151MM January 2016 by 151MM

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January 2016

Isolation and Restlessness in Taxi Driver

THE OSCARS

Table of Contents Vignette Janurary The #OscarsSoWhite controversy has prompted the Academy to implement reform, aiming to double minority and female members by 2020. In an effort to create a Oscar voting body more reflective of the active film world, the duration of its members’ voting status has been limited to 10 years, with the status renewed if the member has been active in film during that decade. Disney announced that Star Wars Episode VIII will be pushed back by 7 months to Dec. 15, 2017, with critics speculating a rewriting of the script, potentially marking a shift from the series’ traditional Memorial Day release date to December, which puts the film in a box office competition with James Cameron’s Avatar 2 Music legend David Bowie, who also had an impressive filmography, gaining a cult following for his role in Labyrinth, dies at 69. Alan Rickman, a British movie star, died from cancer at age 69.

Feburary Star Wars: The Force Awakens has smashed the record for domestic box office gross, earning over $900 million in ticket sales, but remains in 3rd place for the global box office category, and is unlikely to surpass the $2.78 billion record set by Avatar

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2 Chiaroscuro 7 Taxi Driver Establishing Shot 9 Screening Room 11The Revenant Screening Room 13 The Big Short Breaking the Fourth Wall 15 Rosebud 16 The Wrath of God Blooper Reel 17 Chiaroscuro The Oscar

It’s That Time Again:

The Academy has announced its 2015 list of movies deemed statuette-worthy. So begins a month of frantic speculation dotted sporadically with smaller film events, all ending in a night on the red carpet that effectively wraps up award season. February’s filmscape has produced a number of potentially close competitions along with an #OscarsSoWhite movement (many think this year’s complete absence of minority candidates in acting categories for the second time in a row is rooted in the Academy’s member composition that is 93% caucasian), a fitting outcome, seeing as how the Oscars are a meal usually served with generous sides of controversy. Still, hardcore fans seem undaunted to claw through the excess that is often the award show in order to access the winners. The annual hordes waiting to view the Oscars remain strong (save perhaps a Spike Lee or Jada Pinkett Smith this year), regardless of bad publicity and how closely the results of the Producers Guild Awards(PGA) or Golden Globes bear resemblance--The winners of the PGA go on to win Best Picture 70% of the time, whereas in the last decade, Best Actors, Best Supporting Actors, and Best Actresses have a 90% chance of already holding a Globe for the same role. Nonetheless, the results are still up for grabs. But first, what are the nominations?

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Best Picture

Actor in a Leading Role

________________________________________________________________

MICHAEL FASSBENDER

BRYAN CRANSTON

LEONARDO DICAPRIO

MATT DAMON

EDDIE REDMAYNE

Actress in a Leading Role

________________________________________________________________

CATE BLANCHETT

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JENNIFER LAWRENCE

BRIE LARSON

SAOIRSE RONAN

CHARLOTTE RAMPLING

BEST PICTURE

Placed in the spotlight as a critic favorite and relatively small-scale production, Spotlight, distributed by Open Road Films, chronicles the Boston Globe’s 2001 revelation of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. It was an early prediction of victory, boasting themes that tend to be popular with the Academy. Although Spotlight still has good chances, comedy-drama The Big Short (See P.14) is seen as a rapidly rising possibility, after winning the PGA for Outstanding Producer. Another contender deemed a major threat is 20th Century Fox’s survival drama The Revenant(See P.15), which was shown lots of love at the Golden Globes, receiving both Best Drama and Best Drama Actor. It’s also dominating the Oscar scene, with a whopping 12 nominations. Mad Max: Fury Road, Australian director George Miller’s 4th installment in his blockbuster post-apocalyptic franchise, makes this year’s nominations an interesting selection, and will be the first full blown action slash fantasy film to win since The Return of the King(2003), if chosen. However, the fact that Fury Road is pure action makes

BEST ACTOR

Leonardo Dicaprio’s breathtaking work in The Revenant adds to a total of 5 acting nominations in his lifetime, as he takes acting to the extreme, doing everything short of eating raw bison liver in sub-zero temperatures. Oh wait, never mind... Many think that his Golden Globe victory was merely a practice acceptance speech for the Oscars, but Eddie Redmayne’s portrayal of one of the world’s first recipients of transgender surgery in The Danish Girl had audiences spellbound, and the case for a Redmayne victory is strong after last year’s win for The Theory of Everything, a skillfully crafted piece of Oscar bait. In Steve Jobs, Michael Fassbender’s

