The Definition of Subtext:
The underlying or implicit meaning, as of a literary work.

It is said that if you want to be an exceptional actor then it is important that nobody ever sees you actually acting. There are no signs of any acting in the new film “Manchester By the Sea”. The dialogue, subtext, actions and reactions to life events by the great actors in this film are as real and believable as any movie I have ever seen. The life events are extreme and very real and demonstrate the delicate balance between a mundane and normal existence and the possibility of unforeseen events that are impossible to conceive of and in some cases even survive. This movie asks the question, “how would you survive if this happened to you? Could you survive?”.

I predict that the screenwriter and director of this movie Kenneth Lonergan will win for the best original screenplay this year at the Oscars because the originality and writing of this screenplay are that good. I have never seen a movie that has more flashbacks that zig and zag into the story and not only explain what is happening and has happened but do this in a more understandable and seamless way. The subtlety and complexity of the plot in several parts of the story are brilliantly left up to the audience to figure out for themselves and in some cases, you are not fully aware that you are in a flashback scene until some subtle dialogue or actor makes an appearance, which was another technique I have not seen before in any other film. There is a dinner scene between a son and his mother who he has not seen in years and her new boyfriend that make it completely obvious that there is no way that the son could ever live with her or her boyfriend. The looks, body language and the trying too hard conversations in this scene which include Gretchen Mol and Matthew Broderick are another example of the brilliant subtext in this film.

The actor Casey Affleck will be nominated for best actor this year, due to his outstanding performance in this movie which was great for its subtlety and his interpretation of this role believing that a person going through hell like that is more abt be in a zombie like state, occasionally lashing out at the world as he attempts to continue living with unbearable, overwhelming guilt and grief. One has to also have great respect for Michelle Williams who with her relatively small part in this movie will also be nominated for best supporting actress. Since her part in Dawsons Creek ended over 10 years ago, Williams has made an ongoing and very impressive decision to only act in small and very high-quality movies, not caring at all for a big financial payoff that she could get with more mainstream films. This decision has made her a very respected actor in Hollywood and she has already been nominated for 3 Oscars and this film will definitely provide her 4th nomination. There is a reunion scene in this movie between Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck that is one of the best acted and most emotional scenes I have ever seen between two actors in any film and in my opinion both Willams and Affleck should be nominated for Oscars for this one scene alone.

Manchester by the sea is brilliant in all aspects and about as real with the subject of loss and grief as any movie I have ever seen. The film will be nominated for best picture this year and might actually win it. I highly recommend this great film.

It has been almost a year since I saw the movie Joy and I thought at the time it was one of the best movies I have ever seen and I still do. Recently this movie has been showing regularly on HBO and I have been reminded of how great a movie this is and in fact how well this film approached the subject of being poor, trying to break out of a bleak existence and how people even in your own family will do and say almost anything to destroy your dreams. There are several scenes in this movie where Joy Mangano, played by Jennifer Lawrence is sabotaged by her own sister, who was jealous of her success. Joy’s sister was so quick to try and knock her down at every opportunity throughout this entire film. When things were not going well, her sister “piled on” over and over again, almost as if she was receiving extreme pleasure from her sister’s setbacks. Even Joy’s own father played by Robert Deniro seemed to derive pleasure when Joy’s business was having problems and at one point was even facing bankruptcy. Her father was the first to point out the mistakes and that it was all her fault that she put her family in financial jeopardy and that it was a mistake for Joy to ever think that she could be anything more than poor, or a failure, like the rest of the family. He even went to the extent of blaming himself for giving Joy the belief that she could be anything more than below average. Clearly, this is not only a disgusting trait in many people, but just as unfortunately, more often something that someone can expect from good number of people they will encounter in their life.

So one of the main questions this movie points out is, why are people like this? Because they believe that if someone is successful and breaks out of the same reality that they are in, that somehow this reflects on them negatively. In other words, how dare someone believe that they can expect something better than I have resolved to accept? In my experience, this is something I have seen so many times, not only in my own personal life but in my working life as well. Joy points out that in order to be successful in life, you not only have to have perseverance, but you also have to ignore and move on when everybody around you wants you to fail.

There is a scene in the movie Joy that is so profound for me that it ranks as one of the most singular movie moments I have ever seen in any film. The combination of Joy’s reaction to a high point with her business and the muted sound of a bell and some subtle emotional background music gives me an extreme reaction no matter how many times I have seen this movie. The movie Joy should have received an Academy Award nomination for best picture last year and in my opinion, should have won, not only for the great quality of the writing, acting and overall production; but for its unique insight into what it takes in life to be successful.

After almost a year and I don’t know why I waited this long to buy one, I recently bought the mopwhich was the first product that changed Joy Mangano’s life. After using it a few days, I highly recommend it.

The movie Contact was inspired many years ago by the book Contact which was written by the late Carl Sagan. The premise of the book and the entire movie that came out in 1997 was that if there is no other life in the Universe than this would be a “great waste of space”. Clearly there is no arguing that logic, but the real issue is, if there is life, isn’t it equally as likely that it is so many millions of light years away, that it would be impossible for any alien lifeforce to travel that far or even find us, given that the Universe is so vast and traveling at the speed of light or greater than the speed of light is not possible.

Jodie Foster is the star of Contact in arguably one of her best roles. I thought that the science behind this movie was great to see, with the huge array telescopes that monitor all signals coming from space, and a series of complex computer software programs that are able to figure out where the signal is coming from and capture it so it can be analyzed. There are scenes in this movie after a message has been received that include some of the best science I have ever seen any science fiction movie and what follows is even better, where the message is figured out and a massive machine for interstellar travel is built from a message that is embedded in a television signal from the 1936 Olympics, which was held in Berlin Germany. The spacecraft and concept behind it that was built from the alien message was fantastic and one of the best ideas I have ever seen for space travel.

I also liked and strongly related to the real-life work backstabbing and credit taking that happens in this film, where Jodie Foster’s boss, played by Tom Skerrit, who was dead set against Foster’s career of listening for life in outer space only to later take full credit for the discovery and steps on all of Foster’s responses at every meeting with Government officials who rush to undermine her project. Matthew McConaughey plays of all things a member of the clergy and provides the religious perspective on aliens visiting from outer space, and James Woods does a great job playing the evil Government representative, who does everything he can to sabotage this amazing contact with aliens.

Where this movie fails, although not completely is at the very end where I thought that Foster’s encounter with some sort of alien presence was not a satisfactory or logical conclusion to what was a great story with great special effects up to that point. The shame of the ending scene is that it really doesn’t make any sense, given the great science before this scene, which is why the ending does not work. The only upside of the ending is that it does make you think about what could be out there and then makes you think about what was the real point of this whole story in the first place.

Despite this unsatisfactory ending, I have always thought that Contact is one of the best science fiction films ever produced and should be seen by everyone, whether or not you believe in extraterrestrial life. This movie is also expertly directed by Robert Zemeckis.