Best Picture 2019: Part II

Green Book

Racism is bad, buddy road movies are good, and few show that better than Green Book. In many senses, it's too formulaic and adheres to too many stereotypical scenarios and characters but the chemistry onscreen is electric. Mortensen and Ali are both on brilliant form and it is the way they work together that really lends Green Book its success.

Green Book manages to be powerful in the issues it portrays but also funny and heartwarming. That may seem like it would undermine the severity of racism but it actually emphasises the contrast in the way successful African Americans were (and are) treated. The film has been riddled with some scandals - some more scandalous than others - but that shouldn't detract you from the fact that this is a good, mostly well crafted, film. That being said, its biggest weakness is not anything that happens on screen, but rather that none of that is hugely memorable. There's nothing bold here and it causes Green Book to slowly fade into a cinematic mist of similarly well-intentioned but safe film-making.

Roma

A cinematic love letter, in part to Cuarón's home country of Mexico, and in part to the language of film making. An emotive, powerful piece of cinema that never drifts through life, but purposefully captures the unfolding events of a young maid's life.

Roma has everything one could ask for (except colour, I suppose). Its shot in beautifully crisp black and white (rivalled only by this year's Cold War), holding its gaze and refusing to cut away. The camera pans with characters as they navigate relationships with one another, balancing employment and class. Cuarón isn't afraid to let things sit for a moment, allowing the audience to fully absorb everything in front of them. Similarly, he introduces details that seem small or insignificant and grows them into a full and powerful climax without the need for constant action, CGI magic, or big names to make it captivating. This love letter is written to ask its lover, the viewers, to come home and remember what made them fall in love with cinema to begin with.

The Favourite

What happens when you take a director known for a film about single people being turned into animals and have them direct a period piece about a 1700s queen and the ladies in her court? You get The Favourite; a daring and dizzying display of regal ridiculousness captured with whip pans and a fish-eye lens.

The Favourite boasts stunning performance from its three leading ladies, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, and Olivia Coleman. They are all devilish and controlling but also weak at times which opens up opportunities for power struggles to emerge, and these struggles are the backbone of the narrative. This is a weird world of duck and lobster racing, of sapphic love-making, and of rotten fruit throwing Torys but its absurdity never feels out of place or unneeded. This is the world Lanthimos has created in order to tell this story, this foul-mouthed reality is not so different from our own and it is the best reality to tell this story.

Blackklansman

Blacksploitation films may have faded out of popular culture (and probably for good reasons) but if there were one man to play with the genre, it would be Spike Lee. The veteran director is back with a fun recreation of a completely bizarre police case.

The concept alone, a black man infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan, seems ridiculous but there is a reality here Lee wants to present. From the moment the screen flicks into life, you can feel Lee's purposeful hand guiding the viewer, using cinema as a point of focus. Scenes from Gone With The Wind and Birth of a Nation grace the screen before anything happens, putting the slave-driving South (particularly that glorified in celluloid) in the audience's mind immediately. The rest of the story is fun, dramatic, and well performed but don't let the light tone and historic setting fool you. Lee closes as purposefully as he opens, jumping forward to the present and showing the viewer cars ploughing through crowds of black protestors, reminding us that racism is not dead and in fact, racism still kills.

Oscars 2019: Part I

A Quiet Place

Alfred Hitchcock has long been deemed the 'King of Suspense' and many have tried to topple him from his throne. With so many worthy suiters, who would ever have thought that Jim from The Office would be one of those vying for the crown, but John Krasinski is more than a sitcom goofball. Director, writer, producer, and star - Krasinski takes 90 minutes and makes them unrelenting and unforgiving.

Featuring stunning performances from Krasinski, Blunt, Simmonds, and Jupe - a.k.a. the whole cast - a near immaculate screen-play, and sound-design to die for, A Quiet Place is a breakthrough for a promising young director. Also, it grabs the award for the best opening in years; if you're not gripped by it, then film-watching may not be for you.

Ready Player One

Steven Spielberg, one of history's most defining and versatile directors, is no stranger to the Oscars. He's won a couple, directed a couple of actors to win them, and been nominated for a couple of handfuls more. Whilst his eyes are normally on bigger prizes than Best Visual Effects, Ready Player One is a fun return to family magic for the veteran director. Set in a desolate future where a virtual reality system, Oasis, consumes everyone's times and lives, people (or rather their avatars) compete within the game to find the late creator's keys which open the doors to his enormous fortune.

Jumping in and out of its magnificent digital landscape, Ready Player One is a feast for the eyes. Almost immediately we're in the midst of a chaotic and reckless race; long lingering shots of computer generated mayhem dominate the screen and it is glorious. The narrative, whilst at times is contrived, is timely - grounded in the digital age - and littered with pop culture references. Occasionally this is the film's greatest strength (a particular scene should not be 'Overlooked'), but it may make the film irrelevant in five years time. For now though, it's a treat to be enjoyed today.

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Ralph Breaks the Internet is, to put it generously, a confused follow up to a great original. It doesn’t seem to know who it is appealing to; do the kids care about ebay’s bidding process, for example. It’s jokes about memes or YouTube videos being all about babies and cats are not satirical, but outdated. If there is a commentary about culture’s obsession with the internet, it’s lost amongst the backdrop of corporate identities and Disney’s intellectual properties. The film has no problem being explicit (it’s presentation of Ralph’s insecurities are like being slapped with a wet fish) but it never really approaches its subject matter with any sort of commentary or, more worryingly for a family film, any joy. At two hours in length, it’s overlong, underwhelming, and misguided.

RBG


Telling the story of a great woman does not a great documentary make. A good, if not simple, documentary that tells a great and important story, however, that may do. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the notorious RBG, is one of the most inspiring women in the United States and her story is one that people should know. That's where RBG comes in. It's a well structured, well presented documentary that fulfils its aims and its supreme subject's bubbling personality and fiery determination make for good watching.