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Angelina Jolie's First They Killed My Father is among the 92 pictures that will vie for Oscar consideration in Best Foreign Language Film.

Angelina Jolie's First They Killed My Father is among the 92 pictures that will vie for Oscar consideration in Best Foreign Language Film.

2017 Foreign Language Film Oscar Submissions

October 05, 2017 by Andrew Carden in Oscars

This year, a record 92 countries have submitted pictures for Oscar consideration in Best Foreign Language Film. They are:

Afghanistan, “A Letter to the President,” Roya Sadat, director;
Albania, “Daybreak,” Gentian Koçi, director;
Algeria, “Road to Istanbul,” Rachid Bouchareb, director;
Argentina, “Zama,” Lucrecia Martel, director;
Armenia, “Yeva,” Anahit Abad, director;
Australia, “The Space Between,” Ruth Borgobello, director;
Austria, “Happy End,” Michael Haneke, director;
Azerbaijan, “Pomegranate Orchard,” Ilgar Najaf, director;
Bangladesh, “The Cage,” Akram Khan, director;
Belgium, “Racer and the Jailbird,” Michaël R. Roskam, director;
Bolivia, “Dark Skull,” Kiro Russo, director;
Bosnia and Herzegovina, “Men Don’t Cry,” Alen Drljević, director;
Brazil, “Bingo - The King of the Mornings,” Daniel Rezende, director;
Bulgaria, “Glory,” Petar Valchanov, Kristina Grozeva, directors;
Cambodia, “First They Killed My Father,” Angelina Jolie, director;
Canada, “Hochelaga, Land of Souls,” François Girard, director;
Chile, “A Fantastic Woman,” Sebastián Lelio, director;
China, “Wolf Warrior 2,” Wu Jing, director;
Colombia, “Guilty Men,” Iván D. Gaona, director;
Costa Rica, “The Sound of Things,” Ariel Escalante, director;
Croatia, “Quit Staring at My Plate,” Hana Jušić, director;
Czech Republic, “Ice Mother,” Bohdan Sláma, director;
Denmark, “You Disappear,” Peter Schønau Fog, director;
Dominican Republic, “Woodpeckers,” Jose Maria Cabral, director;
Ecuador, “Alba,” Ana Cristina Barragán, director;
Egypt, “Sheikh Jackson,” Amr Salama, director;
Estonia, “November,” Rainer Sarnet, director;
Finland, “Tom of Finland,” Dome Karukoski, director;
France, “BPM (Beats Per Minute),” Robin Campillo, director;
Georgia, “Scary Mother,” Ana Urushadze, director;
Germany, “In the Fade,” Fatih Akin, director;
Greece, “Amerika Square,” Yannis Sakaridis, director;
Haiti, “Ayiti Mon Amour,” Guetty Felin, director;
Honduras, “Morazán,” Hispano Durón, director;
Hong Kong, “Mad World,” Wong Chun, director;
Hungary, “On Body and Soul,” Ildikó Enyedi, director;
Iceland, “Under the Tree,” Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, director;
India, “Newton,” Amit V Masurkar, director;
Indonesia, “Turah,” Wicaksono Wisnu Legowo, director;
Iran, “Breath,” Narges Abyar, director;
Iraq, “Reseba - The Dark Wind,” Hussein Hassan, director;
