It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Oscar Bait

Ah, November and December. The holidays are upon us, everything is cozy, and for some, the Christmas decorations went up early. Oh, and movies suddenly get very interesting. Not necessarily good, but very interesting (Looking at you, Here and The Merry Gentlemen). Gotta love it when Oscar season is suddenly looming.

So yeah, picking a Top Five was a wee bit tough, because a lot of it came down to figuring out what I was going for in the first place. Uniqueness? Great performances? Entertainment? Laughable mistakes?

In the end, it was a combination of factors, so here we go, and you all know the drill: Click on the images for the reviews…

Heretic

While the messaging of the film is a bit presumptuous and arrogant (it assumes that its reasons for hating religion are watertight), Heretic hits a lot of good points as a horror movie, and Hugh Grant is a very classy if deranged criminal mastermind. If anyone hasn’t seen this one, expect dark, dank, drippy basements, seemingly rigged power games, and cold rooms filled with semi-comatose women in cages. It’s not exactly my favorite movie, but I was never bored.

Wicked

As you all know, YouTube is buzzing about this one because there’s so much weirdness attached to it, like the way Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo keep pawing each other during interviews. The movie, however, is not so bad…in spots. A lot of it is really dazzling, but it also hits some odd notes, such as in the first scenes when the Wicked Witch of the West is burned in effigy. Um, Wicker Man, anyone? There’s also the little matter of Wicked retconning the original Oz story into oblivion, but hey, the songs are great.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

I saw this movie on the same day as Heretic, and boy, did the pendulum swing hard. While I’ve read the original Barbara Lewis novel many times and vividly remember the TV special starring Loretta Swit and Fairuza Balk, I was pleasantly surprised and delighted at how well the material translates to a feature film. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is one of the best family films I’ve seen in a long time and I hope it becomes a favorite for a lot of people.

Apollo 13: Survival

Survival is an excellent documentary about that famed doomed-yet-successful 1970 mission that eschews traditional sit-down interviews for voiceover narration by eyewitnesses and makes full use of NASA’s audio and visual archives, including the Vox transcripts. It moves fast and is endlessly fascinating, even for those who may already be familiar with Apollo 13. The timing of this documentary is rather fortuitous, as many of the people involved in Apollo 13 are unfortunately passing on. At the time of this writing, though, Jim Lovell is ninety-six and thriving.

The Piano Lesson

The Piano Lesson is absolutely my favorite film of the month. I like the Washington family, all of whom were involved with this production, and I like August Wilson, who wrote the original 1956 play. This film is a taut family drama centered around an heirloom piano. Boy Willie wants to sell it to buy land. His sister, Berniece, who owns the piano, refuses to sell. As time goes on, it gets harder and harder to ignore the proverbial skeletons rattling in the closet and things take a ghostly turn. It’s both “What the heck?” in a “Wow, this is exciting,” kind of way and “What the heck?” in a “Dang, that’s a little random,” kind of way.

Another post is coming out tomorrow. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…

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