Best Lead Actress 2016

05. Hailee Steinfeld in The Edge of Seventeen - Teen comedies don't get enough credit, nor do the performances that come from them, but this is an iconic performance. Steinfeld may look like a supermodel in real life, but she pulls off awkward and angsty teen so, so well.

04. Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins - Overrated, she is not. In fact, Streep is arguably (not really) our greatest living actress, and this movie sort of proves why. Here she plays the world's worst opera singer, and while the movie isn't exactly groundbreaking or amazing, she heightens it to being entertaining and charming.

03. Amy Adams in Arrival - Adams can do no wrong in my book, and she is mesmerizing as a linguistic expert who is struggling to communicate with an alien race in the smartest sci fi movie of the year.

02. Emma Stone in La La Land - I was just having a conversation about Emma Stone. The person said he doesn't take her seriously as an actress because most of her work has been comedic. I disagree. I think no one else could have played this role except for Emma, with her pitch perfect comedic timing and adorable charm. She can sing! She can dance! She can be cute and sexy and is endlessly lovable! What can't Emma do!?

01. Sasha Lane in American Honey - I honestly can't believe this girl never acted before. Her performance and screen presence is absolutely mesmerizing. She is a force of nature, a wild child, a spark of light. This movie is nearly 3 hours long but  I would have watched 3 more hours of her.

August / September 2015

The Gift
Stars - Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel Edgerton
Plot - An old high school acquaintance starts to creep out a young couple.
Thoughts - Written, directed, produced by and starring Joel Edgerton, The Gift was one of the best movies of the summer. Not only does it harken back to the great Hitchcockian thriller, but also it stays with you for days, weeks, months after you've seen it.
Grade - B+

Ricki and the Flash
Stars - Meryl  Streep, Kevin Kline, Mamie Gummer, Rick Springfield
Plot - A bar musician returns home to the family she abandoned after her daughter goes through a heartbreaking divorce.
Thoughts - This should have been the most fun movie of the year (Streep singing Lady Gaga, anyone?). And parts of it ARE fun, but it mostly feels awkward and it mostly falls flat, thanks to a lackluster script by Juno scribe Diablo Cody.
Grade - C+

The Gunman
Stars - Sean Penn, Javier Bardem
Plot/Thoughts - Sean Penn stars as Liam Neeson! No, honestly I don't even really remember because it was so bad and so long ago and so forgettable.
Grade - D

Child 44
Stars - Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Noomi Rapace
Plot - A Russian soldier investigates the murder of a young boy.
Thoughts - Somewhere in this mess, there might be a good movie. I mean, how really can you go wrong with Hardy and Oldman? But the truth is, this is a mess and just about unwatchable.
Grade - D+

Straight Outta Compton
Stars - O'Shea Jackson, Paul Giamatti
Plot - The trials and tribulations of NWA, the group that invented gangster rap.
Thoughts - Listen, there isn't much I love more than late 80s/early 90s hip hop, and this biopic does justice to a group of politically conscious "thugs" from Compton. The cast is mostly unknown, and they are uniformly great, especially Jackson, who plays his dad, Ice Cube. This is sort of a must see.
Grades - B+

Aloha
Stars - Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray
Plot - A former army guy returns to Hawaii for a ceremony and gets entangled with his former flame and a new lady.
Thoughts - When do I stop giving Cameron Crowe a pass? He wrote and directed my very favorite movie of all time (Almost Famous), but is that enough to keep letting him off the hook for making crappy movies. Because Aloha is so, so, so very crappy.
Grade - D-

Insurgent
Stars - Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Miles Teller
Plot - Tris and co. are on the run when the Erudite leaders realize her divergence might be the key to stopping war.
Thoughts - Ugh. I remember liking the book and liking Divergent, but this mostly seems like a bit of a mess. The fact is, these books/movies  to keep you wanting more the way The Hunger Games do, so I'm mostly kind of over Tris and her virtual reality nonsense.
Grade - C-

