Tag Archives: movie

Lisa Marie’s Oscar Predictions for November

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh, why not?

Here are my Oscar predictions for November!

If want to see how my thinking has evolved, check out my predictions of January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and October!  You’ll probably notice that the main evolution in my thinking this month is that I’ve dropped Hillbilly Elegy from my predictions and I’ve added Meryl Streep because she gets nominated for everything.

Best Picture

The Father

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Mank

Minari

News of the World

Nomadland

One Night in Miami

Pieces of a Woman

Soul

Sound of Metal

Best Director

Lee Isaac Chung for Minari

David Fincher for Mank

Regina King for One Night in Miami

Florian Zeller for The Father

Chloe Zhao for Nomadland

Best Actor

Ben Affleck in The Way Back

Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal

Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Anthony Hopkins in The Father

Gary Oldman in Mank

Best Actress

Viola Davis in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Vanessa Kirby in Pieces of a Woman

Frances McDormand in Nomadland

Meryl Streep in The Prom

Kate Winslet in Ammonite

Best Supporting Actor

Sacha Baron Cohen in The Trial of the Chicago 7

Chadwick Boseman in Da 5 Bloods

Richard E. Grant in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

Shia LeBeouf in Pieces of a Woman

Leslie Odom Jr. in One Night in Miami

Best Supporting Actress

Olivia Colman in The Father

Olivia Cooke in Sound of Metal

Saoirse Ronan in Ammmonite

Amanda Seyfried in Mank

Helena Zengel in News of the World

 

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Ridley Scott Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Today is also Ridley Scott’s birthday so today is a rare day in which not one but two deserving people will be celebrated with….

4 Shots From 4 Films

Alien (1979, dir by Ridley Scott)

Blade Runner (1982, dir by Ridley Scott)

Someone To Watch Over Me (1987, dir by Ridley Scott)

The Counselor (2013, dir by Ridley Scott)

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Terrence Malick Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.

Today, we wish a happy birthday to one of cinema’s greatest visual stylists, the one and only Terrence Malick!

4 Shots From 4 Terrence Malick Films

Badlands (1973, dir by Terrence Malick)

Days of Heaven (1978, dir by Terrence Malick)

Tree of Life (2011, dir by Terrence Malick)

Song to Song (2017, dir by Terrence Malick)

Here’s The Trailer For The Boss Baby 2!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Do we really need a second one?

Didn’t the first Boss Baby get nominated for Best Animated Feature while the Academy totally ignored The Lego Batman Movie?  That still makes no sense to me.

Anyway, maybe this one will manage to take a spot from a good movie as well.  Here’s the trailer.

Here’s The Trailer For The Prom

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Here’s the trailer for The Prom, the latest film from Ryan Murphy.  Apparently, Netflix is going to give this film a huge Oscar push and considering that it stars Meryl Streep, you really can’t blame them.

To be honest, this film looks like the most Ryan Murphy thing that Ryan Murphy has ever done.  I imagine that some people will absolutely love it and some people will hate it and that there probably won’t be much space in between.  Hopefully, this film will be a hit and Murphy will get so busy directing films that he won’t have time to do any further seasons of American Horror Story.

This film will be available of Netflix on December 11th!

4 Shots From 4 Daria Nicolodi Films: Deep Red, Shock, Inferno, Tenebrae

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.

RIP, the amazing Daria Nicolodi.

4 Shots From 4 Daria Nicolodi Films

Deep Red (1975, dir by Dario Argento)

Shock (1977, dir by Mario Bava)

Inferno (1980, dir by Dario Argento)

Tenebrae (1983, dir by Dario Argento)

Scenes That I Love: Daria Nicolodi in Shock

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As soon as I heard the great Daria Nicolodi had passed away at the age of 70, I knew that I had to find a scene from one of her films to share here on the Shattered Lens.

Unfortunately, YouTube was not very helpful.  I was tempted to re-share the scene of her arm-wrestling David Hemmings in Deep Red but I chose not to because, according to our stats, a lot of you already visited that post after the news of her passing was announced.

I also nearly shared the finale of Shock.  This was Daria’s best performance and one that she always cited as being a favorite.  However, I hesitated to do so because that scene features Daria’s character dying in a rather gruesome manner and I worried it was perhaps a bit too morbid to share under these circumstances.  But this scene also shows what a good actress Daria Nicolodi was and, again, Shock was a film that she always cited as being one of her personal favorites.  That said, I just can’t bring myself to pay tribute to someone on the day of their passing with a scene in which they die.  So, I’m sharing a different scene from Shock.  This one is perhaps a bit less dramatic than the finale but it still shows what a good and expressive actress Daria Nicolodi was.  She makes the scene below feel real.

So, in memory of the great Daria Nicolodi, here she is in Mario Bava’s Shock:

Lifetime Film Review: Killer Dream Home (dir by Jake Helgren)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Oh Hell yeah!

