tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15158412822772162512024-03-05T17:57:36.841-05:00All Things KevynAnything that pops into my head, might pop up on this blog. So there!Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-78729033864735620192023-03-11T17:30:00.001-05:002023-03-11T17:30:12.647-05:00My Final Oscar Predictions<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyV3CAuTl50-K2HtZ_75O9tIM41ud4pIq-4C-v1oKdsPWx1q3z9d2lom9zR0TofN2ne6Ta7q26BY49d4guZB1TBQj7ORDnQqzEbSOVQCQqAboFjCm3XGv4ADkhTLm-5hEJVWO-LIx6Flkd6ADWvcgEQ3H6sVZD2Qg6cnWqWUTkRjue4KpUHdc4U03w7w/s1125/Oscars2023-JimmyKimmel-poster.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyV3CAuTl50-K2HtZ_75O9tIM41ud4pIq-4C-v1oKdsPWx1q3z9d2lom9zR0TofN2ne6Ta7q26BY49d4guZB1TBQj7ORDnQqzEbSOVQCQqAboFjCm3XGv4ADkhTLm-5hEJVWO-LIx6Flkd6ADWvcgEQ3H6sVZD2Qg6cnWqWUTkRjue4KpUHdc4U03w7w/s320/Oscars2023-JimmyKimmel-poster.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>Hello true believers and welcome to that annual thing of things - my Oscar Predictions! Last year i set a personal record by correctly guessing 22 out of 23. i missed Animated Short dammit!! This year i am not that confident since there are more than the usual up in the air races. Anyhoo, here are my predictions. And awaaaaaay we go....<p></p><p></p><p></p><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Picture</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Everything Everywhere All at Once</div><div>Possible Spoiler: The Banshees of Inisherin</div><div>If I had a Vote: Everything Everywhere All at Once</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Pearl and/or Nope</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Director</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Daniels for EEAAO</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Steven Spielberg perhaps</div><div>If I had a Vote: Osterlund, just to throw everything off</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Ti West and/or Jordan Peele</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Actress</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Michelle Yeoh in EEAAO</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Cate Blanchett (who was the frontrunner all season long)</div><div>If I had a Vote: Cate Blanchett in Tar</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Mia Goth in Pearl</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Actor</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Austin Butler in Elvis</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Fraser or Farrell (a 3-way race really)</div><div>If I had a Vote: Fraser or Farrell</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Daniel Kaluuya in Nope</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Supporting Actress</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Jamie Lee Curtis in EEAAO</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Kerry Condon or Angela Bassett</div><div>If I had a Vote: Kerry Condon</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Keke Palmer in Nope</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Supporting Actor</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Ke Huy Quan in EEAAO</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Ke Huy Quan in EEAAO</div><div>If I had a Vote: Ke Huy Quan in EEAAO</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Ke Hu...er, i mean Brad Pitt in Babylon</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: The Banshees of Inisherin</div><div>Possible Spoiler: EEAAO (this could really go either way)</div><div>If I had a Vote: The Banshees of Inisherin</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Charlotte Wells for Aftersun</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Adapted Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Sarah Polly for Women Talking</div><div>Possible Spoiler: All Quiet on the Western Front</div><div>If I had a Vote: Sarah Polly</div><div>Should've been Nominated: The Quiet Girl or The Whale</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best International Film</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: All Quiet on the Western Front</div><div>Possible Spoiler: EO (maybe?)</div><div>If I had a Vote: EO</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Decision to Leave</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Animated Film</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On</div><div>If I had a Vote: Guillermo's Pinocchio</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Richard Linklater's Apollo 10 1/2</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Documentary Feature</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Navalny</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Fire of Love</div><div>If I had a Vote: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed</div><div>Should've been Nominated: The Pez Outlaw!!!</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Cinematography</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: All Quiet on the Western Front</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Elvis</div><div>If I had a Vote: Bardo, Falso Chronicle of a Handful of Truths</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Nope</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Production Design</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Babylon</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Elvis</div><div>If I had a Vote: Babylon</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Nope</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Film Editing</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Everything Everywhere All at Once</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Top Gun (but doubtful)</div><div>If I had a Vote: EEAAO</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Babylon</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Costume Design</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Elvis</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</div><div>If I had a Vote: Elvis</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Amsterdam or Pearl</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Hair & Make-Up</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Elvis</div><div>Possible Spoiler: The Whale</div><div>If I had a Vote: Elvis</div><div>Should've been Nominated: EEAAO!!!</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Sound</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Top Gun Maverick</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Elvis</div><div>If I had a Vote: The Batman</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Nope</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original Score</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: All Quiet on the Western Front</div><div>Possible Spoiler: The Fabelmans</div><div>If I had a Vote: Babylon</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Pearl</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original Song</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Naatu Naatu</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Lift Me Up (maybe")</div><div>If I had a Vote: Naatu Naatu</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Any other song from RRR</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Visual Effects</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Avatar: The Way of Water</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Black Panther or The Batman</div><div>If I had a Vote: Avatar: The Way of Water</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Dr, Strange maybe</div></div></div><div> </div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Animated Short</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, & the Horse</div><div>Possible Spoiler: My Year of Dicks (just to hear them announce it)</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Live Action Short</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Le Pupille</div><div>Possible Spoiler: An Irish Goodbye</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Documentary Short</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Stranger at the Gate</div><div>Possible Spoiler: The Elephant Whisperers</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>That's it gang! See ya 'round the web! ...and At The Movies!!</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-44074718553570507422023-01-10T14:33:00.002-05:002023-01-10T14:35:08.065-05:00Best of 2022: A Countdown of My 25 Favourite Movies of 2022<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrkQj_7Z7RZ25hsDYdP3v2VTB6bR12G9NkJOS4gqX0HdFDMYz9o9tdrfou6N0b2kawra6GswxNb9hHcF6mKgjAWsGwh50ERHoVFnDSkvbvaMEZo-Zf8atPLkiYHXC-TQHYhatxKJx6KB4qYtpbALbnt7Puh_7ATJebCnt-EoIDzQh1CGtKpH96xK58YA/s1400/Best-Horror-of-2022-so-far-feature.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrkQj_7Z7RZ25hsDYdP3v2VTB6bR12G9NkJOS4gqX0HdFDMYz9o9tdrfou6N0b2kawra6GswxNb9hHcF6mKgjAWsGwh50ERHoVFnDSkvbvaMEZo-Zf8atPLkiYHXC-TQHYhatxKJx6KB4qYtpbALbnt7Puh_7ATJebCnt-EoIDzQh1CGtKpH96xK58YA/w640-h320/Best-Horror-of-2022-so-far-feature.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Here is my Countdown of the 25 Best Movies of 2022.<p></p><p>Before we begin, here are a few Honourable Mentions, in no particular order: <b>Amsterdam; Empire of Light; Top Gun Maverick; Fresh; All Quiet on the Western Front; Catherine Called Birdy; Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio; The Northman; Cha Cha Real Smooth;</b> and <b>X</b>.</p><p>And awaaaaay we go....</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">25. Bullet Train (David Leitch) -</span></b> Directed by David Leitch, the man responsible for John Wick, as well as the director of Deadpool 2 and one of the Fast & Furious movies (can anyone tell them apart anyway) this is a non-stop action comedy headlined by a fabulously fun Brad Pitt as a reluctant assassin.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">24. Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund) -</span></b> Winner of the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival, this is a strange little comedy about class warfare amongst marooned yacht passengers and personel that brings on the Luis Buñuel vibe big time.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">23. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Rian Johnson) -</span></b> Slightly better than the first movie, this second installment in the series is a fun romp full of sharp-witted humour and a spot-on cast.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>22. Happening (Audrey Diwan) -</b></span> A devastating look at just why a woman's ability to choose is so incredibly important in both the physical and emotional state of a woman's well being.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">21. Bones & All (Luca Guadagnino) -</span></b> Guadagnino teams up once again with Timothée Chalamet for this delightful cannibal love story. And to think, they didn't bring back Chalamet's costar in Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name, Armie Hammer for this one. The casting would have been perfection.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">20. The Menu (Mark Mylod) -</span></b> A dark twisted movie about food and power and how to make the proper s'more. For those that have seen the film, that last line was hilarious. The film is pretty hilarious too. Or maybe i'm just dark & twisted myself.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">19. Don't Worry Darling (Olivia Wilde) -</span></b> This film was maligned by a lot of critics (mostly men btw) for it's unrealistic feel and supposedly contrived ending, but this critic (also a man btw) loved it and found it a great take on the ignorance and self-absorption of the incel in America.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">18. RRR (S.S. Rajamouli) -</span></b> Silly and bodacious and full of impossibly awesome action sequences and equally impossibly awesome song & dance numbers. And it's got lions and tigers and bears - oh my.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">17. Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (Richard Linklater) -</span></b> I admit i wasn't a fan of Linklater's first two rotoscope animated films (Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly) but this one hit me in the gut by showing me basically my own childhood on film. Well, with the exception of the whole going to the moon thing.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>16. Elvis (Baz Luhrmann) -</b></span> Audacious and over the top - two things that director Baz Luhrmann and subject Elvis Presley have in common. Austin Butler's breakthrough performance of the year ain't bad either.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">15. Men (Alex Garland) -</span></b> A body horror film based on the evils of the patriarchy. With a history of unravelling deep dark emotions in his films (Ex Machina, Annihilation), Garland succeeds here with the help of yet another stellar performance by Jessie Buckley. There's also that ending.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">14. Blonde (Andrew Dominik) -</span></b> This much maligned film is much better than many critics would have you believe. Just like the films of Lars von Trier (Dogville, Antichrist), Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Mother!), and Oliver Stone (Natural Born Killers), Dominik's film is not easy to watch, but the cinematography, production design, and career defining performance by Ana de Armas, are well worth the time.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>13. The Batman (Matt Reeves) -</b></span> Probably the best Batman to come down the pike yet. Reeves takes the World's Greatest Detective (played wonderfully by Robert Pattinson) and puts him smack dab in the middle of not a comic book movie, but a police procedural, much like David Fincher's Zodiac. The sound. The feel. The look. This ain't you daddy's Batman.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">12. The Whale (Darren Aronofsky) -</span></b> Set up in 4:3 academy aspect ratio and made to look like a stage play (that one lone set keeps the audience as trapped as our protagonist feels) Aronofsky film is just as uncompfortable as one would expect from the guy who gave us Requiem for a Dream & Mother!. And then there's the comeback kid, Brendan Fraser. A heartrendering performance that had this critic in tears multiple times.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">11. Decision to Leave (Park Chan Wook) -</span></b> Park has given us some of the most brutal films of the last twenty-five years. From Oldboy to Lady Vengeance to the utterly brilliant Stoker. Now he steps back to a more reflective mood (though we do still have bloodshed) and hands us his own version of the classic film noir - and more precisely his take on Double Indemnity. I'm shattered.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">10. The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh) -</span></b> Martin McDonagh brings Colin Farrell & Brendan Gleeson back together again and they do nothing short of giving career best performances - as do Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan. The film itself is just pure languid lunacy - but in the strangest, most charming way.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">9. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg) -</span></b> Spielberg's look at Spielberg. The prolific director shows us a (semi) fictionalized tale of his own life as a child, teenager, and budding young filmmaker. Michelle Williams as Spielberg's troubled but loving mother is one of the finest performances of the year. And Judd Hirsch? He's only in two scenes but he steals both of them!</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">8. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells) -</span></b> First time writer/director Charlotte Wells gives us a movie of quiet longing and unanswered questions. Paul Mescal & Frankie Corio play a father daughter on what seems to be their last trip together. Eleven year old Corio gives a particularly brilliant performance in her acting debut.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>7. Tár (Todd Field) -</b></span> The director's first film in sixteen years, Tár is a beautifully shot, meticulously designed movie surrounding a brilliant career best performance by Cate Blanchett. And to say Miss Blanchett gives a career best performance is saying a whole hell of a lot.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">6. White Noise (Noah Baumbach) -</span></b> Baumbach takes his usual dysfunctional family dynamic storytelling and rolls into Roland Emmerich disaster movie territory with his latest film. And after watching this, i very much want to go back to the early 1980's and spend an entire day walking around an A&P - preferably with someone with Greta Gerwig's hair in the movie. If you've seen the movie you know of what i speak.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">5. Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Alejandro González Iñárritu) -</span></b> One of the best directors working today (a leader of The Mexican New Wave and, along with Guillermo del Toro & Alfonso Caurón, one of the dubbed Three Amigos) Iñárritu gives us his very own 8 1/2. Personal and brilliant, just like Fellini's opus, Bardo is magical realism at it's finest.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">4. Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) -</span></b> There is really no good way to describe this film. I mean, i could but we would be here all day. Go and watch this crazy multi-dimensional (the best multiverse movie of 2022 - sorry Dr. Strange) Gordian Knot of a movie. Michelle Yeoh will show you the way. Then we'll talk about it. And talk and talk and talk.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>3. Babylon (Damien Chazelle) -</b></span> Though i was luke warm on La La Land, for which he won the Oscar (but famously lost Best Picture) Damien Chazelle's newest film is a hedonistic parable on Old Hollywood. Telling a very similar story to Singin' in the Rain (the coming of Sound into the Studios of Hollywood) and actually paying exquisite homage to the classic, Babylon takes an obviously darker route in it's narrative, ending in a beautiful coda to the cinema and everything that makes us love it - warts and all.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">2. Nope (Jordan Peele) -</span></b> One of many films from this past year that play at either homage to or reference the magic of Hollywood, Peele's third film as director is a no holds barred sci-fi horror masterstroke that incorporates his love for Hollywood history and his love for horror films into one batshitcrazy ride of a lifetime. And that opening scene? Wow! And that finale? Wow! And everything inbetween? Wow!</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">1. Pearl (Ti West) -</span></b> To anyone who knows me, this should come as no surprise. Plus her picture welcomes you to this post. As i stated in my original review, this movie is what one would get if Alfred Hitchcock had dropped acid and remade The Wizard of Oz. The prequel to West's 1970's set slasher movie X, Pearl takes place in 1918, on a farm not unlike the one Dorothy lived on in Kansas. Well, if the wicked Miss Gulch ran said farm. Pearl dreams of escaping to Hollywood (somewhere over her rainbow) but life has other plans. Twisted plans indeed. The film is shot to resemble a Technicolor masterpiece (complete with the most Bernard Hermann score one could come up with) and Mia Goth is spectacular in the title role. And that final shot? Goddamn brilliant!</p><p>That's it Gang! See you at the Movies!</p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-17204026163356497362022-06-17T00:47:00.001-04:002022-06-17T00:50:37.723-04:00The Jurassic Park / World Movies Ranked from Best to Worst<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNF_7DEkmkv_m3lBW8Fxd2-RYYXPnzGSrqTnvjgLInABSsTeQzDaX6DVMrL_c6AA307Qhyh_KhBSSIYg2SVnuBHoDE6RzSYmBg37ZdqHXyG73XrYpy4Uv_IDrjm1liv48a3Eircys-m52esVV2psa2r7ySxZX5kGt31vF3ef3ETj5qa_kxHGLu-cJKrA/s1920/dinosaurs-poster-Jurassic-Park-Jurassic-Park.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNF_7DEkmkv_m3lBW8Fxd2-RYYXPnzGSrqTnvjgLInABSsTeQzDaX6DVMrL_c6AA307Qhyh_KhBSSIYg2SVnuBHoDE6RzSYmBg37ZdqHXyG73XrYpy4Uv_IDrjm1liv48a3Eircys-m52esVV2psa2r7ySxZX5kGt31vF3ef3ETj5qa_kxHGLu-cJKrA/s320/dinosaurs-poster-Jurassic-Park-Jurassic-Park.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The world of Jurassic Park. There have been six movies in total. Three Jurassic Park movies and three Jurassic World movies. So, now that I've seen the sixth in the franchise, Jurassic World: Dominion, I can make my opinions known on how they should be ranked. I think number one is obvious, but I'm a completist, so here goes...<p></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">1. Jurassic Park (1993)</span> - </span></b>Obviously the original is the best. It's not even a contest. Anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong. The first film, directed by Steven Spielberg, is not only the best of the Jurassic movies, it is also one of the best monster movies of all time. One of the greatest Summer blockbusters of all-time. Alongside Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark (both Spielberg films as well) it shows how a big time action movie should be made. In fact, it's more than just one of the best action and/or monster movies of all-time. The movie sits proudly in my 100 favourite movies of all-time. Genres be damned! Laura Dern. Sam Neill. Jeff Freakin' Goldblum! It all comes together to make one of the finest big budget movies of all-time.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">2. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)</span> -</span></b> The second movie in the original trilogy, and the last one directed by Spielberg, though he would stay on to produce the rest of the series through his Amblin Entertainment. It didn't get much love when it came out, but it is a fun movie. Nowhere near the original but still quite fun. I mean, this one has taken a supporting Jeff Goldblum and made him the star. How can that not make anything better!?</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">3. Jurassic World (2015)</span> - </span></b>Directed by Colin Treverrow, this updated version takes place 20 years after the disaster of the original Jurassic Park. Chris Pratt, who seems to be a total twat in real life, is nonetheless, a fun action star. Just coming off the surprise success of Guardians of the Galaxy, Pratt plays the typical cocky alpha male hero opposite Bryce Dallas Howard's uptight park administrator. There are similarities to the original storyline, and the action is jam packed, but Treverrow is no Spielberg, and Pratt is no Sam Neill. No one is Goldblum, but that should go without saying.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">4. Jurassic Park III (2001)</span> - </span></b>Not an awful movie, but not to the same level of the second one either. Joe Johnston, the man who gave us Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Jumanji, took over the helm from Spielberg, who stayed on as producer. The story bring Sam Neill back into the fold, as he is forced back into the world of dinosaurs by a couple desperately searching for their lost son. My main issue with this movie is there is absolutely no Goldblum - and that is just unacceptable! I think this list is turning into a Jeff Goldblum mash note, but we shall muster on.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">5. