I have been rummaging the web for best movies of 2015 and way back. This is what I got, a couple of intelligible British films and of course the infamous Maleficent which I never got the chance to watch until recently. Nothing, I just feel like writing about different movie genres today. It’s kinda like hand picking from a handful of those sappy coloured M&Ms.
The Danish Girl (2015)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Setting: Mid 1920’s in Copenhagen, Denmark
Characters:
- Lili Elbe/ Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne)- landscape artist, turned Einar to Lili; first known individual who underwent sex change
- Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander)- Danish painter married to Einar
- Hans Axgil (Matthias Schoenaerts) -Einar’s childhood pal
- Henrik (Ben Whishaw)- Lili’s love interest
- Dr. Kurt Warnekros (Sebastian Koch) - performed Lili’s sex change surgery
Gerda and Einer Wegener is been married for six years and they’re both artists. Gerda paints people whilst Einer (or Ei-nah as they pronounce it all throughout) paints landscapes.
One day after coming home to their flat, Gerda asked Einer if he could pose as a model for one of her unfinished portraits of a woman. In the painting, the womans leg isn’t finished yet so she asked her husband Einar to wear stockings, a shoe and dress. Einar, discreetly, seemed to have instant fascination with women’s clothing and everything (which I found a little peculiar considering they’ve been married for half a decade). Gerda, not knowing this rode along and even prepped Einar, as a woman for an exhibit she’ll be attending. Gerda’s friend called Einar Lili.
Einar now in Lili’s persona attracted the attention of art dealers and one of which was Henrik. He became attracted to Lili because he said Lili’s was ‘old fashioned.’
Einar and Gerda’s relationship went rocky because Einar disappeared and became Lili. Einar turned homosexual basically which was not socially accepted back then since it was during the 1920’s and people think differently during that era. The psychiatrists after series of examinations called him ‘pervert’ and many other psychological terms.
I admire Gerda for having an open-mind which I completely understand since she’s an artist. She supported Lili all the way through and even tracked down Einar’s childhood friend Hans for moral support. Hans also kept an open mind.
Lili and Gerda turned to Dr. Kurt Warnekros as he’s known for studying cases similar to Lili. Dr. Kurt Warnekros explained to them that Lili needs to undergo couple of major surgeries, first to remove the male organ and second for Lili to have a female organ. Whilst recovering, Lili decided to find a life of his own and told Gerda to do the same. Lili decided to work for a perfume company and enjoyed it, his co-workers knew he’s a she.
Lili/Einar though had gone so far and pushed his body’s limits. He/she or Lili (ok I’m getting confused now) asked Dr. Kurt Warnekros to push through with the second surgery (which is for him to have a female genital)even though he’s not fully recovered and his body is still quite weak. This decision eventually caused his death due to infection and blood loss.
Lili’s story or should I say ordeal may have been peculiar back then but all I can say is that being homosexual in my opinion is something people cannot hold up against as there might’ve been chemicals in our body causing it aside from the environment one is exposed to. It’s not at all times people may have wanted to be but if their body says otherwise who are we to resist right? I think it’s a chemical reaction in human body, I guess it’s the lack of testosterone or estrogen or whatever.
This film is really of good taste. The nudity and all did not bother me neither because they were done with class and the plot calls for it as well so no wonder why It gained so many positive reviews from film critics. I recommend this film but it’s PG18.
The Danish Girl is actually the first time I’ve seen Alicia Vikander, the second was with the movie Ex-Machina which I would be reviewing in a bit. I thought she’s a good actress because she just doesn’t care being stripped. I knew a lot of good actors/actress who need not strip to reap awards but there are so many good ones who wouldn’t care being nude because acting is an art form by itself. I also watched this film because I saw Eddie Redmayne is on it and I was impressed with his acting in The Theory of Everything, this dude is an impeccable actor. He’s also done total frontal nudity in this film and he just wouldn’t care neither, it’s like the cinema is his huge stage.
Alright, moving on..another one on top of my list is this enigmatic film Ex-Machina.
Ex Machina (2015)
⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson)- A Programmer
- Ava (Alicia Vikander) - a humanoid robot, has AI (Artificial Intelligence)
- Nathan (Oscar Isaac) - CEO of his software company called Blue.
Alicia Vikander is becoming one of my favorite actress (or actor like what they call it nowadays) because she doesn’t just star in some shitty flick, just like Rooney Mara, you barely see her neither in not so interesting movie genres. 
Caleb, a Programmer won a week long visit to Nathan’s home somewhere faraway. Nathan owns a software company and he sort of picked Caleb to give him his feedback and observations about his humanoid creation named Ava which has AI. Nathan’s home by the way is a luxurious hotel like facility in a secluded mountains of the unknown.
When Caleb saw Ava, he was drawn to her because she resembles a real human being except she’s way more genius. Ava has a face of a human but a body that’s half human, half robot.
One night while he’s fast asleep, he experienced a power outage which left him locked up in his room. This made caleb wonder what he has gotten himself into. His room does not have windows and when he switched on his in room TV, he saw that Nathan’s home is blanketed with cameras and he’s able to see Nathan’s whereabouts and so as Ava’s.
Ava, during one of the power outages told Caleb she’s the one causing the power outage and that every time that happens Nathan cannot see nor hear what the two of them is talking about since the cameras are also out. She pretty much made Caleb believe that Nathan is the villain and that they both need to escape from Nathan’s facility. Caleb made up a plan so both of them could escape, he asked Ava to cause another power outage while he programs all the computers so they everything work as planned.
