Snugglecub – Page 29 – Academy Award Best Picture Winners

2021 – Don’t Look Up

Don’t Look Up – 2021

Finally! Finally, there is a dark comedy that is done right, at least by my own definition of a dark comedy. You see, when a movie genre has the word comedy in it, I expect there to be some humor, something to laugh at. But most dark comedies are just satirical, ironic, or just plain dramatic. They have a habit of taking a very serious subject matter and simply show you how sad it is that reality really is that absurd or tragic. But not this movie. Yes, there was a bit of that in there, but there were also actual funny moments that made me laugh out loud.

This movie went over the top and out of its way to hold up a mirror to our current society and showed us how messed up certain things are by taking those serious things to an extreme that is beyond our reailty today, though not too far beyond…

The plot of the movie followed several serious scientists, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Rob Morgan, who have discovered a comet that is on a collision course with Earth. It is so big that unless something is done, it will destroy all life on the planet as we know it. But as hard as they try to get the world to take their claims seriously, nobody believes them. They are ignored, ridiculed, and persecuted for telling people to be afraid for their lives.

And to make matters worse, when the world starts to listen, everyone is too wrapped up in their own petty lives and self-absorptions that it is too late to do anything except wait for the end. Even when a realistic effort is made to save the planet, the geniuses that the world turns to are ineffectual morons that fail to save anyone. And the biggest problem is that the President of the United States, played by Meryl Streep, and her Chief of Staff son, played by Jonah Hill, seem to be the biggest idiots of them all.

But the reason we can say that the scenario is over the top is that in reality, even in the event that an ineffectual leader ignores his advisors, there are enough serious minded and intelligent people in the world, that someone would have recognized the seriousness of the situation, and intelligent steps would have been taken to ensure our safety, or at least credible attempts would have been made to avoid the danger. In other words, we, as a species, are not as dumb as the people in the movie. But that is what made the movie both satirical and actually funny.

And this movie has two of my favorite actors in it. Streep and DiCaprio. It isn’t often that we see Streep in a comedic roll, or at least, that isn’t what she’s mostly known for. But boy, she sure knows how to pull it off. One of those laugh-out-loud moments is when the Earth is being destroyed, and Madam President is being taken to the space-ship that will transport the rich elite to another planet, and she is reminded that she accidentally left behind her idiot son. Streep’s “O shit!” reaction is priceless. DiCaprio’s part wasn’t exactly comedic, as he and Jennifer Lawrence did most of the dramatic work. But they still had some humorous lines, though it must have been difficult to be the voice of reason and funny at the same time.

And there were even more big names in the film that were just as impressive. Cate Blanchet, Tyler Perry, Timothee Chalamet, Mark Rylance, Ron Pearlman, Melanie Lynskey, and Ariana Grande. They all did great. And even though I’ve never been a fan of Grande, I have to admit, her voice was fantastic as she sang a hilarious song about how we should have listened to the scientists, and how we f#@%ed up. It was an unexpected musical moment that was another laugh-out-loud scene. The entire cast did a great job and it was great to see a lot of these serious dramatic actors in their silly comedic roles. I mean, who knew Jonah Hill could play a monumental imbecile with such believability, but he was great.

But the movie was so much more than just a satirical commentary on the ridiculously self-absorbed nature of our society and of celebrity in general. It also had some very serious and dramatic moments that took me by surprise. For example, when the comet first becomes visible with the naked eye, and the world begins to realize that everyone is going to die, things became real not only for the characters, but the viewing audience, as well. DiCaprio was awesome in this scene. And one of the best moments in the film was in the end, when the comet is making its final approach to the planet. DiCaprio’s non-religious family feels the need to pray, but doesn’t know how. But the random skater-boy that Lawrence has hooked up with, played by Chalamet, offers up an incredibly beautiful and profound prayer that I’d like to include here in its entirety. He says, “Dearest Father, and Almighty Creator, we ask for Your grace tonight despite our pride, and Your forgiveness despite our doubt. Most of all, Lord, we ask for Your love to sooth us through these dark times. May we face whatever is to come in Your divine will, with courage and open hearts of acceptance. Amen.” For such a silly movie, it was incredibly dramatic and stirring, and I have to admit to a few tears. And the dark and ominous score that served as the prayer’s backdrop was gorgeous, and perfectly placed. It was an absolutely beautiful, and yet horrific moment, and that‘s what I call good filmmaking.