Black Mass
Stars - Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Jesse Plemmons, etc.
Plot - The true story of Whitey Bulger, the Boston gangster who became an FBI informant so he could literally get away with murder.
Thoughts - I had a lot to say about this after I first watched it, but I forgot most of it which sort of sums up Black Mass, you know? The performances are across the board stellar, and I know everyone is talking about Johnny Depp's chilling performance, but he's mostly one note. The real star of the show is Joel Edgerton's FBI agent who is so complicated and layered, it's a pleasure to watch. Mostly though, you can skip this and just rewatch The Departed.
Grade - C+

Love & Mercy
Stars - Paul Dano, John Cusack, Elizabeth Banks, and Paul Giamatti playing his second sleazy music guy of the summer.
Plot - Intersecting stories follow Brian Wilson in the 60s (Dano) while he records Pet Sounds and starts to lose his shit and in the 80s (Cusack) when he is trying to get out from under his tyrannical doctor/manager.
Thoughts - This movie really nails what a tortured genius Brian Wilson is and mostly it's a really solid biopic. The 60s segment is much more engaging, either because Dano actually looks like Wilson (Cusack not so much), or because Dano gives one of the best performances we are likely to see this year.
Grade - B

Happy Birthday Meryl!

Today is Meryl Streep's 62nd birthday. Since she is the greatest living actress, I decided to make a top ten list of what I think are her best performances. No time for explanations, just a simple quick list in celebration of Queen Meryl!

10. The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
09. The Hours (2002)
08. A Cry in the Dark (1988)
07. Doubt (2008)
06. The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
05. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
04. Sophie's Choice (1982)
03. Manhattan (1979)
02. The Deer Hunter (1978)
01. Ironweed (1987)

Top Ten List: Best Actress of the Decade

10. Hillary Swank in Million Dollar Baby (2004) - My position on Swank is probably known by now. I'm not her biggest fan. However, good acting is good acting and you can't deny she's incredible in this film. I can't say its her best work (I still love her Boys Don't Cry performance) but she has moved past acting with this role. She simply exists in her character and it's great to watch.

09. Ellen Page in Hard Candy (2005) - Two years before Juno, there was Hard Candy. Page was something like 17 or 18 when she filmed this movie and she manages to give a master's class in acting, delivering a performance so layered and subtle that actors twice or three times her age had to be crazy jealous of her undeniable talent.

08. Julie Christie in Away From Her (2007) - It was the Oscars in 2008 and Julie Christie was flat out robbed by Marion Cotillard in a performance that I can barely even remember. Christie, however, has stuck in my mind, managing to be, dare I say, unforgettable as an Alzheimer patient. Beautiful and tragic, Christie is divine.

07. Michelle Williams in Wendy and Lucy (2008) - Quite possibly the most underrated performance of the year (or maybe even the decade), Williams commands the screen in this slow, bittersweet indie film about the friendship between a woman and her dog on a cross country road trip. Williams is so perfect as a lonely woman who has managed to fall between the cracks; a good person who society has managed to forget about.

06. Naomi Watts in 21 Grams (2003) - Watts has always been a good actress, but she's simply great here. Not only is she remarkably belieavable as a suffering widow but she brings so much gut wrenching emotion to her performance. The movie is presented so strongly out of context and that decision simply makes the performances that much more powerful, especially by Watts who shines as part of a truly impressive ensemble.

05. Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream (2000) - Quite possibly the most depressing movie I have ever seen and part of that is thanks to Burstyn's killer performance. There's no sugar coating this tale of addicts with Burstyn starring as a sweet Jewish wido who almost unknowingly becomes addicted to prescription diet pills that help her lose weight but plunge her into a terrifying world of paranoia and hallucinations.

04. Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada (2006) - I was going to pick her Doubt performance but let's face it. Meryl can do that kind of thing in her sleep. What impressed me so much about The Devil Wears Prada is Meryl's ability to prove she really can do anything at all, including taking a co-starring role, turning it into a terrifying amalgamation of Cruella DeVille and Anna Wintour and proving that she can be one of the most bankable movie stars in the world. And this is why Meryl Streep is queen. That's all.

03. Helen Mirren in The Queen (2006) - Mirren doesn't merely play Queen Elizabeth II, she becomes Queen Elizabeth II. Her performance is simply superb. Thanks to Mirren, the Queen comes off as complicated and reserved, cold and yet jarringly open. Mirren manages to take this Queen who seems so closed up and larger than life and make her human. The performance is as fascinating as it is entertaining.

02. Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! (2001) - There are times when Kidman comes off as a reserved, closed up actress. But in Moulin Rouge! she is sexy, warm, stunning, loveable, and even a little goofy. Kidman has never been better than playing the born entertainer Satine. From those intricate, lavish and slightly twisted musical numbers to her electrifying chemistry with Ewan McGregor, Kidman is simply - Spectacular, Spectacular!

01. Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) - Eternal Sunshine is easily the most original love story of the decade and Winslet, who is brilliant in EVERYTHING, doesn't disappoint with her performance here. She plays a woman who craves attention as much as she craves intimacy. She is a little mean but totally loveable. She is a jumble of paradoxes and it's easy to see why anyone would fall madly in love with her. She even manages to be funnier than Jim Carrey. I would only want to erase her and this performance from my memory so I can experience it again for the first time. Simply brilliant.

Precious / Fantastic Mr. Fox

Precious - In a word: devastating. Half of Precious is really as good as everyone is saying it is. The other half, well, we'll talk about that later. The story follows an illiterate overweight Harlem high school girl named Precious. She's currently pregnant with her second child, both fathered by her dad. Her mom is abusive, to say the least. She daydreams of being a blonde girl and starring in rap videos. The story itself is half gritty street tale and half lifetime movie. The movie, for me, lives and dies by the performance of Mo' Nique. Mo' Nique, Mo' Nique, Mo' Nique. My Lord, she is amazing. Even without that last knockdown dragout scene in Mariah Carey's office, her performance is amazing. But when she adds those layers onto her abusive character, well, it's really Oscar gold. If she doesn't win come March, it'll be a crying shame. Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe is solid as Precious as well. She has a level of honesty and realism that is refreshing and welcoming. Paula Patton as a sweet, caring teacher is a revelation as well. She just exudes warmth. Then there's Carey. Everyone is all a-twitter about how she uglied herself up (or down) for the role. She impresses with her small role as a social worker but she's really just there to play opposite the single best scene in the entire movie. Precious is depressing as hell but it's also strangely uplifting. Like I said, though, only half of the time. When I wasn't feeling emotionally wrecked, I was feeling like I was watching a made for TV lifetime movie. That's not necessarily a bad thing but when half of your movie is so damn good, the other half shouldn't feel like it's so inferior. Still, Precious is definitely worth watching if only for Mo' Nique's AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING performance. I can't sing her praises enough.
Grade: B / B+

Fantastic Mr. Fox - I'm finding Fantastic Mr. Fox to be a difficult movie to review. Everything I've heard about it has been so blaringly positive that I feel if I say anything negative about the movie it would be taken as treason. I am, indeed, a Wes Anderson fan (although I admit I'm a bigger fan of co-writer Noah Baumbach's work). I love his quirky, offbeat sensabilities. I think The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore are two of the most brilliant movies in recent years. Still, there's something about Fantastic Mr. Fox that didn't quite gel with me and I can't exactly place my finger on it. I mean, clearly this movie was made for Anderson fans. I can't imagine who else would go see it. It's too dark for children and too offbeat for most adults. As an Anderson fan, I think the movie is great - charming, witty, full of likeable yet terribly flawed main characters (voiced by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe etc.). Visually, it's simply stunning. I've actually never read the book so I can't compare the two but I feel Anderson probably took some liberties and I hope he didn't take anything away from the original work. As a fan of movies, however, there was something lacking in the haphazard story telling and the painfully slow second act. Also, the whole wolf-phobia side plot thing just totally didn't work at all. Still, the movie was enjoyable and I definitely recommend it for fans of Anderson's other works. As cliched as this sounds, it was a little short of fantastic for me.
Grade: B-

Wednesday - Top Ten Best Supporting Actresses of the Decade!

