Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Finding Dory (Andrew Stanton & Angus MacLane, 2016) 8/10

I usually avoid animated flicks like the plague but wanted to watch this one because I'd enjoyed "Finding Nemo" some years ago. This is a moving sequel to that film with young Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres), a blue tang fish with short-term memory loss, who gets separated from her parents (Eugene Levy & Diane Keaton). A year later, with help from a number of critters - fellow fish (Nemo & his dad), an ingenious form-changing octopus with one missing arm, a near-sighted whale shark and a brain-addled beluga whale - ditsy Dory departs on a journey of self discovery enroute back to her parents. The film's spectacular underwater visuals coupled with funny characters and an anguished lost Dory are the hooks which make this sequel very welcome. Disney animated films aimed at small kids are consistently scary - a child getting separted from parents can be extremely traumatic. However, kids in the audience seemed unaware of any trauma and laughingly went along with the plot. The adults, on the other hand, got the emotional aspect of the plot - every parents' nightmare of losing a child. The film is very similar in tone to "Nemo" and almost equally charming. It may lack inventiveness but the gentle tone of the film makes it a most worthy sequel.

10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg, 2016) 8/10

Eeerie, claustrophobic and quietly suspenseful film with an action packed finalé that takes this little masterpiece into a realm where it needn't have gone. After a car accident a woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is rescued by a mysterious man (John Goodman) and wakes up to find herself trapped and chained to a wall in his bunker deep down under his farmhouse. He claims there has been a chemical apocalypse and they are safe underground. A neighbor (John Gallagher Jr) also manages to reach the bunker. Two thirds of the film is like a theater piece as the three characters circle one another in the confined space each mistrusting one another. Winstead channels a quieter version of Sigourney Weaver's "Ripley" character as she gradually finds her bearings and with great ingenuity tries to solve the mystery. Goodman is equally good as the seemingly crazed "captor" who may or may not be telling the truth. The film recalls George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" without resorting to gore. The ending was problematic for me as the plot takes on a twist that may be a crowd pleaser but to me seemed lazy as it resorts to typical juvenile summer fare regrettably so popular now with Hollywood films. This just misses being a masterpiece.

Couples Retreat (Peter Billingsley, 2009) 3/10

A couple undergoing marital difficulties convince their friends to accompany them to a vacation retreat so their issues can be resolved via therapy. The "vacation" turns out to be a disaster as the three accompanying couples also discover marital strife. Sporadically amusing comedy has a spectacular location but is let down by obvious and corny jokes. Vince Vaughn, an actor with superb comic timing, is continuously wasted by Hollywood in stupid comedies. Give this one a miss.

Sea Devils (Raoul Walsh, 1953) 5/10

Mild swashbuckler set during the Napoleonic Wars with a smuggler (Rock Hudson) getting involved with a duplitious french spy (Yvonne De Carlo). Sadly there is zero chemistry between the two stars. They both try - Hudson goes bare chested while De Carlo's low cut costumes accentuate her decolletage - but fail miserably as a romantic couple. The film is handsomely mounted, has enough intrigue, brawling and derring do but it's all pretty stale and smells of deja vu. Bryan Forbes as the hero's comic sidekick stands out better than the two lifeless leads.

The BFG (Steven Spielberg, 2016) 9/10

Despite a few lulls in the plot this is a spectacular adaptation of Roald Dahl's magical kid's story. A precocious orphan (Ruby Barnhill) sees a BFG - Big Friendly Giant (Mark Rylance) on the streets of London and is snatched by him to the land of the giants. She discovers he is a gentle soul who creates dreams and nightmares and is ostracised by other larger giants - who are all mean and vicious - because he is a vegetarian and refuses to eat little children. A plot is hatched whereby they seek help from a bemused Queen Elizabeth (Dame Penelope Wilton) to take down all the giants so that children can no longer be kidnapped by them. Spielberg's usual team are on hand - production designer (Rick Carter), cinematographer (Janusz Kaminski), editor (Michael Kahn), musician (John Williams), costume designer (Joanna Johnston) - whose impecable work behind the camera go a long way in bringing to life in vivid detail the world from writer Dahl's imagination. This is a superior film for children with Rylance memorable as the gentle giant. His friendship with the little girl is very believable as she starts off sassy and bossy and gradually evolves into being sweet and vulnerable thankfully avoiding being cute. Watching the film in 4-D X was even more of an amazing experience with the theatre seats rigged to move and vibrate in sync with the characters on the screen. And surely this is the first film ever where you get to hear the Queen fart.

