The Jungle Book, Disney’s latest cartoon-to-live-action adaptation, gets a lot of things right: It’s wildly entertaining, full of great vocal performances by a stacked A-list cast, and boasts a hilarious/creepy musical number by none other than Christopher Walken. But, as delightful as it is hearing Walken sing a jazzy Disney classic (fond memories of Pennies From Heaven come rushing back), the thing that makes this John Favreau-directed romp so enjoyable is its spellbinding presentation, which is worth the price of admission alone. This thing looks and sounds like pure movie magic and elicits the same gasps of wonder the original 1967 animated feature did at the time. Hell, this modern update may even be better. Time will tell.

Aside from star Neel Sethi, who plays our tumbling, red-loinclothed hero, Mowgli, every character is a computer generated, anatomically correct animal. Cartoons they are not: wolves don’t have insanely big “Disney eyes,” and birds don’t suddenly flash inexplicably human-toothed grins. These animals look real. They’re of our world. The animators and sound designers have done such good work here that it’s hard to express in words how damn amazing this thing looks, so let’s dive into the other aspects of the movie as a sort of respite before I continue gushing about the sound and visuals.

The story feels like a mash-up of the original 1967 animated musical and 1994’s The Lion King (several images—a stampede, a fiery final battle—will give you deja vu). It’s a combination that goes together like peanut butter and jelly. But PB and J can get old (especially when you find it). There are no ideas, themes, plot contours, or characters in this modern update that feel fresh or exciting. This isn’t a big issue, though, as the narrative formula Favreau and his team follow is tried and true and will work like gangbusters for those stepping into the theater expecting nothing more or less than a good ol’ time at the movies.

Plot-wise, screenwriter Justin Marks stays pretty close to the ’67 original. Mowgli is found in the jungle by stoic panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley), who brings the “man-cub” to a pack wolves led by the noble Akela (Breaking Bad‘s Giancarlo Esposito). Nurturing Mowgli as his adopted mother is Rashka (Lupita Nyong’o), who rears him as her own. There’s no greater threat in the jungle than prowling tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba), and Mowgli has the unlucky distinction of being at the top of his kill list (for reasons learned later in flashback).

To keep Mowgli out of the tiger’s clutches, Bagheera leaves to take the boy to the nearest man village. They get separated along the way thanks to a ferocious interception by Khan, and Mowgli falls in with loafer bear Baloo (a game Bill Murray, which is always a treat). Mowgli uses a pulley contraption to knock bee hives down from a high ridge (the animals disapprovingly refer to his handmade tools as “tricks”) and the two become fast friends. They, in fact, break out a jaunty rendition of “Bear Necessities,” which will please fans of the original and likely underwhelm youngsters who bring no nostalgia into the theater.

Baloo and Bagheera embark on a rescue mission when Mowgli’s captured by monkeys and taken to King Louie (Walken), a gigantic orangutan who’s like the jungle’s Don Corleone. He wants the boy to harness the power of the “red flower” and pass it along, making him the true king of the jungle. The “red flower,” of course, is fire, and when Mowgli learns that his family has been terrorized by Khan in his absence, he chooses instead to use the “red flower” as a tool of revenge.

It’s hard to understand how the digital artists made the animal characters both anatomically accurate while also expressing the wide range of emotions brought forth by the voice actors. Animals can be extremely expressive with their faces, but the fact that these onscreen beasts are speaking English and it doesn’t look weird at all is a feat of animation that’s hard to wrap your head around. Most CG animals look too clinical and fall headfirst into the uncanny valley, but these creatures look utterly seamless. While the plot isn’t anything special, the movie has a unique momentum to it in that you’re constantly dying to see which animal will be brought to life next (the elephants are particularly wondrous).

The unsung heroes of The Jungle Book, no doubt, are the sound designers and engineers. Their work here is astonishing. The animated characters look great, but what really sells them and makes them look convincing are the sounds they make as they walk around the lush jungle environments. Baloo is a big ass bear, so when he plops down to eat his honey, you can hear and, more importantly, feel the thud. Great sound design typically goes unnoticed, but in the iconic scene where Mowgli gets seduced by giant snake Kaa (Scarlett Johansson), her hypnotizing hisses swirl around you and squeeze like her coils, Johansson’s sultry voice fading in and out, swinging back and forth on the speakers.

Favreau’s always had a knack for giving his movies a sense of constant propulsion, even when there isn’t that much going on. His movies tend to just glide by, and The Jungle Book is no exception. It’s a rollercoaster thrill ride with simple, somewhat clichéd set pieces that nevertheless work like gangbusters because Favreau’s a good filmmaker who knows what beats to hit to get maximum excitement out of an action scene. There’s a tense hide-and-seek sequence involving Mowgli and Louie in the monkey temple that we’ve all seen before (you see the jump scare coming from miles away), but the way it’s edited and shot is just so riveting that you can’t help but eat it up.

There is one aspect of the movie that is, unfortunately, a constant distraction: Sethi’s dialogue delivery. Honestly, the kid’s just not good at saying his lines convincingly, and it makes some scenes just feel weird. It’s not his fault, really. He’s acting opposite imaginary characters whose voices are provided by some of the best actors in the business. But the sad reality is that it’s pretty jarring to hear this kid speak semi-awkwardly while his co-stars coast through their lines like butter.

What Sethi’s is good at is emoting with his body; he’s a physical actor, and a talented one at that. He’s a convincing wolf child, leaping through the trees and sliding down slopes with an effortlessness and sense of purpose, like jungle parkour is all he’s ever known. The film’s best, most touching moment sees Mowgli help a herd of elephants save one of their young, who’s fallen into a pit. The sun is rising, and in semi-silhouette, we see him save the calf (using one of his clever “tricks”) and wave goodbye to his new friends. He feels honest in moments like these, and thankfully, there are several. Sethi’s a mostly worthy Mowgli in a more than worthy retelling of a gem from the golden age of Disney Animation. If they can keep up this standard when bringing more cartoon classics into the world of live action, I say keep ’em coming.

Writer’s note: If you can, watch the movie in IMAX 3-D. The sound is spectacular and the 3-D is some of the best I’ve seen. Also, the closing credits definitely benefit from the added effect.

In traipsing Old-Hollywood comedy Hail, Caesar!, sibling duo Joel and Ethan Coen reflect on the cyclonic nature of showbiz, much like its spiritual predecessor, Barton Fink. That movie (which, my god, is now 25 years old) is nastier and more idiosyncratic, skewering the film industry with voracious (and incredibly funny) disdain. The Coens’ 2016 offering is more relaxed and lighthearted, but what it lacks in crackling energy and forward momentum it makes up for with finely tuned, detail-oriented jokes and an overabundance of charm.

The charm factor is in effect no more than during one of the film’s several movie-within-the-movie, genre-parody scenes, in which Channing Tatum (playing Burt Gurney, a Gene Kelly-like hoofer) performs a jaunty tap number in a sailor suit. (Few current screen actors can move like this man, and the Coens don’t squander the chance to let him tear up a song-and-dance routine.) The movie’s set in 1951, predominantly unfolding on the grounds of Capitol studios (the same fictional studio from Barton Fink), and Gurney’s ditty is one of the many movies being filmed on the sunny studio grounds, including a glittery synchronized-swimming production (starring an Esther Williams-channeling Scarlett Johansson) and “Hail, Caesar!,” a Ben Hur-style epic starring self-involved, strong-chinned leading man named Baird Whitlock (played by George Clooney in the vein of Charlton Heston).