Now, this is a good Lifetime film!

Basically, Killer Dream Home tells the story of Jules (Maiara Walsh) and Josh Grant (John DeLuca).  They’re young.  They’re married.  They’re hot.  Josh never wears a shirt, which is kind of nice.  They’ve just bought a gigantic house that they’re planning on flipping, though there’s no way I would ever give up that house because it’s seriously one of the best that I’ve ever seen.  I mean, the pool alone is bigger than my back yard.  They invite their friend, Bliss (Brooke Butler), to come live with them.  You know that you’ve made it when you’ve got a blonde friend named Bliss.

They also end up hiring an interior designer named Morgan (Eva Mauro) but it turns out that Morgan might not be as perfect as their new house.  First off, it turns out that Morgan’s entire portfolio was made up of pictures that she cut out of magazines.  As soon as Morgan shows up, the first thing that she does is scare away the gardener, with whom she appears to have some sort of deep, dark history.  The second thing she does is suggest to Jules that Josh might be cheating on her with Bliss.  The third thing she does is get undressed while Josh is watching.  Morgan attempts to seduce Josh and Josh is all like, “Just because I don’t own a shirt, that doesn’t make me a man whore!”

And so it goes.  It all leads to murder, of course.  It always does.

Killer Dream Home has everything that you could possibly want from a Lifetime film.  It features beautiful people, beautiful houses, a lot of sex, and a few murders.  (Morgan doesn’t hold back when it comes to killing people.  Just as Jake is apparent allergic to shirts, Morgan is allergic to following a moral code.)  Jake Helgren has directed a lot of these films and he definitely knows not only what the audience wants but also how to deliver it.  Some might complain that Killer Dream Home is not a particularly realistic film but realism is not what we watch films like this for.  We watch films like this for handsome husbands who never wear a shirt and dangerous femme fatales who wear scandalous bathing suits while using the pool.  Lifetime films, at their best, create their own sort of alternative dream world and that’s certainly what Killer Dream Home accomplishes.

Killer Dream Home is a film that you experience more than you watch.  It’s a journey into the heart of Lifetime melodrama, where every house is big and everyone is sexy and every stranger has a mysterious past.  Watch this film for the house and the clothes and the wonderfully arch dialogue.  Watch it for Eva Mauro’s unapologetically intense performance.  Watch it for the scene where Morgan narrowly misses Bliss with a nail gun and then attempts to laugh it off. That nail gun gets quite a workout in Killer Dream Home.  I should probably pick one up because they seem to be very useful.

Killer Dream Home is Lifetime at its best!

Film Review: What If…. (dir by Dallas Jenkins)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

2010’s What If…. is a likable, religious-themed twist on the It’s a Wonderful Life formula.

It tells the story of Ben Walker (Kevin Sorbo), who years ago abandoned his girlfriend and his dreams of entering the ministry so that he could be a business executive instead.  15 years later, he’s a ruthless businessman who gives heartless speeches and thinks nothing of running other people out of business.  Fortunately, a guardian angel (John Ratzenberger) pops up and punches Ben into unconsciousness.  When Ben wakes up, he’s a preacher, he’s married to Wendy (Kristy Swanson), and he’s got two daughters!

Yes, it’s basically a take on It’s A Wonderful Life.  Instead of seeing what the world would be like if he had never been born, Ben gets a chance to see what the world would be like if he hadn’t abandoned Wendy.  He would be poor, though he would still live in a pretty nice house.  However, he’d have a family and he’d have a preaching career.

You can probably guess what happens.  Ben refuses to accept that any of this is real.  He keeps saying that it’s a dream.  He stumbles through his first sermon.  He tries to return to the office where he works, just to discover that no one knows who he is.  Eventually, he comes to learn that his alternate life isn’t that bad and that, in many ways, it’s actually better than his real life.

And, to be honest, it’s kind of a sweet movie.  I mean, obviously, some of how you react to this film will depend on how you feel about religion in general.  If you’re a hardcore atheist, this film will probably make you throw a shoe at someone.  Don’t watch this film is you’re a hardcore atheist.  (Hardcore Democrats might want to avoid it as well, since the film basically stars everyone in Hollywood who voted for Trump.)  That said, Kevin Sorbo and Kristy Swanson both give earnest and likable performances and they have a really nice chemistry.  The scene where Ben gives a clueless sermon actually is funny, as are the various reactions to the listeners.  (One woman thinks Ben is a disgrace while her husband is just happy that the sermon was short.)  Much as he did with The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, director Dallas Jenkins manages to tell his story without getting too preachy.  He manages to avoid the traps that most other religious films fall into.

As I said, it’s not for everyone but it’s still a sweet-natured film.  I do have some issues with the ending because — SPOILER ALERT! — it ignores the fact that real world Ben is starting his family fifteen years later than alternative world Ben did — SPOILER END! — but it’s still a likable twist on the Wonderful Life formula.