Another good movie by Pixar, as expected. It’s a nice story about life and friendship, but with a twist: Luca is a sea “monster”.

The characters are nicely written, the voices are acted very well, the animation is just as you’d expect from Pixar. The music used in the movie is well-suited and the pacing is just fine, not too fast, not too slow (which is weird, considering it’s a movie about Italians). The story is well told, sprinkled with a ton of jokes, and the runtime is short enough for it not to become annoying. Good adventure movie for kids between 1 and 111 years.

Definitely a strong contender for the Oscar for Best Animated Motion Picture in 2022.

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The movie starts with a display of force, alternating documentary-like interviews with reading room shots, with episode snippets. While it seems like it’s all over the place, it is very entertaining and catchy. You meet the most important characters right away, you get struck by some very well-positioned jokes (OMGJKSimmons!) and without blinking you realized you’ve seen 20 minutes of the movie without breathing. The story, the acting, the music, the jokes, the close-ups, the cinematography, everything is stellar. Nicole is brilliant, Javier is great, I feel insulted that this movie hasn’t got a nomination for Best Picture, because in my opinion, it’s above most of the others I’ve seen, and one of the best comedies of the last few years. Six popcorns.

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The black and white picture and the 4:3 format, make this movie feel old, classic, a piece of art, reminding me a lot of Ingmar Bergman’s “The Seventh Seal”. It also reminded me a bit of that episode from The Twilight Zone. From a technical point of view, the movie is a masterpiece, being almost entirely filmed inside.

Regarding the Oscar nominations, Denzel’s acting is stellar, the production design is absolutely brilliant, and the cinematography is great, all of these being strong contenders for the statue. However, I’m not a huge theater fan, so the movie didn’t click particularly for me, but I wasn’t disappointed in seeing it, as it’s pretty well-paced.

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Excellent drama set in the Belfast in the late 60s, during the riots and their aftermath. It’s the story of a family just like any other and its struggles during that period.

The black and white usage helps a lot with setting a dark atmosphere, the use of colour in various spots is superb, the acting is excellent, with a very good performance by ten-year-old Jude Hill, as Buddy. Jamie Dornan shows that he can be way more than a playboy-gazillionnaire and has a good act. The pair Dame Judi Dench (as Granny) and Ciarán Hinds (as Pop) is fantastic.

This movie has it all: some new actors, some well-established names, a great story, very well told, acted and directed. Excellent job by Kenneth Brannagh, who directed and wrote it, hope the movie gets as many statues as possible from their 7 well-deserved nominations, including best movie. So far, I think it’s my favourite. Six blinking popcorns.

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The directorial debut of song-mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda doesn’t catch you very fast, but it soon starts to grow on you. Andrew Garfield is having a great time playing Jonathan Larson. The songs are very very good (proof that Larson was a genius) and the movie is perfectly-paced, the support performances are good as well. Excellent musical, balanced, combining funny and sad moments perfectly.

Not sure if Andrew is going to receive a statue for his performance, but it’s definitely one of his best acting I’ve seen so far, and to be honest, I found the movie altogether more worthy of a Best Picture nomination than some others that were nominated.

I remember why I don’t like the Oscars period. Because most of the nominated films are slow burning dramas.

Regardless, shooting the movie in Greece was probably one of the best choices director Maggie Gyyllandendonhall could have made, as some places look fine. The story is also nice, but sometimes there’s an excess of filler conversation, seeming it tries to stretch every encounter and dialogue, going from being realistic to the point of boring.

The flashbacks are very nice, though, showing the back-story of the main character, making you empathize with her. I kind of liked more those than the film itself. The Academy critics must have thought the same, as Jessie Buckley got a well deserved nomination for her role as Young Leda.

The movie is not bad, but I didn’t consider it to be something to write home about. Maybe the performances given by Ed Harris and Dakota Johnson made it a bit more bearable, but it still is an average movie, to watch on a rainy Sunday. It’s funny how they try to objectify Dakota Johnson in pretty much every movie she appears in, but I still find her as cute as a work day.

In the end, the movie redeems itself, and while it doesn’t have a plot twist or whatever, it closes on an optimist note.

This movie has got some Oscar Nominations, but it will face fierce competition.

The Power of the Dog is a slow burn drama about life, love, loneliness, covering also themes like grief, resentment, jealousy, and sexuality.

