The Reel Society Of Film Critics Awards Ceremony 2016

[silversurfer19]

Perfectly time Geez - The Hateful Eight, winner of Best Cast. It's on a roll!

[silversurfer19]

Time for another featurette, one that is indeed heavily indebted to it's script and strong performances! Presented by Geezer, this is Spotlight.

“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one.”
Mitchell Garabedian

In this strikingly honest and downright disturbing quote, we get right to the core of Spotlight, a film that follows a group of reporters as they uncover one of the biggest scandals in the history of America, and the world. The level of child abuse and subsequent cover up that ran throughout the Catholic Church was truly astonishing. And these members of the Boston Globe's Spotlight team were able to expose just how astonishing, and the level to which it rose, right up to the very top levels of the church itself. Who knows if it weren't for the efforts of a few journalists who refused to be intimidated, who sought the justice these victims rightfully deserved, if this tragedy would have ever been fully revealed to the world.

The film covers this very important subject and does so without ever faltering in its convictions, and remains gripping throughout every scene, thanks in large part to the top notch performances of its actors, with no less than five individual performances that could, in my opinion, have been nominated for awards tonight. Michael Keaton is at his finest. Mark Ruffalo proves that he is easily one of the finest actors working today. Rachel McAdams gives the performance of her young career. Stanley Tucci shines as Mitchell Garabedian and steals every scene that he is in. And Liev Schreiber is also great as Marty Baron, the man who got the snowball of this story rolling in the first place.

An important film. A great film. And for once, a worth Oscar-winning film. Ladies and gentleman, I give you, Spotlight.

[Geezer]

Best Cast was my favorite set of nominees this year. I've seen four out of the five nominees, and all of them were absolutely worthy (and good to see the Big Short get something). Of course, the one I haven't seen wins, but I have no doubt had I seen it, I'd probably have nominated it myself.

[Chienfantome]

Best cast of the year indeed. My personal favorite.

[silversurfer19]

Now for the first of the big awards of the evening:

Best Actress in a Leading Role

The nominees are:

Cate Blanchett, Carol
Emily Blunt, Sicario
Brie Larson, Room
Rooney Mara, Carol
Saorise Ronan, Brooklyn

And the winner is...

[transformers2]

Straight Outta Compton was my top choice (I'm still surprised it got nominated. I didn't think enough people here had seen it), but Hateful Eight was a close second. Almost all of the leads were absolutely brilliant.

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Brie Larson, Room, winner of Best Actress in a Leading Role

[Chienfantome]

Best actress was the hardest category for me. I loved them all it was so close.

[silversurfer19]

Now for the penultimate featurette of the evening, provided by Buscemi, this is the winner of two awards this evening already, and nominee for Best Picture - The Hateful Eight.

After the Civil War, the act of Reconstruction was easier said than done. Much anger between the North and the South was still felt and for some, the war never ended. This is one of many themes of The Hateful Eight, a film that manages blend together genres such as the Western, action, thriller, and even dark comedy into a film that was notable for being the first major film intended for roadshow engagements since the late 1960's.

The action takes place in Red Rock, Wyoming, a wintery town where people come to begin a new life after the war or as a stopover before proceeding with business. Arriving into town is Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a bounty hunter with a stack of bodies as baggage, and John "The Hangman" Ruth (Kurt Russell), handcuffed to his prisoner, the notorious Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Along with wagon master O.B. (James Parks) and the new sheriff, former Confederate militia man Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins), they have to spend the night at Minnie's, a general store and lodging area, due to a massive blizzard. Here, they meet four more men, Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), the executioner of Red Rock, Bob (Demian Bichir), a mysterious man from Mexico, Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), an ascot-wearing outlaw who's just dropping in for Christmas, and General Sanford Smithers (Bruce Dern), a man who lives and dies by the Confederate Army. But once these characters settle into the spacious surroundings of Minnie's (enhanced by Robert Richardson's 65mm cinematography), something is not right. One of them isn't who they said they were. And even if means turning the cabin into a total bloodbath, the truth will be found.

Quentin Tarantino was the writer and director and much like his past efforts, he shows a great attention to character and detail. The characters are unique creations in an era where most characterization is reduced to mere slivers in favor of effects. Though Tarantino draws much of his influences from Spaghetti Westerns and John Carpenter's The Thing, he is a magician that he can take some we've seen before, recraft it, and turn it into something new. The actors give some of their best work here. Samuel L. Jackson, long known for supporting work, gets the chance to be the lead in an ensemble cast and he gives a very strong performance as Major Warren. Despite the villanous nature of most of the characters, Major Warren is more of an antihero in that despite his venegful nature, he also serves as a voice of reason and could be seen as an older, more revenge-driven version of Django Freeman from Tarantino's previous film, Django Unchained. Kurt Russell's performance as John Ruth is classic Kurt Russell goodness, bringing back the brashness that we love to see from him. Jennifer Jason Leigh probably gives the performance of her career as Daisy, perhaps the most hateful of The Hateful Eight. She is pure evil embodied in a small body. And Walton Goggins manages to show multiple dimensions as Mannix, bringing in a goofy but refreshingly assured performance. He doesn't play to cliches but builds on a role that could have gone into caricature. Even Channing Tatum, in a surprise role as Daisy's brother, gives a decent performance.

Behind the camera, there is a lot to admire. Robert Richardson, filming in the ultra wide aspect ratio of 2.76:1 with Ultra Panavision cameras (this is stated in the film's opening credits), films something most audiences haven't really seen before on a big screen. The use of 65mm film gives the film a clarity and high resolution that's probably only rivaled by the resolution of 8K. The high quality of the film and lenses used gives the film an almost life-like quality to the proceedings. Ennio Morricone, referencing much of his unused material on The Thing (which John Carpenter rescored much of in post-production) to create a new score, composes one of his most haunting scores and in a theatre, gives you chills once it begins. The visual effects (supervised by effects legend John Dykstra) might be the bloodiest for a Tarantino film to date even though most of the violence doesn't occur until the second half. And despite complaints that the film was too long and too violent, not one frame needs to be cut from the final film (though Tarantino did recut the film for its general release).

Nominated for seven awards, this is The Hateful Eight.

[silversurfer19]

Best actress was the hardest category for me. I loved them all it was so close.

I'll take it as English isn't your first language, but that statement is very, very much the king of innuendo's!

[Buscemi]

I'm sorry if I put everyone to sleep with that long write-up.

[Chienfantome]

You guys wrote long and and great featurettes !

[silversurfer19]

Long write ups are never an issue, it's always fascinating to see what makes one of you guys love a movie so much. If you find that much to say about the film, it obviously means a lot to you!

Final acting award:

Best Actor in a Leading Role

The nominees are:

Johnny Depp, Black Mass
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Samuel L Jackson, The Hateful Eight
Michael B Jordan, Creed

And the winner is...

[Buscemi]

Oh, thanks. I'm always afraid my write-ups are too long.

[Geezer]

I gotta step out, but I'll be back to offer a final thought in a bit. Though I'm preeeetttyyy sure that I already know what's going to happen.