Bria Lou Reviews

  It's Oscar day! I feel a lot more invested in this Oscar race than I have in previous years, which is really fun, but honestly I'll be glad when it's over, we know who's won, and twitter conversation can go back to ANYTHING else. Nevertheless, I'm excited to finally have a look at my predictions. As usual, I'll go through the categories where I've seen most or all of the nominees and highlight what I think will win, what I want to win, and why. But I'll start by ranking the Best Picture nominees: 10. Hamnet 9. F1 8. Marty Supreme 7. Bugonia 6. Frankenstein 5. Train Dreams 4. Sentimental Value 3. The Secret Agent 2. Sinners 1. One Battle After Another I scored a lot of these films around the 6-7.5 area and that feels accurate, as most of them felt just above average to me. Thankfully I really liked the majority of them, and the top two in particular are two of the best films I watched last year (unfortunately 'Weapons' wasn't nominated, or t...

  Two performers, Claire (Kate Hudson) and Mike (Hugh Jackman) form a Neil Diamond tribute band and soon begin to find connection in both the music, and each other. This isn't one that I thought I'd be writing an Oscar post about but there we are! I was looking forward to seeing this one, but the description was quite vague so I wasn't exactly sure what it was about. I liked this film more than I thought I would. For a start, Hudson and Jackman have great chemistry. They work really well with each other and it's fun to see them together. The singing sections of the film are great, even if you don't know the songs. But in the beginning, when it's just song after song after song, it feels like that's all there is to the film. So it's nice when the music slows down and we get to go deeper into the characters' lives. The first hour of the film felt too drawn out. It was more focused on the songs and didn't really let you get to know who these people ...

  In 1977, technology expert Armando (Wagner Moura) flees a troubled past and returns to his hometown of Recife, where he is forced to fight against corruption and political turmoil. And the last Best Picture nominee I needed to see! This was the film I knew the least about, and one of the only ones I could go into completely blind. The premise didn't give me as much as I wanted so I went in a bit apprehensive. I ended up really liking this movie, which I didn't expect! One of the first notes I wrote was that both the scenes and characters are given space to breathe. At 2hrs 40, this is one of the longer Best Picture nominees, but that time is used really well because the audience gets the chance to sit, breathe and live with these characters. And with that, the pacing it great, it doesn't feel nearly as long as it is. That being said, at the beginning it feels like characters are thrown at you every two minutes with no introductions, despite the clear importance they'r...

  Table Tennis player Marty Mauser ( Timothée Chalamet) is determined to be great - by any means necessary. This is the 9th of 10 Best Picture nominees I need to watch, and as much as the premise of this one didn't grab me, I'd heard great things about it, so I was looking forward to seeing it. For me, this film was average. There were things I liked about it, but overall it wasn't one of my favourite nominees. I found the story hard to get into. I was watching it with other people and they only made it maybe 10 minutes before checking out, and while I was interested enough to keep going, I can see why others would be put off. My initial impression of the premise was that table tennis is one of the most boring sports to make a movie about, but my mind was completely changed by seeing the way the games were shot. These scenes were so captivating and fun to watch. I found Marty to be a really frustrating character. As the viewer we want to root for him, but his arrogance make...

  After turning down a part in her estranged father's ( Stellan Skarsgård)  new movie, Nora (Renate Reinsve) and her sister Agnes ( Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) have to deal with their changing relationship with their father, and the famous American actress (Elle Fanning) he's hired for the role. I had heard great things about this movie before it was in the Oscar conversation, and those things were only exacerbated after it was nominated, so I was really looking forward to seeing it. I really liked this movie, but I didn't find it as profound as a lot of other people seemed to. Because I already knew the main plot, I was eager to get there, and so the beginning of the film felt like it was moving slowly. And while it didn't lose my interest, I did want it to get there a bit quicker. But in saying that, I was also happy to get the chance to really know these characters. Particularly for Nora as the main character, it was great to really sink deeply into her world. Though sp...

  When William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) lose their son Hamnet, Shakespeare is inspired to write his classic tragedy 'Hamlet'. This is one of the Best Picture nominees that I heard the most people talking about. Grief is always an interesting topic to explore, so I was looking forward to seeing this. I found the film quite average, which was so disappointing because I thought I'd love it. The actors are the best thing about the film. Mescal and Buckley work really well together, and all of the child actors were so great. All of the performances feel really authentic. That being said, most of the supporting cast were underutilised. As much as this is a story about one family, it would have been interesting to see more from the people around them. I found the pacing odd. Every scene, and by extension the entire movie, felt almost double the time it actually was, and some scenes felt particularly slow. And when it did decide to speed up, it ...