Gifted (2017)
Director: Marc Webb
Starring: Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Octavia Spencer
Brief Thoughts: Some of you might know that I spent a fair bit of the last few years helping raise my niece. The process of that ending was (and remains) difficult for me to process. Gifted, although depicting different circumstances, has helped me cope with it. Good spotlight for Chris Evans, too.
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris
Brief Thoughts: Ben Affleck, as a director, became far better known for The Town and Argo, but I think I’ll always prefer this, in part because, along with one of my all-time favorite movies, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, it helped establish Casey Affleck as a movie star. Casey and Michelle Monaghan play private investigators from a series of books by Dennis Lehane, who at the turn of the millennium was Hollywood’s favorite author. Being from New England, I also like movies set in Boston (so that’s another reason I really love The Departed). Plus there’s a huge twist involving Morgan Freeman, which is nice to see, as far as Freeman stretching himself a little goes...
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, millions of others
Brief Thoughts: A couple years ago I fell instantly and emphatically in love with Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, not because I’ve always been a huge fan of Anderson but because I’ve been an admirer watching the products of his vivid imagination unfold over the years. He’s one of the truly consummate filmmaking artists working today. Grand Budapest Hotel itself is breathtaking, and perhaps if I’d watched it sooner would have been the tipping point. Plus, Anderson is a wizard of casting. He can get the most interesting actors in the smallest of roles. You can watch this one for that alone. It’s astonishing, basically on nearly every level.
Gringo (2018)
Director: Nash Edgerton
Starring: David Oyelowo, Joel Edgerton, Charlize Theron, Thandie Newton, Sharlto Copley, Amanda Seyfried
Brief Thoughts: A lot of people, who bothered to note that Gringo happened at all, dismissed it as bafflingly racist. But the point of a farce is absurdity, and there has been no recent film example of farce as comically absurd as Gringo. Where we most often complain loudly and lamely about the things we don’t like in society, this is the kind of film that reflects in hilarious terms how loud and lame society is, and perhaps by extension, lampoons the very people who were never going to understand it.
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
A to Z Challenge 2020 - F
Fever Pitch (2005)
Director; Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly
Starring: Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore
Brief Thoughts: As a die hard fan of the Red Sox, it was always going to be impossible for me not to ignore Fever Pitch. The previous year they had just ended an infamous 86 year drought and won the World Series. Fever Pitch is one of two works that were fortuitously already in progress when it happened, the other a book (Faithful) Stephen King was coauthoring to chronicle the season, which ended up producing far different endings than originally conceived. To hear the filmmakers tell it, Fever Pitch didn’t have the Hollywood ending until baseball delivered it. And what an ending! I like to imagine I would care about the movie otherwise. I mean, it still revolves around the Sox. But, y’know...
Flight (2012)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, John Goodman, Kelly Reilly, James Badge Dale
Brief Thoughts: Denzel Washington is without a doubt one of the finest actors working today. Although of course these days, like Liam Neeson or Tom Cruise, you’re more apt to find him in an action movie than a drama, where he really thrives. Flight is one of his most recent dramas, and of course he’s brilliant in it. So’s Don Cheadle, right before he was sucked into the Avengers machine seemingly permanently. But Flight, for me, is always going to be the breakout film of James Badge Dale. It’s a minuscule role, in which he’s credited only as “Gaunt Young Man.” Washington and Kelly Reilly are bonding at the hospital when they step into a stairwell for a smoke (they’re exactly that kind of characters), when Dale comes shuffling up, and ends up completely dominating the scene. I never understood why it was so hard for Hollywood to find him roles like that, where his innate charisma could shine through. It may be that he does best in showy supporting roles (which to be clear, is not hammy or overacting), but then, he doesn’t really get those, either. He seems to have settled into sober authority figures, which I suppose works. For now.
Free State of Jones (2016)
Director: Gary Ross
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Mahershala Ali, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell
Brief Thoughts: One of the things that baffles me about the modern era is that we seem intent to shake loose from mythical figures in general. We’ve had a trend to find the core truths of their lives, if they were real people, but having achieved that we discard both the myth and the real person with it. And we lose our pasts in the process. The funny thing is, even real people who didn’t particularly have myths attached to them are easily ignored in the process. Such is the case with Newton Knight, who wages war with the Confederacy in his home state of Mississippi. It’s another perfect role for Matthew McConaughey (although of course equally ignored). Free State of Jones was also the breakthrough film for Mahershala Ali, who went in to greater prominence in Moonlight and Green Book, both of which won Best Picture at the Oscars.
