2016 Oscar Awards

Another year, another Oscars.  The awards were a mixed bag for me – some predictable wins and a few upsets, some well-deserved (in my opinion) wins and a few that bugged me – but the ceremony itself had plenty of intriguing moments to keep my interest.

I was thrilled that Mad Max:  Fury Road cleaned up in the design and technical categories, taking home six awards (the most of any film that night.)  Even though it didn’t get any of the “big” stuff, I’m glad the Academy actually recognized how wonderful it is.  The only problem with the sweep was that it got my hopes up that George Miller might beat out Alejandro González Iñárritu for best director.  No luck, sadly.  However, just as I was resigning myself to The Revenant winning best picture, Spotlight swooped in to save the day!  Very happy for Tom McCarthy and everyone behind that movie.  It was a little odd that it only won one other award it was up for (best original screenplay,) but it felt gratifying to me that the film deemed to have the best story was also the film given the top honor.  The Big Short’s win for best adapted screenplay made me happy as well, and as for cinematography, I’m a little bowled over that Emmanuel Lubezki (The Revenant) got his third Oscar in a row.  When that streak ended, it really ended!

The acting categories went three-for-four as I expected.  Mark Rylance winning best supporting actor for Bridge of Spies shocked me – I’d thought Stallone had it in the bag.  I was most happy for Brie Larson getting the lead actress trophy.  Even though that win was in no way a surprise, it was for very good reason.  Although I anticipated Alicia Vikander taking best supporting actress, I still don’t like the fact that she won for a very obvious co-lead role.  And Leonardo DiCaprio… Good on him for finally nabbing that Oscar, but it’s disappointing to me that it was for The Revenant.  I just didn’t think that film provided him with a good showcase for his talents at all.

I enjoyed Chris Rock as the host, and while I figured he wouldn’t avoid the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, it surprised me how heavily the ceremony centered around it.  It was the focus of the whole monologue (which, for me, veered occasionally into attempts to absolving the Academy on the issue because there are “more important things” to worry about, but which also made some good, cutting points,) and there were numerous bits addressing diversity in Hollywood.  I particularly liked the “Black actors inserted into best picture nominees” clips, an amusing “history lesson” with Angela Bassett, and Rock’s man-on-the-street interviews with theatergoers outside a Compton cinema.  Others onstage, from presenters to winners to the Academy president, also brought up the importance of inclusion, although I don’t recall anyone white taking part in those statements.  One thing that bothered me in the #OscarsSoWhite remarks was how consistently it was framed as #OscarsNotBlack, when no actors of color were recognized.  I realize that most of the specific snubs called out this year were Black actors (or directors, in Ryan Coogler and F. Gary Gray’s cases,) and in general, I think other acting communities of color are at a different stage in their fight for representation in Hollywood, but it still felt weird that hardly anyone recognized it as more than a Black issue.  However, I love that Rock made opportunity a major focus; his rueful comment to Leonardo DiCaprio about Leo being “in a great movie every year” highlighted the imbalance in a pretty striking way.

Also, C-3PO, R2-D2, and BB-8 were made of win.  I “awwed” when Jacob Tremblay from Room stood up in his seat to get a better view of the droids.

Straight Outta Compton (2015, R)

I’ll admit it.  I could have seen this one in theaters – it was at my local cinema for quite a while, during the summer when I had plenty of time to see movies – and I chickened out.  Even though I’ve seen other Black-themed movies in theaters, this one seemed more personal somehow, like I’d be intruding if I went to see it (dumb, right?)  Anyway, Netflix made me pay for my foolishness by sitting on the DVD for a month before they started sending it out, and I just finished watching it.

The film follows the story of the rap group N.W.A., with the strongest focus on members Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E.  The guys get together in the late ‘80s with a vision of “reality” rap that tells how life really is for young Black men in the streets of Compton, California.  Their music is as popular as it is incendiary, and the group soon finds itself coming up against pressures from without (charges that their lyrics are immoral, irresponsible, and even criminal) and within (the conflicts that always seem to arise with money and fame.)

