The Nun

(spoilers!)

The Nun is the fifth entry in The Conjuring universe and unfortunately it's the biggest disappointment in it yet. While not quite awful as the first Annabelle movie, the film is disjointed, boring and makes very little sense. In truth the only people who should pray for forgiveness here are director Corin Hardy and whoever did the rewrites on the promising script.

Nocturnal Animals

 (spoilers!)
2016 is officially the worst year ever. Not only a whole bunch of awful and tragic stuff happened but with the exception of The Witch every single movie I was waiting for and had its very own header on this website sucked. The Revenant. Suicide Squad. And now this.

The Neon Demon

Nicolas Winding Refn is a weird guy. We all heard of his bizarre feud with Lars Von Trier. Apparently throughout production the of The Neon Demon, when filming was to resume, he wouldn't yell "Action!" to set things in motion. Instead he yelled "Violence, motherfuckers". Then there is the fact he is one of the directors who uses the color best in modern movies, yet apparently he is color blind and can only perceive contrast. Then it turns out he is one of those dudes who would use those takes that went a bit too real than they were supposed to - Abbey Lee accidentally punched Elle Fanning for real. Because of Fanning's genuine reaction, Refn ended up using that take for the final cut.

Neighbors

Mac and Kelly are trying to have sex in their dining room. Mac keeps saying how hot it is that they are having sex on a chair. And then he notices that their little baby Stella is staring at them. Kelly points out it's nothing, she is simply seeing shapes. To which Mac replies 'yeah, the shapes that are fucking!'

Notes on a Scandal

88/100 (92 min, 2006)
Plot: A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of her 15-year-old students. However, her intentions with this new "friend" also go well beyond platonic friendship.  
Director: Richard Eyre
Writers: Patrick Marber (screenplay), Zoe Heller (novel)
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench and Andrew Simpson

 Secrets can be seductive

Notes on a Scandal is a remarkable movie - it's not because of particularly strong script or original story. It's not even because of great work from Cate Blanchett. It is a movie that is worth watching over and over again for Judy Dench's incredible and unforgettable work as Barbara, older teacher who desperately looks for a friend. And when I say desperately you have no idea how deep that desperation goes.

Barbara is a teacher in a school filled with students from poor environment, who will mostly grow up without probably achieving anything. Fights, swearing, disgusting writings on the bathroom walls - that is the kind of school Barbara works in. She is strict, well organized, sullen. One day a new teacher - very naive and innocent Sheba - comes to work in the school and from that moment forward everything changes.

North Country

93/100 (126 min, 2005)
Plot: A fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States -- Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.
Director: Niki Caro
Writers: Michael Seitzman (screenplay), Clara Bingham (book)
Stars: Charlize Theron, Jeremy Renner and Frances McDormand

They can't do this to us

North Country is one of the most underrated movies of last decade - there are very few movies out there that not only have a great script but also such a tremendous group of actors in them. And here all of them have purpose, great work to deliver and each and every one of them delivers their best. Although the only two actors who got Academy Award nominations for this movie are Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand almost every single actor in the film should get more recognition for their work, most notably Woody Harrelson and Richard Jenkins.

Inspired by the real events North Country follows Josey Aimes, simple but headstrong woman who is looking for a way to support herself and her kids after she leaves her abusive husband. She goes back to her hometown to live with her parents (Sissy Spacek and Richard Jenkins). Her father works in a mine, which is a main source of income for most men and some of the women in the town. Josey decides to take a job there, after the encouragement from her friend Glory (Frances McDormand).

Network

93/100 (121 min, 1976)
Plot: A TV network cynically exploits a deranged ex-TV anchor's ravings and revelations about the media for their own profit.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Writer:Paddy Chayefsky
Stars: Faye Dunaway, William Holden and Peter Finch


"You need me. You need me badly. Because I'm your last contact with human reality. I love you. And that painful, decaying love is the only thing between you and the shrieking nothingness you live the rest of the day."


"Network" is one of the most famous American films, which also won unusual thing in Academy Awards history - 3 Oscars for actors, including first posthumous statuette for late Peter Finch. The film follows the lives and the job of people involved in TV - one day Howard Beale, the anchorman, goes crazy on air and announces that because he lost his job he will commit suicide on air one week later. Instead of firing him, upon seeing how his actions made for great ratings Diana Christensen, ambitious vice-president in charge of programming convinces her boss Frank and Howard's friend family man Max to just let the show go on with unstable Beale.

With all the hoopla around "The Hunger Games" and all the talk about how it shows important issues and the dangers of reality TV all people need to do is just to watch this movie. 36 years ago "Network" showed the same truth with better story, superior execution and much stronger punch. The TV Network is prepared to show whatever it takes in order to gain ratings and in the process success and money. No matter what, no matter how much it destroys Beale and with no regard for the fact that while chasing their careers without any ethics and any consideration they will be left a shell of a person in the process.

Never let me go

(103 min, 2010)
Director: Mark Romanek
Writers: Kazuo Ishiguro (novel), Alex Garland (screenplay)
Stars: Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield  

(spoilers)

Unseen tides keep us apart.

