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kubo and the two strings

Yes, One Last Top Ten List

February 26, 2017 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

Yes, tonight is Oscar night

Yes, it’s the end of February.

Still, I wanted to wait until I’d seen enough of last year’s films to truly give a proper ‘Top Ten’ list… and that takes time.  While there were many films that could have been on here, I felt that these were my picks as the ten most engaging film experiences I had in 2016.  Do you agree?  What would be on yours?

10) Doctor Strange – I admit it.  Over the last two years, I’ve grown tired of Marvel’s overall repetitiveness.  While they often create interesting characters, they often lack in bringing anything particularly new.  Doctor Strange was the exception to the rule.  By introducing magic into the MCU, director Scott Derrickson also introduced a heart of spirituality that has often been lacking from the franchise.  It would take a lot for me to enter a Marvel film into my Top 10 but I couldn’t deny this pleasant surprise from an appearance.

9) Sing Street – This little rock n’ roll film film from the director of Once is pure joy.  The film moves along at a solid pace and the characters fit well with the world in which they exist.  Despite their youth, they struggle with the effects of poverty and tensions within 1980s Ireland but they find hope as the come together in their music.  Also, it’s a ton of fun.  And ‘Drive It Like You Stole It’ will stick in your head all day.

8) Kubo and the Two Strings – While this likely won’t win Best Animated Feature tonight, it really should.  This surprise is all about the power of our stories and how they drive us.  The animation is simply beautiful–given to look like paper themselves, re-emphasizing the story motif–and the film is simply amazing.  See it.

7) Birth of a Nation – Yes, it has it’s issue.  Yes, it’s controversial… but there’s a lot of good in this Braveheart-style film (which was, incidentally, ‘mentored’ by an uncredited Gibson.  Much of the backlash towards the film was related to writer/director Nate Parker but the film itself is focused and has much to say.  The story of Nat Turner is one that Parker wants you to experience and feel, and personally, I felt he accomplished this.  In addition, the film has lots to talk about who owns the Scripture, which I found very interesting.

6) Silence – This film breaks my heart–not because of the torture scenes of Christians but actually due to the lack of support it received from the Evangelical community.  Seen as one of the biggest bombs of Scorcese’s career, it really is only because people didn’t show up.  The quality of the film is superb and provides a riveting challenge to faith while also demonstrating the value of it.  Frankly, the church missed out on an amazing opportunity.  This film was brilliant.

5) Jackie – To me, this was undoubtedly one of the best scripts of the year.  Following Jackie Onassis on the week after JFK’s assassination, this character study was a fascinating exploration of the relationship between fame and politics.  Portman’s performance is, in my mind, the best lead actress of the year (though she likely won’t win the Oscar).  She plays Jackie O with ferocity and fragility and it’s truly something to see.

4) Hail, Caesar! – Clooney arguing the Communist dialectic.  Channing Tatum tap dancing on a table.  “Would that it t’were so simple?”  This Coen brother’s comedy is hilarious in its absurdity but also an interesting look at Hollywood’s connection with faith-based culture.  I laughed.  A lot.  And it earned them.  Definitely one of my favourites of the year.

3) Arrival – I love thoughtful sci-fi… and Denis Villeneuve… but this film earns the position based on it’s own merits as well.  While not truly a ‘twist’ ending, the film’s finale does bring everything together in an engaging and thought-provoking matter.  Plus, I found the exploration of language and suffering is moving.  I’d say more but the less you know before you see, the better.

2) La La Land – Yes, it’s good.  I’ll admit it.  I simply don’t get the emerging backlash against the film.  It’s fun, the music is wonderful and the performances engaging.  Chazelle proves yet again that his direction is something to be noticed and the set design is eye popping.  More importantly though, the story does have something to say by talking about the tension between nostalgia and moving forward.  Does it deserve 14 nominations?  I struggle with that… but it’s a worth Best Picture film should it take gold tonight.

1) Moonlight – No other picture surprised me as much as this film did this year.  Moving and powerful, Moonlight explores sexuality and masculinity in an urban African-American setting that is rarely explored.  The slow, panning camera let you feel each moment as Little grows to Chiron and transforms to Black.  In the end, this film simply gave me more to think about than any other film this year.