In some ways, the movie is very much a classic musical biopic.  As with any such picture worth its salt, great emphasis is placed on the cast and how well they capture the real-life musicians they’re portraying.  Now, I could tell you shockingly little about that, since I went into the film knowing shockingly little about N.W.A., but everything I’ve heard suggests that Jason Mitchell (Eazy-E,) Corey Hawkins (Dr. Dre,) and O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Ice Cube – Jackson is Ice Cube’s actual son and spitting image) are all spot-on.  I cantell you that these actors are hugely engaging, their rapping sounds great, and their performances easily carried me through the two-and-a-half-hour runtime; at one point, I thought that the group seemed to be finding big success too fast, only to realize that I was already a third of the way into the movie. 

The script hits a lot of musical-biopic hallmarks as well.  There’s the unlikely rise to fame, the “in it for the music” early devotion, the large living, the contract disputes, the inevitable rifts and falling-outs, the rock bottoms, and the comebacks.  However, Straight Outta Compton sets itself apart in the genre as well.  The screenwriters, who snagged the film’s only Oscar nod, have great material to work with in N.W.A.’s story.  Pushback over the group’s lyrics and themes leads to stranger-than-fiction moments like a warning letter from the FBI over their song “Fuck the Police,” and when the guys begin to fall out, it isn’t just behind-the-scenes drama playing out in the tabloids – it plays out in rap battles, with escalating disses in dueling albums.  Additionally, the powerful backdrop of police violence in LA, coming to a head in the Rodney King trial and the LA riots, starkly represents how much we still need change. 

All in all, an incredibly solid film with an excellent cast that tells its story well.  From what I hear, it definitely hits home for late-80s/early-90s hip-hop fans, but it’s still very accessible to someone uninitiated like me.  Remind me again why it isn’t this year’s Walk the Line at the Oscars?

Warnings

Tons of language (including numerous N-words and explicit sexual references,) sexual content (including sex scenes and nudity,) violence, drinking/drug use, and thematic elements.

Tangerine (2015, R)

I’m putting this film with the other #OscarsSoWhite movies I’ve watched lately, though I don’t think it would have been a likely contender regardless of the main characters’ races.  It’s too small, too meandering, and too vulgar – while Oscar films can be any of these things, it’s rare to find one that’s all three.  However, I heard positive things about it and really wanted to see it, particularly since a movie starring trans actresses of color seemed like a really satisfying answer to (the, naturally, nominated) Eddie Redmayne playing a trans woman in The Danish Girl.

Tangerine follows a pair of sex workers through a tumultuous Christmas Eve in L.A.  Sin-Dee, fresh out of jail, has just learned that her boyfriend/pimp cheated on her while she was away.  Not remotely one to bottle her feelings, she’s on the warpath to find him and/or the “real fish” (i.e., cisgender woman) who’s been knocking boots with him.  Her best friend Alexandra tries to be supportive, but she’s dreading Sin-Dee’s flair for drama, and besides, she has her own concerns to be thinking about – her first onstage musical performance at a bar later that evening.

I don’t think this is quite the film for me, although that’s not down to its quality.  Instead, it’s more a matter of sensibility.  It’s a very “roll with what’s happening” movie, following Sin-Dee and Alexandra throughout their day.  That’s frequently outrageous, sometimes gross, sometimes trashy, occasionally humdrum, always serpentine.  While it has a definite throughline of Sin-Dee wanting to find and confront her boyfriend, the plot wanders toward it rather than building up to it.  It’s a super-indie trait that I can find tiresome when it’s sustained over a full movie.

But that’s why I didn’t connect with it.  I know many like that style, and I’d say the film does it pretty well.  Plus, while my attention wavered on the characters’ journeys, I enjoy the characters themselves.  Sin-Dee can be a self-involved piece of work with a hair-trigger temper, but she’s also funny, resourceful, and more vulnerable than she lets on.  Alexandra’s long-suffering support for her friend ranges from amusing to sweet, and I like her no-nonsense attitude.

