Cine Talk

Welcome back film fans. It’s one of my favorite times of the year; playoff football and the Oscars. This is my third year of writing my cine-blog for the on line publication www.ctoutandabout.com and this year I am going to add something new. Along with my predictions in the last publication before the “Big Night” I will rank the films in the best picture category 1 through 9. Since there are only 3 weeks until Oscar night I will discuss 3 per week.

The first of these is “The Tree of Life” starring Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain. I wish I had seen this film on the big screen but unfortunately I had no idea Emmanuel Lubezki’s amazing cinematography would take me on such an incredible visual journey. At times I thought I was watching excerpts from the movie “Earth.”. Jessica’s performance could have earned her a nomination as a mother raising three boys set in Texas in the 1950’s. In her break-out year, she was also in “Coriolanus”, “Take Shelter”, and of course “The Help” for which she received an Oscar nom for supporting actress. Being a big Brad Pitt fan I thought that he also could have gotten a nod for his role as the father trying to teach his eldest son, Jack (Hunter McCracken), the way’s of the world. Sean Penn in possibly his smallest role to date plays adult Jack, a bit lost and searching to find his way. I really enjoyed this film and with 3 Oscar nominations it is definitely worth seeing but I think the only shot for a statue is for cinematography.

“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” is David Brain’s (Writer) slow moving, but interesting story set in the 1970 cold war era. Supported by an outstanding cast with some excellent performances it earned 3 Oscar nominations. Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, John Hurt and Mark Strong tell the story of a suspected Russian mole in British intelligence and the effort to expose him. This was a very subdued role for Oldman who has given so many animated performances (Batman, Sid & Nancy, True Romance). Mark Strong known for such films as, “Sherlock Holmes”, “Kick Ass”, “Body of Lies” and “The Young Victoria” is consistently engaging. Colin Firth makes any film better, even “Mama Mia”. The film does bounce around a bit much and at times gets a little cloudy. In a field of nine for best picture, I suppose it makes the cut but I don’t expect anyone to have to prepare an acceptance speech.

Simon Curtis spawns two academy nominated performances in his big screen directorial debut with “My Week with Marilyn”. Michele Williams has given some classic performances since her 1993 television debut on Baywatch including last years “Blue Valentine” for which she was nominated. In her second consecutive nom in the best actress category, her outstanding portrayal of the iconic superstar was absolutely brilliant. She really looked and sounded the part. But as good as it was, I thought it slightly overshadowed by the amazing performance of Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier. He was dead on and had some very clever lines venting his frustration. The other supporting performances were very strong especially Eddie Redmayne’s Colin Clark who chronicles the on set tension between the two superstars during the production of “The Prince and the Showgirl”. Very enjoyable and an easy watch, there could be some surprise Oscars coming out of this one. Until next week I remain,

John