The visuals on this movie are very well done, from locations, to angles, to close-ups, you name it, the cinematographer did it flawlessly. The acting is great, Benadryl Cucumbersnitch plays a great role (as he usually does). In other news, Kirsten Dunst got so old she could play again in Spider-Man, playing Aunt May, Kodi Smit-McPhee grew up (yep, he’s the little kid in The Road), discount Matt Damon got fat, but at least got his first Oscar nomination. Jokes aside, all of them gave excellent performances and really deserve their nominations

This movie has got TWELVE Oscar Nominations, including for best picture, and it seems it’s favourite to win most of them, and well-deserved, I might add. It would have been six popcorns, but because of the slow burn, it gets only five.

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Drive My Car is a weird movie (duh, it’s Japanese). It’s a loooong, slow burning drama about a renowned artist, haunted by the mysteries of his wife’s life, based on a story by Murakami. It’s long. It’s slow. Did I already say that? It takes 45 minutes for the movie to end its introduction. If you’re into it, then it’s a treat.

It’s that kind of movie where you need to empathize with the characters, where the movie is about how they feel, not about what they do. And it’s doing it with a lot of style, just as any other movie does.

Some people say that the car is like a character, and I totally get it, being witness to the entire story as it unfolds. Good drama, good story, great cinematography. Definitely worth watching.

This movie has got an Oscar Nomination for best picture. It’s a good foreign language movie, some others have won in time, but this doesn’t have a strong chance of winning.

Such a good mind fuck. Filled with tension, unexpected situations and turns, good mystery, very nice set designs, nice music, this movie is one of the best thrillers out there. Plus, all the actors are beautiful AF. Also some nudity there.
You might want to also look at the original Belgian movie this one is based on, Loft (2008).

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From the director of Amelie, this is a really nice quirky sci-fi/fantasy comedy. The jokes are hilarious, the acting is so over the top at some points, it’s brilliant. Also the droids are super fun. A lightweight comedy, with a great world design, nice cyberpunk vibes, and it’s fun watch if you like absurd, quirky, funny movies.

Also, do yourself a favor, and watch it with the original French voices and with subtitles, because the English dubbing sucks.

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Really good comedy-drama. The characters are well written, the actors are really good at making you root for them. Has its ups and downs, but all in all is a movie that everyone must see, must feel and must understand.

Later edit: I’ve seen that this movie has got some Oscar Nominations, even becoming the first film with some disabled performers being nominated. I think they’re well deserved.

Whenever I think of Dune, I remember the insanely great miniseries done by the Sci-Fi Channel (known since 2009 as Syfy, ew, wtf). If you haven’t seen them, I strongly suggest to look them up: Dune (2000) and Children of Dune (2003), starring Alec Newman, James MacAvoy, Susan Sarandon, Julie Cox, William Hurt, Daniela Amavia and Alice Krige.

So going to the cinema with these in mind, I left the theater thinking:

Don’t get me wrong, Villneuve’s Dune is a well-made movie. Insane budget, great cast, but something didn’t click. It’s a chemistry thing, I guess. The only thing that’s more bland than the sands of Arakkis are most of the performances: Timmy Chandelier was a sub-par Paul Atreides, Rebecca Ferguson barely looked old enough to be his porn step-sister, Jason Momoa’s fight scene was cool, but far from a decent Duncan Idaho. The other A-list performers were meh as well (lol Zendaya). I’ve seen this movie a few months before writing this review, and I swear there’s no performance worth mentioning.

It’s a great looking film, the money thrown at it really seem to work, but it landed a bit sideways. The fact that it’s also one half of the first story also made it bland, because in general it looks like we’ve been watching a two and a half hour trailer. Hope they’ll make it back somehow in the second movie, but this is a movie I’m not eager to re-watch.

Later edit: I’ve seen that this movie has got an Oscar Nomination for best picture. It’s nice to see a sci-fi pop in that list, but I don’t think it has a chance of winning.

Later later edit (2024): I’ve just seen this on 4K with some friends and it’s not actually bad. It still has some big disappointments if you compare it to the other versions, but as a stand-alone version, it’s a very good and entertaining watch. I’m happy this is made and brought more people to the Dune universe, so it gets a bump to four popcorns.