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)</span> - </span></b>Directed by J.A. Bayone, whoever the hell he is, this second Jurassic World movie is totally unforgettable. In case you've forgotten too (I had to look up the plot before going to see the latest installment), this time around, the dinosaurs leave the island and after an auction gone waaaay wrong, they escape into the wilds of the US of A. At least that's what Wikipedia told me. I honestly can't remember from the one time I saw the movie five years ago. But even with that in mind, this still isn't the worst member of the franchise. And hey, only a minute or so of Goldblum!?</p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: red;">6. Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)</span> -</span></b> Colin Treverrow returns and he brings back the whole gang. Pratt, Dallas Howard, Dern, Neill, and yes, Goldblum too! One would think this would make for a great final movie. It did not. Our intrepid heroes get into the most ridiculous scenarios, many of which don't even make narrative sense. We get some idiotic subplot about giant locusts too. There are two quite enjoyable action sequences. I'll at least give it that. And there is a nice piece of closure for a forgotten character from the original movie - and I'm not even talking about Henry Wu. I'm sure this movie will be about as forgettable as the last one in a few years. I placed this one at the bottom not because it's necessarily any worse than Fallen Kingdom (they are about even parts of hokey and forgettable) but because I had rather high hopes for it. But, much like Star Wars; The Force Awakens, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and even Avengers: Endgame (yeah, go ahead and fight me fam!) the film is nothing more than cheap and easy fan service. Yes, we do get more of Jeff Goldblum, but even Goldblum is not enough to save this dismal reach-around fan service of a movie. Ugh.</p><p>That's it gang. See ya 'round the web.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjfUWquk7RH5Abj6dKwEvinAcOhwem8dbAGCNTpCKG0XAjghzMaLux7C5UmZxqR-cdaY385rdRTzxY4kuPtGnb2NuKZj3LOCfgtKi85vydN5Wmk5P-m-OEdFglvhtpZJgZ5j9mNUjuODIisnPmtmF0yo3J2kw13BnJVSX-6xB8NgpArU7fYoQFmQLBeg/s846/JP-WhenDinosaursRuled%20(1).webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="846" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjfUWquk7RH5Abj6dKwEvinAcOhwem8dbAGCNTpCKG0XAjghzMaLux7C5UmZxqR-cdaY385rdRTzxY4kuPtGnb2NuKZj3LOCfgtKi85vydN5Wmk5P-m-OEdFglvhtpZJgZ5j9mNUjuODIisnPmtmF0yo3J2kw13BnJVSX-6xB8NgpArU7fYoQFmQLBeg/w640-h352/JP-WhenDinosaursRuled%20(1).webp" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-88924374751938551592022-04-24T12:34:00.000-04:002022-04-24T12:34:25.717-04:00Film Review: Everything Everywhere All at Once<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNsbbGp-E7UGBn4HDpkhdjZ7aQu7bAxkbt7KxYwHTXyw5YPw83yuV7ibe7WfUcoEImCqNUUAhqexZiAuJcN4sn1j7azuP485F4ke-pmW8815eKiF2L-8TYUYJ3ipB6rrScEzD8EKJZGRHdEmnE_kZy2nZPTUnrfk4BaL4xBvt8eSKXI5XSQB_82d1Mxw/s1448/MV5BYTdiOTIyZTQtNmQ1OS00NjZlLWIyMTgtYzk5Y2M3ZDVmMDk1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTAzMDg4NzU0._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1448" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNsbbGp-E7UGBn4HDpkhdjZ7aQu7bAxkbt7KxYwHTXyw5YPw83yuV7ibe7WfUcoEImCqNUUAhqexZiAuJcN4sn1j7azuP485F4ke-pmW8815eKiF2L-8TYUYJ3ipB6rrScEzD8EKJZGRHdEmnE_kZy2nZPTUnrfk4BaL4xBvt8eSKXI5XSQB_82d1Mxw/s320/MV5BYTdiOTIyZTQtNmQ1OS00NjZlLWIyMTgtYzk5Y2M3ZDVmMDk1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTAzMDg4NzU0._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg" width="221" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">Take Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle. Blend in some Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Toss in a dash of Wong Kar-wai. Fold in some screwball comedy and a smidgen of nihilism. Toss it all together with society's recent fascination with the idea of a multiverse, and you have Everything Everywhere All at Once - a movie that definitely lives up to it's portentous title.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Schienert, known collectively as Daniels, Everything Everywhere All at Once is the tale of Evelyn, a struggling, dissatisfied wife and mother and owner of a laundromat. Her life didn't go as expected and now she is just going through the motions. Her husband wants a divorce (though she doesn't know that yet), her father is a burden, her daughter and her do not get along, and now she's brought home her girlfriend as an added shock to the system. All the while, she is being audited by the IRS and may end up losing her business - on top of losing her husband and daughter. It's a life unfulfilled. that is until an alternate version of her husband shows up from another universe and tells Evelyn she is the multiverse only hope of survival. This is where it gets, to say the least, complicated.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I won't get into the rest of the plot. You should experience the rest unfettered with critical calculations. Plus, I don't think I am able to render any sort of coherent elucidation in just a few words. Maybe batshitcrazy would work, but even that is a bit lacking in descriptive chutzpah. But I digress. Let us talk about the real highlight of the movie. Michelle Yeoh. The actress's ability to show off her martial arts prowess, and her razor sharp comic timing, all the while giving a deeply felt, resonating tour de force performance, is nothing short of brilliant. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Yeoh steals the show - and it is her show to steal. This movie is more than just a martial arts epic or an action adventure romp. It's more than a mere madcap multiversal romp. A Mad Mad Mad Mad World through alternate realities. The film takes a look at how each generation becomes more and more nihilistic as society grows darker and darker. A thing that may be inevitable but also a thing that does not need to happen if people were to just open their hearts. This sounds more than a bit cliche as I write it, but trust me, it works in the movie. And it is Yeoh who makes it work. Yes, there are wonderful special effects and fun and fabulous fight scenes - and a literal buttload (a comment stemming from one of the more interesting fight scenes) of wild and wacky stuff. But it is Yeoh who brings the whole movie into perspective. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Stephanie Tsu, who had a tiny part in the MCU's Shang Chi last year, plays Joy, Evelyn's wayward daughter. Ke Huy Quan, of Goonies and Temple of Doom fame, is Evelyn's husband. James Hong, an actor who has been in anything and everything that has the need for a Chinese actor, plays her father. These are all important cogs in the story, especially Tsu's Joy, but they are all just there to make Michelle Yeoh look better. An almost unrecognizable Jamie Lee Curtis as an IRS agent/multiversal ne'er do well is also fantastic in the movie. But still, it is Evelyn who must figure out how to change the course of her own life in order to save all the lives, everything everywhere all at once. And in doing that Yeoh gives one of the funniest and most heartfelt performances of her illustrious career. Not to mention the movie itself is, well, I'm still sticking with batshitcrazy. Huzzah.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">That's it gang. See ya 'round the web.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWre4l9_lyA9TEGfQn8SCpDu8ykP58eN7RsTAX9JYtoSMvkr9O5W0X2D8lVMcr2tqDc6UfzYLrv-6t0KViBRfeqOgXmtMIf7oJtq6N65ZGSgkoZ6gHzYAoIDX-Jw8eCv97ZcuH-o98fygrjOo1zKYzkdYPDso4BAsJcY2cWUCPfO-J9AuJglCTMMarfg/s2000/Michelle_Yeoh_Everything_Everywhere_All_At_Once.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1270" data-original-width="2000" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWre4l9_lyA9TEGfQn8SCpDu8ykP58eN7RsTAX9JYtoSMvkr9O5W0X2D8lVMcr2tqDc6UfzYLrv-6t0KViBRfeqOgXmtMIf7oJtq6N65ZGSgkoZ6gHzYAoIDX-Jw8eCv97ZcuH-o98fygrjOo1zKYzkdYPDso4BAsJcY2cWUCPfO-J9AuJglCTMMarfg/w640-h406/Michelle_Yeoh_Everything_Everywhere_All_At_Once.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-72883704220584209502022-03-26T01:46:00.000-04:002022-03-26T01:46:30.149-04:00My Final Oscar Predictions!!!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sfqyLJBV1eTpBaHygJKesNansB2J2FbM1REu4EeeGrnepNmnoM9U86RPsGBZJwNuL-WHdsXyFQPNfoD12DirT0K2jr2zASHrPN4FoUDM4zMmKWnoqbdDYPbOQdV0KuWvpsKkdKaw6KE27KnZtnwReCJghsq9mkC-gazGx2WkBVLknu5Q6SjaBgCUfQ/s326/94_Oscars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8sfqyLJBV1eTpBaHygJKesNansB2J2FbM1REu4EeeGrnepNmnoM9U86RPsGBZJwNuL-WHdsXyFQPNfoD12DirT0K2jr2zASHrPN4FoUDM4zMmKWnoqbdDYPbOQdV0KuWvpsKkdKaw6KE27KnZtnwReCJghsq9mkC-gazGx2WkBVLknu5Q6SjaBgCUfQ/s320/94_Oscars.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>Hello true believers and welcome to that annual thing of things - my Oscar Predictions! This year is as predictable as most years, but the funny thing about this year is that Best Picture is the one up in the air. If you had asked me a month ago - hell, a week ago - I would have said The Power of the Dog was a lock for the win. Most Oscar pundits would have said the same. But then the PGA's surprised everyone and awarded their prize to CODA. Add this to their surprise win at the SAG Awards two weeks back and it's beginning to look like a photo finish coming up. The SAG membership is the largest block of voters in The Academy. The PGA is the only other awards, other than The Oscars, that have a preferential ballot, wherein instead of voting on one choice, you list the films in order of preference. These two things combined make CODA suddenly look like a frontrunner. Technically I believe The Power of the Dog is still the frontrunner, but as voting was closing down (and Academy voters are notorious for sending in their ballots at the last minute) CODA was shooting upwards. Anyhoo, here are my predictions. And awaaaaaay we go....<p></p><p></p><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Picture</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: CODA</div><div>Possible Spoiler: The Power of the Dog (not really a spoiler tho)</div><div>If I had a Vote: Licorice Pizza</div><div>Should've been Nominated: The Tragedy of Macbeth</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Director</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog</div><div>Possible Spoiler: No one really</div><div>If I had a Vote: PTA for Licorice Pizza or Branagh for Belfast</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Guillermo Del Toro for Nightmare Alley</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Actress</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Kristen Stewart could surprise</div><div>If I had a Vote: Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Alana Haim in Licorice Pizza</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Actor</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Will Smith in King Richard</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Cumberbatch maybe, Garfield maybe, but unlikely</div><div>If I had a Vote: Denzel as Macbeth</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Peter Dinklage in Cyrano</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Supporting Actress</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Ariana DeBose in West Side Story</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Kirsten Dunst, but again, not likely</div><div>If I had a Vote: Jessie Buckley in The Lost Daughter</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Catriona Balfe in Belfast</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Supporting Actor</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Troy Hutser in CODA</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Kodi Smitt-McPhee in The Power of the Dog</div><div>If I had a Vote: J.K. Simmons in Being the Ricardos</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Jared Leto in House of Gucci</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Belfast</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Licorice Pizza or Don't Look Up</div><div>If I had a Vote: Licorice Pizza</div><div>Should've been Nominated: The French Dispatch</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Adapted Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: CODA</div><div>Possible Spoiler: The Power of the Dog</div><div>If I had a Vote: The Lost Daughter</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Nightmare Alley</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best International Film</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Drive My Car</div><div>Possible Spoiler: The Worst Person in the World</div><div>If I had a Vote: The Worst Person in the World</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Titane</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Animated Film</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Encanto</div><div>Possible Spoiler: The Mitchells vs. The Machines</div><div>If I had a Vote: The Mitchells vs. The Machines</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Cryptozoo</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Documentary Feature</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Summer of Soul</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Flee</div><div>If I had a Vote: Flee</div><div>Should've been Nominated: ?????</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Cinematography</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Dune</div><div>Possible Spoiler: West Side Story</div><div>If I had a Vote: The Tragedy of Macbeth</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Belfast</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Production Design</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Dune</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Nightmare Alley</div><div>If I had a Vote: Nightmare Alley</div><div>Should've been Nominated: The French Dispatch</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Film Editing</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Dune</div><div>Possible Spoiler: King Richard</div><div>If I had a Vote: Tick, Tick... Boom!</div><div>Should've been Nominated: West Side Story</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Costume Design</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Cruella</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Dune maybe</div><div>If I had a Vote: Cruella</div><div>Should've been Nominated: House of Gucci</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Hair & Make-Up</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: The Eyes of Tammy Faye</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Dune</div><div>If I had a Vote: Dune</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Last Night in Soho</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Sound</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Dune</div><div>Possible Spoiler: West Side Story</div><div>If I had a Vote: Dune</div><div>Should've been Nominated: The Tragedy of Macbeth</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original Score</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Dune</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Encanto</div><div>If I had a Vote: Parallel Mothers</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Spencer</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original Song</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: No Time to Die</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Dos Oruguitas from Encanto (this would give Lin-Manuel Miranda an EGOT</div><div>If I had a Vote: Down to Joy from Belfast</div><div>Should've been Nominated: We Don't Talk About Bruno, but...</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Visual Effects</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Dune</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Spider-Man: No Way Home</div><div>If I had a Vote: Dune</div><div>Should've been Nominated: Eternals</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Animated Short</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: Robin Robin</div><div>Possible Spoiler: The Windshield Wiper</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Live Action Short</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: The Long Goodbye</div><div>Possible Spoiler: On My Mind</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Documentary Short</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Predicted Winner: The Queen of Basketball</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Audible</div></div><div><br /></div><div>So that gives six Oscars to Dune and it has CODA winning all three it is nominated for. But can Jane Campion really take home Best Director without her film winning anything else? I guess we will see.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's it gang! See ya 'round the web! ...and At The Movies!!</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-51686839198427745732022-03-06T16:56:00.001-05:002022-03-06T16:56:42.593-05:00Film Review: The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGEEI2PhZiC6nlzArwumXDJ20-SXuhrak_BIZ_WgxduYQS-Vg5Vnxsr26_dulsydjmw1XIt1MZNaTsDd5aAC5G-X3XO8ePw6RxnQ59s1Fqm-k6bz3tmOqv_0wGboWD-y1so5F_aR2T6blaTX3ij4a_-FWcJDvLKvfnIdvyO8GtayGLrkYqlDH0tmOmJQ=s1500" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1012" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGEEI2PhZiC6nlzArwumXDJ20-SXuhrak_BIZ_WgxduYQS-Vg5Vnxsr26_dulsydjmw1XIt1MZNaTsDd5aAC5G-X3XO8ePw6RxnQ59s1Fqm-k6bz3tmOqv_0wGboWD-y1so5F_aR2T6blaTX3ij4a_-FWcJDvLKvfnIdvyO8GtayGLrkYqlDH0tmOmJQ=s320" width="216" /></a></div>Let's start this off with a declaration. The reason Matt Reeves' <i>The Batman</i> is the best of its genre (and it may well be just that) is because it refuses to act as if it's part of the genre at all, instead going far above and beyond the typical theme park tentpoles swarming theatres these days. <i>The Batman</i> may technically be a comic book and/or superhero movie, but it owes more to films like David Fincher's <i>Se7en</i> or <i>Zodiac</i>, or Polanski's <i>Chinatown</i>, or even the works of William Friedkin or Fritz Lang than it does to and comic book and/or superhero movie that came before.<p></p><p>The film, based primarily on the comic book Batman:Year Two, is a dark and brutal film, even by normal DCEU standards, which tend to be darker than their average MCU counterpart. This is a superhero movie, much like Zack Snyder's adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen, that deconstructs the genre and pretty much tears it apart. Is Batman, a masked vigilante who works above the law, really the hero he claims to be, or is he just an angry well-funded man child who seeks revenge in order to placate his own fractured mind stemming from the brutal murders of his parents right in front of his nine year old face? Other versions of the the character have done this. Christopher Nolan's trilogy certainly digs a bit into it, and in a lesser form, Ben Affleck's Batman from the Justice League's movies dwells on it as well. </p><p>But Reeve's, along with Robert Pattinson as his caped crusader, have put together a brilliant thesis on the whole idea of the superhero and how they are not the black and white, good vs. evil that we were all told as kids. Playing out like a police procedural, searching for the serial killer and would be terrorist known as The Riddler (Paul Dano's take on the character is the farthest cry from Jim Carrey's as one can imagine), <i>The Batman</i> is the strangest and darkest superhero movie ever made. It's central theme is side by side with Todd Phillips' <i>Joker</i>, and Pattisnon's performance has a lot of the same nuance's as Joaquin Phoenix's in that film. Remember, Pattisnon is much more than just "that guy from Twilight." Check mout films like <i>Cosmopolis</i> or <i>Good Time</i>, the latter of which definitely had an influence on his performance in this film.</p><p>Also great in the film are Zoe Kravitz as the best Catwoman since Michelle Pfeiffer peeled on the skin tight leather, Jeffrey Wright as Jim Gordon, a good cop fighting his way upstream in a corrupt Gotham police force, and an unrecognizable Colin Farrell as Penguin - playing the part as if he were channeling Joe Pesci's Tommy DeVito from <i>Goodfellas</i>. But it is Pattinson's portrayal of Bruce Wayne, aka (spoiler alert) The Batman, and Reeve's direction (not to mention the cinematography and the editing, sound, production design departments) that make this better and deeper than anything the MCU or the DCEU have given us in this overly saturated comic book movie climate we have today. </p><p>That's it gang. See you at the movies.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPQprkCEhIZFLpoTLdx54eIw-nA_IkDyGkpayp5oLRNmeVXd0t33pwtl8GQI5cgrSCBzN8vgWci6XRdDVVz61pHPQksRxgYP932wsiKiG2d7m5pkW6RS3aoWTx4ORxdb_o8-XOofJaroQDmHZuoEwlODUYQqYS6nRgtF4cvIUtkZxX3WcbSW4v3WCwrw=s1200" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPQprkCEhIZFLpoTLdx54eIw-nA_IkDyGkpayp5oLRNmeVXd0t33pwtl8GQI5cgrSCBzN8vgWci6XRdDVVz61pHPQksRxgYP932wsiKiG2d7m5pkW6RS3aoWTx4ORxdb_o8-XOofJaroQDmHZuoEwlODUYQqYS6nRgtF4cvIUtkZxX3WcbSW4v3WCwrw=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-47501982417467422342022-02-06T13:33:00.008-05:002022-02-08T13:02:12.085-05:00My Final Oscar Nomination Predictios<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKpjJCbA68X0Nwo4B6Et7Bc846oJldgo3znFPY73zx9xe8sQbcxILfuj6ipUCGJPMYNddP_JH9YL5fOCa1jpV6tTIyG_Nq2I3Hbz0acyoEHOBXJYTsiokrLYtEi20dViRYWXBVoECYcbC3lbhretUMCpTDJlG-q1MXJhIEwJQy8N6ARF5Wt8zyjZTjSA=s2400" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2400" data-original-width="1800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKpjJCbA68X0Nwo4B6Et7Bc846oJldgo3znFPY73zx9xe8sQbcxILfuj6ipUCGJPMYNddP_JH9YL5fOCa1jpV6tTIyG_Nq2I3Hbz0acyoEHOBXJYTsiokrLYtEi20dViRYWXBVoECYcbC3lbhretUMCpTDJlG-q1MXJhIEwJQy8N6ARF5Wt8zyjZTjSA=s320" width="240" /></a></div>So here we go kids! Another year, another attempt at predicting the Oscars! Below are my predictions for Tuesday morning's Oscar Nomination announcement. It seems to be as predictable as ever (80% or so are locks) but it gets pretty messy in that other 20%. We'll see how well I do. So, without further ado, awaaaay we go!<p></p><p></p><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Picture</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>So there are pretty much seven locks here, followed by a couple almost locks, followed by about five films vying for that tenth spot. Here are my picks in order of probability, even though the top few can be interchangeable as there is no clear cut frontrunner yet.</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Belfast</div><div>2. The Power of the Dog</div><div>3. West Side Story</div><div>4. Licorice Pizza</div><div>5. Dune</div><div>6. Don't Look Up</div><div>7. CODA</div><div>8. King Richard</div><div>9. Drive My Car</div><div>10. Nightmare Alley</div><div><br /></div><div>Spoilers: Being the Ricardos, Tick, Tick ...Boom!, House of Gucci, The Tragedy of Macbeth</div><div><br /></div><div>Dark Horse Possibilities: The French Dispatch, The Lost Daughter, Parallel Mothers, Spencer</div><div><br /></div><div>My Impossible Hopeful: Shiva Baby (highly overlooked)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Director</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Usually the Academy doesn't totally agree with the DGA, often tossing in a surprise nomination to someone the Director's Guild overlooked. So, I'm not going with the straight DGA ticket here, leaving Villaneuve out in place of Hamaguchi. And, for the record, I also think we are going to see our second consecutive woman winning Best Director, even if her film doesn't win.</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog</div><div>2. Steven Spielberg for West Side Story</div><div>3. Kenneth Branagh for Belfast</div><div>4. Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza</div><div>5. Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Drive My Car</div><div><br /></div><div>Spoiler: DGA nominee Denis Villaneuve could still make it a straight DGA ticket</div><div><br /></div><div>Other Possible Spoilers: Adam McKay (Don't Look Up), Guillermo del Toro (Nightmare Alley), Aaron Sorkin (Being the Ricardos), or Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter)</div><div><br /></div><div>Wishful Thinking: Paolo Sorrentino for The Hand of God</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Actress</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>This is probably the most difficult category to pinpoint this year. The frontrunner seems to change every other week. There seems to be just two real locks and then a dozen women vying for the other three spots - some of those being former frontrunners. Anyway...</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter</div><div>2. Nicole Kidman in Being the Ricardos</div><div>3. Lady Gaga in House of Gucci</div><div>4. Kristen Stewart in Spencer</div><div>5. Penelope Cruz in Parallel Mothers</div><div><br /></div><div>Other possibilities: Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye), Rachel Zegler (West Side Story), Jennifer Hudson (Respect)</div><div><br /></div><div>Wishful Thinking: Alana Haim in Licorice Pizza (though it could really happen)</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Actor</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>As opposed to it's female counterpart, Best Actor is one of the easier categories to predict this year, with four solid locks - even though the eventual winner could pretty much be any of them. Here we go.</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Benedict Cumberbatch in The Power of the Dog</div><div>2. Will Smith in King Richard</div><div>3. Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth</div><div>4. Andrew Garfield in Tick, Tick ...Boom!</div><div>5. Javier Bardem in Being the Ricardos</div><div><br /></div><div>Possible Spoilers: Leonardo DiCaprio in Don't Look Up or Peter Dinklage in Cyrano</div><div><br /></div><div>Dark Horse Contenders for that Final Spot: Bradley Cooper (Nightmare Alley), Joaquin Phoenix (C'mon C'mon)</div><div><br /></div><div>Wishful Thinking: Cooper Hoffman in Licorice Pizza</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Supporting Actress</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>A solid group of locks. So much so that it is probably the easiest category to predict this year. But even with four locks, that last spot could be tricky.</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Caitriona Balfe in Belfast</div><div>2. Ariana DeBose in West Side Story</div><div>3. Kirsten Dunst in The Power of the Dog</div><div>4. Aunjanue Ellis in King Richard</div><div>5. Ruth Negga in Passing</div><div><br /></div><div>Possible Spoiler for that Fifth Spot: Cate Blanchett in Nightmare Alley or the sentimental choice, Rita Moreno in West Side Story</div><div><br /></div><div>Dark Horse Possibles for that Fifth Spot: Judi Dench (Belfast), Ann Dowd (Mass), Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter), Marlee Matlin (CODA), Rebecca Furguson (Dune)</div><div><br /></div><div>Wishful Thinking (but still a real possibility): Kathryn Hunter in The Tragedy of Macbeth</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Supporting Actor</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Another one of those categories with four locks and the biggest and wildest race for that fifth spot. Some of this wild race even involves costars vying against each other. That last spot I am guessing will be helped out by the sudden outpouring for Being the Ricardos - if it overflows into the Oscars that is. If it doesn't, then there are at least a half a dozen guys ready to grab that spot up - maybe even a Bradley Cooper surprise.</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Power of the Dog</div><div>2. Ciaran Hinds in Belfast</div><div>3. Troy Kotsur in CODA</div><div>4. Jesse Plemons in The Powet of the Dog</div><div>5. J.K. Simmons in Being the Ricardos</div><div><br /></div><div>Possible (and perhaps probable) Spoilers: Jared Leto (House of Gucci), Jamie Dornan (Belfast), Bradley Cooper (Licorice Pizza), Ben Affleck (The Tender Bar), Jon Bernthal (King Richard), Corey Hawkins (Tragedy of Macbeth), David Alvarez (West Side Story).</div><div><br /></div><div>The guy that should be there but has been getting wrongfully overshadowed by his co-stars: Mike Faist as Riff in West Side Story - This guy gives the most in depth performance in the movie and is my favourite part of a movie I loved every part of.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original & Adapted Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Again, some locks with one or two wild cards tossed in for fun.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Original Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>1. Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza</div><div>2. Aaron Sorkin for Being the Ricardos</div><div>3. Kenneth Branagh for Belfast</div><div>4. Adam McKay & David Sirota for Don't Look Up</div><div>5. Zach Baylin for King Richard</div><div><br /></div><div>Possible Spoiler: Pedro Almadovar for Parallel Mothers</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Adapted Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>1. Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog</div><div>2. Sian Heder for CODA</div><div>3. Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Drive My Car</div><div>4. Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, & Dennis Villeneuve for Dune</div><div>5. Maggie Gyllenhaal for The Lost Daughter</div><div><br /></div><div>Other probables: Guillermo del Toro & Kim Morgan (Nightmare Alley), Joel Coen (Tragedy of Macbeth), Rebecca Hall (Passing), and Tony Kushner for West Side Story. That last one is a very strong probability if WSS hits it big in the voting.</div><div><br /></div><div>There ya go! As for the other 15 categories (there are 23 total) I rarely ever delve into them because I am generally a lazy person. Ha! Anyhoo, I'll be back after the announcement with my thoughts on the nominations and to brag at how well I did with my predictions.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's it gang. See ya 'round the web.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjo-omSRSXV4ADCZgyiQwqnT2CeUUZAJK1rD9FJpoZ2RcSy2w82j91B04hJ5ju6xOdzUryGcjiM5Av2Ptfdn-H0nj3XwKzJkT2Tl6b1mGvEB_bTJC6BOOuwYpNjrpdcnhIESkvcMR9iNfXD6tKKcgQTkNElWAs4xehNnUDVg-JftjXh3wZS3rzPuajDDA=s945" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="945" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjo-omSRSXV4ADCZgyiQwqnT2CeUUZAJK1rD9FJpoZ2RcSy2w82j91B04hJ5ju6xOdzUryGcjiM5Av2Ptfdn-H0nj3XwKzJkT2Tl6b1mGvEB_bTJC6BOOuwYpNjrpdcnhIESkvcMR9iNfXD6tKKcgQTkNElWAs4xehNnUDVg-JftjXh3wZS3rzPuajDDA=w640-h276" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-69902487180889287512022-02-05T01:14:00.007-05:002022-02-06T13:42:24.341-05:002021: The Best in Cinema<p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhU97bn_O33rBBz19CJ2XCenMSCMkxv3ND4DrcGez-slHHrK_9DV99mAdqab4Dj---mQFhZLHcULzLB_s2Gi_L-NoJTSXfY6oxiLC48ogWQEKluj1fZcC0HopGeAD4miC8ogOauT3u-yzfVNUJkjOdX5yx8Dy3gF6sQ8T-KdtjnIytO1i58VBad3DGxlg=s1350" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhU97bn_O33rBBz19CJ2XCenMSCMkxv3ND4DrcGez-slHHrK_9DV99mAdqab4Dj---mQFhZLHcULzLB_s2Gi_L-NoJTSXfY6oxiLC48ogWQEKluj1fZcC0HopGeAD4miC8ogOauT3u-yzfVNUJkjOdX5yx8Dy3gF6sQ8T-KdtjnIytO1i58VBad3DGxlg=s320" width="256" /></a></div>So, here we are again at the end of a year. The end of another cinematic year. And this means, this critic must put forth their Best of the Year list. So, without further ado, here are my choices for the Best Cinema of 2021.</span><p></p><p></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -24px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">1) Licorice Pizza:</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></b>Paul Thomas Anderson, one of the best directors working today, hands us the most personal and down to Earth film of his career. A pretty spectacular feat considering most of the movie is the real life adventures of a real life child actor turned producer. The maker of such films as </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -24px;">There Will be Blood</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -24px;">, </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -24px;">Boogie Nights</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -24px;">, and </span><i style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -24px;">Magnolia</i><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -24px;">, gives us the account of a fifteen-year-old child actor and budding entrepreneur and his strange yet beautiful friendship with a twenty-five-year-old woman. Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Alana Haim from the sister band Haim, make their film debuts and blow the whole shebang out of the water. Bradley Cooper also has a small scenery chewing cameo that is worthy of an Oscar. This film brings Anderson even deeper into Robert Altman territory - a territory the auteur has already explored in most of his films - and plays out as the most quintessential L.A. film since the aforementioned Altman left this world.</span></div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-indent: -24px;"><span style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold;">2) Belfast: </span>A classicblack and white film by Kenneth Branagh set in the titular war-torn Northern Ireland city in the late 1960’s. A cast of mostly unknowns (at least in the US), led by Caitriona Balfe in an Oscar worthy performance as the suffering but strong-willed mother, and including Jamie Dornan, the star of <i>Fifty Shades of Gray</i>, in a subtle and quite shockingly brilliant performance as the dad. Branagh's best work, the film looks and feels like something Orson Welles would have made in his heyday.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">3) West Side Story: </span></b>I loved the original, but Steven Spielberg manages to improve on the 1961 Oscar winner. The director fixes the inherent problems with the original (everyone is both appropriately cast and does their own singing) and takes it up another level with it’s production design, cinematography, and editing - while still keeping all those vibrant Sondheim/Bernstein songs. All that and Rita Moreno too!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">4) The Power of the Dog: </span></b>Oscar nominated director Jane Campion is back after a too long sabbatical (twelve years since <i>Bright Star</i>) and she does it with her most powerful film since </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The Piano</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">. Benedict Cumberbatch stars and gives us a performance that reminds one of Daniel Day-Lewis at his most powerful and frightening. We also get great stuff from Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. With this brilliant film, Campion could easily become just the third woman, and the second in a row, to win the Best Director Oscar.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -24px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">5) Nightmare Alley:</span></b> Guillermo del Toro’s nightmarish noir remake, starring Bradley Cooper as a con man on the run, and Cate Blanchett as the requisite femme fatale, takes this film lover back to the heyday of the film noir. The only thing missing is the black and white cinematography that goes along with any true noir classic. Oh yeah, a black and white version is coming soon.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -24px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">6) The Tragedy of Macbeth:</span></b> Directed by Joel Coen, in his first film without brother Ethan, this Shakespeare adaptation is done in 4:3 aspect ratio and stark black & white and looks as if it could have been made by Welles or Dreyer or Fritz Lang back in the day. It is also highlighted by Kathryn Hunter playing all three witches, in an homage to the works of Bergman, and one of the best performances of the year by Denzel Washington as the titular Scotsman.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -24px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">7) Shiva Baby: </span></b>A quietly hilarious look at a young Jewish woman, played snidely and wonderfully by Rachel Sennott, trying to traverse a family shiva while simultaneously having a nervous breakdown. The film was directed by first time director Emma Seligman and is the best comedy of the year.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -24px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">8) The French Dispatch:</span></b> Wes Anderson's episodic look at a quaint & quirky magazine and his array of quaint and quirky writers. This film has everything that you would expect from the hipster auteur (quaint & quirky characters, colourful sets and costumes, Owen Wilson & Bill Murray, a Godardian mindset) and happens to be his best film in more than a decade.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -24px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">9) The Hand of God:</span></b> Italian Maestro Paolo Sorrentino’s succulent film about love, loss, and yearning is one of the most achingly and beautifully devastating films of the year - or of any year.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -24px;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">10) Last Night in Soho:</span></b> Edgar Wright gives us a stunningly eerie film about a young woman who can go back in time in her dreams. With its swinging London set pieces, the film is appropriately terrifying at times and always gorgeous to look at. Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy as the present day and past versions of the young woman are both wonderful.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -24px;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Runners-Up (in no particular order): </span></b>Don't Look Up, Dune, The Green Knight, CODA, Spenser, Gunpowder Milkshake, House of Gucci, Tick, Tick ...Boom!, The Last Dual, Ema, Titane, C'mon C'mon, Passing, The Lost Daughter, Cruella, Being the Ricardos, The Tender Bar, Annette, Zola, In the Heights, Encanto, The Harder they Fall, Free Guy, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and Spider-Man: No Way Home.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -24px;">That's it gang. See ya 'round the web.</span></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-32880702448361345492022-01-07T19:31:00.001-05:002022-01-07T19:31:30.589-05:00The National Food Day Project<p>So, every day is a special day. National this day and National that day. And every day has a national food attached to it. National Taco Day. National Cream Puff Day. National Peking Duck Day. You get the idea. With that in mind I have decided to take on a new project for 2022. Every day I will eat whatever the national food is, and I will do videos and photos and other fun stuff to commemorate it. These videos and photos and such will be posted on my Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok feeds. </p><p>You won't know why, but every day you will watch me eat and talk about food, and you will be entertained. Again, you won't know why, but you will be. From National Taffy Day to National Escargot Day to National Blueberry Cheesecake Day to National Yorkshire Pudding Day to Trail Mix Day to Green Bean Casserole Day to Apple Brown Betty Day to Margarita Day. That last one should be fun.</p><p>So check out my social medias on each day (links below) and travel with me through The National Food Day Project.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/kevynknox/">Instagram</a></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/kevyn.knox"><span style="font-size: medium;">Facebook</span></a></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@kevynknox/">Tik Tok</a></span></b></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-83892629119224234842021-12-27T17:13:00.000-05:002021-12-27T17:13:52.974-05:00Film Review: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh5pZ5gLawxMccVOQkqEJC7BF_78dirR63II3Mk7qxE-qDeyqa3XpOmj9pc55Owl0KcbWWH1CQgLXyn5131I3Vp23X6sRn5IpxRvHkexe0mhU_9YEELy7NYNtw_u9m8SM9dtVRDPfGI4w-Iq0GUJDhQjpBJ1GcKAFdS-sAPVcIUS60BQ3X5NaCjK7vXLg=s1350" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh5pZ5gLawxMccVOQkqEJC7BF_78dirR63II3Mk7qxE-qDeyqa3XpOmj9pc55Owl0KcbWWH1CQgLXyn5131I3Vp23X6sRn5IpxRvHkexe0mhU_9YEELy7NYNtw_u9m8SM9dtVRDPfGI4w-Iq0GUJDhQjpBJ1GcKAFdS-sAPVcIUS60BQ3X5NaCjK7vXLg=s320" width="256" /></a></i></div><i>Licorice Pizza</i>, the auteur's ninth feature film, is probably Paul Thomas Anderson's most personal film to date, which is weird when one considers the story he is telling here is someone else's story. The story is set in a 1973 Southern California that is probably more idealized than the actual time and place were - but that's part of what makes the film so goddamn good. <p></p><p>Based on the life of former child actor turned movie producer Gary Goetzman, whom Anderson had worked with before going the director route himself, the film is a series of charming vignettes in and around the fringes of Hollywood. Anderson himself had grown up in and around the fringes of Hollywood, but about a decade or so after the setting of this film. That being that, even though the brunt of the scenarios, such as starring in a film with Lucille Ball (played loosely her by Christine Ebersole), or starting a waterbed company and delivering a waterbed to Jon Peter's home (played to the height of camp by a scene stealing Bradley Cooper), are pure Gary Goetzman, the feel of the film comes from Anderson's own childhood nostalgia.</p><p>The film revolves around 15 going on 40 child actor and budding entrepreneur Gary Valentine and his strange relationship with 25 year old Alana Kane, whom he meets while she is working as a photographer's assistant on school picture day. Gary immediately hits on the older woman with the confidence of someone who feels they have nothing to lose. These two form a weird but loving relationship as friends and eventual business partners. Granted Gary wants more, but the age difference won't allow it. Perhaps in 1973 SoCal, such a difference wouldn't matter to most people, but today it wouldn't fly. In fact the only one that questions it is Alana herself, even though we can easily see she is falling for the young charmer as well.</p><p>These two roles are played by two newcomers on the scene. Cooper Hoffman, son of the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Alana Haim, one-third of the pop sister act Haim. Again, we see how personal this is for Anderson. The elder Hoffman was good friends with the director and starred in five of the filmmaker's movies. Meanwhile Anderson has directed several music videos for Haim and is a friend of the family - who incidentally play Alana's family in the film. We also see two star making performances here, especially with Ms. Haim. The actress gives a performance worthy of being called one of the best in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. And that is saying a lot when you look at all the great performances we have seen in his films over the years from the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Joaquin Phoenix, Julianne Moore, Lesley Manville, and the aforementioned Mr. Hoffman.</p><p>We also get brilliant turns by the likes of Sean Penn (as a stand-in for William Holden), Tom Waits (as a batshit crazy director, who may or may not be based on Sam Peckinpah), John Michael Higgins (as an offensively racist restaurant owner), Harriet Sansom Harris (as Gary's possibly completely insane agent), and Bradley Cooper playing Jon Peters, the Hollywood hairdresser turned producer who claims Warren Beatty based his lothario character in <i>Shampoo</i> after. Anderson even got Peter's permission to put him in the film on the condition he used his favourite pick-up lines. Cooper, who not only chews the scenery but swallows it, plays Peter's as if he were a coke-fueled mobster kingpin wannabe he could lay any woman in Hollywood. I'm guessing Peter's, who pretty much was a coke-fueled mobster kingpin wannabe who could lay any woman in Hollywood back in the day (he even married five of them, including a short-lived marriage to Pamela Anderson over quarantine last year) loved Cooper's bravura performance.</p><p>But again, as much as this is a movie about other people's lives and adventures, it stands as Anderson's most personal film to date. He filled the film with his friends and neighbours in bit parts and even his own children can be seen running around in the background, along with their mother, Anderson's wife, the great Maya Rudolph in a cameo. The title, which is never explained in the film, comes from a record store chain in SoCal back in the director's youth. The name acts as a Proustian memory recall for Anderson's own childhood. The director, who also acts as his own cinematographer, here teaming with Michael Bauman, shot the film on 35mm with old lenses that gave the film that distinctly nostalgic 1970's cinematic feel. The set design, including recreating the once legendary Tail O' the Cock restaurant in L.A. (demolished in 1987) that famously was the the first place in the US to serve margaritas (at least that what they claimed) and was the setting for many a Hollywood movie deal of extramarital get-together, added even more to the nostalgia of the era.</p><p>Acting as if he were channeling Robert Altman, another great SoCal filmmaker (and someone PTA tends to channel a lot), and especially his <i>The Long Goodbye or Short Cuts,</i> this is still a coming of age film in the same vein as <i>American Graffiti</i> or <i>Dazed and Confused.</i> <i>Licorice Pizza</i> gives us a lazy but quite hyper-active (a la Altman) look at growing up in and around the fringes of Hollywood, USA. A Hollywood that, not unlike Tarantino's <i>Once Upon a Time in Hollywood</i> from two years ago, that is stuck somewhere between the old studio system and the new brasher young turk era of the biz. It may be one of Anderson's smaller films, as opposed to the wide open opulence of <i>There Will be Blood</i> or the biblical allegory of <i>Magnolia, </i>but it may also be one of his best works. One of his most subtle, but also one of his most brilliant films. It may also be the best goddamn movie of the year.</p><p>That's it gang. See ya 'round the web.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgE559cJQMUYtoUH9NiPmItKJeq3AVtwOqYhUfYGTueTkmnkbMkeerLjYYeCP4fSk7X75I3sRMH4CV_45Jb6OcNWgm4J1ZhshUO1Or0EZUCJkzUx2sajUraz_ctbYi2Y-ltrgkcO_R3H6K-QkK25jRV1ekii1Z_91ZeXGh5R_F7d1Amcj5BZiq7P9EL4g=s1600" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgE559cJQMUYtoUH9NiPmItKJeq3AVtwOqYhUfYGTueTkmnkbMkeerLjYYeCP4fSk7X75I3sRMH4CV_45Jb6OcNWgm4J1ZhshUO1Or0EZUCJkzUx2sajUraz_ctbYi2Y-ltrgkcO_R3H6K-QkK25jRV1ekii1Z_91ZeXGh5R_F7d1Amcj5BZiq7P9EL4g=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-14279240633822938982021-12-23T18:07:00.003-05:002021-12-23T18:09:39.209-05:00Back to the Cinema: My New Film Writing Gigs<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjF6Ht2Rce-2LHqysnzMiVWkU3FOnZ5vHKy2X_p5CPNFTq_KY11BjgNkNBJ3pXF4rPprFv6VAF_ejT9SlPn_tkpDmKLK6kyTLd4zPhA9DCM04V-t2FUaJqGYLPLeRAvmNIZGCnVj_YVd53k9MKvuvlTuasIJH8qtXwRoB61tiLX9a4IGra5NlcDRx18mA=s537" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="537" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjF6Ht2Rce-2LHqysnzMiVWkU3FOnZ5vHKy2X_p5CPNFTq_KY11BjgNkNBJ3pXF4rPprFv6VAF_ejT9SlPn_tkpDmKLK6kyTLd4zPhA9DCM04V-t2FUaJqGYLPLeRAvmNIZGCnVj_YVd53k9MKvuvlTuasIJH8qtXwRoB61tiLX9a4IGra5NlcDRx18mA=s320" width="320" /></a></div>So, back in the day, I used to write film reviews. Both for my own various blogs and whatnots, and for other publications such as The Burg, Filmspeak, & Central Pa Voice (all Harrisburg area alt-newspapers). For a while, I was even running a small three screen arthouse cinema (along with my loverly wife) for a few years too. Press passes to screenings and film festivals. It was a good life. I was a bonafide film critic - back when that term meant something. Or at least in the waning years of the era that film criticism meant something. <p></p><p>Well, that was a long time ago. The powers that be at the aforementioned arthouse cinema (aka the shady, backstabbing owners - not that I'm bitter) let my wife and I go in order to put their friends in positions of so-called power there. This along with me being burnt out on movies (I had just finished a project where I watched every movie on a 1000 Greatest Films list compiled online - in just two years!!) sent me in other directions in life. But baby, I'm back!