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Nightcrawler (2014)
Nightcrawler
Every boss wants to hire a hard worker, that dedicates much of his life to his work, but I'm not sure someone would hire Lou if half of what he does was known. He doesn't like people, however he puts a good face whenever he needs to be listened to or respected. He can manipulate people easily to achieve his goals and has to achieve them. He's dangerous but people don't know that.
A very good movie that shows us how corrupted can someone become when we're talking money or success. Also showing the state of our beloved (not) journalism. It slowly builds up to a fast movie with a lot of good scenes and a lot of Jake Gyllenhaal on screen, and oh my, what a good performance it was, perhaps his best one yet. I'm sure it will be nominated in some categories in the Oscars.
Rope (1948)
Rope (1948)
Fantastic that a script like this remains original after all these years. Hitchcock, just the way he liked, delivers to us a very macabre movie. The premiss is simple, two friends decide to murder someone, and hide the body in an old chest, then they invite some people (all related to the deceased) and throw a party with the chest as a centerpiece. Simple, right? No, because between all this we have complex dialogs debating if murder can be justified or not and also a lot of black humor. - "Oh, it isn't someone's birthday is it?" - "It's, uh, really almost the opposite." James Stewart just like we are used to delivers a good performance as well as John Dall (who I didn't knew). I'm sure who likes Hitchcock will also like this movie.
Drive (2011)
Drive
Drive, from director Nicolas Winding Refn, is a story about a mysterious stuntman, mechanic and getaway driver. He starts falling for her neighbor, who looks alone for her daughter. Then her husband gets out of jail and owes money to some bad people, our driver wants to help and agrees to do a getaway job but something goes wrong and he gets in trouble he didn't want.
"You give me a time and a place, I give you a five minute window. Anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours. No matter what. Anything happens a minute either side of that and you're on your own. Do you understand?" - The Driver
This movie is entirely a new musical experience, it's not the usual orchestra or rock music, which is good, it aims to be different from what we already expect it to be. It is a simple, yet complex movie, it doesn't attempt to create new things, it uses what already works. With short and slow understandable dialogs it paces and creates a good story. The viewer has time to think about it, to meditate about what's going through the characters mind.
Our main character is a anti-hero, he intends to do the right things but he uses the wrong ways to do it, we feel for him, even if he shows a little psychosis, he does care about the girl and her daughter but when someone harms him or them, he acts under extreme violence showing the violent and troubled man he is, maybe because of his past, we don't know for sure (but we don't need to).
Overall good performances, good direction, and a screenplay that is very well paced, it doesn't rush anything. Watch it!
Looper (2012)
Looper
Directed by Rian Johnson and with stars like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt the movie Looper is a sci-fi creative movie, that uses the time-traveling as premise to a crime movie. In the year 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone they send it back in time where the loopers (hired guns) will be expecting them. It was a very "creative" idea the mobsters in the future had (also creative in the perspective of the writer, of course), to send a man back in time, with his hands tied and a hood covering their faces, and in the past a hired gun expecting with what looked like a shotgun to kill and get his reward. Eventually the loop has to be closed and when it's time for Joe (Gordon- Levitt) to kill his self future he hesitates because he was without the usual hood (it would have prevented him seeing it was him).
Old Joe had once a wife, but she was killed by someone named The Rainmaker. Young Joe meets a women, Sara and her son Cid. They slowly grow close, but Cid in the future may be a different and evil person, and events in the past obviously can affect the future...
One of the most thought provoking scenes is when the two Joes are talking to each other in a dinner. Imagine all the possibilities and questions you could ask your older self!
In a movie like this it's easy to fail at some points in the time- traveling, because it's a complex theme that needs to be well thought before filming because otherwise in the end the impossibilities may be a little to much. I think the movie didn't fail at it but you have to assume some things don't need explanation, like the fact that it was impossible to kill someone in the future, or that the loop has to be closed sometime. The film lives up to his rules of time-travel and confronts the many implications of time travel in a way that makes you think what would be like if time traveling really existed.
Gravity (2013)
Gravity
A technical masterpiece, proved at the Oscars, that Alfonso Cuarón brings to us. The story is very simple, a medical engineer and an astronaut work together to survive after an accident leaves them adrift in orbit.
"Life in space is impossible"
This sentence proves itself in the movie, it's obviously very dangerous to work in space (reparing satellites) and to land on the moon (but we did it!). It all seemed to be good until a Russian satellite is hit by a missile (on purpose by the Russians, to destroy it) but the debris of it end up hitting on Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney). After the first hit. the timer is set, the debris will come, and they'll have to be prepared.
The plot is pretty straight forward, but the way they pull it off is brilliant. The character development was really good. Ryan had a daughter once, but she died very young because of a stupid accident, and at some points in the movie you understand why she would give up her life, to reunite with her lost child, or simply to give up because no one will care (we can see that she is a lonely person affected by tragic events). Matt gives the idea of a experienced and very calm astronaut (much like Clooney's usual characters), but we don't know much about him except some stories he's always talking about. But it's OK, the main character really is Ryan, it's her character that's important to this movie and like Cuarón said at the Oscars, Sandra Bullock is Gravity.
At some points in the movie without noticing I found myself holding my breath in certain moments. It's a claustrophobic movie. That good. The change between sound and no sound is brilliant, that's why I did that, along with the change I would hold my breath to experience the same as they would. In terms of sound mixing, like I said it was well done with the sound matching the experience of the movie. Excellent visual experience, beautiful images of the earth and surroundings, a real breakthrough in special effects, and personally the best movie yet in 3D. This is absolutely worth seeing in 3D, in fact it's necessary to obtain the full movie experience. Cuarón and everyone involved in the movie should be proud of themselves.
