Tag: Spotlight

Geekscape Movie Reviews: The Post

by MCDave

The name Steven Spielberg has long been synonymous with quality filmmaking, and the reliable trend continues with the auteur’s latest Oscar-bound endeavor, The Post. Tapping into the nation’s current political climate, where the standing presidential administration has emphatically combated contemporary news reporting, Spielberg circles back in U.S. history to an eerily familiar time when Nixon sought to silence the media. And with Hollywood entrenched firmly on the opposite side of our President, some believe The Post could actually steal a Best Picture win at the Academy Awards as a clear statement of their dissatisfaction with his policies and public statements. But only time will tell how tall the The Post truly stands against the greatest cinematic achievements of all-time.

In 1971 a Washington Post reporter receives over 3,000 pages of a classified U.S. study regarding the nation’s complete involvement in the Vietnam War. Fiery editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) tries to convince the Post‘s owner, Kay Graham (Meryl Streep), to publish the documents, which contain information spanning four presidential administrations and detailing their incessant lying to the public and even congress throughout the duration of the war. Yet, as Graham is caught in the middle of trying to sell her newspaper and demands from the United States Attorney General not to publish the classified material, she’s forced to balance her financial well-being and journalistic integrity surrounding an entire war based off of lies and misinformation.

Spielberg’s The Post captures a pivotal moment in U.S. history with sharp vision and an unusual conciseness that leaves you longing for more. As far as iconic films regarding news journalism, such as All the President’s Men and Spotlight, Spielberg’s effort comes close to their grandeur but not quite close enough. His direction is on point, per usual, yet The Post‘s third act cruises by in a stepping-stone sequence intended to briskly conclude the film. This flat finale is also painted with cheap sentiment, illustrated by the courthouse scene where Streep’s character exits through a crowd solely of women appearing absolutely inspired by her courageous decisions, merely serving as a lazily crafted symbol of her female empowerment. However, tacky elements have became a frequent staple in Spielberg’s work, something that sadly puts a blemish on his always superb abilities as a filmmaker and visionary. And as far as performances go, Streep and Hanks, an absolute powerhouse of a pairing, provide exceptional turns that don’t quite stack up to the pinnacles of their careers, but are certainly worthy of the Oscar praises that they’ve garnered. The Post flows naturally and comes and goes with immense ease, once again proving that Spielberg is a timeless filmmaker capable of delivering highly respectable work at every turn.

GRADE: 4/5

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Here Are Your 2016 Oscar Winners!

by J.C. Marquez

After coming up short on five previous Oscar nominations, Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in “The Revenant.”  The film’s director, Alejandro G. Inarritu, won his second consecutive Academy Award for Best Director–becoming the first director to win back-to-back awards in the category since Joseph L. Mankiewicz won in 1949 and 1950 for “A Letter to Three Wives” and “All ABout Eve”.

Brie Larson’s much talked about performance in “Room” earned the actress her first Academy Award for Best Actress, beating out previous winners Cate Blanchett (2014) and Jennifer Hudson (2013).

It was also a huge night for “Mad Max: Fury Road”, as the film took in a total of six Academy Awards (but failed to win for Best Picture and Best Director).

Below is the complete list of winners from tonight’s Academy Awards:

 

Best Picture: “Spotlight”

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant”

Best Actress: Brie Larson, “Room”

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies”

Best Supporting Actress: Alicia Vikander, “The Danish Girl”

Best Director: Alejandro G. Inarritu, “The Revenant”

Best Score: Ennio Morricone for “The Hateful Eight” 

Best Song: Sam Smith and Jimmy Napes for “Writing’s on the Wall” from “Spectre”

Best Original Screenplay: Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight”

Best Adapted Screenplay:  Charles Randolph and Adam McKay, “The Big Short”

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, “The Revenant”

Best Film Editing: Margaret Sixel, “Mad Max: Fury Road”

Best Sound Editing: Mark Mangini and David White, “Mad Max: Fury Road”

Best Visual Effects: Mark Ardington, Sara Bennett, Paul Norris, and Andrew Whitehurst, “Ex Machina”

Best Sound Mixing: Chris Jenkins, Ben Osmo, and Gregg Rudloff, “Mad Max: Fury Road”

Best Costume Design: Jenny Beavan, “Mad Max: Fury Road”

Best Makeup: Damian Martin, Lesley Vanderwalt, and Elka Wardega, “Mad Max: Fury Road”

Best Production Design: Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson, “Mad Max: Fury Road”

Best Animated Feature: “Inside Out”

Best Animated Short: “Bear Story”

Best Foreign Language Film: “Son of Saul”

Best Documentary Feature: “Amy”

Best Documentary Short: “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness”

Best Live Action Short: “Stutterer”

 

Are there any actors who you feel were wronged by tonight’s results or did the Academy get it right? Sound off in the comments below!

