Thursday, January 21, 2016

ROOM

Room is incredibly well acted, directed and written, for the most part, but it's not an easy movie to watch or, for my taste, like. Too dark and painful. Though very well done. The lead, Brie Larson, already won a Golden Globe as best actress in a drama and is vying for an Oscar, a well deserved nomination (though I still prefer Saoirse Ronan in BROOKLYN as best performance by an actress).

And the child actor who plays her son, Jacob Tremblay, is impressive. He won the Critics' Choice award for best actor. But as great as his performance was, no acting in any movie from 2015 I've seen so far, which is most of those getting attention and nominations, comes close to the overwhelmingly brilliant performance by the child actor, Abraham Attah, in BEASTS OF NO NATION (the most obvious of the "black" talents in 2015 movies most egregiously overlooked by the Oscar nominations).

But in case no one noticed, this year's Oscars actually has the most nominations for Irish-born talent in Oscar history, including the writer, Emma Donoaghue, and director, Lenny Abrahamson, of ROOM. So, though Oscar nominations and Hollywood movies obviously need way more diversity of all kinds, it's still nice to see people from my grandparents' homeland getting some recognition in the Oscar competition.

No comments: