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‘Lincoln’ to lead Academy Award winners Sunday |
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Thursday, February 21, 2013 |
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By PATRICK HALL
Special to The Wilson Post
The 85th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, and while I spent quite some time mulling over the most deserving films, I am settling on the fact that “Lincoln” will be the winner in the big categories, despite the fact that I don’t see it as the best of the nominees.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on a book by Doris Kearns Goodwin, “Lincoln” received rave reviews, most notably for the otherworldly performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as President Abraham Lincoln.
The film was truly outstanding and a wonderful look into one of our greatest Presidents, as well as the political fight over the death of slavery. It is nominated for a whopping 12 awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Costume Design, Best Directing, Film Editing, Original Score, Production Design, Sound Mixing and Best Adapted Screenplay.
All things considered, I’m guessing “Lincoln” wins four awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Day-Lewis and Best Director for Spielberg and Best Supporting Actress for Sally Field, as Mary Todd Lincoln.
To me, “Lincoln” was mind-blowingly good upon first seeing it. Day-Lewis’s performance as the embattled and depressed, but resolute President was transcendent. With subtly of movements and facial expressions alongside moments of power and charisma, in "Lincoln", Day-Lewis continued to make his case as one of the best actors to ever step in front of a camera. |
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'Silver Linings' is beautifully honest |
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013 |
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By PATRICK HALL
Special to The Wilson Post
Best Picture nominee “Silver Linings Playbook” is a genuine and emotional look into the lives of two individuals, mostly described as “crazy,” but the truth is, the film succeeds in pulling back the curtain on all our lives and the truth that we all have flaws and depend on those around us to love, forgive and accept our particular brand of “crazy.”
Pat (Bradley Cooper) is bipolar, and in a psychiatric hospital thanks to him nearly beating a man to death when he found his wife having an affair. But really, what’s the big deal? After all, his father, Pat, Sr. (Robert De Niro) is banned from Philadelphia Eagles football games for fighting too many people in the stands.
But at home, Pat struggles to accept his condition and overcome it, with the help of his family and an unlikely companion, Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence). She’s not without her own emotional baggage. Tiffany’s husband, a police officer, was killed, and she was fired from her job for sleeping with “everyone in the office.”
Pat has no filter when speaking. Tiffany is angry, lonely and struggling to cope with her life. Together, Cooper and Lawrence are fascinating and mix together in a beautiful play of emotional tension, hilarious outbursts and heartbreaking struggles.
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'Beasts' a beautiful tale of courage and love |
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Wednesday, February 6, 2013 |
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By PATRICK HALL
Special to The Wilson Post
Captivating and beautiful, while also at times, littered with grit and destruction, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” is a fantastic film tribute to those who chose to stay the course and not leave their homes during Hurricane Katrina, and the performance by its lead actress is downright amazing.
“Beasts” is a film not many around here had the chance to see, and thankfully, it is available to rent now, but it is one of nine films up for Best Picture at the 85th Academy Awards on Feb. 24. Directed by Ben Zeitlin, the film follows little bayou resident “Hushpuppy,” played brilliantly, and captivatingly by Quvenzhané Wallis, as she struggles with her father’s declining health and the apparent destruction of the physical world around her.
The first thing that will jump out at you is the setting. Taking place in a tiny bayou community, “the Bathtub”, at the very southernmost edge of Louisiana’s coastline, the community is simple and its residents are content with their lives and find joy in life.
Hushpuppy lives in a run-down mobile home on stilts, connected to her father’s home by a rope and bell, which he rings when he’s prepared supper. Her father, Wink (Dwight Henry) lives in a shack, almost like a tree house, and together they traverse the bayou in a boat that is an old truck bed on oil barrels with a motor attached.
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'Zero Dark Thirty' is visceral, tense, phenomenal |
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Friday, January 11, 2013 |
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By PATRICK HALL
Special to The Wilson Post
From voices crying out in terror on Sept. 11, 2001, to SEAL Team Six sifting through computer hard drives and a Central Intelligence Agency operative confirming his identity, “Zero Dark Thirty” is a tense, heart-pounding and thrilling look at the search for Osama bin Laden.
Director Kathryn Bigelow’s film opens with its disclaimer, “based on first-hand accounts,” and shifts to a haunting sequence of 911 calls from people inside the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. Anyone who experienced that day will immediately have the myriad of feelings they’ve had over the past 10 years resurface, which is exactly what makes “Zero Dark Thirty” so compelling.
Cut to CIA operatives Maya (Jessica Chastain) and Dan (Jason Clarke) as they interrogate a suspected Al Qaeda agent in Pakistan. It’s brutal, humiliating and in-your-face. Dan has done this all before. He wholly believes in his mission, to bring justice, his means are completely justified.
In the back of the room, Maya is tentative, it’s her first interrogation. She can barely watch; she struggles with Dan’s order to get a bucket of water for a round of water boarding.
The film follows Maya, based on a real CIA operative still undercover, who finds a small lead to the whereabouts of bin Laden, and she is 100 percent certain that lead is the best they will ever get to finding him. The film is 10 years of terrorist attacks around the world, CIA failings, lost suspects, dead ends and tragedies that culminated on May 2, 2011. |
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