From Heroines to Actresses: Top five Hollywood actresses to watch out for. Part One - Amy Adams

In this era of '#Me Too' and 'Time's Up', the gender divide in Hollywood is decreasing, although there's still miles to go. I have made this list of my top 5 emerging actresses of Hollywood, the first of many to come. This list is based entirely on my personal opinion, so many of you will disagree, I sincerely urge you to start intellectual conversations around this, that is one of my objectives. These are all actresses of highest caliber, some of them jump-started their career by being cast in blockbuster high budget movies but they found their true calling later on. If any movie has one of their names in the cast, it immediately becomes a must watch for me.

1. Amy Adams
Amy Adams cannot be called a young actress, but she is emerging because of her meaningful changes in choices of characters or movies.  She has been here forever, we might remember her from 'Catch Me If You Can' as a young nurse Brenda who had a crush on the con artist portrayed by infamous Leonardo DiCaprio. She showed glimpses of her talent early in 'Junebug' (2005), a very underrated and almost unknown indie gem where she gave her character 'Ashley' all the self-hatred and craziness that makes the movie work.

In 2008, 'Sunshine Cleaning' and 'Doubt' gets out, in the first one Amy is 'Rose', a constantly struggling mother and house-cleaner who despite all the hardship life throws at her, fights vigorously. In 'Doubt' she was at her very best to be in line with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, two of the greatest acting powerhouse of Hollywood. From there on she was considered a 'real' actress as opposed to a heroine or female protagonist in a movie. Her role in 'The Fighter' (2010) and in 'The Master' (2012) established her in high places. She did the infamous 'Louis Lane' character in DC's 'Man of Steel' (2013) and continued the role in other DC Universe movies.

Two movies changed her place and stature, in my view, they are 'Nocturnal Animals' and 'Arrival', both of them got released in 2016. Both of these movies are directed by extra-ordinarily gifted directors, Tom Ford and Denis Villeneuve respectively. In 'Nocturnal Animals' she plays an art gallery owner urban socialite who receives a manuscript of a novel written by her ex-husband, played by brilliant Jake Gyllenhaal. Her dialogues are very limited except in the flashback of her college life, but all the expressions on her face could accomplished a lot more than words could. Finally, 'Arrival' totally stands on her portrayal of linguist Dr. Louise Banks, who is given an impossible task to make the first contact with the aliens that landed on Earth. The movie is a very well-made philosophical science fiction whose pace and nuance has a perfect balance. 'Arrival' is Amy's movie and rightfully so, the emotions, strengths and loneliness needed for this role, no one could be more effective than her. 

She has five oscar nominations, but no wins. I hope that will change soon. Her recent television series 'Sharp Objects' (2018) showcases her strength in the small screen and it's also a step in the recent trend of great actors taking the challenge of TV namely Matthew McConaughey, Billy Bob Thornton and others.

2. Natalie Portman

She was a child actor in "Leon: The Professional", and indomitably made her mark to be something great in future. I dont love some of her movies, yet she is second in my list because of her strong performance in "V for Vendetta" and "Black Swan". Even her character in the marvel universe doesnt strike me as unbelievable or quirky. She is a true student of the art that is acting and her constant hunger for portraying better and meaningful roles tells a lot about her.

3. Emma Stone

All you need to watch is "Birdman: The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance" to appreciate the acting prowess of this young actor. She might strike you as the beautiful heroine of the second generation Spiderman movies, or the lovely female protagonist of oscar nominated "La La Land", but she is obviously much more than that. 

4. Kirsten Stewart

I dont think any serious film enthusiasts have watched the franchise that made her famous and known commodity in Hollywood, but she actively changed her path after that just like her counter-part in that franchise. She sought out meaningful and difficult roles from indie art-house directors and quickly changed her image from a hugely successful blockbuster actress to indie avant garde serious actress. Look at her last five films and you would understand the shift in her mindset and her new standard of achievment. 

