First off, let’s state the obvious. It’s refreshing to see a superhero movie with a woman in the spotlight and not on display for her body, but for her abilities. Sure, we’ve seen female superheroes before, but they’ve never had the opportunity a feature film like this. And if we look back at some (not all) of their past film roles, things look really sexist. Not so for Wonder Woman.
In Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman, Diana (Gal Gadot) is raised as the only child on an island of Amazonian women. The island life is peaceful, beautiful and idealistic, as are many people’s childhoods. Diana’s mother, Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), is reluctant to train her to fight. All the women are fierce warriors and just as Diana becomes the fiercest, a man crash lands just off the island. Diana saves him and learns of a great war plaguing the world. She leaves to fight and bring peace to mankind again.
The film makes perfect Diana realistically flawed. She is young, naive and fueled by her black and white ideology, but weren’t we all once? She believes that if she can kill Aries, the god of war, all war will stop and mankind will be peaceful again. We know men aren’t so easily changed.
For a feminist film, Wonder Woman gets a lot right. Diana is both beautiful and strong, with her power often overshadowing her beauty. She wears her iconic suit, allowing her free movement, but not making her an object of male gaze. Unlike other superhero ladies, the visual emphasis is not focused on her butt or breasts and she is not adorned with an unrealistic amount of makeup.
The movie is aimed for the female gaze, which is something you rarely see outside of the romcom genre. Chris Pine, as Steve Trevor, the Allied spy, takes on the role of the hot sidekick. The Bond Boy. The eye candy. And does he deliver! Sure after leaving the island Diana is mostly surrounded by dudes, but thankfully they’re a diverse group of misfits and not all of them hit on her. By the end they all revere Diana and understand her immense power.
The film uses Diana’s girl power for some tasteful comedy. A few scenes between Steve and Diana bring some light sexual flirtation, but the line, “When it comes to procreation, men are essential, but for pleasure, not necessary.” puts Steve in his place. That’s as crass as it gets. There are no jokes about boobs, periods, mood swings or anything that really demeans women. I love it. I especially loved and identified with the scene where Steve’s secretary takes her shopping for an outfit more acceptable for 1910s London. If you don’t kick your legs up in the dressing room to see if your clothes can move with you, then you’re missing out.
As refreshing as this film is, there is still so far to go. I realize the romance between Diana and Steve helps seal her understanding of love, but did the story really have to depend on romantic love? I’d happily see her take a similar path to Frozen and work the platonic girl power, but that’s just me. And I honestly hope to see a version of Wonder Woman where naturally hairy legs and armpits are acceptable. This is a great and commendable step and I hope it helps propel the miles we have to go.
“It is our sacred duty to defend the world. And it is what I am going to do.”
Welcome to Oscar weekend! Tomorrow night all the glitz and glam of Hollywood will be on the Academy Awards red carpet strutting their stuff and taking home some trophies. 
La La Land 
Animated Feature
Original Score
Film Editing
Actress
Not since 1998, with Saving Private Ryan, has there been a gritty war film depicting the bravery and American heroics of WWII nominated for Best Picture. With Hacksaw Ridge, Mel Gibson seems to bring the genre back for a new generation. Not for the blood-lust glory of a seasoned warrior, but to tell the story of a young medic who refused to carry a weapon. 
Private Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) was a young man from Virginia who volunteered to serve during WWII and due to his beliefs as a Seventh-Day Adventist he refused to carry a weapon or kill any enemies. This does not make him very popular during training, his superiors constantly calling him out on the matter. Doss is beaten by his bunk mates, has to fight being accused of insubordination and is even put on trial for refusing to carry a weapon. In the end, Doss is allowed to train as a medic and go into battle without a weapon. 
The beacon of light in the intense battle is Doss. Even after all the other able men have retreated back down Hacksaw Ridge, which is a sheer cliff with base camp below, Doss stays behind and looks for wounded men. He searched in the desolate, corpse and gore ridden battleground searching for men he can help. With each one he lowers them by rope down the ridge, one by one. It’s truly an amazing feat of bravery worthy of the Medal of Honor. 
To be honest, Hacksaw Ridge seems to be bringing up the rear in this year’s Oscar race. The training scenes had an archaic, out of date, boys-will-be-boys vibe. Some CGI moments were not at all convincing and distracting. And while a little violence can go a long way, but after a while, I was numb to yet another soldier with his legs blown off. 
Based on a true story, Lion shows us the story of a young boy who got lost in Calcutta, India in the mid 1980s and the journey of the boy twenty five years later searching for his lost past. 
