The Quite Nerdy Blog

Hey, Oscar fever will finally be over soon. It's this Sunday so it's now time to predict those final winners of the awards. Will I get them all right? Almost certainly not. Will I guess Best Documentary correctly? Of course I will. The rest, it's hard to say. Okay, let's predict! Best Documentary- Amy (Correct) Amy is one of the best films of the year, easily the best documentary. I appreciate that this sounds closed minded having seen none of the other nominees but it has to win. I honestly have no idea what could be better than this, plus it's already won a Bafta, which helps it's chances. Amy all the way. Best Animated Film- Inside Out (Correct) I really expected to see The Good Dinosaur and The Peanuts Movie get nominated here but that didn't matter too much because I preferred Inside Out to both already. Where my real conundrum came was with Anomalisa. Both are films that I rate as perfect 10s and both utilise animation in unique and excit...

This week, I was out of ideas again. It was originally going to be a piece on why I hope Season 4 of House of Cards was the last but it just got recommissioned for a fifth so that's defunct. Instead, I wanted to make a list of my favourite films nominated for this year's Oscars. Sure, it's very similar to my Top 7 of last year but some I put there aren't nominated here and I've seen some great films since. Finally, these are films I had seen by the start of February. Any I've seen since haven't made the cut. 7. Amy: 1 nomination (Best Documentary) I am so glad I finally get to talk about Amy, a film I only discovered recently. It is, as you may have gathered or already know, a documentary about the rise and fall of one of the most talented singers of a generation and is entirely heartbreaking. I'd always quite liked Winehouse's music and I did know about her history but seeing it all play out is the strength of this film. Personally, documen...

The last of my Oscar reviews, I plucked for my second most anticipated film of the year, Anomalisa. Sure, it's not out yet but I need to compare Inside Out to something and I know I'll support this film by buying it on blu-ray, especially considering how much I enjoyed the film. Piracy is bad kids, but sometimes necessary. Just make sure you support the industry. You probably haven't heard of it, so I'll give you the plot for Anomalisa. It's the story of Michael Stone, an author who's disillusioned with life. He visits Cincinati to prepare for a conference and while staying at his hotel, The Fregoli, he meets and becomes enchanted by a woman called Lisa. I don't want this to become a cop-out but I feel like saying anymore will ruin the story. It's a simple story and what I've told you is really as much as I can say. Just know that this being a Kaufman film, it explores simple emotions in complex and weird ways. I should probably mention here ...

Round two: this week, less action, a bit more emotion and only a tad more crying. That's right, it's Room (not The Room). Room is the story of a mother who was abducted at a young age and had a little boy named Jack. They live together in a tiny Room which Ma's abductee keeps them in and it's the only world Jack has ever known. The story goes deeper than that but I don't want to go any further because watching the trailers gave away far too much for me and the story in this movie is best enjoyed knowing as little as possible because I felt that I'd lost something from the experience. I wouldn't go as far to say that the story is what's most important though. What's most important is the sentiment in each carefully structured moment from Emma Donoghue in her lovely adaptation of a book I've heard nothing but praise from. Like I was saying, the story isn't what you'll care about in this film because this film is held up by a phenomena...

Today I actually did a double review spectacular type thing by going to see two movies but I wanted to artificially pad my blog out a little bit and work is hard and super time consuming. What this means for you is that this week you get my review of The Revenant and then make sure you come back next week for my review of Room (not The Room). I plan on doing Creed in two weeks but we'll see. Right, let's watch Leonardo DiCaprio get mauled by a fake bear! The Revenant is the story of Hugo Glass (the beloved Leo DiCap), a hunter in America during the 19th century. Winter is coming and it's all starting to get a bit cold when their group of hunters are attacked by some Indians. While on the run, our boy Hugo gets mauled by a bear and is left for dead by his crew, primarily Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). It all goes tits up pretty much and we spend most of the film following Glass' quest to get revenge on the man who left him for dead. The story starts off simply but it evolve...

It's Oscar month here on the blog and while it's not wall to wall Oscar coverage this year, we're still going pretty full on. Similar to last year, I'm going to predict the nominations today, review a few of the biggest competitors over the next few weeks and then finally predict the winners before the ceremony. There will be a few other posts to keep it fresh, like some speculation on House of Cards and Deadpool also comes out soon which I can't ignore. For now though, I hope you like Oscars and Oscar talk because it's going to be a lot of that. As ever, most of these films haven't even come out in England yet so expect plenty of rampant speculation. Best Special Effects Star Wars: The Force Awakens Mad Max: Fury Road Ant Man I like this category but really only because it means some of the sillier yet fun action films get recognition and are technically Oscar winners. I have a feeling all of these films will get a nomination. Star Wars is sti...