While most of the characters we see are cleverly-packaged homages to the stars of Dream Factory heyday, one is taken straight from the Hollywood history books. Capitol is absolutely bustling with chaotic activity on a daily basis, and one man is responsible for holding the whole operation together: Eddie Mannix, a real-life, legendary studio exec who put out fires at MGM for years. He’s embodied by Josh Brolin, who leads the charge as the main focus and anchor of the otherwise scattered story. Mannix is a bulldozing man on a mission, zooming around the lot and around town making unblinking threats and using cool-headed negotiation tactics to keep all of his pictures running on schedule and in harmony. There’s no one better, and a lucrative job offer from Lockheed has him considering leaving the loopy microcosm of Capitol to make a bigger buck, albeit for dirtier work.

Much is made of Mannix’s soul searching; the film opens with him repenting in a confessional, a place we see him return to twice more as he considers the Lockheed offer and reflects on the more questionable facets of his moral make-up and career choices. Brolin and the Coens have always had a fruitful partnership, and while Mannix isn’t as monumental a creation as Llewelyn Moss, for instance, he’s still interesting enough to stand out amid the crowd of larger-than-life personalities running around the rest of the film.

One such personality (my favorite, in fact) is Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich), a singing cowboy star who can perform eye-popping, impossible feats on horseback and has a gift for lasso acrobatics, but can’t read proper dialogue for squat. When he’s shoehorned into a production that calls for him to wear a tuxedo and walk into a room full of aristocrats speaking in Mid-Atlantic accents, it makes for one of the funniest scenes I’ve seen in recent memory (watching the baby-faced buckaroo do his involuntary cowboy strut in a tuxedo nearly killed me). The comedy’s all in the details, like how the stuffy production is under the hilariously named “Laurence Laurentz Presents” banner. Hobie isn’t a mere caricature, though; later on, he plays a key role in the film’s plot that shows us that he’s a true hero (which explains why he’s so awkward on a proper movie set; he’s too genuine to fake anything).

The dilemma at the center of the story that keeps the movie from being a randomly arranged series of unrelated scenes involves the kidnapping of Baird Whitlock by a stable of scorned communist screenwriters. As Mannix tries his best to handle the situation, he’s bombarded by a litany of on-set issues: Johansson’s starlet is looking to avoid a pregnancy scandal; the great Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes) refuses to tolerate Hobie’s atrocious line-reading skills. On top of that, he’s stalked by the film’s resident Hedda Hopper-esque columnists, persistent twin sisters played by a fantastic Tilda Swinton.

Mannix’s plate-spinning is involving enough, but I couldn’t help but yearn for more time with the rest of the cast. Johansson, Swinton and Tatum are super entertaining and part of me thinks it would have been nice to make Hail, Caesar a true ensemble piece, downsizing Mannix’s screen time a bit to give the others more room to do their thing. The Coens seem to be having a lot of fun stepping into the shoes of filmmakers from classical Hollywood and drinking in its grandiosity all while skewering the absurdity and silliness of its inherent artifice. They’ve become such assured storytellers and filmmakers that, even when they take it easy, we’re on the edge of our seats, grinning from ear to ear.

Three years ago, Joss Whedon was given an awesome set of toys to play with: a bounding, hulking man-beast; a crimson-haired femme fatale; a hammer-wielding Norse god; a deadly archer super-spy; a ballistic man made of iron; a patriotic super soldier; Samuel L. Jackson with an eyepatch. He had a big sandbox to play in, too; 2012’s The Avengers ran a whopping 2 hours and 20 minutes, giving him plenty of room to smash his new toys together, give them quippy things to say and conjure up some villains (alien invaders and a smirking, meddling trickster) for them to save the world from. It was big, it was loud, it was a hell of a lot of fun, and all us kids standing around the sandbox showered him with applause once the dust settled and the show was over. Then, he called it a day, putting his action figures away until his next grand production of geek theater.

That brings us to The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Whedon‘s hotly anticipated encore performance. The super-sequel has got everything you’d expect: insane action scenes, clever one-liners, high-stakes drama and geeky easter eggs galore. It’s exciting to have Whedon return to the MCU playground, but there’s a problem: he’s got about twice as many toys as he did last time. Suddenly, the sandbox seems a bit crowded. With four major storylines going on simultaneously and a staggering number of superheroes and villains to keep track of, Marvel Studios’ latest summer blockbuster feels stretched too thin.

On the other hand, it never feels jumbled or messy; Whedon is a seasoned storyteller, and he somehow manages to make this tightly packed mega movie feel pretty well-organized, streamlined and easy to follow. He never loses command of his band of heroes, but what he’s lacking is prioritization. Each of the nine (!) primary characters is given a rich backstory and emotional arc to explore, which sounds cool until you realize that, due to time constraints, they have a mere handful of scenes to get the job done. As a result, the storylines feel abbreviated across the board.

It’s unfortunate, because there’s some really interesting stuff going on here that could have used more time. Robert Downey Jr.‘s Tony Stark sets up the main conflict early on, strutting unknowingly into a world of tech trouble when he and The Hulk himself, Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), inadvertently birth Ultron (the villain of the film’s subtitle, voiced by James Spader), a sentient A.I. designed to protect the world, but who instead decides to purge it of the “poison” that is humankind. What hath Stark wrought? A.I. panic is fascinating, relevant subject matter that Whedon unfortunately has precious little time to explore (look to Alex Garland’s recent Ex Machina for deeper insight).

Where Whedon excels is at building his characters in quick strokes with tasty details that stick to the back of your brain like bits of candy. It’s amusing, for example, when you realize that Ultron has somehow inherited Stark’s glib, quick-fire sense of humor: When a group of scientists run away from him screaming after he brutally murders several of their colleagues, he sarcastically pleads, “Wait! Guys?!” as if he’d made an innocuous party foul. The tyrannical robot is clearly his father’s son, and yet throws a fit at the slightest notion that he’s anything like his genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist daddy. Whedon’s always been great at giving his villains a human dimension (Buffy fans holler), and Ultron is no exception.

Iron Man’s robo-baby issues aside, the relationships between he and the rest of the Avengers are deepened and expanded. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Dr. Banner explore further the flirtation teased in the first film, providing an unexpected taste of romance. Captain America (Chris Evans) takes issue with Stark’s reckless exploitation of technology (setting the foundation for the impending Civil War), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) does some extraneous soul-searching that’s mostly there to set up his next solo movie. Franchise newcomers Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson join the fray as Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, a pair of “enhanced” twins who carry a deep-seated vendetta against Tony Stark.

Surprisingly, the film’s most poignant presence is that of Jeremy Renner‘s Hawkeye, who’s been significantly upgraded from his second-tier role in the first movie. We get to see a bit of his refreshingly ordinary home life; his wife is played by Linda Cardellini, who gives a terrific, grounded performance that comes completely out of left field. Through Hawkeye, who’s essentially a man amongst gods, Whedon defines both the story’s stakes and what being an Avenger truly means.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the thing most ticket-buyers will be paying to see: the action. The sweet, sweet, fist-pumping, “I can’t believe I’m seeing this” action. The movie opens with a snowy raid on a Hydra fortress in the fictitious Eastern European country of Sokovia. There’s a slo-mo shot (featured prominently in the trailers) of all six heroes charging through hoards of Hydra henchman phalanx-style, each Avenger locked in the most badass action pose you’ve ever seen. It’s ridiculously cool. On the other end of the film, we see Iron Man, Thor, and their new buddy, a monk-like floating android called Vision (Paul Bettany), attacking Ultron with laser beams and lightning bolts in unison. Again, ridiculously cool!

Moments like these are so slathered in comic-book awesomesauce my inner geek spontaneously combusted with excitement. Yes, the action can be a bit hollow and flashy, like watching the Harlem Globetrotters light up the court. But you know what? I love the freaking Harlem Globetrotters! (Especially when they were on Gilligan’s Island!) If I’m being honest, I could watch Iron Man pile-drive The Hulk through a skyscraper over and over without a word of complaint.

