James' World 2

Women Talking is a drama written and directed by Sarah Polley. It is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Miriam Toews and inspired by real-life events that occurred at the Manitoba Colony, a remote and isolated Mennonite community in Bolivia. Frances McDormand is also a producer on the film. Trailers for Women Talking revealed great acting and seemed to be a good plot. I saw the movie and was an emotional wreck by the end.  I give the writer all the accolades I can muster up.  Great film!

****  slight SPOILERS below  ****

In 2010, the women of an unnamed, isolated Mennonite colony discover that the men of the colony have been using cow tranquilizers to subdue and rape the women and girls of the colony. After the attackers are caught, they are arrested and imprisoned in the nearby city. Most of the men of the…

Blonde is a biographical film written and directed by Andrew Dominik and is based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates. The film is a fictionalized take on the life and career of Marilyn Monroe. Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tracey Landon, Brad Pitt, and Scott Robertson produced the film. Note: Along with shifting aspect ratios, most of the film is presented in black and white. I thought I had seen all the movies I would want to see about Marilyn Monroe, but since Blonde was nominated for an Academy Award, I watched it with an open mind and really liked Dominik’s version of the iconic actress named Norma Jeane.

As a child, Norma Jeane Mortenson/Marilyn Monroe (Ana de Armas) was raised by her mentally unstable mother Gladys Pearl Baker (Julianne Nicholson). On her seventh birthday in 1933, Gladys shows her daughter a framed…

All Quiet on the Western Front (German: Im Westen nichts Neues) is a German epic anti-war film based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque and is Directed by Edward Berger. All Quiet on the Western Front is a Netflix-distributed film and is aired on the Netflix Streaming Service. I hadn’t heard of this movie, so I had no plan to see it until it was Oscar-nominated. After watching All Quiet on the Western Front, I felt it was well done but it was voiced over and WWI is still a dark and melancholy period in our lives.

In 1917, three years into the First World War, 17-year-old Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) enlists in the Imperial German Army alongside his school buddies, Albert Kropp (Aaron Hilmer), Franz Müller (Moritz Klaus), and Ludwig Behm (Adrian Grünewald). After listening to a patriotic speech by…

The following 10 movies are all Oscar-nominated for best picture and more. Click any movie title below, to see the associated review.

Click HERE  to view a complete 2023 OSCAR NOMINEE LIST by CATEGORY

Click HERE  to view a complete list of 2023 Oscar winners afterMarch 12th, 2023!

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (coming soon)

Nominated For:

BEST: Picture, Cinematography, International Feature Film, Music: Original Score, Makeup and Hairstyling,   Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects, and Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

— Totaling 9  Nominations —

AVATAR: WAY OF THE WATER

Nominated For:

BEST: Picture, Production Design, Sound, and Visual Effects

— Totaling 4 Nominations —

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Nominated For:

BEST: Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, 2 Supporting Actor Nods,  Film Editing, Music: Original Score, and Writing (Original Screenplay)

— Totaling 9 Nominations —

                   …

A Man Called Otto is a comedy-drama directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by David Magee. It is the second film adaptation of the 2012 novel A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, and an American remake of the 2015 Swedish film of the same name written and directed by Hannes Holm. I thought the trailers were interesting and suggested a pleasant entertainment experience, plus I love Tom Hanks.  I also loved the film as it was cute and refreshing.

Otto Anderson (Tom Hanks), is a 63-year-old widower who lives in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After retiring from a steel company, Otto contemplates suicide, having lost his wife Sonya(Rachel Keller), a schoolteacher, six months earlier.

During one of his suicide attempts, he is interrupted by his new neighbors: Marisol(Mariana Treviño), Tommy(Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and their two daughters, Abby(Alessandra Perez), and Luna(Christiana Montoya).  This is pretty much how Otto’s life sizes…

Plane is an action thriller directed by Jean-François Richet from a screenplay by Charles Cumming and J. P. Davis. The plot centers around a pilot (Butler) allying with a prisoner (Colter) to save his passengers from a hostile territory they landed in during an emergency landing. Knowing Gerard Butler, I figured I could bet on this being an exciting movie with a pretty decent plot. I was right, the movie was both exciting and good!

Commercial pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler), a former RAF pilot, flies Trailblazer Airlines Flight 119 from Singapore to Honolulu via Tokyo. After his plane suffers damage due to a severe storm in the South China Sea, Brodie is forced to land his plane, on what turns out to be Jolo Island, located in the Philippines where a violent gang of rebels is in control. Still on board when they forced landed due to…