I live in a county that doesn’t have a lot of indie films make their way into. Add that until this year I generally kept my movie knowledge to trailers I saw while watching movies that I went to because I saw the trailer while watching shows that probably feature comic book characters. Room, which has 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and is based on a novel, came to my attention thanks to Doug Benson, Leonard Maltin, and other film podcasts that I listen to and they all said go into this movie with as little information as possible.
Thus, this review is going to be brief, as I have found that my choice to heed their advice was correct. Not knowing much about the film left me to really explore the story and react naturally to the reveals that occur. The brevity of the review does not reflect my opinion of the film at all. I think I could speak for days on all the little aspects of the film, but I’m going to avoid spoilers and highly recommend this movie be added to your must purchase list.
Brie Larson should without question win Best Actress. Her performance is amazing and she really drives the story forward. Her crying is probably the best I have seen in recent movies and by comparison to Jennifer Lawrence, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Natalie Portman is much more believable.
Jacob Tremblay deserves a nomination. He is only 9-years-old but is a phenomenal actor. His character is really where the weight of the story falls and his little shoulder is strong enough to make it work.
Lenny Abrahamson is earning a place as one of my favorite directors. I’ve only seen two of his films, Room and Frank, but I listened to an interview with him on Maltin on Movies and he has earned a lot of my respect. He truly loves film and is a craftsman at the art. I look forward to exploring the rest of his catalog.
I broke the format I’ve been using (Good, Bad, and the Verdict) as I felt pointing out the bad to be a challenge. That’s not to say it’s perfect, but I loved it so much I was blind to any negatives there may have been. I may end up writing a spoiler article on this film, but then again I’m sure many others have beat me to that. Just know that I think Room is probably the best of 2015 (and yes I am a huge Star Wars Nerd) and give it a 10 out of 10 dead leaves.
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