The movie Heat came out in 1995 and there has never been a movie like this one, before or after it came out. Micheal Mann in one movie captured the perfect ingredients for a great action police drama that had the perfect story and included a level of tension that remained throughout the movie. The story was excellently told and the major stars in the movie Robert De niro and Al Pacino have never been better.

The bank robbery scene (see below) is by far the best scene if of its kind ever shot in the history of movies. The action the tension and the believablity was extremely well done. One wonders why something this good has never been made again and that is a shame because movies like Heat are what going to the movies is all about.

The biggest disappointment this year was Stallone not winning best supporting actor, he deserved to win given his performance and his history with Rocky for almost 40 years. The best picture this year was Joy in my opinion, which was not even nominated.  Spotlight was a very good movie but considering this list I would have voted for the Martian as best picture.   Chris Rock was just OK in his opening monologue, I was expecting much better.

Here is this years list of winners.

Best Picture
“The Big Short”
“Bridge of Spies”
“Brooklyn”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Room”
“Spotlight” *WINNER

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Bryan Cranston, “Trumbo”
Matt Damon, “The Martian”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant” *WINNER
Michael Fassbender, “Steve Jobs“
Eddie Redmayne, “The Danish Girl”

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett, “Carol”
Brie Larson, “Room” *WINNER
Jennifer Lawrence, “Joy”
Charlotte Rampling, “45 Years”
Saoirse Ronan, “Brooklyn”

Best Director
Adam McKay, “The Big Short”
George Miller, “Mad Max: Fury Road”
Alejandro G. Inarritu, “The Revenant” *WINNER
Lenny Abrahamson, “Room”
Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight”

Best Original Song
“Earned It” from “Fifty Shades of Grey”
“Manta Ray” from “Racing Extinction”
“Simple Song No. 3” from “Youth”
“Til It Happens To You” from “The Hunting Ground”
“Writing’s on the Wall” from “Spectre” (Jimmy Napes and Sam Smith) *WINNER

Best Original Score
“Bridge of Spies”
“Carol”
“The Hateful Eight” *WINNER
“Sicario”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Best Foreign Language Film
“Embrace of the Serpent,” Colombia
“Mustang,” France
“Son of Saul,” Hungary *WINNER
“Theeb,” Jordan
“A War,” Denmark

Best Live Action Short Film
“Ave Maria”
“Day One”
“Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)”
“Shok”
“Stutterer” *WINNER

Best Documentary Feature
“Amy” *WINNER
“Cartel Land”
“The Look of Silence”
“What Happened, Miss Simone?”
“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom”

Best Documentary Short Subject
“Body Team 12”
“Chau, Beyond the Lines”
“Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah”
“A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” *WINNER
“Last Day of Freedom”

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale, “The Big Short”
Tom Hardy, “The Revenant”
Mark Ruffalo, “Spotlight”
Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies” *WINNER
Sylvester Stallone, “Creed”

Best Animated Feature
“Anomalisa”
“Boy and the World”
“Inside Out” *WINNER
“Shaun the Sheep Movie”
“When Marnie Was There”

Best Animated Short Film
“Bear Story” *WINNER
“Prologue”
“Sanjay’s Super Team”
“We Can’t Live Without Cosmos”
“World of Tomorrow”

Visual Effects
“Ex Machina” *WINNER
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Achievement in Sound Mixing
“Bridge of Spies”
“Mad Max: Fury Road” *WINNER
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Achievement in Sound Editing
“Mad Max: Fury Road” *WINNER
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Sicario”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Editing
“The Big Short”
“Mad Max: Fury Road” *WINNER
“The Revenant”
“Spotlight”
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”

Best Cinematography
“Carol”
“The Hateful Eight”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Revenant” *WINNER
“Sicario”

Production Design
“Bridge of Spies”
“The Danish Girl”
“Mad Max: Fury Road” *WINNER
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”

Best Costume Design
“Carol”
“Cinderella”
“The Danish Girl”
“Mad Max: Fury Road” *WINNER
“The Revenant”

Actress in a Supporting Role
Jennifer Jason Leigh, “The Hateful Eight”
Rooney Mara, “Carol”
Rachel McAdams, “Spotlight”
Alicia Vikander, “The Danish Girl” *WINNER
Kate Winslet, “Steve Jobs“

Best Adapted Screenplay
“The Big Short” *WINNER
“Brooklyn”
“Carol”
“The Martian”
“Room”

Best Original Screenplay
“Bridge of Spies”
“Ex Machina”
“Inside Out”
“Spotlight” *WINNER
“Straight Outta Compton”

The first thing anyone would think while watching this movie is – Is Room a True Story? The answer to that question is never revealed in this depressing movie and I had to look online to find out later. My guess is that the idea for this movie came from the recent story about the man in Cleveland who kept 3 women captive, but other than that one wonders why a movie like this would even be made due to the depressing story of a woman and her son held captive in tiny wood shed in the backyard of someone’s house. What is also never explained is why the man, who had a child with this woman would hold them captive in the first place. There is some peripheral information about this in certain parts of this movie but overall, you wanted to know more about the beginning of this story and the hows and whys of why he held is wife and son in a woodshed for 7 years.

This movie is highly unusual and of course the acting performances of Brie Larson and her son played very well by Jacob Tremblay are outstanding, but the story is so depressing, including the loss of 7 years for 2 people and in my opinion is too depressing of a reason to make a movie about and idea like this, except perhaps if this was a true story which it was not.

It is revealed in this movie that both the mother and her son (who looks remarkably like a young girl) are being held in this “room” for 7 years but as the movie starts we find out that her son is only 5 years old, not 7 years, suggesting that the woman was being held in this shed 2 years before her son was born.   Another part of this movie which made absolutely no sense was when a doctor made a comment about the boy “escaping while he was still plastic” and this was never explained at all but referred to later when the boy stated that he was “real and not plastic”. This line makes you feel like you must be missing something along the way, which is a feeling nobody likes to have when they are watching 2 hours of a movie.

Due to the fact that this movie leaves so many hanging leaves, I cannot really recommend it, but if you do see it you will appreaciate the acting of both Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay.

IMDB – Room