And yeah, I love that these trans characters are played by trans actresses.  Neither Kitana Kiki Rodriguez (Sin-Dee) or Mya Taylor (Alexandra) had screen experience before this film, but both give spirited, naturalistic performances that embody their roles to a tee.  One thing I’ve realized about cis actors playing trans is that, for me, part of my attention is always on how well they play trans.  Never mind the character’s personality or emotions; there’s always a part of my brain going, “How’re they doing?  Can I buy that?  Is this portrayal respectful?”  But it shouldn’t be like that.  When I watch Jennifer Lawrence, I don’t think, “She’s great at playing a woman,” and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s films don’t make me muse, “He’s so believable as a Black man.”  Binary gender is understood, race is understood (though not as much as it really needs to be.)  Genders outside of cis-male and cis-female should be as well (along with disability, more consistently.)  Then, like here, we can get straight to looking at the nuances of the characters instead of concentrating on how the performer handles groundwork that ought to be background detail.

Warnings

Sexual content (including multiple sex scenes, solicitation, and some nudity,) violence, language (including transphobic and homophobic slurs,) drinking, smoking, and drug use.

A Few More Thoughts on the Oscars Race Debate

I’ve been following the #OscarsSoWhite stuff quite a bit, and in the midst of what I’ve read, there’s naturally been a wide range of expressed views.  Some call for change, some urge moderation, and some make me shake my head in disbelief (for Pete’s sake, Charlotte Rampling!)  One popular topic has been absolving the Academy of any racial bias by explaining precisely why certain hoped-for nominations didn’t happen.  If you look online, it doesn’t take long before you can find someone willing to tell you exactly why this year’s nominations are so homogenized and why the reasons are perfectly innocent.  When I look at them, however, I still see imbalance.  Some of the major arguments, along with my rebuttals, are as follows. 

Michael B. Jordan (and Ryan Coogler) didn’t get nominated for Creed because the Academy is kind of snobbish and isn’t about to recognize a Rocky movie – First, rightly or wrongly, the original Rocky won both best picture and best director in 1977.  Second, Sylvester Stallone’s nomination shows the Academy wasn’t averse to recognizing the film.

Will Smith didn’t get nominated for Concussion because his film got shaky reviews and didn’t perform well at the box office: 63% at Rotten Tomatoes and $34 million domestic – Lukewarm reviews didn’t hold back Jennifer Lawrence for Joy (60%,) and neither did a poor box office showing keep Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet from being nominated for Steve Jobs ($17 million.)  The Danish Girl hasn’t had the critical orbox-office reception it had anticipated, but both Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander got nominated.

Come on, like the Academy was ever gonna nominate Straight Outta Compton; it’s about gangsta rap! – Again, the film did get one nomination (best original screenplay, for its white writers,) so it’s not like the Academy didn’t know about it or didn’t recognize it as a great film.  Also, from Coal Miner’s Daughter to Walk the Line to Amadeus, musical biopics are like crack to Academy voters.  Is it fair to ignore an incredibly popular, well-reviewed example of the genre because of the style of music it uses?

Idris Elba didn’t get nominated for Beasts of No Nation because it was released on Netflix and the Academy doesn’t like new media - Okay, this one is probably true (at least, it had better be, since there’s no other earthly reason not to recognize Elba’s work here.)  It’s a shame because 1) Netflix has proven time and again that it has serious game when it comes to original programming, and 2) it makes the Academy look pretty fuddy-duddy compared to the Emmys, which have been giving online shows love for years.  Of course, the TV industry also seems to do better at including people of color, so maybe the movie business is just backward as a whole?

