Category Archives: male director

“Manchester By The Sea” (Kenneth Lonergan, USA 2016)

manchester-by-the-sea

strong script and direction

A movie essentially focused on male characters, in which women play a subdued role.
An uncommon and powerful representation of how a father experiences the loss of his children somewhat compensates the gender unbalance of the movie.

Interestingly, the music is not intended to fit a particular scene but does include several ones, creating an overarching level of expression that transcends that of the scene itself. In some of the critical passages, the personages talk but the dialogue is not heard, being replaced by the music that links the scene to the previous one.

Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, Gretchen Mol, C.J. Wilson
Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Writer: Kenneth Lonergan
Cinematographer: Jody Lee Lipes
Editor: Jennifer Lame
Composer: Lesley Barber

“Hidden Figures” (Theodore Melfi, USA 2016)

hidden-figures

strong message

Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner, Aldis Hodge, Kirsten Dunst, Glen Powell, Mahershala Ali, Jim Parsons, Olek Krupa
Director: Theodore Melfi
Writer: Margot Lee Shetterly (book by), Allison Schroeder, Theodore Melfi
Cinematographer: Mandy Walker
Editor: Peter Teschner
Composer: Benjamin Wallfisch, Pharrell Williams, Hans Zimmer

“La La Land” (Damien Chazelle, USA 2016)

la-la-land

excellent music
weak script

No good movie can be made on a bad script!

Beloved reader, please DO NOT READ further! If you have seen the movie and enjoyed it – like everyone else seems to have – don’t read further, I might spoil your pleasure.

If you haven’t seen the movie, do like everybody else: enjoy it.

SPOILERS ahead!

Continue reading “La La Land” (Damien Chazelle, USA 2016)

“Notes On A Scandal” (Richard Eyre, USA 2006)

notes-on-a-scandal

excellent dialogues + music
weakest: message + humor

Cleverly orchestrated four-generational love relationship, in which a woman in her sixties who is still looking for her true (lesbian) love falls for a young married mother of two who has an affair with a teenage boy. The emotional stability of the two male characters (the 15-year old boy and the older husband) contrasts with the vulnerability of the two female leads.

Director: Richard Eyre
Writers: Patrick Marber, Zoe Heller (novel)
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Andrew Simpson, Bill Nighy
Music: Philip Glass
Cinematography: Chris Menges
Editing: John Bloom, Antonia Van Drimmelen

“Nocturnal Animals” (Tom Ford, USA 2016)

nocturnal-animals

strongest: montage
weakest: message, humor

A story set inside a story and related to it, to which flashbacks are added

Cast: Amy Adams, Armie Hammer, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ellie Bamber, Isla Fisher, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Shannon, Karl Glusman
Director: Tom Ford
Writer: Tom Ford, Austin Wright (novel)
Cinematographer: Seamus McGarvey
Composer: Abel Korzeniowski
Editor: Joan Sobel