James' World 2

Aftersun is a coming-of-age drama written and directed by Charlotte Wells. The film follows an 11-year-old Scottish girl, on vacation with her father at a Turkish resort on the eve of his 31st birthday. I can add Aftersun to the list of movies I never heard of until it was nominated for an Academy award.  I absolutely did not like Aftersun. I think I’ve discovered I don’t much like films that are categorized as coming of age. I don’t feel this way without reason, I just really didn’t like Aftersun.

Set in the early 2000s, Eleven-year-old Sophie Lesley Patterson (Frankie Corio) takes a summer holiday to Turkey with her loving 30-year-old Scottish father Calum Aaron Patterson (Paul Mescal). Sophie records the holiday on a MiniDV camera, the footage of which is interspersed throughout the film. Over the course of the holiday, Sophie observes the teenagers on the Turkish resort…

“To Leslie” is an independent drama directed by Michael Morris (in his feature directorial debut), from a screenplay by Ryan Binaco. Inspired by true events, the film is about a single mother who is an alcoholic and uses up all the prize money she received after winning the lottery.
This is another movie I had never heard of until the 95th Oscar nominations. After seeing  “To Leslie”, I think it was a shame that it was not widely distributed and shown in multiple theaters.  I found this movie to be outstanding.

Leslie (Andrea Riseborough)is a troubled and manipulative alcoholic from West Texas who won $190,000 in a local lottery, only to squander the winnings on liquor and drugs. Six years later, Leslie is destitute, living a peripatetic life in motels and on the streets. After being kicked out of a residential motel, she reunites with her estranged 20-year-old son

Empire of Light is a British drama directed, written, and co-produced by Sam Mendes. This drama is set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s and tells about the power of human connection during turbulent times. Aside from Olivia Coleman being one of the greatest actresses of our time, I also liked the trailer, which made me want to see this movie.  I thought the film was well done.

Hilary Small (Olivia Coleman) works as a duty manager at the “Empire Cinema”, Margate, on the north coast of Kent, England. Hilary struggles with bipolar disorder and lives alone. She has been prescribed lithium by her doctor and is having extramarital sex with her boss Donald Ellis (Colin Firth). A new employee, who is a British Black man,  Stephen (Michael Ward) comes on board at the Margate cinema. Stephen lives with his mother Delia (Tanya Moodie) who works as a…

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (or simply Pinocchio) is a 2022 stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, with a screenplay by del Toro and Patrick McHale from a story by del Toro and Matthew Robbins. Loosely based on the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, and strongly influenced by Gris Grimly’s illustrations for a 2002 edition of the book. The book reimagined the story of Pinocchio, a wooden puppet who comes to life as the son of his carver Geppetto. Two years ago, Pinocchio was re-created by Matteo Garrone and earned three Oscar nominations. I was curious to compare the two creations.  I thought this version was great, as was the last creation so no comparison except a slight deviation in the story.

Pinocchio starts in Italy during World War I.  Master Geppetto (voice: David Bradley), who is a…

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is a computer-animated adventure produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The sequel to the spin-off film Puss in Boots (2011) and the sixth installment in the Shrek franchise, the film was directed by Joel Crawford and co-directed by Januel Mercado. Based on the character from Shrek 2 (2004) and inspired by the fairy tale by Giovanni Francesco Straparola, the film’s screenplay was written by Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow, with a story by Swerdlow and Tom Wheeler (the latter of whom wrote the 2011 film). Set after Shrek Forever After (2010), the film follows Puss in Boots as he journeys to find the mystical Last Wish for the Wishing Star by teaming up with Kitty and Perrito (Guillén) to restore the first eight of his nine lives, but comes with several challenges. I thought Puss and Boots: The Last Wish was…

RRR is an Indian Telugu-language epic action drama directed by S. S. Rajamouli, who co-wrote the film with V. Vijayendra Prasad. It was produced by D. V. V. Danayya of DVV Entertainment. RRR centers around fictional versions of two Indian revolutionaries,  their friendship, and their fight against the British Raj. Out of all the 95th Oscar-nominated movies, RRR brought me the most joy, entertainment, and excitement.  I loved this movie, plus it’s on Netflix.
In 1920, during the British Raj, administrator Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson) and his wife Catherine Buxton (Alison Doody) visit a forest in Adilabad, where they abduct Malli (Twinkle Sharma), a young girl with a talent for artistry, from the Gond tribe. Enraged by the act, the tribe’s guardian Komaram Bheem/Akhtar (Rama Rao), travels to Delhi with the intent of rescuing her, under the guise of a Muslim man named Akhtar. Elsewhere, the Nizamate of…

Living is a British drama directed by Oliver Hermanus from a screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, adapted from the 1952 Japanese film Ikiru directed by Akira Kurosawa, which in turn was inspired by the 1886 Russian novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy. Set in 1953 London, it depicts a bureaucrat in the county Public Works department facing a fatal illness. Living just became available in the United States after the Oscar nominations. Prior to that, Living was released in the United Kindom in November of 2022. I enjoyed Living as it was quiet and entertaining.

In 1953 London, Rodney Williams, (Bill Nighy) receives a terminal cancer diagnosis from his doctor. He neglects to tell his son Michael (Barney Fishwick) and daughter-in-law, Fiona (Patsy Ferran), instead he decides to withdraw half of his life savings, purchase a lethal amount of sleeping pills, and commit suicide in a seaside resort town. Finding himself…

Causeway is a drama directed by Lila Neugebauer in her feature directorial debut and written by Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel, and Elizabeth Sanders. Jennifer Lawrence also produced Causeway. The film follows a soldier struggling to adjust to her life after returning home to New Orleans. This is another film that was nominated for an Oscar that I had not heard of. I watched Causeway on Apple TV+ and found it to be a pretty decent film with a reality most soldiers can relate to.

**** SOME SPOILERS BELOW ****

Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrance), a U.S. soldier, experiences a traumatic brain injury after an IED explosion during her tour in Afghanistan. The injury forces her to return home to New Orleans. She struggles to return to her daily life as she waits for her doctor to sign off on her redeployment to Afghanistan. Her doctor is reluctant to sign her waiver…

Triangle of Sadness is a satirical black comedy written and directed by Ruben Östlund in his English-language feature film debut. It is the last film Dean starred in before her death in August of 2022. The film follows a celebrity couple on a luxury cruise with wealthy guests.

I had not heard of Triangle of Sadness before the Oscar nominations were announced.  I saw the film because of its nominations and I absolutely hated it.

Carl (Harris Dickinson), a model, and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), also a model and an influencer, are dating. Carl resents Yaya for expecting him to pay for meals even though she earns more than he does.  They are invited on a luxury cruise aboard a superyacht in exchange for promoting the cruise on social media. Among the wealthy guests on board are the Russian oligarch Dimitry (Zlatko Burić) and his wife Vera (Sunnyi Melles);

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (titled onscreen as simply Glass Onion) is a  mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced by Johnson and Ram Bergman. It is a standalone sequel to the 2019 film Knives Out. Master detective Benoit Blanc takes on a new case revolving around tech billionaire Miles Bron.
I am a huge fan of these “who done it” themed movies so I hurried to see Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and as I expected, the movie was very amusing and quite entertaining!

During the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, Miles Bron (Edward Norton), a billionaire and co-founder of the technology company called Alpha, hosts a murder mystery game at the Glass Onion, his mansion on a private island in Greece. He invites five friends: Alpha head scientist Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jr.), Connecticut governor Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn)…