2021 – Dune

Dune – 2021

In recent years, I am very happy to notice a trend in movies that are being nominated for the coveted Best Picture award. More films from the science-fiction category are being given consideration. This includes super-hero films, as well as pure sci-fi fantasy movies like this one, not just the dramas and the dramatic or historical biopics that usually get nominated. The Best Picture category needs to be more than just the best dramatic films of the year. Because, you see, this was just a good movie, despite the fact that it is in the science fiction genre.

Another trend that I’m really liking is that movies that stay close to the source material like books or plays, are ultimately better movies. Filmmakers are finally starting to realize that there was a reason those books were popular in the first place, and that if you change what was in them, you not only anger the fans of the books, but you invariably lose what made them popular in the first place. And from what I have heard, Dune did a pretty good job of remaining loyal to the book.

This, of course, is the third adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune to be filmed. The first was the critical and commercial flop that was the David Lynch version, released in 1984. It was confusing and hard to understand, though to be fair, it was originally supposed to be a three hour film that was cut down to a little under two hours and twenty minutes. Then there was the made for TV miniseries from 2000 that, while superior in many ways, suffered from a made for TV budget and pacing issues. A good try, but ultimately too small.

But here, I think they finally got it right. Not only had technology advanced sufficiently to do the fantastical story justice, but it was a big-budget production that had the funds to create the sets and visual effects needed for the enormous scale of the narrative. They could afford to hire the best costumers, the best set designers, the best production designers, and the best visual effects artists in the business. Not only that, but they were able to hire a director, Denis Villeneuve, for whom directing Dune was a passion project. And it was clear that he cared about the story he was telling.

The cast was amazing. Timothee Chalamet played the lead, Paul Atreides. When I first heard of this casting choice, I remember thinking that it was an odd one. I though he looked too young and too slightly built to do the character justice. Happily, I was wrong. Chalamet was wonderful, and embodied not only the innocence the character required, but the toughness as well. The rest of the cast was very much an ensemble, but if you could pick out a second lead among the cast, it would be his mother, Lady Jessica, played by Rebecca Ferguson, who really did a fantastic job. She was beautiful and yet dangerous at the same time. I particularly liked her in the scene where Jessica and Paul escape from their captors using the Bene Gesserit skill known as “the Voice.” Very cool scene!

Other great actors in the film were Oscar Isaac, playing Duke Leto Atreides, Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck, Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Stellan Skarsgard as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, and Zendaya as Chani. Add to them such names as Dave Bautista, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen, Charlotte Rampling, and David Dastmalchian, and you have a great cast that really did a phenomenal job inhabiting their roles.

In particular, I really liked Josh Brolin’s performance. He is such a skilled and accomplished actor. He is incredibly handsome, but can really pull off the part of a bad-ass tough guy. Jason Momoa also did a great job, though at first, I almost didn’t recognize him when he appeared on the screen. He looked so different than when he played Aquaman or Kal Drogo. There was one member of the cast who I feel was under-used, though honestly, I don’t see how they could have given him more screen time than he had. Stellan Skarsgard is also a very good actor, and here, he played the Baron Harkonnen so well! His performance was brief but powerful. And the scene where he had to be covered in black slime? EEEWWW!!!

The score for the film was written by Hans Zimmer, one of the best in the business. There was a grandeur and power to his music that elevated the film and enhanced its scale immensely. And what a scale it was! This is a true epic, and if it is handled right, it could very well be the next major franchise that everyone is so desperately looking for. The original series of books by Frank Herbert is made up of six novels, and this film is only the first half of the first one. I have read that the sequel is already planned to be released in 2023. I’m glad because they finally seem to have gotten it right, and I’m looking forward to seeing the surviving cast return to reprise their roles.

Dune garnered ten nominations at the Academy Awards, more than any other movie in 2021, including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Costume Design, Sound, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Cinematography, Production Design, and Visual Effects. It took home Oscars for six of those categories, and I believe they were absolutely deserved. Well done everyone!