Filed Under: Film, TIFF Tagged With: Academy Awards, Amy Adams, Arrival, Birth of a Nation, Caesar!, Dr. Strange, Hail, Jackie, kubo and the two strings, La La Land, Moonlight, Oscars, Silence

The Best Animated Film of 2016

January 3, 2017 by Jacob Sahms 1 Comment

Last week, the staff of ScreenFish had a lively debate about animated flicks in 2016. We couldn’t agree on which one was best – but given that I’d seen more of them than not, I felt compelled to argue. That left me with this list of films from 2016 – and the reasons behind them. Counting up from the bottom, I present you with the least (and most) worthwhile animated flicks of 2016.

ratchet

In the “Don’t Waste Your Time Department”…

#12 Ratchet & Clank. I’m not sure what just happened.

ice-age-collision-course

#11 Ice Age: Collision Course. Seriously, does everyone still love Raymond (Romano)?

norm

#10 Norm of the North. I bet 97% of you have never heard of this one.

angry

We Were Compelled But We Shouldn’t Have Been…

#9 Angry Birds the Movie. I get it, he gets angry. But did we just make that a positive character trait?

panda

#8 Kung Fu Panda 3. Were we actually worried about where Po’s dad was? He’s not a crane?

slop5

You Know You Want To, But Then The Trailer Said It All…

#7 Secret Life of Pets. Seriously, the cat slayed eating out of the fridge. But there wasn’t any additional laughs, and the story didn’t have an emotional payoff.

FINDING DORY

#6 Finding Dory. Ellen DeGeneres is regularly solid; the idea of all of these animals overcoming disability was truly a solid message. It just wasn’t funny.

sing

In Any Other Year, They Would Have Been Amazing …

#5 Sing. American Idol meets Animal Farm … or something. The soundtrack rocked; the ‘find your voice’ message was powerful. Again, not enough laughs to be top dog.

storks2#4 Storks. Funny throughout, with excellent reminders about family. In another year, I’d be raving about it.

I Have to Rank Them But These Are All Great…

kubo#3 Kubo. This is the best animation that I saw all year. The stormy seas, the snow, the fur on the white monkey. The end, community reconciliation and restoration, is as powerful as the end of any live-action film I saw this year. Unfortunately, the lead-up story suffers a bit with predictability.

moana3#2 Moana. Arnaldo’s favorite animated flick of 2016, this one has an awesome story to tell about call and stepping up when others fail to lead. Mark Henn’s animation is solid and it’s funny … sometimes. I found the ending to be a bit slow but still powerful in meaning.

zootopia3

#1 Zootopia. While it’s in the trailer, the sloth scene gets me every time. Like, reduces me to tears. If it doesn’t make you laugh, you’ve never been to the DMV. But the story of the community made up of individuals/races/subgroups who all bring their own strength and have to learn to work together? Geez, I wish we could’ve watched that as a national community right before heading to the ballots. There’s much here to consider about immigration, call, strength, grace, duty, honor, and, dare I say, faith.

Filed Under: DVD, Featured, Film, Reviews Tagged With: Angry Birds, Ice Age Collision Course, kubo and the two strings, Kung Fu Panda 3, Moana, Norm of the North, Ratchet & Clank, Secret Life of Pets, Sing, storks, The Rock, zootopia

The Best Films of 2016 (Updated)

December 15, 2016 by Jacob Sahms 1 Comment

deadpool
This year, there are no blockbusters, no Marvel superheroes, on my list of my favorite films. This year, the films that caught my eye – and held onto my imagination, days later – weren’t the ones with the biggest budgets, or even always the most-known cast and crew. This year, the films were films that captured my heart thanks to the power of their story, the visual presentation of their message, and the size of heart that that they conveyed.

Film criticism is a lot like politics in the media – everyone has an opinion, but they think they’re objective. [Seriously, Trolls holds a better Rotten Tomatoes score than Allied, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them, and Collateral Beauty? C’mon, people. Trolls are just little plastic guys from a 1980s fad – or are we rating Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick?]

So, with apologies to Benedict Cumberbatch, and that unkillable antihero Deadpool, here are my top ten for 2016, trimmed down from the 135 films I saw. We won’t all agree, but we have to start somewhere.

hf

Hidden Figures is the best film I didn’t see coming. Thanks to solid performances and an incredibly bold story about faith, race, power, dreams, and engineering, it left me in tears – laughing and crying at the same time. When several women dream about breaking the glass ceiling of race and gender, they literally put a man on the moon. Octavia Spencer, Tariji B. Henson, and Janelle Monae provide a film that inspires and entertains.

 

unknowns

At Arlington National Cemetery, Tomb Guards or Sentinels keep watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier twenty-four hours a day, 365 days of the year, regardless of weather. In Ethan Morse’s film, The Unknowns, we were treated to an inside look at how the men of The Old Guard, a select unit from the U.S. Army, serve. With simple interviews, ‘live’ shots of the work these men do in front of the public and behind closed doors, the film carries with it a reminder that our flag still waves thanks to the bravery of some whose names will never be known. Months later, I am still reminded of its beauty, both in pure patriotism but also in faith – faith that one day, war will end and all people will be free.

