Carol Review

Continuing on my Oscar quest I arrived at carol, easily one of the best reviewed films of the year. Sadly I thought it was a bit of a let down but it's still a great movie. It follows the relationship between an older married lady and a younger lady who has a boyfriend, then things start to get intimate.

With all the praise this movie has been getting most of it has been centered on the performances of Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara and it deserves to be. Neither are Oscar favorite but if they win it they won't be snubbing it from anyone.

With every year at the Oscars comes snubs and here is no exception. Todd Haynes directed this such perfection that to think if anyone else doing it would be blasphemous. He really gets the camera into the faces of the actors and shows us the raw emotion that we witness.

Recently I've seen a headline on the internet for Carol stating that "you shouldn't vote for best cinematography until you've seen Carol". They are spot on. With the four other Oscar nominations for the same category, two of the movies don't feel unique (Revenant and Sicario) like the other nominations and espically compared to Lubezki's and Deakin's other works. Mad Max DoP's work seems like half the work was in post production.

This isn't to say I don't like those movies or images (all of them are great in their own way) but with Carol every shot seems like it could be a painting or a photograph. Shot on 16mm and blown up to 35mm it adds an superb amount of character to the frame as well as giving it a period feel. Now that I've seen every cinematography this year has some of highest standard of work across any category this year.

One thing I found interesting was the use of reflections in the movie, for most of the film the characters are looking through then at the end a character finally looks at themselves in the end.

If this film wins one Oscar this year it would have to be costume design. Each costume is eloquently designed and represents the character wearing it.

Now one of the most important parts of the movie. The writing. Adapted from 'the price of Salt' from Phyllis Nagy (who wrote the screenplay to) the dialogue never feels one dimensional. Even the supporting characters are well written. The story isn't filled with expected cliches that would come to top of anyone's head.

The only down side to the movie was the trailer as it doesn't faithfully represent the plot of the movie.

Overall the movie is great on all technical levels and is a must see this Oscar season. Just don't watch the trailer.

Overall score: 8.5

What did you think if you've seen the movie? Did it make you want to dress up in 1950's clothes?

#cateblanchett #rooneymara #toddhaynes #period #romance #lesbian #2015 #oscars