Recently, I wrote about some of the films I’d been watching. Well, dear reader, I’ve been watching some more. This time of year brings all sorts of Oscar contenders, of course, and I love keeping an eye on what wins – though all I really wanted was for both Olivia Colman and Glenn Close to win, which was obviously impossible. Here’s a few more movies that I’ve been watching recently:
The Wife
I wanted to see The Wife when it came out, but it didn’t seem to come to Oxford. Now it’s available to watch at home for less than half the price of a cinema ticket, so I did that. I haven’t read the Meg Wolitzer novel it’s based on, but this tale of a woman living in the shadow of her husband’s literary success is brilliant. They travel to accept his Nobel Prize, and things begin to unravel. Jonathan Pryce is great as the husband, but Glenn Close is extraordinary as the wife. In any other year, she’d have nabbed the Oscar, no problem.
Green Book
It just won Best Film at the Oscars, so you probably know all about this one – it’s the 1960s, and a white Italian-American is the chauffeur for African-American musician Don Shirley. As they drive around the south, on routes labelled in the ‘green book’ as safe for black people, they learn from one another. It does get trite at times, and Tony’s racism is solved in a heartbeat, but I think it could have been a lot more trite and dodged some pitfalls. Great performances – and, in a year for film that hasn’t been particularly inspiring, not a terrible choice for the best film IMO.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant are brilliant in this dark comedy based on the real-life biographer and literary forger Lee Israel. I also loved that a film just expected us to know who Noel Coward is, which is refreshing. Both the leads got Oscar noms and deservedly so.
Bareilly Ki Barfi
My colleague Rishi has started recommending Bollywood films to me, and this was the first (available on Netflix, in the UK at least). It’s funny and lively and also rather bittersweet – a headstrong woman reads a novel where the heroine seems exactly like her, and she sets out to meet the author. The only problem is that it was written under someone else’s identity. Unusually for a romantic comedy, it was genuinely unclear who she’d choose at times. Some great songs, too.
Tanu Weds Manu
Another Bollywood film – this time based on googling “best Bollywood romantic comedies”. A young man is being introduced to various different potential brides, but falls for the one who is constantly rude to him. Sparks fly, etc., and none of it is believable but all of it is fun.
The Blind Side
Another true story – Sandra Bullock plays a Christian mother who decides to take in a young black man who is excellent at American football and from a disadvantaged background. It felt very like a made-for-TV afternoon movie, and it must have been a lean year that meant it got a Best Film Oscar nom and Bullock won Best Actress. I mean, it was enjoyable enough, but that’s pretty much it.
Hollywood loves to reward comedic actors who cross over into drama. And 2009 seemed like a lean year for good roles for women.
I thought Glenn Close was brilliant in The Wife — I love Olivia Coleman so I’m still pleased she won, but it still puzzles me that she was in the Best Actress category and the other two leads were Supporting. I would love to know exactly how much screen time each of them got, it seemed like they were all equally important. Best acceptance speech ever, though!
Wasn’t her speech great! It’s so her. I love how composed and controlled her performances can be, and how endearingly dithery she always is as herself.