2021 – Dune (WINNER)

2021 – Dune (Winner)

The visual effects for Dune were incredible. They were unique, distinctive, flashy, captivating, and just plain impressive. The movie, as a whole, was certainly good, and a big part of it was the visuals. The filmmakers paid attention to the wonderful environments required by the narrative, and built the alien worlds in such a way as to make them other-worldly, and yet always grounded in a reality that audiences would be able to accept as real.

In doing a little reading about the film’s visual effects, I learned that the director, Dennis Villeneuve, used as many practical effects as he could. You see, I’m noticing a bit of a trend in Hollywood, especially in big-budget films. CGI effects and environments are wonderful. When used properly, they can make the fantastical or the futuristic as believable as reality. But CGI is not yet so perfect as to replace actual reality. Filmmakers seem to be discovering that reality, enhanced by a sprinkling of CGI effects, often produces better results on the screen. The CGI is still there, but it is used more sparingly. Personally, I like the trend.

To this end, more complete sets were built, rather than building small pieces of sets that were then completed with large portions of CGI. The dragonfly-like helicopters that were used, were full scale models that the actors could interact with, with functional cockpits. They were made to fly with the use of cranes, and the insect-like wings were digitally added in post. One of the coolest scenes in the film was the invasion of Arrakis. The massive explosions, the ethereal blue shields, and the raining missiles were visually stunning, and were a carefully constructed combination of practical effects and CGI.

There was plenty of blue-screening used, but something they did that took it to a new level was to use different colored chroma key screens, based on the environments that would be added in post. Instead of blue or green, they used sand-screens for some of the shots that took place in the deserts of Arrakis. Gray screens were used for scenes that took place on Caladan. The result of these different-colored screens was that post-production compositing was much easier, and the finished product appeared much more natural on the screen.

But the one effect that could not really be done practically, was the giant sand-worms. Their scale, and their completely alien nature would have been hard to believably create practically. But as for that, I found it pretty impressive that they were able to show the behemoths moving through desert sands like whales swimming through water. It was clever of them to use water based CGI programs combined with sand based software. Impressive! And the massive maws of the beasts filled with baleen were really cool! Great design, great execution!

2021 – Free Guy

2021 – Free Guy

This was a fun movie, and the visual effects really reflected that. The effects were creative and bright, and just pleasant to look at. The color palate of the movie was flashy and familiar for anyone who has played video games. And I liked that as part of the narrative of the film, it was both common and no reason for any concern to see explosions, gun-fire, car crashes, burning people, and helicopters crashing into buildings, just as a typical day. Things like that were happening in the background of many scenes, and yet were not the focus of the scene. It was a very interesting dynamic.

The visual style of the movie was perfectly crafted. One of the great things they were able to do that helped to tell the story was to make it instantly obvious when a scene took place inside the game, and when one took place in the real world. They used specific colors and lenses, as well as deliberate framing and camera movement techniques that made the differences easily recognizable.

But I think what made Free Guy so unique was the in-game experience that it created. For example, when Guy puts on the sunglasses, and sees the world through the eyes of a player instead of an NPC, everything changed. Everything was filmed as live-action, and yet it was an unmistakable video game experience. All the glowing signs and the digital in-game markers looked exactly like they were supposed to, like live-action versions of video game interface devices. It was really cool and very creatively designed.

As a side note, I have to say that it was also really awesome to see live action versions of specific video game devices like the gravity gun from Half-Life 2, or a Mega Buster from Megaman. But my favorite was from the awesome game Portal. The Portal Gun effect was really fantastic! I wish they could have found a way to have GLADOS on the screen, if only for an instant!

And the film’s climax was two-fold. First there was the destruction of Free City. As the bad Guy, Antwan, takes a fireman’s axe to the servers in the real world, the city starts to digitize and dissolve in the game. As the buildings begin to crumble and dissipate, the NPC population flees in fear. Some of the people are even lost along with the environment, and it was a cool effect.