Caleb seemed to have fallen under Ava’s spell didn’t realize that Nathan knew about their plan to escape because he can hear everything even if there’s a power outage. Nathan divulged that Ava made Caleb believe every word she said and little did he knew Ava is a rat on a leash, she outwit and used Caleb in order to escape. Caleb, already fell under Ava’s trap told Nathan that he already programmed everything and as soon as 10pm strikes all the entry points would open and Nathan will be locked inside his home once the power is out. Nathan pissed off punched Caleb after having lost control to his own home.
Fast forward, Ava and the other humanoid Kyoko connived and killed Nathan. Ava escaped, now fully dressed as a human after she scrapes other humanoid’s skin for her own use and left Caleb locked up in Nathan's facility.
The End.
It was SciFi (Science Fiction) so the terminologies they used in the Film is pretty 'out there.’ I mean, so much Science could cause nose bleeds lol. I wish I switched on the subtitles so I was able to understand it much better :D
Anyways, this movie is pretty cool even If I’ve seen tons of movies about AI and stuff. The Film's approach is kind of different because they infused SciFi with Psychological thriller which made it interesting. In most movies, Drama is paired with Psychological thriller but Ex-Machina twitched it a bit. This movie though is not for everyone because it has turned boring on some parts because of the jargons but nevertheless if you’re a fan of SciFi this may be for you. This flick also has a lot of women nudity because they’re humanoids, robots that are skin coated so what to expect right? Don’t worry the nudity is called for it’s just that it’s not really for kids, a lot of PG stuff.
Ok, Let me go to a different genre, let’s go for something GP (General Patronage), Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent. This movie was one of the top grossers back in 2014 and I can say it was pretty nice.
Maleficent (2014)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) - a powerful fairy from Moors
- King Henry (Kenneth Cranham)- the King who wanted to conquer Moors.
- Stefan (Sharlto Copley) - Maleficent’s love interest
- Diaval (Sam Riley) - saved by Maleficent from being held captive by the King’s soldiers
Little fairy Maleficent lives in a magical forest called Moors, she loves her powerful and enormous wings. One day, the fairies were bothered and called Maleficent when little boy Stefan entered the enchanted forest. Maleficent asked Stefan to return back what he took from the forest, he eventually did and the two developed a special friendship. Maleficent learned that Stefan was poor and dreamt about living in the palace someday. Years passed, Maleficent grew into a beautiful young woman and her special friendship with Stefan remained.
One day again, King Henry invaded Moors hoping to conquer Maleficent’s enchanted forest because of avarice. Maleficent fought against the King and his army and she won of course since she’s very powerful herself. King Henry after having defeated by Maleficent longed to kill her.
Stefan worked as a soldier for the King but he became ambitious and yearned of becoming a King plotted against Maleficent. He drugged her and cut off her enormous wings as a proof (to the ailing King Henry) that, he indeed killed Maleficent. He was crowned the new King afterwards.
Maleficent was devasted when she woke up with her wings gone. She still has powers but she never felt complete after losing her wings. She saw this poor crow captured by men so she decided to use her magic by turning it into a man. The shape shifting crow became Diaval. To give thanks to Maleficent for saving his life, Diaval became her wings and spied on the now crowned King Stefan.
King Stefan married somebody else, had a child named Aurora. After Maleficent learned about the news, she went to the Palace and cursed (the still baby then) Princess Aurora, that she will fall asleep once pricked by a spindle wheel’s needle on her 16th birthday and only a true love’s kiss will wake her up. The three good fairies took off with Princess Aurora (with King Stefan’s blessing) for her to be protected from Maleficent which they later on called the bad fairy. Little did they knew, Maleficent has been looking after Princess Aurora along with Diaval all along.
Maleficent discreetly loved Aurora like a fairy Godmother because she’s not really evil, she was just broken hearted after what Stefan did to her. Nevertheless, she protected and kept Aurora away from harm. Maleficent decided to revoke her own curse towards Aurora but failed. Aurora learned about the curse because one of her fairy caretakers told her about it by accident. She also learned that Maleficent is the bad fairy they’re pertaining to who cursed her.
The curse still happened exactly on Aurora’s 16th birthday. The fairies thought a kiss from a Prince would free Aurora from the curse but that did not happen. Maleficent, saddened by what she did to Aurora kissed her cheeks thinking she will never wake up. Aurora woke up which means Maleficent loved Aurora all along. King Stefan, for some inexplicable reason still wanted to kill Maleficent. Aurora found Maleficent’s wings and freed them. Maleficent and her powerful wings reunited, King Stefan lost and died. Princess Aurora was crowned as Moors’ new queen (I think).
It was a happy ending because the movie is for kids, which means we can’t break their hearts. Seriously, it was a nice movie although it was a dark fantasy film the goodness still prevailed. Maleficent may have horns but she has a big heart. Well, from an adult’s point of view, the movie maybe for kids but it’s about oppression and abuse of power.
I’m done and out! I have tons of movies to watch and I will keep you guys posted.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - highly recommended
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - somewhat highly recommended
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - it was alright.
⭐️⭐️ - nah.
⭐️ - waste of time.
⭐️ - waste of time.
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