5. Chloe Grace Mortez

Lucky Harry

Harry Dean Stanton, the late legend gives his going away performance in the sensible existentialist drama Lucky (2017). He plays the role of an aged man at his last act of life who doesn't believe in the soul, vehemently denies the existence of it. The film chronicles few days of his life, which doesn't necessarily reflect great writing but some of the scenes displays pure brilliance. The scene where Lucky reads the definition of Realism from an encyclopedia or the scene where out of nowhere he starts to sing 'Volver, volver', the infamous mariachi song, I found both of the scenes extraordinary. The film poses the ultimate existential question but doesn't dissolve in that, eventually it returns to the unique mood it creates. After asking everyone in the bar that what do you do with the information that everything eventually goes away, you are actually nothing, Lucky answers the deepest question himself by saying 'You smile'. The fact that he delivered this performance at the age of 90 is both surprising and not, because he is used to dive in roles of strange uncomfortable men (Paris, Taxas) and his age couldn't be an obstacle to give a flawless performance in his last work. In retrospect we are also lucky that we got one last gem from him.

Surrealist Cinema - A List

1. In The Mood For Love
2. Lost Highway
3. Fight Club
4. Into The Void
5. Nostalghia
6. Fallen Angels
7. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
8. Last Life In The Universe
9. The Misfortunates
10. Holy Motors
11. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
12. Barton Fink
13. Mr. Nobody
14. The Tree of Life
15. Dead Man
16. The Fountain
17. You, The Living
18. The Machinist
19. Pan's Labyrinth
20. Taste of Cherry
21. Melancholia
22. Songs From The Second Floor
23. Dog Days
24. The Weeping Meadow
25. Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind

Roy Andersson's upcoming "A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence"

Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson said in an interview that he was a victim of true literature and great cinema. After creating his very own Studio 24, he has blessed us with two timeless masterpieces and now it looks like when he will be done with the third piece of his infamous trilogy, we will be victim of his cinema. First piece was "Songs From The Second Floor"(2000), darkest humors and portrayal of collective guilt in an apocalyptic plot. My personal favorite is the second one "You, The Living"(2007), artistic study of the human condition with wrapped with stunning visual beauty and a tremendous piece of score. "You, The Living" can easily be considered his best work since his comeback to the industry from a successful commercial career. Plot has become more useless to him and setting off the limitations of sub-conscious has added a surreal touch. Usage of polished lenses, unearthly makeups and dreamy cinematography made "You, The Living" a milestone of modern art cinema.

"A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence" is the new movie of Roy, hoped to be premiered in Cannes 2014. His last two movies grasped the attention of the world and now we are ready to take him seriously. According to him this almost goofy titled movie is another series of presentations consisting of dark jokes and holocaust. The video of making the scene couple on the beach shows how much effort are put in one frame.

Uzak

Before taking a look over any of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's movie I wanted to know who he was, and turns out he is one of the finest photographers out there. The movie I am going to talk about is a simple but unique and very much relevant way of introducing his audience to his lifestyle or the life-experiences he's been through. I heard that his work is influenced by Abbas Kiarostami, who played a singular role to define films representing middle-eastern identity and it's consequences. After Taste of Cherry (1997), Abbas Kiarostami made his very own language of cinema which I found worthy of naming it 'new wave cinema' but perhaps for my little knowledge of cinema, I still see his works artistically weaker than other European film poets. I said this much about Abbas Kiarostami because Uzak (2002), from my point of view was born from him, Nuri being a very artistically blessed follower of him, carried the movie beyond his idol's cine language and successfully made his first film poetry with a true Tarkovskiyan ending. Once Upon A Time In Anatolia (2011) is in my possession now and despite all the fantastic reviews I have no plan to watch it soon because I've been drowned in Uzak. This film has everything to be categorized as the signature work of the turkish director and at the same time an era-defining masterpiece.

The story is almost insignificant and so is the camera-work, they didn't represent anything out of the box. The event portrayed here can happen to anybody who's from a sub-urban area and now doing pretty well or average in the capital city. Sudden closure of a factory created a reason for Yusuf to come to Mahmut, the protagonist in Istanbul. Mahmut probably thought or really believed that Yusuf could stay with him for a little while and when he finds a job he will be gone. On a second thought, I really don't think that Mahmut, the character has the emotional attachment or concern for thinking about it at all. The obvious distance between them gradually being uncovered, and in a very complex circumstances Mahmut lost his temper and showed his inner individualistic selfishness. Yusuf silently is gone from the story, and Mahmut with all his post-modern complexions remains the man he was from the first. Nothing changes, a 40 year old independent photographer and his world of untold bizarre delusion are all that's left at the ending scene, which mesmerized me and hurt me with it's unbearable depression and it's unfathomable depth that hits right into your senses. 