</p><p>Closing in on a decade since my film critic years, I was just offered a gig writing a film column for Harrisburg Magazine. That column, titled, "Cinematic Ramblings with Kevyn Knox," makes its print debut in the January 2022 issue of the magazine. Each and every month, I will ramble on for 600 words about something cinematic. Be it my foray into studying film and film history (my inaugural column) or the best films of the past year (column number two) or just my thoughts on classic film and such. </p><p>I'm also doing periocic film-related articles for Harrisburg Magazine as well. The December 2021 issue had a piece on unconventional Christmas movies, co-written by myself, author & playwright Paul Hood, and the magazine's very own editor, Randy Gross. There will be another one coming in February on unromantic romance movies for Valentine's Day. </p><p>All this film writing, and film watching of course, has also gotten the writing juices flowing again. I am writing more on this very blog than I have been for a too long while. I'm also working on a novel - but that is another story for another day. For now, the film critic and film historian is back baby! Just thought the seven loyal readers who look at this blog would want to know.</p><p>That's it gang. See ya 'round the web - and at the movies.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhVNBF1SfQ4B5lTWImfQMG6iFa1ekeBZZvwGrcbv16AokKyEHu-jlewjVJoKcqIYiss5D5GiOLSed44sqJnPg9gqi3nrqQXWgj0m_P4kxCM3nFe1iK3ftRZV8AidrnBO3kPVBE59djjX8ZzxeqyvtmHW0uP5SC60L07II6fcn_q_L0xb53KOBn9Knd2BQ=s1194" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="1194" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhVNBF1SfQ4B5lTWImfQMG6iFa1ekeBZZvwGrcbv16AokKyEHu-jlewjVJoKcqIYiss5D5GiOLSed44sqJnPg9gqi3nrqQXWgj0m_P4kxCM3nFe1iK3ftRZV8AidrnBO3kPVBE59djjX8ZzxeqyvtmHW0uP5SC60L07II6fcn_q_L0xb53KOBn9Knd2BQ=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-28571732104603871882021-12-21T17:59:00.003-05:002021-12-21T17:59:46.944-05:00Film Review: Nightmare Alley (Guillermno del Toro, 2021)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEDekTYrM0CzcAU5o9__UjRVe3b-aHOsHCWFry6iqaypsFQr4X2jexCOUxJ65obHxxKhqCIXDWnPzgnN-Vl3TH47CwII2IAH6mV09ykxhY6D3SHMpBhxR7p1G__lsEtlQTzdgULOUowMJFrXqqj-mXrBc_dZCkJCYontI_iYlmVXzvGyvdWCcz9j-MkA=s1949" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1949" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEDekTYrM0CzcAU5o9__UjRVe3b-aHOsHCWFry6iqaypsFQr4X2jexCOUxJ65obHxxKhqCIXDWnPzgnN-Vl3TH47CwII2IAH6mV09ykxhY6D3SHMpBhxR7p1G__lsEtlQTzdgULOUowMJFrXqqj-mXrBc_dZCkJCYontI_iYlmVXzvGyvdWCcz9j-MkA=s320" width="210" /></a></div>When one thinks of Guillermo del Toro, one thinks of the cinema of the macabre. Cinema with a supernatural bent. Films such as <i>The Devil's Backbone</i>, <i>Pan's Labyrinth, </i>or the Oscar winning <i>The Shape of Water</i>. Well, the Mexican Maestro's latest film is a departure of sorts. <i>Nightmare Alley</i> is a film noir - but even though it technically doesn't delve into the supernatural, it does still have that certain del Toro je ne sais quoi. And it has it in spades.<p></p><p>Adapted from William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 novel by del Toro and his new wife, Kim Morgan, a film critic and historian, and possibly a soon-to-be Oscar nominated screenwriter, <i>Nightmare Alley</i> is the story of a grifter who gets a bit too into his latest grift. Starting in the seedy world of carnies before expanding into the equally seedy world of nightclubs, Nightmare Alley is pure unadulterated noir. Save for a neo-noir movement in the 1980's & 90's, we haven't seen true noir like this since the hey day of the studio system. Del Toro and Morgan bring back the film noir in style. </p><p>Granted, even though there are twists and turns throughout the film, which is a mainstay style for the genre, nothing ever really surprises here. But that doesn't really matter as the combination of del Toro's auteuristic style and the bravura performances of Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, David Strathairn, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Toni Collette, and Mary Steenburgen, make this an extremely watchable nightmare.</p><p>Cooper, who is often the chewy yet bland center of a film, makes his own breed of everyman work for him here as Stanton Carlisle, a lonely grifter single-mindedly looking for the bigtime. Collette amazes, as always, as Zeena, the carnie mentalist who teaches Stanton a bit too much. Blanchett also amazes, and again as always, as the film's femme fatale. Strathairn does a brilliant turn as the carnival's resident booze hound, and Dafoe is, well he's as Dafoe as ever as the carnival barker and geek handler. As I said, the cast give it their all for del Toro, and it makes the film all that much greater.</p><p>There had been a 1947 movie version of this novel. It was directed by Edmund Goulding, and starred Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, and Colleen Gray in the roles now taken on by Cooper, Collette, and Blanchett respectively. But del Toro claims to have read the novel before he ever saw the movie, and therefore this is an adaptation, and not a remake. Considering this version follows the book much more closely than the 1947 version, this critic will take what del Toro says as gospel. </p><p>What we get in this adaptation is a much darker look at what can happen to a man who tries to grab it all. The 1947 version has a scene of redemption in its finale (as many Hollywood films of the time had to have in order to get past the censors), but there is no sign of redemption in del Toro's film. It is a bleak story from beginning to end, with no redemption, no silver lining in view anywhere. It is this lack of redemption, this macabre look inside the human soul, that makes this film sizzle with its dark energy. This is what what makes this film so jarring - even if we are never really surprised by anything in it. It is the falling of that aforementioned human soul, and it's psychological ramifications, that makes this film as goddamn brilliant as it is.</p><p>Not to give anything away, but later in the film, when we return to the world of the carnies, we see glimpses of characters straight out of Tod Browning's <i>Freaks</i>. One could even claim this as a spiritual prequal to Browning's 1932 cullt classic. Gooble gobble. Gooble gobble. One of us. One of us. I'll accept it.</p><p>That's it gang. See ya 'round the web.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLylvqovvjf_bgqOEtvXFph6mEzkHK1orBz8M1ctBF-vZsJWP_eOZ_7l3_q_EzDNr7wvEfM-3zLmyz52qWObVrXzZ10hrtUjVB5yXj-XJjzgGvmy8sWx-G3uzoOnEdDOFGfz9ewrMEygDxmWBlAOPY2k62aN6q6CamyouwOKszWPjiSO1QKEa5dZ-oWA=s3000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2001" data-original-width="3000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiLylvqovvjf_bgqOEtvXFph6mEzkHK1orBz8M1ctBF-vZsJWP_eOZ_7l3_q_EzDNr7wvEfM-3zLmyz52qWObVrXzZ10hrtUjVB5yXj-XJjzgGvmy8sWx-G3uzoOnEdDOFGfz9ewrMEygDxmWBlAOPY2k62aN6q6CamyouwOKszWPjiSO1QKEa5dZ-oWA=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-88052528995330444642021-12-16T18:37:00.003-05:002021-12-16T18:37:56.417-05:00Film Review: West Side Story (Steven Spielberg, 2021)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6BBqdOulUNQAXYsbXjojeVtBZrU4ig4fDY2abzb704IG2qx8i7JwpvQxNNwoSqaR7BrdkbMwtK-994A31W1ydyeiTmUh2gTsBaS23DTgMzmI3U0-HGm9UwjR2PTJ7kjsRgi0aGkiWUU5gzr2k703cIoeVv3yNU_1PZMfr3QxCFY2gIj8R7kFc8QrAxg=s440" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="293" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6BBqdOulUNQAXYsbXjojeVtBZrU4ig4fDY2abzb704IG2qx8i7JwpvQxNNwoSqaR7BrdkbMwtK-994A31W1ydyeiTmUh2gTsBaS23DTgMzmI3U0-HGm9UwjR2PTJ7kjsRgi0aGkiWUU5gzr2k703cIoeVv3yNU_1PZMfr3QxCFY2gIj8R7kFc8QrAxg=s320" width="213" /></a></div>The film has been in the making for several years now. Filming ceased during the pandemic but picked up as soon as it could. The general consensus was this had disaster written all over it. Like last year's <i>Cats</i> fiasco by Tom Hooper. Spielberg was remaking <i>West Side Story</i>? Are they for real? This was going to be bad. At least that's what everyone was predicting - myself included. An unmitigated disaster in the making. At least that's what we all thought. Would it be as bad as we were anticipating? When it finally hit the big screen last week, we finally got our answer. I'm happy to say that we naysayers were proven wrong. Dead wrong.<p></p><p>Not only was it not a disaster, in this critic's opinion, it is not only one of Steven Spielberg's finest works (I'd place it in the auteur's top 5 all-time), but the damn thing is better than the original. There, I said it. Steven Spielberg's <i>West Side Story</i> is a better film than the Oscar winning 1961 version by Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins. Don't get me wrong. The 1961 version was great. One of my all-time musicals, despite it's problematic casting of Natalie Wood - which sadly, was the norm for the time. But Spielberg takes the whole thing to another level. One of the best musicals of the century so far. Right up there with the 2002 version of <i>Chicago</i> and Baz Luhrmann's deliriously enjoyable <i>Moulin Rouge</i>. Maybe even better than either of those. Yeah, that's right. I said it and I'm sticking to it.</p><p>Spielberg's version is more based on the original Jerome Robbins stage musical than the 1961 film version. The filmmaker rearranges the order of some of the numbers and gives the movie a back story not told before. He brings modern day sensibilities to the movie as well - like changing the tomboy character from the original into a transgender person - but still leaves it set in the 1950's. He also takes the original tale, based on Romeo & Juliet but showing the racism that was rampant in America at the time, and pushes right through the envelope to show the ugliness that is sadly still rampant in America. The sets and production design, the editing, the costumes, the gorgeous cinematography by two time Oscar winner Janusz Kaminski (in his 19th collaboration with Spielberg) all make for a stunning motion picture experience. An experience I was glad I could see on the big screen of a theatre, after so long stuck inside while a pandemic raged all around us.</p><p>And then there is that cast. As I said earlier, the casting of Natalie Wood as the Puerto Rican Maria in the original was the norm for the time (John Wayne as Genghis Khan, Mickey Rooney going incredibly offensive yellow-face in <i>Breakfast at Tiffany's</i>) but just didn't work. Plus neither she nor Richard Beymer as Tony even did their own singing. Luckily we had Rita Moreno and George Chakiris to make up for that. And both winning well-deserved Oscars for their efforts. The cast here makes up for it as well. Twenty year old Rachel Zegler, in her film debut, stuns as Maria. In both emotional depth and singing, she is a star in the making - and possibly an Oscar winner to boot. Ansel Elgort, as Tony, is giving off some serious young Brando vibes here. Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, & Mike Faist, as Anita, Bernardo, and Riff respectively, also hand in stand-out performance. DeBose, one time ensemble player in <i>Hamilton</i> and Alyssa Greene in last year's unfairly maligned <i>The Prom</i>, is on her way to stardom too. And she could win an Oscar for playing Anita - the same role that won Rita Moreno her Oscar in 1961.</p><p>And speaking of the great Rita Moreno. The EGOT winning legend is Executive Producer on the film and is given the role of Valentina, a reimagined version of Doc from the original movie. Moreno gets to be the film's conscience. She even gets to sing, as the song A Place for Us is given to her character. Is another Oscar in the 90 year old's future? Maybe . Maybe there is a place for her on that Oscar night podium.</p><p>And then there is that music. But then how could it not be great. I mean, Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim. And this cast, doing all their own singing and dancing, bring to an even richer life than before. Spielberg takes the original and makes it his own, much in the same way Stanley Kubrick made Stephen King's <i>The Shining</i> into his own. Spielberg has always been hit or miss with me. His more serious work (<i>Schindler's List, War Horse, Empire of the Sun</i>) can become over-inflated and bloated. His more "popcorn" work (<i>Jaws, Jurassic Park, E.T., War of the Worlds</i>, the <i>Indiana Jones</i> series, well at least the first three) tend to be amazing motion pictures. The pinnacle of the box office boffo realm of moviemaking. Even though it is a tragedy, his version of West Side Story easily fits into the latter category, and is easily one of Spielberg's best works, and easily one the best films of 2021.</p><p>That's it gang. See ya 'round the web.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixbCbMr3n-gv6iJZMssA4egckHv3FMhnx4AKdBnDSX7QGCuFHNJD7s2v_kxocZI0io_KS9D9WZGTKIozoknfHaXi0OHOAV5TcrYd2hsHf0MJ26HHPLBrxM7NH8hdXTj7VFcp2qbyiaQuk6vi-ZaQqsSyAEGueLCVq9o90rl9rGK0R_IGpMGFhH1odC_g=s681" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="681" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEixbCbMr3n-gv6iJZMssA4egckHv3FMhnx4AKdBnDSX7QGCuFHNJD7s2v_kxocZI0io_KS9D9WZGTKIozoknfHaXi0OHOAV5TcrYd2hsHf0MJ26HHPLBrxM7NH8hdXTj7VFcp2qbyiaQuk6vi-ZaQqsSyAEGueLCVq9o90rl9rGK0R_IGpMGFhH1odC_g=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-69164253289382674372021-12-03T00:50:00.002-05:002021-12-17T22:30:02.328-05:00Film Review: The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, 2021)<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKYhAhljvTRatfKaMh66gpLpFFwFAi4X54CGQFivIgR-SV15NV9TzJ5I7dswg1xbthHSli_I0CWnCO-HOkjj5djwi35O6LTHd3rCP11Qcc7fd2F7DoP9joGVA11FeWQgnZw-Qo0w7By0O/s512/unnamed+%25282%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="346" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKYhAhljvTRatfKaMh66gpLpFFwFAi4X54CGQFivIgR-SV15NV9TzJ5I7dswg1xbthHSli_I0CWnCO-HOkjj5djwi35O6LTHd3rCP11Qcc7fd2F7DoP9joGVA11FeWQgnZw-Qo0w7By0O/s320/unnamed+%25282%2529.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>Jane Campion, the first woman to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes and just the second female director to be nominated for the Academy Award (accomplishing both of these feats with 1993's <i>The Piano</i>) is finally back on the big screen. Her first feature film in twelve years (2009's <i>Bright Star</i> was her last) Campion is in probably the best form of her life. <i>The Power of the Dog</i> is an astonishingly brilliant film, and probably the filmmaker's best film, or at least equal to the brilliant aforementioned <i>The Piano</i>.<p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The film, adapted by Campion from Thomas Savage's novel, takes place in 1925 Montana and is the story of wealthy ranch owner brothers Phil & George Burbank who meet suicide widow Rose and her effeminate son Peter. Phil, played with the greatest aplomb by Benedict Cumberbatch, is the brutal and broken brother, while George, played with a quiet sincerity by Jesse Plemons, is the kind-hearted brother. When they first meet Rose and Peter, played by Kirsten Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee, while stopping at their inn during a cattle drive, Phil is brutish and mocks Peter for his fey ways and lisp. George, on the other hand, is taken with Rose, and ends up marrying her and moving her onto their ranch. Phil considers her a gold-digger and takes every opportunity to belittle her. So much so that it drives the once teetotaling Rose to the bottle. And then another bottle and another one and so on and so on and so on. Meanwhile, Peter is regularly mocked by Phil and the cattle hands, although it seems as if Peter doesn't even notice as he lives in his own dream world. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the film moves forward, Dunst's Rose becomes more and more unstable, allowing the actress to spread her wings more than she ever has before, handing in what may well be the best performance of her career. Meanwhile Phil and Peter begin to bond. The volatile nature between these two characters gives every one of their scenes together a palpable tension. But it goes much further than that as the story takes on a more and more homoerotic nature as it explores the strange yet alluring dichotomy between these two vastly different characters. And as darkly brilliant as Cumberbatch is here, and his performance reminds one of Daniel Day-Lewis in <i>There Will be Blood</i>, Smit-McPhee manages to hold his own at each turn. And just wait till you see that finale. A Cain & Able story, full of blustery sound & fury, that goes in such wonderfully brutal sideways directions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">All four of these actors are at the top of their games here, as is Jane Campion, as is Ari Wegner (<i>Lady Macbeth</i>, <i>True History of the Kelly Gang</i>, and <i>Zola</i>, also out in theatres this year), whose succulent cinematography, reminiscent of John Ford, but with a deeper and darker edge, gives the film a dangerous feel throughout. Expect Oscar nominations for all six of these artists, as well as for Best Picture. That's it gang. See ya 'round the web.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3UxGHe9QDpyVur5Att51khuSUIhI2P6VsHFXbdDOvGpjBjJ0nnjAg7slw0jjKqh10RObnZa8Qz9tb5ua3et9N-aPl_14znw1AGyj6BUryO7YR4tEBjwBHB97fzK4SkLlf0NIhwXLK8Ur/s2048/Taylor-Power-of-the-Dog.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="2048" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3UxGHe9QDpyVur5Att51khuSUIhI2P6VsHFXbdDOvGpjBjJ0nnjAg7slw0jjKqh10RObnZa8Qz9tb5ua3et9N-aPl_14znw1AGyj6BUryO7YR4tEBjwBHB97fzK4SkLlf0NIhwXLK8Ur/w640-h344/Taylor-Power-of-the-Dog.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-32127650182546887912021-04-23T14:37:00.001-04:002021-04-25T22:09:14.574-04:00My Final Oscar Predictions<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PyUyntSdBFFLQNDhlAa1Bxs0Z6DhUA2GZjdkrXbWAHQpgDZdT7lyvrFN2wINskGj7sdvRKZE7yHgajVzq9m424Tb_7flvu1i_ke0AKsvlK6XaIgctvUWp9nJcw7Y321Osb25zkEsSMrJ/s1024/93_Oscars_KA_Poster_Square_1080x1080-Orange-1024x1024.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PyUyntSdBFFLQNDhlAa1Bxs0Z6DhUA2GZjdkrXbWAHQpgDZdT7lyvrFN2wINskGj7sdvRKZE7yHgajVzq9m424Tb_7flvu1i_ke0AKsvlK6XaIgctvUWp9nJcw7Y321Osb25zkEsSMrJ/s320/93_Oscars_KA_Poster_Square_1080x1080-Orange-1024x1024.jpg" /></a></div>Hello true believers and welcome to that annual thing of things - my Oscar Predictions! They're a bit late this year, as are the Oscars themselves. Something to do with a pandemic we had last year (and are still kinda having), but hey, enough of that nonsense, let's get on with the predictions. They are rather predictable this year - even moreso than normal. Nearly every technical category is a lock. The only real questions overall, other than the always wonky short film categories, are Adapted Screenplay (a two way race) and Best Actress, which honestly could go to pretty much anyone right now. And, in a year where more people of color have been nominated than ever before, if my predictions come true in the acting categories, it will be even more historical, as it will be the first time all four acting Oscars will have been won by people of color. Anyhoo, here are my predictions. And awaaaaaay we go....<p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Picture</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Predicted Winner: Nomadland</div><div style="text-align: left;">Possible Spoiler: The Trial of the Chicago 7</div><div style="text-align: left;">If I had a Vote: Mank</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Director</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Chloe Zhao</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Nobody</div><div>If I had a Vote: Zhao or Fincher</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Actress</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Viola Davis in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Carey Mulligan (though McDormand or Day could sneak in too)</div><div>If I had a Vote: Carey Mulligan</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Actor</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Absolutely No One!!</div><div>If I had a Vote: Chadwick Boseman</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Supporting Actress</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Olivia Colman could, but...</div><div>If I had a Vote: Yuh-Jung Youn is Fantasteeek</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Supporting Actor</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Daniel Kaluuya in Judas & The Black Messiah</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Paul Raci, but hardly likely</div><div>If I had a Vote:</div><div><br /></div><div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Aaron Sorkin for The Trial of the Chicago 7</div><div>If I had a Vote: Emerald</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Adapted Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: The Father (in a super close call)</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Nomadland (tho many are predicting this one)</div><div>If I had a Vote: Kemp Powers for One Night in Miami</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best International Film</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Another Round</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Quo Vadis, Aida (but unlikely as hell)</div><div>If I had a Vote: Another Round</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Animated Film</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Soul</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Wolfwalkers</div><div>If I had a Vote: Wolfwalkers</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Documentary Feature</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: My Octopus Teacher</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Time or Collective</div><div>If I had a Vote: My Octopus Teacher</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Cinematography</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Nomadland</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Mank</div><div>If I had a Vote: Mank (or maybe Nomadland)</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Production Design</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Mank</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</div><div>If I had a Vote: Mank</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Film Editing</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Sound of Metal</div><div>Possible Spoiler: The Trial of the Chicago 7</div><div>If I had a Vote: Promising Young Woman</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Costume Design</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Emma (but no)</div><div>If I had a Vote: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Hair & Make-Up</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Pinocchio (but no)</div><div>If I had a Vote: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Sound</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Sound of Metal</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Soul</div><div>If I had a Vote: Sound of Metal</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original Score</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Soul</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Minari or Mank (but no)</div><div>If I had a Vote: Mank</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original Song</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Speak Now from One Night in Miami</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Husavik from Eurovision (?)