My Fall/Winter 2015 Movie Rankings

I caught 18 movies during the fall and winter. Here are my rankings:

Oscar Worthy Movies

I know a number of these movies didn't make it, but we all have a right to our opinions. At a minimum, I think the movies I selected are all well received by critics.

Sicario
Carol
The Revenant
The Martian
The Hateful Eight
Spotlight

Popcorn fun movies

Creed
The Peanuts Movie

Entertaining (or solidly depressing for many in this section)

Everest
The Big Short
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
Brooklyn
Black Mass
Room
Steve Jobs

Loved, but can't help but think theft

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Solid

Bridge of Spies

Definitely below par (maybe suffering due to comparison to previous Bond movie?)

Spectre

A Movie Review: The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight. The setting of this movie is Wyoming just after the Civil War. John Ruth (Kurt Russell) is a bounty hunter. He is transporting Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to Red Rock via stagecoach. A severe blizzard is on the way and so along the way the stagecoach picks up another bounty hunter named Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) and a newly appointed sheriff named Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins).

The blizzard forces them to stop at Minie's Haberdashery. They are greeted by Bob (Demian Bichir) who claims that Minie took time off to visit family. This raises suspicions with John Ruth and Major Marquis Warren. Their suspicions are justified as a number of the individuals in the Haberdashery are there to rescue Daisy.

This movie is filled with great bloody violent fun. The characters are also very black and white. Though initially there isn't full trust, the stage coach companions (John Ruth, Major Marquis Warren and Sheriff Chris Mannix) all find themselves surrounded by the members of Daisy Domergue's gang. They are essentially the good guys fending off the bad guys.

There are some nice moments where Major Marquis Warren starts to make assumptions on what is happening around him. I love those moments in film when folks start to put two and two together.

Should this movie have been an Oscar nominated film? I think so. I personally would have added it in place of Brooklyn, Room or The Big Short. Of course, there are 10 spots so it could have slipped into the 9th spot.

A Movie Review: The Revenant

The Revenant. Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) are out hunting. They are part of a fur trading expedition. Back at the camp site, a Native American tribe launches an attack on the traders. Hugh and Hawk rush back to the camp, which is being over-run. The camp was next to a river and so a small few make it to one of the boats, escaping down the river. We learn why the Native American tribe attacked. The daughter of the chief was kidnapped and they're out looking for her. In this case, the fur traders had nothing to do with the kidnapping of the daughter.

The surviving fur traders turn to Hugh Glass to lead them back to their outpost. Though there are disagreements, Hugh convinces Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) to abandon the boat and head back via land. He is convinced that the Native Americans are waiting down the river and will ambush the boat and so it is much better to go by land to avoid the assured ambush.

Early one morning, Hugh is off either doing some scouting or out looking to hunt. He is attacked by a mother bear and is severely injured. He is found by the fur traders and they do their best to provide him medical care as well as attempt to carry him back to their outpost; however, they soon come to the conclusion that it isn't possible to carry him all the way back. Captain Henry decides that it is best to end Hugh's pain and shoot him, but in the end he isn't able to do so. He offers a bonus to anyone who will stay with Hugh until he dies. John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) and Bridger (Will Poulter) volunteer to stay behind along with Hawk.

Hugh continues to cling to life, which distresses John Fitzgerald who assumed that he would die quickly. As Hugh continues to grow weaker, an apparent deal is struck between John and Hugh. John will help Hugh commit suicide and in exchange John will make sure that Hawk is transported safely back to the outpost. A problem arises when Hawk arrives on the scene while John is assisting in the suicide. Hawk attacks John. John, in what appears to be driven perhaps more by his mental instability versus intentional, kills Hawk. In a panic, John hides Hawk's body, leaving Bridger in the dark of what he's done.

Later, claiming that the Native American tribe is drawing close, John convinces Bridger that they need to abandon Hugh and run for their lives. They partially bury Hugh in a grave and then take off. Hugh starts to recover and then slowly makes his way back to the outpost to exact revenge on John.