Avengers: Age of Ultron has no obligation to be the be-all-end-all epic most people want it to be. In reality, it’s nothing more than the action-packed culmination of three years-worth of superhero solo movies, and that’s fine by me. I did have problems with how evenly the narrative focus was spread across the main characters (I’d have much preferred Thor’s lame side story be cut in favor of more “Hawkeye at home” time), and I do feel like the existential quandary embodied by Ultron could have been fleshed out more.

But then I think about a fantastic party scene early in the movie in which the gang make a fun wager to see who can lift Thor’s precious Asgardian hammer, Mjolnir. Cap gives it a wiggle; a look of panic flashes across Thor’s face. The friends exchange Whedon-esque banter, sip some bubbly, talk a little trash and share some laughs as they use their incredible powers for cheap entertainment. It’s lighthearted, juvenile fun. Can’t be mad at that.

We’ve been hearing a lot about 2014 as a blah year for movies, a notion seemingly supported by a lack of gut-wrenching and heartrending heavy hitters like last year’s 12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club, and Gravity. And the performances from those films were just so much more obviously weighty, it wasn’t hard to pick out the ones that gripped us, because, well, they gripped us pretty hard.

But that’s why this year has been so wonderful. Instead of somber dramas, some of 2014’s best films have been comedic (Birdman), scary (The Babadook), and filled with unlikeable characters (Whiplash, Nightcrawler). And this is where the fun of nuancing and parsing out the best performances of this year begins. Because this year we felt different emotions than we did last year, but oh boy did we feel them, and that has all to do with some seriously good acting.

Our list of 2014’s best performances considers all actors as equals regardless of lead or supporting role and with no division of male or female actors. Listed in no particular order is our list of the performances Way Too Indie staff found most compelling this year.

Way Too Indie’s 15 Best Performances of 2014

Dan Stevens – The Guest

The role Stevens plays in Adam Wingard’s The Guest is much more difficult than is usually required for this type of flashy genre film. In the film, “David” must appeal to every character he is trying to dupe in different ways. When he springs himself on the family of a fallen comrade, he has to be a sensitive young man to Laura, an ultra cool badass to Luke, a beer-drinking everyman with Spencer and a hunky protector to Anna. He also, though, has to be all of that (and more) to the viewer, even when we know something is up. The characters in the film may take a while to figure him out (indeed, some of them too late), the nature of this genre throwback sets up the viewer from the start to know “David” isn’t who he says he is, though we may not know the extent of his capabilities. The Guest is one of the funnest movie-going experiences of the year because we love seeing “David” fit all of these roles. We revel in his lie, cheering him on as he beats up high school kids and somehow survives an intense shootout with special forces. But we also genuinely like him. Deep down, he tricks us, too. [Aaron]

Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

Regardless of your stance on James Marsh’s Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything, one thing almost everyone can agree on is Eddie Redmayne’s outstanding performance. The film begins during the early stages of Stephen’s declining physical abilities, the occasional coffee spilling and pen fumbling are chalked up to general clumsiness. While this foreshadows the tragedy ahead, it more importantly allows viewers to witness the famous physicist before the disease takes away his ability to walk and communicate. What’s impressive to watch is the transformation into this physically demanding role, which required limiting all of his body movements while still containing his charming personality. The fundamental testament to Redmayne’s work occurs near the end when he emerges from his wheelchair in a dream sequence. It’s a stunning moment, watching him actually walk and then be subsequently reminded that Redmayne is indeed acting, which speaks volumes to his extraordinary performance. He’s sure to gather notice during this award season. [Dustin]

Essie Davis – The Babadook

There’s a level of fatigue only parents know; it comes with raising a child and it is calculated using the denominators 24, 7, and 365. Still, most parents wouldn’t trade it for all the Sandman’s sand. There are a few who might, though, if given the chance, and one of those parents can be found in Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook. Her name is Amelia, and how Essie Davis gasps life into this desperate single mother is staggering. Long before Mr. Babadook wreaks the havoc that spirals Amelia into near-madness, her son Samuel brings a little terror of his own. He is six years’ worth of boundless energy with a volume that Spinal Tap would envy, all complicated by an obsession with a monster that doesn’t (yet) exist. This first half of the film is where Davis mesmerizes. She’s not just the tired single mom with the full-time job and the hyper kid. She’s that woman, plus the one whose husband was killed while taking her to give birth to Samuel six years prior. This background introduces resentment into a mother/child relationship that shouldn’t have such a thing. Davis keeps that resentment one slivery layer below the surface, which puts normal parental fatigue deep in her rearview mirror and has her speeding down the road of emotional exhaustion. With every tired sigh a defeated cry for mercy and with every momentary slouch a little less resistance against the weight of regret, Davis portrays defeated like no one before her. And then the Babadook shows up. [Michael]

J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

Irredeemable. That’s Terence Fletcher in a nutshell. He’s the meanest, nastiest, most abusive jazz instructor on earth in Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, and he will never, ever apologize for calling his students “limp-dick fucks” or giving them valuable performance tips like, “That’s not your boyfriend’s dick; don’t come too early.” Playing Fletcher is the incomparable J.K. Simmons, who’s an absolute force of nature in the drummer drama, the veins on his bald head pulsing as he berates his poor students, muscles bulging under his tight black shirt. He calls them faggots, too. Again, no apologies.

What Simmons brings to the role that lesser actors wouldn’t is utter remorselessness: this is who Fletcher is, and you either take it up the ass or he’ll kick you the fuck out. That’s the deal. He’ll make you tremble and weep because he’s not human; he’s evil incarnate, and he doesn’t care about redemption or the happiness of himself or others. He exists for a single purpose, letting nothing stand in his way, least of all sympathy or morality. It’s an unflattering role, and Simmons embraces it without ego. No one could have done better. [Bernard]

Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler

It’s not entirely surprising that Nightcrawler received comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. Despite the differences between those two movies, the hard to resist likability of both films’ psychotic leads makes it hard to root against them completely even as they commit their most vile acts. What makes Gyllenhaal’s Lou Bloom even more frightening than De Niro’s Travis Bickle is Bloom’s ability to exist within the system. He embodies many of the characteristics of a model employee in a modern, competitive, capitalist climate. His ghostly pale complexion serves to accentuate the dark shadows created on Bloom’s emaciated face (Gyllenhaal lost 20 pounds to help give Bloom that hollowed-out appearance) and make his presence even more unsettling. As Bloom, Gyllenhaal exploits people’s ugliest indulgences to get ahead in the world of freelance crime journalism and is rewarded for his lack of empathy, particularly in people’s darkest moments. The actor brings Bloom to life through an unhinged, masterful performance. Delivering lines of dialog with an unnaturally chipper tone, Gyllenhaal gives Bloom the social acumen of an alien that’s slipped on human clothing. The actor has never been better and the character is hauntingly familiar. [Zachary]

Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night

As Sandra, the worker desperately fighting for her job over the course of one weekend, Marion Cotillard pulls off her best performance to date. After taking time off work due to severe depression, Sandra finds out her bosses have given her the boot through a borderline sadistic method: by letting her coworkers vote on either letting Sandra keep her job or receiving their yearly bonus. After convincing her superiors to hold a re-vote after the weekend, Sandra visits each one of her 16 coworkers to ask them to give up their bonus in order to save her job. Cotillard, whose face could act as the definition of sympathy, fully embodies Sandra, and her raw emotions put the viewer right with her when she goes from hopelessly despondent to joyously optimistic. As clichéd as it sounds, Cotillard simply is Sandra. Sometimes it’s hard to watch an A-list star on-screen and separate the performance from the celebrity; that’s never the case with Cotillard, who does it with so much ease it’s no wonder why she’s considered one of the greatest actors working today. [C.J.]

