Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Rangoon (Vishal Bhardwaj, 2017) 3/10

Bhardwaj's over ambitious WWII romantic adventure has a lot going for it. Unfortunately he crams in far too much and then made the mistake of cutting 40 minutes from the film just before it's release making the plot seem disjointed. A war film, a romantic triangle, an homage to 1930s Indian movie star Mary Ann Evans aka Fearless Nadia (an Australian who grew up in Peshawar and entered the Bombay film industry playing a masked action heroine riding horses, swinging from chandeliers and jumping off running trains while brandishing a whip) and a patriotic sub plot all create a mishmash of epic proportions. The story is set during the Burma campaign in 1943 with the British facing off the Japanese using Indian soldiers many of whom belonged to the Indian National Army who wanted to boot the British out of India. In Bombay stunt star-actress Miss Julia (Kangana Ranaut) is forced to go to Burma to entertain the troops at the war front with her director-lover (Saif Ali Khan) when film stock is hard to come by during the war and production on their latest film shuts down. A soldier (Shahid Kapoor) is assigned to guard her and in true Bollywood fashion they get separated from the army unit and get up to adventure in the jungle capturing a Japanese soldier, wallowing in mud and making out. Things get complicated when between performing a song and dance number for the troops (the best sequence in the film with the corny song "Bloody Hell" penned by Oscar winner Gulzar no less) the soldier is exposed as a traitor, the director-lover turns sadist and our plucky heroine grapples with the campy Major-General (Richard McCabe who insists on speaking most of his dialogue in Brit-accented Hindi and spouting poetry by Ghalib) for a be-jewelled sword that has to be delivered to the National army or some such nonsense ending with a climax on a rickety and swaying suspension bridge. The three stars are stiff and lack chemistry with each other - the steamy kissing scenes between Kapoor and Kanaut are a damp squib while Saif Ali Khan seems to have reverted back to his 1990s supporting stance. The film is especially disappointing coming in the wake of Bhardwaj's brilliant Shakespeare trilogy - "Omkara", "Maqbool" & "Haider". The only thing going for the film is the superb production design and the lush cinematography. And why is Kangana Ranaut given so much acclaim as an actor when she is always so lifeless, dull and a plain jane to boot? Give this film a miss. Or watch it to see Kareena Kapoor's former lover and present husband act opposite each other

La corta notte delle bambole di vetro / Short Night of Glass Dolls (Aldo Lado, 1971) 7/10

Italian gialo invoking Sunset Blvd with the corpse of a journalist (Jean Sorel) in a morgue recalling the story of how he died. Is he really dead? Will he wake up before the doctors perform an autopsy on him? More important is the mystery of the disappearance of his girlfriend (Barbara Bach who is incredibly sexy in a short silver dress during the party sequence ), his relationship with his jealous and prickly colleague (Ingrid Thulin) and the satanic cult with scenes of a writhing orgy of geriatrics. Like all dubbed films there is a jarring quality to the film but the stars, with or without their clothes, and the overheated melodrama with bloody interludes make these gialos fun to watch. The atmospheric on location filming in Prague and Slovenia is a major plus along with the Ennio Morricone score which signals every horrific moment on screen.

Chi l'ha vista morire? / Who Saw Her Die? (Aldo Lado, 1972) 5/10

The only interesting part in most Gialos are the lovely european locations. Otherwise it's bad dubbing, grusome killings and a cast that appears nude at the drop of a hat. Here dreary and overcast Venice casts a depressing spell as a brutal murder takes place of a young red headed girl - shades of a classic British film (Nicolas Roeg's "Don't Look Now") with similar atmosphere that would come out a year later. A maniac dressed in a long black cloak and wearing a veil stalks and kills a young girl in France. Some time later the killer stalks another child, the daughter of a famous sculptor (George Lazenby). Only this time the killer is pursued step by step as the hapless man and his girlfriend (Anita Strindberg) go prowling through the maze-like winding alleyways, dark spaces, enclosed courtyards and fog-shrouded canals of the city. Red herrings abound with weird characters - an art dealer (Adolfo Celi) into kinky group sex and a child molestor. The actors all come off stiff with Lazenby particularly bad while Ennio Morricone provides the loud score.

Rules Don't Apply (Warren Beatty, 2016) 2/10

A misjudged vanity project if there ever was one. Warren Beatty's decades long obsession with billionaire Howard Hughes finally reaches the screen in a way that was obviously not the director's original conception - Scorsese beat him to it with "The Aviator". Beatty at almost 80 obviously couldn't play Hughes as a young man so the screenplay instead concentrates on a virginal wannabee starlet (Lily Collins) from hicksville who arrives (along with numerous other aspiring actresses) in Hollywood under contract to Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty) at RKO studios. She is accompanied by her suspicious mother (Annette Bening giving the best performance in a brief part) and gets involved with a chauffeur (Alden Ehrenreich) in a boring subplot which then turns out to be the main plot with Hughes merely fluttering about. Beatty looks like a waxwork, mutters ridiculous repetitive dialogue and casts stars (Matthew Broderick, Candice Bergen, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Martin Sheen, Paul Sorvino, Oliver Platt, Alec Baldwin) in inconsequential roles - they all probably just wanted to be in a film directed by a once great star-director. This whole enterprise is such a waste of talent especially behind the camera - Caleb Deschanel's superb cinematography, Albert Wolsky's lovely period costumes and the outstanding production design deserve special mention). Too bad the film is such a turkey because the concept of a story about an eccentric and possibly demented billionaire with delusions of grandeur hits rather close to home especially with Trump in the White House. The two young leads are pathetically stiff throughout and just don't hold any interest while Beatty is simply grotesque. Avoid this film like the plague.