Are you saying the people who got nominated didn’t deserve it?  Is Matt Damon just chopped liver?  Who would you have kicked out to give (insert non-nominated PoC’s name here) a slot? – Look, I get it.  The Oscars are an insanely competitive world, and only five people in any one category can snag a nomination.  Tom Hanks didn’t get nominated for Bridge of Spies, after all, and neither did Charlize Theron for Mad Max:  Fury Road.  In any given year, there will be people giving Oscar-caliber performances who just don’t make the cut, and that’s because, once you hit a certain echelon of acting, the delineations of quality are so minute that it largely comes down to the luck of the draw.  Sure, there are always going to be outliers on either side – frontrunners and longshots – but for the most part, it’s a matter of the gods being with you.  But that’s the thing:  if it’s a game of chance, the results should be random in the particulars but reasonably statistical in generalities.  In other words, however large that pool of deserving performances may be – 30?  50?  100? – anyone within that pool should have at least close to an even chance of being nominated in one of the four acting categories.  So, in theory, if that group is 15% people of color, then PoC should make up roughly 15% of the nominations.  Right?  (I know, by the way, that 15% is a depressingly-low number, but I’m keeping it intentionally low in reply to maybe-Black-actors-just-didn’t-have-any-award-worthy-performances-this-year “argument.”)  We know there are 20 nominated actors every year.  A single nomination slot is only 5%.  5%!  So, that means either PoC gave less than 5% of this year’s Oscar-caliber performances, or it doesn’t add up that 20 white actors “just so happened” to be the ones to draw the winning cards for the second year in a row.  Which seems more likely to you?

(Besides, none of this explains why David Oyelowo didn’t get nominated for Selma last year!)

Sicario (2015, R)

Sicario isn’t a big Oscar contender.  It’s only up for one of my priority categories – Roger Deakins for best cimematography – but to me, it’s reminiscent of gritty, violent current-event pictures of recent years, like The Hurt Locker or Zero Dark Thirty.  While focusing on fighting a drug cartel instead of insurgents or terrorists, it has much of the same sensibility as those films.  For whatever reason, I had a harder time connecting with The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, so it’s probably no surprise that this film left me a bit cold.

Kate, a dedicated FBI agent, is tired of fighting a losing game.  After a particularly harrowing we-know-exactly-who’s-behind-it-but-we-can’t-pin-it-on-him experience, she’s ready to go all in when she’s invited to volunteer for a very high-level, very hush-hush squad that promises actual results.  She’s eager to make a real difference, but the deeper she gets into the increasingly-sketchy operation, the more she struggles to understand what she’s really gotten herself into.

We’ll start with what works.  The direction is tight and gripping, showing how the threat of violence can somehow simmer in the air and yet, when it finally erupts, still feel like it’s coming out of nowhere.  (Deakins’s work has plenty to do with that – something of an always-a-bridesmaid cinematographer, he’s been nominated for a whopping 16 Oscars and never won.)  I like the basic framework of Kate and a number of the other characters, especially the mysterious and knowledgeable Alejandro and Kate’s FBI partner Reggie.  As far as the latter goes, the close, supportive friendship between Kate and Reggie is one of my favorite parts of the film.  He’s definitely there for the sole purpose of serving her story, which is kind of uncool, but I still like the way they talk things through, look for trouble together, and unwind after a hard day.

The screenplay is a little rougher for me.  It’s all right, but it feels a bit been-there, done-that.  My attention started to wander in the last third of the film, and while many of the characters are set up well, some later fall prey to out-of-character Idiot Ball plotting to get the story moving where it needs to go.  Kate gets the worst of this, which is a shame, because it keeps me from loving her as much as I want to.

