Movie round-up - Smart is the new sexy

[aragarna]

The Theory of Everything. This is a biography of the early years of Stephen Hawkins, one of the most brillant minds of our times. A physicist that worked on black holes and all those sort of things. He also suffers from the ALS disease. The movie focuses on his early years, when he passed his PhD, and was diagnosed with ALS (given 2 years max to live (he's 71 today)) and mostly, his relationship with his wife. The actors are terrific, especially Eddie Redmayne. Believe it or not,  it is truly a beautiful movie, not as much about science or illness as about life.

The Imitation Game. And again a movie about a genius! This time, Alan Turing, the father of the computer, and breaker of the Enigma machine. Also, a homosexual when it was considered a crime... Another really good movie. Another solid cast, led by the always awesome Benedict Cumberbatch.

Whiplash. Now that was an intense movie. A duel between an ambitious young drumer and his abusive professor. Great movie with an awesome Jazzy soundtrack. And a great performance by JK Simmons. So glad he finally got the role he deserves.


I also took opportunity that I was crossing the Atlantic to catch up on a couple films I missed or I didn't really want to see in the theaters. So I finally saw Philomena, a very touching story about a mother whose son was taken from her by the Church and who tries to find him again. Beautiful and sensible, with a great Judi Dench.

And in the "useless sequel to the prequel" category, the winner is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Finally, I watched Snowpiercer, a South Korean adaptation of a French comic book. I haven't read the original, but the movie could have been better if you ask me... And I hate when I can guess "the big mystery that will obviously be revealed at the very end" from the start... And it's not even that I'm trying, I'm actually a rather passive watcher. But I've seen enough films to know the big clichés...

Comments

[joy2190.livejournal.com]

Philomena has to be one of the most heart-breaking movies ever, considering it is fact not fiction.

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

Yes it truly was heartbreaking - even more so thinking this is not only one case - and Judi Dench was very touching. Made me cry...
I also liked that it wasn't too heavy. There was a lot of humor.

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

Man, I want to see all three of those movies listed at top. ♥

I just have such a hard time getting to the theater these days. :(

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

All three are really good. Especially The Theory of Everything and Whiplash.

Why are you having a hard time getting to the theater?

[nieseryjna.livejournal.com]

I'm waiting for "Theory of everything" to arrive in cinemas since the first time I saw trailer, looks really good. Great to hear movie is raising up to that level ;)

I'm conflicted about The Imitation Game - Enigma wasn't broken by the British, which bothers me a lot as they admitted it only after 50 years. And it might be a good movie.. but well internal conflict, btw. Enigma was first broken by Polish intelligence, and British just helped after further modification to the system.

I wasn't too interested in seeing Whiplash maybe I will now :)

On another hand the Third Hobbit was a mistake... :(

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

Heeee hmm, well, they do mention very quickly (in one sentence) the Polish work on Enigma. ;)
I'm not really familiar with the real story. I've only seen/read fictions about it, and there's obviously a lot we don't know (so lots of space for poetic license...)
But in the movie it seemed that they kinda knew already how to break certain codes, but the challenge was to do it in less than a day (cause the Germans were changing the combination every day). Hence the importance of Turing's machine.

It did feel like they were simplifying the course of the war (and the chain of command...), but it's mostly the story of Turing, and it's still a good film.

If you ever see it, I'd be curious to know what you thought of it. :)


Whiplash is awesome!

[nieseryjna.livejournal.com]

I should be able to get over it, if I treat the whole movie as work of fiction :D

[leesa_perrie]

Hubby and I don't get to the cinema often. Most recent trip was for the final Hobbit movie (that was much enjoyed). I have a feeling that I'll be catching up via DVDs sometime in the future for some that we've missed - and trying not to get too excited by the new Star Wars movie in December. The trailer looked good (the Millennium Falcon looked awesome!), but it's a loooong time to wait and there's no guarantee it'll be good (though I'm more hopeful than some are, seeing as I didn't have the major problems with Episode 1-3 like some did).

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

LOL well, I have no more problems with the new trilogy than the original. It's a nice bunch of movies, but I don't really care for it.
The old movies are getting old, and the new trilogy is, well, a bit naive?
So all in all, I don't know if I want to see the new film, but I'm sure I'm going to be tired of the promo very quickly...

Also, I never understood the problem with Jar Jar Binks. He's fun!