♥♥♥♥♥♥
+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Adaptation of the Year + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Ensemble of the Year: Eliza Scanlen, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, Louis Garrel, Chris Cooper + Best Massachusetts Movie of the Year + Best Melodrama of the Year + Best On-Screen Couple of the Year: Saoirse Ronan & Timothée Chalamet + Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Florence Pugh
 |
| The four beautiful, fresh-faced young women stars of Greta Gerwig's Little Women shine bright on this delicate, well-composed poster for the film |
We follow the four March sisters Jo, Meg, Amy and Beth, as they develop from youths to women in 1860s Massachusetts.
Little Women is written and directed by Californian master filmmaker Greta Gerwig (Nights and Weekends (2008)), whose 3rd film it is, as well as the high point in her career so far. It is the 7th adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's (Under the Lilacs (1878)) same-titled 1868 autobiographical novel.
The film is a delightful wonder, a sumptuous production with a deliciously flowing and pristine score by Alexandre Desplat (Suffragette (2015)). The costumes are masterful and full of bold colors, which fit the youthful, hopeful spirits of the characters perfectly.
The ensemble is likely the year's most splendid, and each breathe wonderful life into Alcott's rich story:
As the sisters, we have newcomers Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects (2018, miniseries)) and Florence Pugh (Malevolent (2018)), who is wonderful as Amy, and major stars Emma Watson (My Week with Marilyn (2011)) and Saoirse Ronan (Lost River (2014)). Timothée Chalamet (One and Two (2015)) is the vibrant, charming Laurie, the delectable neighbor who enthralls more than one March sister, and both Ronan and Chalamet are canonically good and as sweet as can be. This also seems like it simply must be the last time that these two can seem like a 16 year-old Waif and Adonis, (he is 24 now, she 25); the brilliant, innocent gleam must naturally come to an end for them, and it may come around now so suck them in as the chalices of youth that they still very much are here. Completing the cast are a solid group of proven actor greats; Meryl Streep (Dark Matter (2007)), Laura Dern (Wilson (2017)), Tracy Letts (Homeland (2013-14)), - very satisfying as Jo's direct New York editor, - Bob Odenkirk (Long Shot (2019)), Louis Garrel (Two Friends/Les Deux Amis (2015)) - another young hot male actor, - and finally Chris Cooper (The Company Men (2010)), who is great as Mr. Laurence.
Little Women is a very positive and sweet film and story. At times it may come close to feeling too lovely, (strange thing, hu), but then you remember that this is the story of four young sisters, who inhabit a very lovely world, not least because of the firm, positive values they get with them from home, - and it is, after all, very nice to inhabit a lovelier world for a couple of hours than the one you have for the surrounding part of your life, when it is so well-made and deeply moving as Little Women is.
Gerwig has structured the story ingeniously with advanced chronology, always keeping us close to its flame. She has also directed the film so that it is a great drama that you realize underway is a melodrama, and which comes to its end in a staggeringly wonderful, romantic climax, which at the same time plays with the audience's expectations in an intelligent way, underlining the film's themes of female independence and artistry in a patriarchal society. If you know the story, you'll know where it goes, but Gerwig makes Little Women as toweringly universal, pregnant with meaning and feeling above all that you'll want to absolutely catch this treasure in a cinema.
Related posts:
Greta Gerwig: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Lady Bird (2017) - Gerwig's personal Sacramento youth ode is terrific
Wiener-Dog (2016) - Solondz's incisive and funny dog saga dramedy (co-star)
Frances Ha (2012) or, Growing Older Ain't Easy (co-writer/star)
To Rome With Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date (co-star)
Arthur (2011) - Frenzied, colossal egotrip remake, irredeemable DOA (supporting actor)
Greenberg (2010) - Baumbach's uniquely downbeat LA-romance depressant (supporting actor)
The House of the Devil (2009) - West's energetic, scary throwback period horror (co-star)
Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 133.6 mil. $ and counting
= Box office success (returned 3.34 times its cost)
[Little Women premiered 7 December (New York) and runs 135 minutes. Sarah Polley was in talks to make the film, before Gerwig was hired. It is the 7th adaptation of the novel. Emma Stone dropped out months prior to shooting and was replaced by Watson. Shooting took place in Massachusetts, including Boston, from October - December 2018. As on Gerwig's previous film, Lady Bird, she banned cellphones from the set. The film opened #4, behind holdover hits Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Jumanji: The Next Level and Frozen II, to a 16.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#3) and has grossed 86.7 mil. $ (64.9 % of the total gross). The film has 18 more markets announced to open in the coming months, including Germany, South Korea, China and Japan. Its final gross may well grow way past 150 mil. $, and could even cross 200 mil. $. It is nominated for 6 Oscars: Best Picture, Actress (Ronan), Supporting Actress (Pugh), Adapted Screenplay, Costumes and Score. It was nominated for 2 Golden Globes, is nominated for 5 BAFTAs and won an AFI award, among many other honors. IMDb's users have voted it in at #238 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and Before Sunset (2004). Gerwig is announced to next head the long-in-gestation Barbie movie. Ronan returns in The French Dispatch (2020); Watson does not have her next acting gig announced yet; Pugh returns in Black Widow (2020), and Scanlen in The Devil All the Time (2020). Little Women is certified fresh at 95 % with a 8.59/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Little Women?
No comments:
Post a Comment