{"id":11325,"date":"2020-02-07T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/?p=11325"},"modified":"2020-02-07T11:31:29","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T11:31:29","slug":"all-most-of-the-important-movies-to-know-before-the-academy-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2020\/02\/07\/all-most-of-the-important-movies-to-know-before-the-academy-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"All (Most) of the Important Movies to Know Before the Academy Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
It\u2019s time for our favorite annual tradition! The Oscars are Sunday, and so it\u2019s time (really waited till the last minute this year) to talk about the films you should know if you are going to watch\/talk to people\/go out into the world. Below I have commented in my trademark rambling nonsense fashion on all the important movies of the 2019 season, plus some that are definitely not important but I had already written their little blurbs before I decided not to do Every Movie I Saw This Year like I\u2019ve done in the past and I decided to keep them in for fun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think this year was EXCEPTIONALLY strong for movies (not for literally anything else in the world, but for movies). There are several films that in other years would have been the clear \u2013 and only possible \u2013 winner. Yet in this packed season, there are so many great films that many worthy ones have been left out of awards contention altogether. And the ones considered frontrunners in certain categories don\u2019t even include my favorites. What a year! Hooray for movies! Let\u2019s get into it; lord knows it\u2019ll take you long enough to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before seeing this movie, I was told that it was mighty\nstressful, which of course it is, it\u2019s a war epic, but like, extra so. I wanted\nto take an Ativan but only had one left and I need it for my next flight but\nomg I really should have used it for this; it\u2019s the most stressful movie ever. I\ndon\u2019t think I was breathing and I was digging my nails into my palms the whole\ntime (and I don\u2019t really have nails!). But, it\u2019s an incredible film. Who knew\nthere were still interesting and new war stories to tell? I was like UGH\nANOTHER BRITISH WAR MOVIE (they\u2019re all British even the ones that aren\u2019t) but\n1917 might actually be the greatest one, so unbelievably gripping and emotional\nand personal. It\u2019s hard to make a war movie feel personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1917 came about because Kate Winslet\u2019s ex husband (also incredible stage director, like legit responsible for some of my absolute favorite theatrical works in history like the Alan Cumming-Natasha Richardson (RIP) version of Cabaret<\/em>, the Bernadette Gypsy<\/em>, the West End debut of Assassins<\/em> ffs!, The Ferryman<\/em>, what was I talking about? Oh right he was also married to Kate Winslet for 8ish years and wrote and directed 1917 (I\u2019m talking about Sam Mendes btw)) had a grandfather who was in the war and never spoke about his experiences until way late in his life for obvious reasons and one of the stories he told young Sammy was about sending messages across enemy lines and so Sammy wrote a movie about that tale and did an amazing job. I really don\u2019t like war movies, like I will never rewatch them and isn\u2019t rewatching the hallmark of enjoying something? But hell if this isn\u2019t superb. It tells of two young British soldiers who are ordered by the hot priest and the still-hot Colin Firth (I had no idea anyone famous was in it and then there are like TOO MANY famous people it was kind of ridiculous and honestly felt weird they all had 2 lines max) to take a message to fellow troops miles away, requiring them to cross no man\u2019s land and former enemy territory and basically miraculously survive just walking out in the open in order to stop an attack that Colonel Bandersnatch is itching to launch against the Germans, who Bandersnatch thinks have retreated but IT\u2019S A TRICK. The two soldiers tasked with this\u2026um\u2026task need to get this message to the other troops not only to save thousands of lives but also because one of their older brothers is in that regiment, the one who is Jon Snow\u2019s brother from the bad wedding, you know, and in the show where his lady boss blows up. Richard Madden. Save him! He has such bad luck!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bad luck runs in the family, apparently, and the two boys go through all manner of hell in their attempt to deliver their message. They cross no man\u2019s land and get cut on barbed wire and slide down into horse corpses (it is HARD to say horse corpses a few times in a row, like the WW1 version of \u2018wasp nostrils\u2019 (you know what I\u2019m talking about if you watched the BSE (Best Show Ever))) and almost get done in by gigantic ROUS\u2019s in German underground barracks and get stabbed by Germans and find babies that they want to help and it\u2019s all just VERY SAD and we should do whatever we can do avoid wars, guys, why is anyone still supporting a war? Looks bloody terrible. The most miraculous thing about this movie, besides how Richard