Grand Budapest Hotel recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary
concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero
Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story
involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and
the battle for an enormous family fortune all against the back-drop
of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.
My Verdict: 3/5
Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater's
Boyhood is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the
eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette
as Mason's parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister
Samantha, Boyhood charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other
film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family
dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between
become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from
Coldplay's Yellow to Arcade Fire's Deep Blue. Boyhood is both a
nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and
parenting.
My Verdict: 5/5
A young and talented drummer attending a prestigious music academy finds
himself under the wing of the most respected professor at the school,
one who does not hold back on abuse towards his students. The two form
an odd relationship as the student tries to achieve greatness, and the
professor tries to stop him.
My Verdict: 4.5/5
The Theory of Everything is the story of the most brilliant and
celebrated physicist of our time, Stephen Hawking, and Jane Wilde the
arts student he fell in love with whilst studying at Cambridge in the
1960s. Little was expected from Stephen Hawking, a bright but shiftless
student of cosmology, given just two years to live following the
diagnosis of a fatal illness at 21 years of age. He became galvanized,
however, by the love of fellow Cambridge student, Jane Wilde, and he
went on to be called the successor to Einstein, as well as a husband and
father to their three children. Over the course of their marriage as
Stephen's body collapsed and his academic renown soared, fault lines
were exposed that tested the lineaments of their relationship and
dramatically altered the course of both of their lives.
My Verdict: 4/5
Chris Kyle was nothing more than a Texan man who wanted to become a
cowboy, but in his thirties he found out that maybe his life needed
something different, something where he could express his real talent,
something that could help America in its fight against terrorism. So he
joined the SEALs in order to become a sniper. After marrying, Kyle and
the other members of the team are called for their first tour of Iraq.
Kyle's struggle isn't with his missions, but about his relationship with
the reality of the war and, once returned at home, how he manages to
handle it with his urban life, his wife and kids.
My Verdict: 4.5/5
Riggan Thomas, once known quite well to movie theater goers as an iconic
super hero called "The Birdman" had recently turned down a fourth
installment of the franchise. Now washed up, he attempts to reinvent
himself as a director by staging a new adaptation of a Raymond Carver
short story called "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love". The
events leading up to the Saturday night premiere prove to be one
disaster after another as the original lead actor is injured while on
set and Riggan scrambles to find a replacement, but the replacement
proves to be exactly who he needs - a method actor who takes the job way
too seriously. But Riggan has a hard time juggling between the set, his
replacement actor, his equally washed up daughter, and a host of other
disasters that prevent a proper staging of the play. Meanwhile, a New
York Times critic who Riggan has to woo threatens to shut down
production of the play before it even starts with a scathing review of
the opening night performance. Does Riggan have a hit on his hands or
will he even make it past opening night?
My Verdict: 3.5/5
The unforgettable true story chronicles the tumultuous three-month
period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous
campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent
opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in
President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most
significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava
DuVernay's "Selma" tells the story of how the revered leader and
visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his brothers and sisters in the
movement prompted change that forever altered history.
My Verdict: 3.5/5
Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the
film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his
brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code
and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World
War II.
My Verdict: 4/5
Nick Dunne, a small town guy who made good in the big city as a magazine
writer blames the recession and the loss of his job for the decline of
his marriage to his intellectually superior wife with a substantial
trust fund. Questions of his motives and character begin to arise after
his wife's disappearance on the morning of their fifth anniversary. As
the search for his missing wife plays out over the ensuing days, guilty
suspicions are fueled into a national frenzy by the media circus camped
outside his house. Is this idyllic, everyman truly capable of murdering
his wife?
My Verdict: 5/5
My Ranking for the Best Picture
1. Boyhood
2. American Sniper
3. Whiplash
4. The Theory of Everything
5. The Imitation Game
6. Birdman
7. Selma
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Director: Richard Linklater - Boyhood
Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything
Best Actress: Julianne Moore - Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons - Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
Best Cinematography: Ida
Best Production Design: The Imitation Game
Best Costume Design: Maleficent
Best Film Editing: Whiplash
Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay: The Theory of Everything
Best Writing - Original Screenplay: Birdman
Best Foreign Language Film: Ida
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