Funny People (2009)
Director: Judd Apatow
Starring: Adam Sandler, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Seth Rogan, Eric Bana
Brief Thoughts: Adam Sandler has perhaps one of the strangest careers ever in Hollywood. When he finally became an unqualified success, he epitomized the gross out humor that had come to dominate the late ‘90s. Then, as with most comedic actors, he also wanted to do drama. Funny People is one of those. It’s also the culmination of the celebration of Warren Zevon’s life and legacy that happened just as he was dying, which is also when I finally discovered him. It’s also a rare, and very welcome, comedic spotlight for Eric Bana.
Director; Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly
Starring: Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore
Brief Thoughts: As a die hard fan of the Red Sox, it was always going to be impossible for me not to ignore Fever Pitch. The previous year they had just ended an infamous 86 year drought and won the World Series. Fever Pitch is one of two works that were fortuitously already in progress when it happened, the other a book (Faithful) Stephen King was coauthoring to chronicle the season, which ended up producing far different endings than originally conceived. To hear the filmmakers tell it, Fever Pitch didn’t have the Hollywood ending until baseball delivered it. And what an ending! I like to imagine I would care about the movie otherwise. I mean, it still revolves around the Sox. But, y’know...
Flight (2012)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, John Goodman, Kelly Reilly, James Badge Dale
Brief Thoughts: Denzel Washington is without a doubt one of the finest actors working today. Although of course these days, like Liam Neeson or Tom Cruise, you’re more apt to find him in an action movie than a drama, where he really thrives. Flight is one of his most recent dramas, and of course he’s brilliant in it. So’s Don Cheadle, right before he was sucked into the Avengers machine seemingly permanently. But Flight, for me, is always going to be the breakout film of James Badge Dale. It’s a minuscule role, in which he’s credited only as “Gaunt Young Man.” Washington and Kelly Reilly are bonding at the hospital when they step into a stairwell for a smoke (they’re exactly that kind of characters), when Dale comes shuffling up, and ends up completely dominating the scene. I never understood why it was so hard for Hollywood to find him roles like that, where his innate charisma could shine through. It may be that he does best in showy supporting roles (which to be clear, is not hammy or overacting), but then, he doesn’t really get those, either. He seems to have settled into sober authority figures, which I suppose works. For now.
Free State of Jones (2016)
Director: Gary Ross
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Mahershala Ali, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell
Brief Thoughts: One of the things that baffles me about the modern era is that we seem intent to shake loose from mythical figures in general. We’ve had a trend to find the core truths of their lives, if they were real people, but having achieved that we discard both the myth and the real person with it. And we lose our pasts in the process. The funny thing is, even real people who didn’t particularly have myths attached to them are easily ignored in the process. Such is the case with Newton Knight, who wages war with the Confederacy in his home state of Mississippi. It’s another perfect role for Matthew McConaughey (although of course equally ignored). Free State of Jones was also the breakthrough film for Mahershala Ali, who went in to greater prominence in Moonlight and Green Book, both of which won Best Picture at the Oscars.
Funny People (2009)
Director: Judd Apatow
Starring: Adam Sandler, Leslie Mann, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Seth Rogan, Eric Bana
Brief Thoughts: Adam Sandler has perhaps one of the strangest careers ever in Hollywood. When he finally became an unqualified success, he epitomized the gross out humor that had come to dominate the late ‘90s. Then, as with most comedic actors, he also wanted to do drama. Funny People is one of those. It’s also the culmination of the celebration of Warren Zevon’s life and legacy that happened just as he was dying, which is also when I finally discovered him. It’s also a rare, and very welcome, comedic spotlight for Eric Bana.
Monday, April 6, 2020
A to Z Challenge 2020 - E
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, Rhys Ifans, Eddie Redmayne
Brief Thoughts: A sequel to a historic drama is pretty rare, but we’re talking Queen Elizabeth and Cate Blanchett. Besides Blanchett, easily one of the best and most interesting actors of her generation, there’s also Clive Owen, dashing as Walter Raleigh. Eventually there will be a third one, and maybe then the series can be duly appreciated.
