Category Archives: Movie Reviews

“AGE OF ADALINE” (2015) Lionsgate

04/23/2015 Peggy Marie 2 Comments

Release date: Friday, April 24th, 2015

The Age of Adaline plays like preposterous story, booby-trapped for maximal ridiculousness, with little tasteful conviction and is far from the tearjerker suggested by the trailer. While it’s not entirely an unpleasant film, it is more than a bit dull, reining in the inherent silliness of its material and taking few risks — in other words..Sappy, Sappy and then more Sap. Throw in some absolutely terrible dialogue and some mediocre acting and you have yourself “The Age of Adaline.” While the plot might be unrealistic, at least it’s based on something a lot of us might actually wish could happen, whereas the actual dialogue is not even something the bigger stars of this film can save, and it’s hard to watch that kind of talent be forced to actually repeat this script.

As we plod through this story of “Adaline Bowman” (Blake Lively) a woman who has miraculously remained youthful 29 years old while actually being 109 years of age, they never pull us inside Adaline’s head space or make the premise, which could actually be interesting if done well, meaningful. For example, they never really delve into the fact that the character is being a woman at once old and young at the same time..Instead, they stick to a fairly bland romantic storyline, reducing Adaline’s presumably terrifying, enlightening experience to a predictable choice between following her head or her heart.

In this little ditty of sappy movie gone bad, Adaline has remained ageless for nearly eight decades due to a freak lightening storm-car accident combination that happened to her. After years of a solitary life of never allowing anyone to get close to her lest they find out her big secret, lo and behold, on a completely ‘chance’ encounter..she meets a man, a charismatic philanthropist named “Ellis Jones” (Michiel Huisman) on a one-night stand and yep, you guessed it, he immediately falls in love with her..literally within 12hrs and wisks her away to his parents house in the country to meet them. Because yeah, that always happens. Without giving to much away, it turns out his father, “William Jones” (Harrison Ford) might already know her. Cathy Baker is “Connie Jones” Ellis’ mother and she can see something is up from moment one, but neither one of these good actors can save the really awful dialogue they are made to spout out.

If you haven’t figured out by now or what’s going to happen next while cringing in your seat, well, then this film is perfect for you. And yes, I know there is a niche’ audience for these types of films, and I can roll with that. What I can’t roll with is bad writing and while Blake Lively has done some really good supporting turns in such films as The Town, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Savages, she cannot yet carry an entire film as not even Ellen Burstyn as her ‘daughter’ “Flemming” can save this confected cream puff of a melodrama. This film never lunges into four-hankie territory, nor does it melt into Nicholas Sparks type corny romance. It had potential, sadly they missed it.

Screening at AMC Century City 15 ~ Wednesday, April 15th, 2015
Grade: D
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Biography, Drama, Movie Reviews, Movies

“WOMAN IN GOLD” ~ (2015) Weinstein Co.

04/03/2015 Peggy Marie 3 Comments

I’m not an emotional film-goer and also don’t get to personal a lot with my reviews. I rarely, if ever, cry during a film. It’s just how I am. I’m not a ‘cold’ person and things move me, but I think it’s because sometimes I feel like I’ve seen it before or it simply has to move me in a way that others before it have not. The Imitation Game moved me because I felt as though it directly affected me personally being as I am originally from the Netherlands and in all likelihood, had Alan Turing & his team not come around, my parents, and even I, might not have existed. This film was like that for me as it moved me in that same type of way and yes, I cried. Does it make me give it a higher grade based on all this.. yeah I think it does, but then I can do that! 🙂

The story was so profound to me and memories of stories my family has told me of the horrors of the war, well it’s just something that whenever there is a film like this, it makes it all to realistic for me and I’m sure many others also.

It begins with “Maria Altmann” (Helen Mirren), an elderly Jewish refugee, who sees a notice that the Austrian government has finally decided to return famous works of art that the Nazi’s had stolen back at the beginning of World War II. She finds a young lawyer, “Randol Schoenberg” (Ryan Reynolds), his grandfather being the composer Arnold Schoenberg, who escaped to the United States after the Nazis declared his music be degenerate based on the fact he was Jewish, takes on the government to recover specifically, a painting of her Aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer aka the Woman in Gold, and other artwork by Gustav Klimt, she believes rightfully belongs to her family. With the help of an Austrian reporter played by Daniel Bruhl, they set out to do exactly that. By the time the film starts it’s story in 1998, the painting had literally had become one of their biggest tourist attractions. You went to Vienna, you had your coffee, you went to the opera and you went to see the Klimt ‘Woman In Gold’ painting. So as a lawyer says in the film, “You think a painting that ends up as a refrigerator magnet will ever leave Austria?”

