'Unleashed'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Maybe Dope, which was GREAT and everyone should watch it.
Note: I take full responsibility for this.
My top ten favorite non-nominated films would probably fall roughly in this order:
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Tangerine
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Spy
Bande de filles (Girlhood)
Meadowland
Dope
McFarland, USA
Mistress America
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
I'd put most of these above most of the "best" pictures in terms of interest/enjoyment.
I've only watched Spy and MI - Rogue Nation on Megan's list. Gotta get to the rest of it soon! Both Dope and Tangerine are on my Netflix watchlist, I think.
Has anyone seen The Witch? I watched it about a week ago and it's been plaguing my mind, especially that ending. But anything I can say about that would be spoilery so... I would just say consider giving it a shot even if you're not a fan of horror. I didn't find it that scary, but there are scenes and images in it that are indelible.
For those who've watched it, the folks at The Next Picture Show Podcast (one of my favourite recent podcast finds -- hat tip to the Pop Culture Happy Hour folks for recommending it) did a nice compare-and-contrast between The Witch and The Wicker Man, which I found quite fun.
I saw The Witch. Really well done, and resting almost entirely on the backs of those actors, especially the four oldest.
Black Phillip is giving you an evil side-eye for not mentioning him!
Here's a hilarious little article on the goat who played him: [link]
“There’s an incredible restaurant in London called The Smoking Goat,” Ineson continues. “When Robert was in town, we went there for my wife’s birthday and shared this incredible goat dish. We remembered Charlie. Not so fondly.”
Just when I think I've finalized my list, I watch another good one. Consider Phoenix as being in the top five. Seriously how did Germany not submit this for Oscar consideration?
I've been wondering how scary The Witch is. As a native New Englander, I feel compelled to see it despite my general aversion to horror. I've been hoping it falls more on the suspense side of the equation.
I didn't find The Witch very scary -- there are very few jump scares and the gore on screen is kept to minimum. It horrifies by implications and vibrates with a pervasive sense of dread. The mood it generates is quite extraordinary.
I found the language challenging though. Eggers sourced original documents from the era for his dialog and I reckon I've missed good 30-40% of what the characters were saying.
Consider Phoenix as being in the top five.
I've seen Phoenix! It's great. I particularly loved it's deft hand with moral and narrative ambiguities.
I've only watched Spy and MI - Rogue Nation on Megan's list.
Same! I need to watch more movies.
Note, in addition to Dope and Tangerine (as Vonnie mentioned), Bande de filles (Girlhood) and Phoenix are available on Netflix streaming.