Sound of Metal is a 2019 American drama film directed and co-written by Darius Marder. The film was critically acclaimed and has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film revolves around a drummer (Riz Ahmed) who loses his hearing and follows his efforts to adapt and adjust his life to his new reality.
The Wanderers is a 1979, American comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Philip Kaufman and is based on the novel of the same name by Richard Price. Set in the Bronx in 1963, the film follows a gang of Italian-American teenagers known as the Wanderers and their ongoing power struggles with rival gangs such as the Baldies and the Wongs. The movie stars Ken Wahl, John Friedrich, Karen Allen and Toni Kalem.
WeWork: Or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn is a 2021 American documentary film, written and directed by Jed Rothstein. It follows WeWork, a real estate company run by Adam Neumann, who was ultimately forced out of the company.
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The Father is a psychological family drama film co-written and directed by Florian Zeller, based on his 2012 play Le Père. A French-British co-production, the film stars Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, and Olivia Williams, and follows an aging man who must deal with his progressing memory loss.
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Supernova is a 2020 British drama film written and directed by Harry Macqueen. The film stars Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci. The premise of Supernova is fairly depressing as Firth and Tucci play a gay couple, Sam and Tusker, respectively. Tusker was diagnosed with dementia two years before and the couple take a road trip in their old RV before Tusker loses his memories and sense of self.
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Harriet is a 2019 American biographical cum historical film drama directed by Kasi Lemmons, who also wrote the screenplay with Gregory Allen Howard. It stars Cynthia Erivo as abolitionist Harriet Tubman, with Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, and Janelle Monáe in supporting roles.
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One Night in Miami is a 2020 American historical drama film directed by Regina King in her feature film directorial debut with a screenplay by Kemp Powers based on his stage play of the same name. The film is about a meeting of Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke in a room at the Hampton House in February 1964, celebrating Ali’s surprise title win over Sonny Liston. It stars Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, and Leslie Odom Jr. in the lead roles.
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The Reader is a 2008 historical drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and written by David Hare, based on the 1995 German novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink. The movie starred Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes and was nominated for several other major awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. However, the story does not really stand up to scrutiny as we will endeavour to explain in our following analysis.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is the literal revenge of the nerds. Fandom’s fanatical insistence that Warner Bros release the Snyder Cut over the years led to this unlikely movie becoming a reality in the surreal circumstances of 2021. Sure, it’s a gimmick to sell HBO Max and might not have happened otherwise. Who cares?
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With the Disney+ streaming platform being available worldwide since February this year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“MCU”) movies can be found in one convenient place. Power of Pop has been a staunch supporter of the MCU since the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk (which is not available on Disney+) in 2008. Thus, we continue our look back at the MCU with probably its most significant movie, 2012’s The Avengers.
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The Mauritanian is a 2021 legal drama film directed by Kevin Macdonald based on the 2015 memoir Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Salahi, a true story of Salahi’s experience of being held for fourteen years without charge in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The film stars Jodie Foster, Tahar Rahim, Shailene Woodley, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
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With the Disney+ streaming platform being available worldwide since February this year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“MCU”) movies can be found in one convenient place. Power of Pop has been a staunch supporter of the MCU since the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk (which is NOT available on Disney+ due to distribution issues) in 2008. Thus, we continue our look back at the MCU with Iron Man 2, which was released in 2010.
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A Sun is a 2019 award-winning Taiwanese drama film that is now streaming on Netflix. Directed and co-written by Chung Mong-hong, A Sun received 11 nominations at the 56th Golden Horse Awards, winning Best Feature Film and Best Director for Chung. The film was also selected as Taiwan’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, making the shortlist of fifteen films.
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Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 historical drama film about the betrayal of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in late-1960s Chicago, at the hands of William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), a FBI informant.
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The Hours is a 2002 drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman. The movie is based on Michael Cunningham’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title.
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The French Lieutenant’s Woman is a 1981 British romantic drama film directed by Karel Reisz and based on the 1969 novel of the same name by John Fowles. The original novel is best known for its metafictional approach of featuring multiple endings. While no such approach exists in this film adaptation, there are other metafictional elements that we will discuss below.
The Dig is a 2021 British historical drama film directed by Simon Stone, based on the 2007 novel of the same name by John Preston, which reimagines the events of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo. The movie stars Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin and Ken Stott.
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“It’s the little things, Jimmy. It’s the little things that rip you apart. It’s the little things that get you caught.”
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Outside the Wire is a 2021 scifi war thriller streaming on Netflix. The film is set in 2036 and stars Anthony Mackie (who also serves as a producer on the film) as an android officer who works with a drone pilot (Damson Idris) to stop a global catastrophe. Our short take on Outside the Wire is that it is possessed of both an interesting premise and a strong underlying message but certain narrative choices turn the third act into a unsatisfying cliché.
Please note that there are spoilers in our analysis of Outside the Wire that follows.
Synchronic is an American science fiction horror drama directed and produced by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead and written by Benson. It stars Jamie Dornan and Anthony Mackie. The film has been touted by many critics as one of the best scifi movies of 2020. Benson and Moorhead have a good reputation as cutting-edge indie scifi directors with previous well-received movies like Spring and The Endless. The duo are also working together on the upcoming Disney+/Marvel Studios streaming Moon Knight series.
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Shirley is a biographical drama that was released in 2020. The film is based on a book by Susan Scarf Merrell, a fictionalised account of an episode in the life of horror writer Shirley Jackson (played by the excellent Elizabeth Moss) in the late forties/early fifties. The setting revolves around the time Jackson was writing her novel, Hangsaman.
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Shadow in the Cloud is an action thriller directed by Roseanne Liang from a screenplay co-written by Max (Chronicle) Landis and Liang. Shadow in the Cloud had its world premiere on September 12, 2020 at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness. The movie is now available digitally worldwide.
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Promising Young Woman is a 2020 black comedy thriller film directed, written, and produced by Emerald Fennell, in her feature directorial debut. Fennell is perhaps best known as the writer of the second season of the critically acclaimed Killing Eve TV series. Promising Young Woman stars Carey Milligan in the lead role.
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The Best Movies of 2020. Well, I daresay even though I visited the cinemas less than 5 times (for obvious reasons) in 2020, I certainly watched many films this year. With each passing year, I find myself less attached to the idea of assessing life on a yearly basis, so I wanted to be circumspect with this Best Movies of 2020 list.
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Crimson Peak is a 2015 gothic romance horror drama directed by Guillermo Del Toro. The film stars Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain in the lead roles with Charlie Hunnam and Jim Beaver as support.
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