Month: December 2015

Hey, remember how J.K. Simmons won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for this film?*  It’s because he’s amazing, as is Miles Teller.  This was tense and engrossing and one of those films I was glad I was watching at home so I could talk back to the TV.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

*It was a really sweet speech, too.

(Also, having put in my time with bands of various forms, I can’t say that Fletcher as a character was doing any good as a teacher, but I was really impressed that when he cut the band off, everyone stopped on a dime.  Back in the day, the inability of my bandmates to stop playing was a constant irritation.)

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/whiplash_ver3.html
(This was the only poster that pictured both main characters)

This is the kind of movie where I feel like I should take up a running program, just in case I become a computer hacker and need to run to escape from assassins.  I was watching this because of that guy on the cover,* and had low expectations, which were met. I was pleased with the fact that the female characters (yes plural!) had stuff to do.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

*That Ron Howard whale movie has completely disappeared from theaters, which is too bad as I planned some Chris Hemsworth viewing over the break.  This was a handy substitute.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2015/blackhat.html

Thanks to the Next Picture Show Podcast, I have now watched this movie, which is a long meditation on why conquest is yucky.  The slow crash and burn was mesmerizing, and there is a lot of good camera work.  This movie will go down in my personal film history as having the best-ever threat in cinema.*

Cost: $3.99 via Google Play.  Videorama didn’t have it. The library has five copies, but I was on a schedule.
Where watched: at home on Matt’s Surface, with Matt, who really enjoyed it.

*To quote: “Anyone who even thinks about deserting this mission will be cut up into 198 pieces. Those pieces will be stamped on until what is left can be used only to paint walls. Whoever takes one grain of corn or one drop of water… more than his ration, will be locked up for 155 years. If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees… then the birds will drop dead from the trees. I am the wrath of God. The earth I pass will see me and tremble.”
(See!  It’s even better when  you hear Klaus Kinski say it in context!)

poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068182/?ref_=nv_sr_1

It’s based on a nineteenth century novel, so you know it isn’t going to end well.  I was watching it for Oscar Issac, who was good, but Elizabeth Olsen and Jessica Lange also turned out very good performances .  Overall, this was not very chipper, but interesting to watch.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/in_secret.html

Much like Spotlight, I found this to be a very well made movie that upset me.* I was “in” from the get-go and the acting and pace were marvelous.  I love that Adam McKay wants us to think about the financial crisis.**

Cost: $8.75
Where watched: Regal Tigard II

*However, I’ve never been abused by a priest, but I have been affected by the mortgage crisis and recession, so this was much more upsetting and not probably the best choice for Christmas Eve viewing.  But I’m still glad I went.
**Remember The Other Guys?  Aside from being a good stupid buddy comedy, the credits did their best to educate the kind of people who attend stupid buddy comedies about financial reform.

Side note:  In the December Vanity Fair, (the one with Chris Hemsworth on the cover) there’s an article by Michael Lewis about the making of this movie.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2015/big_short.html

I found myself more impatient with these episodes, for which I blame the long wait between parts I and parts II of the final season.*  I was pleased with the way the series wrapped up for some of the characters,** less so with others.  I find myself wondering what the point of the show was, and now want to watch everything again from the beginning.***

Cost: free from library.  (I was monitoring the catalog, so I could be among the first to place a hold, but I missed it by a day and ended up 275th or something.  So it was a long wait.)
Where watched: at home.

*I mean really, the show ended for good in May, the DVD should have been available the very next day.   And there was also no need to split the season in two.
**Joan, Peggy, Roger, Ken.
***Tentatively planned for spring and summer 2016, but I may have wandered off to something else by then.  If I do, I’m going to keep a list of who sleeps with who. I imagine it will be a quite lengthy list.

poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/?ref_=nv_sr_1