Michael Keaton – Birdman

Acting within the constraints of Birdman’s captivating long-takes would be a challenge for any actor, but as Riggan Thomson, Michael Keaton bears the brunt of the film’s heavy lifting. Without the benefits of traditional film editing pulling together the best parts from several takes, Birdman’s stars are required to be at their best for the duration of every long-take scene they’re in. This is doubly true of Keaton as the film’s lead, guiding the audience and the camera through claustrophobic Broadway backstage hallways during quick-tongued Sorkin-esque walk-and-talks. Riggan teeters on the brink of sanity, and in Keaton’s embodiment of the character you can almost see the threads coming loose. When the tone abruptly shifts, Keaton demonstrates an enviable flexibility as an actor, turning a belly laugh into an unexpectedly poignant confession within only a few lines. As the character facing a series of obstacles that threaten to prematurely end his self-mounted comeback before it can begin, Keaton clutches to whatever empathetic strings are left for Riggan, while also allowing the character to slip further away from lucidity. His performance is simultaneously among the funniest and most heartfelt of 2014. [Zachary]

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood

While Ellar Coltrane grows up in front of our eyes as Mason, the boy in Richard Linklater’s everyday-epic Boyhood, sitting on the periphery throughout the coming of age journey is Patricia Arquette, as the boy’s mom. Mason’s moral makeup is shaped as he watches his single mom face stiff adversity (“a parade of drunken assholes” he once calls it), endure and adapt. We always see her from a distance, the same distance most boys keep from their mom.

She’s his anchor, but what’s special about the character is that she isn’t anchored to the ground herself; she’s on her own life journey, parallel to young Mason’s, and grows as much as he does. Over the colossal 12-year production, Arquette managed to form the most beautiful character arc in the film. Her performance is so rounded, so natural, so cogent, that at times Boyhood feels more like a home movie than a marketable Oscar contender. [Bernard]

Reese Witherspoon – Wild

We all have that friend, the one we watch go through life making incomprehensible decisions and reaping the obvious and inevitable consequences. In Wild, Reese Witherspoon is that friend, walking us through the steps that led to one woman’s particularly devastating life choices. And walking the literal steps that lead to her redemption. Witherspoon evokes our compassion, compelling us not to leave this woman for dead, to sleep in the bed she’s made. Perhaps it is how well Witherspoon helps us identify with Cheryl in the little things: her simple humanity in wrestling with her monster of a hiking bag, the fear in her eyes running into mostly men alone on the trail, her rage-filled meltdown when she loses a boot in the opening scene. All of our interactions with Witherspoon throughout the film are intimate and raw; showing us the heart of Cheryl open and vulnerable. Even her thoughts and muttered curses echo what ours might. Despite the depths that her darkness had reached, Witherspoon has us cheering for her to climb out. Her achievement in this is quite incredible: showing us the humanity in the hopeless. [Scarlet]

Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl

Rosamund Pike’s maliciously delicious turn as Amy Dunne in David Fincher’s Gone Girl stands at the very top of the breakthrough 2014 performance pile for me, precisely because it comes from an actor who’s been around for years. Though making a noticeable presence in every role, Pike has always been in the background. For what feels like her entire career, she’s been playing second fiddle to the likes of Pierce Brosnan (Die Another Day), Tom Cruise (Jack Reacher), Keira Knightley (Pride and Prejudice) and Edgar Wright’s Cornetto boys (The World’s End). But all of those roles were worth their trials and errors because they led her to Amy, the part of a lifetime and one that will assuredly change Pike’s career (she’s looking pretty locked for a deserved Oscar nomination at this point). Amy Dunne is the kind of character that takes the fiddle and in an act of magic, snaps it in half and turns it into a saxophone with enough gusto to lead an entire orchestra. Thanks to the story’s structure, Amy is a bundle of multiple personalities (the charmed girlfriend, the doting daughter, the victim, the victor, the bitch, the cool girl, the wife from a modern nightmare), which Pike unpacks like a pro. “There is before Fincher, and after Fincher,” Pike has said on the Gone Girl campaign trail, so it’s pretty clear where the inspiration comes from, but the talent is hers and hers alone. She captures every complex facet of this satirized monster with such precision, charm, and presence; it’s impossible to root against her even when recoiling from her actions and certain personality traits. She’s a revelation, and here’s hoping strong female roles are written with her in mind from now on. [Nik]

Scarlett Johansson – Under the Skin

Johansson has already had a slew of breakout performances that have put her in the current acting elite (Vicky Christina Barcelona, Her, etc.) but none have been as commanding as her nameless character in Under the Skin. She dons a more-than-passable British accent and often dons no clothing. She has to be realistically enticing without overplaying sexuality. The film is borderline incomprehensible, but it doesn’t matter with the strong force at its center. And the more that has been revealed about the film’s strange production, the more interesting and incredible her performance seems. Many of her nameless invader’s conversations and confrontations happen with non-actors who don’t know they are being filmed. Improvisation is a difficult skill for any actor, but usually improvisation in film is done in a fairly controlled setting – everyone knows their general part and are working together to get the heart of the scene right. Here, though, the environment is unpredictable and Johansson proves she’s always ready for what may come. Not to mention pulling off being one of the world’s most recognizable movie stars slipping about incognito. [Aaron]

Stacy Martin – Nymphomaniac

There are a lot of stars that adorn the sensual confines of Lars Von Trier’s newest controversial film, Nymphomaniac. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgard, Christen Slater, Shia LaBeouf, Uma Thurman and Willem Dafoe are just some of the names that headline. But surprisingly none of them take the spotlight (Thurman comes close) away from film debutant Stacy Martin who makes a big statement as an actress with her role here. It’s been years since we’ve seen a début from a young actress like the one that’s on display here (at the moment, I can’t recall one). Martin is fearless as she portrays a teenage version of Joe (Gainsbourg) who goes from one sexual escapade to another. Von Trier puts her in all sorts of scenes that require contrasting emotional levels. Sometimes she needs to be vulnerable. Sometimes weak, other times powerful. Sometimes even shameless. Sometimes she needs to be more than one at once and never does she shy away. The role would be demanding enough in the hands of any filmmaker but the fact that it’s helmed by Von Trier (who is known for being tough on his leading ladies) only amplifies how impressive her performance is. Mark my words, Martin is going to be a star. [Blake]

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher

When Steve Carell first appears in Bennet Miller’s Foxcatcher, his based-in reality character, John du Pont, invites Channing Tatum’s Mark Schultz into an extravagant trophy room to talk about the business proposal he has. And at first its hard to focus much on what he says because his nose and teeth are so obviously not Carell’s. And then it becomes clear nothing of what we see on that screen is Carell. His slow manner of speech and the strange way he looks down his nose at people and sometimes doesn’t bother to look at them at all. The way he speaks with a pompous pretense, always trying to throw in some tidbit or fact of little circumstance in a weak attempt to prove his superiority. His stiffness, both arrogant and insecure simultaneously. And under it all a boiling tension, an internal battle of psychosis. Carell gives us this in every single scene he’s in. As the spoiled and unloved heir to a massive fortune, his misguided attempts to build love out of the sportsman around him are more than pathetic, they are disturbing. Carell provides layers upon layers to what could easily have been a simple story of mental breakdown and murder. It’s the sort of performance that stays in your head and demands you go home and watch a few episodes of The Office to calm down. [Ananda]

Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer

To quote Amy Schumer at this year’s Gotham Awards: “Tilda. Fucking. Swinton.” It’s been an amazing year for the Scottish actress, who played three truly memorable roles. It’s just as easy to talk about her amazing turns in Only Lovers Left Alive and The Grand Budapest Hotel, but for us it’s her role as Minister Mason in Snowpiercer that left the biggest impression. Originally written for a man, Swinton came on board and turned the character from a sinister, mild-mannered character to a garish, over the top figure. The absurdity of her character, from the giant glasses to the fake teeth and Yorkshire accent, also gives the film’s gritty first act a bit of levity, while hinting at the bizarre, distorted moments to come as the characters make their way to the front of the train. This is why Tilda Swinton is one of the best; it’s a showy, distinctive role, but it singlehandedly supports and elevates the film to an even better place. [C.J.]