Top Ten List - Best Actress 2008

Honorable Mention - Johanna Day in August: Osage County - Not a film performance, but a riveting, intensely controlled (and some time delightfully out of control) stage performance. If August was a movie (which apparently it's going to be) and Day was in it (which hopefully she will be), she would be at the top of this list, for sure. She's in charge now, for sure.

10. Angelina Jolie in Changeling - We all know I'm not the biggest Angelina fan. Still, you can't deny talent and her performance, although often one note, is still extremely powerful at times. That one specific scene (you know, the one in all the previews, "I want MY son back") is even more intense once you see the context of it - she's yelling this at a 10 year old boy.

09. Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Cate has never looked more beautiful. And I am in the corner with people who think Cate can do no wrong. It's true here, as she makes a very flawed, very narcisstic and stubborn character so loveable. Benjamin Button falls in love with her and so do we.

08. Keira Knightley in The Duchess - Although the movie itself is highly flawed, the performances are nearly flawless. Ralph Fiennes just missed my Best Supporting Actor list for his skeevy Duke (and for his hilarious turn in the wonderful In Bruges), but Kiera makes the list for her witty, charming role as the lonely Duchess - forced to choose between love and her family.

07. Summer Bishil in Towelhead - An extremely interesting and well done performance for someone so young! She's truly impressive as a young actress dealing with very, very heavy subject matter. She pulls it off with grace, innocence and beauty.

06. Rebecca Hall in Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Cruz may be getting all the buzz (and she is more than deserving) but Hall is spectacularly funny as well. She plays a cynical spitfire, about to marry a man she doesn't necessarily love while discovering her sexuality with a sexy artist.

05. Naomi Watts in Funny Games - Throughout the entire second half of the film, Watts is in a constant state of duress. Crying, screaming, desperately clinging to some kind of hope while nearly giving up on everything. Her performance is intensely moving.

04. Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road - Winslet's April is a dreamer, for sure. She dreams of a better life with her husband but she's surely not a happy character. There's all those intense screaming matches with DiCaprio. Then there's sexy love scenes. And, of course, my very favorite scene. DiCaprio has just confessed that he's cheated on her. She is very unemotional about the whole thing. He's screaming at her, asking her why, to which she responds, very quietly, very calmly with a slight smile, "Fuck who'd you like, dear." Perfect line reading.

03. Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married - Maybe the most revelatory performance of the year. I never liked Anne Hathaway, sure. I also never necessarily thought she was a good actress. But her performance as Kym here is so alive and so unlike anything she's ever done. It's impressive and welcomed.

02. Meryl Streep in Doubt - Doubt may be about the wonderful script and the great source material. Sure, there's Hoffman and Adams and Davis, but make no mistake - this is all about Meryl. As it should be. Her stubborn, hard headed, wickedly funny take on the nun is perfection.

01. Michelle Williams in Wendy and Lucy - Wendy and Lucy is a movie where not much happens. It's a movie without a lot of dialogue. It's a movie where, for much of the movie, Williams' Wendy is walking around a small unknown town searching for her dog. With very little to work with, Williams has given her best performance to date. Her quietly effective work will break your heart. There's been little as moving this year as the final ten minutes in this movie - and that's thanks to Michelle!