</div><div>If I had a Vote: Speak Now</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Visual Effects</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Tenet</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Mulan or Midnight Sky</div><div>If I had a Vote: Tenet</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Animated Short</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: If Anything Happens, I Love You</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Opera</div><div>If I had a Vote: If Anything Happens, I Love You</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Live Action Short</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: Two Distant Strangers</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Feeling Through</div><div>If I had a Vote: Two Distant Strangers</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Documentary Short</span></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Predicted Winner: A Concerto is a Conversation</div><div>Possible Spoiler: Colette or A Love Song for Latasha</div><div>If I had a Vote: Haven't seen all of them yet</div><div><br /></div><div>That's it gang! See ya 'round the web!</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIQ2aUHB6sxqzEhe9IqvbUBmSEhYO-2nzD9WfgSckPCPeYuS0tcia3Fvk8RNE5pgUSzPnAI7evpkIvEVcGfM52llOC-vlPJXK9p3DdyPtibARvUMnXQCaxbr0MnVn7RHN-RFtlcSgznimC/s1000/nomadland-francis-mcdormand.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIQ2aUHB6sxqzEhe9IqvbUBmSEhYO-2nzD9WfgSckPCPeYuS0tcia3Fvk8RNE5pgUSzPnAI7evpkIvEVcGfM52llOC-vlPJXK9p3DdyPtibARvUMnXQCaxbr0MnVn7RHN-RFtlcSgznimC/w640-h360/nomadland-francis-mcdormand.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></div>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-63867165713005189202021-03-16T13:03:00.001-04:002021-04-23T10:02:53.540-04:00My Ramblings on the Oscar Nominations<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBWFz-N8cheNyIQoPLFzPzTSVHJGKDx58faHWN79q_B_Ij3-QFTgYFueEEi992-uVxxe3H1c6MuRVgb1KwBGvHve5c8NuD04YwsS9wZP7CxZUmkytgGv8Ta8I7C2sTSEWf-0Jmtm1DfOsW/s2048/overview-of-the-oscar-statue-at-meet-the-oscars-at-the-time-news-photo-1588178852.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1653" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBWFz-N8cheNyIQoPLFzPzTSVHJGKDx58faHWN79q_B_Ij3-QFTgYFueEEi992-uVxxe3H1c6MuRVgb1KwBGvHve5c8NuD04YwsS9wZP7CxZUmkytgGv8Ta8I7C2sTSEWf-0Jmtm1DfOsW/s320/overview-of-the-oscar-statue-at-meet-the-oscars-at-the-time-news-photo-1588178852.jpg" /></a></div>So, the Oscar nominations have been announced, and as predicted, they were pretty predictable - only a few minor surprises. As far as my prediction rate went, I was 38 for 43, or an 88% correct percentage. I missed one each in Director, the two screenplay categories, and the two Supporting categories. But enough of that - here are my thoughts on what we got.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Mank, my second favourite film of 2020, was the big winner with 10 nominations, but the real news was the diversity in the nominations - a reflection in both the more diverse Academy membership and the more diverse Hollywood as a whole, especially when it comes to women in the directors seat. 2020 saw 18% of Hollywood made films being directed by women, doubling the numbers from just two years prior. This has also led to a long overdue new record, as two women are nominated for Best Director this year. Emerald Fennell, who directed Promising Young Woman, and Chinese born Chloe Zhao, who is expected to take the prize home for her film Nomadland. Only five women have aver been nominated in the first 92 years of the awards - with just one, Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2009, actually winning. So yeah, about freakin' time. Some thought Oscar winning actress Regina King could make it three for her directorial debut, One Night in Miami, but it wasn't to be. One Night in Miami was also snubbed in the Best Picture race, as it was not among the eight nominees, although many, myself included, expected it to be. But that does not mean this isn't the most diverse Oscars ever.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Out of the 20 acting nominees, nearly half were actors of color. The late great Chadwick Boseman, along with Riz Ahmed, and Steven Yeun, are all up for Best Actor, the latter becoming the first Asian actor to garner a Best Actor nomination. Meanwhile, Viola Davis and Andra Day are up for Best Actress; Youn Yuh-jung is up for Supporting Actress, and Leslie Odom Jr., Daniel Kaluuya, and in a bit of a surprise, Lakeith Stanfield are all up for Supporting Actor. That's a record 9 out of 20.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Overall, as I said before, it was a mostly predictable morning. The only real surprises were Aaron Sorkin's snub for Best Director (replaced by Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round, the frontrunner for Best International Feature) even though his film, The Trial of the Chicago 7 received 6 nominations including Best Picture. Sorkin is up for Best Original Screenplay though, an award he will almost assuredly win in April. The other surprise was the aforementioned Stanfield nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah. Otherwise, blah blah blah.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, I'll be back with my final predictions the day before the Oscar telecast (which will air on April 25th) and I am sure, a few other things in the meantime.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That's it gang! See ya 'round the web!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZ94Hlb2qLilML49tHugDkPEI7qVTJNjXdNBwQ6znkybsYH-SSpIPxtGhEBl3dVJ-8aThAMHzFRA4phV_9icJFZDGwyWv1qJ9hChjQeO70HnA_pDw6ku8CG4bicYVtD0mwNPjRKL5UQP5/s1000/oscars-placeholder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZ94Hlb2qLilML49tHugDkPEI7qVTJNjXdNBwQ6znkybsYH-SSpIPxtGhEBl3dVJ-8aThAMHzFRA4phV_9icJFZDGwyWv1qJ9hChjQeO70HnA_pDw6ku8CG4bicYVtD0mwNPjRKL5UQP5/w640-h360/oscars-placeholder.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-40889064033674237152021-03-14T18:46:00.004-04:002021-03-15T08:47:15.145-04:00My Oscar Nomination Predictions<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8nhhsme_dfFk1rJguUgEJh7YG0AvcjQzd56pwJlry8QGF2Jrze_b_JgyBygsKi0Gf_58grr6zS_mKBzMQhJ_iLZ0GBXVafhMTebnUYJ0MTAmWiRx-ljjELYA_kaDo40rCJms3XcidzPQ/s1080/93_Oscars_KA_Poster_Square_1080x1080-Navy.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8nhhsme_dfFk1rJguUgEJh7YG0AvcjQzd56pwJlry8QGF2Jrze_b_JgyBygsKi0Gf_58grr6zS_mKBzMQhJ_iLZ0GBXVafhMTebnUYJ0MTAmWiRx-ljjELYA_kaDo40rCJms3XcidzPQ/s320/93_Oscars_KA_Poster_Square_1080x1080-Navy.jpg" /></a></div>So here we go kids! Another year, another attempt at predicting the Oscars! Of course 2020 was a very different year, but enough about all that. Haven't we discussed that enough. Let's look to the future instead. Granted, the Academy Awards were pushed back until the end of April because of, well you know...2020. So that means the nominations are coming a bit late too. But tomorrow they are a-comin', so today, I give you my final nomination predictions - just like every other year. And speaking of every other year, my predictions usually come in the 83% to 88% range, sometimes I even breach that 90% threshold. This year, who knows. It does seem a bit more predictable than normal this year. Anyhoo, enough babbling. Let's get on with the predictions! Below are my predictions for each of the eight major categories, along with a dark horse / spoiler choice and an impossible hopeful, aka a film or performer I love but knows has no chance in hell. And awaaaay we go!<p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Picture</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For the past decade or so, this categories nominees could range anywhere between 5 to 10. Next year, the Academy is setting it at a firm ten. That being said, my predictions are in order of probability, so if there are only 8 or 9 nominees, then my 9th or 10th do not count. You get the idea. To be fair though, there are at least 6 or 7 films that are shoo-ins, with another one, maybe even two pretty damn close to shoo-in numbers. I'm thinking a total of nine nominees. Here are my choices.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Nomadland</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. The Trial of the Chicago 7</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Promising Young Woman</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. Minari</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. Mank</div><div style="text-align: left;">6. The Father</div><div style="text-align: left;">7. One Night in Miami</div><div style="text-align: left;">8. Sound of Metal</div><div style="text-align: left;">9. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</div><div style="text-align: left;">10. Judas and the Black Messiah</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Dark Horse Possibility: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My Impossible Hopeful: I'm Thinking of Ending Things</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Director</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">These five nominees are pretty much a foregone conclusion. I would be very surprised if another director snuck in, even though Regina King's directorial debut on One Night in Miami could be that surprise. And remember, there have been surprises galore in the history of this category, and with this seeming like such a predictable year, ya never know.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Chloe Zhao for Nomadland</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Aaron Sorkin for The Trial of the Chicago 7</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. David Fincher for Mank</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. Lee Isaac Chung for Minari</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Dark Horse Possibility: The aforementioned Ms. King or Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My Impossible Hopeful: Miranda July for Kajillionaire</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Actress</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is probably, no not probably, this is definitely the category with the least chance of a surprise nomination. Yes, I would love to see newcomer Sidney Flanigan get in for her brilliant, harrowing turn in Never Rarely Sometimes Always, but it just ain't happening. Even Rosamund Pike's surprise Golden Globe probably won't be enough to hear her name called tomorrow morning. So here are the nominees.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Frances McDormand in Nomadland</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Viola Davis in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. Vanessa Kirby in Pieces of a Woman</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. Andra Day in The United States vs. Billie Holiday</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Dark Horse Possibility: Rosamund Pike in I Care A Lot</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My Impossible Hopeful: Sidney Flanigan in Never Rarely Sometimes Always</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Actor</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It is another foregone conclusion that the late great Chadwick Boseman is going to win this come April. As for the four gentlemen who will inevitably lose to him on Oscar night, it is a battle between five - with one being left out in the cold come tomorrow morning. Here are my predictions.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Anthony Hopkins in The Father</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. Gary Oldman in Mank</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. Steven Yeun in Minari</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Dark Horse Possibility: Delroy Lindo in Da 5 Bloods</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My Impossible Hopeful: Mads Mikkelson in Another Round</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Supporting Actress</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In keeping with the utter predictability of this year's Oscar race, this category has four shoo-ins, but that fifth spot could go to about a half a dozen women. I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb and choose not the most likely fifth nominee, but the one I think will sneak in. There is always one major category, even in such a predictable year, that has a surprise, and even though she isn't a super surprise (she did win the Golden Globe after all), she is not listed in many Oscar pundits predictions. Plus I enjoy tossing a random monkey wrench into the works, which is what I did her, leaving the somewhat more likely fifth nominees for the dark horse spot.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Maria Bakalova in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Olivia Colman in The Father</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Amanda Seyfried in Mank</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. Youn Yuh-jung in Minari</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. Jodie Foster in The Mauritanian</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Dark Horse Possibility: Glenn Close in Hillbilly Elegy or Ellen Burstyn in Pieces of A Woman</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My Impossible Hopeful: Toni Colette in I'm Thinking of Ending Things</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Supporting Actor</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Again, a category that appears to have all five nominees wrapped up. Perhaps not as solidly as Best Actress, but still pretty solidly. The only question is if the unknown Paul Raci can actually get in there tomorrow. Another question, though less questionable, is if the late great Chadwick Boseman, being such a runaway frontrunner to win the Best Actor Oscar, will still garner a double nomination this year. They could go with the whole spreading the wealth thing, but I'm betting he will get the double nod, so here are my predictions.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Daniel Kaluuya in Judas and the Black Messiah</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Leslie Odom Jr in One Night in Miami</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. Chadwick Boseman in Da 5 Bloods</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. Paul Raci in Sound of Metal</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Dark Horse Possibility: Bill Murray in On the Rocks</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My Impossible Hopeful: Richard Jenkins in Kajillionaire</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: x-large;">Best Original & Adapted Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Another pretty solid bunch of probables in both the screenplay categories, but, especially with the writing categories, ya never know what name will be called on nomination morning. I did toss in another random monkey wrench here though - just for the fun of it</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Original Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. The Trial of the Chicago 7</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Promising Young Woman</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Mank</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. Minari</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. Soul</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Other Possibilities: Sound of Metal, Judas and the Black Messiah, Palm Springs.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Adapted Screenplay</span></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Nomadland</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. The Father</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. One Night in Miami</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. The White Tiger</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. First Cow</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Other Possibilities: News of the World, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As for the other 15 categories (there are 23 total, as opposed to the 24 of previous years, due to the two sound categories being combined back into one) well, I rarely ever delve into them because I am generally a lazy person. Ha! Anyhoo, I'll be back tomorrow afternoon with my thoughts on the nominations and to brag at how well I did with my predictions.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That's it gang. See ya 'round the web.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzR9jEqI85XOjT53RE-GNvjvJ5iLztYK0qnx_IuAfCO54QasxZMGzUujrzsz6LUM0u85x_L5jUAVMY0eh74aa76js5x4DYmOQpWj777rhqJP2ju0m6ghSZkNVjtYAcSZqXJbLyYZaTHjYD/s1260/2021_oscars.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="1260" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzR9jEqI85XOjT53RE-GNvjvJ5iLztYK0qnx_IuAfCO54QasxZMGzUujrzsz6LUM0u85x_L5jUAVMY0eh74aa76js5x4DYmOQpWj777rhqJP2ju0m6ghSZkNVjtYAcSZqXJbLyYZaTHjYD/w640-h284/2021_oscars.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-61320900501337699872021-02-12T20:01:00.002-05:002021-03-14T17:55:31.190-04:00The Best of Cinema in 2020: The Best Films from a Very Bad Year<p>So, 2020 may not have been the best year in recent memory. A global pandemic. Businesses shutting down. So many people sick and dying. A president who didn't care one iota about any of it - or any of us. Nearly half the country blinded by the very same grifter-in-chief. Police brutality telling 2019 to hold it's beer. Protests and counter protests and counter counter protests. Quarantining. A jobless rate through the figurative roof. Overworked first responders. Overstuffed hospitals. Record amounts of deaths. People refusing to do the right thing. Did I mention the president? Yeah, I did.</p><p>With all this turmoil, most movie theatres were closed for a good portion of the year. Most potential blockbustery movies (most of the big superhero franchises, the new Dune, all the so-called tentpole films) were postponed until sometime in mid to late 2021. Even the Oscars & their brethren, were delayed until the end of April, and eligibility deadlines were pushed from December 31st to February 28th. All this said, 2020, for as godawful as it was as a year in history, was a pretty darn good year in cinema. With so many of the big superhero films pushed back (perhaps they should have sent the new Wonder Woman with the rest of her super heroic ilk) that left so much room for smaller films to shine. Films that in another year, would have been buried beneath the box office boffo of Disney's output alone.</p><p>Another big and important deal this past year was the output of films by women directors. Granted, it is still a rather low percentage of films, at just 18% of US films (up from 13% in 2019 and just 8% in 2018). Given more of chance to direct films than ever before, and proving the Hollywood patriarchy as wrong-headed, women could, and maybe should, be taking over the old Hollywood guard. So much so that six of my top ten films this year, were directed by women. What a delightful outcome. Great smaller films and by great women directors too.</p><p>These smaller films, female and male directed both, got the time to show they're stuff. Granted, for the most part, their collective shining moments were not on the big screens of the nation's movie theatres, but instead on the smaller (but some still quite large) screens of our living rooms and bedrooms and family rooms. These films that finally got their moment in the sun, so to speak, were helped even more by the unadulterated accessibility to themselves. I know the last film I actually saw in an actual brick & mortar movie house was Birds of Prey, and that was more than eleven whole months ago. But that didn't stop me from binging, even more than in a so-called normal year, everything I could find on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Apple TV, and all the other platforms I've forgotten.</p><p>With all this in mind, I am now able to reveal my Best of Cinema in 2020 list. So here are my choices for the 10 best films, and another 10 to extend to a top twenty, and maybe a few more runners-up while I'm at it. So, to reiterate, here are my choices for the 40 best films of 2020. And awaaaay we go....</p><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b></div>1. I'm Thinking of Ending Things</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIZyMW4hnlCgrlG2znku-wWuCXIQS5pd8s8j6p8Kb27lpMRG6hV01BmY79I-6xwZgtzHr93YVmSrTrMazzFOg6HHfzBgV96OFSquWy-Mp57ixpxa34zr6H_lc8SrtSwHlxcuYFOIMUc-wl/s484/Im_Thinking_of_Ending_Things.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIZyMW4hnlCgrlG2znku-wWuCXIQS5pd8s8j6p8Kb27lpMRG6hV01BmY79I-6xwZgtzHr93YVmSrTrMazzFOg6HHfzBgV96OFSquWy-Mp57ixpxa34zr6H_lc8SrtSwHlxcuYFOIMUc-wl/s320/Im_Thinking_of_Ending_Things.jpg" /></a></div>When you sit down to watch a film by Charlie Kaufman, whether it was written by him (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) or written AND directed by him (Synechdoche, New York), you know you are going to get something more than mere frivolous entertainment. You are going to get a multi-faceted cinematic creature with a hundred arms and a thousand heads and make yo say what the...?! And it is sure to be a batshitcrazy work of brilliance. Well, his latest is just that, to the nth degree. All the principals, Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, David Thewlis, and a madcap brilliant turn from Toni Collette, are equally brilliant in their performances. This may, as they say, not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those who love cinema and like to have more than superficial entertainment, or perhaps for those who are equally as batshitcrazy as Kaufman himself, this is a cup of tea you will want to drink down with great fervor.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">2. Mank</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The story of the writing of the first draft of Citizen Kane, considered by many (including this critic) to be one of the greatest films ever made, is the latest film from David Fincher. This tale of Oscar winning screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, set mostly in the mid to late 1930's Hollywood studio system era, plays out less like a film about that time period, and more like a film actually made in that time period. Fincher, along with cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, used deep focus and low angles and ornate backgrounds to make this look like a film Orson Welles would have made back in the day. In other words, a beautiful and succulent cinematic experience. Combine that with the performances of Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, and Charles Dance, and you get the second best film of 2020.