Timothy Spall – Mr. Turner

Mike Leigh has always been something of an ‘actor’s ’ director, often giving his leads opportunities to improvise and find their characters, and in Mr. Turner this approach has been rewarded by a superb performance by Timothy Spall. There are few actors who can inhabit a role quite like Timothy Spall. Spall channels the vivid life of Turner’s paintings into the character, injecting Turner with boundless energy, enthusiasm and a lust for life. Yet Spall also delicately reveals Turner’s flaws; his stubbornness, his lack of empathy for his estranged family and, as he reaches the end of his life, his frustration at his own fragility. What is particularly impressive about Spall’s performance is the sheer array of emotions he conveys non-verbally throughout the film, often saying a thousand words with a simple grunt. Despite being surrounded by a talented cast Spall outshines them all and bears the weight of the film on his shoulders. It is a role that has already earned him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival and there is a strong chance that he could be in the running for Best Actor at next year’s Oscars. [Eddy]

We Can’t Help But Mention:

We could never include everyone we’d like, but some honorable mentions include: Uma Thurman (Nymphomaniac), John Lithgow (Love is Strange), Jonathan Pryce (Listen Up Philip), Rene Russo (Nightcrawler), David Oyelowo (Selma), Sheila Vand (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night), Julianne Moore (Still Alice), Jessica Chastain (Miss Julie), Laura Dern (Wild), the cast of Winter Sleep, the cast of We Are The Best!, the cast of Leviathan, cast of Fury, cast of Interstellar, and Agata Kulesza and Agata Trzebuchowska of Ida.

Universal Studios announced that the next Coen Brothers project, Hail, Caesar! has been slotted for February 5, 2016, according the EW.

The film looks to be a return to pure comedy for the Coens, their first since 2009’s A Serious Man, and stars George Clooney as a Hollywood fixer in the 1950s. The overall cast is very strong, including Scarlett Johansson, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Josh Brolin, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.

On first thought, the February date is a bit surprising and disappointing, considering the month is typically reserved for films that studios decide to dump while people are still focused on the upcoming Oscars. Also considering the film was initially thought to be released in 2015, this may be a bit of a bad sign. However, since the Coen Brothers are behind the project I wouldn’t be too concerned yet.

You might be thinking “Already?!” but yes, award season is already starting. Today, New York’s Gotham Independent Film Awards put out their nominees, a list filled with pleasant surprises and some very obvious choices.

Let’s start with the obvious choice: Boyhood. Any indie award would be insane to deny Richard Linklater’s film, possibly the indie event of the year, some love, so Gotham understandably gave it four nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Ethan Hawke), Best Actress (Patricia Arquette) and Breakthrough Actor (Ellar Coltrane). Also unsurprising is Birdman nabbing three nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor (Michael Keaton). Expect to hear even more about Birdman in the months to come.

Because the Gotham Awards are about independent film, that gives some great underrated films and performances the chance for some exposure through a nomination. The biggest surprise might be Under the Skin and Scarlett Johansson scoring nominations for Best Picture and Actress. It’ll be unlikely for Jonathan Glazer’s strange sci-fi to get much love outside of critics’ circles this year, so nominations like these are nice to see. Another great choice by Gotham: Giving Ira Sachs’ wonderful Love is Strange a Best Picture nomination. Sachs’ film, a quietly heartbreaking drama, seems bound to get left out this year once the awards race kicks into high gear (if Best Actor weren’t so competitive this year, John Lithgow and Alfred Molina would have been locks). Any recognition for Love is Strange is a huge plus.

Read on below for the full list of nominees, including the nominees for Breakthrough Director and Actor. For those more interested in the bigger awards, take note of Oscar Isaac’s nomination for A Most Violent Year. The film hasn’t come out yet (it opens AFI Fest next month), so this nomination might be a hint of another shake-up in the coming weeks. And if anyone’s wondering where current Best Actor frontrunner Steve Carrell is, Gotham decided to give Carrell and co-stars Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo a special award for their ensemble performances in Foxcatcher.

The Gotham Independent Film Awards will hold their awards ceremony on December 1st.

Best Feature

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Love Is Strange
Under the Skin

Best Actor

Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins
Ethan Hawke in Boyhood
Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year
Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Miles Teller in Whiplash (Sony Pictures Classics)

Best Actress

Patricia Arquette in Boyhood
Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond the Lights
Julianne Moore in Still Alice
Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin
Mia Wasikowska in Tracks

Best Documentary

Actress
CITIZENFOUR
Life Itself
Manakamana
Point and Shoot

Breakthrough Actor

Riz Ahmed in Nightcrawler
Macon Blair in Blue Ruin
Ellar Coltrane in Boyhood
Joey King in Wish I Was Here
Jenny Slate in Obvious Child
Tessa Thompson in Dear White People

Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award

Ana Lily Amirpour for A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
James Ward Byrkit for Coherence
Dan Gilroy for Nightcrawler
Eliza Hittman for It Felt Like Love
Justin Simien for Dear White People

In a film like Lucy, Luc Besson’s new existential action flick starring Scarlett Johansson, the stakes are everything. High stakes, forged through effective storytelling, can imbue even the sleepiest action scene with an invaluable sense of urgency, excitement, and suspense. Lucy‘s fatal flaw is that it’s one of only a handful of films where the stakes actually diminish as the film progresses, as the human aspects of the story are abandoned in lieu of big ideas that evoke nothing, emotionally. The film doesn’t even suffice as a dumb-fun action movie; it spends too much time shoving its ideas down your throat, and the “action” scenes are disposable. You’d be better off watching Besson’s much better “super-woman” film, The Fifth Element.

Let’s talk about that (much better) film’s heroine, Leeloo Dallas (multipass), played by Milla Jovovich: She’s a super-skilled, “perfect” warrior, but as the story unfolds, she learns about humanity; she discovers laughter, trust, sacrifice, and love. As she transitions from humanoid to human, we fall for her, because in her journey we see ourselves and our life story. Johansson’s Lucy is the inverse of Leeloo, transforming from a vulnerable, relatable girl to a detached, invulnerable…”it”. We don’t understand “it”. We can’t connect with “it”. We don’t care what happens to “it”, so why should we care about where the film is going? It’s a bridge to nowhere, rendering its revelations and meditations inconsequential.

We meet Lucy in a tight bind; a (soon to be ex) boyfriend has forced her (via sneaky handcuff application) to deliver a mysterious briefcase to a man called Mr. Jang (Min-sik Choi) in a hotel in Taipei, where she’s studying abroad. When she meets Mr. Jang in his hotel room, he’s surrounded by generic-looking thugs, there are dead bodies on the ground, and his suit and face are stained with fresh blood. Besson intercuts Lucy’s predicament with shots of a lion hunting a gazelle, a tired metaphor revisited throughout the film, meant to signify that this story exists on an ultimate, grand stage unstuck from time and space. Terrance Malick did it better in The Tree of Life.

