Norman Mailer said it
years ago and said it quite plainly: PC movement will be a disaster. I have to
peer through my fingers when I read another article on this year’s Oscars. And I
keep asking myself one question: what if Leonardo DiCaprio was black? Would we
not be standing in an angry queue, holding pitchforks, raring to lynch the
Academy Awards committee for such blatant racism?
The system is rigged,
definitely. It always is. It’s a healthy approach to life. It’s sexy. Admit it,
were you not just a tiny bit
fascinated by the sheer scope of Wall Street fraudulence in The Big Short?
And now Will Smith is
boycotting, Mark Ruffalo is indignant and Michael Moore is having a field day. And
I’m just thankful for Charlotte Rampling and Michael Caine. The latter may have
won his 1999 award for an exceedingly bland and tedious film, but you are in a
safe place when Pierce Morgan is not on your side.
It would probably make
it all worth it if they gave in, expanded the list of nominees, added Will
Smith to the Best Actor category and gave him the Oscar over DiCaprio. What a
perfect story that would be.
THE REVENANT
There are always
people who will treat cinema like literature. They will need a message and a
subtle allusion. But cinema is a totally different form of art, which may have
been the reason why Nabokov despised it so much. Sometimes you’re just a kid
staring at the raging sea, and that’s what I was watching The Revenant. This film is the reason why I care for cinema.
Engrossing and visceral. 9/10
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Oh God. I’d like to
look at the face of whoever it was that thought it would be a good idea to
nominate this for the Best Picture. I’m honestly admiring the joke. 7/10
SPOTLIGHT
Admittedly I didn’t
watch this one sober, but I only say this because I was still able to follow
every trial and tribulation. Great storytelling. 9/10
BROOKLYN
I'm afraid I’m not going to watch a film whose screenplay was written by
Nick Hornby.
BRIDGE OF SPIES
Sometimes you only
have to state the obvious: Bridge Of
Spies is a Cold War film directed by Steven Spielberg and scripted by the
Coen brothers. It’s all fairly straightforward, but the Coens’ edge is
unmistakable. Tom Hanks’s first scene in a restaurant, that whole dialogue, it
must have been them. Screenplays or novels – they will teach you to write. 8/10
ROOM
In the glaring
absence of The Forbidden Room, this
will have to do. By all accounts, it should be good.
THE BIG SHORT
Smug, cynical and
utterly pretentious. I guess that scene with Margot Robbie took balls to
conceive. But I’m safely under 40 and so I loved this to bits. The filmmaking
is both tough and freewheeling. A word of warning though: if you find it
annoying, you find it unbearably
annoying. 9/10
THE MARTIAN
In layman terms, Matt Damon
is bang average. But this is rather entertaining if you have a couple of hours
to burn. 7/10
