Underrated Film Series Begins

I am going to start reviewing some films from the past that I believe are underrated, to the point that some of you may not of heard of them. I want to get people aware of these films, so that they can go view them and see what they think. Not every film I choose to review will be your cup of tea, but hopefully one or two of them get added to your list of favourite movies.

I am starting my underrated film review series with a gripping drama starring Jessica Lange, so any fans of that particular genre or any Jessica Lange fans... pay attention.

'Frances'

Before she gained a new wave of fans after taking on the lead role in the highly rated TV series 'American Horror Story', Jessica Lange was the star of many amazing movies from her Supporting Actress Oscar winning performance in 'Tootsie' during the 80's and her Leading Actress Oscar winning performance in 'Blue Sky' during the 90's. None of these performances however quite match up to her mesmerising display of actress Frances Farmer in the biopic movie 'Frances'.

It's no secret that Jessica Lange is a fantastic actress, she can display a range of characters with ease, as she has shown in 'American Horror Story', where one season she is an evil witch whose health is slowly deteriorating, and then in the next she's the head of a freak show stood on stage singing David Bowie's 'Life On Mars' in a German accent (CLICK HERE - to view). She makes it look so effortless, to ditch one character and move onto the next immediately, she is up there as one of the greatest actresses around but sadly many people are not aware of her greatest ever performance.

In the film directed by Graeme Clifford, Lange takes on the biopic role of Frances Farmer, an American actress who became famous in the 1930's, after staring in films such as 'Come And Get It'. Farmer became successful because of her looks, and was cast in roles which revolved around this, she became tired of doing the same thing, she wanted to be known for her acting ability. This is when she started to rebel against Hollywood, and started acting in theatres. Farmer is probably most well known for her professional and personal downfall, and the events which took place after, this is what the film 'Frances' focuses on.

The film centres around Farmer's involuntary commitment to a mental hospital, where she was mistreated. This film is difficult to watch at times because of this sequence, but Jessica Lange's performance grips you to the screen. You can't look away for fear of missing one facial expression, or one gesture which completely covers how the character is feeling in that moment, that is the power of Lange's performance in this film. She portrays Farmer's breakdown impeccably, almost as if you were watching Frances herself. This film is emotionally tiring, by the end you don't know how to feel, I just found myself staring at the screen as the credits played on, thinking about what happened.

Any other year and Jessica Lange would've been walking away with the Leading Actress award at the Oscar's ceremony, but unfortunately for her she was up against Meryl Streep's best ever performance in 'Sophie's Choice'.

I highly recommend this film to any fans of dramatic cinema, Oscar films or general Jessica Lange fans, as it will definitely fit in with everything you want. This film has been underrated in awards and in the media, but I believe that the solid acting as well as the gripping story deserve more.

The End Of 2016's Award Season

The Academy Awards took place on Sunday night, marking the end of 2016's film award season, and what a great finale it was. Chris Rock did a great job with his opening monologue, he brought up the issue of diversity without seeming angry, he kept the mood light. However I believe that was enough to get the message across to the audience, I don't think that he needed to carry on throughout the whole awards with the same jokes.

In my last post I predicted the winners for each category, and I ended up getting 15 out of 19 correct. Here is a review for how the Oscars ceremony went compared to my predictions.

The 'Big Four'

At every oscars there are the awards known as 'the big four', which are Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director, this year there was one shock within these four awards.

'Spotlight' walked away with the big prize (Best Film), this was a shock because Alejandro González Iñárritu won Best Director for 'The Revenant'. Usually Best Director and Best Film go hand-in-hand with each other, but this year each category was so open that this did not happen, and 'Spotlight' ended up with a much deserved Oscar, which was the second of the night, as the film also won Best Original Screenplay.

Brie Larson (Room) won Best Leading Actress, which is something that I predicted. This was a difficult category to call, but Larson's performance in this small indie film is amazing and definitely deserved the prestigious award.

Finally Leo has won his long awaited Oscar, and everyone is overjoyed. Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant) has been nominated for five Oscars, his first coming in 1994 for 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape'. Since then the world has been waiting for Leo to win one, after coming close on a couple of occasions, Leo got his much deserved Award at this year's ceremony. He made the moment count by mentioning climate change in his speech, trying to get across his views on the subject matter, and make a difference.

The Real Winners Of The Night

'Mad Max: Fury Road' won six awards on the night out of a possible ten. These awards were:

Best Costume Design 

Best Film Editing

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Best Production Design

Best Sound Editing

Best Sound Mixing

Many people were shocked to see this film even nominated, as it was released in the summer and not in January (which is when most Oscar nominated films come out), also it's not the usual type of film that gets nominated for Best Film and Best Directing. 'Mad Max' proved the doubters wrong though, by walking away with more awards than any other film at the ceremony. It was unfortunate that George Miller didn't win for Best Director, but at least his wife, Margaret Sixel, made sure that there's an Oscar going into their home so they can remember the big night, after she won for Best Film Editing.

