It’s the end of January and, as such, all the movie chatter is centered around what will win Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. Every year presents a new lineup of polarizing choices, but 2016 really took the cake with a severe lack of diversity. The Revenant and its 12 nominations were acknowledged, but …
1. Paul Thomas Anderson learned to make movies by watching movies. Each of his films bears the ghostly fingerprints of his masters and mentors: the obsession and one-point perspective of Kubrick; the tough-guy veneers and fetid societies that sated the first decade of Scorsese’s career; the intense meditative stares of Jonathan Demme, constantly reminding us …
Hold on. This episode was promoted as the season finale, and all research online confirms this to be true. But this is not a season finale episode of television. It would’ve been much more effective in the middle of the first season, and even then it would’ve been a rather middling hour. Was anyone really hoping to find out in the season’s last episode whether Eph would relapse and drink again? Was that a payoff someone was counting on? Truth be told, that could almost be considered one of the peaks of the episode. Strap in, guys, this is going to be depressing.
My first real attempt at understanding the brilliance that was Stanley Kubrick came in my freshman year of college, when I wrote a research paper on 2001: A Space Odyssey for an English class. After all that work, I only received a B and found myself more confused than ever. But there it was – …
I still remember the first time I saw Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, and I was 13 years old. Already, I’d been bitten by the film bug, and that bite had driven me to pursue films that my friends had no interest in seeing. As such, I wouldn’t come to …
What more can be said about Philip Seymour Hoffman, especially in the wake of his terribly tragic, premature death? He was perhaps the finest actor of his generation, he was deeply loved in his community, and he was a partner, a father.
An actor leaving us is the most strange of phenomenon. There is some solace in that, leaving behind a rich and diverse body of work, available to be re-watched forever, they do take on a certain unique immortality.
Much like Paul Thomas Anderson’s previous movie There Will Be Blood, The Master is a portrait of megalomaniac. It is about character interaction, not character development – a study of two souls searching for answers and for belonging. It is also one of the most technically impressive films of the year and one that satisfies …
Now that we are nearing the big awards of the season, it is time to revisit the nominations and predictions for the 2013 BAFTAs. Part 2 will cover the following categories: (see part one here) Best Film Best British Film Leading Actor Leading Actress Best Supporting Actor Best Supporting Actress Best Director The EE BAFTA …
With awards season truly underway, it is time to dust off the gowns and practice the speeches (not to mention the he-deserved-it-more look) and make out predictions for the BAFTAs. Part 1 will cover the following categories: – Best Documentary – Best Animated Feature – Best Film not in the English Language – Best Adapted …
2012 will probably go down as one of the best years in cinema of this current decade. This was the hardest year for me to make a top ten list because there were too many great films that came out, especially in the fall. In fact every film on my top ten list was a …
#10: The Cabin in the Woods (107 points) Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard Directed by Drew Goddard USA, 2012 Like Scream, it’s a self-aware slasher film, but where Scream was happy simply to turn the genre’s bloody glove inside out and examine the stitching, The Cabin in the Woods has more complicated ambitions. If Scream is …
25: The Dark Knight Rises Directed by Christopher Nolan Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan 2012, USA The Dark Knight Rises feels as if it was made up of two equal halves, with the most critical moment of the film breaking the movie in half, almost literally. While the second half may have …
2012 wasn’t a bad year for movies. It was actually a great year. The problem is, the movies we were most anticipating, specifically the Hollywood blockbusters like Prometheus and The Hobbit, didn’t live up to our expectations. With that said I still managed to make a list of 50 films I loved. Maybe I just …
I have to say that it’s been a particularly great year for film scores. Not only did we see the return of established staples such as John Williams, Danny Elfman, and Thomas Newman, but we were treated to some strong new talent like Dan Romer, Benh Zeitlin and Heather McIntosh. I had a difficult time …
10: Skyfall – Prison Sequence In Skyfall, Javier Bordem plays Raoul Silva, a cyber-brainiac, who isn’t so much interested in world domination as his goals are more personal. He isn’t your typical 007 megalomaniac but Silva provides many of the film’s highlights. Bardem goes big, and for most of the film he persuades us that …
20: The Raid: Redemption – The entire film How does one choose their favourite scene from this high-speed, virtually nonstop adrenaline-packed martial arts pic? Could it be the sequence in which a refrigerator is used to destroy an entire floor of an apartment complex; or perhaps the final showdown between two brothers and the the …
30: Moonrise Kingdom – Beach Scene Director Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom has had mixed reviews here at Sound On Sight. But just about every one of us agrees that the goofy dance sequence to Francoise Hardy’s “Le Temps De L’amour” – which leads to an uncomfortable first kiss/first arousal, is by far the highlight of …
[quote by=”Synopsis”]Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master stars Joaquin Phoenix as a psychologically damaged war veteran who finds himself working for Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a charismatic figure building his own religion. As the alcoholic, self-destructive former soldier becomes more deeply involved with the leader of this cult-like organization, his natural instincts keep him from …
Every thirty days, I like to post a list of my favorite films I’ve recently seen. Here are the best films I’ve seen throughout the month of September. This list is based on movies theatrically released here in Canada, and I do not include what I have seen at film festivals. **** 1: Tabu Directed …
Spring Breakers – Opening Sequence Having been at TIFF this month, attempting to select favorite scenes without going entirely overboard– well, it may not exactly be as drastic as Sophie’s choice, but that is the first label that comes to mind. Spring Breakers is one of many very strong showings from Toronto this year, and …
The Master Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Written by Paul Thomas Anderson USA, 2012 “Man is not an animal,” Lancaster Dodd calmly and firmly intones into the ear of the perpetually addled, horny, and wayward Freddie Quell early in The Master. This is, in some ways, the key phrase at the center of Paul Thomas …
The Master Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Written by Paul Thomas Anderson U.S.A., 2012 To hard core movie goers and so-called movie buffs, director and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson requires no introduction. In under 20 years he has mesmerized, entertained, perplexed and surprised people with an impressively diverse filmmography, one that spans, at this point …