 

rogue-one-jyn-ersa-geared-up

Bumping The Accountant from the list, Rogue One, a Star Wars Story proved to be the best film I’ve seen from the Rebel Alliance in thirty years. While the field has been increased – we finally have a non-Skywalker family drama – the power of the Force remained strong. With ample banter about faith, a wildly diverse cast, and a story that squeaks in at Film #3.5, we had a prequel to A New Hope with plenty of time to spare.

 

kubo

Startling in its animation, thanks to the beauty of Laika’s stop-motion  capture, Kubo & the Two Strings spins a fantasy adventure around a one-eyed boy and his epic adventure to thwart his grandfather’s evil plan. Accompanied by a giant beetle (Matthew McConaughey) and a snow monkey (Charlize Theron), the young boy goes questing. With fewer laughs and more intensity than you might expect from a ‘kid’s cartoon,’ Kubo asks us to consider how we forgive, and what it means to care for our ancestors as they age. In a wonderful way, the fantastical road trip morphs into deeper explorations about life, death, and where we go from here.

 

birthofanation

While it was impossible to watch The Birth of a Nation without considering the allegations against the story’s creators, Nate Parker and Jean McGianni Celestin, it was equally impossible to watch the film blind to the racial unrest in the United States almost two hundred years after the Nat Turner rebellion. Powerful in its simplicity, poignant in its relational dynamics, and spiritual in its evaluation of the use of religion to control, direct, and comfort, Parker’s film is haunting in its violence, and its awareness of the latent power of racism. While Turner was himself a preacher, the film’s use of Scripture from both sides stirred and troubled my soul.

 

insanity

This year, two documentaries captured my attention, with The Insanity of God shining a light on the family of missionary Nik Ripken as he struggled with his faith after great tragedy. While this is Ripken’s story, it is also the story of others who bled and died for the gospel, told unflinchingly. I’ll never forget Ripken’s own admission, after interviewing others persecuted for their faith: “Now, I’m in deeper danger, because the Bible is coming alive. Satan had tricked me into believing that the Bible was an old book, with things that God used to do. And here I was experiencing the Bible in the present tense, with the things God did coming alive.” A movie that will surely ask you to consider what you believe, and what you would do to pursue your faith.

 

midnightspecial

What would you do to protect your child? What sacrifices would you make if you saw how beautiful, special, or powerful they were that no one else understood? Those are the questions that Midnight Special poses, thanks to writer/director Jeff Nichols’ emotionally wrestling with his own son’s mortality. In a stripped-down sci-fi exploration that would make Philip K. Dick or Steven Spielberg proud, the director of Loving gives us another chance to unpack our own humanity.

 

hellorhighwater

On the surface, Hell or High Water is a Jesse James/Butch Cassidy & Sundance kind of Western lark, set in the present. But thanks to Taylor Sheridan’s script, we explore the aging process of Jeff Bridges’ senior Texas Ranger and the us-against-the-system dynamics of two brothers, Toby and Tanner (Chris Pine and Ben Foster). [Ironically, I don’t always enjoy Foster’s movies, but he always impresses with his performance.] While there’s a bit of clever banter and action/adventure, the film’s heart is driving at the financial crisis of America and the futility for some when trying to improve themselves. Who is the villain here in this spiritual parable about love and grace? The bank and its overarching line of credit.

 

zootopia

It was a good year to be animated, and Zootopia was the crown jewel. I declared it a candidate for Best Film of the Year when I walked out of the debut, and it didn’t miss by much. Disney’s film about a ‘utopia’ where animals are divided into different boroughs, showed kids and adults alike what it meant to fight and get along. While the struggle was real, it also blended in some lessons about what it means to follow your dream – and be who you’re supposed to be even when others say you shouldn’t. In our bipartisan day and age, Zootopia asked us to consider whether we could love each other for what we brought to the table, rather than manipulating each other for what we could get out of it.

 

hacksawridge

My most anticipated film of the year – Hacksaw Ridge – did everything I hoped it would. Challenging patriotism, courage, and pacifism, the film asked us to consider the stances we take, and that others make, and how we respond to them. While faith was front and center, it still felt subtle – and somehow, more powerful. Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of Desmond Doss tied the legend of the Medal of Honor winner to a story that felt real and grounded. Mel Gibson’s direction plus Terry Benedict’s research? This is one I hope to hear talked about next spring.

What did I miss? What do you need to see now? What criteria would you use instead? Post below and share your thoughts.

[Editor’s note: I still haven’t seen Collateral Beauty, Loving, Rogue One, or Sing as I write this. Edits pending?]

Filed Under: Current Events, DVD, Editorial, Featured, Film Tagged With: accountant, Birth of a Nation, Deadpool, Desmond Doss, Dr. Strange, Hacksaw Ridge, hell or high water, insanity of god, Jeff Bridges, kubo and the two strings, Marvel, Mel Gibson, Midnight Special, Moana, Rogue One, storks, the unknowns, Walt Disney, zootopia

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