89th Annual Academy Awards

With some incredibly well-deserved wins, the Oscars certainly didn't leave the drama behind - a shock misread led to La La Land having to hand their Oscar over to Moonlight. Alongside all the glitzy dresses and political speeches, there were some triumphant wins; Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim to win an Oscar - his performance in Moonlight was indeed extraordinary, so a round of applause to him. La La Land still came out on top - but not by as much as anticipated.

Image Source

Best Picture

Nominees;

Arrival

Fences

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Hidden Figures
La La Land
Lion
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight

Best Actress

Nominees;

Emma Stone (La La Land)
Isabelle Huppert (Elle)

Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins)

Natalie Portman (Jackie)
Ruth Negga (Loving)

Best Director

Nominees;

Barry Jenkins (Moonlight)
Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)

Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)

Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge)

Best Actor

Nominees;

Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge)

Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Denzel Washington (Fences)

Ryan Gosling (La La Land)
Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic)

Best Original Screenplay

Nominees;

Hell or High Water

La La Land
The Lobster

Manchester by the Sea

20th Century Women

Best Supporting Actor

Nominees;

Dev Patel (Lion)

Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)
Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea)

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals)

Best Visual Effects

Nominees;

Deepwater Horizon

Doctor Strange

The Jungle Book

Kubo and the Two Strings
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Best Animated Feature

Nominees;

Kubo and the Two Strings

Moana
My Life as a Zucchini
The Red Turtle

Zootopia

Best Supporting Actress

Nominees;

Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)

Naomie Harris (Moonlight)

Nicole Kidman (Lion)
Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures)

Viola Davis (Fences)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Nominees;

Arrival
Fences

Hidden Figures

Lion

Moonlight

Best Animated Short

Nominees;

Blind Vaysha
Borrowed Time
Pear Cider and Cigarettes
Pearl
Piper

Best Documentary Short

Nominees;

4.1 Miles
Extremis
Joe's Violin
Watani: My Homeland
The White Helmets

Best Cinematography

Nominees;

Arrival

La La Land

Lion
Moonlight
Silence

Best Costume Design

Nominees;

Allied

Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them

Florence Foster Jenkins

Jackie

La La Land

Best Documentary
Nominees;
13th
Fire at Sea
I Am Not Your Negro
Life, Animated
OJ: Made in America

Best Film Editing
Nominees;
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hell or High Water
La La Land
Moonlight

Best Foreign Language Film
Nominees;
Land of Mine
A Man Called Ove
The Salesman
Tanna
Toni Erdmann

Best Make Up & Hairstyling
Nominees;
A Man Called Ove
Star Trek Beyond
Suicide Squad

Best Song
Nominees;
Audition (La La Land)
Can't Stop the Feeling (Trolls)
City of Stars (La La Land)
The Empty Chair (Jim: The James Foley Story)
How Far I'll Go (Moana)

Best Production Design
Nominees;
Arrival
Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them
Hail, Caesar!
La La Land
Passengers

Best Sound Editing
Nominees;
Arrival
Deepwater Horizon
Hacksaw Ridge
La La Land
Sully

Best Score
Nominees;
Jackie
La La Land
Lion
Moonlight
Passengers

Best Sound Mixing
Nominees;
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
La La Land
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
13 Hours

Best Live-Action Short
Nominees;
Ennemis Intérieurs
La Femme et le TGV
Silent Nights
Sing
Timecode

acebookTwitPinterest

FacebookTwittP

Monthly Movie Merch

Here is my round-up of this months best movie merchandise..

..tipped to be a big Oscar-winner, La La Land has received much praise for its' original soundtrack. Download the album or individual songs on iTunes and give it a listen :)

..alongside the Hacksaw Ridge hype, Redbubble are offering the beautifully-done, official movie graphic on a tee from £14.93. Get yours here.

..ahead of next months' Disney release, this Beauty & the Beast Cogsworth Pop is actually kind of cool - available from EMP for £12.99.

..with yet another upcoming Pokemon movie release (I Choose You out July 2017), I just had to include this cute Jigglypuff beanie hat (£14) from Soft Kitty Clothing. I noticed a few around after the Pokemon Go! surge (alongside Comicon) last year, but with the film just months away it's no wonder the merch has been kept around!