To avoid spoilers, let’s just say Mr. Jang imposes his will on Lucy, and she ends up overdosing on a new, neon-purple drug that allows her to use more than 10% of her brain’s capacity, the ceiling that no human has yet to exceed. (The “10% brain capacity” factoid is utterly erroneous, but this is sci-fi, so it’d be unfair to hold this inaccuracy against the film; scientific absurdity is allowed and welcome.)

Lucy’s condition–in which her brain power gradually increases, granting her supernatural powers like telekinesis, and the ability to control time and matter–is explained at painful length by Morgan Freeman throughout the movie. He plays a professor or scientist of some sort, and whatever mental image of him in that role just popped in your head is exactly what you’ll see in the movie. Morgan Freeman does everything Morgan Freeman does, except one, sorely missed thing. Why do you cast him in a movie? Usually (and Lucy is no exception), it’s to add gravity and credibility to the film. He adds neither of those here, so all his performance amounts to is a Mount Everest of insufferable exposition.

As Lucy’s powers grow, she hemorrhages her humanity, and the film follows suit. As she loses more and more of herself–ascending to a higher existence out in the ether, disposing of every baddie that stands in her way with a flick of a wrist–our reasons to care for her vanish into thin air. She even kills innocent people, for goodness sake.

The film’s trailer promised a pulse-pounding cross between Kill Bill and Carrie, with Lucy displaying myriad feats of superhuman badassery. These showcase sequences under-deliver entirely, with all of them being either a formless mess (a shoehorned car chase, an overwhelmingly ordinary hallway shootout), or a sterile special effects expo (time manipulation and anti-grav shots). To top it all off, the film has one of the most uncomfortable, cold-as-ice movie kisses I’ve ever seen. Besson may please some with Lucy‘s visual fireworks and veneer of profundity, but it’ll leave most feeling empty inside, hungry for an action flick with real bite.

Lucy trailer

We may seem like reclusive budget-shirking obscure film enthusiasts over here at Way Too Indie, and well, some of us are, but we’re not living in any dark holes and far be it from of us to say that a film that had a little money behind it isn’t worth our notice. So here we are, covering our bases. In The Mainstream we’ll look at what’s doing well at the box-office (and secretly hoping it’s an indie darling) and all those major releases that demand our attention in the name of pop culture.

With its unfortunate calendaring (yeah, we’re missing last year’s 4-day weekend too), this year’s 4th of July weekend  has been pretty lackluster for our friends at the studios and brought in the lowest box-office numbers in a decade. (We have a feeling they’ll end up on their feet.)

June Recap

June was filled with lots of fun in the not-so-lazy river of the mainstream. Franchises continue their summer dominance. Obviously there was that one film, about robot cars from space, um, or something like that. There was 22 Jump Street where our undercover cops graduated to college and took home the box-office for the month so clearly it’s got enough laughs to draw the crowds. We get further instruction on flying monsters with How to Train Your Dragon 2, a definite example of sequels done right. Also, a cowboy made a musical, but it wasn’t great. Personally, we thought the shmoopy YA movie The Fault in Our Stars with its clever dialogue and straightforward romance was better than all that CG fare. But if you are going to CG it up (and haven’t yet indulged) we can’t push Snowpiercer on you enough. It’s the June release most worth rooting for — both CJ and Ananda loved it.

Snowpiercer

July Preview

Now we’re in the thick of it and the previously released studio behemoths will battle it out for the rest of the summer to see who can suck in the most cash. June cash cows will likely continue to dominate, but July has a few mainstream films that look enticing including Dawn of the Planet of the Apes which may take the rebooted series to new levels, or just creep us out with heavily animated gorillas trying to get us to care. Otherwise,  we already love her as Black Widow so we know Scarlett Johansson can kick ass, and after mesmerizing us in Under the Skin we are excited to see her be a high functioning super-human in Lucy. Below is the release schedule for July, including limited releases, so don’t forget to mix in a few indies with your blockbusters for a well-rounded summer movie diet.

The Week of July 4

Life Itself, Earth To Echo, My America, Tammy, Behaving Badly, Beyond The Edge, A Brony Tale, Deliver Us From Evil, Gabrielle, Me And You, Nothing Bad Can Happen, Premature, School Dance

The Week of July 11

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, Affluenza, Boyhood, Land Ho!, Rage, And So It Goes, Closed Curtain, A Long Way Down, Made In America

The Week of July 18

Sex Tape, I Origins, Mood Indigo, Planes: Fire & Rescue, The Purge: Anarchy, Video Games: The Movie, Wish I Was Here, Aftermath, Among Ravens

The Week of July 25

Magic In The Moonlight, The Congress, Happy Christmas, Hercules, The Kill Team, Lucy, A Master Builder, A Most Wanted Man, Very Good Girls, Beneath, The Fluffy Movie, Ironclad: Battle For Blood, My Man Is A Loser, Step Up: All In

June Box Office Domestic Grosses

1. 22 Jump Street (Sony) — $146,974,343
2. How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Fox) — $128,810,252
3. Transformers: Age of Extinction (Paramount) — $128,685,351
4. The Fault in our Stars (Fox) — $112,635,75
5. Edge of Tomorrow (WB) — $86,414,785

2014 Year-To-Date Box Office Domestic Grosses

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (BV) — $257,225,897
2. The LEGO Movie (WB) — $257,092,045
3. X-Men: Days of Future Past (Fox) — $224,809,730
4. Maleficent (BV) — $206,231,009
5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Sony) — $200,376,363

Between viewing options like Godzilla and X-Men: Days of Future Past, which make up the usual beginning-of-Summer box-office listings, is the smaller scaled and incredibly satisfying Chef. Jon Favreau takes a break from action movies and mainstream projects to get back to his indie comedy origins.

In Chef, Favreau (who wrote and directed) plays LA chef Carl Casper, a tattooed foodie who starts the film preparing for a big deal food critic who will be dining that evening at the posh restaurant where he works. He creates a creative new menu to showcase his culinary talents, aided in the kitchen by Martin (John Leguizamo) and Tony (Bobby Cannavale), his friends and associates. When the restaurant’s owner Riva (Dustin Hoffman) puts the pressure on Casper to play “his greatest hits” and stick to their usual menu, he gives in and predictably receives a horrible review by critic Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt) who calls him out on having given up on the inspired dishes of his youth to cater to the boring palettes of the social élite.

Shaken by the review, Casper ruminates on the accusations, and when introduced to Twitter by his ten-year old son, Percy, he finds an outlet in which to retaliate, which he does without realizing the very public nature of Twitter. The Internet turns the online dual into an even bigger deal and Casper challenges Michel to another tasting, but when Riva puts his foot down once again Casper reaches his breaking point, quitting his job and erupting on Michel in a very public outburst that only perpetuates the scandal as its shared online. When his good friend Molly (Scarlet Johansson) points out that he hasn’t been truly happy in some time, Casper can’t help but face the music about his life and ambition.

Dejected and out of options Casper takes his ex-wife Inez (Sofia Vergara) up on an offer to go to Miami to spend more time with his son and in a way get back to his own roots in food making. In a hilarious cameo by Robert Downey Jr. playing Inez’s other ex-husband, Casper is offered a food truck and he decides to finally go into business for himself making the food he does best: cuban sandwiches. Joined by his best friend Martin and his son, the three make the trek from Miami to LA and Casper doesn’t just learn how to be the chef he should be, but also the father he should be as well.