BEST ACTRESS

Leading the race in this category are two rising actresses, both starring in films nominated for best picture. Playing Joy, a kidnaped woman returning to the world after living with her young son in a shed for years, Brie Larson’s performance in Room has received lavish praise. Meanwhile, Saoirse Ronan’s brings her talent into Brooklyn, a story about immigration, romance, and homesickness. However, A Golden Globe, a SAG award, and a nomination in virtually every film award places Larson into a stronger position, with this being her first nomination. Adding to the Fray are film veterans Charlotte Ram-

it strikingly unique. The Martian, which tells the story of an astronaut (Matt Damon) awaiting rescue after being left presumably dead on the red planet, won a Golden Globe, albeit for Best Comedy, which means somewhat less to a certain extent in terms of acquiring Oscar wins. Steven Spielberg, producer and director of Bridge of Spies, a box office success, received his 16th Oscar nomination, following Best Director wins such as Saving Private Ryan(1998), and Schindler’s List(1993). With a script (also nominated for Best Original Screenplay) from Matt Charman and the Coen brothers, Bridge of Spies is a historical drama recording the exchange of a Soviet spy with a US pilot during the Cold War. Meanwhile, the emotional triumphs of Room and Brooklyn both received phenomenal reviews for their beautiful productions, and have their spots on the list. Many of the leading choices for this year’s Best Picture have received nominations in numerous categories, and we’re faced with the possibility of closing out with a Revenant, a Spotlight, or perhaps even a Mad Max evening.

lifelike representation of the Apple guru has been labeled as a likely classic, and there are high hopes for the German. Breaking Bad lead Bryan Cranston played blacklisted Hollywood movie writer Dalton Trumbo in Trumbo, which received mixed reviews. But who knows. Hollywood’s love for movies about itself might just prevail. Matt Damon’s humorous performance in The Martian as astronaut Mark Watney was praised for its confidence and charisma, and Damon’s Golden Globe for Best Drama Actor just might be the stepping stone to propel him to the Oscar.

pling, whose character experiences a profound change in her perspective on marriage in 45 Years, and two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett(The Aviator, Best Supporting Actress, and Blue Jasmine, Best Actress), playing a Manhattan housewife who finds herself in a relationship with another woman in Carol. Jennifer Lawrence delivers a strong performance as always, breaking the record for the youngest female to acquire 4 Oscar nominations with her role as a self-made matriarch in Joy.

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Actor in a Supporting Role

________________________________________________________________ MARK RUFFALO

SLYVESTER STALLONE

CHRISTIAN BALE

TOM HARDY

MARK RYLANCE

Actress in a Supporting Role

________________________________________________________________

JENNIFER JASON LEIGH

KATE WINSLET

ROONEY MARA

RACHEL MCADAMS

Best Director

Animated Feature Film

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ALICIA VIKANDER

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Sylvester Stallone basically stars as himself in Creed, playing an aging legend training his destined-tobe successor to the throne, and Rocky fans will be delighted to hear of the Golden Globe already under his belt, although some may still be fuming at the Academy’s failure to nominate Michael B. Jordan, the film’s African American lead, for Best

Actor. On the other hand, Tom Hardy’s uncanny portrayal of a rugged frontiersman in The Revenant is yet another highlight in the Brit’s phenomenal acting year, and Christian Bale might just land himself a second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his convincingly awkward role as a drum slamming fund manager in The Big Short.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS One of the most competitive categories of the night, the field for Best Supporting Actress is brimming with talent, as well as some confusion, since nominees Alicia Vikander, the wife of The Danish Girl’s protagonist, as well as Rooney Mara, the love interest in Carol, both play roles that can be char-

BEST DIRECTOR

Alexandro González Iñárritu is still riding on his Birdman victory from last year, and if things go well this year for The Revenant, it’ll be the first time in Oscar history a director has won both Best Director and Best Picture for two consecutive years. His position is by no means safe. Although Mad Max: Fury Road has ten nominations, it’s the first director nomination for George Miller, and it’s likely that the Acad-

acterized as leads--the two were placed in the Best Actress category at the Golden Globes. Kate Winslet makes an excellent counterpart and marketing executive to Fassbender’s lead role in Steve Jobs, and she just might be the one to carry home the coveted statuette.

emy will honor him for his dedication to his series and his commitment to authenticity--The insane bullet-ridden war machines in Fury Road were the real deal, and had to be built from scraps--all 88 of them. Nevertheless, with an original screenplay Oscar basically already in the bag, Spotlight director Tom McCarthy may end up being the star of the night.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Despite sending nothing to the Best Picture competition this year, the world of animation produced two of the three films that made it to Rotten Tomatoes’ Top 100 list in 2016. Inside Out was labeled an instant children’s classic upon release, and to

many, the imaginative tear-jerker’s success marks Pixar’s return to excellency. The Shaun the Sheep Movie and Anomalisa were both well-received stop-motion films that may just see action on the night of the 28th.

