Day 326: Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (2016)

The world of Harry Potter is definitely one that is interesting and that’s only having seen just two films. When I had heard that they were making a film about a book that Harry contained called Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, I had to see and it’s today’s film. In 1926, wizard Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) decided that he wanted to travel to New York to let go of a friend that belonged there. Things get complicated when he bumps into a no-maj (a muggle) named Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) which in turn sees some of the beasts in Newt’s suitcase get set free into New York. Now it’s up to them and two other wizards to try and find these magical creatures before the council finds out, but they stumble upon something more sinister along the way. The film also stars Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice) as Tina, Alison Sudol (Between Us) as Queenie, Ezra Miller (Suicide Squad) as Creedence, Samantha Morton (John Carter) as Mary Lou, Colin Farrell (Daredevil) as Graves, Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy) as Shaw Sr., Ron Pearlman (Hellboy) as Gnarlack, Josh Cowdery (Godzilla) as Senator Shaw, Faith Wood-Blagrove as Modesty Barebone, Jenn Murray (Brooklyn) as Chastity Barebone, and the film was directed by David Yates (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince).

First off, I just wanted to say that if you are a fan of Harry Potter then you are absolutely going to love this film because I loved it. The film features some great writing, amazing special effects, and some amazing acting from everyone especially Colin Farrell, Eddie Redmayne, and even Dan Fogler. It’s hard to just choose a few because everyone was amazing in the film. What I can say is that there is definitely too many people to mention which is why I only chose three. We could go on forever talking about the rest of them. There is a reveal at the end of the film that will either shock you or you cheated and went to IMDB and you are no longer surprised. Either way when you see it, you’ll be instantly excited. I almost fell out of my seat when I saw the surprise. The creatures were great and there were a lot of funny moments to go along with the cute moments (especially the Niffler who has a habit of stealing) from all the creatures. This is definitely a great origin story and they make various references to Hogwarts and even Dumbledore and that has me excited to see exactly what the future holds in store for this amazing wizard world. I know I am going to be glued to the news to see and hopefully after you see this, you’ll feel the same as me. I am going to go ahead and give the film an A for a final grade because it deserved it.

Day 257: The Danish Girl (2015)

In the past five years or even more, the issue of transgenderism has been one of the hottest topics in the United States of America. It’s an issue that has seen celebrities like Chaz Bono and more come out in support for the issue. In the 1920’s when this kind of topic was extremely taboo, one man stepped forward because he truly believed that he was a woman and that was the basis for the film The Danish Girl. The Danish Girl tells the story of Lili Elbe/Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne), the first person to ever go through the sex change operation in Dresden, Germany. The movie tells the struggles that Einar went through along with his artist wife Gerder (Alicia Vikander) to become the woman known as Lili. The film also stars Amber Heard (Never Back Down) as Ulla, Emerald Fennell (Anna Karenina) as Elsa, Adrian Schiller (Son Of God) as Rasmussen, Ben Whishaw (In The Heart Of The Sea) as Henrik, Matthias Schoenaerts (Far From The Madding Crowd) as Hans Axgil, Henry Pettigrew (Next Of Kin) as Niels, Pip Torrens (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) as Dr. Hexler, Sebastian Koch (A Good Day To Die Hard) as Warnekros, and the film was directed by Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech).

This truly was an amazing story and it’s all based off of her diaries that she kept while she was going though the sex change. The romance part of the film I believe was fictitious, but most of the film was true. Based off of the site History Vs Hollywood a lot of things in the film were true like having Einar put on the stockings indeed did drive his desire to change. Almost everything in this film was true from what I can read there and if you want to read more about it like how he went through four or five different operation just click on it. Eddie Redmayne put on one heck of a performance in the film so it comes as no surprise that he was nominated for an Oscar. Alicia Vikander who also did one heck of an amazing job in the film won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role and she deserved it. Both of them unleashed the pain, confusion, and hurt that both must have been feeling at the time and it shows. Alicia Vikander is not only sexy and beautiful, but she is becoming one actress to watch because I loved her in this and in Ex Machina. Everything about the film was masterful from the gray tones in the film to the final brightness of Lili being free. The cinematography was absolutely amazing and the writing was phenomenal. There really wasn’t too much I hated about the film and I certainly didn’t mind having Amber Heard in the film. I am going to give the film an A+ for a final grade. Check it out on HBOGO right now.