“Never let me go
Love me much too much
If you let me go
Life will loseits touch
What woul I be without you?
There's no place for me without you
- Jane Monheit, Never let me go

As children, Ruth (Keira Knightley), Kathy (Carey Mulligan) and Tommy (Andrew Garfield), spend their childhood at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. As they grow into young adults, they find that they have to come to terms with the strength of the love they feel for each other, while preparing themselves for the haunting reality that awaits them.

That reality is reveled to them when they are kids by their teacher miss Lucy (Sally Hawkings in brief but powerful appearance). They are clones and when they grow up their organs will be harvested to save lives of the people from “the outside world”.These kids have been bred to save lives, kept apart from the society and they were already told certain things about their fates. The only life they know is what was presented to them, contained, orchestrated, carefully planned. Their organs will not be harvested all at once, but in stages. They will be kept alive, until most vital organs are taken in the stage called “completion” after which their short life will end.

Nothing but the truth

(108 min, 2008)

Director: Rod Lurie
Writer: Rod Lurie
Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon and Vera Farmiga

 

Don't reveal the source.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
- Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression

Thinking Pulitzer Prize and hoping to bring down a President, D.C. political columnist Rachel Armstrong (Kate Beckinsale) writes that the President ignored the findings of a covert CIA operative when ordering air strikes against Venezuela. Rachel names the agent, Erica Van Doren (Vera Farmiga). The government moves quickly to force Rachel to name her source. She's jailed for contempt when she refuses. She won't change her mind, and the days add up. First Amendment versus national security, marriage and motherhood versus separation. What's the value of a principle?
This movie is the perfect example of how far the writers will go nowadays in order to provide a shocking twist in the end of the movie. In case of “Nothing but the Truth” the price for the twist was very high – plausibility of the story. Scratch those last five minutes and you have a fantastic thriller, about important and complex conflict. Free speech or national security? Is is all right for the government to jail a person because of the information she gives to the public? Even if the information is true? Is it moral to destroy someone's entire life for the sake of telling the truth?

The movie's heart and it's best moments lie in the showdown between journalist Rachel and CIA agent Erica. But there really is no issue as for who you should root for if you consider the acting – Farmiga steals the show easily, from very pretty but as usual, bland Beckinsale. As far as acting abilities go, I believe this is the best Beckinsale can do – she doesn't have much talent and the only reason we feel for her character is because, essentially in the face of common sense, Rachel is an innocent person. She found out about something, she published the story and now she's in jail. It's frightening not because of what character is going through – it's scary because things like that can actually happen in real life.

Farmiga's performance is strong and unforgettable – her work in “Up in the Air” was terrific, but “Nothing but the truth” should have been her big break. When the movie focuses more on Rachel it starts to lose viewer's interest, but when fierce Erica is present it keeps you watching with the biggest fascination. Here is a woman, that you know would be equally effective in reading bedtime stories to her daughter and doing secret work for her country. Farmiga doesn't have that much screen time but the strong script provides her with wonderful material to work with. I found interesting piece of trivia and I'm going to quote it to show you how deep in her character's body Vera was - “There is a scene in the movie where Erica Van Doren is given a lie detector test because the CIA suspects that she leaked her own identity. Rod Lurie, the director brought in a real life polygraphist to polygraph her for the scene. He asked her if her name was Erica Van Doren and if she worked for the CIA. After the scene was over the polygraphist called Lurie over to tell him that Farmiga beat the polygraph test because the machine said that she was telling the truth.“

"Nothing but the truth" also features great performances from Matt Dillon as a confident attorney who tries to make Rachel give up her source and even though he comes off as bad guy, he technically doesn't do anything wrong – he just follows the law, and Alan Alda as the defense attorney. They are both great to watch in their scenes and Alda brings in a lot of warmth and humor to the movie. Rachel's husband is played by David Shwimmer from “Friends” and as much as his character differs from Ross, it's hard not to be distracted whenever he is on screen. Same goes for ER's Noah Wyle, who plays Rachel's boss.

The film has a very good script that fails at the very end. The ending, as much as it may have a lot of sense if you don't think about it, is extremely weak. Because when we find out who the source was, we really can't think of a reason why the source would need any secrecy from Rachel's, especially given all the horrible things that happened when she didn't confess who it was. Was she only fighting for general reasons? For the sake of not revealing the source? Because she is a journalist? I find it hard to believe, that when a woman is jailed, basically loses contact with everyone, can't be with her son, making world a better place would be her only concern. Had Farmiga played Rachel, because of the strength she has I'd believe that. But not when Beckinsale did. I'm not even certain if it was moral for Rachel to use that information in the first place, regarding who the source turned out to be. I can maybe agree with people who say that Rachel was protecting the source because nobody would tell reporters anything if they would easily give the names of the sources under pressure, but as for the argument of protecting the person for the sake of blocking the knowledge of how much blood is on its hands...well, no matter what Rachel does, the blood was spilled anyways.

Regardless of the end, the movie is still worth watching and it's one of the best, character driven films I've seen in recent years. It has great actors, appropriate pace and a mystery that when revealed will shock you. It also makes you wonder about things, about what would you do if you were in Rachel's place. That is – you think about it, throughout the entire film, except for the last scene.

81/100