This List Could Go On Forever, or whatever you want to call the length

of the Oscars’ 24 categories, so we’re mentioning only a few. If you want to see the full nominations, check out http://oscar.go.com/nominees. We’re not going to make any predictions this issue as to who the winners will be, seeing as how doing so at this point in the year would be mere regurgitation of existing critical opinion. But you bet we will next year! Chiaroscuro 7

Isolation andRestlesssness in

Taxi Driver

Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Scorsese’s and Paul Driver celebrates its 40th year Shrader’s choice to depict anniversary this February, as I the sights and sounds of NYC discovered only recently, afthrough the windshield of a ter watching it for the first time taxi does wonders--ironicaland adding up the years. Fully, cabbies, despite coming ly quotable, it struck me as a into contact with people vital film that provides an exon a daily basis, have inhertreme example of a human ently lonely existences, with being snapping under lonecustomers seeking to arrive some circumstances only too at their destinations with the common in today’s urban least possible amount of interjungle. action. Consequently, Travis’ From the start, Taxi Drivalready inflated abhorrence er evokes emotions that are for others is only further fueled both alien, and intensely faby his observations of filth in miliar. The cross cuts between the form of passengers in his bokeh treated backseat, and “From the start, Taxi street shots of sights of pedestrinighttime New Driver evokes emotions ans turning their York City and that are both alien, and heads in self-perthe visceral intensely familiar.” ceived superioriclose-ups of ty. Travis’(Robert De Niro) shad Travis’ loneliness manowed eyes cue the descent ifests itself in his monotonous into a world of drifting souls, narration and his listless gaze. while Bernard Herrmann’s He forms his own tinted view score, his last, alternates beof the world, so utterly septween intoxicating and unarated from society, while nerving the audience. seeking outlets for his disqui-

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etude, none of which provide true magnitude of the nummuch gratification. He is a ber of individuals falling vichuman soul undulating in the tim to social seclusion will tide of activity, and his confunever be revealed. Given our sion is ultimately funneled into tendency to hide affliction violence, misogyny, and racrather than reveal it, we must ism. all share similar thoughts we Rejection from a love deem incommunicable. For interest fully convinces him that reason, the film speaks to of the futility of “I’m troubled by all of us. Many of it’s trying to inte- the fact that the crew members like grate, and from Scorsese, Schrader, there on his gaze true magnitude of and De Niro all took grows vindictive, the number of in- massive pay cuts his eyes sullen. A dividuals falling in order to make remorseless act victim to social se- production possiof retribution en- clusion will never ble. Like Erich Resues, and the be revealed.” marque’s penning film’s enigmatic of All Quiet on the ending scene likely sets him Western Front, their ultimate up for another cyclic process goal must not have been to of self-destruction. create an accusation or con Taxi Driver conjures fession, but rather to tell of up images of Rocky Horror’s lives tragically lost in a socie“insects called the human tal tidal wave. Whether that race”. For me, the film’s emowave has partially subsided, tional package is augment40 years later, we cannot tell. ed by the doubtless existence of other cases like Travis’. I’m troubled by the fact that the Title: Taxi Driver Director: Martin Scorsese Genre: Drama, Crime Release Date: 02.08.1976 Running Time: 113 minutes MPAA: R Rotten Tomatoes: 99% Box Office: $28.3 million

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ESTABLISHING SHOT Pride and Prejudice and Zombies 02.05.2016 If you’re one who’s into the classics while craving for some zombie action, this movie is just for you. A mashup combining Jane Austen’s classic tale and fictional zombie elements, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies may seem silly at first glance, drawing eye rolls from English teachers, but it’s perfect for a nonchalant Friday afternoon with friends and families. Don’t worry, it’s only rated PG -13 for some zombie violence.

Gods of Egypt 02.26.2016

From the director of I, Robot comes an epic film that looks as if its producer did not write a fat enough check for the CGI team. Essentially the Egyptian equivalent of Thor and Percy Jackson, Gods of Egypt stars Brenton Thwaites as a mortal hero battling the beasts and wits of Set, the god of the desert, storms, disorder, and warfare(simplified to a mere “god of darkness”, according to the movie’s website), who usurps the Egyptian throne. Set is played by Gerard Butler, who reprises his macho warrior roles from 300, in a production that would probably be considered blasphemous if done with deities of the present day, already receiving backlash for its portrayal of Egyptians with a whitewashed cast.

Zoolander 2 02.12.2016 Misconduct 02.05.2016

In freshman director Shintaro Shimosawa’s inaugural film, a young lawyer takes on a case against a callous executive of a large pharmaceutical company, but soon discovers a scandal involving corruption and blackmailing. This is a thriller worth seeing.

The hilarious partners in crime are back! After a long hiatus(16 years since the last film, to be precise), Derek and Hansel are modelling again, only this time, instead of assassinating Malaysia’s Prime Minister, they’re trying to deal with threats posed by an enemy agency, while ensuring that“Blue Steel” isn’t a thing of the past.