The Legend of Tarzan (David Yates, 2016) 7/10

A revisionist take on the familiar iconic character complete with rewritten historical facts and CGI galore. Forget all the nitpicking and enjoy this spectacular adventure yarn which comes alive during the flasback scenes depicting how Tarzan came to be shipwrecked off the Ivory coast and got raised by gorillas. All the scenes with the primates are hypnotic and when they (including Tarzan) take to the trees it's dizzying fun like being on a roller coaster with the dazzling beauty of the Gabon forests sweeping by under their feet. The main plot has Viscount Greystoke (Alexander Skarsgård with splendid 21st century physique and vapid expression) returning to Africa with his feminist - here American - wife (sexy Margot Robie) and "Man Friday" comic sidekick (Samuel L. Jackson) to face-off colonial skullduggery in the shape of a mincing crooked envoy (hammy Christoph Waltz) of the Belgian King. The film ends with a superbly shot animal stampede with man and beast entwined together in a breathless frenzy. Although every animal shown - gorillas, lions, crocodiles, hippos - is courtesy of CGI, it does not lessen the impact of creating an euphoric wonder that brought out the child in me. It's all geared towards the comic book mentality of today's moviegoer but is still great fun. My first film in I-MAX and it was spectacular.

A Woman's Secret (Nicholas Ray, 1949) 4/10

Silly "B" film with noir overtones has a good cast and is one of director Ray's early films. A woman (Maureen O'Hara) confesses to shooting her protegé (Gloria Grahame), a sultry but neurotic singer in a nightclub. Through flashback's we learn what really happened as the police and the woman's boy friend (Melvyn Douglas) don't believe her story about the shooting. The film starts off promisingly but getting to the denouement is a chore as the screenplay doesn't know how to come up with an ending in line with the mystery of the beginning. The introduction of a comic character - the cop's wife - during the second half is bizarre as it does not gel with the overall mood of the film. O'Hara and Grahame are both good but are let down by the weak plot.

The Shallows (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2016) 6/10

Terrifying premise: wounded surfer (Blake Lively) gets stuck on a huge rock in the sea with a giant white shark between her and the shore as it circles and tries to wear her down. The film is completely let down by a ridiculous ending and a shark that looks like it's made from papier mâché. Lively gives an excellent physical performance as the frightened woman who decides not to give up and instead tries to be one step ahead of the crafty shark.

Summer Storm (Douglas Sirk, 1944) 6/10

Lifeless version of a Chekov story (the first time one of his works was filmed) - a lowly peasant girl (Linda Darnell) uses various men - fellow peasant and husband (Hugo Haas) to escape a lecherous father, a judge (George Sanders) who is seduced away from his fiancé (Anna Lee) and a foppish aristocrat (Edward Everett Horton) who gets enchanted by the wily woman - to get ahead in life. An early very low budget Sirk with good production values.

At Long Last Love (Peter Bogdanovich, 1975) 8/10

This is a parody of 1930s musicals and Bogdanovich's homage to Cole Porter and Van Nest Polglase (who designed the enormous art deco sets in so many of the old films from that era). Also the film is really not a disaster - one that virtually finished off this director's career. Burt Reynolds and Cybill Shepard may not be Fred and Ginger nor do they have their dancing and singing skills but they still manage to carry off this piece of fluff designed around 19 wonderful Cole Porter songs. The silly plot consists of madcap shenanigans - getting drunk on champagne, driving around in fancy cars and wrecking them, attempting to tap dance, attending the theater, trading partners and eventually falling in love - between a madcap playboy millionaire (Burt Reynolds in Clark Gable mode), a daffy heiress (Cybill Shepherd who can actually sing and dons Carole Lombard's mantle), an Italian gambler (Dullio Del Prete) and a Broadway star (the delightful Madeleine Kahn). Add to this mix a butler (a droll John Hillerman), a maid (a very funny Eileen Brennan) and a rich matron (haughty Mildred Natwick) and you have once again a charming reminder of Fred, Ginger, Eric Rhodes, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore and Billie Burke. Bogdanovich and Sheperd (who were an item at the time) make it all seem like fun while indulging in their passion for Porter. The songs are wonderfully incorporated into what plot there is with Bogdanovich keeping a light touch throughout. The film may seem rather trivial but it's certainly never boring. A delightful surprise which needs a serious re-assessment.