Madden with literally 30 seconds of screentime broke my g-d heart into a million pieces and I can\u2019t stop thinking about it (the only famous actor that needed to be in it, really; they could have saved so much money I bet by not paying for Firth and Bandergiggles and forking Mark Strong and hot priest (but keep him around) (also I bet you didn\u2019t catch stage stars Jamie Parker (original Harry Potter onstage) and Michael Jibson (original King George in Hambabies on the West End))), was that it was filmed so expertly that it looked like one uninterrupted shot, making us feel like we were on that harrowing journey with the boys, which I don\u2019t appreciate because that\u2019s why I couldn\u2019t breathe and was so forking scared but man that is some directorial genius. Bravo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, so you\u2019re a rocket scientist\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, so you have a car\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, so you\u2019re Brad Pitt\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n That don\u2019t impress me much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m always down for a new Netflix romcom, an Ali Wong comedy\nspecial, and a bit of Keanu Reeves. Put all three of those together and you\u2019ve\nsurely got a slam dunk, right? But Always\nBe My Maybe<\/em> was just okay for me, dog. It told the story of Ali Wong and\nRandall Park as teenagers who are best friends, and then a couple for a minute,\nand then they grow up and Ali becomes a world-famous chef and Randall becomes a\nstruggling musician and then they reconnect and you want them to be happy\ntogether but they aren\u2019t and it\u2019s a little off, but then they are and it\u2019s\nokay? Their grown-up dynamic is very Luke and Lorelai after they\u2019re a couple,\ncompletely devoid of the magic and romance and just, well, meh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ali and Randall are super likable and it\u2019s wonderful to have them play romantic leads, but there wasn\u2019t enough rom in this com for me. It seemed like maybe it was for the best if they didn\u2019t end up together, so forcing them together didn\u2019t have the necessary emotional weight that a romantic pairing should. It was more like \u2018yeah they are good friends with a history, this is nice, I GUESS.\u201d Keanu Reeves taking the piss out of his own public persona was by far the highlight, and Randall\u2019s weird af girlfriend was definitely the lowlight. Why would he put up with her? So annoying. A lot was annoying.. And although the emotional threads tied up neatly at the end, killing off a parent in the first five minutes to create those threads lost me a little right away. What do they think they are, a Disney movie? <\/p>\n\n\n\n They did this movie dirty. I was lucky to get a screener of\nthis way back before the controversy that pushed its release back several\nmonths and removed it from the festival circuit, and it was a great film with\ngreat performances. It\u2019s too bad no one else will see it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Banker<\/em> tells\nthe true story of Bernard Garrett, a black man in the 1950s who is like hey I\nwant to be a banker, but he lives in America\nso the public is like hey you shut up. But Garrett has DREAMS and he\u2019s played\nby a very serious and stern Anthony Mackie and Anthony Mackie doesn\u2019t let\nanyone crush his dreams (even when he had a dream that Matt Damon should be\npresident and Matt was like, I just wanna love Emily Blunt who is a dancer? and\nMackie is like no let\u2019s wear these magical hats that take us through doors (but\nnot like The Good Place) and I\u2019ll convince you, it\u2019s president time, and Matt\u2019s\nlike no I don\u2019t wanna listen to you or have my life all mapped out and Mackie\nis like BUT LOOK I\u2019M HOLDING THE MAP and Matty\u2019s like NO and Mackie\u2019s like YES\nand then they like compromise but the universe is magical or something I don\u2019t\nreally get that movie but I do like how a door from a pizza place connects to\nthe Statue of Liberty, that depressed French bitch) or, it seems, have any fun.\nSo Garrett goes to California and meets Samuel L. Jackson and Sammy is like WOO\nLET\u2019S HAVE A PARTY and Garrett is like \u2018no I want to be a banker \u2013 well first I\nwant to be a landlord, then a banker later \u2013 and I guess I need your help\u2019 and\nSammy is like WE CAN WORK AND PLAY LET\u2019S MAKE SOME MONEY BABY and Garrett is\nlike \u201chmm maybe\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So then Chief O\u2019Brien takes a break from not paying\nattention to his children (he has two does he know) to sell Garrett his first\nbuilding so he can own real estate but then O\u2019Brien dies and they never signed\na contract and that\u2019s a real setback and not just because I guess his death\nmeans that that teenage Ferengi is now chief of engineering? I can\u2019t believe\nhow much Star Trek husbo has made me watch? Anyway Sammy and Garrett are\nUNDETERRED and they form a partnership to become big boss landlords and then\nthe first black bankers but obvs they can\u2019t just go like START so they hire\nWilling White Man Nicholas \u201cI was once a young \nKelsey Grammer\u201d