Seen Any Good Movies Lately?

Well CODA won the Oscar for Best Picture.  And Will Smith won Best Smacktor! 

What a spectacle that was!!!  😦

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (aka the Academy Awards / Oscars) released their nominations today.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/movies/2022-oscars-nominees-list.html

Of the 10 nominated films, I've seen only 5 so far:

• Nightmare Alley ✓, Don't Look Up ✓, Dune ✓, The Power of the Dog ✓, King Richard ✓
• Drive My Car,  Belfast and CODA are on my watch list.  I can't get Licorice Pizza or West Side Story right now.

I think the toughest categories will be Best Performance by leading Actor and Actress. My personal favorites:

• Will Smith in King Richard.
• Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
• Nicole Kidman & Javiar Bardeem in Being the Ricardos.
• Benedict Cumberbatch in The Power of the Dog.
• Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Spider-man: No Way Home received a nomination for Best Visual Effects along with Dune, Free Guy, No Time to Die and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Now streaming on Netflix, "The Power of the Dog" is written and directed by Jane Campion ("The Piano"), starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemmons and Kodi Smit-McPhee. 

Campion juxtaposes beauty with brutality in this highly visual story about a domineering rancher (Cumberbatch) in 1925 Montana who responds with mocking cruelty when his brother (Plemmons) brings home a new wife (Dunst) and her "sensitive" son (Smit-McPhee).   Good performances and very nice cinematography.  B

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10293406/

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We also revisted Ingmar Bergman's epic fantasy/drama "The Seventh Seal" on HBO MAX about a knight (Max Von Sydow) returning home to Sweden during the black plague and playing chess with the angel of death.  Despite it's 65 year age, "The Seventh Seal" still holds up today!  A++

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/

Recently I've actually seen Spiderman no way home which was suprisingly fresh. The last James Bond movie almost made me cry, and I've been listening to "No time to die," by Billie Ellish ever since. Don't worry I don't spoil. 

I also ended up watching Hotel Translyvania:4 I laughed outloud at the title and the ridicoulus series continued. Not as terrible as I thought it'd be but still not the greatest. 

I really want to go see American Underdog no-spoilers. 

I recently watched one from a couple of years ago - News of the World

I highly recommend it. Good acting, engaging story and an overall atmosphere that pulls you in.

Just one https://youtu.be/g4Hbz2jLxvQ

My favourite so far has definitely been Spiderman No Way Home. I've seen it in the cinema 3 times already and would gladly go for a 4th. So much fan service, I cried and laughed within minutes and they made it work well. 

I also watched Free Guy and while I wasn't expecting much, I had a lot of fun!

I'm excited to see things like Moonfall etc... But this year, I haven't seen anything.