My issues with the treatment of Daisy Domergue in The Hateful Eight

(spoilers!)

The Hateful Eight, Tarantino's eight movie, is a fine film. While it is too long and it's last 60 minutes are significantly better than the first 100, it's still a fine film. It will keep you entertained, it has moments of sheer brilliance (Daisy playing on the guitar comes to mind) and good performances by talented actors, with Leigh stealing the show and Channing Tatum yet again delivering very strong work in spite of short screentime. In spite of a very long running time - nearly 3 hours - the film is never boring. In fact parts of it are really masterful.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

 (spoilers!)

I was 10 years old when Phanthom Menace came out. I remember how the toys inspired by the movie were everywhere and everyone was talking about this film. I had not seen this one in the cinema but I did see Attack of the Clones. By the time Revenge of the Sith came out the new trilogy was already such a subject of ridicule I watched it solely for the laughs.

I wish I was born 15 years later or 20 years sooner. It must be so dope to be a kid and grow up with actual good Star Wars films. But what George Lucas tarnished for my generation, the new one is getting thanks to Disney and JJ Abrams. I'm not gonna sit here and lie - this film has one of the least ballsy scripts of the year. It follows the formula of A New Hope, it relies so heavily on nostalgia and it plays everything very safe. But I think this is a small sin comparing to the alternative - Lucas' prequels were no doubt creative. Creative to the point we wanted to rip out our eyeballs and shove them into our ears as plugs, just so we don't have to experience that creativity anymore.

(Probably endless) list of things I love about Mad Max: Fury Road, part 1.

If you told me months ago when I walked out of cinema after seeing Fury Road, all lightheaded and enamored, that this is gonna be the movie that's gonna be up for most prestigious Oscars, I wouldn't believe you. But somehow, it has happened. Fury Road is getting accolades and nominations left and right and the nomination for Best Picture at the Oscars seems certain. 

So let's have ourselves a Merry Christmas and revisit my favorite movie of 2015. Here are the things I adored about it:

Promote, promote your way to that nomination...

Hardy in The Revenant

It was such a beautiful time. When you used to get excited about Awards season, while lying to yourself that people who really deserve the recognition are gonna win, or at the very least get nominated. It is no more for me this year.

Tom Hardy, arguably biggest break out star in 2015, who appeared in 5 different films and one popular TV series did not get a single SAG or Golden Globe nomination this year. That is unpleasant. But the behind the scenes stuff and the fact that HFPA nominated both Mad Max and The Revenant for Best Drama, while ignoring Hardy, whose work is integral to those movies' success, is just ugly.

10 best trailers in 2015

While my awards in this season will be later than usual - thank you for releasing The Revenant as late as January 29th :/ - I can start already because I'm assuming other than some mind blowing promos for the Oscar films that are gonna drop soon there won't be any new, potentially amazing, trailers. Some of the trailers released this year like "Krampus" and "The Nice Guys" informed me of existence of those movies and made me wanna see them, some like "Hail Cesar" used amazing music and some like "The Hateful Eight" trailers just didn't click for me. I'm also making that list because recently Playlist published theirs and The Revenant was FOURTH. I almost puked in my mouth when I saw that.

So here are the best trailers of 2015:

Soundtrack Wednesday - Macbeth

Track: Turn Hell Hound

Artist: Jed Kurzel

Movie: Macbeth

Macbeth

Justin Kurzel's Macbeth, which is one of the most cinematic Shakespearean works, opens with the still shot of a dead child laying on the ground, surrounded by heather. The film's tone is set from the very start - as raw, grim and filled with great sadness. This is a dark, bloody affair and an unpleasant one too.

If only it was a better movie.

Screaming Sunday - Bone Tomahawk

Movie rating - 85/100
Plot:  In the Old West, a sheriff (Kurt Russell), his deputy (Richard Jenkins), a gunslinger (Matthew Fox),and a cowboy (Patrick Wilson) embark on a mission to rescue three people from a savage group of cave dwellers.
The heroes: Our brave rescue party of four (whoever gets that reference gets the rest of my Halloween candy).
The antagonists: The cannibalistic tribe of Indians, who are not only outnumbering our heroes but are also completely ruthless and have some sort of bone stuck in their throats so they can emit the call that is seriously creepy as fuck.
Best scene: The whole film is a string of best scenes, really.
Oh-oh something's not right line: You have no chance against any number of them.
What makes it so great? I am strangely not big a fan of western ever though my second favorite show of all time (Deadwood) and one of my all time favorite westerns (The Assassination of Jesse James) come from this genre. But I am a huge fan of horror. So when, as soon as this movie hit VOD, there were many raves and positive reviews for this and I saw it stars Richard Jenkins, an actor who simply never fails, I decided to watch it and what a good decision it was.

The film is a perfect blend of western and horror - it spends 3/4 of its running time following the western formula - letting us get familiar with the feel of the film, the location, the pace and most of all get used to and really like the main four heroes, who with no regard for the safety of their own, go on perhaps suicide mission to rescue the people taken by the enemy. There are no doubts whether they should go - they just go, which already makes us admire them for their bravery.