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">3. Kajillionaire</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Miranda July has a history of making films about quirky lovable women who seem to have no idea what the world is all about, but make it work for them anyway. The auteur's latest is no different. It stars Evan Rachel Wood, in one of her finest performances yet, as young woman who "works' as a con artist with her seemingly unloving parents (Richard Jenkins and a nearly unrecognizable Debra Winger). Not exactly the most stable family atmosphere, Wood's Old Dolio (she was named after a homeless man after he helped them con someone) has no idea how to interact with real people in the real world, which is the crux of the story once these three intrepid grifters come in contact with Melanie, played with a bubbly sexuality by Gina Rodriguez. With its twists and turns, Kajillionaire goes to some really intriguing places. A fun film indeed.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">4. Promising Young Woman</span></b></div><div>The story of a woman, played brilliantly by Carey Mulligan, who goes to bars and pretends to be drunk in order to draw out self-proclaimed "good guys" who invariably try to take advantage of her. A sort of vigilante on the prowl for sexual predators. Directed by actress turned director Emerald Fennell, in her directorial debut, the film takes an already dark subject and turns darker and darker as the film goes on, all the while with Mulligan handing in the greatest performance of her career. This is one of several films from 2020 that take on the patriarchy with a vengeance. It's a good trend to see coming from a usually quite misogynistic Hollywood.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">5. Nomadland</span></b></div><div>Director Chloe Zhao, the presumptive Best Director Oscar winner this year, uses three things to make this film as hauntingly beautiful as it is. The first is the landscape of America, photographing gorgeous western vistas as the background of her tale. The second are the so-called nomads of America, a subsect of Americans who have turned away from the normal American dream and have hit the road to live a freer life than the corporate capitalist world allows - many of whom are in the film, portraying semi-fictionalized versions of themselves. The third thing is the face of two time Academy Award winning actress Frances McDormand. That ever so expressive face of Frances McDormand. Without words, Frances's face tells us everything we need to know about the life of her newly nomadic Fern. A face that could win the actress a third Best Actress Oscar.</div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">6. Lovers Rock</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">In 2020, Steve McQueen, the Oscar winning director of 12 Years a Slave, gave us not one or two, but five new films. Now technically these film films were made for Amazon Prime as a sort of anthology series, collectively titles Small Axe, and taking a look at the lives of West African immigrants living in London from the 1960's through the 1980's, and thus are not technically cinematic fare. Of course, this would have only been the case in pre-Covid days. This year, even the technical cinematic fare was shown on what we call television these days, so I'm counting McQueen's five films as cinema, and thus here is the best of these, Lovers Rock. Set in 1980, the film takes place almost entirely at a house party in London. The music, the camera, the actors, swirling in and out and all about, making it seem like we are actually in attendance at said house party. It is a swirling party all on its own.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>7. Never Rarely Sometimes Always</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">This quiet yet harrowing film by Eliza Hittman tells the story of a seventeen year old girl who, accompanied by her best friend, must travel from her small backwards midwestern town to New York City to get an abortion, where she can have the procedure done without parental permission. The film is not very dialogue heavy, but the emotions come through extremely loudly. Sidney Flanigan, in her first acting role ever, plays Autumn, the young woman who must take this emotional journey, gives one of the finest and deepest performances of anyone this year. There is one scene, from whence the title comes, that may very well be the most devastating scene in any movie this past year. Such a beautifully haunting , and quite important film, that shows how the ugliness of misogyny permeates every aspect of life for women. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">8. First Cow</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Kelly Reichardt, the indie queen director of the harrowing Pacific Northwest drama (Old Joy, Wendy & Lucy, Meek's Cutoff) does it again in this quiet, passionate film about two loners trying to make it in the Oregon Territory of 1820. With danger seeming to loom around every tree (one assumes this place and time was not the easiest of livelihoods), these two hapless travelers, one a meek cook, the other a Chinese immigrant on the run, start a baking business in the budding young town being erected on this virgin land. The only problem is, they need milk, and the only cow within miles belongs to the town's richest and most powerful person. A beautifully shot film from one of my favourite directors working today.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">9. One Night in Miami</span></b></div><div>No big deal. It's just one night in the life of four friends. It just so happens the friends on this night are Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, Jim Brown, and Cassius Clay, the latter of whom on the very verge of being reborn as Muhammad Ali. The film, the directorial debut of Oscar winning actress Regina King, and based on a\the debut stage play by Kemp Powers (who also wrote the screenplay), takes place the night when Clay beat Sonny Liston and became the Heavyweight Champion of the World. The back and forth between these four actors playing these four iconic figures, talking about the plight of people of color is not only an important film (of course it is!) but is also a smartly written and brilliantly acted film. Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm and Tony Award winning Hamilton star, Leslie Odom Jr, as Cooke, shine bright in this film, and should, if there is any justice, receive Oscar nominations for their performances.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">10. The Vast of Night</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">One of many directorial debuts on this list, this swirling sci-fi film was directed by Andrew Patterson, and tells the story of a small New Mexico town in the 1950's that may (or may not) be getting a visit from aliens. Shot with a slew of weaving gorgeous tracking shots, the film plays out like a B sci-fi film from the time period. And please remember, if you are into big loud sci fi epics like Independence Day or Transformers, this is not the film for you. This is a quiet story about a quiet town that may or may not be being invaded from outer space. More along the lines of The Arrival, but even smaller and more intimate, all the while looking like a never standing still blast from the past.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">And, since it was such a good year (in cinema, not in health or money), let's extend this to a Top 20: </span></b>Chadwick Boseman's final performance alone, would make <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Ma Rainey's Black Bottom</span></b> deserve recognition here, but the rest of the film is pretty damn good too. The Danish film <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Another Round</span></b> is a tragi-comedic look at alcoholism amongst a group of four middle aged white guys, including the always spectacular Mads Mikkelsen. Sofia Coppola's 7th feature film, <b><span style="font-size: medium;">On The Rocks</span></b>, takes a look at a 39 year old woman, played by Rashida Jones, struggling in her marriage, and her philandering father, played by Bill Murray, who is helping her the best way he knows how - which isn't very well. I guess all you really needed to hear was Bill Murray. <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Tenet</span></b>, the latest blockbuster from Christopher Nolan (and one of the few "blockbuster" films of 2020) is a pulse-pounding take on time travel - or is it? Hmmmm. Spike Lee returns this year with his war film, <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Da 5 Bloods</span></b>, that has a stand-out bravura performance from Delroy Lindo, as well as some pretty harrowing war scenes. It also has a supporting turn from the late Mr. Boseman. Nicolas Cage has always been at his best when he is allowed to go batshitcrazy in the role, and the weird Cronenbergian sci-fi horror film,<b><span style="font-size: medium;"> Color Out of Space</span></b>, allows the actor to do just that. A Civil War era set horror film that takes a look at the ugliness of systemic racism sounds like a perfect film for these times of change. Unfortunately <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Antebellum</span></b> did not ride as high as it should have (inherent racism in the average American perhaps) but the film is quite good, and quite empowering. <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Babyteeth</span></b>, a small Australian film starring Eliza Scanlan, is how a dying teen romance should be made, which is the complete opposite of the often cloying way the genre is done in the States. With some of the films on this list, it is a pretty high honour to claim <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Little Joe</span></b> as probably the weirdest film here. A buzzing little slice of Lynchian life indeed. A gorgeous yet brutal Russian film, <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Beanpole</span></b> is devastating in it's beauty and is highlighted by the brilliant performances of Viktoria Miroshnichenko & Vasilisa Perelygina.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;">And, let's double it up with twenty runners-up (in no particular order):</span><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span>Pieces of a Woman; The Invisible Man; Palm Springs; Soul; Minari; Birds of Prey; Wolfwalkers; The Twentieth Century; The Assistant; Swallow; She Dies Tomorrow, The Wolf House; Sound of Metal; Hamilton; The Hunt; The 40 Year Old Version; The Prom; Mangrove; The Trial of The Chicago 7; and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>That's it gang! See ya 'round the Web! (and see ya with the 37th Annual Kevy Awards coming in March too!!)</span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn8uJl3nzTqY_M78GzxMqOHX2eN_3-MdSXUhQeeGLO63fmZTqcfnjlxtVdnyKknWL7313B2S_d9ByPxoBkl5vZLDPKkMGDvCzZVYDghlpKft7mqf7r0Nrkt-j4kQT0ySX2j88MdvV3zd6V/s850/ITOET_Unit_00096_R+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="850" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn8uJl3nzTqY_M78GzxMqOHX2eN_3-MdSXUhQeeGLO63fmZTqcfnjlxtVdnyKknWL7313B2S_d9ByPxoBkl5vZLDPKkMGDvCzZVYDghlpKft7mqf7r0Nrkt-j4kQT0ySX2j88MdvV3zd6V/w640-h384/ITOET_Unit_00096_R+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></div></div>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-4855470988857399102021-01-15T18:15:00.104-05:002021-01-17T19:17:26.603-05:00The Pez Collection to Beat (almost) All Other Pez Collections & How My Wife Inadvertently Created a Pez Obsessed Monster (That would be Me)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOUOW2XhZxiOGUv8IoK-8qnmiMxJojsqScDoBBFimb5Polrre0yFGfgQdYkbFJXadKAWMT3uQchoBtU4ZZRbL8Zijl9TTDWpKQqelbtzOfH813EeCfk_KBaIh_BRc4RwEMjE8VBxrczgQY/s2048/20210115_202849.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1398" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOUOW2XhZxiOGUv8IoK-8qnmiMxJojsqScDoBBFimb5Polrre0yFGfgQdYkbFJXadKAWMT3uQchoBtU4ZZRbL8Zijl9TTDWpKQqelbtzOfH813EeCfk_KBaIh_BRc4RwEMjE8VBxrczgQY/s320/20210115_202849.jpg" /></a></div>So, ever since coming back into the blogging world last month, All Things Kevyn has been a place to hear (or read) me go on and on about the movies. Which makes sense, since I am a dyed-in-the-wool old school cinephile. But hey, there is more to life than just the cinema. No seriously, there is. I mean it. There really is. And anyway, the name of this blog is not All Things Cinema. The name of this blog is All Things Kevyn. So here I go with another quirk that makes the aforementioned Kevyn, to whom this blog is all things to (or for ... or from ... or whatevs), tick tock tick. That quirk is Pez, or more accurately, the art of collecting Pez. I guess you may have figured that out from reading the above title, but hey, can't a guy ramble on a bit before getting down to those so-called brass tacks of legend and lore? Yeah, ok, I'll stop rambling and get on with the promised Pez talk. And awaaaay we go!<p></p><p>It all started back in February of 1998 in a small suburban town called Lemoyne, Pennsylvania. Okay, Pez, as a company and as a candy actually started waaaay back in 1927 in a small European nation called Austria. But this isn't the story of the history of Pez and/or the Pez Dispenser (for that head over here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pez" target="_blank">PEZ</a>), but instead, this is the story of this blogger's Pez collection, and how it grew from eight little dispensers to over 2600 of the little mofos! Again, it all started back in February of 1998, when I met my, then future wife, Amy. When Amy and I met (which was just four weeks before we got married, but that is another crazy tale for another crazy time) she had eight little Pez dispensers sitting on her bedroom dresser. They were Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Mickey Mouse, Tweety, Santa Claus, a Halloween Witch, a Valentine Heart, and the Tasmanian Devil, aka Taz! I was instantly fascinated. By both the soon-to-be little missus AND these eight little Pez dispensers on the soon-to-be little missus's bedroom dresser. So much so that nearly 23 years later, both the wife and the Pez dispensers are still here.</p><p>The story goes, I began to buy Amy presents of new Pez dispensers for her bedroom dresser. A few her and a few there. Donald Duck. Goofy. Fred & Barney. Dino. Garfield. It didn't take long to go from a small shelf on top of Amy's dresser to a wall hung shelf. Shortly thereafter, a few days after we had our whirlwind wedding (again, another crazy story for another crazy time), that lone shelf turned into a three tier shelf, followed shortly after by a stand-up corner curio cabinet. More and more dispensers came into the household. More Garfield's and Flintstones and Pink Panthers. Then came the new Star Wars dispensers and fresh new dinosaur Pez known as Pezasaurs. Soon this little collection of eight dispensers turned into 20 and then 50 and then 100 dispensers. This is when Amy started joking that it went from her collection to our collection to my collection. A collection she wasn't even allowed to touch anymore. Of course that is a huge exaggeration. Even today, it is most certainly still OUR collection - and she is most certainly allowed to tocu the Pez dispensers. Well, at least most of them. </p><p>Over the next few years, the collection grew and grew and grew. With additions from Europe and Japan, mostly via ebay, the count went up to 200 and 300 and 400. Yowza!! Then came the conventions. Yes, that's right true believers. There are Pez conventions. Lots of 'em too. Cleveland. Myrtle Beach. L.A. Austria. Japan. Sweden. Stamford CT, where the Pez factory is located. There is even a yearly Pez cruise. Yeah, we collectors are dorks. Big dorks. And being the dorks we are, Amy and I headed to several of these conventions, where we added to our collection a hundred fold. Room hopping in the hotels, we gathered up more and more and even more dispensers. Old ones from back in the day. New releases from overseas. All kinds of Pez items, from banks and toy cars to convention pins and homemade fantasy Pez dispensers. We toured the factory in Connecticut, hung out with other Pezheads, and even won a few dispenses. Thanks to Amy's quick raffle skills, we won a rare Rudolph Pez dispenser from the 1970's!!</p><p>Eventually we surpassed 1000 Pez and even threw a 2000 Pez party in our apartment in Harrisburg Pa. Now, tucked away in our midtown home is a room full of Pez dispensers. 2,624 of them to be exact! Add to that another 250 or so other Pez items (banks, Christmas ornaments, a money clip, coffee mugs, a 2004 Pez calendar hanging on the back of the door, plush Pez, and much much more). Oh yeah, and a t least seven more dispensers on their way from Pez.com and ebay. Yeah, we're dorks. Anyhoo, there ya have it, and to prove the greatness of this collection, here are some random pix from the room. Also, as a sidenote, there used to be a Pez Museum in Easton Pa (about an hour form our house) that had to close down out of shame for not having as many Pez dispensers as we had. That is a (mostly) true story. Anyhoo, here are the pix. I'll be back soon with more cinematic ramblings and my Best of 2020 List! Huzzah. And yes, the pupper dogs wanted to get in the pictures too.</p><p>That's it gang. See ya 'round the web.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBKVcHDMQM2TUTyu0Jl8jLWx1DRic9VysAGxfikiB14I3taHGXoPpGVE2agrm9xh2GQyh_MZ9acJuXTpVtlkqIjooXuf9i_X23ewKsI9MvulPNc7cWYUhh7FdPQ4fU1l_voZvDGlKfDwj/s2048/20210115_205902.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="2048" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheBKVcHDMQM2TUTyu0Jl8jLWx1DRic9VysAGxfikiB14I3taHGXoPpGVE2agrm9xh2GQyh_MZ9acJuXTpVtlkqIjooXuf9i_X23ewKsI9MvulPNc7cWYUhh7FdPQ4fU1l_voZvDGlKfDwj/w640-h332/20210115_205902.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9jzZneDFjJHZLaBidNJTKp-zV7Lun0xYQRjYo9_NqC3R-sGdkP8WgZMouM8m4HyOeY5qHhSqMnQUxCFO9unlbBDH5giTM3xNqUpabkqFsGmtC-yAHaoMNsfcReMgbiff5BXjm4NhtDP89/s2573/20210115_200902.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-15563694070792292532021-01-04T22:18:00.000-05:002021-01-09T09:18:27.502-05:00Film Review: I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman, 2020)<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS3xRDWW7-nzreyUvSQDh9Mh2UeuhugsLaH7oPiQC2RKlMC7UiXLG3bCaWzFHTmjlnfbLF35cL4YJgyNNIka_433Wt_Ivd_RAQEm_gK_DZx5uTLA8s0j4eWsnkW5aeV83DM_R_7iWA75nM/s1080/im-thinking-of-ending-things-movie-HD-Posters-1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="832" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS3xRDWW7-nzreyUvSQDh9Mh2UeuhugsLaH7oPiQC2RKlMC7UiXLG3bCaWzFHTmjlnfbLF35cL4YJgyNNIka_433Wt_Ivd_RAQEm_gK_DZx5uTLA8s0j4eWsnkW5aeV83DM_R_7iWA75nM/w226-h294/im-thinking-of-ending-things-movie-HD-Posters-1.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>If, after watching Charlie Kaufman's <i>I'm Thinking of Ending Things</i>, you don't say to yourself, "What the fuck did I just watch!?" Then did you even really watch Charlie Kaufman's <i>I'm Thinking of Ending Things</i>? It's like that adage, "If you remember the 1960's, you weren't really there." Because, no matter how intelligent you may well be, no matter how attuned with cinema you may happen to be, no matter your veracity with metaphor and symbolism, you will still come out of watching Charlie Kaufman's <i>I'm Thinking of Ending Things</i>, saying to yourself, "What the fuck did I just watch!?" And this is not a bad thing. The film is gleefully surreal - if that word even is capable of describing such a film.</div><div><br /></div>Surreal is too generic of a term to describe the oeuvre of Charlie Kaufman. No, to describe the films of Mr. Kauffman, one needs a new, as of yet undiscovered word. Perhaps in order to properly describe (yet never explain, since one cannot easily do such a thing in such a case) the worlds of Charlie Kaufman, one needs words created by the auteur himself. But I wouldn't ask the guy anytime soon. For now, let's just go with the flow and see where it leads us. In other words, let's be as daring in our viewership as Mr. Kaufman is in his filmmaking - his world creating. Don't worry, it's not that scary. You will still come out of it saying, "What the fuck did I just watch!?"<div><br /></div><div>Now, to discuss and dissect Charlie Kaufman's <i>I'm Thinking of Ending Things</i>, in any significant way whatsoever, is probably equally as difficult as finding a term to describe the film and/or the auteur himself. The basic story is about a young couple on their way to visit the young man's family, all the while the young woman thinking to herself of ending things. The young man, Jake, is played by Jesse Plemons and the young woman, whose name changes from Lucy to Louisa to Lucia (it's simply Young Woman in the credits) is played by Jessie Buckley. Both Buckley & Plemons do a phenomenal job as these two simplistic yet oh so complicated characters. The first of the three acts takes place as the young couple are traveling to Jake's parents' farm. The second act is set at said farm, and the third act is the young couple traveling back home, or wherever they may actually be traveling. </div><div><br /></div><div>The film starts out somewhat conventionally but by the time we hit the farmhouse, occupied by Toni Collette & David Thewlis as Jake's aforementioned parents (and by the way, these two venerable actors steal the show during this second act) any and all conventionality flies out the figurative window. Time suddenly means nothing. Reality suddenly means nothing. We watch as Jake's parents go from middle age to old age back to middle age and into the great beyond and back. By the time we get to the third act, all reality has gone out that same figurative window. To make any attempt at explaining this third and final act, will spoil a lot of the story, so I am not going to make that attempt. And to be fair, I am not sure I could explain it anyway. I mean after all, I am still saying to myself, "What the fuck did I just watch!?"</div><div><br /></div><div>None of this beautiful, dizzying craziness in the narrative should come as any surprise to anyone familiar with the career of Mr. Charlie Kaufman though. Kaufman wrote both <i>Being John Malkovich</i> (a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination) & <i>Adaptation</i> (a film for which he and his make believe brother were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay) for director Spike Jonze and both <i>Human Nature</i> &<i> Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind</i> (for which he won the Oscar, but not with his make-believe brother) for director Michel Gondry, before taking up the writer/director mantle himself for <i>Synecdoche, New York</i> in 2008. And if anyone thought Kaufman went around the proverbial batshitcrazy bend with his directorial debut (a film this critic named the Best Film of 2008), well they ain't seen nothin' yet. Seriously, when it comes to Charlie Kaufman's <i>I'm Thinking of Ending Things</i>, one is destined to say, "What the fuck did I just watch!?"</div><div><br /></div><div>And then there is that finale. You could make a 1001 guesses at how the final 15 minutes of this film play out, and I guarantee that none of those guesses will even come close to what actually happens in those final fifteen glorious minutes of Charlie Kaufman's <i>I'm Thinking of Ending Things</i>. A brilliant tour de force of a film (another lame term that comes nowhere close to actually describing how I felt about this film) Kaufman has created the greatest beast of his twenty one year cinematic career, and still I scream to myself, and any windmills that may be near by, "What the fuck did I just watch!?"</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAOFLlXv7PlEBg4O2DtssNyol9mgPoWW8VqlkvkimG_LCx206XSyfw5CSrwrGsIO8Ina0UTqWzGnbXmcljQowSO4tWJ_FrtHKbTZKJOEIno1jxkWkQbsH1l5GGjxGp8e3KnMwaDKSljf0f/s2048/ITOET_Unit_00096_R.