Watching

Best movies of 2016 to watch this awards season

~ Sarah ~ Leave a comment

manchester-by-the-sea-new-poster

Let the pre-Oscars prep begin! It’s my favorite time of year…the Golden Globes were this Sunday and the Academy Awards return the end of February.

It was looking to be a dismal year in film,  but Hollywood finally came through in the last few months. Here are my top picks from 2016 that I’ll be cheering on on this awards season!

Best movies of the year

I can’t reiterate enough how much Manchester by the Sea blew me away and stuck with me for a long time. Be prepared to be “crushingly sad” but impressed with the intricate, subtle performances and story line. If Casey Affleck doesn’t win Best Actor…

  1. Manchester by the Sea
  2. Hell or High Water
  3. La La Land
  4. Hello My Name is Doris
  5. Arrival

Honorary mentions go to these surprisingly solid, enjoyable movies with strong casts:

What’s are your favorite movies from 2016?

best-2016-movies

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My definitive guide to movies from 2014

~ Sarah ~ Leave a comment

obvious child and disappearance of eleanor rigby

Another year of movies has come and gone. My husband refers to the Oscars as my Super Bowl, and I can only take that as a compliment as I clap and toast winners with champagne alone from my couch. I might even maybe tear up a little for some winners. This behavior is in no way related to my champagne consumption, of course.

Aside from loving any time we celebrate people who do what they do well, the movie business is hard and nuanced work. And since after the Oscars comes conversations about what should have won and what people should see or not see, I’ve decided to list all my most notable movies of the year. If you didn’t like them, then you’re wrong. Just kidding.

Mostly.

I’ve also thrown in my least favorite movies (garnering strong reactions like, “This was a complete waste of time,” and “Do we have to finish this?”),  great movies I saw in 2014 from previous years, and ones still on my watch list. You might notice a few key players this year aren’t listed…mostly this means I’m glad I saw them, but I wouldn’t re-watch and just wasn’t blown away.

Best:

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  1. Whiplash
  2. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
  3. Birdman
  4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
  5. Obvious Child
  6. Bad Words
  7. Palo Alto
  8. They Came Together
  9. Edge of Tomorrow

 Worst:

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  1. Joe
  2. Out of the Furnace
  3. This is Where I Leave You
  4. Non-Stop

Prior Year Goodness:

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  1. Frances Ha
  2. Beginners
  3. Your Sister’s Sister

Still On My List:

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  • Rudderless
  • Still Alice
  • Cake
  • Girl on a Bicycle
  • About Alex
  • Ida

Do you agree, disagree or have other recommendations? I’d love to hear them!

Hannah Arendt

~ Lydia ~ Leave a comment

So I’ve had a wicked cough for about 2 months now, not exaggerating. It took me 4 weeks to actually visit the doctor, and then for the last month I’ve been changing antibiotics about weekly trying to conquer this seemingly little bug. I haven’t been able to have a drink or work out for WEEKS. And the antibiotics make me feel worse than the cough itself. This past weekend I spent helping my boyfriend move and sleeping. So much sleeping. Just TRYING to get myself rested up and back on top.

The only thing social you can do when you feel terrible is see a movie. So I saw two. The first was The World’s End. This was obviously the boyfriend and his friend’s choice. It’s just as terrible as it looks. Kind of funny, but ultimately pointless. But the second was the film Hannah Arendt.

It was fascinating. Hannah Arendt wrote about the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a former Nazi general. Stemming from her coverage of the trial she studied what she calls the banality of evil. She argues that the worst evil is committed by small people, who commit the evil without thinking. This general says that he never personally caused harmed to any Jewish individuals and that he holds no hatred in his heart for the people. He was simply following orders. His job was to get the people on the trains, he paid no thought to where they were headed – where he was sending them. The fact that a small percentage actually survived the train rides, was not his concern.. it wasn’t his department. Arendt wrote about the trial in a series of articles in The New Yorker leading up to the release of the book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Eichmann was viewed as the epitome of everything evil, so her report viewing Eichmann as a rule-following idiot resulted in death threats and lost the respect of several close friends. Despite the outpouring of hate, she stood by her opinion. The film was fascinating. There was a lot that I didn’t pick up on, but nonetheless my roommate and I are completely fascinated with Hannah Arendt and this banality of evil. The book is definitely on my to read list, and I highly recommend heading to the theatre and catching this one!