Bria Lou Reviews

Hey Guys x This is the third year in a row that I've done this post, and I'm no less excited to watch the award show on Sunday night/morning. So, as I've done before, in this post I'll be giving my opinions and predictions on who should and will win the big awards come Sunday night. And I'll be talking about the films that I've seen at least a majority of the films, so some categories are getting left out. I've seen and reviewed all the Best Picture nominees, so I'll be ranking them here and, if you click each one, you can go to my review of it. 8. Vice 7. Roma 6. Bohemian Rhapsody 5. BlacKkKlansman 4. Black Panther 3. The Favourite 2. A Star Is Born 1. Green Book This was really hard because in all honesty, 6-1 could have been in any order because I really loved all of those films! Best Picture Prediction:  Roma Wish:  Green Book, A Star Is Born or The Favourite I picked three because I couldn't decide. To be honest

Hey Guys x Although this isn't nominated for Best Picture, I thought I'd get it up before the Oscars (this Sunday!). I'll also be putting up a post all about the Oscars before Sunday, so look out for it! 'If Beale Street Could Talk' tells the story of Tish and her fiancé Fonny. They've been friends all their lives, and know that they want to spend the rest of their lives together. However, their plans change when Fonny is arrested for a crime that he didn't commit. This film feels extremely real from the offset - these are real conversations between real people, and it shows in the words used and the actors' actions. It's authentic all the way through, particularly in terms of the voice-over. Not only is it really effective, but you get to know the character of Tish intimately. Every time she speaks, it feels like she's speaking directly to you. The way that the film is written, directed and edited is great. A lot of times, when a non-l

Hey Guys x This is the last film that I needed to review, so after this, I'm completely done with the Oscar Best Picture nominees. This year there's actually been a really good selection of movies and I can't wait for Oscar night! Bohemian Rhapsody tells the story of Queen, one of the biggest and best rock bands in the entire world. We follow lead singer Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) through the ups and downs of his life, including Queen becoming a household name in time for the largest rock concert in history, Live Aid. There's something intensely real about this film. While it doesn't seem to over-inflate the high moments, it also doesn't shy away from the low moments. We see how happy Freddie is on stage, and then we see him go back to his empty house and try to pretend that he's not insanely lonely. It's euphoric and heart-rending at the same time, and these conflicting feelings really work, as they are feelings that are replicated throughout

Hey Guys x This is the second-to-last film that I needed to see before I've seen all of this year's Oscar Best Picture nominees - because it took such a long time to come out in the UK! Nevertheless, I've seen it now and I can't wait to review it! Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) is an Italian-American bouncer with a tendency to solve his problems with violence. After finding himself unemployed, he takes a job as a driver for Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), an African-American pianist who is touring the Deep South. While at first these two seem like complete opposites, they manage to develop a friendship while dealing with cultural differences and prevalent racism in 1962. I was surprised by how much I liked this film. When a film comes out and instantly gets loads of accolades before being released to the general public, sometimes that means that it speaks more to critics than to audiences, which can also tend to be the case with widely nominated films. Fortunately

Hey Guys x I'm almost finished with the Oscar Best Picture nominees, and this is one that snuck up on a lot of people, including me. To be honest, it's probably the only nominee that I wouldn't have ever seen if it wasn't nominated - but just like previous years, films that you wouldn't have watched otherwise end up completely surprising you. Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) has been picked as George W. Bush's (Sam Rockwell) running mate in the 2000 presidential election. While he has a wealth of political knowledge and experience, Cheney's methods aren't what everyone expects. And when a man like Cheney gets a vast amount of power, you see exactly what he's willing to do with it. The first thing I have to talk about are the actors that portray these characters. Christian Bale, Amy Adams (as Lynne Cheney) and Steve Carell (as Donald Rumsfeld) are all completely unrecognisable in these roles, both physically, and in the fact that these are roles t

Hey Guys x Here's a film that's probably going to win more than a few Oscars, and as it's on Netflix, I'm pretty sure this will be the first Oscar win for a Netflix original movie, which would be really cool. The film is about a woman called Cleo who is a housekeeper/maid for an upper-middle-class family in Mexico City, including the many challenges she faces, and the way that her life tends to parallel the life of her boss, Sofia. As you can tell from the description, the story isn't complicated or hard to understand - it's what's done with this simple premise that makes it stand out amongst other nominated films. First of all, the pace of the film's opening mirrors the slowness, repetition and perhaps tedium of Cleo's domestic work - a pace that is consistent throughout the film. It is particularly interesting to see the life of a wealthy family through the eyes of 'the help' - bringing the background to the foreground. In a lot

Hey Guys x Here's one for Awards Season. It's already been nominated for Golden Globes and BAFTAs, and on Tuesday it was announced that it has received quite a few Oscar nominations, including Director (Spike Lee), Supporting Actor (Adam Driver) and Best Picture. This is the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first black detective in the Colorado Springs PD, who decides to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), with the help of his white (albeit Jewish) colleague Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver). Together, they create a character that goes against everything they both believe in to bring down and expose one of the most extreme, hate-filled groups in 1970s America. The film gets off to a slow start. You know exactly what the film is about, so you're kind of waiting for it to get to the main plot. Of course, this slow start is necessary in terms of setting up these characters, but there are parts that feel like they could have been shorter, and some sho

Hey Guys x With the Golden Globes taking place last Sunday, 'Awards Season' is officially beginning, and I for one could not be more excited. I genuinely think this is my favourite time of year - forget Christmas and every other holiday, awards season is where it's at! And while I have no idea if this film will be nominated for an Oscar or not (though I suspect it might be) I thought it was the perfect movie to kick off the season, and the new year, with. Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is on the throne, and while she enjoys ruling, the day-to-day tasks are delegated to her close friend and lady-in-waiting, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), who is relied on by Queen Anne for almost everything. So when Lady Sarah's cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, in need of a job, Sarah takes pity on her, and allows her to help with some of the queen's duties. However, when Queen Anne begins to take a shine to Abigail, Lady Sarah is filled with jealousy and rage. But is Lady Sarah'

Hey Guys x I'm currently sitting on a bus listening to the soundtrack to this film, so I thought it was only fitting to write the review. The film is about a man called Jackson Maine. He's a rockstar in the prime of his career. He's moving from strength to strength and doing so well that no one cares that he's an alcoholic. One night at a bar, he meets Ally - a girl with an astounding voice, who thinks that she won't get anywhere because her nose is 'too big' and she doesn't look like a star. However, Jackson sees something in her that no one else does - something that makes him pull her up on stage during one of his gigs (to sing my favourite song, 'Shallow') and from there, everything changes. Ally is caterpaulted into the spotlight, and her budding relationship with Jackson takes a backseat as her career takes center stage. But how will Jackson handle Ally's newfound stardom? This is an incredible movie. I saw it on Mon

Hey Guys x Now that the Oscars are done, I can go back to reviewing normal, non nominated movies! Obviously this was the first on my list. If you read my blog, you know that I'm such a huge Marvel fan, and the character of Black Panther was already in 'Captain America: Civil War', so I was really excited to see the ways in which his character was developed. The film takes place after the events of 'Civil War'. T'Challa has come back to Wakanda after his father is killed to take his place as king. However, when a familiar arms dealer and his dangerous accomplice make themselves known, we discover just what T'Challa has to do to keep his kingdom, and his people, safe. That is the most basic description, because I don't want to give anything away. I loved this movie! As an addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe slate of movies, and as a standalone in it's own right, it's an amazing movie. The story itself was great