Oscar contenders arrive - Men who age backwards, nuns and political activists, oh my!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Benjamin Button is maybe the most fascinating man you'll ever meet. Born with a warped face and amidst doctors warnings that he wouldn't live very long, his birth father abandoned him on the back steps of an old person home where the loving and caring Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) found and raised him as her own. As Benjamin (Brad Pitt) beat the odds and grew up, he may have looked like the other old men in the house but he sure didn't act like them. As his life progressed, he became younger and younger, living a full and amazing life. He left home to join a tugboat captain (Jared Harris, stealing scenes as usual) and eventually join a war. He met the alluring Brit Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton) and a host of other interesting characters. But it was the lovely Daisy (Cate Blanchett) who was the love of his life. While she aged normally, he aged backwards - could their love ever really work out? Based on the line "youth is wasted on the young," the film is a moving and emotionally harrowing journey through the life of one man. David Fincher directs the hell out of this film which has a great script and great performances. For as slow as it moves in the first half, the emotional aspect is kicked into high gear in the second half and it becomes a near masterpiece. There are so many moments of brilliance that it makes up for it's uneven beginning. Brad Pitt is the star but it's more about his journey than his acting. The acting stand outs, for me, came from a trio of fabulous women - Swinton who is all toughness and sophistication, Henson who is the heart and soul of the film and knocks it out of the park (let's start the Oscar campaign now!) and Blanchett who takes Daisy's vain, self centered nature and turns it into something that actually works. There is no one more beautiful than Blanchett as she dances in the fog. Overall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a beautiful journey well worth the time.
Grade: A-

Doubt - There is a particular scene at the end of the film between Meryl Streep and Phillip Seymour Hoffman that just proves these two are arguably the two best working actors today. I didn't think anyone was going to make it out of that scene alive. Streep is the stubborn and stern Sister Alyisous who begins to think that Father Flynn (Hoffman) had an inappropriate relationship with the only black student at the school. Stripped down to just four main characters - Amy Adams as the naive and sweet (and I think the key to making your final decision about Flynn's innocence or guilt) Sister James and Viola Davis who has one powerful scene as the boy's mother - the film is very character driven with intense dialogue and a great, well written story. John Patrick Shanley is indeed a fantastic writer. I'm not convinced he is a great director, however. He's making a character/dialogue driven film but spent much of the first act using strange camera angles to tell a very simple story. His choices at times were very distracting from the effectiveness of the script. The performances, however, make up for it. Every one is making a huge deal about Viola Davis and I admit she was quite good. However, and maybe it's because I've been hearing for so long about how amazing she is, I didn't think she was quite as riveting as everyone else. Instead, in the supporting actress character, I felt Adams' more subdued and understated work was far more impressive. Then there's Streep and Hoffman and, like I said, they were pheneomenal in every way.
Grade: B+

Milk - There may be a more touching, gripping, emotional, politcally timely, perfect film released this year... but I haven't seen it. Milk is everything a movie should be. Directed by the fantastic Gus Van Sant (he has directed two of the best this year - Milk and Paranoid Park), Milk tells the true story of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), the first gay man elected to public office in the late 1970s in San Francisco. It follows his long journey to the top - where he ran for office numerous times, losing over and over again before finally winning and fighting for gay rights, human rights before being shot down by a disgruntled co-worker, Dan White (Josh Brolin). Milk surrounded himself with a group of young, empassioned followers who helped rally the gay community, including Cleve Jones (a fantastic Emile Hirsch), Anne Kronenberg (Alison Pill, the spitfire) and two boyfriends including the long suffering Scott (James Franco) and the needy and smothering Jack (Diego Luna). The script is face paced and well written. Van Sant sticks to straight directing, for the most part. However, there are a few of his little artsy moments thrown in there and it adds to the film, for sure. Whether he's directing art films or more mainstream work, Van Sant is one of the most daring and interesting directors working today. Of course, the cast is amazing. If all is right in the world (which, of course, it's not) the men of Milk could all but over run the Supporting Actor category. Franco, Brolin and especially Hirsch are all fantastic. But, of course, this is Penn's show and he embodies Harvey Milk like you wouldn't believe. Known for his moody and intense work, it's refreshing and lovely to see him play someone a little more carefree and emotionally open. His performance is Oscar worthy, for sure and I'd love to see him win a second Oscar. The best thing about Milk, however, is how very timely it is. With the recent passing of Prop 8 (which is much like the Proposition 6 that Harvey fights so tirelessly against in the film), it's clear to see that after thirty odd years, Harvey's fight is still not over. This movie should be a rally cry, a call to people to come together and stand up for gay rights, civil rights, human rights.
Grade: A+

