2015 Year in Review

I'm still catching up on a lot of the Oscar noms this year. For instance, I still have to see The Hateful 8 and The Martian. But here are my thoughts on the movies of 2015:

Overview

What a competitive Oscar season! And so many Sci-fi/special effects/action-heavy movies competing for the same awards against the traditional "Oscar bait" pictures. I love that Mad Max Fury Road, The Revenant, and Star Wars The Force Awakens are all competing for a lot if the same categories. And they're actually competitive! Who's going to win Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Sound? They're all anyone's game. Even Best Picture and Director could easily go to Mad Max, The Revenant, or The Big Short, and I would not be angry about any of them winning.

Another thing I find amazing about this year is that we have three films that are so unanimously reviewed. Everybody I talk to in real life and every review I read or hear gives the same likes and dislikes for Mad Max, The Revenant, and The Force Awakens. I've never seen films so universally enjoyed by critics and audiences. That's not to say these films are without problems, but, rather, everyone recognizes the problems and likes the films anyway for what they did well.

So, that said, let's make some lists, because the internet loves lists.

Top 5 Personal Favorites of 2015
1) Mad Max Fury Road
2) Jurassic World (don't hate!)
3) Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
4) Bridge of Spies
5) The Peanuts Movie

Top 5 Disappointments of 2015
1) Spectre
2) Inside Out
3) Avengers: Age of Ultron
4) Black Mass
5) Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Top 5 I Missed and Want to See
1) Ex Machina
2) The Martian
3) The Hateful 8
4) Ant Man
5) The Heart of the Sea (I think? Based on what my dad said about it?)

Top 5 I'm Looking Forward to in 2016
1) Rogue One
2) Captain America: Civil War
3) 10 Cloverfield Lane
4) The Jungle Book
5) Star Trek Beyond
Honorable Mention: Swing State (because it's the feature is just finished working on)

Thank you for reading, and here's to 2016.

Black Mass: or I still can't stand Boston Accents

I went into Black Mass having seen no Trailers. I'd seen posters and heard a little hype from friends and NPR, so I knew it was the "Whitey Bulger" story. Not knowing very much about the Bulger story, the historian part of me was pretty engaged.

The acting was just as good as you'd imagine from that cast list. Johnny Depp gave an amazing performance, breaking out of the Jack Sparrow rut he's been in since 2003. Benedict Cumberbatch does a Boston accent that's very nearly believable, and he does a great job in a supporting role, never stealing the screen as he often dies. It's neat to watch Adam Scott hold his own amongst so many accomplished dramatic actors, however he doesn't get enough screen time to truly cut his teeth.

That said, none of the characters are deeply explored. They're barely shallowly explored. No one has a character arc. No one changes. The movie suffers from classic biopic syndrome, presenting a series of factual events and failing to present them within properly structured plot arc. You find yourself watching a brief history lesson rather than a story. Like most biopics, the film cuts off with little resolution.

While Depp's performance and the history aspect were enough to keep me engaged for the duration, overall I found the movie entirely forgettable. If I want a compelling, "true-life" crime movie, I'll watch Goodfellas again.

The movie was also a constant reminder of why and how much I dislike Boston. Their accent, their culture, their arrogant, xenophobic, exclusionary sense of self-entitlement: Sorry, Boston, but you have yet to win any affection from me.

My one sentence review:
"Black Mass" is two hours of great actors playing disappointingly-written characters in little snippets of some of a plot.