Catherine's Movie Blog

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, 2020 was an excellent year for me as far as movie watching. With watching so many great movies, it was hard to pick my 10 favorites but I compiled a list at the end of the year of bests and worsts. My top 10 are in no particular. If I had to rank these, I would be up for hours. The only one that is ranked is number 1 because it was truly the movie that I loved the most last year. Before I go into my favorites, I want to give out some honorable mentions. These movies were fantastic but just didn't make the final cut. These include: Roman Holiday Chinatown (love the movie but not the director) Seven Samurai Her City Lights Wings Nightcrawler Little Women Saving Private Ryan The Christmas Chronicles and It Happened on Fifth Avenue Psycho 2020 was a year that I discovered my love for Hitchcock's films and this is my favorite of his. Alfred Hitchcock has a distinct way of making movies that is exciting and thrilling to see. Watching this in O...

 Hello. It has been a while since I have written something for this blog. 2 years to be exact. This started out as an assignment for a class, which then became something that I enjoyed as I continued on. When the class was over, I sort of just forgot about it. Recently, I have thought of reviving this blog, and I thought as a way to start things off, I would do a catch-up of what has been going on. Since my last post, a lot has happened in my life. I completed my associate's degree in Liberal Arts in May of 2020. It is one of my proudest accomplishments, considering that it was right in the middle of a pandemic. My school was able to have a socially distanced commencement ceremony in September of 2020, for which I was super grateful. I applied to a local 4-year university last summer and I got accepted. I have now completed my first year at my new school and I am a Cinema and Media Arts major. How fitting. I really have found my calling with cinema and I am truly happy. I have no i...

As I'm thinking of more content to post on this blog, I figured that I would discuss my top 5 favorite Best Picture films of all time, as someone suggested to me on Twitter. There have been so many films that have won Best Picture, some that have totally deserved it and others that are questionable. To win Best Picture, a film has to have it all. It has to have the right screenplay, the right actors/actresses, the right director, the right crew, etc. When it all comes together, it becomes something special and the Academy rewards that with the most prestigious award there is. I have seen quite a bit of the Best Picture winners and narrowing it down to my top 5 was so challenging. This list is based on my opinion and my opinion alone.  My first favorite Best Picture film is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . This film won the Best Picture award in 1976 with its release in 1975. Everything about this film just works. The positive dynamic of the cast is shown throughout the film ...

When I posted a review after watching The Social Network , I wasn't really expecting many views but I was definitely surprised by how many people looked at it. Since that review did so well, I thought I would review a movie that I watched this past week on a whim, Black Swan . I was scrolling through my TV and noticed that all of these movies were free for around a week and I saw that Black Swan was listed as free on demand. I have wanted to see this movie for years because of what it was about and how great Natalie Portman is as well. I was expecting to love this movie and hopefully, my thoughts will be coherent enough to follow along. Black Swan is a psychological horror film that came out in 2010. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, this film follows Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) a ballerina who dances in New York for a company. It is announced that there is going to be a ballet that is going to be a new take on Swan Lake where the main role is the Swan Queen, a portrayal of both ...

After not knowing what to write this week for my blog, I went to Twitter in hopes that someone would be able to help me. One thing that stuck out was talking about my most anticipated movies of 2019. I thought that this was a good idea and am surprised that I haven't talked about them yet. This year doesn't seem to have as many original movies as in the past and with that, there are only five films that I am anticipating this year, as of April 6th, 2019. The first film that I am excited to see is already out in theaters and that is Us , Jordan Peele's second directed film. I saw Get Out for the first time last April for my American Cinema final. I had no desire to see it because I am not a horror fan. After seeing that film, I loved it more than I thought I was going too. It is a horror film with social messages and it was clever. When I heard that he was coming out with this film, I knew that I had to see it on the big screen, definitely during the day. I have heard no...

Today in my Social Media class, we watched The Social Network and I thought that it was a fitting choice for what has been talked about so far. After finishing the film, I wanted to write my initial thoughts about the film, or rather what I could decipher immediately after finishing it. I feel my mind is spinning a million miles a minute right now but here are my thoughts about the movie after watching it. The Social Network is a drama film that came out in 2010 and was directed by David Fincher. This film follows the creation of Facebook through Mark Zuckerburg, Eduardo Saverin, and others with showing flashback scenes of the creation process and the problems that Zuckerberg later faced after the matter. Some of the stars of The Social Network include Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rooney Mara, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, and many others. According to IMDb, this film was nominated for eight Oscars and ended up winning three Oscars. This film won Best Adapted...

With sharing some of my favorite actors of all time last week, I figured that it would only be fair to share some of my favorite actresses. To be honest, there are not a ton of actresses I love but there are five actresses that I enjoy watching on the silver screen for their versatility and talent throughout the years. One of my favorite actresses is Meryl Streep. She has been around for a long time and has proven that she can really do it all from comedy to drama and has done some musicals. She has also done projects for Disney. With every role she portrays, she dives into the character so deeply to make it believable and authentic and not come across as ingenuine. I haven't seen a lot of her work but I plan on watching more of her because she is very talented. It is no surprise why she gets nominated for an Oscar what seems to be every year. Another actress I love to watch is Amy Adams. She is another actress that can do it all. She is very likeable from interviews I have seen ...