But the other fun effect was the character of Dude! They digitally put Ryan Reynold’s head on the body of professional bodybuilder, Aaron W. Reed. It looked just real enough to be believable, but just fake enough to be, as the narrative required, incompletely created and thrust into the game before it was ready. It was brilliant, and if truth be told, slightly creepy at the same time. Well done, everybody! This was a fun movie with fun visual effects.

2021 – Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

2021 – Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Not only were the visual effects for this Marvel movie incredible, but it was just a good movie. It was full of fantastic action and bright, glowing colors, which I like, but it also had a great story and some dramatic depth. Color was a very important part of the story telling, not only in the sets and costumes, but also in the visual effects. In fact, the difference between blue and gold, when it came to the actual Ten Rings, was a plot point, and the two opposing powers looked great on the screen. They were bright and flashy, and beautifully designed!

There were so many things that the visual effects people did right on this film, but there are four in particular that I’d like to mention. The first is that the CGI creature effects were top-notch. There were actually a lot of digital creature effects, the most notable of which were the two dragons in the film’s climax. There was the Guardian Dragon and the big-bad Dweller-in-Darkness Dragon. The snake-like Guardian Dragon had this beautiful red and white color scheme going and was just gorgeous. I especially liked the shots that were close-ups of his face. The black dragon looked terrifying and properly menacing! They looked so realistic from every camera angle, every focal distance.

The second thing that caught my attention was the water effects. Now, you might say that we’ve seen CGI water effects before, but not like this. As part of the narrative, the Guardian Dragon could control water, and used it as a violent weapon to ensnare its enemy. The water looked so real! The texture, the consistency, the lighting, the spray, the foam! It was all so perfectly rendered! And lest I forget, the whole magic water-map scene was fantastic!

The third effect that caught my attention was the compositing, which, of course, was consistently good throughout the entire movie. The fantastic environments that were a seamless combination of real set pieces and digital environments were beautiful. I especially liked the land of Tao Lo. It was gorgeous! I imagine natural, outdoor environments must be harder to create. Cityscapes have all the hard lines of buildings, roads, signs, and the like, to make compositing easier, but because of my lack of knowledge about the mechanics of digital compositing, I could be wrong.

And finally, I have to make mention of the digital face replacements and CGI people. I know that it is now becoming pretty common-place, especially in action films, to have a stunt man doing the difficult physical movements of a character, and to then replace the stunt man’s face with the actor’s face. But it is also just as common to have an actor doing his thing, and then changing his entire body into a computer generated image to do all the physics-defying acrobatics, and we, as the audience, never even notice the transition, and Shang-Chi did this perfectly!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Cast Images

James and Oliver Phelps as Fred and George Weasley

Jamie Waylett and Josh Herdman as Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle

Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Cast Images

Character Posters

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Time for the sixth installment of one of my favorite franchises. For me, this is one of the movies in the series that seems to fall a little bit under the radar. I mean, not much happens over the course of most of the film, though a lot happens in the film’s final act. Most of the movie is about building and developing characters and their relationships. Except for that final third of the movie, in which a lot happened. Most notable was the death of Dumbledore. As always, I loved Michael Gambon’s interpretation of the character, and it was a really heartbreaking part of the film.

I needn’t say that Radcliff, Grint, and Watson were all on top of their game for this movie. They were now firmly established in their characters, and experienced enough to turn in some really great performances. I especially loved Watson in this movie. In particular, there was a scene where she is in tears because Ron is shamelessly snogging with another new girl. Her emotion is real, and in my mind, that is where she changed from a child actress to an adult actress. She was amazing.

Now, I feel like Rupert Grint keeps getting the short end of the stick. The character of Ron Weasley seems to be the most unloved of the three. But, Grint is just playing the character as he is directed to, and he does a fine job. Here, in The Half-Blood Prince, had three little sub-plots that were fun, but not essential. The first was his position as keeper on the Gryffindor quidditch team. The second was his association with Lavender Brown, and third is his drinking of a love potion. I actually loved Ron in that third one. Grint’s comedic acting was brilliant, and it is a memorable part of the film for me.