Hoult to be their faux frontman and start doing banking,\nI guess, you could just go start a bank back then, banks didn\u2019t already run the\nworld? And Nicholas \u201cJennifer Lawrence used to be my girlfriend\u201d Hoult does a\ngood job of being the face of the company while Garrett and SLJ pretend to be\nhis chauffeurs but are really running things but all the white clients would\nnever work with them if they knew, so it\u2019s like a great big secret operation to\nkeep up and it\u2019s rather entertaining. But then Nicholas doesn\u2019t marry JLaw (she\nmarried some total rando with a food name) and instead marries this awful\nblonde woman who tells him he should fork over his partners because he\u2019s white\nso he\u2019s more important and he DOES (this part is sexist and I don\u2019t think this\nfilm passes the Bechdel test) and everything goes to shit and of course the\nblack guys suffer for it but I think it all like sort of works out? It was\npretty good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, it came to light that the son of Garrett Sr. \u2013 portrayed for a few minutes in the movie as a mostly-silent teen \u2013 has a history of sexual assault accusations, so Apple had really no choice but to pull it. This figure isn\u2019t really important to the movie at all \u2013 it\u2019s about his father \u2013 but he was a co-producer. Why they couldn\u2019t just remove him from the project and make sure he doesn\u2019t benefit from it I don\u2019t know. Maybe he held the life rights and couldn\u2019t be removed? Maybe there\u2019s more to it? Amar Ramasar gets to play Bernardo on Broadway but everyone\u2019s hard work on this movie gets canned? Sucks all around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This dramatic continuation of the resurgence of Mr. Rogers\nlove, after his lovely documentary last year, was so much better than it is\ngetting credit for. Tom Hanks is wonderful as expected, with so much heart and\nlovableness, and Matthew Rhys continues to impressively hide his Welsh accent\nand capture the nuance of his characters. The story, of how Mr. Rogers helped a\nstruggling journalist who had Anger Issues and Father Issues and Lots of Other\nIssues by being his loving, caring self is exactly what we need right now, a\nstory that ultimately reminds you that some people are decent and we all should\ntry to be so decent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The movie begins with Mr. Coach Tom Hanks Rogers Steve doing an episode of his show, telling the viewers about a friend of his who is suffering. He shows a picture of this friend and it\u2019s Matthew! But they haven\u2019t met yet! Flershberkkkk and Matthew, a deep-digging investigative journalist, is assigned a profile on Mr. Rogers by his boss who is none other than Chicago Hope\u2019s Christine Lahti, responsible for one of the top five greatest awards show moments in history (when she won but was in the bathroom omg do you remember? I do it was THE BEST). Matthew is like whatttt ughhh but I\u2019m a serious journalistttt and he\u2019s a kids show hoooost and Christine is like \u201cthey told me I won when I flushed the toilet and I thought it was a joke!\u201d and so Matthew has to go meet Mr. Rogers and they form a bond and Fred helps him through all his issues and he\u2019s just the nicest man ever and it makes you want to be a nice man too and ugh it\u2019s just SO FORKING GOOD. I love this movie so much, one of my faves of the year. We really take Tom Hanks for granted because he\u2019s so good always in anything and he is again here but we shouldn\u2019t take him for granted we should praise jebus for him amen. The whole cast is good, including Chris Cooper as Matthew\u2019s estranged, dying father (so good and so sad that ending ERMA ERMA ERMA) and also Tammy Blanchard is in it for two seconds just to remind you how good she is and that she should get the lead role in the Little Shop remake not ScarJo I mean hello Tammy is a musical theatre amazer (yes Scarlett has a Tony (so few people know this lol) but for a PLAY can she sing? I mean if she can sing I guess she\u2019d be good but Tammy is so excellent and just played the role off-Bway ugh anyway go watch this movie). It’s a really lovely film that we all probably need right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zach Galifianakis\u2019s (omg I just googled and I spelt his name right on the first try I\u2019m a wizard Harry) amazing celebrity interviews are a thing of beauty, awkward and uncomfortable and hilarious beauty. So it makes sense that someone somewhere was like \u2018let\u2019s cash cow this up with a Netflix movie\u2019, but a funny thing repeated for a few hours longer than usual isn\u2019t the best idea. The interviews, as always, are hilarious, but then they had to make a story around it. And that story is bad. They created a behind-the-scenes tale of Zach and his crew on his public access interview show, and their work in putting on the fake cable show and getting to each interview is not interesting. The new interviews, with an amazing array of stars, were hilarious as always, but the BTS stuff stringing them together were lackluster and, all too often, zero fun. They should have just released a new crop of interviews and called it