Being a big fan of the film myself, I predicted the film to receive a lot of the background awards, and was very happy that I was correct.

The Shock Wins

Both awards for supporting roles provided shocks at this year's ceremony, Sylvester Stallone (Creed) and Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs) looked a shoe-in for the two Oscars, but neither won on the night.

27 year old Alicia Vikander won Best Supporting Actress on the night for her performance in 'The Danish Girl', which despite her not being favourite for the award, was fully deserved as she is the one that really held that film together, and complimented Eddie Redmayne's character perfectly.

Best Supporting Actor went to 56 year old English actor Mark Rylance for his role in the Steven Spielberg movie 'Bridge Of Spies'. This was the biggest shock of the night as everyone was completely expecting Stallone to win, I believed that the right man won however as the acting performance by Rylance is incredible, and showed more range than the other actors in this category.


This years Oscars was thoroughly entertaining. This could be because no award had a completely set in stone winner, so the ceremony was open for shocks, and that is exactly what happened.
It is sad to see the curtain close on 2016's film award season, but it's exciting to see what next year will bring, as there will be a shake-up with how the nominees are chosen.

To see the full winners list - CLICK HERE

Oscar Predictions 2016

It's finally here, the Academy Awards 2016 are this Sunday.

Every year I I have a competition with my dad where we predict who's going to win on the night. This year because I have started this blog I thought I would do a short post telling you all my predictions, this also gives others the chance to get involved.

Feel free to comment your predictions for this year's awards.

Without further announcement, here are my predictions:

Best Picture - The Revenant

Best Actor In A Leading Role - Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Best Actress In A Leading Role - Brie Larson (Room)

Best Actor In A Supporting Role - Mark Rylance (Bridge Of Spies)

Best Actress In A Supporting Role - Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

Best Director - Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (The Revenant)

Best Foreign Language Film - Son Of Saul (Hungary)

Best Documentary Feature - Amy

Animated Feature Film - Inside Out

Best Original Screenplay - Spotlight

Best Adapted Screenplay - Room

Cinematography - The Revenant

Visual Effects - Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

Film Editing - Mad Max: Fury Road

Costume Design - Mad Max: Fury Road

Make Up and Hairstyling - Mad Max: Fury Road

Sound Editing - Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Original Score - The Hateful Eight

Best Original Song - Writing's On The Wall (Spectre)

To see the full list of nominees - CLICK HERE

Is This The Best 'Superhero' Movie Ever?

I was highly anticipating the 'Deadpool' film for months leading up to its release. I went to see it on the Friday of it's opening weekend, and it definitely did not disappoint. Here is my short review of the film, which contains no spoilers for those of you that are yet to experience the movie. 

'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' was the first showing of Ryan Reynolds as fictional antihero Deadpool, and it was disappointing to say the least for any fans of the character. Reynolds knew this and has been pushing for a film dedicated to the character ever since, and it has finally arrived to the big screens. This film displays much more similarities to the comic book characteristics compared to the previous one.

'Deadpool' is breaking many box-office opening weekend records, and deservedly so, as it is a fantastic movie. It's a Marvel film, but is not aimed at the usual franchise's audience. It has an older target market than the likes of films such as 'Avengers Assemble'. 'Deadpool' has been given a 15 age restriction rating, which probably would've come from all of the extremely dirty jokes, never mind the violence and sex scenes.

This film deserves all the hype that it has been getting. For a superhero film it is extremely funny, I couldn't help but laugh out loud the whole way through, and the same goes for the rest of the audience in the cinema that day. As well as having big-belly laughs, the film has some great fighting scenes, in fact it opens with one that straight away gives you an idea of just how good the film is going to be, and of course with Deadpool being Deadpool even the fighting sequences are full of humour.

It's not just the main character that makes this film so good, the supporting cast definitely holds their own, and provides just as many memorable moments throughout the film. Especially fictional mutant character Negasonic Teenage Warhead, who is reluctant to help fellow X-Men character Colossus convince Deadpool to join them. She has the usual teenage verbal comebacks throughout the movie, which is a recurring joke that did not get old. In her most memorable scene she is seen on her phone tweeting before getting involved in any of the action.

The storyline of this film is very strong for a Marvel film, it does not have all the typically used themes. At parts the film even makes you feel a little emotional, but quickly gets back to it's quirky humour, and to Deadpool breaking the fourth-wall. There are times when you can see yourself in Wade's (Deadpool)  shoes, you can imagine how you would react in his situation, the depth of his character really comes through during the course of the film, this is another way in which the film is so good.