So the one thing I found a little disappointing was that one of the overall mysteries of the film was the true identity of the Half-Blood Prince. It was Snape, but, the movie never explains WHY it was Snape. He just kind-of randomly steps up at the end and says, “Yup, it was me!” You see, the book explains it, and I think the movie should have done the same. So, Snape’s parents were a witch named Eileen Prince and a muggle named Tobias Snape, making their son, Severus, a half-blood. But the movie just drops it like a little bolt of lightning from out of nowhere, right near the end of the movie. It wouldn’t have taken much to do a little explanation, just a line or two. But the movie never does that. Too bad for anyone who has not read the book.

So needless to say that the last act of the movie is my favorite part of the film. From the time where Harry and Dumbledore go to retrieve the locket horcrux until the end of the movie, I am just amazed at the acting, the plot, the action, the drama, the visuals… everything! First there is the spectacular acting of Michael Gambon. I am nearly in tears when he is drinking the torture potion. When he is begging to be killed, and yet continues to open his mouth for Harry to pour more of it down his throat is simply heart-wrenching. And then after the really scary inferi attack, when Dumbledore is wielding wild fire with his wand, is just visually stunning. So cool!

And then back at the school, we even get one of Draco Malfoy’s most dramatic scenes in the entire franchise. Again, this was the movie where I stopped seeing him as a child actor, and started seeing him as an accomplished adult actor. I’m so glad he got that seriously intense moment.

As far as I’m concerned, the overall quality of the franchise has never wavered. People like to pick their favorites, but I just like them all equally for the detailed and intricate story that is told. Sure, there were a lot of things from the books that never made it into the movies, but I think that they did a fantastic job, and The Half-Blood Prince was no exception.

Top 10 Favorite Parts

The Potions class where Harry wins the Felix Felicis
Dumbledore showing Harry his collected memories.
Katie Bell is cursed.
Hermione is in tears because of Ron and Lavender
Ron falls under the Love potion’s influence.
Harry nearly murders Draco
Ginny kisses Harry
The Use of the Liquid Luck potion.
Dumbledore drinking the torture potion, and then wielding fire.
The death of Dumbledore, and everyone lighting the tips of their wands in homage.

2021 – Spider-Man No Way Home

2021 – Spider-Man No Way Home

The visual effects in this movie were incredible, and I’m not just saying that because I’m a huge Marvel fan. I mean, I am, but even if I wasn’t I’d still say the effects were awesome! Not only were we treated to effects that we have seen before, but that were upgraded and enhanced to look cooler than we’ve seen in previous films, but we were also shown a few new things that we’ve never seen before. The visual effects team seemed to have pulled out all the stops and knocked this one out of the park!

The whole concept of the movie is that Spider-Man has to fight the villains from all the previous Spider-Man movies, whether they were officially part of the MCU or not. Visually, and just in general, the greatest thing about this film were the characters who were brought in from the 2002, 2004, and 2007 Spider-Man movies with Toby Maguire, and the 2012 and 2017 Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield. But the greatest visual effects went to the villains, which were brought in from each of these movie.

The movie gathered the best villains from all those other movies who were defeated: The Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Sandman, and The Lizard. So there we have five great villains fighting three incarnations of the hero. But all of their looks were given a make-over. My favorite had to be Electro. Not only did they change his electricity effects from blue to the more familiar yellow from the comics, but they also believably explained the change as part of the narrative. And they also gave Doctor Octopus’s tentacles a little upgrade with some of Stark’s nano-technology. And we even got to see Venom in a post-credit scene.

The final climactic fight where everyone is fighting everyone was really cool! Sure, I’m guessing that most of it was completely CGI, since Spider-Man wears a mask that covers his face, and the faces of the villains were not seen much, like in the case of The Lizard and Sandman. But if that was the case, the CGI really looked fantastic! The sand effects were cool, the electricity effects were great, and even The Lizard looked pretty realistic.

And lest I forget, I have to mention the really cool Doctor Strange effects. The spell he casts to make the world forget Spider-Man’s identity looked bright and flashy, lighting up the screen like a kaleidoscope. We spent a little time in the mirror dimension, where reality started bending and twisting, reflecting and multiplying, and it looked stunning. I really liked the shot where Spider-Man escapes and traps Strange there using his webs and math. That looked cool. And then after the final fight is done, Doctor Strange casts another spell to close the dimensional rifts, as reality started to tear itself apart. It all just looked so cool!