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1368" data-original-width="2048" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAOFLlXv7PlEBg4O2DtssNyol9mgPoWW8VqlkvkimG_LCx206XSyfw5CSrwrGsIO8Ina0UTqWzGnbXmcljQowSO4tWJ_FrtHKbTZKJOEIno1jxkWkQbsH1l5GGjxGp8e3KnMwaDKSljf0f/w640-h428/ITOET_Unit_00096_R.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-19487378803880654182020-12-30T20:55:00.003-05:002020-12-30T20:55:33.701-05:00All 13 X-Men Movies: Ranked from Worst to Best<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4hZWDxdG921EM3ARP9_fvUk1nkNR3tmM2eHit2pxI1eAzvymbTiMG1n5O1AHFV6vFNtsJDhVvz7jZjgMOq8CairWwduh6kxQoZuWMmaPFAgIR2fopAvrY8u7JBbGK37vaHubEX0g_Re-/s1024/x-men.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4hZWDxdG921EM3ARP9_fvUk1nkNR3tmM2eHit2pxI1eAzvymbTiMG1n5O1AHFV6vFNtsJDhVvz7jZjgMOq8CairWwduh6kxQoZuWMmaPFAgIR2fopAvrY8u7JBbGK37vaHubEX0g_Re-/w400-h300/x-men.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>So, with the long-awaited (but not so well welcomed) release of The New Mutants, three years after it was made, an end of an era comes about. Beginning in 2000, with the release of Bryan Singer's X-Men, the twenty year era of Fox Marvel movies has come to a close. With The Fantastic Four and Uncanny X-Men finally back home at Marvel, after having been sold to Fox in the nineties in order to stave off what appeared to be inevitable bankruptcy, and in development to join The Avengers, Dr. Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain Marvel on the upcoming MCU slate on the big screen (or small, depending on the ever evolving winds of pandemic fever), the universe originally created by the likes of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others, is finally home where it belongs.<p></p><p style="text-align: left;">Another thing this fortuitous event marks is the ability for me to do an all-encompassing look at all thirteen of the X-Men movies that have been made between the aforementioned 2000 X-Men film and the also aforementioned recent release of The New Mutants. And this means, more specifically, a countdown of those thirteen films, from the worst of them all to the best. So, without further ado, I give you my countdown of all thirteen Fox made X-Men films, from worst to best. And awaaaaay we go....</p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>13. Dark Phoenix (2019)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">The saddest part about this film, directed by Simon Kinberg (who had written multiple X-Men films before getting behind the camera for the first time here), is that they took one of, if not the greatest X-Men story ever told, and turned it into this - the worst of all the Fox built X-Men franchise. The writing and the acting (save for Fassbender, of course) are just awful - even by superhero movie standards. In fact the only good thing about this movie (SPOILER ALERT - in case you care) is that Jennifer Lawrence's godawful version of Mystique is finally killed off. Bully for that!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">12. The New Mutants (2020)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The fact that it took more than three years to finally get this beast into theatres should have probably been a hint as to just how awful it was destined to be. Combine this post production hell with a storyline that goes so far off the comic book adaptation rails that it is barely recognizable as an X-Men related tale (tho not quite as godawful as what they did to Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique in those other films) and you get just what one would expect from a movie released in 2020 - total chaos.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIpaoCCUd9AwEiB6AJFu4hqt1aKieykjOtbJmvWRzvl5jD3_VbtFqA7PDEsqqzkxyF7ws2Bp7KOnI0sH5GHAFJk2dYmQcfPpR1x4GKQPlQyk9dQR363rP6jcgVuxpP78cYdRaRUV3StBbM/s500/51Z4u4UVj5L._AC_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="337" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIpaoCCUd9AwEiB6AJFu4hqt1aKieykjOtbJmvWRzvl5jD3_VbtFqA7PDEsqqzkxyF7ws2Bp7KOnI0sH5GHAFJk2dYmQcfPpR1x4GKQPlQyk9dQR363rP6jcgVuxpP78cYdRaRUV3StBbM/s320/51Z4u4UVj5L._AC_.jpg" /></a></div>11. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ever since the mid 1980's, Wolverine has been <i>THE</i> prominent X-Man. Much of this was through the use of over-saturation - which in part led to the bankruptcy problems that led to Marvel selling off the X-Men to Fox in the 1990's. But there is no denying that Logan became the most popular (and over-used) member of the team. So, with that in mind, it made perfect sense to delve into the character after the original trilogy had ended. Unfortunately for all the fans, the movie they came up with for the fourth film in the franchise was <i>X-Men Origins: Wolverine</i>. Yeah, it's that bad. It was the first film that gave us Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, but halfway through the film they decided to make the super popular "Merc with a Mouth" mute. Seriously? The thing that people liked about Deadpool from day one in the comics was his often annoying battle banter. Lucky for us (and for Reynolds) this idiotic decision was later rectified for the Deadpool movies. But here, along with a ridiculous story (did you know that we have Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Deadpool to blame for the near meltdown at Three Mile Island?) we get nothing more than a mess of a movie. And, on top of ruining, albeit temporarily, the character of Deadpool, this film also gave us another beloved mutant, Gambit, as a complete and utter waste of time.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">10. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Has director Brett Ratner ever made a good film? The answer to that question is no, he has not. And the third of the original trilogy, where Ratner took over for Bryan Singer, does nothing to contradict that answer. Like in many superhero movie series, the second one is often the best, and the third usually tears it all down. That is what happens here. Taking that aforementioned Dark Phoenix storyline that was destroyed in the first film in this worst to best countdown, <i>The Last Stand</i> tried it first - and to be honest, it really wasn't all that much better the first time around. Which is sad due to it being one of the best comic book storylines in Marvel mutant history. As for the actors, such as Halle Berry and James Marsden and Famke Janssen, it's almost as if by film number three, they no longer really feel like being there. Which, I suppose, led to the prequel series that restarted the franchise in 2011. On top of all this cinematic terribleness, not that it has anything to do with the quality of the film itself, Ratner has been exposed via the #MeToo Movement of sexual assault and harassment. But then, so did his predecessor Singer, but more on that in a bit.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">9. X-Men Apocalypse (2016)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">In 2011, as stated above, the X-Men franchise was rebooted. After the failures of the third X-Men film and that awful Wolverine spinoff, the powers that be wanted to change things up, so they decided to go back to when Charles Xavier and Magneto first formed The X-Men. This movie, set in 1962 (please ignore any age contradictions in the whole continuity) was a successful reboot. Sadly, this second follow-up to it was not very good at all. Now don't get me wrong, James McAvoy as Xavier and especially Michael Fassbender as Magneto, are both wonderful in all the reboots or prequels or whatever they are supposed to be. And others like Evan Peters as Quicksilver and Alexandra Shipp as Storm are also quite enjoyable. Plus this film also gave us (finally!!) the character of Psylocke, played by Olivia Munn. But alas, none of this helped the meandering storyline, nor did the casting of the always spectacular Oscar Isaac as the titular villain do anything to help. Nope. This was a bit of a dud, which was a bummer as they say, since the first two entries in the reboot were actually quite good. Oh, and then there's Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. Didn't think I forgot about this horrible mess of a character assassination, didjya? But more on her in a bit.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">8. The Wolverine (2013)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Directed by James Mangold, probably the best director to ever helm an X-Men movie (he would also direct Logan), we are finally getting into the good side of this worst to best countdown. Making up for the awfulness that was the first sad and pathetic attempt at giving Hugh Jackman's Wolverine his own film series, Mangold's film gives us exactly what that first film should have - a good story, fun action, and Jackman kicking ass. I mean, what else are we looking for in a superhero movie? We get swordplay with The Silver Samurai, as well as beloved recurring Wolverine comic book characters like Yukio and Mariko. All in all, a swell retooling of the the Wolverine franchise.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">7. Deadpool 2 (2018)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">After that godawful representation of Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool in the <i>X-Men Origins</i> film (no fault of actor Ryan Reynolds) the character is reborn anew in his own series. Granted, the second one wasn't quite as good as the first (which is usually not the case in the superhero genre) but this is still a quite enjoyable film, with Reynolds, once again, knocking it out of the park as everybody's favourite friendly neighbourhood mercenary anti-hero. There was supposed to be a third film at Fox, tentatively featuring X-Force, but thanks to Marvel, or should I say Disney, getting the rights back, that is not going to happen. Luckily though, unlike with the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises, there will be no recasting. Whenever Disney gets around to adding Deadpool into the MCU, it will be Ryan Reynolds' hideously deformed face behind the mask. JK about the hideously deformed face part. Love ya Ryan. See ya soon.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgEqdNulfpLYBJsm40rEeYLXrfabQ2Rr1JRvf3xnZ7etdcFSN6_T8-tKrTOKobatgqDHsayQnBZYoJeaylK9wmQSUK0aSXEtBeU_AdDQWvj5k-4KF25A_I5-PmWKXX0E0GxoVqfVI6O8kf/s348/1393547-b.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="297" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgEqdNulfpLYBJsm40rEeYLXrfabQ2Rr1JRvf3xnZ7etdcFSN6_T8-tKrTOKobatgqDHsayQnBZYoJeaylK9wmQSUK0aSXEtBeU_AdDQWvj5k-4KF25A_I5-PmWKXX0E0GxoVqfVI6O8kf/w227-h279/1393547-b.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>6. X-Men: First Class (2011)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, like I stated above, Fox decided to reboot the series as a prequal and what they gave us was a story set in 1962, where Xavier and Magneto form the original X-Men. Now, since this is a movie adaptation, we don't actually get the real original X-Men. God forbid anything is comic book accurate in Fox's World of Mutants. But we get a young squad of X-Men made up of young versions of Banshee, Havok, Mystique, & Beast, the latter of which was an actual founding member of the team. We also got to see January Jones as Emma Frost and Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw. Now, about that Mystique played by Jennifer Lawrence. I seem bitter, don't I? Oh well. Now the Fox X-Men films have done some questionable revisions in characters such as Rogue and Iceman and Banshee (and <i>X-Men Origins</i>' Deadpool) but what they did to Mystique is the worst. Now I have nothing against the actress playing Mystique in these reboots. Jennifer Lawrence was wonderful in films like <i>Winter's Bone</i> and <i>American Hustle</i> and <i>Mother!</i> (though I despised her Oscar winning performance in <i>Silver Linings Playbook</i> - and don't get me started on the stupidity that is <i>The Hunger Games</i>). But the way they took one of the most intriguing (and quite psychotic) villains in X-Men lore and turned her into a mealy-mouthed, wishy-washy do-gooder is just sad. And they ignored the fact that she is gay in the comics. But hey, I'm doing too much bad-mouthing of the film. Actually it is quite a lot of fun, and a good way to bring life back into a dying franchise. Well except for Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique of course. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">5. X-Men (2000)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The first in Fox's mutant series. Directed, as were the second film and parts two and three of the prequel/reboots, by Bryan Singer. Another pig turned director turned #MeToo scumbag turned out of work director (ya know, like his buddy Ratner) but that notwithstanding, the first of the <i>X-Men</i> series was a solid start to any would be franchise. The aforementioned Jackman, Berry, Marsden, and Janssen, along with Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen as Xavier and Magneto respectively, and (of course) Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as the definitive cinematic Mystique, all fill out the roles wonderfully. Making these anxiously awaited portrayals their own. Even Anna Paquin, whose version of Rogue is nearly as big a travesty as Lawrence's Mystique, is enjoyable. I know that Disney is going to recast these characters for the MCU but it would be nice to see Jackman keep on keepin' on as Wolverine. Especially if the put him and Ryan Reynolds together onscreen again. All in all, a solid start to the franchise. But hey, wonder if they could top it in the inevitable second film? Do read on please.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">4. X2: X-Men United (2003)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The answer to that question is yes, they could top it. As I've stated on multiple occasions in this worst to best countdown, when it comes to superhero movies, the second film is, more often than not, the better film. Just look at the second <i>Superman</i>, the second <i>Spider-Man </i>(both pre-MCU and the MCU versions),<i> </i>the second of the Burton <i>Batman</i>s, the second of the Nolan <i>Batman</i>s, <i>Captain America: Winter Soldier</i>, and <i>Guardians of the Galaxy 2</i>. BTW, don't look at <i>Wonder Woman 1984</i>. But I digress. The point is that X2 is a better film than X1.WE have the same cast (for the most part) and the same director (that aforementioned sexual predator pedophile), so I suppose the thing that makes this one top the previous one is that we get to see all the mutants, both Xavier's team and Magneto's, join together to fight a common foe - humanity. I always enjoyed Magneto when he was one of the X-Men instead of their enemy, and this film gave us that. It also gave us Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">3. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">The second of the reboot films, and the film takes on the one X-Men tale that was even greater than The Dark Phoenix Saga. The classic Days of Future Past is my all-time favourite X-Men storyline. We get to see older versions of our heroes (like Kitty Pryde, my fave comic book mutant) heading back in time to stop an apocalyptic future. This film brings the reboots/prequels together with the original trilogy versions. Time travel is always fun to do. Granted, the next film (<i>Apocalypse</i>) takes us back to the past again, but while it lasted, the combined film was quite fun. And we even got Jackman in pretty much every timeline.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">2. Deadpool (2016)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I really cannot say enough about how much I've enjoyed Ryan Reynolds in the <i>Deadpool</i> films. He seems like the perfect fit for the character. I love that Disney has agreed to let him stay on. Apparently they think the same way I do about Reynolds' Deadpool. This film, which helped erase the tarnished memory of Reynolds' Deadpool in that other movie, was a blast. Reynolds' fourth wall breaking is inspired. His jabs at Fox and the MCU are a blast as well. If only we could see him and Jackman together again. BTW, if you have not checked out any of the Reynolds/Jackman mock feud on social media, go search it out. It's a blast as well.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXcMJmt6-na2JPAFYEhs0-PX9MP0xf7k7pORLf8ZUfrlnQ3teWwtVTYItD2MkLkHJP1fItSbBWi6goT05RQkUxKePuws6JjAdT6iwrSVu2NQzmG_TOBHejpFoaWX5oynmvPrWnOtG95jY4/s1063/jared_logan.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXcMJmt6-na2JPAFYEhs0-PX9MP0xf7k7pORLf8ZUfrlnQ3teWwtVTYItD2MkLkHJP1fItSbBWi6goT05RQkUxKePuws6JjAdT6iwrSVu2NQzmG_TOBHejpFoaWX5oynmvPrWnOtG95jY4/s320/jared_logan.jpg" /></a></div>1. Logan (2017)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">This would be Hugh Jackman's seventh turn as Wolverine (ten if you count a trio of cameos in <i>Deadpool, First Class</i>, and <i>Apocalypse</i>) and barring Disney calling him back, which looks unlikely, it would also be his final time playing the iconic comic book anti-hero. This film, as I stated earlier, was directed by James Mangold, and it goes beyond any idea of a typical superhero movie. Taking a look at the end of the character, many years in the future (and an old dying Xavier too) Mangold's film is more than mere superhero fodder. <i>Logan</i> is an adult-oriented take on aging and passing on your legacy. A sad, melancholy film that digs deeper than any other of the X-Men franchise - or even any of the MCU film. Probably, up there with <i>The Dark Knight</i> and <i>Watchmen</i> as the most serious and most cinematically mature of any superhero film.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So there you have it. All 13 of the Fox X-Men movies from worst to best. And I only picked on Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique a little bit. Myabe a bit more, but come on now! She deserved it! Anyhoo, though some were bad, and some were awful, there were a couple solid X-Men films over at Fox. Now here's to hoping Disney & the MCU can get the X-Men going in a better direction than that. That's it gang. see ya 'round the web.</div>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-39036586167207944022020-12-21T17:55:00.004-05:002021-01-25T13:56:15.707-05:00The Extended 2020-21 Film Awards Season, and What that Means for the 37th Annual Kevy Awards!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkLkk2QXv-5FaxjprgrdIkridHxjk5Rvpvmq5G0_6SDTXUZcq3PehR1ZQeqfRjHoATzrmsmtGE1ZG60mJrYs6c3aOaezJSctF3D3e0DN-hKVJ_rd-DgC1EZ7CcI2l0gcNL05s-jo0qxM5H/s997/20201227_193248.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="997" data-original-width="945" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkLkk2QXv-5FaxjprgrdIkridHxjk5Rvpvmq5G0_6SDTXUZcq3PehR1ZQeqfRjHoATzrmsmtGE1ZG60mJrYs6c3aOaezJSctF3D3e0DN-hKVJ_rd-DgC1EZ7CcI2l0gcNL05s-jo0qxM5H/w345-h365/20201227_193248.jpg" width="345" /></a></div><br />So, with the pandemic and and all the closings that came along with it (I'm guessing you've heard about the pandemic) the 2020-21 movie awards season has been extended. Since movie theatres were closed (for the most part) for many months, and are only partially opened even now, the Academy decided to extend the eligibility deadline from the normal December 31st to a much later February 28th. To go along with this extension, the Academy has also postponed the Oscar night ceremonies from the typical end of February / beginning of March to April 25th. So as to not leave the Oscars feeling lonely, the Screen Actors Guild and Independent Spirit Awards have both done the same. And so, that means I should do the same, right? Hells no! I ain't no follower!! The Golden Glibes didn't postpone til April. They're still doing there awards at the end of February. Granted, that's still a month later than normal, but not nearly as dramatic a move as others. The Kevy Awards are normally given out a week or so after the Oscars, which is usually early March, but this year, even though the Oscars will be April 25th, The Kevy Awards will still be coming atchya on March 7th - just like they were always going to be.<div><p></p><p>Wait, what? Are you saying you don't even know what the Kevy Awards are? Is such a thing even possible? They're only the 63rd most prestigious movie awards given out in the United States every year. How can you not have ever heard of the Kevy Awards!? There was even a big cover spread in Vanity Fair a few years back. Still nothing? The annual red carpet each year? No, still nothing? That just blows my mind. Meryl Streep even has one. Oh yeah, I guess La Streep has pretty much every award out there. I think she might even have a Stanley Cup. Oh well, I suppose you need a bit of a history lesson. So here goes.</p><p>The Annual Kevyn Knox Cinematic Achievement Awards, or the Kevys as they are more familiarly known, are an annual film awards that have been given out since 1984. The first Kevy Award winner for Best Motion Picture was <i>Once Upon a Time in America</i>, the final film of Sergio Leone, who also took home Best Director that inaugural year. But Best Picture and Director are not the only Kevy Awards. Nor are any of the other typical categories like Actor and Actress, Screenplay, Cinematography, Costumes, Animated Film, and so on and so on. I mean, all these awards are given out at the Kevys, but there is so much more. </p><p>You get the regular standard awards fare, but you also get much much more. For instance, at the Oscars, and other awards shows, you get one Costume Design award. One lousy award. But here at The Kevys, you get three. That's right,, three! You get Contemporary, Period, and Fantasy. You also get more than boring old Original Score and Song. At The Kevy Awards, you also get Best Adapted Score, or Soundtrack if you will. Past winners include Back to The Future, <i>Goodfellas</i>, <i>Pulp Fiction</i>, <i>Dazed & Confused</i>, and <i>High Fidelity</i>. There is also, to go along with Original Song, Best Use of an Already Established Song. Examples are past winners like Layla for <i>Goodfellas</i> or Stuck in the Middle from <i>Reservoir Dogs</i>. Then we have the Musical categories. Best Musical Number in a Musical. This one should be obvious. Past winners include Cell Block Tango from <i>Chicago</i> and The Love Medley from <i>Moulin Rouge</i>. The other one is Best Musical Number in a Non-Musical. Past winners include the Tiny Dancer sing along from <i>Almost Famous</i> or the Twist Contest in <i>Pulp Fiction</i>. But there's still more!</p><p>There are scene categories like Best Kiss (a notable past winner is Spidey & MJ's upside kiss from <i>Spider-Man</i>); Best Sex Scene (Heath & Jake in the tent in <i>Brokeback Mountain</i>); Best Action Sequence (pretty much being won by the MCU for the past decade); and Best Death Scene, for which I will not spoil anything for anyone right now, though Robert Downey Jr did win this award last year. There are also fun categories like Best Hero (Iron Man & Captain America have both won this award in various years); Best Villain (Thanos, Bane, Heath Ledger's Joker, Jack Nicholson's Joker, but certainly not Jared Leto's Joker); and Best Diva (Meryl Streep in <i>The Devil Wears Prada</i>, Nicole Kidman in <i>Moulin Rouge</i>, and RDJ in <i>Iron Man</i>). There are also categories like Best Line, Best Poster Design, and Best Overall Scene. You also get Best Breakthrough Performance (past winners include Amy Adams in <i>Junebug</i> and Jennifer Lawrence in <i>Winter's Bone</i>); Best Juvenile Performance (Abigail Breslin in<i> Little Miss Sunshine</i> and Haley Joel Osment in <i>The Sixth Sense</i>); and Best Cameo (Stan Lee almost every year since 2008). There is also Hottest Male and Hottest Female Performances. Brad Pitt & Margot Robbie won this award last year for their respective roles in <i>Once Upon a Time in Hollywood</i>. Margot, Harley Quinn may get her back to back victories this time around.