As the story unfolds we see the wonderful Tatiana Maslany as the young “Maria” and Max Irons does a decent turn as her young opera singer husband “Fritz” and we watch as they make their escape from Austria.

Woman in Gold can be a bit wooden, and the acting by Mirren carries the picture, but Ryan Reynolds is truly not bad, though Katie Holmes as his wife “Pam” really offers nothing in a very small role. All in all the film shows great respect for its story and the Old World which Altmann and her attorney must revisit to make this case happen, and though she had vowed she to never return, she does, as well as the modern life she made for herself in Los Angeles with a small clothing shop she owned and worked at until her passing at age 94 in 2011. The scenes of a Vienna long past showed in flashbacks, are some of the best in the film. Altmann goes to the house where she grew up, which is now a commercial space, and we see as she imagines her family as they were on her wedding night, and even dances beside the guests and her younger self ~ yes, more teary moments for me.

I didn’t do any research into this film before seeing it and I highly recommend you don’t either. The story that unfolds will not leave you as you leave the theatre and that’s because shit like this is still going on. Austria and the Vatican..yes, the Vatican, still hold the largest cache of stolen Nazi art that they deny they have and will never give back, but also never share it with the world because that would be admitting what they did. And we know that’s never going to happen. And we should be so much more angry about than we are. As my family always said, they try to tell you it’s in the past and to get over it, but you can’t and you can never ever forget either. I haven’t and I never will. This movie reminded me to never do so. I hope it does you also.

Grade: B-
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Comedy, Movie Reviews, Movies

“GET HARD” (2015) ~ Warner Bros.

03/26/2015 Peggy Marie 5 Comments

I didn’t go into this screening with magically high hopes for a genius comedy here, I think you know from the trailer that’s not what you’re going to get, but I was looking for a few laughs. And it completely delivers on that aspect as that’s pretty much exactly what you get ~ ‘a few laughs’ ~ but then you can probably guess that from the trailer also.

So the best way for me to possibly describe Get Hard is to call it a socially acceptable racial observation humor disguised as a buddy flick. We’ve seen this formula before in comedies that worked really well like Blazing Saddles, Stir Crazy or 48 Hours. All funny movies..but time has made the landscape different nowadays and I hear the movie is getting some backlash for this exact reason. Basically the movie looks at how different races and social classes perceive each other through the eyes of stereotypical white, black & hispanic characters. The only thing I can say is just relax and realize this is just supposed to be entertainment not a social study on life today and if you can’t do that, which I understand also, then this probably isn’t the film you should go see.

We start off with Will Ferrell as “James King” an ultra rich stock broker who is engaged to his boss’ “Martin” (Craig T. Nelson) daughter “Alissa” (Allison Brie). Everything in life is going swimmingly for him it seems, that is until James is arrested for multiple counts of fraud ala Bernie Madoff. Unlike Madoff, James is actually completely innocent and as he refuses to take a plea deal, he ends up with a maximum sentence of ten years in San Quentin State Prison with the Judge giving him thirty days to settle all his affairs. Knowing that he has a huge probability of something happening to him in jail, he hires the only black guy he knows, “Darnell” the guy who washes his car played by Kevin Hart. James also just assumes Darnell has been to prison just because he’s black, but because Darnell needs the money to move into a new house, he just follows along with this line of thinking as it looks like an easy street to get the money he needs. Darnell now has less than thirty days to get James prepared for the next ten years of his life in prison..but remember it’s a life he really knows nothing about having truthfully never been to jail or even gotten so much as a parking ticket.

The movie is filled with quite a few outrageous and somewhat memorable scenes mostly involving the ‘prison training’ of Ferrell’s character King. The movie starts with Ferrell’s ass in your face and it never backs down at trying to be funny (key word = trying), though a lot of it is oh-so-obligatory comedy rounds. I don’t want to spoil any of the funny scenes, as they are mostly during the first half of the film with one scene in particular that did have almost everyone (including me) gut laughing in their seats. But after that, I mostly just did a lot of eye-rolling at how just bad & dumb some of it really was.