Moana (John Clements & Ron Musker, 2016) 7/10

Disney digs into Polynesian mythology and comes up with the usual mix - plucky little princess who defies her father and ventures into a land unknown (here it's the high seas beyond the reefs of their little island kingdom) in search of an object that will bring them salvation. By-the-numbers plot with a couple of power ballads thrown in, cute and frightening creatures that help and hinder the pretty little heroine and a gigantic doofus male who aids her on her mission. The film goes on too long but has beautiful imagery especially the turqoise ocean which plays an important part during the child's journey.

Under Sandet / Land of Mine (Martin Zandvliet, 2015) 8/10

When the Allied Powers freed Denmark after five long years of Nazi occupation the Danes, full of anger and hate, forced young teenage german POWs to dig up over 2 million land mines across the country. Horrifying historical incident has been universally condemned as the worst form of war crimes ever conducted by the Danes in using german children for post WWII mine sweeping. On a remote Danish coastline a sergeant is given command of a group of german teenagers to sweep the beach inch by inch for 45,000 buried mines. The young boys were part of a German national militia that was created near the war’s end when able-bodied older men were no longer available. Most of the boys were clueless in the ways of war and were used as chattel. Nerve wracking drama has the feel of a ticking bomb as the kids flat on their stomach poke into the sand, discover mines a few inches below the sand and carefully dismantle them. The sergeant who starts off without any sympathy gradually softens his approach towards the scared and lonely boys. The film's spectacular location - miles of white sand dunes, the beach and the vast expanse of water beyond adds to the sense of isolation and horror.

Teenage Kicks (2017) Craig Boreham 1/10
Rupture (2016) Steven Boreham 4/10
Doctor Strange (2016) Scott Derrickson 2/10
Pushing Dead (2017) Tom E. Brown 6/10
Miss Sloane (2016) John Madden 3/10
The Darkness (2016) Craig McLean 4/10
Seasons (2016) Jacques Perrin & Jacques Cluzaud 7/10
We Are the Flesh (2016) Emiliano Rocha Minter 7/10

Repeat viewings

The Cat Returns (2002) Hiroyuki Morita 8/10
Maniac (1980) William Lustig 4/10
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) Luis Bunuel
Metropolitan (1990) Whit Stillman 9/10
Our Idiot Brother (2011) Jesse Peretz 7/10
The Boy Friend (1971) Ken Russell 9/10

Regretfully not. It played at the Melbourne Film Festival last year but we weren't able to fit it in.

Precious, have you seen a Japanese movie called Happy Hour from 2015?

It's from a director named Ryûsuke Hamaguchi; it's a 317 minute movie that (from what I've read) deals with four women in their thirties and the way their friendships are affected by one's divorce.

It seems to be very obscure in the States; I think it's U.S. release consisted of a few week-long engagements and one-off screenings. It's coming to Nashville on April 2 for a single screening. Not sure if it's feasible for me to drive up for this screening, but if it's a must-see, I'll try to find a way.

The Great Wall (2016) Zhang Yimou 1/10
Dog Eats Dog (2016) Paul Schrader 4/10
The Rehearsal (2016) Alison Maclean 4/10
Akron (2016) Sasha King & Brian O'Donnell 4/10
King Cobra (2016) Justin Kelly 8/10
T2 Trainspotting (2016) Danny Boyle 1/10
Something Like Summer (2017) David Berry 1/10
Centre of My World (2016) Jakob M. Erwa 5/10

Repeat viewings

The Last Days of Disco (1998) Whit Stillman 9/10
The Little Mermaid (1989) Ron Clements & John Musker 9/10
I Confess (1953) Alfred Hitchcock 8/10
10 Rillington Place (1971) Richard Fleischer 7/10
Paprika (2006) Satishi Kon 7/10
Interiors (1978) Woody Allen 10/10
I Wish (2011) Hirokazu Korreda 8/10

2016 nominated films I've seen:

Moonlight: 10/10
Arrival: 9/10
Jackie: 9/10
Hell or High Water: 8/10
La La Land: 8/10
Hacksaw Ridge: 6/10
Nocturnal Animals: 6/10
The Lobster: 6/10
Fences: 6/10
Captain Fantastic: 5/10
Hidden Figures: 5/10
Elle: 5/10
Loving: 4/10
Florence Foster Jenkins: 4/10

Uri wrote:I've just read the Anonymous/Italiano exchange on the 2016 forum, and now this Reza/Precious one which perfectly mirror it. Fascinating they came up simultaneously.

Actually I laughed at the rating Precious gave both Fences and Silence because Denzel and Scorsese are considered gods by most Americans. They can do no wrong for many. So the rating was amusing and a very fresh take. I agree Silence was a deathly bore. I gave up 20 minutes into it.

I've just read the Anonymous/Italiano exchange on the 2016 forum, and now this Reza/Precious one which perfectly mirror it. Fascinating they came up simultaneously.

Reza wrote:

Precious Doll wrote:Fences (2016) Denzel Washington 2/10
Silence (2016) Martin Scorsese 2/10

Lol

Why LOL?

I found Fences insufferable which I did sort of expect having seen the trailer the week prior. The film was exactly what I feared it would be and it never could get beyond it's stage origins. I understand that it is a faithful adaptation of the play which is not always a good idea given that theatre and cinema are different mediums. Washington is one of the most dreary actors of the last 30 years and it wasn't surprising that his direction matched his scene presence. I generally like Viola Davis but she was stranded in a terrible film. Her big snotty nose emotional outbreak was an embarrassment.

Silence though beautifully presented was deadly dull. The subject matter never really came to life and only in the closing moments with the extended voice over did the film ever really come to life.

Precious Doll wrote:Fences (2016) Denzel Washington 2/10
Silence (2016) Martin Scorsese 2/10

Lol