The Choice 02.05.2016

To all the Nicholas Sparks fans out there, get your tissues ready, because shedding tears is reasonably expected in this romantic drama adapted from Sparks’ 2007 homonymous novel. The Choice has Sparks’ signature hackneyed plot, depicting young people brought together by Fate (yes, Fate is everywhere) who overcome challenges in their search for love. Though it’s easy to see how overused and corny this storyline has become, it works every time. Perhaps people enjoy watching tearjerkers like these to relish perfect moments of love nonexistent in their own lives, or maybe they just want to appreciate the beautiful faces that always appear on the screens.

The Witch 02.19.2016

Directed by Robert Eggers, 2015’s Sundance Film Festival Directing Award winner, The Witch follows a stereotypical Salem horror storyline: A devout Christian family leading a leisurely life in New England starts to collapse and turn on each other when the newborn son mysteriously vanishes and the crops begin to fail. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to observe a director’s unique insight in adapting historical events to the silver screen, just like in the remarkable The Exorcist, released in 1973. The source of fear has been developed as a topic in this particular genre of horror films. Instead of depicting a physical visualization of dread on screen, The Witch embeds it’s malice into its gorgeous yet oppressive cinematography, done in Canada’s Mattawa Voyageur Country region. This will come as a refreshing watch if you’re tired of the ubiquitous presence of pop-up ghost face in horror films.

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Race 02.19.2016

Directed by Stephen Hopkins, Race is a biographical sports-drama film about the African American four-time Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, and retells events occurring at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, where Owens faced off against Adolf Hitler’s vision of Aryan supremacy.

151’s Choice

Eddie The Eagle 02.26.2016

Directed by Dexter Fletcher, The story of Great Britain’s first ski jumper to enter the Winter Olympics. And of course, the story is about how an underdog becomes an “Eagle”.

Tumbledown 02.12.2016

Coming out just two days before Valentine’s day, Tumbledown joins the numerous love stories that swarm into the theaters in February each year, but it manages to avoid the cash-grab marketing strategies often used by other romantic comedies. A young woman struggling with the painful death of her husband meets a brash New York writer who helps her to confront her loss. This is a small, innocuous movie that delivers just the right amount of warmth on a cold February night.

Touched With Fire 02.12.2016

What happens when two manic depressives fall in love with each other? Touched With Fire explores the consequences, depicting two poets suffering from Bipolar Disorder beginning an unlikely romance in a psychiatric hospital. Interestingly, the film’s director Paul Dalio also has Bipolar and frequently draws from his own experience with the disorder to portray the two protagonists. Although we don’t expect it to be as good as Silver Linings Playbook from 2012, another film featuring elements of mental illness, Touched With Fire still might turn out to be a genuine and sensitive drama that draws out both the beauty and horror of Bipolar.

How to Be Single 02.12.2016

Beneath the lighthearted title, How to be Single tells the story of a woman searching for love in New York City. It has an all-star cast featuring the hilarious Rebel Wilson and Dakota Johnson.

Deadpool 02.12.2016

Hail, Caesar 02.05.2016

The much-anticipated all-star comedy is finally here. The Following the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis and two years of producing work in the Fargo TV series, with a setting similar to ‘91’s Barton Fink: 1950s Hollywood, a period that would come to be known as the “Golden Age” of film. Hail Caesar is a snapshot in the life of Capitol Pictures executive Eddie Mannix (a legendary fixer for MGM in real life), who finds himself in a tough spot, juggling among other things a kidnapping case of a major studio star, the fatherless pregnancy of an actress, and above all the temptation of a job offering that would set him up for life. As a character-driven comedy, Hail Caesar also satirizes the glory and decadence of old Hollywood. If you’re a Coen fan, that probably sounds familiar to you, because

Deadpool has a lot of fan expectations to live up to, especially after Fox’s disappointing deliverance of the character in 2009’s Wolverine: Origins. Outrageously obnoxious ad campaigns and trailers leaving the internet ablaze probably made Marvel regret the day it sold the rights to its most beloved red mercenary, and have delivered a clear message: This isn’t your typical superhero movie. If Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy wasn’t antihero enough for you, Ryan Reynold’s role as the joke-slinging Merc with a Mouth just might be. If you’re looking for something to do on Valentine’s Day and aren’t too queasy, check this one out.

Coen’s iconic black humor is back!

