Edge of Seventeen Review

I saw Edge of Seventeen on November 18, 2016! I firmly believe this to be one of the best coming of age movies of all time. This is easily going in my Top 10 movies of 2016! It was a well acted and well written movie all around.

This was a movie that pulled me in right away. The characters are deep and there's a wide gamut of emotions. We feel the emotions with the character of Nadine and watch as she trudges through that phase of life known as adolescence. On some notion, we can identify with some of Nadine's problems. Adolescence is a hard time for everybody, even if some are just better at hiding it than others. This movie does an excellent job of approaching that through both teenagers and adults. In my honest opinion, Hailee Steinfeld's performance as Nadine is easily my favorite female performance of 2016! Steinfeld is such an excellent, young actress, and she's going to be an absolute force in Hollywood. She has been turning heads since she stole the show in True Grit as Mattie Ross in 2010. Nadine's dialogue draws some similarities to Ellen Page's Juno McGuff in some ways. Much like the role of Juno helped to get Ellen Page's name more known, Edge of Seventeen will do that for Steinfeld. She's one of the best actresses going today. For the record, Ellen Page is my favorite actreess, so it's natural that Steinfeld would be a favorite of mine. Steinfeld's performance is dark, sarcastic, hilarious, beautiful in many ways, and just outright mesmerizing. We follow her through a family tragedy, teachers (Woody Harrelson's Mr. Bruner is great and genuinely made me laugh at many times-he may tussle with Nadine from time to time, but ultimately you know he cares for her at several points of the movie & I love that he is the person that Nadine wants to share things with. Mr. Bruner is crucial to maintaining Nadine's sanity, which is great to see), family (Blake Jenner did a pretty good job as Darian-the brother trying to hold the family together even though he is popular, but he'll drop everything at a moment's notice to take care of Nadine or their mother-very good heroic character or a solid performance by Kyra Sedgwick who is still reeling from the tragedy and always spars with Nadine, but she is doing her part to try to maintain the family), and of course, boys (Hayden Szeto's role as Erwin Kim was hilarious, awkward, and creative which blended really well with Steinfeld's Nadine character-I really liked their chemistry together. It's one of those things where Erwin likes her, but she doesn't like him that way, however, we watch how that evolves. It's a fun, awkward story that's perfect for these two characters).

The dialogue is intelligent, the writing is fantastic, and there's many memorable scenes that I found myself immersed in. Nadine's mood swings are incredible to watch. She can go from ecstatic to enraged in 60 seconds as we all can, which is why I think many people, especially the teenagers of today can identify with. I think in the smart phone generation teenagers still need somebody to rely on. Nadine does have that with Mr. Bruner & Erwin Kim, but even if she doesn't think it's true, Darian & her mother are there for her as well.

Steinfeld has so many great monologue moments as well. Her monologue about her generation or her monologue in the bathroom at the frozen yogurt shop present a young actress that knows how to command a screen. Nadine is her breakthrough role, and I really hope she gets nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy/Musical at the Golden Globes (that's the category she'd be nominated in if she is). It's a great performance for a great movie. I can't wait to buy this on DVD. The characters, the memorable scenes, the dialogue, Hailee Steinfeld's Nadine, navigating through adolescence, etc. make this a definite 5/5. The positive reviews and scores are well deserved. Everybody put their best foot forward and succeeded.

Arrival Review

I saw Arrival on November 11, 2016! This is a surefire Golden Globe & Oscar nominee for Best Picture! It's easily one of my favorite movies of the year! While the subject may have been alien invasion on the surface, that is the smallest part of the plot in my opinion. I'm glad Denis Villenueve didn't do the typical hostile alien invasion story that's been done several times. I actually think that storyline doesn't really work. Just watch Independence Day. The movie gets worse every time you see it. This movie takes a different approach that actually focuses more on human emotion than it does on alien interaction, which is really intriguing to watch.

Amy Adams deserves a nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Drama at the Golden Globes & a Best Lead Actress nomination at the Oscars for her work in this movie. There's never a point in the movie where she's overacting about something or has a moment where you say this is what will win her the Oscar, but it's excellent acting. She is able to convey multiple emotions for the audience through her tone, her mood, her facial expressions, and her emotions. I was definitely emotional at many points at this movie. Amy's Louise Banks may be her best performance to date, and I personally feel she's one of the best actresses in the industry today. Banks is a linguist that is needed to decipher why these aliens are here. This movie has key supporting players like Jeremy Renner & Forest Whitaker, but make no mistake about it, this is Amy Adams movie.

Arrival focuses on the importance of language, the necessity of communication, & the complexity of time. There are many layers to this movie. I was so immersed into everything going on. There are many intriguing twists that really hooked the audience. We all reacted in a big way to some of these twists. There was a big applause at the end of the movie, which only happens every so often in a theater in my opinion. While some might think the pace may be slow, I actually thought it flowed really well. I never felt like the movie was moving at a slow pace. The music was excellent. The score was great, because it felt like a mix of aliens landing & the uncertainty of what will happen from it. The cinematography is incredible as well. Some of the shots in this movie are just beautiful.

If you plan to see any movies this awards season, Arrival is a definite must see. The plot, Amy Adams performance as Louise Banks, the focus on human emotion, language, communication, time, & an overall incredible movie experience gives this a definite 5/5 from me. I absolutely loved it. Make sure you pay attention to each frame, especially from the beginning. Each frame of the movie builds up to the ending so well. There's not a wasted scene. They all mean something, which is great to see.