Elizabethtown (2005)
Director: Cameron Crowe
Starring: Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst
Brief Thoughts: I guess even directors in Hollywood can be drummed out of their popular careers. Cameron Crowe had a number of huge successes before Elizabethtown, including Jerry Maguire, and then...Well, now it hardly seems as if he were ever a thing at all. Orlando Bloom, likewise, was a victim. He had two massive franchises to his credit, Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean, and thanks in large part to the latter he was unquestionably the big winner to come out of the former. But his solo career sputtered eventually, not for lack of his continuing appeal, highlighted by his American romance adventure here, with a Kirsten Dunst never more sweetly appealing alongside him.
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton
Brief Thoughts: There is no director working today more committed to or consistently making better historical dramas than Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Kingdom of Men, Robin Hood), but because one of them was a massive hit and the others weren’t, you’d hardly know it. This was his Moses epic, and of course it was caught up in the nonsensical “Hey! Let’s pretend Hollywood shouldn’t cast movie stars in its movies!” craze that asked instead for cultural accuracy. And no one ever flocked to a culturally accurate film depicting someone else’s culture (uh, unless it’s the rest of the world watching Hollywood movies). Anyway, the absolute best thing about this movie is Joel Edgerton in his career best performance, a piece of character work that proves how good and magnetic he really is.
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton, Rhys Ifans, Eddie Redmayne
Brief Thoughts: A sequel to a historic drama is pretty rare, but we’re talking Queen Elizabeth and Cate Blanchett. Besides Blanchett, easily one of the best and most interesting actors of her generation, there’s also Clive Owen, dashing as Walter Raleigh. Eventually there will be a third one, and maybe then the series can be duly appreciated.
Elizabethtown (2005)
Director: Cameron Crowe
Starring: Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst
Brief Thoughts: I guess even directors in Hollywood can be drummed out of their popular careers. Cameron Crowe had a number of huge successes before Elizabethtown, including Jerry Maguire, and then...Well, now it hardly seems as if he were ever a thing at all. Orlando Bloom, likewise, was a victim. He had two massive franchises to his credit, Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean, and thanks in large part to the latter he was unquestionably the big winner to come out of the former. But his solo career sputtered eventually, not for lack of his continuing appeal, highlighted by his American romance adventure here, with a Kirsten Dunst never more sweetly appealing alongside him.
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton
Brief Thoughts: There is no director working today more committed to or consistently making better historical dramas than Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Kingdom of Men, Robin Hood), but because one of them was a massive hit and the others weren’t, you’d hardly know it. This was his Moses epic, and of course it was caught up in the nonsensical “Hey! Let’s pretend Hollywood shouldn’t cast movie stars in its movies!” craze that asked instead for cultural accuracy. And no one ever flocked to a culturally accurate film depicting someone else’s culture (uh, unless it’s the rest of the world watching Hollywood movies). Anyway, the absolute best thing about this movie is Joel Edgerton in his career best performance, a piece of character work that proves how good and magnetic he really is.
Saturday, April 4, 2020
A to Z Challenge 2020 - D
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Audrey Tautou, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno
Brief Thoughts: Such are the idiot summations of generalists: This is the movie with the Tom Hanks Mullet. The Dan Brown book became one of those mass consumption deals where half the people who joined the bandwagon couldn’t begin to understand what the fuss was about (this is basically how the modern era comprehends all popular things), and as such the debate as to whether the results were laughable, enlightening, or just plain sacrilegious sort of...missed the point. Brown ended up producing a whole series of books starring Robert Langdon prodding at the edges of public conspiracy and incredulity (which, again, is the modern age in a nutshell), three out of five having been adapted for film. This first one remains the best. It doesn’t hurt to have Hanks in top form, and for someone, anyone, to be striking while the Ian McKellen brand was hot. I prefer this performance to his Magneto, and to the second two Gandalf appearances.