I rate this film a very high 8 out of 10, I strongly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the Deadpool character in Marvel comics. I also recommend it to any Marvel film franchise fans, but be warned it is not typical to the others, and definitely is not suitable for kids. The film has a lot of extremely funny references to X-Men, in particular Wolverine, also there are references to DC character Green Lantern, a character which Ryan Reynolds played, that like his earlier Deadpool display, was pretty poor. Overall this film was even better than I expected, and I thought very highly of it before stepping foot in the cinema. In my opinion it's the best 'superhero' movie out there, despite Deadpool being a antihero, I believe the film deserves to be rated along the likes of Superman and Avengers. If you're yet to see it, I recommend you go and experience the film as soon as possible, you won't regret it.

What Does The BAFTA Results Mean For The Oscars?

On Valentine's Day many were off with their significant other, I however spent my night watching this year's BAFTAs. The BAFTAs are the last award show before the big one, the Oscars, during each award season. It is the last indicator for who may win during this years Academy Awards.

Usually if the film/actor/actress has won at the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes they are a certainty for the prestigious final award, however this is not always the case as proven in 2002. Halle Berry lost out on the Globe and was not even nominated for a BAFTA but ended up walking away with the Leading Actress Oscar (Monster's Ball).

The winners of the 'Big Four' awards (Best Film, Leading Actor, Leading Actress, Best Director) at this years ceremony didn't provide any shocks, with 'The Revenant' walking away with three of them, but what does this mean for the Oscars?

Best Film

Of course 'The Revenant' walked away with this award this year, it is by far the biggest Oscar nominated film of the year, getting rave reviews left, right and centre. 'The Revenant' also won at this year's Golden Globe Awards, however lost out at the Critic's Choice Awards, the film 'Spotlight' walked away with that one, which is another movie that comes highly recommended this year, with a stellar cast and a captivating storyline.

This years awards are swaying towards 'The Revenant', despite there being a lot of tough competition, I believe that this film will be winning the big award on the 28th Feb. 

Best Actor

This is another award that 'The Revenant' has been dominating, with Leonardo DiCaprio walking away  with the Golden Globe, BAFTA, Critic's Choice and SAG award. It seems like he is a shoo-in for the Oscar.

Everyone is routing for Leo, since he is yet to win an Oscar despite being nominated 5 times so far. Luckily for all those people backing him it is looking like he will be finally getting his win.

Best Actress

This by far has been my favourite award to keep an eye on this year, as it is a difficult one to call. In my mind there are two frontrunners: Jennifer Lawrence for 'Joy' and Brie Larson for 'Room'. Both these young ladies won at the Globes, but since then Larson has been dominating, beating Lawrence at the Critic's Choice, also winning the BAFTA and SAG awards, both of which Lawrence was not nominated for. 

This is definitely a hard one to call, despite Lawrence being a favourite amongst the academy, at the moment I am leaning toward Brie Larson. She has put in a magnificent performance in 'Room' and deserves all the accolades coming her way.

Best Director

This is yet another award dominated by 'The Revenant'. Alejandro G. Iñárritu has created a visually stunning movie and people have stood up and noticed. Iñárritu won both the Globe and BAFTA, but lost out to George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) at the Critic's Choice Awards.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu walked away with the Best Director award last year for 'Birdman', which he also helped write the screenplay for. I believe that despite George Miller being a strong competitor with his equally as visually striking film Mad Max: Fury Road, Iñárritu will be victorious this year, winning the award back-to-back. 

There is some idea to who will be walking away with the Oscar, but still anything can happen in the film industry, so there is a strong possibility for some shocks on the night, which is what makes the award show so great and legendary.

To see the rest of the BAFTA winners - click here

To see the full list of Oscar nominations - click here

Top 3 Leading Actor Winning Performances

Carrying on the countdown to this years Academy Awards, this is my second 'Top 3' blog post. This is my top 3 performances in the Leading Actor category.

Feel free to comment saying who your top 3 would be.

3 - Anthony Hopkins in 'The Silence Of The Lambs'

At a little over 16 minutes screen time, this is one of the shortest performances ever to win the Leading Actor award. This portrayal of Dr. Hannibal Lecter is as harrowing as they come, and despite having the short screen time, Hopkins provides an unforgettable performance which steals the show. Improvising a couple of the films key scenes, such as the disturbing hissing sound made after telling a story of eating one of his victims, Hopkins brought this character to life, and added to an already thrilling movie, no one else could've possibly played this part as well, and frightening as him.

'The Silence Of The Lambs' swept the 1992 Oscars, winning all of the 'big four' awards (Best Film, Best Leading Actor, Best Leading Actress and Best Director).