Ireland, “Song of Granite,” Pat Collins, director;
Israel, “Foxtrot,” Samuel Maoz, director;
Italy, “A Ciambra,” Jonas Carpignano, director;
Japan, “Her Love Boils Bathwater,” Ryota Nakano, director;
Kazakhstan, “The Road to Mother,” Akhan Satayev, director;
Kenya, “Kati Kati,” Mbithi Masya, director;
Kosovo, “Unwanted,” Edon Rizvanolli, director;
Kyrgyzstan, “Centaur,” Aktan Arym Kubat, director;
Lao People’s Democratic Republic, “Dearest Sister,” Mattie Do, director;
Latvia, “The Chronicles of Melanie,” Viestur Kairish, director;
Lebanon, “The Insult,” Ziad Doueiri, director;
Lithuania, “Frost,” Sharunas Bartas, director;
Luxembourg, “Barrage,” Laura Schroeder, director;
Mexico, “Tempestad,” Tatiana Huezo, director;
Mongolia, “The Children of Genghis,” Zolbayar Dorj, director;
Morocco, “Razzia,” Nabil Ayouch, director;
Mozambique, “The Train of Salt and Sugar,” Licinio Azevedo, director;
Nepal, “White Sun,” Deepak Rauniyar, director;
Netherlands, “Layla M.,” Mijke de Jong, director;
New Zealand, “One Thousand Ropes,” Tusi Tamasese, director;
Norway, “Thelma,” Joachim Trier, director;
Pakistan, “Saawan,” Farhan Alam, director;
Palestine, “Wajib,” Annemarie Jacir, director;
Panama, “Beyond Brotherhood,” Arianne Benedetti, director;
Paraguay, “Los Buscadores,” Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schembori, directors;
Peru, “Rosa Chumbe,” Jonatan Relayze, director;
Philippines, “Birdshot,” Mikhail Red, director;
Poland, “Spoor,” Agnieszka Holland, Kasia Adamik, directors;
Portugal, “Saint George,” Marco Martins, director;
Romania, “Fixeur,” Adrian Sitaru, director;
Russia, “Loveless,” Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;
Senegal, “Félicité,” Alain Gomis, director;
Serbia, “Requiem for Mrs. J.,” Bojan Vuletic, director;
Singapore, “Pop Aye,” Kirsten Tan, director;
Slovakia, “The Line,” Peter Bebjak, director;
Slovenia, “The Miner,” Hanna A. W. Slak, director;
South Africa, “The Wound,” John Trengove, director;
South Korea, “A Taxi Driver,” Jang Hoon, director;
Spain, “Summer 1993,” Carla Simón, director;
Sweden, “The Square,” Ruben Östlund, director;
Switzerland, “The Divine Order,” Petra Volpe, director;
Syria, “Little Gandhi,” Sam Kadi, director;
Taiwan, “Small Talk,” Hui-Chen Huang, director;
Thailand, “By the Time It Gets Dark,” Anocha Suwichakornpong, director;
Tunisia, “The Last of Us,” Ala Eddine Slim, director;
Turkey, “Ayla: The Daughter of War,” Can Ulkay, director;
Ukraine, “Black Level,” Valentyn Vasyanovych, director;
United Kingdom, “My Pure Land,” Sarmad Masud, director;
Uruguay, “Another Story of the World,” Guillermo Casanova, director;
Venezuela, “El Inca,” Ignacio Castillo Cottin, director;
Vietnam, “Father and Son,” Luong Dinh Dung, director.