Damsel (2018)
Director: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska
Brief Thoughts: The brilliance of Robert Pattinson’s post-Twilight Saga career is that he’s thrust himself into the kind of career Brad Pitt only pretended to pursue. In the late ‘90s Pitt became obsessed with rejecting the pretty boy label and started seeking gonzo roles. Pattinson did him one better by doing so on a deliberately indy scale, and he only recently started hitting his stride. This one makes him out to be a thoroughly unsympathetic lunatic. It’s a brilliant movie.
The Dark Tower (2017)
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Starring: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey
Brief Thoughts: I have a lot of incidental local connections to Stephen King. Aside from the fact that he’s somewhat culturally inescapable anyway, I was always going to intersect with his work. And some of it I like a lot. But the Dark Tower material, that I’ve read, is somewhat insufferable. In an alternate reality it would’ve been adapted a long time ago into one of those “edgy” cable shows I try to avoid (unless it was the second season of The Walking Dead and at least had Shane working for it). The thing about movies, or perfect casting in general, is, well, perfect casting. Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey are two of the most endlessly charismatic actors working today, so of course they’re not nearly as cherished as they ought to be. And these are perfect roles. The movie hardly has to do much around them, but it’s good, too.
The Death of Stalin (2018)
Director: Armando Iannucci
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Jason Isaacs, Jeffrey Tambor, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin
Brief Thoughts: If ever there was Monty Python (mostly) without Monty Python, this ruthless satire of USSR political intrigue is it. By any reasonable standard, this should be an instant cult classic. And it’s a perfect example of how childish many, many other attempts at satire and commentary tend to be.
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2013)
Director: Ned Benson
Starring: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Viola Davis, William Hurt, Bill Hader, Ciarán Hinds, Katherine Waterston
Brief Thoughts: This is one of those movies where I heard about its unusual properties, and became instantly intrigued, and found the results more than worth the curiosity. There are three separate cuts of it, one following Jessica Chastain (easily one of the most interesting actors working today), one following James McAvoy, and the standard one that follows both. By any reasonable standard would have been embraced as an instant classic, but of course in these fickle times it barely registers even below public consciousness...
Doomsday (2008)
Director: Neil Marshall
Starring: Rhona Mitra, Malcom McDowell, Bob Hoskins, Alexander Siddig
Brief Thoughts: Before Mad Max: Fury Road brought back Mad Max (to an irrationally popular degree; that movie is vastly overrated), this was the unofficial return of Mad Max, in all the franchise’s madcap anarchic glory. Hey, I’m obsessed with Rhona Mitra, and this is pretty much her biggest spotlight. What else am I gonna do?
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Audrey Tautou, Paul Bettany, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno
Brief Thoughts: Such are the idiot summations of generalists: This is the movie with the Tom Hanks Mullet. The Dan Brown book became one of those mass consumption deals where half the people who joined the bandwagon couldn’t begin to understand what the fuss was about (this is basically how the modern era comprehends all popular things), and as such the debate as to whether the results were laughable, enlightening, or just plain sacrilegious sort of...missed the point. Brown ended up producing a whole series of books starring Robert Langdon prodding at the edges of public conspiracy and incredulity (which, again, is the modern age in a nutshell), three out of five having been adapted for film. This first one remains the best. It doesn’t hurt to have Hanks in top form, and for someone, anyone, to be striking while the Ian McKellen brand was hot. I prefer this performance to his Magneto, and to the second two Gandalf appearances.
Damsel (2018)
Director: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska
Brief Thoughts: The brilliance of Robert Pattinson’s post-Twilight Saga career is that he’s thrust himself into the kind of career Brad Pitt only pretended to pursue. In the late ‘90s Pitt became obsessed with rejecting the pretty boy label and started seeking gonzo roles. Pattinson did him one better by doing so on a deliberately indy scale, and he only recently started hitting his stride. This one makes him out to be a thoroughly unsympathetic lunatic. It’s a brilliant movie.
The Dark Tower (2017)
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Starring: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey
Brief Thoughts: I have a lot of incidental local connections to Stephen King. Aside from the fact that he’s somewhat culturally inescapable anyway, I was always going to intersect with his work. And some of it I like a lot. But the Dark Tower material, that I’ve read, is somewhat insufferable. In an alternate reality it would’ve been adapted a long time ago into one of those “edgy” cable shows I try to avoid (unless it was the second season of The Walking Dead and at least had Shane working for it). The thing about movies, or perfect casting in general, is, well, perfect casting. Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey are two of the most endlessly charismatic actors working today, so of course they’re not nearly as cherished as they ought to be. And these are perfect roles. The movie hardly has to do much around them, but it’s good, too.