..an awesome Lego Joker key-ring light (£9.99) from Truffle Shuffle to accompany an equally awesome movie (Batman and Superman characters also available).

..last but not least is the John Wick 2 official US movie poster from Amazon (£6.99). Compared to the UK versions, this minimalistic, artsy-type poster looks fab on any wall!

Review: Silence

Runtime: 2hr 41min
Director: Martin Scorsese
Release Date: 1st January 2017
Rating: 15 (UK), R (US)

Martin Scorsese's passion project of 28 years falls upon deaf ears with this reviewer.

Image Source

Upon first glance, Silence appeared to be a long-winded Samurai action flick, with the likes of actors Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver placing high expectations on Scorsese's new offering. In contrast, the film is about the tribulations of religion, and the Japanese' views on the outlawed Catholicism in the 17th century.

The plot primarily centres around a character known as Ferreria (Neeson) - a Christian mentor captured by the Japanese - and a pair of his Portugese students Rodrigues (Garfield) and Garupe (Driver), whom, upon hearing rumours of Ferreria having apostatized (renouncing his religious beliefs for the purpose of saving his own life), travel to Japan in order to search for him, whilst remaining unseen by those who would object their faith.

This plot, seemingly 90-minute-worthy, is dragged out by Scorsese to the point that the film becomes repetitive. Throughout, Christian persecution is a naturally recurring theme, but there are only so many times one can be shown the death/torture of people - or their forceable denouncement of Christ - before you become desensitised to its' occurance.

Silence, seemingly alluding to not only the silence of God during times of need for the leads, but also to the extrinsic lack of music and/or sound entirely throughout. On multiple occasions, Rodrigues (Garfield) is forced to test his faith, and finds it difficult to accept criticism of such; what he viewed as a slightly dangerous mission to recover his mentor transforms into a far more sinister quest - and Andrew Garfield shakily conveys this by breaking down in tears in almost every scene, upon which he is told that his God is not listening.

The absence of music is another poor choice - awkward silences apparant and a disturbing lack of atmosphere. Moments within the film are essentially devoid of sound between dialogue, and special effects in this department are minimal. As a result, the intentional efforts to portray themes of isolation and loneliness fall short,  and merely boils down to two and a half hours of little-to-no substance.

Alongside this, the singular concept is over-played throughout the duration of the picture - any attempt to change its' plot direction just falls flat and then continues on the same course. Even when Ferreria's presence comes into play, it barely adds anything and Neeson is underused - just more torture, more apostetizing, and more of Andrew Garfield crying, to the point I would just roll my eyes by the end.

The acting quality was shoddy to say the least; Garfield and Driver's attempts at (I believe) a Portugese accent sounded like they were trying too hard, and their chemistry lacked (possibly due to the lack of atmospheric noise) with awkward pauses. As Catholics who are meant to have been together for a long time, they did not seem like good friends in any way - arguing about their mission and then just being sad together does not appear to depict a brotherly bond. The chemistry between Ferreria and Rodrigues is slightly better, since Neeson did work well as a jaded fallen mentor - but still lacklustre.

The story does not really get anywhere by closing credits - the film just feels very dense, as if I was meant to get the point in it; which seems like it is not apparent at all. The movie gives off a very pretentious vibe like this was supposed to be the next Passion of the Christ, but with the lack of soundtrack and awkward direction (namely, that particularly ridiculous scene in which Jesus himself talks to one of the characters) was closer to watching a film from the era of Ben Hur or Jason and the Argonauts when movies were far more limited.

Image Source

What can be commended is that the writing quality was not terrible - although the length of the film was completely unjustified, and the actors (particularly Garfield) did not pull off the intended notes - the themes are indeed very interesting, and the script itself satisfactory - probably because this film is an adaption from a book written in the 1960s.

Silence has many issues overall, and I fail to understand how Scorsese invested 28 years on developing this project, or how the plot could have interested him so much that a 2 hour 40 minute runtime was justified (a 30 minute short would have sufficed). While not awful, it certainly needed much more refinement, and a change in cast that never came. I have little faith in this doing well at box office.

4/10