The Dressmaker (Jocelyn Moorcroft, 2015) 3/10

A film which is quirky to the point of being annoying which the Aussies showered with awards. A glamorous woman (Kate Winslet) returns to her outback Australian hometown with sewing machine in tow to exact revenge on neighbors who did her wrong when she was a child. The film plays like a cartoon at full volume with every outlandish moment underlined in garish strokes with each character more eccentric and over-the-top than the next especially alongside a calm and collected Kate Winslet. Everyone seems to be playing to the gallery in search of awards - the disheveled hermit-like old mother (Judy Davis), a filthy crone straight out of a Grimms fairy tale, the campy cop (Hugo Weaving) who likes to prance around in skirts and stilleto heels and squeals at the touch of a feather boa - both won awards as did Winslet along with the stunning gowns she wears to disrupt the townfolk. The absurd plot is all over the place touching on child murder, marital rape and domestic violence as it moves at a fast almost nonsensical pace. Winslet looks stunning in her Dior and Balenciaga inspired gowns and resembles "Gilda". Too bad she isn't Rita Hayworth. A big misfire!!

Hello, My Name is Doris (Michael Showalter, 2015) 4/10

Sally Field is sad, lonely, awkward and very annoying Doris, a spinster, who misconstrues a young office colleague's friendship and makes every effort to snag him with cringeworthy and disastrous results. Field is in full "sunny" mode in this coming of age tale - Field is now 69 - and makes a valiant effort at trying to find love even though life has passed her by. The screenplay works overtime into making the character a complete ass. Doris and her antics are not endearing although Field gives it her best shot but with zero credibility. The story has serious things to say about old age and what a bitch it can be especially for women. Too bad the writers presented this as a comedy which merely takes it into the realm of absurdity.

Everything is Thunder (Milton Rosmer, 1936) 7/10

Love triangle during WWI between an escaped Canadian POW (Douglas Montgomery), a German prostitute (Constance Bennett) and the detective (Oskar Homolka) who is pursuing the POW and in love with the prostitute. Small budget film has romance and suspense with an excellent Bennett who plays the part with a mixture of toughness and fragility. Pity her career took a dip so soon.

They All Kissed the Bride (Alexander Hall, 1942) 3/10

A pathetic attempt at screwball by Joan Crawford although it sorely lacks humour. The so called "fun" aspect is watching her play a tough businesswoman - heading a trucking company no less - who is "afraid" of intimacy with men so she rules over them with an iron hand until an author (Melvyn Douglas) makes her knees grow weak. It's impossible to imagine La Crawford growing weak in front of a man. She was too butch for that and it shows in her performance - all fake fluttering hands and body. She gets to dance the jitterbug and gets a big drunk scene. All in vain. Douglas, an old hand at sophisticated comedy, runs circles around her. Not even daffy Billie Burke or Roland Young can salvage this turkey. Crawford inherited the part from Carole Lombard when she died and gave her entire salary to the American Red Cross who had found Lombard's body after the plane crash that killed her. This was the only positive aspect of this wretched film.

Next Time We Love (Edward H. Griffith, 1936) 8/10

For all the soap opera ingredients on display this is surprisingly a fairly sophisticated view on marriage, ambition, infidelity and divorce. The plot covers the trials and tribulations of a married couple - a foreign correspondent (James Stewart) and an actress (the incandescent Margaret Sullavan) - as both find their careers coming in the way of their happiness. His roommate (Ray(mond) Milland) forms part of the love triangle. The first of four memorable teamings of Sullavan and Stewart and both are terrific here thanks to their exceptional screen chemistry.