The Death of Stalin (2018)
Director: Armando Iannucci
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Jason Isaacs, Jeffrey Tambor, Olga Kurylenko, Michael Palin
Brief Thoughts: If ever there was Monty Python (mostly) without Monty Python, this ruthless satire of USSR political intrigue is it. By any reasonable standard, this should be an instant cult classic. And it’s a perfect example of how childish many, many other attempts at satire and commentary tend to be.
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2013)
Director: Ned Benson
Starring: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Viola Davis, William Hurt, Bill Hader, Ciarán Hinds, Katherine Waterston
Brief Thoughts: This is one of those movies where I heard about its unusual properties, and became instantly intrigued, and found the results more than worth the curiosity. There are three separate cuts of it, one following Jessica Chastain (easily one of the most interesting actors working today), one following James McAvoy, and the standard one that follows both. By any reasonable standard would have been embraced as an instant classic, but of course in these fickle times it barely registers even below public consciousness...
Doomsday (2008)
Director: Neil Marshall
Starring: Rhona Mitra, Malcom McDowell, Bob Hoskins, Alexander Siddig
Brief Thoughts: Before Mad Max: Fury Road brought back Mad Max (to an irrationally popular degree; that movie is vastly overrated), this was the unofficial return of Mad Max, in all the franchise’s madcap anarchic glory. Hey, I’m obsessed with Rhona Mitra, and this is pretty much her biggest spotlight. What else am I gonna do?
Friday, April 3, 2020
A to Z Challenge 2020 - C
Cast Away (2000)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Wilson
Brief Thoughts: For a lot of people during COVID-19, this whole movie might end up being a giant metaphor. Coincidentally, Tom Hanks even contracted the Coronavirus, but he’s better now. I still find it impossible that appreciation for this movie is relatively limited. It’s a perfect showcase for Hanks, and yet, I think for both Hanks and Robert Zemeckis it was used as an excuse to shuffle them away from mass consumption. Hollywood seems legitimately to discredit filmmakers if they spend too long in the spotlight. And while Hanks remains active today and can garner the occasional hit film, he had not been a serious Oscar contender since winning two in the ‘90s. By any reasonable standard he ought to have won for Cast Away. (Russell Crowe won that year for Gladiator, and of course within a few years he ended up blackballed despite continuing his consistent excellent work.) The ending of Cast Away even brilliantly subverts the stereotypical Hollywood ending. Basically a movie that will have a long shadow.
Children of Men (2006)
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam
Brief Thoughts: Clive Owen may be the opposite of a Tom Hanks or a Russell Crowe, in that he was never particularly a big star, but his consistent excellence makes it perhaps okay to distill his legacy into a single great movie, which of course is what Children of Men is. In a different era Owen would have been Bogie (nearly chose Casablanca for inclusion today, but am sticking with relatively recent movies), but his roles in recent years have been limited mostly to supporting ones. Bogie never relinquished the spotlight once Hollywood figured him out.
Collateral (2004)
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo
Brief Thoughts: This is actually ones of the movies I’ve watched in the past month, so I’m glad for an opportunity to talk about it here. Like John Travolta, Tom Cruise has been battling backlash to his membership in Scientology over the past few decades. Unlike Travolta, Cruise has managed to maintain a viable movie career, thanks in large part to his Mission: Impossible films. The fact that most of his recent roles have been in action movies suggests he believes that’s the only way to remain relevant, which means his dramatic roles, recently, have been few and far between, which, for me, makes all the more valuable. And Collateral is a very good one. It’s the reason Jamie Foxx had a major movie career for a few years, which allowed him to make movies like Ray, Django Unchained, and The Soloist (which was undeservedly ignored on original release).
Collateral Beauty (2016)
Director: David Frankel
Starring: Will Smith, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Michael Peña, Naomie Harris
Brief Thoughts: In the tradition of Seven Pounds, Will Smith stars in an instant classic drama that’s...completely ignored. Filled to bursting with an excellent supporting cast around him, Smith is at his typical best as a grieving father who can’t move on with his life until fate intervenes. One of those movies where if there was any conversation about it at all, no one seems to have seen the movie itself before talking about it (another example: Passengers).