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Revenge in God’s Hands The Revenant, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, is an American frontier story that tells the same old tale: an avenging mountain man “trapped” in the primeval West has to summon his survival skills, including eating raw fish, jumping off a cliff, and sleeping inside a dead horse’s carcass to battle against nature. However, what makes it deserving of the twelve Academy Award nominations with its nearly 200 minutes of gore is not the depth of its plot, but the cinematic experience created by Iñárritu’s spectacular direction. Iñárritu, who collaborates with Emmanuel Lubezki again after last year’s Birdman, is able to keep the audience engaged throughout the two carnage-filled hours with brilliant and subtle passages of cinematography. It might be a fresh tint of blood tarnishing the pristine snow, the white sizzling foam on Leonardo’s mouth, an added shine on a horse’s innards against the frigid, white sun, or even his signature long, unbroken takes during the bear attack and Indian escape scene. These inconspicuous details pile up to make the cinematic experience all the more visceral and intense. The Revenant’s stunning scenery that captures the brutal, yet beautiful essence of the frontier, the Great Plains in the 1800s, is shot in the untouched lands of Argentina and Canada. It is further enhanced by the coherent sound design and Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto’s score that merges the various subtle sounds of nature to create this sensory marvel. Under this ethereal, pristine natural setting, however, exists the violent and crude epic of the frontiersman Hugh Glass, played by Leonardo Dicaprio who, in the making of this film, seems to crave for an Oscar almost to a degree of selfharm. Poor Leo seems to have given his all for the little golden Oscar man after missing it for the fourth time in 2013. Besides having to cover his beautiful face with rugged hair and grime, Leonardo had to go through extreme and unaccountable measures to fulfill Iñárritu’s physically demanding role. The main character, Glass, similarly, also has to endure

Review of The Revenant

by Sarah Hou

Title: The Revenant

Release Date: 12.25.2015

Direcotor: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Running Time: 156 min

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter

MPAA: R Rotten Tomatoes: 82%

Genre: Drama, Action & Adventure

Box Office: 326.1 Million

unimaginable tortures in his quest to avenge the death of his son, during which he spends nearly half of the movie crawling on the ground with a few groans and moans here and there. Iñárritu manages to shower more sentimentalism to Hugh’s revenge by adding a deceased Pawnee wife to Glass’ vague background history through glimpses of flashbacks. Overall, The Revenant, imbued by the stellar performance of the all-giving Leonardo Dicaprio and the breathtaking imagery created by the brilliant director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, is a powerfully veracious account of the terrifying, forbidding world of the frontier. It is unforgiving, yet unquestionably beautiful. And this just might be the ticket this year for Leo to snatch away his first ever, long-sought-after Oscar.

“As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe... keep breathing.”

Screening Room 13

The Outsider’s Dillema Review of The Big Short

By Everett Shen

t’s been years since the height of the Great Recession, yet we still lay in its wake. Despite the evaporation of millions of jobs and trillions of dollars in wealth, the causes of the disaster remain hidden and incomprehensible to the average layperson, while the gradual diminishing of the events in the memory of the public seems all too likely nowadays. The Big Short, released in December of 2015 and adapted from Michael Lewis’ homonymous bestseller, adopts a remarkably unique angle of storytelling, mixing satire with cynicism in a narrative about the leadup to the 2007-08 financial crisis. Director and co-writer Adam McKay (Antman, Anchorman) constructs a palatable package with a storyline explaining in full the chain of events, while ultimately delivering a not-so-subtle yet potent message reminding us of the greed and irresponsibility that caused the collapse of the world economy. It all begins in 2005, when Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a stubbornly astute but socially awkward hedge fund manager suffering from Aspergers, identifies consistent trends of weakness lying within the market for mortgage-backed securities, far before any politician or banker, and predicts the failure of the housing market in 2007. Eventually, investors, Mark Baum (Steve Carell), Jared Venett(Ryan Gosling), Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley(Finn Wittrock), catch wind of the news, and learn through investigations that the entire housing market is a huge bubble, and that the entire mortgage business is dependent on fraud. They find that

the biggest victims of the crisis will be the average American people, while the responsible banks and agencies get off relatively scott-free. What makes the film decidedly interesting are its self-conflicting moral positions, in which the protagonists (Or at least Carell, Magaro, and Wittrock’s characters) repeatedly express shock and disgust at the system’s greed and lack of ethics, while simultaneously aiming to strike it as rich as they can by ‘shorting’ the housing market, essentially profiting off the economy’s collapse. Although it’s technically not wrong or hypocritical, there’s a great irony (not to mention frivolity) in losing your faith in humanity at a Vegas casino, then immediately telling your business team to buy as many credit default swaps as possible (It’ll be funny when you actually watch the movie, I promise). It’s a bit silly, but the accumulative impact towards the audience actually hinges on this predicament. Any notion of heroism within the characters is utterly shattered, and even though it’s clear that the big banks are to blame, it feels a lot more difficult to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. Viewers leave the theater with a feeling of helplessness, and get the sick sensation that the main characters experience when they realize the actual consequences the world may experience. McKay does an excellent job of balancing comedic elements with meaningful substances, keeping the plot moving at snazzy pace while never allowing the human side of the Great Recession to vanish from sight. The exposition and rising action are filled with recurring montages of popular culture