Halloween (1978)
Halloween (1978)
Michael Myers is a institutionalized psychotic murder who, when he was 6 years old, killed his 15 years old sister stabbing her. 15 years later he escapes the sanitarium and returns home (Haddonfield, Illinois). His psychiatrist is trying to catch him, before he kills again. Meanwhile high school students Laurie, Annie and Lynda have plans for baby-sitting on Halloween (and maybe carrying on a bit with their boyfriends...) but they're not ready for what's coming.
The movie starts with an excellent opening Point of View scene and the opening "ends" with us, the viewers, looking at a young kid with a big knife on his hand. This is where it all started.
When later he does come home, he starts spying the three high school students, he is the creep you never want to see. He lives in the shadows, in the entire movie, except for one or two times, you never really see his face, or a close shot of him. The lives of those students may be coming to an end.
Once I read somewhere people complain about him never really dying despite being dangerously harmed, I thought maybe, instead of thinking he is human (he does look like one), you can think of him as the very personification of evil itself, maybe he is inhuman, and that's what makes him even more terrifying.
This is a very suspenseful, intense movie that builds on a strong horror atmosphere, shot without much light, instead a strong presence of shadows. This is John Carpenter's masterpiece. The score goes like this: if you hear it for the first time, you will never forget it, it will echo in your mind and maybe haunt you. One of the best things you can do on Halloween is watching Halloween!
Fact 1: It had a $300000 budget and made worldwide around $60000000! Fact 2: Michael's mask was created from a Captain Kirk mask purchased for $1.98. The producers liked it because it had a blank, emotionless look. Obviously it was altered.
12 Years a Slave (2013)
12 Years a Slave
And the Oscar for best picture goes to... 12 Years a Slave, and it was deserved! Sure, it had a lot of good competition, but in my view it was the right choice.
This is a strong theme, and lately there are other movies about slavery, but if you want to see one of the best in the genre, this is the one. A movie based on a true story about the memoirs of Solomon Northup, and how he was abducted and sold into slavery, for 12 years in his life, hence the title.
We begin the movie seeing Solomon and his family, for now he's still a free man, but things are about to change. Two men tricked him, and he's sold into slavery. From now on, he'll have to live working for slave-owners. The story develops from here until he's finally free, after 12 years (obviously predictable, so not a spoiler).
The cast is absolutely fantastic: Chiwetel Ejiofor - main role interpreted beautifully. Benedict Cumberbatch - brief moment in the movie, played the role of the "fair" slave-owner. Michael Fassbender - he should have won the Oscar, he delivered a spectacular performance. Lupita Nyong'o - now a Oscar-winner, and doing a very good job. Brad Pitt - even for brief moments, but with a determinant role.
The cinematography is stunning, the music, despite being a little repetitive enters in the right moments building up the movie's atmosphere (Music by Hans Zimmer). The narrative is built from the book, it's well-structured, and developed in an easy way to understand it.
You may need to have a strong stomach at some points because the violence is present and it's a very visual and also emotional experience.
Captain Phillips (2013)
Captain Philips
--Minor Spoilers--
Excellent performance from Tom Hanks in this one, as we come to expect from him. In this movie he's the captain of the container ship MV Maersk Alabama cruising along Somali coast and heading to South Africa. In the way the ship is intercepted by Somali pirates and the story develops from here.
This is not the usual action movie where the hero saves the crew from the evil pirates, this is a more realistic movie, there is no hero, just the captain trying his best to have his crew safe. Phillips (Tom Hanks) is a well developed character in my opinion, but I think Muse (Barkhad Abdi) could have been more developed from the start, because we never quite understand his motivations until late in the movie. Nevertheless the screenplay is well written and moving. I didn't quite understand some of Phillips actions while on the safe boat because all he had to do was wait, but I guess he started to feel sorry for the pirates so it's OK.
I was very moved by the last scene where Tom Hanks makes a extraordinary and believable performance, my god, I was really impressed (I shouldn't be because, well, it's Tom Hanks...) and no doubt his performance was the best this movie offered.
Alien (1979)
Alien
There is a lot that can be said about this movie. First of all I just have to say that I'm very impressed by the special effects of the movie, and also about its ageless image considering the year it was made. This is one of the best Sci-Fi movies out there, it's a classic.
First of all the pacing of the movie is so well done, and it's necessary to be that way so it improves the horror effect on the viewers. You can actually see the movie and start thinking "there is something wrong happening". Then the shadowy ambient surrounding the spaceship and also the point-of-view scenes that make us "run" with the characters is wonderful.
The cast is very good, with a good center performance by Sigourney Weaver mainly. And the very design of the alien is horrifying, with a humanoid form but without showing any expressions meaning it is a cruel killer. The sound and images go very good together pacing the story combined also by the ship's sounds.
Great horror/Sci-Fi movie and definitely, as I said before one of the best in the genre.
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Dallas Buyers Club
I've been starting to watch more of Matthew McConaughey both in cinema and TV (True Detective) and I have to say that he is giving great performances. In this movie he's a man who's got a taste for alcohol, drugs and women and a hate about homosexuals. Then he discovers he's infected with AIDS and he's battling against it in any ways he can even if it means passing above the law. I don't really know if the movie is historically accurate because I haven't lived that years but in my view, even if it is not accurate, is a solid story, with a good written screenplay, and well acted. Jared Leto suffered a huge transformation for his role and adding to that delivered a good acting. Jennifer Garner is not very mentioned in the acting department but she should as she interpreted a doctor with her own doubts about medical care. Summarizing I liked it, it's not a must-watch but it is definitely a should-watch.