Review + Response: The Imitation Game

Okay, okay... I know that this film has been out for weeks so it's a little late for a review but I'd not written one for a while and I had some thoughts on the film that I wanted to share.

The Imitation Game had been recommended to me so many times in the past few weeks so I had to carve out time to see it. As a member of the LGBTQ community I had to see it. I loved how naturally they depicted Turing's sexuality without making it a huge plot point, it was definitely treated as a respectful sub plot. I felt things were a little rushed and I would have really liked them to tastefully depict Turing's suicide as it remains one of the most beautiful and poetic suicides I've ever heard of.

This was a real character piece and Cumberbatch most definitely stole the spotlight. His portrayal of Alan Turing was strong, possibly his strongest yet. The rest of the film, however, fell a bit flat. We went through this whole journey of Turing joining the team and building a machine and yes, suddenly it works. We see it working and then are thrown a brief bit of information about how they used the information before Turing, in a most blasé fashion, tells us how the war dragged on for two years and was over. This was incredibly anti-climactic. Were it not for the strength of Benedict Cumberbatch and his portrayal of Alan Turing, this film would have fallen flat because the plot moves so hurriedly and without care for dramatic tension. Things are not adequately brought to a dramatic ground. Cumberbatch brings the laughs and the tears and really makes you feel. The rest of the cast give a decent enough performance (with Keira Knightley playing Keira Knightley as per usual) but this feels like a good enough film that certainly entertained. I feel that this could call for an Oscar nomination for Cumberbatch, that's for sure...

Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow BREAKING UP?

So it looks like another famous couple are calling it quits. It would seem that actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin of Coldplay are separating. The pair have been married for just over ten years and have two children, Noah and Apple. The Oscar winning actress posted online saying that, although the couple had spent the past year trying to work on their relationship, they are separating even though they still have a great amount of love for each other. Is this a Hollywood break up that you saw coming or does it leave you feeling a little shocked?

Oscars After Thoughts

So the Academy Awards were given out last night and I wanted to share my thoughts on the winners, losers and what went down whilst also showing you a few things from around the interweb.

So 12 Years A Slave took best picture and deservedly so. It is a truly magnificent film and McQueen as a director seems to be awards gold - now he just has the little gold statue to prove it. This is the man to work with and I bet actors are lining up to work with him on whatever his next project may be.

Best actor in a leading role went to Matthew McConaughey for his role in Dallas Buyers Club and Jared Leto scooped up the award for best supporting actor in the same film. I've not yet seen it but I'm seeing it later this week and I can't wait.

Lupita Nyong'o took the award for best supporting actress as well she should have. As I've been saying all award season, I wanted the Oscar for her performance and, as much as I love Jennifer Lawrence, I'd have been sad if J.Law got anything over Nyong'o as her performance was so much deeper.

Can we talk about how gorgeous Lupita Nyong'o looks in this gif?
She'd make the coolest and most gracious Disney princess ever.

Best cinematography went to Gravity which seems fair in that it was a very visual kind of film that relied on so much graphic work and special effects. Best costume design went to The Great Gatsby which, again, I'm cool with as it was one of my favourite films of 2013. Best directing went to Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity and Gravity also took the award for best original score best film editing, best sound editing, best sound mixing, best visual effects... You get the point. Gravity won a lot... which seems fair as I've said before, it probably was quite a difficult film to direct. Conceptually it posed a lot of obstacles but it made a great film. 

Poor Leo was trending all over Twitter. Here's a Buzzfeed roundup of responses to Poor Leo.

Other notable moments from the Oscars were the performances. Idina Menzel performed the hit song "Let It Go" from Frozen, a film that has now been in cinemas for about three months and is breaking all sorts of records. Of course the award for best animated feature went to Frozen. I mean, we all knew it was gonna happen. Probably one of the most memorable things from the performance was the fact that, when John Travolta introduced Idina Menzel to the stage, he got her name horribly wrong... Click here to see what he called her and to see what silly mispronunciations he'd give to other celebrities given the chance. Let It Go won best original song that night. Let's have a little reminder, shall we? Here's the abridged version performed on stage. There seemed to be some timing errors, the song sounds a little awkward and rushed in places but Idina masterfully makes the performance her own.

ALSO there was a wonderful Drinking Game written up for the Oscars last night so click here, rewind and drink every time someone makes one of these Oscars drinking blunders. If you didn't see it, here's a general round up of the best moments from last night.

Overall I'm generally pleased with the results. I'd have liked to see a win for Chiwetel Ejiofor, but then again I've not yet seen Dallas Buyers Club so I'm a little biased.

What did YOU think about the Oscars/Academy Awards this year?