This movie is set against a dreary, cold, snow covered landscape. Against that harsh landscape, people make sometimes cruel decisions. Yet, these decisions can be seen as necessary. Should Captain Henry have pulled the trigger on Hugh? Would that have been murder or an attempt to save the larger group. In some ways, no one is necessarily moral. For example, the Native American tribe attacks all camps with abandon, even those that have nothing to do with the kidnapping of the daughter. They only deal with one camp that can provide them with needed supplies. John comes to a harsh agreement with Hugh as he is fearful of both the elements and Native Americans who are on the warpath. Yes, we learn throughout the movie that John is guilty of one misdeed after another (murder, theft, abandonment), but was the suicide agreement a wrong one to make? This movie casts many of the characters in either a negative or positive light, but I think what makes this movie great is that many of the actions these characters make are not as easy to define as one might initially think.

    

The Controversy and Kid Bloom at The Satellite

The Controversy

As with every start to a new year, The Satellite had a series of free nights. It was a night that one could label as psychedelic -- I'm just stealing the genre descriptions of the two bands I saw. I went specifically to catch The Controversy. I've followed two of the members, Laura Vall and Thomas Hjorth, way before The Controversy. I came across Thomas Hjorth when he was playing with Dead Rose Beauty. I came across Laura Vall randomly when I got invited to see her play a set in the westside. Thomas has gone from punk rock to psychedelic while Laura Vall has gone from singer-songwriter to phsychedelic.

Opening up was Kid Bloom, playing some cool rhythms with vocals that smoothly fit in with the sounds.


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My Top 10 2015 Movies

I finally saw The Revenant this weekend. With that, here's my list of Top 10 2015 movies.

1. Sicario -- perfect crime drama.

2. Carol -- what a love story.

3. The Revenant -- you're in a harsh landscape, and decisions are made.

4. The Martian -- this isn't a Golden Globe comedy, but a movie about ingenuity.

5. The Hateful Eight -- they die one by one.

6. Spotlight -- is that how journalist used to do real investigation.

7. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation -- great action movie.

8. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl -- to die with a sense of amazement, hopefully that is how death should happen for us all.

9. Mad Max -- another great action movie.

10. Cinderella -- just makes you want to live in a fairy tale.

A Movie Review: The Big Short

The Big Short. This movie studies a handful of individuals who went against the conventional wisdom that all was well with America's housing market between 2005 - 2008. Not only did these people think that not all was well, they felt that America was going to go through some serious troubles. And as we all know, they were right.

The movie starts with Michael Burry (Christian Bale) studying data for a Mortgage Backed Security (MBS). A mortgage backed security is a number of individual home loans that are bundled together and sold as a bond. As he goes through the list, he notices that a number of individuals are behind in their payments. He decides to bet against these loans. In order to do so, he has to set up the deal with a Wall Street firm. The firm is more than willing to take the other side of the bet.

Rumors start to fly on Wall Street that someone on the West Coast (Burry) has shorted the housing market. Soon Wall Street employee Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) joins in, but he needs help. By random luck, he runs into Mark Baum (Steve Carell) and his team. Baum, like Burry, likes to do his research. Burry loved looking through reports, Baum liked to hit the ground so he sent his team to Florida to look around at various locations. They become convinced that there is something up with the housing market.

Initially, their bets don't pay off even as evidence mounts that the housing market is collapsing. These individuals find themselves losing money. Yet, they hold firm and finally their bets pay off.

This movie looks at a terrible situation and attempts to get the audience to understand what was going on during the housing bubble. It also highlights that those who go against the grain are sometimes right even though everyone around them thinks they're a joke.

The movie lightens things up with various comedic moments and also tries hard to explain complex financial terms to the average movie viewer.

This is definitely a movie worth one's slightly over 2 hours of life.

