probable multiple winnings this coming Sunday. Expectations for the film have been fairly cemented in my mind since its premiere at TIFF this past fall where it won the festival's acclaimed People's Choice Award and, since its wide release, it has gone on to garner quite unanimously positive reviews. It's in these instances that my often pessimistic self likes to buck the trend and endeavour to find fault where most have been unable to, especially with a 'wholesome' type of film such that Green Book has been categorized as. It's for these reasons that, upon finishing Green Book, I was pleased to find that I had enjoyed the film and that it had met the high expectations I had for it. Yes, the movie is, in fact, quite the wholesome story and one who's plot does not contain much surprise. However, when a film ...

10. There Will Be Blood (2007) and No Country For Old Men (2007) Yes, right off the bat I am going to go ahead and cheat on my list... (hey, it's my list anyways, so lay off!). I place both of these films together because they resonate in similar ways for me, on top of the fact that they also do bear a number of factual similarities. Both were filmed in 2006 in the same vicinity of western Texas, released in 2007 and widely competed with each other for the highest accolades at the awards ceremonies that year. Both films take place in an arid, beautifully-shot, desert landscape, each following the machinations of a violent and unfailingly driven man. One is motivated by wealth and success, the other... well, it's not entirely known. In both, the filmmakers involved are without a doubt at the height of their crafts. Direction, writing, cinematography, editing, score and acting, among others, are all at their finest levels within these two films. It is unsurprising then t...