If the story is this short, what makes the strength of a film to make it's viewer stoned? For Uzak, most of the credit goes to the two lead actors, their performances can be described as real, which i think is rare to see in movies these days. The whole movie stands upon a pool of short conversations, looks on faces, events that are very normal but considered insignificant. An immensely challenging work of executing all these little details and turn them into the fibers of a post-modern tale of life, is done with a delicate photographer's hand. That's why the slow pace, lack of human connection, even the exhibits of disgusting habits cannot ruin it a bit. Happy to see the beautiful Anatolian steppes off course through the eye of a great photographer, and the snow-falling shown in such a nostalgic style, remarkable.

Greatest European film-poet of his time Andrey Tarkovskiy stated that Art is born out of an ill-designed world. These out of the world incredibly beautiful and deep movies wouldn't be there if the world was perfect, the crisis and dysfunction in the system provoke an artist to show the world how exactly it feels. The extent to which an artist is capable of performing the act, that has no objective measure or standards. Nuri Bilge Ceylan is undoubtedly one of a kind jewel in contemplative cinema who has already been showing simultaneously the maturity of a european film-poet and the artistic indifference inherited from  the middle-eastern new wave.

 

Melancholia

At last I found the exact peace of mind that you need to sensually appreciate a movie like Melancholia (2011). After watching it somehow i felt something unique about this movie, I don't exactly explain what that 'something' is or describe it in any way, but what can I say, it was the exact thing i expected from this epic work of Lars Von Trier ,which i hear represents a liaison between Hollywood big budget film and European art house indie films.

First thing I wanna say is pretty obvious to any average movie lovers, the starting part and the ending part have contributed most to the whole movie being an extraordinarily beautiful one. Yes, there are very good pieces of acting done by Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsburg & the most brilliant one, Kieffer Sutherland (seriously his character should have been given at least a chance to grow), but little did they matter. I really enjoyed Kirsten Dunst in so very different character like this and she did pretty well reminding me how i felt about her when I watched Eternal Sunshine of A Spotless Mind (2004) and thought she should do some real movie leaving the Spider-man lady image. The bathing scene must be the scene where positive viewers enjoyed the most and negative viewers (who hate the movie before even seeing it) hated the most. The scene tells us a lot about the story than any other scene in the movie, it exhibits the nature of the perpetual depression in Justine and how anyone, doesn't matter how close they are, cannot help her or understand her pain. Another beautiful scene apart from the starting and ending is Justine lying naked in the jungle and when that supernatural light falls on her I experienced the best nude scene in my movie viewing history. Many people say that some weird depressed face and emotional outbursts don't make her capable of getting the best actress award but from my point of view, she totally understood what her character represents and she portrayed it well enough to be considered as beautiful and that's why she deserves the award.

Now I have to admit that I haven't watched any of Trier's work with so much concentration and calm mind before Melancholia. I am a big fan of European art films specially Scandinavian directors, if not for them movie would not so firmly grown as a strong and effective art form as it is now. I cannot possibly talk about how Roy Andersson's films changed the whole idea of movies to me, it was like a life-changing experience. With Lars Von Trier working in Hollywood, I expected something truly universal and masterwork from him. And he didn't disappoint me even a little bit. After Dancer In The Dark (2000) and Antichrist (2009), expectations grew higher and when he managed to grab a big budget project, they were just skyrocketing. If you make a list of most talked about movies of 2011, I am sure Melancholia will top many's.The number of outstandingly memorable frames Melancholia graced us with, are enough to satisfy the hunger of true art-seeking souls. Besides, the story, plot even the acting easily qualify for calling the movie epic.

The movie, without any doubt worthy of it's name and fame both. I really hope a movie like this getting the Academy Best Picture award and setting an example that should have been set a long time ago.