Figs Vision with Wam Dingis and Decorator at the Bootleg Theater

Figs Vision

My last music night out for 2015 was great. I headed off to the Bootleg Theater to catch one last residency band. Starting off the night for me was Wam Dingis. A rock band with a lead singer who knows how to use the stage to his advantage. Decorator blew me away with their soul rock. They sold the crowd, also. Their music is just so catchy and their lead singer is just so charismatic on stage. Figs Vision was on their last night of their residency. They had four dancers that helped throughout their set. I can't help but focus on those dancers. They just put on one artistic show, just like the band they were supporting.


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My Favorite "Found" Bands in 2015

Well, I'm a little late here (my excuse -- works been a killer, work being the work that allows me to live for photography), but here's my favorite "found" bands of 2015 list. I say "found," because some of these bands have been around for awhile.

It was a three peat at the Echo on an October night. LA Witch followed by Colleen Green, both supported the residency of Kim and the Created. I got to watch one brilliant band after another. Back to back to back. It was like watching the LA Lakers winning 3 championships in a row. That October night was perfect.

I volunteered to do some photography at Culture Collide. I love Culture Collide, because I feel like I'm taking a quick trip across the globe. So what countries did I get to visit? Well, there was Level and Tyson from Norway and Mobivstrip from Peru. I got to catch Level and Tyson twice. I wish I had gotten the chance to see Mobivstrip twice.

Culture Collide wasn't the only music festival I got to attend in 2015. I also headed out to Make Music Pasadena and Brokechella. Make Music Pasadena started out with a home run as I ran into Juliet Piper. In fact, thinking back on the festival, she was the highlight. At Brokechella, Skye Townsend was nervous, but gave the performance of the festival. It was way too short of a set.

I came across the following 3 bands/musicians while heading out to catch other bands. I saw Elohim at the Echo. She's just amazing, a young version of IO Echo. I was off to see a friend play at Hotel Cafe and there was Katie Burden. And then at The Satellite, I got to catch LANY. During their set, I was thinking, this band is going to break out.

A Movie Review: Carol

Carol. It has been awhile since I saw this film, but I just can't get over how lovely the movie is. The movie has taken on a fairy tale resonance with me. The love affair between Carol (Cate Blanchett) and Therese (Rooney Mara) is beautifully told.

Carol and Theresa meet at a department store. Theresa works in the toy department. Carol is looking for a Christmas gift. There is immediate attraction. Carol on the sly leaves behind her gloves while ordering a train set. Theresa takes the opportunity to connect with Carol. There are complications. Both are in relationships with men. Carol is married with a child, but has had previous relationships with women. Theresa has a boyfriend.

I love the interactions between Carol and Theresa. Theresa is much younger and to some degree much more timid about moving forward with the relationship. Carol is more aggressive in a subtle way. Outside influences play a significant role in their relationship and the way the must navigate through this breaks the heart.

A Movie Review. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has disappeared, driven by the fact that his nephew Ben Solo/Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) turned to the dark side while training to be a Jedi under his guidance. Yet, his sister Princess/General Leia (Carrie Fisher) needs him. The Empire has returned to the scene, re-emerging as The First Order. The problem is that no one knows where Luke Skywalker is; however, Luke did leave a clue -- probably in case an emergency arose.

Leia sends pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to meet with Lor San Tekka (Max von Sydow) who has a map that leads to Luke Skywalker. Somehow, The First Order is also aware that Lor San Tekka knows the location of Luke Skywalker. So both The Resistance and The First Order descend on the planet Jakku. Poe Dameron arrives first, but The First Order soon descends on the scene. Poe Dameron hides the map with robot BB-8. Poe is than taken prisoner by Kylo Ren.

BB-8 eventually runs into Rey (Daisy Ridley). The First Order figures out that BB-8 has the map and put out a bounty on the robot. With the assistance of a former stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega), Rey escapes the First Order and flies off in the Millennium Falcon!!! Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) find a pin needle in a haystack, coming across their ship.