That said, she’s still pretty engaging, thanks in huge part to Emily Blunt’s smart performance that walks the right line between toughness and vulnerability.  I may shake my head at some of the things Kate does, but Blunt always sells them with everything she’s got.  Plus, her platonic chemistry with Reggie (played by Daniel Kaluuya, a.k.a. Posh Kenneth from Skins) is off the hook.  Benicio del Toro is great as the enigmatic Alejandro.  Although the role earned him some Oscar buzz a while back, I haven’t heard him mentioned much since the nominations came out and #OscarsSoWhite started up again.  Not sure why.  Is it because he was more of a longshot compared to people like Idris Elba or Michael B. Jordan?  Or maybe the fact that some have been translating “no PoC actors up for Oscars” to mean “no Black actors up for Oscars?”  It’s weird that his performance isn’t really a part of the conversation.  In other news, the film also features a reliably-good Josh Brolin and a brief appearance by Victor Garber.

Warnings

Strong violence, disturbing images, language, drinking, smoking, and sexual content.

Chi-Raq (2015, R)

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that this is my first Spike Lee movie I’ve.  I’d been vaguely aware of it, but it was back-to-back Daily Show interviews with Spike Lee and Nick Cannon that made me go, “Whoa, I need to see this!”  Naturally, it never came to my local theater, and the city an hour+ drive from my house only had it before about two weeks, so I missed it on the big screen.  Netflix just got it on DVD, though, and I snatched it up the first chance I got.

A modern retelling of an Aristophanes play, Chi-Raqtakes place in Chicago, where gang-related shootings have ended more American lives than both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  The fighting here is focused on two Southside gangs, the Spartans and the Trojans.  Desperate to put a stop to the violence, Lysistrata, the girlfriend of the Spartan leader Chi-Raq, decides to go on a “sex strike” from her man until he agrees to lay down arms, and she enlists women from both the Spartan and Trojan sides, as well as women all over Chicago and beyond, to join the cause.

This being my first Spike Lee movie, I don’t know how it compares to his other work, so we’ll stick to the story at hand.  I thought this film was a pretty singular experience.  It looks amazing, with its very purposeful color scheme, dramatically-framed shots, and semi-musical flair with some movements choreographed or synced to the beat of the soundtrack.  Most of the characters somehow seem archetypal while feeling really specific.  They carry the story with stylish but earnest vibrancy.  The satire is fun, while the commentary sometimes meanders between insightful and overly pointed; at times, it feels a bit too “tell, not show.”  I can see how the film might be labeled “preachy,” but at the same time, there’s a real rawness to it.  This is a sleek, precisely-penned movie, and yet it’s also an urgent voice shouting and sick of not being heard.

A lot of flavor is drawn from the source material.  There are the cheeky reference, like the eye-patch-wearing Trojan leader Cyclops and the jokes about a young Chicagoan named Oedipus, and we have a one-man Greek chorus in the form of dapper Dolmedes.  More notably, however, much of the dialogue is written in verse.  First of all, this is really striking and makes the film stand out from most standard fare.  Overall, I think the device has its pros and cons.  It allows for some really dazzling lines with stunningly-phrased truth bombs and extremely clever rhyming.  That said, a huge chunk of the delivery falls into something of a sing-song cadence that keeps the dialogue from really feeling spoken.  There are times when the rhythm flows more tightly, usually by someone emphasizing the beat just a bit more or a bit less than the general tempo, and then it’s like magic.  Throughout too much of the film, though, it’s at a not-quite-right place somewhere in between, which makes it come across as a little too consciously written.

As Lysistrata and Chi-Raq, both Teyonah Parris and Nick Cannon are great.  I especially love Lysistrata, a potent cross between brilliant, fierce, passionate, and smooth.  Further props go to Angela Bassett as a neighborhood woman and Samuel L. Jackson as Dolmedes.  Also featured are John Cusack, Jennifer Hudson, Harry Lennix (Boyd from Dollhouse,) and Dave Chappelle.

Warnings

Sexual content (including sex scenes and explicit language,) gang violence, swearing, drinking/drug use, and thematic elements.

Creed (2015, PG-13)

I had a heck of a time trying to see this.  I blinked (and missed) its release at my local theater, and since then, it’s vanished from the closest theater every time I’ve contemplated driving out to see it.  I finally managed to catch it, 62 miles away – yeesh.  But you know what?  So worth it.  (Be advised that this is my first Rocky-franchise film ever, so my background is thin.)