Dexter season 06 : Another Journey of The Dark Passenger

If I've been asked to name one TV series without any progression of degradation in quality throughout all the seasons, I would say "Dexter", and to be fair enough this series has already taken a major step for being the best TV series ever made, at least for the genre. The latest season of Dexter showed how this season can be better than all the former ones, which is very unlikely to happen these days. I can give a dozen examples of TV series getting worse from season to season, sometimes a complete disaster being a pure wastage of time. 'Heroes' is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Being a fan of Dexter from the start, I was amazed to watch all the fabrics of breathtaking storyline in every season. Without any major disappointment, I've been able to watch this nearly superhero series ever since. I started sixth season with considerable amount of confusion and a hidden fear that, it's time for another great series to be ruined. But this supreme tale of life and death has turned into a saga of a mastermind last year, and we have nothing to do except bow before the landmark it made.

Michael C Hall hits us again with his silent and a very weird way of making an effective impression of a nearly human serial killer. His dedication to portray the character Dexter and the consistency he maintained from the first is really admirable. In every season his character had to go through significant changes which affected the whole plot later. He managed to not only adapt with the changes, but also made an advantage of it and facilitated the evolution of a serial killer to an angel of death. My confusion about this season was the possibility of a failure or major flaw in the storyline because of the sudden death of Rita & unexplored real fatherhood of Dexter. Despite all my bad expectations, turns out Dexter is not a lousy dad at all besides being the carrier of the dark passenger. Story of this season was like a challenge to Michael C Hall because it's a reformation of his well known character 'Dexter'. Somewhere between the season Dexter got all confused and disturbed, finding no hope or no answer to all of his questions, question of belief, question of righteousness and overall question of his inner bestiality. After all this, introduction of a very short lasting but effective character Brother Sam, made a remarkable and somewhat questionable impact on Dexter. And then the obvious meeting between the big bad of this season Dooms Day Killer (DDK) and the angel of death Dexter, couldn't be more exciting. The actor has that much maturity and potential to portray all of this flawlessly till the end. Outstanding performance from the actor, expected and delivered undoubtedly. There's a rumor going on that he is renegotiating his contract and claiming a million per episode of the upcoming season which is causing a possible termination of the series. It would be absolutely stupid to discontinue this extraordinary series on a salary issue, anybody can tell that Michael C Hall is worth much greater than that.

Another very important aspect of this series is how successfully it can make an way through the tragic ending of the only regular romantic relationship of Dexter & maintaining the subtle tone of morality without introducing any new female lead. Now I think this has been the only dysfunction in the overall story and dragging the once-not-so-important character Debra Morgan to that lead is not the best decision at all. This process of reformation has been plotted from the former season and with the promotion, responsibility and psychotherapy sessions it's been prominent that Deb the sis is not that messed up little sister anymore, her character is going to be significant than ever in the next season. But I have to admit that the idea of the incestuous relationship between those two is very disturbing and creepy to some extent. Jennifer Carpenter has overcome her excessive overacting in the former seasons & this whole emotional meltdown stage suited her well. She has found her place in this truly great storyline.

A good series requires a good lead actor, but doesn't necessarily depend on him totally. The balance also had been made by some very good piece of acting from the fellow actors. Travis Marshall himself alone was not sufficient enough to be the big bad, Prof. James Gellar represents the gap between average disturbed human mind and an evil mastermind psychopath.When Dex found Gellar dead in the church, within a moment, a work of giving a surprise to the viewers & introducing another dark passenger, should have been done with artistic accuracy. That's another flaw which got fade during the last three episodes. I still hope to get a better explanation in the future seasons but again one has to admit that a major shocker like this only fits in a series like Dexter. Edward James Olmos was a perfect choice for the dark and twisted character of Gellar, with his oldish look and mysterious face he managed to make a believable appearance as a spiritually misguided genius. Some characters have lost their charm and importance, most notably Lt. Laguerta and Quinn, reminding us that their time has come to get off the show.

Now I'm going to write about some scenes or presentation of events that forced me to re-evaluate the series from the first season and helped me getting the greater view. Starting with the same old 'Dexter'ous beginning of every episode, the observer & adviser father figure Harry Morgan who's actually not there, significant number of killings with least exposure to violence, all these are the sweet memoirs to me. This season added another one to the list, the door is ajar & the camera moving to find a Dad Dexter bathing his little boy Harrison, the bubbles are flying so are my imaginations how far this series can go to find the true path of righteousness concealing his true identity even to his own son. 'Dexter' gave me a lot of good times and I'm looking forward to get more of those melancholic scenes to be inscribed in my brain forever.