This provides the set-up for the rest of the movie as the Resistance must both battle The First Order and search for Luke Skywalker.

So what did I think of this major blockbuster movie?

A pleasant enough popcorn movie. I say pleasant. It isn't a brilliant popcorn movie like the first Iron Man or The Dark Knight. The major knock I have on this is that I couldn't help but think this movie is nothing more than J.J. Abrams' youthful re-imagination of Star Wars: A New Hope.

Also, what gets really irritating about this movie is all the wink winks to the original Star Wars. It got to the point where it felt like J.J. Abrams was ripping off the first movie.

And what's up with both Rey and Finn holding their own to some degree with Kylo Ren in their individual lightsaber fights? It just drives me nuts when a highly trained warrior has difficulty fighting folks with limited skills. That's the one thing that irritated me with Man of Steel. How could Superman battle a trained warrior in General Zod when Superman had no previous experience in dealing with someone so powerful?

So I've read some of the theories out there and here's what I think about two of them (spoilers). Please note I'm not a super Star Wars fan so I don't know every minor detail about the franchise.

Is Kylo Ren a double agent? I don't think so. Someone killing off the person that he killed off (I'll leave that one a secret), would seem to indicate he is not a double agent. One should only go so far. If Kylo is a double agent, he went too far in killing off you-know-who. I'm not saying that Kylo Ren won't eventually find redemption, I'm just saying he's no double agent.

Who is Rey's father? Luke? Leia? Obi-Wan's grandchild? Or reincarnation of Darth Vader. I toss out the Darth Vader part. As mentioned in one article I read, Darth Vader was redeemed in Return of the Jedi. Also, it just seems too out in left field to learn that Rey is the reincarnation of Darth Vader. I could buy her being Luke's, Leia's or Obi-Wan's. The more seems to give credence to all 3 ideas. Rey being Luke's daughter seems the most obvious based on the movie, but then that could just be a red herring.

Rainbow Jackson and Fakers at The Satellite

Rainbow Jackson

It was an entertaining night of 70s inspired rock music. Fakers led the night off for me, rocking their way to a 40 minute set. They can get wild on stage, especially when the drummer takes his turn at the microphone. Friends and family were in support. Rainbow Jackson is doing the December residency. This band doesn't just stand around playing music. They use the stage, the whole stage. It makes for a level of comfort with their environment.

Vision with Rudy De Anda and Part Time at The Echo

Vision

A nice night at The Echoplex. With another music lineup happening at The Echo, the December residency was shifted to The Echoplex. Rudy De Anda and Part Time opened up for Vision. Rudy De Anda gave us some Latin rock, Spanish lyrics drawing even us non-Spanish speakers into the set. Part Time had this nerdy cool fashion sense. There was also this casual manner to their sound. Vision has this rapid fire rock sound. It was slowed temporarily when the lead guitarist busted a string. Once that was fixed, it was onward.

Noticed: as I was leaving The Echoplex a young woman was coming up, "I'm here to see Vision." I almost turned to tell her, "You need to come back next week. You just missed them."

JT Schweitzer, Ian and Slow Rose at Pehrspace

Ian

It was a perfect night at Pehrspace to catch some bands. The crowd size was just perfect. Not too packed in and not too empty. Just the perfect number of folks. It was also a typical winter night in Los Angeles with the temperature around 50 F.

And then we had a solid lineup featuring JT Schweitzer, Ian  Slow Rose. JT Schweitzer decided to play with his back to the audience, focusing in on the sounds of his guitar. Ian was a solo night, featuring the lead singer of the band. She mentioned that her music sounded so much sadder when she did the solo gig versus performing with her band. She didn't mean for it to sound sad. Slow Rose ended the night for me. They spread themselves around Pehrspace and jammed through a single 30 minute song.


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