October 05, 2017 /Andrew Carden
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Review: "Victoria and Abdul"

October 01, 2017 by Andrew Carden in Reviews

All hail the Dame!

Judi Dench, who can really do no wrong, is in supreme form in her latest picture, once again taking on the role of Queen Victoria (after 1997's Mrs. Brown) and reuniting with that fine filmmaker Stephen Frears (who directed Dench to Oscar nominations for Mrs. Henderson Presents... and Philomena).

Victoria and Abdul is a truly splendid picture, even better than those three aforementioned films, not exclusively a showcase for its leading lady but also her irresistible leading man.

The picture opens on Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), a young clerk who ventures from India to participate in the Queen's Golden Jubilee. At this point toward the end of her reign, the Queen is lonely, in poor health and restless with the stuffy inner circle around her. She takes an immediate liking to the kind and handsome Abdul, a development that hardly sits well with the household's racist snobs.

As outside parties vie, to negligible success, to tear the duo apart, their alliance only strengthens, as Abdul instills in the Queen a greater sense of purpose and sunnier outlook on life.

Frears, whose Florence Foster Jenkins mostly left me shrugging my shoulders last year, has hit a real home run here - this is his finest, most satisfying endeavor since another Dame, Helen Mirren, floored us all with The Queen. Kudos to all crew involved, who have crafted one of the year's lushest, most sumptuous pictures.

The heart and soul of the film, of course, are Dench and Fazal, who have heaps more chemistry than what you'll find in 99 percent of romcoms these days. This turn is right among the top-tier of Dench performances, alongside the extraordinary likes of Mrs. Brown and Notes on a Scandal. But the real revelation here is really Bollywood star Fazal, who has a warm and winning screen presence and, like the audience, seems completely in awe of his co-star.

This year's race for the Best Actress Oscar looks poised to be a chaotic one, with a dozen or more turns in serious contention for nominations. Pretty please, Academy, don't forget Dench (and Fazal, while you're at it).

A

October 01, 2017 /Andrew Carden
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Review: "Battle of the Sexes"

September 30, 2017 by Andrew Carden in Reviews

Before Battle of the Sexes, there was When Billie Beat Bobby, the 2001 ABC television movie that first documented that legendary 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.

That effort, a deservedly forgotten one at this point, was a sanitized comedy that barely scratched the surface on either of their lives. With the usually great Ron Silver woefully miscast as Riggs and Holly Hunter valiantly trying (to little success) to liven up the proceedings as King, the picture was a pretty piss-poor tribute to one of the all-time great events in sports history.

Now, nearly two decades later, we have a big-budget feature film on King vs. Riggs, headlined by an Oscar-winning actress (Emma Stone), two other Oscar-nominated performers (Steve Carell and Elisabeth Shue) and an Oscar-winning screenwriter to boot (Simon Beaufoy).

The result, Battle of the Sexes, is an improvement over When Billie Beat Bobby, albeit only modestly so. This is not, I suspect, going to be the toast of the Oscars next year.

As the picture, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, opens, World Tennis magazine founder Gladys Heldman (Sarah Silverman) leads King and other female tennis players in bolting from the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, which has proposed a tournament in which the female winner would get a tinsy winsy fraction of the prize the male winner would receive. They form their own tennis tour, which draws heaps of attention, including from none other than Riggs.

Riggs, once a tennis superstar in the 1940s and now 55 years old and a hopeless gambling addict, is hungry for a comeback. His first "Battle of the Sexes" against the snobby Margaret Court (Jessica McNamee) proves a walk in the park. Riggs ups the ante, with a far larger prize at stake, and draws the attention of King, whose personal life has been a topsy turvy one ever since falling head over heels for her hairdresser Marilyn (Andrea Riseborough). The rest, of course, is history.

There's a lot to like in Battle of the Sexes. For one, the performances are terrific and convicing, with Stone in far more compelling form here than last year's La La Land. Silverman is a delight as the team's imperious promoter and Austin Stowell is a nice find as Larry, King's unconditionally supportive husband. The picture also perfectly captures the look and feel of the time. 

At the same time, there's a tonal uneasiness in the sitcom-level comedy of the Riggs scenes and the tenderness and sensitivity of much of the King material. Other supporting players, especially Shue (as Riggs' perturbed wife) and Bill Pullman (as Jack Kramer, head of the Tennis Association), look completely lost at sea, saddled with thankless, thinly written roles. But perhaps most egregious of all, the big final showdown just isn't as exhilarating or inspiring a sight as it should be, as portrayed here.

The performances and palpable '70s nostalgia make Battle of the Sexes an entertaining-enough endeavor but it might be best just to check out a documentary on Billie vs. Bobby instead.

B

September 30, 2017 /Andrew Carden
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Review: "Our Souls at Night"

September 30, 2017 by Andrew Carden in Reviews

Not long ago, in anticipation of this long-awaited reunion, I went back and revisited 1967's Barefoot in the Park, the Neil Simon comedy that saw Jane Fonda and Robert Redford in the most purely adorable forms of their careers.