The biggest fault of Get Hard is that it was completely & utterly predictable. The moment Ferrell is sentenced to jail, it was quite obvious why he was arrested in the first place. The movie did have one or two original scenes/situations, but they were also pretty much by the ‘comedy’ book with the once again obligatory cliched moments of stereotypical racial and gay jokes. We all get it, all rich white people think blacks are criminals and gay people all meet up in public to give each other oral sex..blah blah blah..

The one highlight for me was that Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart really DO work fantastically together. I’m not going to lie, but I wasn’t expecting much from this movie but what absolutely makes this movie work even somewhat is due to the performances of Ferrell and Hart. Not that these guys aren’t funny..but let’s be truthful, both of them have played the same character over & over in most of their last few films. They thankfully went against some of their usual schtick of Hart screaming everything & the “Kevin Hart short jokes” which are just tired, were barely acknowledged As usual, Will Ferrell is a lunatic. He goes all out being over the top, but not in an obnoxious way. Hart is more of a straight man to Ferrell and that to me, is what made this relationship work well. T.I. as Darnell’s cousin “Russell” also does a quick turn here as leader of the ‘Crenshaw Kings’ whom Darnell comes to for advice and James actually tries to join when he shows them legit stock market tips and gets the street name moniker of ‘Mayo’ in a couple of fun, lighter moments.

I wouldn’t say that Get Hard is anything close to rip-roaring, gut-busting hilarious, nor is it trying to reinvent the comedy wheel..but it has it’s funny moments and if you are fans of either Ferrell or Hart and looking to kill an hour and a half or so at the movies, then you will be fine. But go in with an open mind because remember, it’s just supposed to be comedy not a discussion of social problems and if you can go in with that mindset, I think it does what it sets out to do and that’s try to make people laugh.

Grade: C
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Action, Action Adventure, Adventure, Movie Reviews, Movies, political, Spy Thriller, Thriller

REVIEW ~ “THE GUNMAN” (2015)

03/25/2015 Peggy Marie 8 Comments

So does Sean Penn want to be Liam Neeson… or does Liam Neeson wish he was Sean Penn.. either way, this film is the sadly the first one. “The Gunman” is from the same Director as ‘Taken’ & ‘From Paris With Love’(Pierre Morel) could easily have almost been called “Taken in Barcelona via the Congo” or “From Barcelona With Love.” Clearly the guy has a certain directing style. Too bad it didn’t work here with this stellar cast that puts Sean Penn as “Martin Terrier” a sniper on a mercenary assassination team in the Congo pretending to work for an NGO, who is forced to go into hiding after a successful kill shot puts him on a hit list.

Though Sean Penn does a really capable job of doing the action hero thingy here as his physicality is dammed impressive and he’s definitely believable in the part. It also helps that he’s in absolutely amazing shape for a man his age and definitely seems like he has skills built up over his career which works for him here. His story is somewhat convoluted though..told in that tortured soul way that sometimes just doesn’t make sense even though he’s somewhat straight to the point kinda guy, which I liked. There is also a decent enough subplot going on a medical condition Terrier has which plays off in a pretty cool way throughout the film, most especially at the end but all in all, this is not a particularly good film or even an entertaining one.

While I am a huge fan of some of the co-stars here..though none of them with the exception of Jasmine Trinca as the love interest “Annie” of first Terrier, then with Javier Bardem’s character of “Felix”, have much to do. Felix, whom I guess we could say is a ‘co-worker’ of Terrier, is really wasted in this role as he plays it in such a manner you just want to cringe and not in a good way. The one final scene between the characters is almost flat out silly.

Both Mark Rylance “Cox” & Ray Winstone “Stanley” are satisfying enough in their respective roles as they interact well with Penn and hold their own – though I would have liked a bit more of a back story on their characters and when it does come, it’s almost as if it’s too late in the game for it. And let’s be truthful, no one does that bad-assed, grizzled, no BS English tough guy like Ray Winstone does.. It’s just never wrong. Sadly Idris Elba as “DuPont” an Interpol agent who wants Terrier to do a tell-all, is just basically a if-you-blink-you-miss-him character at the very end.

Though Annie is Penn’s AND Bardem’s love interest here.. Terrier had to leave her behind when he had to go into hiding per the ‘rules’ of the assassin’s creed they had. But truly, she has very little to her character and only seems to exist to be one of those helpless way-to-young for either guy, woman characters with a pretty face. She and Penn don’t really have all that great chemistry and I doubt the film would change much or you would even notice if her character wasn’t in it.

