Movies and TV show thread

I've heard great things about St. Vincent, Bill Murray should do more movies.

Some of the most recent films I watched were "Moonlight", "The Birth of a Nation", "The Light Between the Oceans", "The Magnificent Seven", "The Girl on the Train" and "Captain Fantastic".

"Moonlight" was loaded with performances ranging from good to great, most notably Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland, Janelle Monae, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali. This is one of those film that stays with you days after viewing it and is definitely deserving of its Best Picture Oscar. I'm amazed by how a film with a production budget of only $1.5 million can boast such good acting performances, direction, screenwriting, cinematography and editing.

"The Birth of a Nation" was another 2016 release which boasted several good acting performances including the ones from Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Penelope Ann Miller, Jackie Earle Haley and Gabrielle Union. While this film wasn't quite as good "12 Years a Slave" which won a Best Picture Oscar a few years ago, it was well worth watching for its wrenching performances and heartrending storyline.

While I may be a bit partial to Alicia Vikander after enjoying her riveting performance in "Ex Machina" immensely, she was also very good in "The Light Between the Oceans". Can't believe this film currently has a 59% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, for I enjoyed this film more than some Best Picture Oscar nominees such as "Hell or High Water", which despite its good acting performances and 98% Certified Fresh RT score, I consider this film overrated.

Heck, I don't even consider HOHW to be the best western of 2016, as that distinction I would have to give to "The Magnificent Seven". Perhaps I'm partial to Antoine Fuqua, whom I consider to be one of the most underrated directors working in Hollywood today in addition to this film being a reimagination of "Seven Samurai" which is among my top ten fave films of all time.

One of films which I highly anticipated for 2016 was "The Girl on the Train" since thrillers are one of my fave film genres and this film is based on a novel that debuted at #1 on the New York Times Fiction Best Sellers list. While Emily Blunt churned out a captivating performance, this film relied too much on melodrama as several critics stated and the overuse of flashback scenes which I'm guessing was supposed to aid in the viewers understanding of the main character's stream of consciousness, was too distracting with regard to the film's story arc, which made the storyline a jumbled mess throughout. While TGOTT was still a decent thriller, it had all the makings of a great psychological thriller such as "Gone Girl", so in that sense it was a disappointment.

And lastly we have "Captain Fantastic" which was a very pleasant surprise--not that I didn't expect at least one good acting performance from this film since Viggo Mortensen did receive a Best Actor nom for his role as Ben Cash--but was taken aback by a plethora of good performances. Other standout performances include George MacKay who portrayed Ben's oldest son Bo. Erin Moriarty did well playing a small supporting role as Ben's love interest, which was reminiscent of Kristen's role as Em in "Adventureland". Hopefully Erin will get more lead roles as I consider her to be one of the most underrated young actresses working in Hollywood. Another memorable performance was from Shree Crooks who played one of Ben's younger daughters Zaja. I gotta tell ya, as difficult a thing as it is to predict which child actor will go on to become a future A-list Hollywood actress, I wouldn't be surprised at all if she becomes the next Kristen Stewart, in terms of acting style and types of roles she'll probably be cast in because in my opinion, Shree shows just as much promise as Kristen did when she starred in "The Safety of Objects" as a 10-year-old budding actress and for some odd reason, perhaps I may need to get my eyes examined, I couldn't stop thinking about how Shree resembles a younger version K's GF Stella Maxwell whenever she was on screen, perhaps this might be due more to her poise, confidence and screen presence than her looks.