Barefoot, I'm afraid, hasn't aged so well. Sure, Fonda and Redford look fabulous and Mildred Natwick is a scene-stealing hoot in her Oscar-nominated turn as Fonda's mama, but it's really among the more thin and turgid Simon works. The star wattage only keeps it alive for so long.

Our Souls at Night, the first Fonda-Redford picture since 1979's The Electric Horseman, is, I'm pleased to report, a real charmer, a modest but sweet film that often soars on the chemistry of its leads.

One evening, Fonda's Addie pays a visit to her neighbor, Redford's Louis. Both are widowed and lonely and, despite living near each other for decades, never really got to know each other. Addie has an initially uneasy proposal, that it might be nice if she and Louis slept together on occasion. That is, not for sex but for company and companionship.

Without too much in the way of hesitation, they do and, slowly but surely, sparks fly. Their relationship is strengthened but later tested by the entrance of Addie's estranged son (Matthias Schoenaerts) and endearing grandson (Iain Armitage).

Souls has a slightly sluggish start and ends on a note that I didn't find entirely satisfying but, on the whole, is quite an enchanting endeavor. Fonda (in a role leaps and bounds different from her dazzling work on Grace and Frankie) and Redford are wonderful as ever and the screenplay, by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, is observant and full of insight.

One other, minor quibble - if you're going to have the legendary Bruce Dern in this thing, why only give him about three minutes of screen time and not even a scene alongside Coming Home co-star Fonda?!

B+

September 30, 2017 /Andrew Carden
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Review: "Stronger"

September 24, 2017 by Andrew Carden in Reviews

Come on, Academy, give Jake Gyllenhaal that Best Actor nomination already!

This year, at last, I suspect it actually happens. This is in part due to Best Actor not being the most set-in-stone of affairs (you've got one shoo-in, Gary Oldman, and then a whole boatload of contenders, including Gyllenhaal, Timothee Chalamet, Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tom Hanks and Andrew Garfield, among others, playing jump ball). What I think also helps Gyllenhaal is his latest picture, Stronger, is much more traditionally Oscar-friendly (and, let's be honest, safe) film than the bolder, more idiosyncratic likes of Nightcrawler and Nocturnal Animals.

Stronger, the latest effort from director David Gordon Green (whose eclectic filmography manages to include George Washington, All the Real Girls, Pineapple Express and Your Highness), recounts how the unassuming Jeff Bauman (Gyllenhaal) emerges a national hero after losing both of his legs during the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. After regaining consciousness following the attack, Bauman is able to assist the FBI in identifying one of the suspects.

Upon his release, Bauman is cared for by his estranged girlfriend (Tatiana Maslany) and doting mother (Miranda Richardson), who aren't always on the same page as to what is best for their loved one. Bauman's road to recovery, both physically and emotionally, moves a grueling one, as a national spotlight is shone on a struggling man who hardly craves such attention.

Stronger is a modest endeavor for the most part, not quite as ambitious or striking as Green's first pictures but for sure more satisfying than his more recent output. What gives the proceedings a crucial lift are the three central performances.

Gyllenhaal, per usual, completely disappears into his role and doesn't resort to the twitchy gimmicks that a lesser actor may have resorted to in this role. Maslany's portrayal also has a wonderful, lived-in feel - it's a warm and honest performance from an actress who'll hopefully land many more roles of this quality on the big screen. And then there's Richardson, an inspired choice to take on the role of Bauman's colorful Massachusetts mama, a scene-stealing force right on-par with Melissa Leo's tornado of a matriarch in The Fighter.

For these three top-notch performances alone, Stronger (which otherwise isn't all that much to write home about) is totally worth a look.

B+

September 24, 2017 /Andrew Carden
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