Structurally the film was a little strange and again as noted, convoluted. For the longest time it seemed like it was going to be a thriller but then turned into an action film about halfway through. The two halves of the film don’t really seem to add up or connect together so any scenes not building up to an action sequence feel a little like they are just killing time for the sake of the films run time. At times the plot seemed lost and overly complicated for what ultimately amounts to just a series of shoot outs.

The action scenes were impressive enough and had some good diversity to them in terms of location. The ending action scene in a bullfighting arena is pretty damn awesome if not a bit gruesome. I really don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it before and might be the films only redeeming point to make it worth a watch…on VOD or DVD that is..

Grade: C-
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Adventure, awards, Biography, Comedy, Dark Comedy, Drama, Dramady, History, Independent Feature, Movie Reviews, Movies, Oscar Awards, Romance

OSCAR COUNTDOWN: BEST PICTURE

02/22/2015 Peggy Marie 6 Comments

It’s HERE!!! Superbowl Sunday..of Movies that is!! #whoooohooooo And we are at the end.. the most anticipated category there is. Eight Nominees..everyone has a favourite..which is mine??!! Well read on here..read on.. and let us all enjoy the show and hope that there are a few fun upsets and that everyone has a fav. or two that wins something! Cheers!!
(Drum roll please)

BEST PICTURE:

Whiplash
Jason Blum, David Lancaster, Helen Estabrook

How to even describe this movie except that I loved it..then I saw it a second time and I loved it even more!! If there is a upset of the evening, this would be the one I would want.

American Sniper
Bradley Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Peter Morgan

I liked this movie.. it’s not my favourite but good performances especially by Bradley Cooper, make it better. Though a it’s become a politically charged film, it’s still a good movie.

Birdman
Alejandro González Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole

I remember the first time out of the three times I saw this movie..and walking out thinking “THAT was fucking brilliant” I still think it is and it’s just a mind-boggling fantastic film full of imagination and a story within a story that I just simply loved.

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven M. Rales

This was such a fun movie. I remember noting in my review that come Oscar time, it might be nominated even though it was so early in the year to predict that.. I was right. It might not be my pick, but it’s definitely a movie to be seen.

The Imitation Game
Teddy Schwarzman, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky

The only movie to make me cry..both times I saw it. It was just such a heart-wrenching story for me and the fact that my family was in the war and had it not been for Alan Turing, I might not even be here. Also, the whole prosecuting such a brave, brilliant man for being gay, just broke me.

Selma
Oprah Winfrey, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner

While a strong film, it was almost like a bio of MLK and while I really loved some of the performances, I think the timing of it’s release coinciding with the racially charged political climate that was/is going on, made it more relevant as when it was first screened it wasn’t scoring very high. It definitely deserves to be here, just not to win.

The Theory of Everything
Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten

There are times this film moves slowly and if not for the amazing story of what this man has accomplished in his life and how he’s beaten the odds ten-fold, plus it’s also a story of how strong a person his wife had to be to stand by his side throughout, and lest we not forget the brilliant performances..well..it might not be what it is.

Boyhood
Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland

This is my least favourite film of the bunch. I saw it waaay back before all the hype, and while I think the idea of it brilliant, the film itself is an average story of a boy growing up. I think so many have fallen in love with the idea of it, rather than noting it’s really just that..an average film with a brilliant idea behind it.

My Pick: Birdman (with an outside secret hope for a “Whiplash” upset 🙂 )
Will Win: Birdman
Possible Win: Boyhood

awards, Biography, Dark Comedy, Drama, Dramady, History, Independent Feature, Movie Reviews, Movies, political

OSCAR COUNTDOWN: BEST ACTOR

02/20/2015 Peggy Marie 3 Comments

We’re coming to the end of my Countdown to the Oscars…

BEST ACTOR:

Michael Keaton
“Birdman”
From the first time I saw this movie to the third time I saw this movie..I loved Keaton’s performance wholeheartedly. And yes, I love a comeback and this was a damn good one and yep..he’s my pick.

Eddie Redmayne
“The Theory of Everything”
Eddie Redmayne’s performance in this film is what awards are made for. Enough said. I won’t be mad if he wins and honestly, I think he just might pull it off..

Benedict Cumberbatch
“The Imitation Game”
I’m a fan of Cumberbatch’s for some time now. Before Sherlock even he did some fantastic work..anyone ever see him & Tom Hardy in Stuart: A Life Backwards??!! Wonderful film and the message he brought forth about Alan Turing needed to be told.. is it enough to win..no I don’t think it is.

