Baumer's Top 50 of 2015 5) Creed 4) Jurassic World 3) Trumbo 2) It Follows...number one on pg 13

[baumer]

 

 

Carol:  I don't know what I want! How can I know what I want when I say yes to everything.

 

I remember a few months ago @Gopher said I needed to see this film because he was pretty sure it would be one that we disagreed vehemently on.  He loved it and he was sure I would not.  5 years ago, he might have been right.  Maybe my film taste is maturing or just changing.  Carol an absolutely marvelous film about two women who are in love but have to generally keep it a secret for a litany of reasons, one of them of course is the times they live in.  It takes place in the 1950's and it was of course a very different time for homosexuality.  There is one scene, one very quick and quiet scene where Carol, played by Cate Blanchett, tells her husband's lawyer and her own that she has the approval of her shrink who agrees that her illness has been cured.  Yes, this is true.  You can go to You-tube and find commercials from the 50's and 60's advertising doctors that would help cure you of your homosexuality.  It was literally looked upon like diabetes or a broken leg.  All you needed was treatment and you would no longer desire the same sex for a partner.  It's laughable to think that these are the times they lived in but its also downright horrifying.  

 

Blanchett is Oscar worthy but imo, Rooney Mara gives the better performance of the two.  She's mesmerizing. She goes through a much wider range of emotions and she never seems unbelievable in her role.  I also found the sex scenes very erotic but incredibly tasteful.  Carol is a terrific film in a year of terrific films.  And I'm glad me and Gopher have a common bond this year.  

 

Trivia:   Rooney Mara's award season campaign caused significant controversy due to the studio's decision to place her in contention as supporting actress. In fact, after successfully getting nominated in the category, she officially broke the record for the longest Supporting Actress nominated performance at 71 minutes of appearing on screen. She beat previous winner Tatum O'Neal's performance in Paper Moon (1973) at 66 minutes. Cate Blanchett who got nominated in the leading category actually had 6 minutes less screentime only clocking in at 65 minutes.

 

 

[baumer]

Okay, I've gotten a lot done today.  I'll do one more for sure and then we might have to wait for tomorrow for the rest.

[Dementeleus]

You're making me feel the need to get off my ass and get my little presentation done.

[chasmmi]

3 minutes ago, Telemachos said:

You're making me feel the need to get off my ass and get my little presentation done.

 

I know the feeling.  Nothing i can do here till February though and having seen hopefully a couple more oscar films. 

[chasmmi]

This list still surpasses me that there is so much i haven't seen (seeing as I've seen 55 films from 2015) and that nothing yet had screamed TOO HIGH yet for me. 

 

A fair number are too low of course

[Dementeleus]

Oh, I only see a fraction of what baumer sees every year. I've come to accept that fact.

[baumer]

 

 

Sicario:

 

For such a serious subject matter, I had an immensely good time watching this film.  There are two reasons for this.  One is that these are the kinds of roles that Benicio Del Toro was born to play.  Traffic and Sicario could be first cousins as could has characters in each film.  He is a character kind of shrouded in mystery at first.  But as the film moves along, he's revealed to be a straight up bad guy, but one that you root for.  He's a member of some drug cartel but the reason he is helping the DEA or the FBI or the CIA or whoever is running this operation is because another drug lord did some heinous things to his wife and child and he now has straight up revenge on his mind.  To succeed in doing this, he lends his services to whoever he thinks will best help him achieve that goal.  Del Toro is a revelation and he makes any film he's in better.  He helped make this one of the best of the year. 

 

Josh Brolin is another reason I loved it so much.  His character has been doing this so long that he finds humour in the strangest places.  People are getting killed, double crossed, orders are getting fouled up and everything is FUBAR.  But he's under control and used to it all.  He laughs, he grins, he smiles and he seems to enjoy the madness.  Brolin is kind of brilliant in Sicario.  I really enjoyed both these performances.  Also, any film that has Jon Bernthal in it is automatically a decent film.

 

Sicario is a scary film in many ways. Being who I am (kind of sheltered from violence) I really have no idea what goes on in the under belly of Mexico.  But Sicario does.  We are violated with images of men hanging from bridges, corpses with missing heads, firefights at the Mexican border and so much violence.  This is the Mexico that you don't see in commercials or on billboards when they ask us Canadians and Americans to come down south and spend our money there.  Sicario might be a fictional story, but it undoubtedly is based on truth. 

 

 

 

Trivia:  Here's one small example of what makes Del Toro one of the best:

 

While Benicio Del Toro's character is frequently silent in the movie, he initially had more lines. "In the original script, the character explained his background several times to Kate," Del Toro says. "And that gave me information about who this guy was, but it felt a little stiff to have someone you just met 15 minutes ago suddenly telling you what happened to him and who he is." Working with director Denis Villeneuve, Del Toro began cutting some of his dialogue to preserve the mystery of who his character is; Villeneuve estimates they cut 90 percent of what Del Toro was originally intended to say by screenwriter Taylor Sheridan. Like Del Toro, Villeneuve saw power in stripping the character down to a brooding silence, stating that dialogue belongs to plays and "movies are about movement, character, and presence, and Benicio had all that."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[baumer]

 

Brooklyn:  You'll feel so homesick that you'll want to die, and there's nothing you can do about it, apart from endure it.