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
Director: George Clooney
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts
Brief Thoughts: Sam Rockwell is probably one of the most inexplicable movie stars ever. His breakthrough role in The Green Mile might have typecast him as unsavory, and yet he just keeps showing up in spotlight roles and even starring in movies (one of his many highlights: Moon). Probably the one that got him to this point is Confessions, which you can probably assume at this point is, to my mind, inexplicably underappreciated.
Coriolanus (2012)
Director: Ralph Fiennes
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Chastain, Brian Cox
Brief Thoughts: Almost the default for modern Shakespeare in film is Kenneth Branagh, but this one comes from Ralph Fiennes. My interest, however, is in Gerard Butler. Probably for pretty much everyone this bit of casting is inexplicable. Even though Butler’s career began well before 300 (consider, for instance, his featured roles in Timeline and Phantom of the Opera, where he played the Phantom), he became in the popular (and Hollywood) imagination stuck in the role of a big dumb brute. Eventually this threatened to curtail his career entirely, but recently he’s been making sequels to Olympus Has Fallen, and I have little doubt he’ll find a way to keep his career interesting.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Wilson
Brief Thoughts: For a lot of people during COVID-19, this whole movie might end up being a giant metaphor. Coincidentally, Tom Hanks even contracted the Coronavirus, but he’s better now. I still find it impossible that appreciation for this movie is relatively limited. It’s a perfect showcase for Hanks, and yet, I think for both Hanks and Robert Zemeckis it was used as an excuse to shuffle them away from mass consumption. Hollywood seems legitimately to discredit filmmakers if they spend too long in the spotlight. And while Hanks remains active today and can garner the occasional hit film, he had not been a serious Oscar contender since winning two in the ‘90s. By any reasonable standard he ought to have won for Cast Away. (Russell Crowe won that year for Gladiator, and of course within a few years he ended up blackballed despite continuing his consistent excellent work.) The ending of Cast Away even brilliantly subverts the stereotypical Hollywood ending. Basically a movie that will have a long shadow.
Children of Men (2006)
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam
Brief Thoughts: Clive Owen may be the opposite of a Tom Hanks or a Russell Crowe, in that he was never particularly a big star, but his consistent excellence makes it perhaps okay to distill his legacy into a single great movie, which of course is what Children of Men is. In a different era Owen would have been Bogie (nearly chose Casablanca for inclusion today, but am sticking with relatively recent movies), but his roles in recent years have been limited mostly to supporting ones. Bogie never relinquished the spotlight once Hollywood figured him out.
Collateral (2004)
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo
Brief Thoughts: This is actually ones of the movies I’ve watched in the past month, so I’m glad for an opportunity to talk about it here. Like John Travolta, Tom Cruise has been battling backlash to his membership in Scientology over the past few decades. Unlike Travolta, Cruise has managed to maintain a viable movie career, thanks in large part to his Mission: Impossible films. The fact that most of his recent roles have been in action movies suggests he believes that’s the only way to remain relevant, which means his dramatic roles, recently, have been few and far between, which, for me, makes all the more valuable. And Collateral is a very good one. It’s the reason Jamie Foxx had a major movie career for a few years, which allowed him to make movies like Ray, Django Unchained, and The Soloist (which was undeservedly ignored on original release).
Collateral Beauty (2016)
Director: David Frankel
Starring: Will Smith, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Michael Peña, Naomie Harris
Brief Thoughts: In the tradition of Seven Pounds, Will Smith stars in an instant classic drama that’s...completely ignored. Filled to bursting with an excellent supporting cast around him, Smith is at his typical best as a grieving father who can’t move on with his life until fate intervenes. One of those movies where if there was any conversation about it at all, no one seems to have seen the movie itself before talking about it (another example: Passengers).
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
Director: George Clooney
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia Roberts
Brief Thoughts: Sam Rockwell is probably one of the most inexplicable movie stars ever. His breakthrough role in The Green Mile might have typecast him as unsavory, and yet he just keeps showing up in spotlight roles and even starring in movies (one of his many highlights: Moon). Probably the one that got him to this point is Confessions, which you can probably assume at this point is, to my mind, inexplicably underappreciated.