American Horror Story 5x03 Mommy / 5x04 Devil's Night

Yeah, so this is awkward - I didn't have the time to recap the episode last Thursday and then I kinda forgot to recap it. But I warned you it may happen. So we are doing the double feature today.

Last week's episode unfortunately showed us more of Alex. Is there anyone watching who actually cares about this arc? Anyways it turns out Alex loves her abducted son way more than her husband - whom she wants to divorce - and daughter - whom she throws the most epic side eye since Catelyn Tully. So Alex goes to Hotel and after being teased by Naomi Campbell's ghost (by the way don't you badmouth Zara) she runs into Holden and takes him home, because oh well what could possibly go wrong?

Crimson Peak

(spoilers!)
Before I discuss the many problems Crimson Peak unfortunately has, let's just get this out of the way - this is the finest haunted house in cinema since Alejandro Amenabar directed The Others, back in 2001. The house in Crimson Peak is a true marvel - beautifully designed, meticulously planned and definitely worth seeing on the big screen. As advertised, this is the house that breathes and bleeds - the wind sounds like wailing, the red clay spilling through wooden boards looks like blood. This house is truly magnificent and one of the strongest things in the movie.

Visual Parallels: A Single Man + The Hours

Stephen Daldry's The Hours and Tom Ford's A Single Man are both beautiful movies dealing with the subject of loneliness. The first follows three women, each living in different time, but each of them hopelessly stuck in their lives. The second shows a day of a man who lost his lover and is set on killing himself.

American Horror Story 5x02 Chutes and Ladders

This week at the Hotel we got to truly suffer trough the introduction and the following scenes featuring Finn Wittrock's character, we got to learn a little bit about Countess Elizabeth and we got a truly awesome black and white flashback which was so incredibly brutal I'm almost sure it would not be allowed to air in color.

We opened with Sally being sadistic to that raped dude and sewing him into the mattress. Then one of the Swedish tourists died after vamp kid fed on her and Iris and Liz Taylor along with the maid got rid of her body. Iris comes over to Elizabeth's room because she wants to speak with Donovan but he hides from her. Elizabeth tells him she wants to go out but he wants to stay in and watch House of Cards. So Elizabeth goes out on her own.

Simply the Best: 2009 - 2005

The Oscar season is almost upon us so I thought it would be fun to assemble a list of my winners in 5 big categories. I originally wanted to just share the list but once I started to write about these movies and performances the post grew so much I had to split it into three. So here is the second one with my winners for Best Picture and best performances between 2009 and 2005:

American Horror Story 5x01 Checking In

American Horror Story is back and what a triumphant return it is. Everyone was worried when it was announced that season 4 was the last one for Jessica Lange. Then everyone was even more worried when they found out that Lady Gaga, who apparently called Ryan Murphy expressing her desire to be on the show, will replace Lange as the show's leading lady. But people were worried for nothing because "Checking In" is a very promising start of the season and the most intense and atmospheric episode the show had to date.

Simply the Best: 2015 - 2010

The Oscar season is almost upon us so I thought it would be fun to assemble a list of my winners in 5 big categories. I originally wanted to just share the list but once I started to write about these movies and performances the post grew so much I had to split it into three. So here is the first one with my winners for Best Picture and best performances between 2010 and 2015. 2015 picks are likely to change but at this point I just want to praise these performances. Fury Road is safe where it is, though.

Sicario

 (spoilers!)
There is this tingling sensation in your spine. It happens when you are afraid. It happens in the moments of tension. The feeling of blood running up and down your spinal canal. This is the feeling that you will experience during the whole run time of Sicario, Denis Villeneuve latest movie, and for several hours afterwards.

Queen of Earth

Queen of Earth is a cryptic, difficult movie. I've seen a lot of movies depicting the mental collapse - because of my own experiences with it, it's comforting to see the people on screen go through similar things. Black Swan and Mulholland Drive occupy the highest places in my all time favorite list. Repulsion follows close. Queen of Earth is not on the level of those movies, the director's vision not as clear, the movie not as mysterious and rewatchable, but it definitely portrays the decay of mind in a very insightful and fascinating way.

Tom Hardy Appreciation

Edward Thomas Hardy

September 15, 1977 (London, England, UK)

Today is 38th birthday of the wonderfully talented and crazy intense Tom Hardy. He might have been 2 hours long late to the set each day during the making of Fury Road,  He might have been punching directors in the dick/chocking them(whichever happened on The Revenant set and was apparently, really justified) and he most definitely is every journalist's worst nightmare (1,2),

but damn if he isn't a sweetheart:

Hit me with your best shot - Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road is not only the only action movie in the world I'd call a masterpiece, a higher form of art all by its own, a crazed, beautiful ballet of violence and fight for survival but it's easily one of the most gorgeous movies ever made. To pick up a shot, a single shot that is the best in the film basically built out of incredible shots loaded with tons of meaning was not easy. Fury Road has a beautiful story and several wonderful relationships between characters often times encapsulated in the look in their eyes or in the composition of the shot. So I decided to go with the shot that shows so much of the film's most magnificent character - Furiosa, of its story and captures something action movies are not known for - depth and melancholy.