Geekscape Movie Reviews: Spotlight

by MCDave

I’ve always revered the overlooked work of screenwriter and director Tom McCarthy. More respected for his earnest screenplays filled with wonderful character development and light-hearted comedy, McCarthy quickly hops into the directors chair once again following a critical bashing of his previous well-documented dud, The Cobbler. But despite McCarthy’s recent poor showing, he bounces back in notable form – as you would expect from any artist and visionary with his talents – delivering one of 2015’s hottest titles, Spotlight.

When Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber) is hired as the new editor of The Boston Globe in 2001, he assigns the paper’s finest team of investigators (known as Spotlight) to look into a surprisingly disregarded case of sexual abuse allegations against a local Catholic priest. And as Spotlight digs deeper into the facts, they begin to uncover a massive conspiracy by the church to cover-up decades of known misconduct. But with the powerful institution pulling strings throughout the entire city of Boston, unveiling this shocking true story proves to be mighty difficult task.

Spotlight 1

Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight unravels as one of the most compelling investigative dramas in decades. Tied to a national story that strikes a nerve in all of us, this entertaining fact-based tale commands the audience’s attention with elite acting from its entire cast. Michael Keaton follows up his Oscar Nominated turn in last year’s Birdman with another upper echelon performance that should return him to the big dance. Keaton not only finds stiff competition in the Supporting Actor race from Bridge of Spies’ Mark Rylance, co-star Mark Ruffalo could quite possibly give Spotlight the first pair of actors nominated in the same category since Bugsy‘s Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley accomplished the rare feat in 1991. And while critics and insiders have touted Keaton’s performance, there are moments throughout the film when the excellence of Mark Ruffalo dwarfs his co-star by comparison. In addition, Stanley Tucci continues to impress as one of the best character actors in the business. Spotlight‘s perfect blend of a hard-hitting story and an unmatched ensemble leave the film as a primed Best Picture contender.

spotlight 2

Despite all of the feature’s shining attributes, Spotlight is weighed down by a few glaring blemishes. The film does an adequate job of keeping the audience’s attention throughout its more than two-hour running time, yet there are a few noticeable lulls the viewer is forced to push through. Generally, these poorly paced moments occur as a result of McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer’s quest for Hollywood dramatization. A collection of these scenes feel inauthentic and unnecessary to the progression of the film, which ultimately leave Spotlight as a flawed, albeit successful, title.

Considering the minuscule number of elite films in 2015, Spotlight positions itself nicely as one of the top tier entries. McCarthy relies on numerous fine performances to transition his gripping factual script to the big screen. If history is any indicator, for more than the last decade every Best Picture winner has debuted to audiences in some form prior to November. Therefore, there’s a strong chance Spotlight could be a major player during this year’s run to the Oscars, and it’s definitely one you won’t want to miss.

GRADE: 4/5

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E3 2014: ‘Dance Central Spotlight’ Returns To Center Stage!

by Josh Jackson

A few months back, the developers at Harmonix had stated that they were putting Rock Band and Dance Central on the back burner to focus on other projects such as the upcoming Fantasia: Music Evolved, (which we previewed at last year’s event), essentially signaling that it could be a long time before we see either game make a return. But while the former is still sitting firmly in retirement after the industry got over saturated with peripheral based music games, I’m thrilled to say that the latter is making its current gen debut, giving us a reason to plug our Kinects back in in the process.

From Harmonix’s press release:

The core Dance Central Spotlight experience comes with everything you need to kick off your dance party – best-in-class gameplay featuring fun and authentic choreography for up to two players, along with 10 hit songs to get you started. Customize your party soundtrack with more than 50 chart-topping hits, with new hit songs1 arriving each week.

Now with eight different dance routines per song to choose from, Dance Central Spotlight is the most accessible, customizable Dance Central yet! With an all-new voice command activated* “Practice That” mode, it’s easier than ever to master your moves. Simply say “DJ, practice that!” during a song to hop right into an improved rehearsal mode and perfect your dance moves alongside a real-time dance mirror of yourself to make sure you’re nailing even the trickiest choreography. Dance Central Spotlight also features an expanded Fitness Mode, with special dance routines authored to focus on Strength and Cardio!

The core 10 song soundtrack will include all-new tracks to the franchise, including:

  • “Wake Me Up” – Avicii
  • “Talk Dirty” – Jason Derulo ft. 2 Chainz
  • “Show Me” – Kid Ink ft. Chris Brown
  • “Counting Stars” – OneRepublic
  • “Happy” – Pharrell Williams
  • …and more to be announced soon!

This September, step into the Spotlight. Dance Central Spotlight, only on Xbox One.

With the title being a digital release, I definitely expected it to be smaller, but only 10 songs? We’ll need to find out more information on pricing as well as whether or not the 50 + songs I downloaded across the previous versions will somehow carry over to the new game. But even with fewer songs, promising eight routines per song, an improved fitness mode and a more seamless practice mode makes this package seem promising, and I’m thrilled to see the series make its grand return.

Will Spotlight be enough of a reason for you to play with Kinect again? Dance Central has consistently been the best, and well… the only game I’ve played that uses the Kinect as it was promised, so I’m hoping the supposed improvements of the Xbox One model make it even more of a blast to play. Check out the E3 trailer, and let us know if this will be in your download queue come September.