A to Z Challenge 2020 - J

Jane Got a Gun (2016)
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Starring: Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan McGregor
Brief Thoughts: Hey, those are three actors from the Star Wars prequels! And yeah, for me that’s enough of a hook right there. For a lot of critics, the only thing they needed to know was that the movie had a troubled production history, and yeah, it’s literally a thing with critics that it matters how a movie was made, rather than, y’know, the movie itself, and because journalists in general cover movies like that, audiences learn about it and of course their opinions are needlessly swayed...And this has been going on forever, of course. Citizen Kane had an uphill battle to immortality thanks to the fact that it heavily skewered a famous newspaper mogul, who used his influence to bury, as much as possible, the movie in its original release. Arguably this single act nearly buried Orson Welles’s entire resulting career, making it increasingly difficult for him to work with major studios, get the recognition he deserved, and his movies appreciated for what they were. Am I suggesting Gavin O’Connor has received a comparable fate? Am I comparing Gavin O’Connor to Orson Welles? Half the reason Joel Edgerton keeps showing up in these selections is because of Warrior, his breakthrough film, and O’Connor’s, one of my all-time favorite films, instantly. So yeah, when O’Connor has a new film, I pay attention. And I have yet to be disappointed. One of the truly unsung great talents working in film today.