2021 – No Time To Die

2021 – No Time to die

Well, I know your first question is going to be, “Why only three stars?” It isn’t because the effects weren’t good. In fact, they were very good. But I’ll be honest, I’ve seen them all before. It was a typical Bond film. There were car and motorcycle chases, lots of gunfire, and a lot of things blowing up. But there was nothing I haven’t seen before. It was an action/spy thriller, and the action was certainly thrilling to watch. But I’ve been trying to think of an effect that I haven’t seen in some other movie, and I can’t think of one.

In fact, I did a little looking on the internet for a reason why No Time to Die was nominated in the Visual Effects category. What I found was an article written by Edward Douglas on Goldderby.com, and a video on Youtube that offered a short breakdown of the film’s effects. Here is what Douglas had to say. “Their visual effects work on “No Time to Die” is so seamless that few people will realize how much of the movie relied on those VFX. In order for director Cary Joji Fukanaga to pull off his movie’s stunts without putting his actors or stuntmen in danger, the VFX team could digitally place actors’ faces on stunt performers, which has become the norm in action movies, and save some elements of explosives and gunfire for post-production. The VFX were also used to create and enhance the movie’s real world locations, either adding or removing elements as needed.”

So basically, my assessment was right. There was some masterful digital compositing and some seamless face replacements. There were explosions and gunfire, and there were stunts and car chases. But if that was all, then it wasn’t enough for me. The two and a half minute video showed some of those things, but not much else. Although, there was one thing the video revealed that I found interesting. The scene where the American CIA agent, Paloma, wearing high heel shoes, is karate kicking a bad guy, apparently her legs were CGI. Who knew?

There were also a few other interesting digital effects, but nothing spectacular or flashy. There was the shot of a bomb-like device plummeting down an ele4vator shaft, spraying electromagnets onto the walls in a spiral pattern, an effect which lasted about a second and a half. That looked interesting. And there was the shot of a super-spy glider deploying its retractable wings, and that was cool. But again, the effect was brief. There was just, in general, nothing new or innovative here.

But I have to ask, since there is no category at the Academy Awards for Best Stunts, are stunts essentially folded into the Visual Effects category? I imagine they are, and that brings up an argument that I have heard before, more than once. Should Best Stunts have their own category? There are arguments for and against, and everyone seems to have a valid point. But I don’t know the answer.

1936 – Gladys George

1936 – Gladys George

Valiant is the Word for Carrie

I have mixed feelings about this movie, but not about Gladys George’s performance. She was good, though the movie was a little dull. And it wasn’t that nothing happened in the story. A lot actually happened, but the pacing was just a little slow. But I’m here to review the actress’s performance, not the film, and based on that, I have to give Gladys two thumbs up.

Gladys played a woman with a shady past. The film never explicitly said what that past was, but it was implied that she was a prostitute. And even though that part of her life was behind her, it continued to haunt her. Carrie was trying to be a good woman, but the world refused to see it. And in her effort to be a good person, she took custody of two orphaned children and raised them as her own. The role called for a certain kind of strength in the face of public scorn, a carefully suppressed need for human contact, and a great deal of compassion for the two orphans.

Gladys George did a wonderful job creating this character that was full of strong emotions. She was a conflicted woman, wanting what was best for the children, and yet fighting the fear that her reputation would be more harmful to them than anything else. She was a serious-minded woman, and yet once the three of them ran away together, she proved to the world, and to herself that motherhood suited her. Her love for them was easy to see, and it was all due to Gladys’s wonderful performance. The predominant emotions that the role required were concern, worry, and selflessness, and Gladys pulled it off pretty convincingly.

Another thing that she did very well was to age. Over the course of the film, she aged, I’m estimating around 18 or 17 or 18 years. The makeup, and the costume changes were good, but it was also in the way she carried herself. She moved just a little more slowly, more stiffly. And the look in her eyes seemed just a little more wise, more care-worn. And the unexpected end of the film, where Carrie decides to go to jail rather than allowing her tarnished reputation to cast a shadow over her adopted children was played perfectly. There was an inner strength there that was appealing. The Best Actress nomination was well-earned.