Sharp Objects, The Girl on the Train, Luckiest Girl Alive - musings on upcoming adaptations

Crime and thriller novels are really almost exclusively what I read. Since last year I was devouring them whenever I had the time and that time, sadly, usually is only July and August. So beginning with Gone Girl I went through many of the hot releases in the genre. Three of those, all three being wonderful books, are being developed into movies. Let's speculate:

The trailer for "The Witch" is finally here!

Oh my! How long I waited - ever since the movie premiered at Sundance and got amazing reviews it has become my most anticipated film to come. But then the rights went to A24, which is so bad at marketing movies, and then it was a chain of more disappointments - months without screenings, no new reviews, no trailer or even a poster.

Against the Crowd Blogathon 2015

Wendell over at Dell on Movies is hosting 2015 edition of his Against the Crowd blogathon.

The Film Emotion Blogathon

Connor over at Conman at the Movies decided to create his first blogathon. Inspired by Inside Out, the general concept is simple:

Ant-Man

Marvel's reign over what seems to be the entire world - they have been getting our attention and our money for years now - has recently started to become a bit shaky. Age of Ultron, sequel to their most profitable movie yet, Avengers was disappointing. Not financially, of course, but the reception was underwhelming. And who can blame the people who were let down - Ultron repeated the sin of formulaic storyline, bland villain and frankly it was just bizarre. I mean what the hell was up with  the"hey kids, gather around and we will tell you about that time Black Widow's ovaries got removed!" thing?

WATCH: Awesome Comic Con trailer for Suicide Squad!

Yes! finally, the best out of the trailers that leaked from Comic Con is available in high quality - the footage for David Ayer's Suicide Squad.

Dark Places

Gillian Flynn's books are a dream material for movie makers. At least they should be, but for some reason the hype and the fame in Hollywood that accompanied Flynn when Gone Girl was released last year appears to be something  that sparkled too much, very briefly and intensely, and died. She is reportedly doing HBO series with Fincher, but what of her other books? The most cinematic one, called Sharp Objects was rumored to be in the works to become a TV series but there are no news, there isn't even one casting tidbit.  And what about Dark Places?

Spy

I love Melissa McCarthy. There are plenty of people who find her crude, annoying and unfunny but I'm not one of those people. I am still baffled that there are those out there who actually hated The Heat, which I think is one of the funniest comedies in recent years. And McCarthy's nomination for her wonderful work in Bridesmaids is one of my all time favorite Oscar nominations. To top these two movies would be tough, but that is exactly what Spy managed to do.

Game of Thrones 5x10 Mother's Mercy + thoughts on season 5

I'm declining to rate this episode.

Let's just get the bitterness out of the way:

Soundtrack Wednesday - Game of Thrones 5

Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark in season 5 finale "Mother's Mercy"

Here are my favorite tracks from the soundtrack for the 5th season of Game of Thrones. Ramin Djawadi has yet again proved to be the most reliable person on board - the soundtrack is again the best thing about the show. Though curiously there doesn't seem to be few tracks for the events we will definitely see in finale:

Game of Thrones 5x09 Dance of Dragons

It is this time during GoT season when I get to use the words that only those who read the books understand.

These dumb as fuck showrunners, oh my God.

Game of Thrones 5x08 Hardhome

OH MY GOD.

You guys!

I'm still shaking a bit and picking up my jaw off the floor after it hit it pretty much the moment the mist appeared, but before I talk about the battle scene, let's go back to the beginning of Hardhome, undoubtedly the finest episode of the season and one of the best episodes of the show so far.

Mad Max: Fury Road

It's really hard to describe Mad Max: Fury Road. It is first and foremost a film you need to experience. No amount of words and descriptions can really help you understand or prepare you for the film's hellish pace, spellbinding visuals and intensity.

Soundtrack Wednesday - Mad Max: Fury Road

Track: Brothers in Arms

Artist: Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL)

Movie: Mad Max: Fury Road

Game of Thrones 5x07 The Gift

This week on Thrones we got honest to God consensual sex scene. And that's not even the most shocking development in the episode. Two fan favorites finally meet, Sansa starts doing something other than being miserable - though there is still plenty of that and King Stannis makes me both turned on and incredibly worried.

Here we go:

Avengers: Age of Ultron

To make a fun and light superhero movie is a hard thing to pull off. But what's even harder? Making a follow up that at least matches the first film's quality. Three years ago almost everyone loved having fun with Avengers. The film was very entertaining, well done and featured terrific cast, great villain and a good balance between drama and comedy.

Now comes Age of Ultron which, sadly, is the worst kind of a sequel - not only is it nowhere near the greatness of the first movie, but it makes you the characters you enjoyed so much during the first adventure a little bit worse.