Bradley Cooper
“American Sniper”
Whomever says Bradley Cooper can’t act really needs to see this film. He really embodies this role but I’m guessing political controversy will make it so he is not taking home a little golden man this year.. Though I think it will happen eventually in another role.

Steve Carell
“Foxcatcher”
Was Steve Carell so creepy good in this film? yes he was.. Did he play so against type you wondered at times if it was really him? yes you did. Will he win.. probably not.

My Pick: Michael Keaton
Will Win: Eddie Redmayne
Possible Win: it’s anyone’s guess at this time.

awards, Biography, Drama, Independent Feature, Movie Reviews, Movies, Oscar Awards, Thriller

OSCAR COUNTDOWN: BEST ACTRESS

02/19/2015 Peggy Marie 2 Comments

Carrying on with the Countdown to Oscar Sunday…

BEST ACTRESS

Felicity Jones
“The Theory of Everything”
I really liked Felicity’s performance here. She brought the strength of what it was to go the distance in this type of relationship.

Marion Cotillard
“Two Days, One Night”
I did not really like this movie at all nor did I think was such a great performance. Not her best by far and not sure how she slipped in here when there were others that for me, did much better.

Reese Witherspoon
“Wild”
Was not WOWED by this performance in the least, nor by the story. Both were very averagely done. Reese deserved her last Oscar win. This one doesn’t do it for me.

Julianne Moore
“Still Alice”
While the movie was an just average, Moore’s performance is quite stunning.

Rosamund Pike
“Gone Girl”
While previously not a huge Rosamund Pike fan, she did bring it to this film. But then she also did Hector and the Search for Happiness this year and it was awful and reminded me of why I wasn’t her biggest fan.

My Pick: Julianne Moore
Will Win: Julianne Moore
Possible Win: Rosamund Pike

Action, Action Adventure, Adventure, awards, Dark Comedy, Drama, Independent Feature, Movie Reviews, Movies, Oscar Awards

OSCAR COUNTDOWN: BEST DIRECTOR

02/18/2015 Peggy Marie 5 Comments

Another day ~ Another Oscar countdown category

BEST DIRECTOR:

Morten Tyldum
“The Imitation Game”
While I loved this movie and it’s in my top 3 of the year, Morten is just not my pick this time around.

Bennett Miller
“Foxcatcher”
Having seen this with Bennett & Steve Carell at a Q & A and Bennett just was well..not the most pleasant of people I’ve ever met.. and the film had good performances but wasn’t great. Not my pick.

Alejandro González Iñárritu
“Birdman”
From the 1st time I saw this film, to the 3rd time I saw it with Keaton & Inarritu doing the Q & A, I’ve loved it. Just a brilliant, brilliant film.

Richard Linklater
“Boyhood”
An average movie with a brilliant idea behind it – which is what I think people are mixing together. And I’m a Linklater fan and again, the idea was his and it’s good..I just wish the film was better.

Wes Anderson
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
When I first saw this was back at the beginning of 2014, I loved it. Still do.. I won’t be mad if Wes wins this.

My Pick: Alejandro Inarritu
Will Win: Alejandro Inarritu
Possible Win: Wes Anderson

Biography, Dark Comedy, Drama, Dramady, History, Independent Feature, Movie Reviews, Movies, Oscar Awards

COUNTDOWN TO THE OSCARS ~ BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR/ACTRESS

02/17/2015 Peggy Marie 8 Comments

Continuing with the Oscar countdown ~ we are moving along to Best Supporting Actor/Actress.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Mark Ruffalo
“Foxcatcher”
One of my least favourite performances in this category

Edward Norton
“Birdman”
i won’t be mad if Norton wins this.. not in the slightest as this was my favourite performance and I would’ve called Norton the winner…until…

J.K. Simmons
“Whiplash”
Until..I saw this performance of Simmons. Long been a favourite of mine since the HBO series “OZ” – he blew us all away with this..

Robert Duvall
“The Judge”
How do you not like Duvall.. he’s truly an acting icon.

Ethan Hawke
“Boyhood”
Love Ethan.. not my fav. movie or performance.

My Pick: J.K. Simmons
Will Win: J.K. Simmons
Possible Win: Edward Norton

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
I will be upfront here.. none of these performances WOWED me. Jessica Chastain for ‘A Most Violent Year’ was whom I would’ve picked, but yeah..not nominated. So if I have to pick…

Emma Stone
“Birdman”
It’s not Emma for me.