</p><p>But hey, I've rambled on enough. As I stated earlier, the 37th Annual Kevy Awards will be handed out on March 7th, 2021 - a week after the Golden Globes. After all, since the voting body of The Kevys is a single human being (me, duh), there is no need to make time for thousands of potential voters to see all the films, not that most Oscar voters really do that. So no delays needed here. Who knows. Maybe this way, The Kevys will have an influence on Oscar voters. One can dream. Bit I digress.</p><p>For anyone who wants to see a complete list of all past winners and nominees (all the way back to 1984), I am currently working on a Kevy Awards Database Page on this very blog. It should be up and running sometime before the aforementioned March 7th ceremonies. And also, while we're on the subject of year end cinematic things, my annual Best of the Year list will be delayed only one month, from it's normal early January release to a early February release. This is due to the extended eligibility period, and the fact that there will be a few possible top ten films I will not be able to see until later than normal. Most notably, <i>Nomadland</i>, <i>Minari</i>, <i>One Night in Miami</i>, and <i>Promising Young Woman</i>. That Best of 2020 list will be announced (right here and on all the social medias) on February 1st. So anyhoo. That's it for this blog post. See ya 'round the web.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdosuPoTTkeSvI-d50RJz7DFcTtsXVUyT5j0h0V5Mnhgz5AW0FczX2loFGKf6rUwrH8lbq7uhVftYKOwAD0QbhBDQPXuDxAeIZLGtdGDH05PxHAas_N7gMp0qZ0uHLbXxtAgJBELq4mbPZ/s1284/oscars.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="856" data-original-width="1284" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdosuPoTTkeSvI-d50RJz7DFcTtsXVUyT5j0h0V5Mnhgz5AW0FczX2loFGKf6rUwrH8lbq7uhVftYKOwAD0QbhBDQPXuDxAeIZLGtdGDH05PxHAas_N7gMp0qZ0uHLbXxtAgJBELq4mbPZ/w640-h426/oscars.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p></div>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-28641586501181242752020-12-16T17:36:00.004-05:002020-12-16T17:41:09.495-05:00What this Whole Kit and Kaboodle is All About (and why you should even give a rat's ass about any of it)<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKgHJIl5xLRe_ISB2Q1uOryGRLyra-o3rN8fTOZIG3AlFRBtOQmd6cN7ADXtdB1p3_Brej4VQlmXd0GRkW_h4oUOifmkObYA3c8mY6yTk51ve9fIdp8l2onWMx-5FNRVUE8kNCsS64RPIn/s331/Monkeys-Blogging-09-20-2010.gif" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="300" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKgHJIl5xLRe_ISB2Q1uOryGRLyra-o3rN8fTOZIG3AlFRBtOQmd6cN7ADXtdB1p3_Brej4VQlmXd0GRkW_h4oUOifmkObYA3c8mY6yTk51ve9fIdp8l2onWMx-5FNRVUE8kNCsS64RPIn/w253-h281/Monkeys-Blogging-09-20-2010.gif" width="253" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Okay, so here we are five posts into the new and improved edition of the "All Things Kevyn" blog, and I haven't even introduced (or re-introduced, as the case may be with some of you loyal fans out there in the world wide web) myself to you. So, for better or worse, here goes.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">First off, yeah I know, a blog - in 2020!? That is so 2011 of me. But hey, I'm old school. Just be glad I'm not Xeroxing this thing off in a zine format and shoving it through your collective mail slots. A blog it is, so deal with it. Now to be fair, this blog is nothing new. I set up my first website of sorts waaay back in 2005. It was a film review site and it was hosted by Geocities. If you don't know what Geocities was, then you're probably to young to be reading this anyway. Let's just say that Geocities is to Wordpress or Squarespace what My Space is to Facebook. We're talking the days of chat rooms and that godawful dial-up buzzing noise. But I digress. That site (not technically a blog, as I built it via HTML, a format I quickly taught myself as I went along) lasted for a handful of years. Then cam my first blog.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It was 2009, and my new blog was called "The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World". I stole the title from a quote by Jean-Luc Godard, describing how he felt about cinema. And that is what the blog was all about - cinema. Film reviews. Movie polls. Cinematic history. All that fun stuff. It was a period in my life where I was obsessed with cinema. I would regularly travel (back, in those halcyon pre pandemic days, when that was still a thing one did) to Philly and NYC to catch press screenings and film festivals and pretty much any film I could not see in my smallish hometown of Harrisburg Pa. This is also the time period that I took on my quest to watch the 1000 Greatest Films, determined by the way, via a conglomeration of hundreds of separate film lists brought together on <a href="http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000.htm" target="_blank">one convenient webpage</a>. It took just two and a half years to accomplish this daunting task. A daunting task indeed. A daunting task that I would write about on my blog.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Now at this time, my wife and I were running a small arthouse cinema in the aforementioned Harrisburg Pa. We did this gig for four years. Well, her for four years, me for three and a half, as I came into the fold six months after she had. This was still in the pre-digital age of actual celluloid running through an actual movie projector. It was also here where we would stay after hours to watch movies, both on celluloid and on the DVD player we had hooked up next to the projectors. It was also here, in these after hours times, that I, along with our assistant manager, and my co-questor Charlie, took on the task of watching those aforementioned 1000 Greatest Films. </p><p style="text-align: left;">In 2013, the owners of the cinema (already known for some rather shady business practices) unceremoniously gave us the boot so they could put their friends in charge. They took many of our ideas, which they said would never work when we suggested them, and put them into practice. Then they turned around and tried to sabotage any future jobs we looked into getting. The place is still running today, and still with the same owners (I think there may have been an indictment against one of them in the intervening years), but it is less an arthouse cinema these days, and more a hipster hangout with specialty coffees and artisan popcorn. Yes, we are still bitter. But again, I digress.</p><p style="text-align: left;">As the Summer of 2013 hit, my love of cinema waned a bit. I mean, I had just spent two and a half years watching the 1000 Greatest Films, along with all the latest releases as well. It was a steady diet of 3 or 4 films a day. Crazy, huh? Well, that along with the bitterness of our old bosses screwing us over, I took it a bit easier as far as film watching went. And by a bit easier, I mean only one film per day. Yeah. But this also meant the end of "The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World" and the start of a brand new blog. Hence "All Things Kevyn" was launched in the Fall of 2013. This blog would not be solely about cinema though. This would be a blog about anything. Movies. TV. Music. Comic Books. Politics. Poetry. Whatever. So, awaaay I went.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Now "All Things Kevyn" was a place I showed off my love for all of pop culture (and where I first began calling myself a Pop Culturist). For two years, it ran perfectly. 3 to 4 posts a week, on film and TV and comics and what have you. Then my ADHD kicked in and I was distracted by other shiny objects. The posts were less and less all the time. For the past three years, I have barely written on my blog. Maybe 5 or 6 posts a year. Had the love of writing fallen away? I hoped not, and several attempts were made at restarting the blog, but nothing ever came of these admittedly pathetic attempts at resurrection. That is, until now.</p><p style="text-align: left;">For the most part, I have not been working since Covid hit in March. I am GM of a local bar & music venue and we have been hit hard by the lockdowns. Luckily unemployment kicked in and my ebay shop has been selling a lot more as of late, but hopefully I (and the venue, The New HMAC) will be back in a few months. But alas, this has left me with a lot of time on my hands. I wrote a book with some of that time. It's a look at TV, called "Forgotten TV: 101 TV Shows You've Probably Never Heard Of" and is for sale now on Amazon in both paperback and digital form. Check out other ways to purchase said book over in the sidebar of this here blog! I have also taken on another quest (one involving comic books - <a href="http://www.allthingskevyn.com/2020/12/the-mighty-marvel-mayhem-show-my-quest.html" target="_blank">scroll to a couple posts before this one</a>) and, as I said, re-energized my ebay selling prowess (I have an attic full of action figures and bobbleheads and comic books and what not to sell away). But this, along with the periodic bursts of artistic mayhem, wasn't enough, so a return (an actual resurrection) to "All Things Kevyn" was upon us. A few film reviews and a post about the aforementioned comic book quest later and, voila! We have arrived.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So there you have it. The history of the blog in Americas ... or so ething like that. This blog is back and better than ever. Movies. TV. Comics. Politics. Art. Collecting. Pop culture du jour. Whatever pops into my head, might pop onto this blog. So there. Keep reading for posts on the regular once again. There will be more film reviews, and some TV reviews too. My annual Best of the Year list (and many more lists - I loooove lists! In fact head on over to my <a href="http://www.allthingskevyn.com/p/top-ten-film-archives.html" target="_blank">Top Ten Archive</a>, still in progress). Some posts on comic books are a sure thing too. And maybe a celebratory post on January 20th. I think you all know why. Huzzah!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWe4d43JWNR1YbY8o54RZfhI9N2Gny2ixWB_eCJ-mxAw4tB8eCUP8LK4FKsra2nZb5Yak4v1cyepx_7yuAdcy6gqpMSTi1Mk7xngfw-khydOmLhsSnSV7yJqT_GzL8Ed_wzHzpYRSYM9tH/s610/to-blog-or-not-to-blog.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="610" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWe4d43JWNR1YbY8o54RZfhI9N2Gny2ixWB_eCJ-mxAw4tB8eCUP8LK4FKsra2nZb5Yak4v1cyepx_7yuAdcy6gqpMSTi1Mk7xngfw-khydOmLhsSnSV7yJqT_GzL8Ed_wzHzpYRSYM9tH/w640-h340/to-blog-or-not-to-blog.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-36591311371513357312020-12-12T21:26:00.005-05:002020-12-16T17:42:13.806-05:00Film Review: The Prom (Ryan Murphy, 2020)<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigg7q5Qfapuk3zuygDJLaJcG2LZgfv1Y8NeNwfn7pfur7UB7CTj6dTilzZ2eEYPHUiKurKyFmm9eaL40vKiB6reKw6qeqMudMQCzKJ0nSdbiaRRRqE-nzwzQSF77wtB5RA9UZKE3x4bh-j/s512/unnamed+%25281%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="410" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigg7q5Qfapuk3zuygDJLaJcG2LZgfv1Y8NeNwfn7pfur7UB7CTj6dTilzZ2eEYPHUiKurKyFmm9eaL40vKiB6reKw6qeqMudMQCzKJ0nSdbiaRRRqE-nzwzQSF77wtB5RA9UZKE3x4bh-j/w222-h297/unnamed+%25281%2529.jpg" width="222" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">Yes, Ryan Murphy's <i>The Prom</i> is cheesy, but like much of the auteur's small screen output (<i>Glee, Scream Queens, Pose</i>), it's a fun kind of cheesy. Now don't get me wrong, as fun as <i>The Prom</i> is, and it is fun (more on the reasons in a bit), it's not necessarily a great film. A fun film yes. It's not the kind of musical that gets to sing and dance on the level of those great classic Hollywood musicals from which it takes it's "let's put on a show" chutzpah, nor is it in the same playing field as a lot of the better examples of modern musical theatre such as <i>Kinky Boots</i> or <i>Hamilton</i> or <i>The Book of Mormon</i>, the latter of which Murphy borrows both a Tony Award nominated star and the frenetic energy of <i>The Prom</i>'s best musical number. It's not on any of these levels, but it sure is fun once all the musical numbers begin kicking in. And isn't that all that matters here in the depressive throes of 2020?</div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">In fact, it is these musical numbers that make the film shine as much as it does. Stars Meryl Streep, James Corden, and Nicole Kidman are great in the so-called in-between times (the non singing, non dancing moments), but it's the song and dance fervor that makes <i>The Prom</i> kick into second gear. Granted, <i>The Prom</i> does have a solid story in these in-between times. High school prom is cancelled due to the homophobic bigotry of the PTA, and a gaggle of Broadway has beens and never were's make the trek to the small Indiana town to save the prom for the school's token out and proud lesbian, and maybe open up the minds of the students and their parents in the meantime. But no matter how important such a message is, and it is indeed an important message, the thing that really flies in <i>The Prom</i>, are the musical numbers - and fly they do.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The aforementioned trio of stars get to shine in various numbers - and this is where the aforementioned fun comes in. Streep & Corden's opening number sets the perfect tone for the film. The hilarious yet condemning narcissism of these two characters (Streep's Dee Dee Allen carries her Tony Awards around in her purse - an admittedly hilarious moment in one of those in-between moments) is a key proponent of the story that seems to shine more on their attempt to save the prom than on the prom itself or young Emma, who is the crux of the prom cancelling bruhaha. We even get to hear La Streep rap in a closing number that was written directly for Murphy's big screen adaptation of the Tony nominated musical.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Meanwhile, Kidman is allowed to shine in her <i>Chicago</i>/All That Jazz inspired number, "Zazz," along with newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman as the optimistic and perky as all get out Emma, who incidentally does a great job keeping up with these big name stars surrounding her. The film, like the stage version, is filled with fun song and dance numbers, including Dee Dee's "It's Not About Me" (when it most certainly is - at least until she finally learns a bit of humility via Keegan-Michael Key as the caring school principal and Streep's love interest) and Emma's guitar strumming diversity riff "Unruly Heart" (an emotional high point of the film), but the true showstopper comes about three quarters of the way in and is performed by Trent and the high school ensemble in the middle of the mall.</p><p style="text-align: left;">This number, "Love Thy Neighbor," is a peppy tongue-lashing toward the bigoted homophobic crowd who cherry pick what they believe and don't believe in the bible. As Trent teaches the kids about tolerance and empathy, the true essence of the film (love thy neighbor indeed) comes through in a brilliant number that seems to take equal parts from <i>High School Musical</i> and <i>The Book of Mormon</i>, which is perfect since Trent is being played by Andrew Rannells, one of the original stars of the Tony Award winning smash Broadway smash about singing disciples of The Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. </p><p style="text-align: left;">So, even if the in-between scenes lack any certain kind of je ne sais quoi (and let's face it, this is a problem with many a musical and perhaps shouldn't be all that looked down upon), the musical numbers, all written by multiple Tony Award nominees Matthew Sklar & Chad Beguelin, as well as the all-in Mickey & Judy attitude of Streep, Corden, Kidman, Rannells, Key, Pellman, and the rest of the ensemble, make this one hell of a fun ride. True, in the end, there are no surprises. Of course everyone, even Kerry Washington's helicopter mom and head of the bigoted PTA, comes around to the idea of loving thy neighbor - and her daughter who finally comes out to her. This idea, the crux of our morality tale, could use a lot more spreading around (instead of that damned virus) in this rather divisive age of hate-mongering by so many. <i>The Prom,</i> though perhaps not the greatest musical of the day, ends up being the voice of reason and inclusiveness that is so needed today. And it's a lot of fun too.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFTLXJ7HEp23LH3h2ol0OHw3VYpYAYWGnMvngYD4Gu_JmSmGl0ccnSk9kdF2VM06BK28_HvVMqcxjasMaynEuQ11syxNhM-ARozzmG0mBCuvV3wODQXGwBjqywvYqfkDKyKe7-0eah7iKI/s1500/The-Prom-movie-review.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFTLXJ7HEp23LH3h2ol0OHw3VYpYAYWGnMvngYD4Gu_JmSmGl0ccnSk9kdF2VM06BK28_HvVMqcxjasMaynEuQ11syxNhM-ARozzmG0mBCuvV3wODQXGwBjqywvYqfkDKyKe7-0eah7iKI/w640-h320/The-Prom-movie-review.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1515841282277216251.post-47271932104691294052020-12-09T17:26:00.004-05:002020-12-16T17:42:51.747-05:00The Mighty Marvel Mayhem Show & My Quest to Read (or re-read, as the case may be) the Entirety of The Marvel Universe<p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrawxGjICEikz7D6W09yAApd3fIdaBmT-aB-9UHOyh3UcxomxHgtE8PiKD2Vg7G0GHnsYlXOBD2o8jklVp12ZKFUom2JNgmUdcdbiwkWLS0a0j7RoWCbL8kN4OL6OVs9SsuWmIUHTj4T0l/s1080/piZap_1600919937573.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1076" data-original-width="1080" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrawxGjICEikz7D6W09yAApd3fIdaBmT-aB-9UHOyh3UcxomxHgtE8PiKD2Vg7G0GHnsYlXOBD2o8jklVp12ZKFUom2JNgmUdcdbiwkWLS0a0j7RoWCbL8kN4OL6OVs9SsuWmIUHTj4T0l/w200-h199/piZap_1600919937573.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">A few months back, as I (along with many others, I am sure) contemplated what exactly to do with myself in the middle of a pandemic, I came up with the idea of going back to my comic book loving childhood, and take a stab at reading (or re-reading, as the case may be) all of The Avengers comics from the very beginning (which would be 1963 btw) to the latest release. It was going to be a big challenge but hey, what else did I have to do at the time? Movie theatres, my homes away from home, were all shuddered for the time being, so what the hell. I mean, it would only be about 500 or so comics til I was done. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.</div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">But then I started thinking, which is never a good thing. If I was going to read the Avengers, then I would need to read all the Avengers spinoffs as well. That would mean adding titles to my pandemic reading list like West Coast Avengers, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Avengers Academy, A-Force, Uncanny Avengers, and so on and so on. Then I got to thinking again. Like I said, never a good thing. To be fair to the completist that I am, I would also need to read all the Avengers solo stuff. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel (both male and female versions), Black Panther, Hawkeye, and so on and so on and so on. Toss in newer books like The Champions and the new Ms. Marvel, as well as Spider-Man, Wolverine, and (again) so on and so on and so on. Now we're up to well over 2000 comics. So I did the only thing someone in my position could do. I decided to read every damn thing Marvel Comics has ever published. Thus began My Quest to Read (or re-read, as the case may be) the Entirety of The Marvel Universe. Huzzah. Huzzah indeed.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So, if one were to begin at Fantastic Four #1 in 1961, the beginning of the Marvel Age of Comics, then we are talking more than 31,000 comic books to read (or re-read, as the case may be). But hey, that wasn't really the beginning of Marvel Comics. For that we need to go all the way back to 1939, and the release of Marvel Comics #1. Back in these early golden days, Marvel was still known as Timely Comics, but it was still Marvel. Now with this expanded reading list, we are now talking nearly 50,000 comics. Add in the Marvel magazines of the 1970's and we top 50,000 comics. Back to huzzah, huzzah indeed. So, to do the math for you, if I were to read 14 comics a day on average, I would complete my quest in just ten years. Yes, if you are asking, I am crazy.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Now hopefully the pandemic is not going to last that long. Ideally, at the point of writing this weird little essay of my obsessive craziness, we should be back to some sort of vague normalcy by the middle of Spring 2021. Maybe even full normalcy by the end of Summer 2021. Whatever the case, there was no way I was going to finish this project by the time the masks came off. And yes, that is wishful thinking. To be done by next September, one year after I began, I would need to read, on average, 137 comic books every damn day. Yeah, that ain't happening. First of all, pandemic or not, I do have a life. Plus at some point, I will be back to work (once the unemployment benefits dry up). And there are so many movies to watch, even if they are not in theatres right now. Thankfully streaming has taken over the new release cinema calendar, though my biggest thing missed right now is going to the movies. Anyhoo, I digress.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So, if this quest is going to be long term (my estimate is 13 years) then I might as well hunker down and do it. But I also want to share my quest with other people. This is where Youtube comes in. I have wanted to do some sort of Youtube show for a while now, but procrastination is kinda my mutant super power, so it never came to fruition. That is until the last week of August 2020. That is when <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/kevynknox1" target="_blank">The Mighty Marvel Mayhem Show</a> premiered to the world on the aforementioned Youtube. This show, simply enough, would be me, in front of the camera, talking about My Quest to Read (or re-read, as the case may be) the Entirety of The Marvel Universe. I would kick it off with a look at Fantastic Four #1 and move on from there, occasionally having flashback episodes to the Timely (and Atlas) comics days of pre-Marvel Age of Comics. This show would also have episodes dedicated to the cartoons and TV shows and movies of Marvel history, as well as toys and games and trading cards and pretty much anything and everything else. There would be countdowns and interviews, and once we can have them again, episodes shot at comic book conventions and at comic shops.</p><p style="text-align: left;">And now it exists. As of the writing of these words, episode 24 has now been posted for all your viewing glory. So why not head on over to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/kevynknox1" target="_blank">The Mighty Marvel Mayhem Show</a> on the Youtubes, and check it all out. You will not be sorry. Okay, maybe you will be, but hopefully not. I even have a coupla episodes guest starring the actual Spider-Man. That's right true believers! So get on over there and check it out. Ya know ya wanna. Excelsior!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFp8psi0LvIKJNsJO1hnK5_t7K046TS9jtS7qIUNIq-lbq9DVgOHC9zMpSMQqze6GocKmPCk1gtkz-vNGH9R1YxCQNVsU1tUcm5YANXgqPYd8RGBwQiXRyBwDAdDr-Jhhfn1PuW2c6ybSf/s2048/PhotoGrid_1601348222403.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1151" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFp8psi0LvIKJNsJO1hnK5_t7K046TS9jtS7qIUNIq-lbq9DVgOHC9zMpSMQqze6GocKmPCk1gtkz-vNGH9R1YxCQNVsU1tUcm5YANXgqPYd8RGBwQiXRyBwDAdDr-Jhhfn1PuW2c6ybSf/w640-h360/PhotoGrid_1601348222403.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Kevyn Knoxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17840497589713234794noreply@blogger.com0