snapshots from the 90s and 2000s, snappy business dialogue eliciting lots of laughs, and a flashy soundtrack that doesn’t fail to arouse ecstasy. So much of the film is set in the spotless, highrise New York City conference rooms and offices, in which the lead characters scramble to either wage moral crusades or to make a profit(mostly the latter), that whenever the character’s travel anywhere else, which they do, it feels like a different world. The mood inevitably begins to become more sentimental when they investigate mortgage conditions in Florida, and we see the father with a child hugging at his side, who will likely face eviction when the market crashes. McKay finally scores an emotional home run when Ben Rickert(Brad Pitt), an ex-banker who quit Wall Street out of disgust, brings the celebrating oung investors Charlie and Jamie crashing back down to earth, sharply declaring, “you just bet against the American economy”. Things go south from there. Best line in the entire movie. The film, like so many contemporaries, proudly flaunts the tag of being inspired by true events. Indeed, The Big Short tells the stories of six men (though the well-designed poster for the movie’s release would have you believe it’s four) based on real people who were active in the financial world during the crisis, and stars a formidable cast with some of the most established male actors in Hollywood. Bale, Carrel, Pitt, and Gosling bring out the eccentric paranoia of their characters in different ways, and they deliver performances accentuated by Barry Ackroyd’s cinematography(bringing back memories from The Hurt Locker), which remains

in a documentary style(quick shaky panning, sudden zoom-ins, distorted focuses etc.) about 50% of the time. Ryan Gosling plays Jared Venett, a sharp-tongued, quick-witted trader who happens to narrate the film--a somewhat arbitrary choice, IMO, but it works out well. His character is clearly self-invested, but Gosling skillfully reveals a layer of insecurity and self-consciousness behind his tough attitude. Although the movie follows separate but simultaneous storylines, with no obvious lead protagonist, Steve Carell’s Mark Baum, a nasal Jewish hedge fund manager with an irate conscientiousness arguably plays the largest role, and the audience eventually learns to feel and think with him(This is an arduous task, as viewers are probably confused throughout the film’s entire first half as to whether or not they’re supposed to like him). Although some time is wasted on developing the character of Baum, including description of therapy sessions and the suicide of his brother, the attractiveness of the plot is not detracted from. Pitt completes his way, way overdue transition into cinematic middle age in The Big Short, and I prophesy that he’ll be playing progressively older roles in the following years. Perhaps underrated are the light-hearted performances from Finn Wittrock and John Magaro, relative newcomers whose blundering dynamic duo has something markedly humorous to it. Interestingly, the main characters are split into 3 groups who never meet each other at any point in the film, but this is hardly noticeable, as McKay strings the parallel action together with great coherence. This plays out wonderfully in a scene filmed at the American Securitization Forum in Las Vegas, where we see Charlie and Jamie leaving after being reprimanded by Pitt’s character, and walk by Mark Baum and his team who are just arriving, and we see two worlds unawaringly brush past, all in a single well-executed shot. Although there were initially a few worries, there was assurance very

early towards the beginning of the film that the audience wouldn’t be sitting through two hours of financial jargon and economic gibberish. The plot does a lot of the thinking for you--it employs copious amounts of definitions, guest cameos(Margot Robbie, Anthony Bourdain, and Selena Gomez all appear at various points to dumb down the principles of Wall Street with be-

much more inclined to place blame on the big banks, though certainly not undeservingly. Still, The Big Short stands distinct when compared to other scandalous, exposé-themed dramas of the year, such as Spotlight, in that there is less of a clearly defined target(The Catholic Church, for instance), to point fingers at, and there is no glorious, climactic act of justice that brings the film

Title: The Big Short Director: Adam McKay Cast: Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Steve Carell, Finn Wittrock, John Magaro, Marisa Tomei Genre: Drama, Comedy Release date: 12.11.2015 Running time: 130 minutes MPAA: R Rotten Tomatoes: 88% Box office: $113.2 million witching style), and what may very well be the most frequent amount of fourth wall breaks in a feature film since The Wolf of Wall Street(I actually expected The Big Short to be an uninspired emulation of the Scorsese flick, but I found that conjecture pleasantly proven false). There’s a certain type of blindness that can’t be remedied--one that is self-inflicted, where greed leads you to justify your actions, and good times make you ignore the plainly evident in hopes that it will last forever. The housing market boom of the 2000s made everybody blind, greedy, ignorant, and stupid, and everybody was culpable to some extent in the crisis’ aftermath, be it the bankers who were unwilling to give up meteoric profits in exchange for the sake of stability and honesty, or the uncreditworthy who succumbed to the loan offerings of unethical mortgage brokers without a thought. The film acknowledges this, but it’s definitely

to a satisfying end. Rather, we are useless onlookers who watch in despair as years of fraudulent transactions wreak their havoc. The Big Short is a film of bewilderment, frustration, moral ambiguity, and in the end, hope. Whatever cynical view the narrator tries to sell, the movie ultimately tells us that we are recovering, and its existence alone proves that we are beings capable of reviewing our mistakes. One of the AFI Top Ten Films of the Year, with five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, The Big Short is smart, fun, and easily digestible, all while making a profound statement about the state of the world. In the words of Mitchell Garabedian, “It takes an outsider to expose a local scandal”