 

Brooklyn came very close to getting a 10/10 from me. It lost half a point when I felt that the love triangle just didn't fit too well in here.  For those who haven't seen it, Brooklyn is about a young Irish girl who is set up in America by her sister's priest.  She makes her way over there, alone and is at first terrified and alone and misses home immensely.  Eventually she meets a nice young man and they fall in love and everything seems to be going perfectly when she has to go home for an emergency and then she gets tempted by another relationship.  I didn't buy this part of the film.  Thankfully it only lasts 15 minutes.  The rest of the film is perfection.  Saoirse Ronan is my pick for best actress this year.  She made me fall in love with her.  She's radiant in this film.  She starts off as a shy and scared young woman in a strange land all alone.  But as the film moves along, she gains more confidence in herself as a person and in her sexuality.  Watching her growth was the best thing about the movie.  

 

Brooklyn is a fairly simple film.  But it's written, directed and acted so exquisitely that you are mesmerized by it.  A sign of a good film is when you don't want it to end.  You just want to spend more time with the characters.  That's  what you get with Brooklyn.  

 

Trivia:   Saoirse Ronan herself was born in The Bronx, New York, but raised in Ireland to Irish parents. She considers 'Brooklyn' to be one of her most personal films and it marks the first time she uses her Irish accent in a film. In an interview with David Poland she expressed her concern with taking the role:"I felt like I can't mess this up, because all of Ireland will be watching. I felt a huge responsibility to the country to really capture what the story was." However, she said the warm reception at the Sundance Film Festival made her realize the universal essence of the film.

 

[baumer]

 

Love the Coopers: Joy to the world, the Lord has come.

I'm pretty sure that's not the right words.  It's not Joy to the world The Lord has had an orgasm.

 

This is the movie that made me all warm and fuzzy this year. The Night Before is a good Christmas movie, this one is a classic and will be watched every year at my household during the Christmas season.  What's a Christmas movie without a dysfunctional family?  Not a Christmas movie.  And this has plenty of dysfunction.  It also has perhaps the best ensemble cast of the year.  Steve Martin narrates.  Diane Keaton and John Goodman play the older married couple.  And then  you have Marisa Tomei, Alan Arkin, Olivia Wilde, and Amanda Seyfried.  The setting is filled with snow covered streets and beautifully decorated suburban houses that make everything feel festive and jolly.  But of course not is all merry and jolly as there is a pending divorce, jealousy among siblings, an older man and his interesting relationship with a much younger woman and somehow it all makes sense.  Director Jesse Nelson has directed three films in 20 years.  I'm not sure why she was chosen to do this one or why she would want to but she was a perfect choice to get hat was required from all parties involved.  

 

Christmas films hold a special place in my heart.  Me and my mom used to watch any and all Christmas films.  She would have loved this one.  It has an old feel to it, like it was an episode of I Love Lucy or some other sitcom from another era.  It's got a bit of a nasty side to it but for the most part it's just about connecting with your family and trying to make all the nuts somehow get along.  And it of course tells us that family is family.  No matter how dysfunctional they all seem, everyone loves  each other and things all work out in the end.

 

Trivia:  Marisa Tomei and Diane Keaton play sisters.  Keaton is 19 years older than Tomei.

 

 

[baumer]

This brings us to the top 5.

 

There might be some surprises in here, and there might not.  I'll get to the top 5 tomorrow.

[Dementeleus]

Well, I don't know what I was expecting, but certainly not that at #6.

[4815162342]

The Top 5 will be almost as epic as Raptorcyclists

 

 

[baumer]

I'd like to do more tonight, but I think we'll just leave it for tomorrow.

 

Maybe a few hints.

[Ethan Hunt]

Interesting....

[baumer]

5) Naaaa...I'll let this one be a surprise....ah fuck it...Gomer Pyle survives and now looks to make his fortune

3) Arrrgo fuck yourself

1) Do you really have to ask?

[Dementeleus]

Does #1 feature a cameo by a voice actor for animated kids shows?

[Avatree]

Wait, what? Love the Coopers is an unironic top 10 choice? Baumer, you have... surpassed my expectations of you.

[baumer]

Tele I wish I knew who you meant.  Somehow I think there is  ajoke in there that I'm not getting.

 

Tree.....well, LTC really hit home with me.  I saw it three times.  

[Avatree]

3 minutes ago, Baumer said:

Tele I wish I knew who you meant.  Somehow I think there is  ajoke in there that I'm not getting.

 

Tree.....well, LTC really hit home with me.  I saw it three times.  

dear god.

[baumer]

Why do people get so shocked when some have a different opinion than they do?  Have you seen Love the Coopers?  My guess is probably not, and if you haven't how can you say if it's good or not?