Adonis “Donnie” Creed has spent his life in the shadow of a man he never met.  The illegitimate son of boxing legend Apollo Creed (who died in the ring before he was born,) Donnie is determined by follow in his father’s footsteps while at the same time not trading in on his father’s legacy – he boxes under his late mother’s last name.  Despite the protests of his adopted mother – Creed’s widow Mary Anne – who worries for his safety, his efforts take him to Philly, where he attempts to enlist an aging Rocky Balboa as his coach.

Okay – as I’ve said, I’m not a big sports movie person in general, and I’ve seen only a very few boxing movies.  (I feel obliged to point out that one of those is Buster Keaton’s Battling Butler.)  But I loved this movie.  I thought it was absolutely great.  I’ve heard some people say it has pretty strong parallels to the original Rocky– shades of the A New Hope/The Force Awakens comparisons? – and I couldn’t tell you about that, but it’s just incredibly well-made.  The story is compelling, the direction is tight, the characters are meaty and rootable, and the acting is rock-solid.  Every element comes together wonderfully. 

There are beautiful character and story touches throughout, little moments that flesh out these people and the world they inhabit (I particularly like that Donnie’s love interest has stuff going on in her life besides being Donnie’s love interest.)  In tone, the film can be dramatic, exciting, uplifting, humorous, touching, and intense, skipping effortlessly between these variations as the script demands.  The dialogue sounds natural and lived-in, even in the “rah-rah, inspiring sports movie” moments.  Also?  The relationships are excellent.  The mentor-mentee chemistry between Donnie and Rocky is aces, the brief scenes we get between Donnie and Mary Anne are lovely, and I really like the budding relationship between Donnie and aspiring musician Bianca.

Michael B. Jordan is splendid as Donnie.  As Hamilton would say, he’s “young, scrappy, and hungry,” but he’s also angry, in up to his neck if not over his head, and bubbling with unresolved issues.  I’d at first thought Sylvester Stallone’s Oscar nomination was sort of a comprehensive nod to his history of playing Rocky, but he is in truth very good here and rises to the occasion of some fantastic material.  I love Tessa Thompson (who I remember best as Jackie on Veronica Mars) as Bianca, and as Mary Anne, Phylicia Rashad does great work with limited screentime.

On the #OscarsSoWhite front, I really, really wish writer-director Ryan Coogler had been recognized in some way – a screenplay nod if the voters were feeling especially stingy with the directing slots.  I’d have loved to see some love for Michael B. Jordan as well, although the lead actor category is so packed with Oscar-y roles that I’m not sure who he might’ve edged out.

Warnings

Boxing violence, some swearing, and brief sexual content.

Beasts of No Nation (2015)

This is a hard, harrowing movie to watch, but it’s also incredibly affecting and stunningly well-done.  If it were up to me, the film would be swimming in Oscar nods.  As I said earlier, it really seems like the sort of movie the Academy would adore, and in this case, it would wholeheartedly deserve all the love it could lavish.

For young Agu, the war in his country was once a far-off abstraction.  Now, however, he’s lost most of his family, and the rest is lost to him.  Alone, wandering, and starving, he is “rescued” by a rebel army who elects to make him one of them.  Torn between his horrors at the brutality of war, his need for his strange new “family,” and the corrupting influence of his deceptively-charismatic Commandant, Agu fights to survive in what his world has become.

