Cinema and Popcorn

THE ZONE OF INTEREST It's not a movie that grabs you by the heart, but by the mind. There's two movies here: the one you watch and the one you can hear. It plays like a documentary feature in a way that you simply watch the everyday's lives of a German family whose patriarch is charged with the management of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The almost fairy-tale like life of the family hosting parties and taking care of a beautiful garden and a very confortable home contrasts with the horrific sounds of something you cannot see but you know it's coming from the other side of the wall that separates the family from the people in the concentration camp. Mica Levi's score will be haunting you for days, as it will the sound work. In the cinematography department, the camera angles create a detachment from the characters, making the audience a simple viewer, like you are watching a reality show. Still, it's a satire you can relate with multiple things right now...

Just like Best Actress, the Best Actor race also feels like anyone's game considering all the viable (and quite baity) possibilities. From Best Picture competitive vehicles, to traditional biopics, to highly original narratives, it seems Best Actor race has it all this year, which makes predicting it even more tricky. Of course Best Picture players and biopics make for the most obvious choices, specially if they have a big distributor campaigning for it, but the AMPAS is getting edgier than ever and I could see some "surprise" nominees in the final nominees shortlist like Barry Keoghan ( Saltburn ) or Andrew Scott ( All of Us Strangers ). The first spot goes to the current Best Picture frontrunner's star - Cillian Murphy , for Christopher Nolan's  Oppenheimer - since his amazing turn (very internal, yet so potent!) in one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year (and the highest-grossing biopic of all time from a director who's overdue for some Os...

Genre: Comedy; Drama; Action; Sci-fi. Director: James Gunn Writer: James Gunn Starring:  Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Will Poulter, Sean Gunn & Chukwudi Iwuji James Gunn is back in full power for the MCU and he does bring the Guardians of the Galaxy  movie with most heart when compared with the previous installments. It does respect the typical MCU formula, but it adds an extra spice thanks to spot-on comedy moments and a small reflexion on loss, grief and getting back what was once lost. The entire cast delivers (as in previous movies), but the spotlight goes to Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) this time, with Zoe Saldana shinning brighter in some scenes. First of all, Guardians takes place after the many events of the MCU and while one could expect it to focus on Peter Quill's internal dramas, it takes on a fresh new direction and explores Rocket's past while giving the audience a lesson about wh...

I'm still having a look back at the past decade of movies, which means... more lists! It's not always about delivering the best performance in order to be considered one of the greatest actors of a decade - it also takes the ability to open a big production movie, to turn a small indie into a box-office hit or work with some of the most prestigious directors/auteurs these days. That's how I made this list: performances + prestige movies + box-office numbers! And we've got our last decade's biggest male movie stars: