Month: January 2019

6 Degrees: Awards Season is here!

 

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6 Degrees of Film

Hello Film Fans! The Awards season is here. Some of the big winners so far have been The Green Book, The Favourite, Roma and A Star is Born, with the latter two also receiving multiple Oscar nominations. Black Panther was recognized in the Academy’s Best Picture category, and Glenn Close is the favorite for Oscar’s Best Actress award with her performance in The Wife.

The Sundance Film Festival is under way and Robert Redford emphasized diversity in his opening remarks. Hollywood has been particularly sensitive to this subject with the controversies of ‘white-washing’ in films about people of color, as well as the lack of diversity in female directors, critics and writers and the ongoing under-representation of women in the industry.

Although some of you may have read from time to time my complete lack of enthusiasm for the comic-book genre as a whole, there have been some great movies within the genre over the years. I have always maintained that a writer as great as a Shakespeare (or a Lin-Manuel Miranda), could take a traditional story and spin it into a great film or work of art. That happened in the case of Shakespeare using the re-worked and well-worn stories of his era and creating great classics. The following short list includes some of the best of the super-hero genre:

 

Superman (1978) with Christopher Reeve
Batman (1989) with Jack Nicholson/Michael Keaton
Iron Man I (2008)
Spiderman I (2002)
The Dark Knight (2008)

ben cumberbatch dr strange

Doctor Strange (2016)

black panther 2018
Black Panther (2018)

Some of the super-hero films to look for in 2019 include a new Spider-Man sequel to the 2017 Homecoming titled Spiderman: Far from Home with Tom Holland as Spidey; Avengers: Endgame is out in April and the plot is said to be ‘murky’-perhaps muddled may be closer to the truth. Shazam!, released in April also, should be lighthearted and fun with Zachary Levi debuting the character of a 14 year old boy who turns into the adult superhero.

One film with great trailers that might be a sleeper is The Kid who Would be King which is a new spin on the Arthurian legend of the Sword in the Stone. It’s reviewed in 6 Degrees Magazine this week, along with reviews of Glass (No 1 at the box office last week), and one of my favorite films, The Lion in Winter-recommended for your small screen ‘must-see’ movie list.

Lion in Winter 1968

With the Oscars coming up, and winter weather closing in, it’s a good time to pull out your Armchair Film Fest Movie list and settle in to watch some classics. Till next time, see you at the movies!

6 Degrees: 9 for 2019

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Greetings to all 6 Degree film fans! Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season as we are all settling back into the routine for 2019.  We’re out of the gate with a bang, as the awards season is already upon us. The Golden Globes have knocked A Star is Born from the top spot with surprise winners in Bohemian Rhapsody and The Green Book.
6 Degrees of Film magazine has a great piece on Duck Soup at 85, from rogerebert.com. And the Stan & Ollie movie, which was well received, is featured with an interview with John C Reilly. There’s an interesting piece on whether or not films that are panned can still be big hits. The history of film tells us that many films considered classics today were panned at the box office when they were first released.
Oscar Watch includes the horror film, A Quiet Place, starring John Krazinski from The Office . Crazy Rich Asians was a surprise hit, and director Alfonse Cuaron’s semi-autobiographical Roma has been proven to have ‘legs’. There has also been very good buzz surrounding director Peter Jackson’s restoration of the remarkable WW I documentary footage in They Shall Not Grow Old. The Mr Rogers documentary Won’t you be my Neighbor? has also been designated as a sleeper hit. Tom Hanks is set to play Mr Rogers next year in a bio pic.

The Lists:
What about the Best Films lists? Rogerebert.com features a list of the years best, and there are many others featured in our magazine from other online blog sites We recently featured some 2019 films that have been previewed in the past weeks. Here’s 9 for 2019 from 6 Degrees:

onece upon a time 2019

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring Leo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt is about the Tate LaBianca murders of 1969
Tilda Swinton stars in a thriller about a Scottish woman who begins to hear strange sounds while travelling in Columbis, in Memoria
Jordan Peele has another horror flick following the success of Get Out. Us is about a family holiday at the beach with some unexpected guests…
Little Women is set for another remake from Director Greta Gerwig

the irishman 2019
The long awaited Scorsese project, The Irishman stars DeNiro, Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel in a film involving the mafia-union wars in the 70’s.
And there’s the usual suspects: The expected list of sequels and serial films include:

toy story 4

Toy Story 4 from Pixar

frozen 2 2019
Frozen 2
Star Wars: Episode IX
Captain Marvel is the ‘first female superhero film from Marvel” starring Brie Larson

And in the great tradition of end of year lists for just about everything, here’s the link to our list from a few weeks ago that features the best of 21st Century films to see… Till next time, see you at the movies!-ML