Breaking the Fourth Wall with

Mrs.Bergman

How many movies do you watch on a monthly basis? Maybe two on average...I do like to go to the movies...I watch movies at home on weekends. So in some months, especially during the winter, [when] I don’t tend to go out as much, [sometimes I’m] sitting home on a saturday night and streaming something. Can you name any recently released movies you particularly liked and tell us why you enjoyed them? I think one of my favorites was Carol. I really enjoyed [it] and I went to see it with my daughter; she was home over winter break...I just thought that it was really lovely, [and] beautifully shot…[the] character development...acting...there’s just nothing I could say that was bad about it...There was something about Carol that kind of stood out...Cate Blanchett is just supreme...So I think that was my favorite of the year. As an economics teacher, how accurately do you think The Big Short reflects the actual events and mood of the Great Recession? I think it did [represent them accurately]. I don’t know that the movie reflected so much the mood of the mainstream--the people whose houses were being foreclosed on. It did a good job of showing that there were some smart people on Wall Street who had a sense that things were not quite right but I also think that it did a good job of showing how other people [were reluctant] to listen to them; they were definitely a minority….‘Things are great right now…Why leave a party early?...Everybody’s doing well’. What effects on the general public did you observe during that period? Do you remember when you began to sense we were in trouble as an economy? [The failure of] Bear Stearns came in the spring...[and] was bailed out. Lehman Brothers came in the fall; they weren’t bailed out...So [in] the summer of 2007, we started to read news [about] a lot of foreclosures and there were some negative news about the economy. I didn’t in 2007 predict that things would be as bad as they ended up being and even with Bear Stearns in the spring of 2008...No, I couldn’t have predicted the recession would be as bad as it was and the ripple effects would be as great as they were. On a personal level, my husband worked in the real estate development business and his business was greatly affected by the recession. So once it happened, I saw first hand the impact that it had on the housing industry. Did you personally feel a sense of anger or disbelief on par with that displayed in the film? Yeah. I think I felt a little bit of anger...Once I started to piece everything together, I was angry that there wasn’t regulation to curb some of these extreme factors and I thought, “who fell asleep at the wheel?” On so many level, things could have been prevented if there was a little bit less greed...There was just a lot of reckless behavior happening there.

PHS Business and Economics Teacher

Did you have a favorite quote in The Big Short? I don’t remember the quote but one of my favorite parts was when the famous chef talks about the seafood that is no longer good. It has been around for too long, but he puts it in the stew [anyways]… I really liked that; [laugh] I thought that was just so very apropros. Let’s take some of these bad mortgages and mix them in with the good ones. Nobody will know. It will still come out okay. Have you been following the Oscars? Who do you think will win in the Best Picture/Best Actor/Actress? Who do you think should win? A little bit. I know some of the nominations. I don’t know that The Big Short should win Best Picture. I liked Spotlight; I know [it’s] is a favorite, [so] I would say maybe Spotlight. I would’ve loved to see Carol [being nominated]; I thought that was a beautiful movie, [so] I was kind of disappointed [that it wasn’t nominated]. I also saw the Danish Girl, which I liked very much, [although] there were some parts that were a little slow… Eddie Redmayne is phenomenal. He’s nominated for Best Actor, [and] he won last year….I think he should win...he’s just so superb. Perfect snow day movie? Forrest Gump is one of my favorite movies and it’s so fun that I can sit home and watch it again and again. Perfect Valentines Day movie? I really love When Harry Met Sally, [with] Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. It’s a romantic comedy; It’s just really funny and I’ve seen it several times. It’s very feel-good, and it’s just very nice to see a movie where you walk out and you’re still talking about it. What’s your favorite snack during movies? Popcorn...no butter! Where can we usually find you at the movies? Montgomery Cinemas is the one I usually go to because I really like the movies that they show. So I think all of the movies that I mentioned… I saw all of them [there]. It’s close to where I live too. And sometimes the Garden [Theater]. Who should we expect to find you with? Sometimes [I go] with my husband, but he doesn’t love movies as much as I do, so I sometimes go myself and I have no qualms about [that]… I’ve inherited that...My father loved movies. He would go to the movies himself; my brother goes to the movies himself...Some people have this concern. I have no concern. [laugh] I’m quite happy going by myself...and with my kids, if they’re around. When my kids were babies, my parents lived in Florida, and sometimes I would go with my kids (my husband had to work) and one of my favorite things about going to Florida was that I had a babysitter. My parents would watch my kids, and three out of the five nights I was there, I would just go to the movies myself. I loved it! I would come back and my friends would say “what did you do?” “I saw these really good movies!”[laugh] I’m not such a critic, as you can tell…[but] I just really enjoyed that.