Patricia Arquette
“Boyhood”
Truly not Patricia for me either though she’s been sweeping everything and walking up with her lengthy piece of tacky paper to read off of letting everyone know she knew she was winning.

Meryl Streep
“Into the Woods”
Love Meryl.. but I do think they ran short of people and put her in because she IS Meryl Streep.

Laura Dern
“Wild”
I didn’t love this movie.. but Dern moved me some with her performance here, she was definitely the best part of this movie.

Keira Knightley
“The Imitation Game”
While Knightley didn’t annoy the complete bejesus out of me this go round.. she usually does and she did Laggies & Begin Again, both awful films that she should just be punished for that and all the others.

My Pick: Laura Dern
Will Win: Patricia Arquette
Possible Win: Emma Stone

Biography, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Film, Movie Reviews, Movies, Oscar Awards, political, Uncategorized

OSCAR PICKS COUNTDOWN! ~ BEST DOCUMENTARY/BEST FOREIGN FILM

02/17/2015 Peggy Marie Leave a comment

Note: I owe a debt of gratitude here to a high school friend, Michelle Iansiti, whose dad always insisted on seeing all the nominated movies and is the person who instilled this in me to do this and I have almost every year since. I saw Mr. Iansiti a few years back after many many years..and thanked him for this. 🙂
Usually I do a countdown each year starting about 5 days before “Oscar Sunday” aka “My Superbowl of Movies Sunday” and I basically stick with the top categories; Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Picture. I’m adding 2 categories this year as I did see almost all of them for Best Foreign Film & Best Documentary, and starting early since I will be gone later this week and unable to post – I’m setting up timed postings and will be hoping they work!! My listing will be what’s nominated in the category, my pick of whom I’d like to win, and what probably will win – which are not always one and the same ~ and a possible winner.
So let’s get started!!!

BEST DOCUMENTARY:

“Virunga”
Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara
Strong contender for the win. I loved this doc. It was well filmed and well done.

“Citizenfour”
Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky
My least favourite documentary of the list. Couldn’t stand Edward Snowden as I got the feeling he did this as he thought he was going to be a celebrity of sorts and be famous for all the wrong reasons. Clearly it didn’t work out so well for you did it Eddie.

“Last Days in Vietnam”
Rory Kennedy, Keven McAlester
This was an interesting watch of the end days of this horrible war. Not my choice for winner but still a good film.

“The Salt of the Earth”
Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, David Rosier
Did not see this one.

“Finding Vivian Maier”
John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
LOVED this doc. You almost just can’t believe what an amazing eye this woman had who never showed her work to anyone. Her photography is stunning and somehow I think it was meant to be that it was found and is being shown.

My Pick: Finding Vivian Maier
Will Win: Citizenfour
Possible Win: Virunga

BEST FOREIGN FILM:
Why is it that it’s almost a requirement for all foreign films to be depressing..I’ve always wondered this as so few aren’t. That being said, my favourite Foreign Film of the year, “Force Majeure” didn’t get nominated though it was expected to.. With that being said…

“Timbuktu”
Abderrahmane Sissako
Interesting and well filmed. Liked it..didn’t love it.

“Wild Tales”
Damián Szifrón
Didn’t see this one.

“Tangerines”
Zaza Urushadze
Good human nature story.. liked this one.

“Ida”
Paweł Pawlikowski
Such a completely different story and I’m not religious in the slightest but it left a lasting impression on me.

“Leviathan”
Andrey Zvyagintsev
Visually, I thought this film was great.. But an odd odd story-line at points.

My Pick: Ida
Will Win: Leviathan
Possible Win: Timbuktu

Peggy at the Movies

Category Archives: Movie Reviews

“AGE OF ADALINE” (2015) Lionsgate

“WOMAN IN GOLD” ~ (2015) Weinstein Co.

“GET HARD” (2015) ~ Warner Bros.

REVIEW ~ “THE GUNMAN” (2015)

OSCAR COUNTDOWN: BEST PICTURE

OSCAR COUNTDOWN: BEST ACTOR

OSCAR COUNTDOWN: BEST ACTRESS

OSCAR COUNTDOWN: BEST DIRECTOR

COUNTDOWN TO THE OSCARS ~ BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR/ACTRESS

OSCAR PICKS COUNTDOWN! ~ BEST DOCUMENTARY/BEST FOREIGN FILM

Peggy at the Movies ~ Film Critic | Movie Maven | Reviews & More"