a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My best friend Beanie Feldstein got to star in one of the\nbest movies ever and it is WHAT SHE DESERVES. A much-needed high school comedy\nfrom the girls\u2019 perspective, Booksmart<\/em>\nis the vulgar-but-intelligent story of a believably realistic (well except for\nbaby Carrie Fisher who has some sort of magic and is amazing) senior class the\nnight before they graduate. I should have known that it would be a perfect\nmovie when Katie Silberman, the genius behind the best modern romcom, Set It Up<\/em>, was on the writing team, and\nwith Beanie involved, and directed by Olivia Wilde (pre-Richard Jewell fiasco),\nand with a host of Broadway and Broadway-adjacent names attached. But it was so\nmuch better than I hoped. SO MUCH FUN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The movie tells of overachiever Beanie Feldstein (I don\u2019t\nlook up names that I forget, you know this by now) \u2013 class president, going to\nYale (ugh they don\u2019t deserve you), never had a day of fun because she was\nprepping for her future \u2013 going to parties for the first time, with her bff\nKaitlyn Dever, who is excellent. They party hop trying to find the boy Beanie\nhas a crush on, and all the unique characters that get a chance to shine during\nthis parade of hilarity (the aforementioned baby Carrie Fisher who pops up\neverywhere is pitch perfect (and looks so much like her grandmother who I loved\nso so much ugh I think of her family all the time it\u2019s not weird), as is the\nhilarious Jared whose ridiculousness masks his insecurity) make this a truly\ngreat ensemble comedy. I felt especially seen with the character of young Evan\nHansen (true story), the theatre kid throwing shade at Dever\u2019s singing during\nthe amazing Alanis karaoke scene with his cutting \u201cshe\u2019s not using breath\nsupport, do you hear\u201d line. I cannot. And continuing in the model set by Easy A<\/em> with the lead teenage girl\u2019s parents\nbeing off-the-charts hysterical, Will Forte and Lisa Kudrow are amazing in the\nliterally one minute they get. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Aside from all the hilarity, this movie has real moments of depth and thoughtfulness. Like Beanie, I assumed that her classmates who partied all through high school could never have gotten into the same school she did or even better ones, and I felt for her when she realized she wasted so much time when she could have been enjoying herself. And a good teenage comedy doesn\u2019t exist without the requisite look at assumptions and stereotypes about certain people, along with a good self-sacrificing event to try to make amends, like Beanbean gets. Throw in a ridiculous pizza delivery guy plus an unexpected callback, some Jason Sudeikis, some great Jessica Williams (YQY), the most theatre-kid party imaginable, amazing Jewish representation and jokes, and some actually incredible camerawork (that pool shot had no business being so good), and you have a movie that makes my \u2018will rewatch a million times\u2019 list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing makes me angrier (well, at least on the topic of biopics) than when sucky real people get amazing gorgeous actors to play them. Ugh Megyn Kelly yes was a victim and yes went through some horrible experiences but that doesn\u2019t make her a good person who is worthy of having Charlize play her. What\u2019s next, Michelle Williams signing up to play f-ing Meghan McCain? PASS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n THIS MOVIE IS SO MUCH FUN! Eddie Murphy gives A PERFORMANCE\nas the real life comedian\/actor\/producer Rudy Ray Moore, as he creates his\nfamous role of Dolemite and starts his career in successful blaxploitation\nfilms. Rudy was a struggling musician, couldn\u2019t catch a break, down on his\nluck. When he talks to some local homeless people, he picks up their unique\nmelodic storytelling style and tries it out on the standup stage. (I hope he\ngave them some of his earnings for giving him his successful character idea?)\nAnd it works. The catchy performance style is distinctive, exciting, fun, and\npeople LOVE it. Not really white people \u2013 as husbo and I proved by whispering\n(it\u2019s okay we watched at home) \u2018I don\u2019t get it\u2026this is not funny\u2019 and then\nrealizing \u2018oh it\u2019s NOT FOR US\u2019 \u2013 but black communities embraced Rudy and made\nhim a star. (Every time I asked a question husbo would say \u2018IT\u2019S NOT FOR US!\u2019) To\ncapitalize on his burgeoning fame and success, Rudy sinks all his earnings into\nthe making of a movie about the character, called Dolemite, and that\u2019s what the\nmovie focuses on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAD ASTRA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nALWAYS BE MY MAYBE<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nTHE BANKER<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nA BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nBETWEEN TWO FERNS: THE MOVIE<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nBOOKSMART<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nBOMBSHELL<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nDOLEMITE IS MY NAME <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n