“ I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

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Title: Aguirre, Wrath of God Direcotor: Werner Herzog Cast: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo Genre: Adventure, Drama, History Release Date: 04.03.1977 Running Time: 155 minutes MPAA: Note Rated Rotten Tomatoes: 98%

A party on an infallible expedition treks through mist-shrouded peaks, setting foot into ancient jungles beset by Indians, and finally drifting down the Amazonian rapids in search of the fabled golden city of the natives. Following, the commander’s death, they contemplate retreat. Don Lope de Aguirre, second in command, instigates a mutiny among the men, trusting in the insubordinance that enabled Hernando Cortes to conquer Mexico. He selects a figurehead of Spanish royalty, seizing the chance to continue on fearlessly, until starvation and the arrowheads of Indian begin to corrode every soul on board. Aguirre severs the head of a deserter, claiming, “I am the greatest traitor. None can surpass me.” Werner Herzog’s 1972 production continues to upheave popular perceptions of film. Forsaking a subjective narrative relying on dialogue and acting, Herzog shrewdly chooses a semi-documentary mode of cinematography, allowing the audience to shed the thespian elements of the characters in order to truly understand their emotions and observe the film’s events as witnesses. In addition, he adopts a similar approach in processing the characters--most of the film’s scenes lack any form of rehearsal whatsoever, but rather leave the actors to experience their roles by themselves(indeed, Herzog requested the cast to scale mountainous paths while bearing heavy gear, to traverse rivers upon rafts)--therefore every sliver of passion, fear, and rage present in the film comes off as exceptionally lifelike. Florian Fricke and his band Popol Vuh’s vital soundtrack prevents the film from being labeled a legitimate documentary. Music contributes immeasurably to Herzog’s allure. The soundtrack in itself, partly taking inspiration from nature, is especially plain and simple; it conveys no emotional package, but rather helps stimulate the audience’s instincts from within. In a sense, it sculpts an invisible frame for sentiments to roam free. Herzog’s approach allows the viewer to transcend beyond the film’s space and time, and the effect is the antithesis of POV commonly used by documentary directors--the characters’ predicaments are both irreplicable and intangible in the view of the audience. Occasional eye contact made by the actors fixate the characters’ emotions and dilemmas viscerally into our consciences: we face not a persona in a film, but a human being. Gustave Le Bon, a French psychologist and sociologist, once stated in his 1895 work The Crowd, “Crowds were said to be instinct driven, criminal, credulous, primitive, simplistic, irascible, brutal, coherent, violent….. Unlike individuals, crowds were by nature ‘irrational’ and in presenting the crowd as a single organic entity.” Elevating the film’s dementia is Klaus Kinski, playing Aguirre, whose harsh blue eyes and marble face manifests a deranged challenge aimed at divine authority, and a cruel yet primitive lust for gold. He thrives and crescendos along a meandering river, through thick vegetation, towards insanity--an insanity surpassing that of ordinary mobs. Herzog demonstrates a certain deftness in maneuvering such anomalous characters. Truly, each soul produced from his pen is consumed by an irrational, nearly blind pursuit, proven once again by 1982’s Fitzcarraldo, in yet another collaboration with Kinski. He even uttered these words of self-reflection: “I shouldn’t make movies anymore. I should go to a lunatic asylum right away.” The director’s madness surfaces again in the film’s final scenes, with Aguirre leaning aslant against the craft’s mast, wearing the purple armor indicative of divine right, arrogantly regarding his dissolved dreams and reality. “I will marry my daughter, and with her, I will find the purest dynasty the earth has never seen.” “I am the wrath of God.”

Rosebud 17

As a renowned environmentalist and vegan, Leonardo Dicaprio must have had a pretty difficult time filming The Revenant. That’s probably why he said “It was the most difficult film I’ve ever done” in an interview with Wired. Remember that scene where he eats a bison liver? After deciding a gelatin fake just wouldn’t do, DiCaprio requested to sink his teeth into an actual raw cow liver, giving “It wasn’t bleeding the right way when I was biting into it” as the reason. That’s pretty hardcore.

Martin Guitar Museum director has reported that The Hateful Eight actor Kurt Russell smashed a priceless 140 year guitar on loan during filming, not knowing it was to be replaced with a replicate for the scene. As a result, the museum has changed its policy: no further loans to movies under any circumstances.