For me, the most powerful thing about this film is that it’s not all abject horror and misery.  That sounds really strange, but it’s true.  As he becomes a child soldier, yes, Agu is terrified, guilt-ridden, and running on pure survival instincts.  He commits horrible atrocities, sees his friends die, suffers abuse, and is used as an expendable pawn in someone else’s war.  There’s no question that his situation is monumentally terrible.  But it’s not all terrible, which is part of what makes it so dangerous.  After seeing his father and brother killed by soldiers, the rebel army becomes an outlet for Agu’s grief and anger.  His fellow soldiers become his brothers, and there are times when he feels strong, enfranchised, needed.  That’s the insidiousness the runs through all the undisguised monstrosity.  The Commandant feeds and clothes Agu, trains him, gives him a sense of purpose, and, the way he tells it, saves Agu’s life.  Agu is raised on the Commandant’s propaganda – taught to love his war and crave his approval.  In these moments where it isn’t blatantly horrific, the Commandant and the rebel army worm their way into Agu.  This, just as much as his fear of surviving on his own or being despised as a war criminal by any stable community, is what keeps him from escaping.  I give the movie so much credit for getting this, that the psychological damage runs even deeper than the trauma and horror that’s already there.

Idris Elba has, quite understandably, been getting most of the film’s attention for his dynamic performance as the Commandant.  As horrible, as self-serving, as manipulative as he is, you can see exactly why Agu and the other boys/young men would be drawn to him.  (It’s totally the sort of alluringly-complex villain role that Christoph Waltz would get Oscars for.)  As Agu, Abraham Attah makes a breathtaking film debut.  Agu’s world is one that most people, blessedly, will never experience, but in Attah’s hands, there’s no sense of distant, removed suffering.  Instead, Agu’s confusion, terror, and turmoil feel real and immediate, his character achingly specific.  Attah also beautifully sells the antithetical feelings warring within Agu.  I really, really hope we see more from him.  Additional shoutout to Emmanuel Nii Adom Quaye, who plays fellow child soldier Strika.  Without a single line of dialogue, he creates a richly compelling character whose relationship with Agu is one of the highlights in a film crammed with knockout moments.

Warnings

Extreme violence involving children (including graphic battle scenes, executions, and implied sexual abuse,) additional war violence and sexual content (including rape,) language, drinking, drug use, thematic elements, and disturbing images.

Ex Machina (2015, R)

This is the sort of movie the Oscars don’t pay attention to but is good enough that they can’t ignore it entirely.  What to do with such a film?  Nominate it for best original screenplay!  But in all seriousness, I found this a stylish, cerebral film that explores what it means to be human.

Caleb, a skilled coder, is thrilled when his name is drawn for the ultimate company prize:  a week of exclusive face-time with the company’s brilliant but reclusive owner in his private mountain retreat.  Upon his arrival, Caleb’s boss Nathan ups the ante even further.  He reveals to Caleb that he’s built a functioning AI, and Caleb will have the privilege of being the human component in the Turing test he’s running on his creation.  Over the course of Caleb’s sessions with the AI, called Ava, he looks for flaws or “tells” in her programming, but he soon finds himself pulled into the intense drama of an artificial being fighting for her right to survive.

I’ve not seen writer (now writer-director) Alex Garland’s other work, though I’ve heard excellent things about 28 Days Later and Sunshine; however, this movie makes a fine case for his abilities.  The script keeps the viewer guessing alongside Caleb, constantly challenging the idea of who is human, what makes us that way, and what rights that gives us.  The plot moves seamlessly between philosophical sci-fi, extreme suspense, and deeply personal, intimate character drama. 

I really like that the film pulls in questions, not just of humanity at large, but of gender-specific humanity as well.  There’s Nathan’s frank discussion of Ava’s anatomy and sexuality and his observation that it’s no wonder she’s drawn to Caleb, the first man she’s seen besides her creator.  There’s the way he treats Kyoko, his gorgeous servant who “doesn’t speak a word of English” (to protect the secrecy of his work, you know,) like an object.  There’s the way Ava explores herself as a woman, and of course, there’s the fact that the creator-creation dynamic takes a more unnerving slant when it’s a heterosexual male creating a beautiful female that he keeps locked up in his house, especially one made in such a state of near-nakedness that most of her body doesn’t even have skin to cover her.  Is Nathan Ava’s god?  Her father?  Her captor?  Her voyeur?  Her owner?  The gender relations make all these issues even more engrossing than they already were.