In India, five year old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) has a mother, a little sister and a teenage brother, Guddu (Abhishek Bharate). They live together in a small room in a remote village. Saroo takes pride in helping Guddu with jobs to help the family, whether stealing coal off moving trains or carrying melons. But after being too tired to help Guddu one night, Saroo wakes up at a train station, lost. Looking for his brother, Saroo finds himself on a moving train and when it stops, he doesn’t realize that he is 1600 kilometers away from home. 
Saroo adjusts well to life in Australia, the same cannot be said for his adopted brother, Mantosh. When both boys were adopted, the parents got more than just the child, but their troubled pasts. Even when away from danger, they still know the fear and pain and Mantosh particularly struggles with it all well into adulthood. 
The cinematography throughout Lion is absolutely beautiful and connects both halves of the story spanning twenty-five years. In the first part of the film, the images show what a big, frightening world Saroo has gotten lost in. Later, as Saroo is trying to recall images from his past, we see how his present life is mirroring his past. An image of him walking down a narrow sidewalk cuts to an image of him as a little boy walking down a similar narrow path in India. Wading out into the ocean, he thinks of his mother in India looking for him down by the river as other boys swim. The visual parallels and connections are a stunning way to visually tell this story and make it worthy of the best cinematography Oscar nomination.
Moonlight chronicles the life of Chiron, a boy growing up in a rough Miami neighborhood. The film is broken up into three acts, featuring Chiron at different stages of his life. 
Act two, Chiron, shows our protagonist as a teen. Just like his Little self, Chiron is awkward, skinny and innocent, especially compared to the boys around him. They are now defiant young men that openly mock Chiron in class. One night while avoiding his strung out mom, Chiron begins a romantic relationship with the only boy who showed him much kindness, Kevin, who affectionately calls Chiron Black. But back at school, Kevin has a reputation to maintain and beats Chiron when egged on by the other boys. This seems to awaken Chiron into a hardened manhood that leads into Act three, entitled Black.
Manchester by the Sea is a powerful, emotional story of loss, grief, pain and family. When Lee (Casey Affleck) returns to his hometown after his brother’s death, he takes care of his nephew, Patrick (Lucas Hedges) and helps make arrangements. Lee is a loner, doesn’t care to interact with anyone and seems to just not care about anything. We think that he could deal with his brother’s death and taking care of Patrick better. Worse, there seems to be whispers following Lee as he gets things done around town. Later, we understand that awful past Lee left in this town.
Meanwhile, Patrick is a busy young man. He’s a hothead on the hockey team, is in a band, has two girlfriends and wants to keep his father’s boat that is about to break down. While Lee is a loner, Patrick is always surrounded by friends. It’s when he’s alone, that Patrick breaks down. The scene with meat falling out of the freezer is a raw and intense moment that really earned Hedges his Oscar nomination.
Manchester by the Sea is nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and original screenplay. Kenneth Lonergan earned his first nomination for directing. Casey Affleck earned his second acting nomination, his first for lead actor. Young Lucas Hedges earned his first nomination for his supporting role. And Michelle Williams earned her fourth acting nomination for her small, but very powerful role as Lee’s ex wife.
Arrival is an alien encounter film like none before. It is a brilliant mix of science fiction, mystery and political allegory, all surrounded in glorious visual artwork. It uses a very dim but clear style of cinematography. It makes the film very gloomy and very realistic. It makes it easy to imagine something like this happening in the near future.
In Arrival, twelve alien spaceships mysteriously appear across Earth. They are massive, dark monolithic and silently hover just above the ground. Louise (Amy Adams), a linguistics professor, is brought in by the government to help interpret the alien’s language. Without time to settle into the camp set up in remote Montana, she and a small team are sent into the alien’s ship and meet with the aliens every few hours. Within a few sessions, they discover the alien’s written language. As the team tries to understand the new language and find out why the aliens have come to Earth, the world outside is frightened of the new arrivals and is edging closer and closer to war.
I am disappointed that Amy Adams did not receive an Oscar nomination for her performance in Arrival. She is the central character grounding the strange events and translating them into an emotional, tangible response. When things are extremely stressful, like arriving at the alien ship and only minutes later going inside to meet the aliens, she portrays a kind of panicked serenity. When others would be trembling in panic, she is breathing faster, but still able to keep her feet on the ground, no matter if gravity suddenly turns ninety degrees. She portrays Louise as curious, smart, charismatic and tenacious enough to lead the way learning to communicate with the aliens. Sadly, science fiction films are rarely recognized for their acting.
The most frightening moments within Arrival are not actions of the aliens, but of people. Human nature in a stressful, mysterious, global situation can bring out the worst in people. We hear news reports of riots and looting. We see the damage polarized radio shows can produce. As one camp makes worrisome progress with their pair of aliens, they assume the worst and cut off communications with the others. Attacking the alien ships and plunging into global war is a terrible threat that looms closer and closer. Isolation, refusing to communicate and rogue violence do not help. 