Evening, Catch and Release (DVD)

Evening - There's one problem that most movies with flashback plots suffer from: one portion of the film is usually far more interesting than the other. Evening suffers from that same problem. Evening tells the story of a woman named Ann (Vanessa Redgrave) on her deathbed in present time. She is being tended to by her constantly fighting daughters Nina (Toni Collette) and Connie (Natasha Richardson). Connie has it all: the husband, the kids, the big fancy house. Nina is trying to get her life together. Every few years she finds herself with a new job and a new man. The two sisters struggle to rebuild their relationship while they watch their mother die. While on her death bed, Ann starts going on and on about people her daughters never met or heard of. She also starts remembering a certain weekend in her life where she learned a lot about friendship and love. The flashbacks are the more interesting story line here. It follows Young Ann (Claire Danes) who attends the fancy wedding of her best friend Lila (Mamie Gummer... Meryl Streep's daughter). While at the wedding, she finds herself in a sort of love triangle with her best friends little brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy) and the good-looking doctor Harris (Patrick Wilson) who also happens to be the love of Lila's life... although she's marrying someone else. Glenn Close shows up as Lila's uppity mother and Meryl Streep makes an appearance near the end as the elder Lila (how appropriate!). The performances, of course, are wonderful. How could they not be with a cast like this? Still, for all of these amazing women, guess who gives the best performance in the entire film? Hugh Dancy! He's a revelation. Where did this guy come from and how can he play a drunk with such charm and vulnerability? If I had any weight at all with Oscar voters, I would start putting it all behind Dancy right now. I really hope they remember him come December. The film itself is a little uneven. It goes from being utterly interesting to a tad boring. Of course, Toni Collette keeps things interesting in the present tense storyline. The flashbacks are the superior part of the film. Yet, eventhough it's a tad uneven, the writing and performances and script are strong enough to not mind all that much. Plus, the movie is an emotional ride. It's a chick flick of the greatest kind. It may not be the best movie of the year... or the summer for that matter... but's definitely worth your time.
Grade: B


Catch and Release - I had a friend warn me to stay away from this movie because it was surely one of the worst movies of the year. Maybe it's because my expectations were so utterly low (I was expecting something as bad as Evan Almighty here) but I didn't think the movie was really all that bad. I mean, it could have been worse. It could have suffered from not starring two charismatic and charming actors: Jennifer Garner and Timothy Olyphant. Sure, the script was absolutely far fetched but aren't most romantic comedies far fetched? Anyway, the story line follows Grey (Garner) whose fiancee dies just before her wedding. Instead of a reception, she has to go through a funeral instead. Soon after, she realizes she can't pay her rent without him so she moves in with his friends (one of whom is Kevin Smith... playing Kevin Smith... this is either a good or bad thing depending on how much you like Kevin Smith). Soon, she finds herself reluctantly falling in love with her dead fiancee's best friend (Olyphant) eventhough she hated him in the beginning. Juliette Lewis turns up as a woman the dead fiancee slept with and she has a violent son who may or may not be his illigitmate child. The scripts not perfect, the dialogue is lacking, it's not as funny as it thinks it is and all of the romantic comedy cliches are there. Still, it's not a terrible movie. There are times when it's entertaining and it's actually enjoyable enough to not bore you to tears.
Grade: C-