No surprise, the acting MVP is Alicia Vikander’s Ava.  I love that she speaks and moves like a robot but still infuses the role with such humanity.  Tiny gestures and inflections forever remind you that, while Ava isn’t human, that doesn’t mean she’s not real.  Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley from Harry Potter) does a solid job as Caleb, a smart man who’s in no way prepared for the head-trip he endures in this movie.  And in #OscarsSoWhite news, I’d previously heard great things about Oscar Isaac (the hugely likeable Poe from Star Wars:  The Force Awakens) as Nathan, and his performance is fascinating – he strikes a perfect balance between affable and a-hole, disarming and dangerous.  Realistically, though, he’s too understated and the film is too outside-the-box for award notice; if the Academy didn’t recognize Vikander’s incredible work, there was no way they’d look twice at Isaac’s terrific but non-showy performance.

Warnings

Sexual content (including nudity and implied nonconsensual sex,) language, violence, drinking, and thematic elements.

Concussion (2015, PG-13)

I’m not normally one for sports movies that aren’t The Mighty Ducks, but this one jumped out at me.  To be fair, it’s more of a sports-adjacent movie that shows the potential human cost of the American football machine.  Overall, while I enjoyed the film, I feel it’s not quite as good as I wanted it to be.

When Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian pathologist working at a hospital in Pittsburgh, finds the body of a former Steeler lying on his table, he’s drawn into a medical mystery that will pit him against one of America’s most powerful sports industries.  Despite the deceased football player’s well-documented mental instability in recent years (he died from self-inflicted wounds,) Bennet sees no apparent damage or disease in the brain.  Digging deeper, he discovers the link between the repeated concussions suffered by football players and gradual mental deterioration.  It’s a truth the NFL is most definitely not ready to hear.

My main critique with this movie is that it feels a bit listless, and I’m not entirely sure why.  The story is by turns fascinating, shocking, and heartbreaking, and all the actors turn in good performances.  Something in the direction, maybe?  This may sound weird, but the feeling I come away with is that the movie as a whole isn’t as invested in the story as its individual parts are.  It’s like it doesn’t quite add up.  Which is too bad, because, like I said, that story is kind of amazing.  While I knew that the “concussions are really bad for your brain” connection was made much more recently than it should have been, it hadn’t occurred to me that the NFL would try to cover up.  I hadn’t thought of them bullying or attempting to discredit the man who discovered that connection, although it’s obvious in hindsight.  After all, it’s like the smoking/lung cancer link – an obvious horror, but one that’s remarkably inconvenient for an incredibly-profitable industry.  I guess I’d never thought of the NFL like that, but it makes sense.

The film is great at showing the suffering of these men, who don’t know why they’re going crazy.  They and their families are portrayed with the utmost care, and we see the toll of the damage the NFL is trying to deny.  Another successful aspect, for me, is the depiction of both the subtle and blatant xenophobia Bennet experiences.  On an ordinary day, he encounters people who treat him like an outsider, and when he goes up against the NFL (what’s more American than football?), the distrust and discomfort turn vicious.  I would imagine that, in real life, some of the hatred thrown Bennet’s way was even uglier, but the remarks and slights we do see are still all-around awful.

Will Smith does an excellent job as Bennet (again, you’d think the Academy would’ve eaten this up – a real person, an underdog against a giant corporation, and a fake accent.)  I love the calm, quiet way that he goes about his work, and the fortitude with which he stands his ground when the NFL pushes back is extraordinary.  The wonderful Gugu Mbatha-Raw is mostly wasted as Bennet’s love interest, but Alec Baldwin, Mike O’Malley, and David Morse are very good in supporting roles and there’s a brief appearance by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Eko from Lost.)

Warnings

Thematic elements, disturbing images, violence (including self-harm,) and language.