2 - Jack Nicholson in 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' 

At the 1976 ceremony, Nicholson finally won his first Oscar, after being nominated four times previously. Nicholson has been in some great films over the years, and put in some spectacular performances, such as his thrilling part in 'The Shining', but it is his role in this moving movie that is his best ever. Nicholson showed the world just how fine of an actor he is, portraying each emotion of his character flawlessly, and making you route for him despite being a criminal. It's a difficult character to portray to an audience but Nicholson seems to do it effortlessly, there is no way that this film could've been so successful with someone else in the role, Jack Nicholson provides us with many eccentric moments in the movie, but also disheartening ones, and he switches between the two perfectly. 

'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' was another film that won all of the 'big four' awards at the Oscars.

1 - Robert De Niro in 'Raging Bull'

Robert De Niro is one of the finest actors to ever grace the big screen. Since winning his first Oscar in 1975 for his role in 'The Godfather: Part II' he has gone on to provide us with stunning performances in films such as 'Taxi Driver', 'The Deer Hunter' and 'Goodfellas', but none have been quite as stunning as 'Raging Bull'.

In this biopic about the life of boxer Jake LaMotta, De Niro completely captured the essence of the film, his portrayal of LaMotta's downward spiral is absolutely mesmerising. De Niro showed his passion for the role by gaining 4 stone in weight to fully get the LaMotta look, this helped the portrayal greatly, as when you watch this fantastic film you forget that it's De Niro acting and believe that it is LaMotta on the screen. De Niro's fighting scenes are like watching a professional boxer in the ring, but it's the scenes outside of the ring that are the most breathtaking, the aggression that De Niro shows in these scenes are jaw dropping, he portrays each element of LaMotta's character with ease and all you can do is just sit in silence and watch.

Here are some Honourable Mentions, performances which almost made the top 3

Sean Penn in 'Mystic River'
Colin Firth in 'The King's Speech'
Matthew McConaughey in 'Dallas Buyers Club'
Daniel Day-Lewis in 'There Will Be Blood'
Ben Kingsley in 'Gandhi'

Please comment if you believe someone deserved to be on this list.

Also let me know who would be your top 3.

Top 3 Leading Actress Winning Performances

As the Academy Awards are at the end of this month. I thought I would do a few 'Top 3' posts, of previous winners within various Oscar categories.
I am starting with my top 3 performances in the Leading Actress category, as this years nominations have proven to be difficult to choose a stand out winner.

Feel free to comment saying who your top 3 would be.

3 - Marion Cotillard in 'La Vie en Rose'

Before Marion Cotillard was in blockbuster films such as 'Inception' and 'The Dark Knight Rises' she won the 2008 Leading Actress Oscar for her brilliant portrayal of the legendary French singer Edith Piaf. Many people knew Edith Piaf as the singer of the extremely famous song 'Non, je ne regret rein' (Click Here To Listen), but Cotillard brought her tragic life to the big screen, and she did impeccably. Cotillard proved that she is an amazing actress with this performance, watching the biopic you truly believe it is really Edith Piaf on the screen throughout the course of the film.

For those people who don't enjoy watching foreign language films you should still see it, you become so immersed in the film, and in Cotillard's breathtaking performance that the language doesn't matter.

2 - Hilary Swank in 'Boys Don't Cry'

In Hilary Swank's first Leading Actress winning role she portrays the true story of female born Teena Brandon who adopts his male identity of Brandon Teena and moves to Nebraska to find himself. This is an extremely powerful and moving film but is also very distressing, this is due to Swank's amazing performance. She displays the emotions of Brandon so well that all you can do is empathise with all he went through. There are a few tough scenes to watch in this movie, Swank makes them seem so realistic that you forget that she is an actress performing and believe that she is actually living that life.

This was Swank's first ever Oscar nomination and win, she went on to get her second nomination and win five years later in 2005 for another stunning performance as Maggie Fitzgerald in 'Million Dollar Baby'.

1 - Meryl Streep in 'Sophie's Choice' 

This is one of the finest performances ever in the history of film, by a male or female. Meryl had won one Supporting Actress Oscar before this role (Kramer vs. Kramer, 1980), and had been nominated once for Leading Actress previously (The French Lieutenant's Woman, 1982), but this performance is the one that made everyone recognise just how talented this woman is. Meryl puts on a flawless Polish accent as she plays a survivor of Nazi concentration camps, with a big choice to make. Streep's performance will leave you speechless with tears in your eyes, there is one scene in particular when Meryl goes to scream but nothing comes out of her mouth, just silence, and that scene alone is some of the best acting you will ever see in your life.

There was very tough competition for the Leading actress award in 1983, with Jessica Lange putting in an absolutely mesmerising performance in the biopic 'Frances', which any other year would've earned her the Oscar, but Meryl Streep was just faultless in her performance and could've beaten anybody.

Here are some Honourable Mentions, performances which almost made the top 3

Charlize Theron in Monster

Jodie Foster in The Accused

Kathy Bates in Misery

Frances McDormand in Fargo

Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby

Please comment if you believe someone deserved to be on this list.

Also let me know who would be your top 3.