Catching up on Oscar movies Part 1: Three docs and the Revenant

Once Oscar nominations are announced I do my best to catch all the Best Picture, Director, Acting and Screenplay nominees.   This year I caught all of those, and all of the nominated documentaries thanks to Netflix. This year's group of five is a strong group,  and they are much better than what they nominated last year.    Here are reviews of the three I watched most recently.

Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

I am not a big fan of documentaries that are just footage with minimal narrative structure, and Winter in Fire comes close to being that.  I wish it had gone into a little more depth into the "characters" in the film, but I was moved by how people in the Ukraine created a revolution to become a part of the European Union.   Any Bernie Sanders supporter who thinks they are a part of some big revolution needs to watch this and walk away with their tail tucked between their legs.

Winter on Fire 7 out of 10

Cartel Land:

Cartel Land shows the impact of the drug trade on the U.S./Mexico border by telling the story from both sides of the border.  It's a smart move because movies and docs about the Mexican drug cartel for better or for worse are a dime a dozen these days.  The topic is an important one, by I glaze over a bit by how much it is covered.  This movie gets to know the people behind the cartel and one of the freedom fighters on the U.S. Side trying to keep them out.  All sides are treated fairly and as humans.

Cartel Land 7 out of 10

The Look of Silence:
This is a companion piece to the Act Of Killing. They are both about the purge of Communism in some Asian countries during the 1960s.   I preferred this one. Both run a little tedious and both are difficult to watch.  They show how nonchalant people can be about violence and murder, but The Look of Silence does one better by showing the power of forgiveness.

The Look of Silence 7 out of 10


And the one fictional film I watched was The Revenant.   It is likely going to be the Best Picture winner and though it is definitely not my favorite movie of the year, I can see why it is taking that path.  Everything about it is ambitious from the direction, the photography, and the performances.  It is to the great credit of director Alejandro González Iñárritu that he has been able to create a film from such a brutal but quiet world and also make it entertaining.  Tom Hardy gets the showy role, and he gets the chance to show why he will probably be collecting his own Oscar in the next few years.  But the film is Leonardo DiCaprio's  He has become the front runner luck for Best Actor  partly because he has never won an Oscar but this is a worthy performance.  In fact, it is rare that the Oscars award a role with so little dialogue.  I was honestly turned off when I saw how long The Revenant was, but ended up being surprised by how entertained I was and how quickly it moved.

The Revenant 8 out of 10