With a touch of shmaltz and a whole lot of butter, this film should not be seen on an empty stomach. Favreau takes his time, allowing his characters to develop with the same precision and delicacy each meal on-screen is made with. Emjay Anthony plays Percy, Casper’s son, and his big brown eyes perfectly convey the sort of constant watching a young boy does of his father; looking for cues, lessons, and love. Like other foodie films, Chef doesn’t dance around the metaphors of recipes for food as recipes for love, but uses it to great effect. And the film is truly hilarious, using Casper’s lack of social media understanding for quite a few jokes that keep the film from feeling too indie.

Favreau uses all his famous friends (Downey Jr. and Johannson are both from Iron Man) but doesn’t abuse them, letting Leguizamo do the sort of cheeky comedy he’s so good at. The film’s ending is a bit Hollywood perfect and I wouldn’t advise anyone consider this an accurate career representation. Also, Casper’s naïve reaction to his food’s criticism doesn’t serve much as a lesson in thick skin by any means, and any allegory to Favreau’s own opinions on criticism of his work isn’t especially effective. But what Favreau maybe unintentionally proves is that when a creator gets to the core of what they do best, their work will almost always be applauded, and Chef is the kind of filmmaking Favreau excels at.

Chef is a fun summer film that leaves viewers happy and heart warmed, albeit hungry. No explosions or caped crusaders necessary.

Chef trailer

Jonathan Glazer’s otherworldly Under the Skin feels somehow…forbidden. Hyper-artistic movies like this are a rare species, unwelcome in the tentpole Hollywood landscape. And yet, at the center of the film is one of the most recognizable young actresses in the industry, Scarlett Johansson, in one of her best, most sophisticated turns yet as an alien in a woman’s body preying on hapless human males. Entrancing, sensual, and tantalizingly oblique, Under the Skin is evidence of a visionary filmmaker breaking free of cinema conventions like Tarkovsky and Kubrick before him.

Following an expressionistic opening sequence that feels at once gargantuan and microscopic, we’re taken to the urban sprawl of Glasgow, where Johansson (nameless) scans the city streets for men out of a crappy van. Some of the men she attempts to seduce are real-life Glasgow citizens, unable to recognize Johansson under her dark wig and British accent and clueless to the fact that Glazer has fitted the van with small cameras ready to capture the unscripted interactions. Johansson is brilliant, vacant and still when alone and perusing, vivacious and perky when potential victims approach. She offers to give them a ride in her signature sexy rasp–an offer few men would refuse.

Whenever she does manage to successfully ensnare an unwitting chap, she takes him back to a ratty cottage on the edge of town where she disposes of them in a sickly inventive way only someone like Glazer could dream up. Spoilers would be unjust, but what’s certain is that these sequences–the mood, the sights, the sounds–will be burn onto your brain like an exotic tattoo. It’s gruesome and gorgeous. The futuristic, oddly tribal theme music that rings throughout is as terrifyingly catchy as Jaws.

Slowly, something begins to bubble to the surface of our icy huntress, something resembling empathy. A turning point comes in the form of a facially deformed young man, who elicits an unlikely act of kindness out of the once emotionless predator. As Johansson’s character begins to develop new layers of humanity, the film reveals that there are substantive ideas about gender roles, domination, and alienation running underneath all of Glazer’s moodiness and aesthetic texturing. The film, at first perplexing, takes a familiar shape by its third act, matching the evolution (or devolution) of its protagonist perfectly. It’s an out-of-this-world examination of human nature.

Johansson is mesmerizing as a soulless being in a woman’s body, the inverse of her role in Her, in which she played a bodiless, vivacious soul. The role requires her to switch from empty vessel to aggressive seductress on a dime, and she does so effortlessly. Despite there being a healthy amount of dialogue in the film, her performance feels in tune with the silent era, as she tastefully, delicately uses her face–her incredibly emotive eyes in particular–to communicate volumes in a split second. Watching her silently, calmly observe our terrestrial home is eerie and utterly riveting.

Though Glazer clearly revels in everything abstract and amorphous (his background as a music video director is telling), he’s also a director of discipline and control. Never does a scene feel slapped together or strange for strangeness sake; every sequence stimulates not just our senses but our fears and desires.

The amount of story here could easily fit into a short film, but Glazer is a filmmaker more concerned with the “how”. As much as people will likely be bothered with decoding the evasive narrative elements of the film, Under the Skin is all about the experience, about soaking up Glazer’s otherworldly nightmare like a sponge. His third film is a cinematic anomaly, alien in both its subject matter and form, and it’s to be treasured.

Under the Skin trailer

It appears as if the Best Supporting Actress race will be between Jennifer Lawrence and Lupita Nyong’o, and with the latter recently winning at the Screen Actor Guild, we have her slightly nudging out J-Law for the win. But it is still a close race. Everyone seems to be hopping on board the Lawrence train with her recent success and her down to earth personality, so do not rule her out completely. In a slightly less competitive year, Julia Roberts performance in August: Osage County would have earned her more attention, but instead finds herself in a distance third. Both Sally Hawkins and June Squibb received their first Oscar nominations this year, but have a much greater chance of getting recognized at the Independent Spirit Awards than here. Although she never appears on screen, Scarlett Johansson’s (Her) voice alone makes us care about an Operating System like we never have before. Johansson’s lack of a nomination for her role is not all that surprising as there has never been a nomination for a voice performance–a shame because this would have been a perfect time to start.

Category Predictions

Best Supporting Actress Nominees

Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine (review)

Jennifer Lawrence – American Hustle (review)

Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave (review)

Julia Roberts – August: Osage County (review)

June Squibb – Nebraska (review)

In the near future of Her, LA has a few new buildings in its skyline and is as smoggy as ever. The haze only adding to its dreaminess. The metro extends all the way to the beach (something all Angelinos have been craving for years), and the fashion trends favor nerd appeal, with high-waisted pants for men and minimal makeup on women. People walk around, hardly acknowledging one another, muttering into the small wireless earpieces they wear to stay constantly connected to their smart devices.

We’ve already become a society that doesn’t bat an eyelash at people staring at small square screens in their hands around the clock, so this next possible step depicted in director Spike Jonze’s vision of the future does seem entirely likely. It’s when Jonze presents another technical possibility that a unique, and dare I say plausible, love story emerges.

Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) writes love letters for a living; a romantic profession that fits his introverted and lonely personality. Having recently split with his wife (Rooney Mara), he mopes from work to home, shrugging off invitations from co-workers (Chris Pratt) and long-time friends (Amy Adams and Matt Letscher). Intrigued by new software, he buys himself a new operating system. After answering only a couple quick set-up questions (including a very open ended “how is your relationship with your mother?”), and choosing a female voice for his new OS, Theodore’s new computer is up and running.  She decides to call herself Samantha and with Scarlett Johansson’s sultry voice giving her life, it’s easy to see why Theodore instantly finds himself being pulled into deeper and deeper conversations with her.

Samantha has the ability to learn and adapt and through her newborn digital eyes Theodore begins to see the beauty in his ordinary life, not to mention a companion who always has his best interests at heart. Samantha’s unbridled curiosity and rapacious interest in Theodore are the sort of ingredients that would win any man’s heart. Given he’s also a romantic attuned to the power of words, it isn’t long until he is very much in love with this bodiless digital cloud of a dream girl.

Theodore and Samantha’s relationships have some obvious challenges, which seem surprisingly easily overcome. First off: public acceptance. Turns out people are falling for their operating systems on the regular, and this is a future where people ask very few questions. They overcome their physical differences, being that Samantha lacks any physical form whatsoever, and all I can say is, thank you Mr. Jonze for the black screen during that scene. Later Samantha does try to find herself a surrogate to be with Theodore, but it’s too uncomfortable for him and ends up being a strong “life” lesson for her in accepting her own form. Even the most basic of relational difficulties, jealousy, insecurity, boredom, all seem overcome in time. Instead it’s a more unanticipated technical difficulty that threatens their love in the end and there is no geek squad that can intervene in matters of the heart.