I thought it would be fun for you guys to get to know six of my  f avorite actors of all time, as well as my three favorite movies with them in it , I'll reveal who my favorite actresses are next week. There have been may men who have graced, and still continue to grace the silver screen and have proven over the years how versatile they have become.  The first actor I'll mention is Tom Hanks. He is someone who can genuinely do it all from comedy to drama to animation. The way he gets into character is something I admire. He is a likeable guy and that is one of many reasons why I love him so much. Some of my favorite movies with Tom Hanks include the Toy Story trilogy, A League of Ther Own ,  and Forrest Gump . Another actor I love is Robin Williams. Similar to Hanks, he was able to do it all and got deep into whatever character he would portray. He was one of the funniest people on the planet. I remember when he was on an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway and I cried...

Movies are a great way to tell stories about different cultures and make groups of people feel represented on the big screen. While it seems that diversity is something that is being seen more in movies today, there is still a long way to go. I feel that filmmakers want to have the big stars in their movies, which I understand completely and still feel that they should keep that going, rather than taking chances on hidden talent that shows representation in movies. For example, in the movie 12 Years a Slave , director Steve McQueen cast Lupita Nyong'o in a supporting role for that movie He took a chance on her because he believed that she would turn out to be a big star in the future. That next year, she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in her first feature length movie. Today, she has acted in many more movies such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens , The Jungle Book , Black Panther , and Us , which comes out later in the month of March. It was thanks to Steve McQueen for tak...

I swear that this will be the last post I make about the Oscars. With the Oscars happening this past Sunday, there were plenty of surprises, outrage, and celebration over the winners. I was pleasantly surprised with some of the winners, for example Olivia Colman. I for sure thought that Glenn Close would win for Best Actress because she had won all of the other awards leading up to the Oscars. In my opinion, it was the biggest upset of the night. Watching Colman give her speech was awesome. She was so real and authentic up on the stage and it has made me want to see The Favourite even more than I already had before. I was happy to see Black Panther get a lot of love at the Oscars from Best Costume Design to Original Score and Best Production Design. The speeches for the women behind the costume design and production of Black Panther were captivating. It was simplistic and packed a punch and that is something that an Oscar speech should be. I was happy to see the song "Shallow...

With the Oscars coming up on Sunday, I figured I would make my predictions and see if I come anywhere close to making the right prediction. With all the mess leading up to Sunday, I am interested to see how the show goes. Here is my list of predictions for the big categories at the Oscars. Best Picture : I am going out on a limb and saying Roma will win Best Picture. The movie was stunning to look at and had a substantial story that might get some love for the Academy. I could also see A Star is Born getting Best Picture too so it will be interesting to see which movie comes away with the biggest award of the night. Actor in a Leading Role : The only actor I have seen from the nominees is Bradley Cooper from A Star is Born and I think his performance is excellent and had many layers to his character. Lady Gaga's performance elevated his own to a different level but with all that, I don't think he'll win. I think Rami Malek will win the Oscar for his performance in Bo...

With the Oscars coming up very soon, the Academy recently said that they wanted to condense the show to three hours and with that, cut out four awards from being presented live and instead, present those four awards during the commercial break or after the show is over. With that, their speeches will be cut out as well. The four awards that will be cut are for Cinematography, Film Editing, Hair and Makeup, and Live Action Short Film. To the Academy, it will be able to run the show in an efficient manner and give everyone an "appropriate amount of screen time." What is the Academy thinking with cutting these four awards out from the live broadcast? They must be losing their minds or something because this is just unacceptable. Every part of a movie should be celebrated and by taking that away, it is showing that certain parts of a film are more important than others when in fact, all of the Oscar-nominated categories are pieces of a puzzle that come together to create a work...

After watching the movie Bicycle Thieves fairly recently, it had me thinking about the importance of foreign films as a whole. Foreign films are important to the film industry because it allows filmmakers from other countries to have their content be shown in the United States as well as globally. It allows filmmakers to show issues that are important to them. They can show what is happening currently or something that happened many years ago. It allows for creative freedom. For example, in Bicycle Thieves , the director portrays Italy post WWII through the eyes of poverty stricken people looking for any kind of work to support themselves and their families. Another example would be the film City of God . The director shows teenagers living through a drug war from the '60s into the '80s in Brazil. If it were not for these two directors putting these stories out there, these stories would not be seen by others and be lost in the ashes. I am sure there are more examples of this ...

With taking a break from the awards season, I thought it would be fun to let you guys know some of my top ten favorite films of all time. These movies may not be ones that the critics love but they have made an impact on me growing up. All these films have special memories attached to them as my parents showed me most of these movies.  There is no special ranking with these but have shaped me into the person I am today. The first movie in my top ten is My Cousin Vinny . The first time I saw this film was my sophomore year of high school. My civics teacher thought this film was somewhat accurate to a legitimate court case. He was a weird teacher. Nonetheless, I loved the humor and how quotable this was. My mom then showed me the R rated version and I have seen it so many times since then. The amount of times my mom and I quote this movie is ridiculous. The second movie in my top ten is A League of Their Own. I don't really remember the first time I watched this movie but my mom m...

    The Academy recently released the list of Oscar nominations for the 91st ceremony that will be held on Sunday February 24th. Heavy favorites grabbed a heap of nominations such as A Star is Born , Roma , and The Favourite . There was certainly a few "snubs" and didn't get as much recognition from the Acadedmy and there were also some nominations that took people by surprise. The nominatons made some people thrilled and others not so much.       There were definitely some films and stars that I believe got "snubbed" and no love from the Academy. For example, for the Best Documentary Feature category, Won't You Be My Neighbor? did not even receive a nomination. In my opinion, this was the best documentary of 2018. It portrays the heart and kindness of Fred Rogers and takes viewers on a journey throughout his life. This is shown through clips from old Mister Rogers' Neighborhood episodes as well as through the interviews from the people that meant th...