Manage to caught most of the Oscar Bait movies during this CNY.

The First man – Good but not great.
Overall it’s an in-depth character study of Neil Armstrong, whether he’s likable or a role model hero it’s up for interpretation. Not saying he is a jerk, but he can come across as an emotionless person that just laser tuned to accomplish his mission to the moon at the expense of being a lesser husband and father to his family. You don’t felt inspired by him. Appreciate the effort to show the grittiness of the danger involving the space flights. Majority of the shots compound within the confine of cockpit and the tech pretty lo-fi. It’s not a glamorized Hollywood aesthetic you usually found in this type of movies. Claire Foy again the Queen that outshines Ryan Gosling.

Mirai – Sweet and touching.
Scope wise it is not as elaborate as Wolf Children, Mamoru Hosada’s masterpiece. Still, there’s plenty to like here and being nominated for Oscar’s Best Animated Film not coming from Studio Ghibli. Again the theme of raising children is the focus. It shifted to temper tantrums thrown by the boy because of his jealousy over the new born sister, Mirai. Multiple “Guardian Angels” appearing throughout the course of the movie to help the boy grow a little with inventive mini burst of adventures. Each of it has a sweet messaging and a joy to watch. Hosada still the best animator when comes to expressing body language and the ability to transport you into those magical fantasy moments.

The Favourite - Olivia Colman will bag the Best Actress Oscar.
To date this is the more accessible film of Yorgos Lanthimos to date. It's not as peculiar as Dogtooth that started the trend of unconventional parenting movies like Captain Fantastic, Leave No Trace,etc...It's not darkly cynical like The Killing of a Sacred Deer. The story here is not anything you haven't seen, its the Lanthimos signature humour and strong performance of the cast members. Nicholas Hoult and Emma Stone is out of their "Hollywood status" comfort zone. Olivia Colman switching her bipolar personality on the fly. When it's funny it's hilarious and when it's dark it's rock bottom depressing. On the lookout for a debut "cuci mata" shot you don't see coming.

Creed 2 - More of the same as the first one.
Objectively it is not a bad sequel. It's the same thing all over again. Foregoing the cartoonish adversary tone of Rocky 4, this sequel dial down all the chest thumping tropes but focus on the sons living under the shadow of their fathers. The pace a little slower due to fleshing out more characterization of the story mainframe. Whether it's a good or bad thing the movie did not take on a new direction, somehow it just another one of those decent "underdog sport" movie.

Destroyer - Nicole Kidman does an 180.
The only selling point is watching Kidman playing a "Bad Lieutenant". Out goes the glamour make-up and out of comfort zone acting. Some scenes even shocks you that came from her. At the end the mystery or reason for her to be in such bad predicaments a little of a letdown. Wish the big reveal tally up to her courageous performance.

Green Book - Reversal Driving Miss Daisy.
It is as vanilla as you can think. No surprises in how the story being played out. Friendship blooming to overcome racial tension where they taught each other a little better about themselves. It is a charming and felt good movie that very easy to watch. Strong performances from the leads. Does it deserve the best picture in Oscars, absolutely not!!!

Technically it is not a challenging script. It is very safe, Blackkklansmen has the edgier messaging and tends to stick with you in a more profound manner. Not saying to avoid it like a plague, still a good watch and temper your expectations it is not a best picture material.

Free Solo - Not your usual adrenaline junkie quest for glory.

The premise is not out of the ordinary of an athlete overcoming his greatest challenge. The kingmaker is the personality of the subject matter. Alex Honnold came across a likable dreamer who stops at nothing. He is dorky and yet charming to a degree. He has the social skill of Napoleon Dynamite. His interaction with the girlfriend can be painful as in he is lacking awareness of what is the barometer of a normal person would do. You can felt the sincerity and patience of the girlfriend stood by him no matter what.

When the actual climb happens, your eyes won't leave the screen as every move he made is a step away from plunging to his death. To say it is intense is an understatement. Watch it on the largest screen you can find.

The Hole In The Ground - Decent watch.

The atmosphere and creep is there but it does not bring anything new to the table. It is above the Blumhouse standard, which is a good thing. Single mother moving the country side where the son experiencing personality shift. There's no foul spirit possession of any kind but more of "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers" horror instead. The biggest criticism is there's no resolution to the ending of the story.

The Witch Part 1: Subversion - Good enough to watch.

There are familiar bits and pieces here. Jason Bourne, Firestarter and a bunch of Hanna. I was impressed with the young lead actress. She able to sell the amnesiac school girl to a wrecking ball in the last act. The setting up pretty clumsily assembled, and they put it a few "comic book logic" plot points that borderline cartoon. When the action sequences drops, it's a roller coaster ride. It plays out like a violent seinen manga and does remind me of Ajin: Demi God.

Triple Frontier - All the stars appeal fail to salvage this junk.
File this under terrible Netflix's original movies. Their hit rate really leave a lot to be desired. An easily forgettable action thriller with nothing to write home about.

Nada!!
Can I interest you to watch Love, Death + Robots instead. There is no shortage of great sci-fi stories in it.

Then I'm of no help. Do reconsider LD+R cause David Fincher's name on it and some next level cgi animation. There are 18 self-contained short stories. Gotta hard sell it because it is that good.

A Private War - Great performance and craftsmanship that let-down by middling scripting.

Really appreciate the filmmaker didn't make a glorified biopic. You have scatter bits and pieces of events to drive the narrative of the legendary war correspondent. You will need to piece together on what defines Marie Colvin. Rosamund Pike shed her glamorous celebrity appeal to dug deep into portraying a lesser beauty. Think they overplayed the PTSD plot line. Would rather they don't over explained things and focus on her relationship with the surrounding people.

At the minimum after watching this you are incline to google Marie Colvin more in-depth.

It just a yogurt as in fermented milk becoming a sentient being at the expense of humanity's hubris.

Err..just a yogurt by accident who "out-evolved" humanity. No hidden meaning about it.

At the insistence of a buddy to check out Oriol Paulo filmography. Gotta say I'm a fan by the first movie. His style reminded me Park Chan Wook's Vengeange Trilogy. It has the same theme across the aisle. Always start with a murder mystery and it just went to places you won't able to expect where it will go.

The Body - Murder mystery mindfuck.

A premeditated murder with the body missing from morgue. The cops pretty much single out who is the murderer but no clue to why would the body went missing. For the bulk of it is about freaky incidents that meant to answering the mystery of the body. Then the last 10 minutes did an 180 where your mind blown to pieces by the revelation.

The Invisible Guest - Kinda Usual Suspect 2.0.

On the surface it's a cover-up of an extramarital affair that led to a murder. The movie will keep shifting your expectations of who is the antagonist or protagonist. Be immersed with the quick sleight of hand on your grasp of the story progression. One moment you are convinced the adulteress is behind it all and then it realigns to the husband. And it flips few more times until the dramatic revelation.

Mirage - Timeline murder mystery.

You can watch this on Netflix. A storm enables a present day lady to communicate with a boy in the past. When she saves the boy from a certain murder, she changes her timeline where she no longer has her family because of butterfly effect in chaos theory. So the movie is about the lady finding ways to reclaim her timeline that linked to the boy she saves.

Entertaining as it may be with the twists and turns, it goes overreaching in the big revelation. Like Nolan's Interstellar where the movie couldn't stick the landing. Still engaging but not bulletproof in how things being unfolded.

Keep a look out for Oriol Paulo as he has the potential to be the next Park Chan Wook and his craftmanship surpasses has been like Shaymalan.

This post has been edited by 6so: Apr 6 2019, 09:46 AM