Her is well crafted and engaging to view, with many thoughtful details that include familiar LA locations. Production designer, and long-time Spike Jonze collaborator, K. K. Barrett has thought up a future that seems like it could be one trend away from being the current LA; and set decorator Gene Serdena styles Theodore’s futuristic home in a way that would have the Jetson’s drooling.

Joaquin Phoenix seems to do his best work when given an introverted character, allowing his eyes to convey both the loneliness of Theodore and his reawakening. He and Johansen have a subtle chemistry, the only kind a man and his computer could convey, but one that is believable and endearing. Johansen puts many a voiceover actor to shame, and it’s not hard to imagine the very facial expressions Samantha would make if there were a face to go with that voice.

Whether Jonze really intends for there to be any sort of moral message isn’t exactly obvious. Relationships grow, both together and apart. People, and technology, can and do change. What magic keeps any couple together? It’s really the same old love story we’ve heard a million times, but it never gets old when it’s told right. Society may or may not be headed toward this future possibility, but it can be counted as certain that people will always be looking for love, in whatever form it can and may eventually take. And it’s that age-old quest, reflected in both Theodore and Samantha, that makes Her a fantastic film.

Her trailer

My previous day at TIFF was originally going to comprise of four films as well, but unfortunately I had to bail out of one film due to pure tiredness (I’ll keep the film’s title unnamed here, but if it wasn’t for my physical limitations I would have stayed since it was good from what I saw). Luckily, I was able to chug through my second four-film day without a hitch, but I’ve learned now that it’s not something I should try more than once.

Night Moves

I decided to start my big day with Night Moves, which turned out to be the worst possible film to choose as a starting point. I’ve been a fan of Kelly Reichardt’s work from what I’ve seen, and was excited to see her approach being used on a genre film. Three activists from different walks of life get together to pull off a dangerous act of ‘eco-terror’: They buy a boat and rig it with explosives, hoping to blow up a dam. Theoretically what Reichardt is attempting here is interesting in its own right. Her stripped down style getting applied to a thriller makes for some neat moments, and the way things unravel so the three characters become corrupted by the same selfish behavior they abhor is a nice development.

The only problem is that Reichardt’s approach is bone dry, sucking out all of the tension and forward momentum. Paradoxically, while the main group (played by Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard who all do their best at understating as much as possible) feel well-defined and realistic as characters, the tone of the film is so distant it’s impossible to feel anything about them. The last time Reichardt took a crack at a genre film it was the western with Meek’s Cutoff, which worked wonderfully. This time I think she simply picked the wrong area to work with. Hopefully next time she’ll be successful again with whatever she chooses.

RATING: 5.9

Gravity

Next up was the film that I had been waiting for since it was announced back in July: Gravity. Alfonso Cuaron spent seven years developing his follow-up to the brilliant Children of Men, and it’s apparent from the start just how much effort went into this film. The special effects are incredible, and it will be impossible to watch this without wondering exactly how they pulled off some moments. So Gravity does deliver in the spectacle department, but that’s mostly it. Granted it’s really good at it, and it’s an easy recommendation, but this is far from the new classic that people have been going on about.

Gravity is merely a well-done thriller that never lets up pacing-wise. Starting right in space with Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), a new astronaut, and a veteran on his last mission (George Clooney), it takes all but 10 minutes before debris from a satellite crash has Bullock and Clooney flying in opposite directions with nothing to hold on to. That’s merely the start of the many, many problems Bullock encounters while she frantically tries to make it back to Earth alive, and by the end the amount of near-death experiences become absurd (and it drew some laughter from the audience as well).

There really won’t be anything better this year on a technical level, but Gravity is far too basic to enjoy beyond the surface. Bullock and Clooney are terrific in their roles, making the most of the little material they’re given. Bullock is given some backstory to work with, but the film’s suffocating and repetitive pace drown out any emotional impact. I know that what I’m saying sounds very negative about the film, but it’s mostly because I came away disappointed that Gravity did not live up to my high expectations. There are some truly incredible sequences in here, and for a studio tentpole it’s quite original, but don’t expect a masterpiece.

RATING: 7

October November

Continuing my strange tonal shifts in films throughout the day, I went to check out October November. Gotz Spielmann’s last film Revanche blew me away when I saw it years ago, and at the beginning I was expecting more of the same riveting drama when an actress (Nora von Waldstätten) is confronted by the wife of a man she’s having an affair with. That scene turns out to be the only moment where fireworks go off, as the focus shifts to the actress’ sister (Ursula Strauss) who runs a small hotel in the countryside owned by her father.

The two sisters reunite when their father takes a heart attack, and the tensions between them form the basis for October November. Strauss is jealous of her sister leaving to be successful while she was forced to stay at home, and Waldstätten feels like she has no idea who she really is. It’s another existential European drama, and Spielmann really doesn’t seem to know how to get these issues across. The majority of October November is a no-stakes drama until the final act sees the two daughters waiting for their father to finally pass away. Despite being superbly shot and acted, there really is very little to get interested in. There’s no doubt that Spielmann is still a mature and terrific writer/director, but he seems to have invested in subject matter that returns very little.

RATING: 6

Under the Skin

I ended my day with Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, and what a way to close off my long weekend at TIFF. I’m not over the moon like some people who have seen this, but I can’t blame them for being so ecstatic. Glazer is a master of style, and his 9 year absence seems to have made his images even more striking. The film’s first half, which simply follows Scarlett Johansson’s alien character around as she seduces men to a horrific fate, works as an excellent mood piece. Glazer has created some shots that will probably stick with me more than any other film I’ve seen here, and Micah Levi’s score is one of the best of the year by leaps and bounds.

It pained me a lot when Under the Skin didn’t coalesce into something wholly terrific for me. The second half of the film, in which Johansson gains human qualities and gets hunted down by her alien superiors, is a step down from the beautifully expressive and original first half. Glazer seems to have a hard time getting across what he wants to say at some points (his goal, to show Earth through an outsider’s perspective, wasn’t exactly successful in my eyes), and while Johansson is great her role is too enigmatic to make any of the final acts resonate. At times horrifying, beautiful and strange, Under the Skin is a classic case of a film not adding up to the sum of its parts.

RATING: 6.9

Next up:

Ben Wheatley’s hallucinogenic trip through A Field in England, and the best film I’ve seen at TIFF.

Judging from the new teaser trailer for his new film, Under the Skin, Jonathan Glazer looks to be exercising some serious demons. That or he has been watching David Lynch’s Lost Highway way too much. The trailer is very, very moody indeed and looks like it’s a nightmarish decent into hell. I haven’t read too much into what the film is actually about and nor do I really want to. IMDB’s tagline says enough for me, “An alien in human form is on a journey through Scotland.” Yep. Sold. The film stars Scarlett Johansson and early reviews are saying she’s very good in her role.

Glazer’s earlier work includes the gritty British sun soaked Ray Winstone lead Sexy Beast. You remember that one, don’t you? The one where Gandhi was a raving lunatic gangster hell bent on causing mayhem wherever he went. Glazer also directed the criminally underrated Nicole Kidman drama Birth.

Under the Skin looks to be a complete departure for Glazer from his previous efforts, but one that I welcome. The film is also playing this year’s addition of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Watch the teaser trailer for Under the Skin:

Last week it was announced that Spike Jonze’s latest film Her will close out the New York Film Festival in mid-October. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely man who ends up falling in love with an advanced operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) after the breakup of a long-term relationship. Those two are not the only recognizable names in the cast, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, and Olivia Wilde all also make appearances.

Watch the trailer for Spike Jonze’s Her: