Didn't see a specific movie thread for any of these movies, so I posted my thoughts and ratings here.
Brooklyn -
Very well made movie and well acted movie. Saoirse Ronan gives one of the year’s best performances as an immigrant trying to adjust to life in the U.S. while also finding love. What I particularly liked about this movie was it had heart and soul. This is mostly due to the lead performances and a simple but effective story. While the story is simple to the point of predictable, I was never bored in this movie and most characters were very likable. And while this is a very good movie and I’m not opposed to the Oscar love it’s getting, I doubt it will win much and it’s on the lower end of the Best Picture nominees. Go see if you like classic, simple stories of romance and new beginnings.
The Big Short -
I was curious how a mostly comedic director like McKay could pull off a semi dramatic movie like this. And he did and he didn’t. He did because this movie was really good and entertaining, but he didn’t because the strengths of this movie are it’s comedic factors, which is not surprising coming from McKay. So McKay converted a pretty dry, subject into a entertaining film, so credit to him for doing so.
The Big Short is in the same vein as Wolf of Wall Street (though I enjoyed Wolf way more) in that there is tons of dark humor, greedy protagonists and a financial backdrop. The 4th wall breaking in this movie will either make or break the movie for you. For me, I loved it, so I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. With such a A list cast, it was hard to see this living up to expectations, but it did for me. Out of all the Best Picture nominees, this is the easily one for mainstream audiences to watch in my opinion. Humor was good and the 4th wall breaking interactions and cameos were very good. Made a very boring recent event very watchable and enjoyable.
Victoria -
This is a drama/suspense German film that was done in one shot. Reading up on Wiki, it looks like it really was a one shot movie, so that in itself is impressive. Without too much spoilers, it involves a young girl getting meeting a few strangers at a club one night and following them on their spontaneous adventure. This movie is a technical marvel considering it was one shot and the amount of work all these actors put in was amazing. It’s one of those movies that will make you ponder how much insane planning was involved to make it happen. The one shot is very effective in many scenes and there is definitely great tension and suspense throughout.
My gripes with the movie comes from the very slow beginning. The first 40 minutes, while it does help introduce key players, isn’t very interesting and I think could have been shortened. The characters themselves were very naïve and stupid throughout which made it hard to like them, but that was probably the intent of the writers. And while the one shot is amazing, if you were to take away this aspect of the movie and make this a traditionally filmed movie, it would not be nearly as appealing. So the appeal in this movie almost purely lies in the difficult technical side of filmmaking versus the story side, which isn’t a bad thing to me. Try not to spoil the plot for yourself, grind through the first 40 minutes and enjoy the ride.
. What a mash up of sci-fi/horror/thriller genres. If anyone haven't watched this yet, go watch it. The less you know, the better.