Coriolanus (2012)
Director: Ralph Fiennes
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Chastain, Brian Cox
Brief Thoughts: Almost the default for modern Shakespeare in film is Kenneth Branagh, but this one comes from Ralph Fiennes. My interest, however, is in Gerard Butler. Probably for pretty much everyone this bit of casting is inexplicable. Even though Butler’s career began well before 300 (consider, for instance, his featured roles in Timeline and Phantom of the Opera, where he played the Phantom), he became in the popular (and Hollywood) imagination stuck in the role of a big dumb brute. Eventually this threatened to curtail his career entirely, but recently he’s been making sequels to Olympus Has Fallen, and I have little doubt he’ll find a way to keep his career interesting.
Thursday, April 2, 2020
A to Z Challenge 2020 - B
Be Cool (2005)
Directed by: F. Gary Gray
Starring: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Dwayne Johnson
Brief Thoughts: This is the follow up to Get Shorty, which I have yet to see, another of the “John Travolta reunites with a Pulp Fiction costar” movies that didn’t end up causing as much interest as his agent thought they would (the other was Basic with Samuel L. Jackson). Travolta’s mid-‘90s comeback had fizzled out in large part to the disaster of Battlefield Earth, and the initial backlash to public awareness of his membership in Scientology. Suddenly he couldn’t do anything right. But Be Cool is a great movie, and it’s another of those great Vince Vaughn spotlights that no one ever seems to appreciate, because inexplicably no one realizes how great Vince Vaughn is. It’s also the earliest Hollywood indication that Dwayne Johnson was going to be able to help audiences forget that he used to be known as The Rock and end up having a hugely successful movie career.
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Director: Benh Zeitlin
Starring: Quvenzhané Wallis
Brief Thoughts: A truly magical modern fable concerning Hushpuppy and her journey in the Bathtub. In a different year it might have captured the public zeitgeist in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but it was somehow either too early or too late. Either way, it’s one of my favorite movies.
Big Trouble (2002)
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Starring: Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci, Zooey Deschanel, Ben Foster, Johnny Knoxville, Tom Sizemore, Dennis Farina, Janeane Garofalo, Patrick Warburton, Omar Epps, Jason Lee, Sofia Vergara, DJ Qualls, Andy Richter
Brief Thoughts: As if that cast weren’t enough! It’s Tim Allen’s fourth best movie role, after Scott Calvin, Buzz Lightyear, and Jason Nesmith. Somehow by this point everyone forgot what a huge legacy he had already developed. Ignoring this instant classic was like the symbolic nail in the coffin. Based on a book by Dave Barry, still my defining humorist of modern times.
The Break-Up (2006)
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston
Brief Thoughts: Here’s another prime example of the inexplicable inability to appreciate how awesome Vince Vaughn is. To my mind, this is a classic romance. I guess because the turn of the millennium seemed to close the book on Hollywood romance (between Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, and Jerry Maguire, the preceding decade was, admittedly, a pretty good one) it became hard to appreciate the newer stuff. Vaughn is never more broadly appealing, going beyond his usual chattermouth jerk persona in his lament over losing Jennifer Aniston, who, you recall, is Jennifer Aniston, who at this point was still struggling to confirm that she was a big deal, and not just because of Friends.
Buffalo Soldiers (2001)
Director: Gregor Jordan
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Anna Paquin, Scott Glenn, Michael Peña, Idris Elba
Brief Thoughts: Here’s yet another movie I never understood how it could possibly be ignored. A wicked military satire and classic showcase for Joaquin Phoenix, perhaps it can finally be rediscovered thanks to Phoenix himself finally receiving wide acclaim thanks to Joker.
Directed by: F. Gary Gray
Starring: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Dwayne Johnson
Brief Thoughts: This is the follow up to Get Shorty, which I have yet to see, another of the “John Travolta reunites with a Pulp Fiction costar” movies that didn’t end up causing as much interest as his agent thought they would (the other was Basic with Samuel L. Jackson). Travolta’s mid-‘90s comeback had fizzled out in large part to the disaster of Battlefield Earth, and the initial backlash to public awareness of his membership in Scientology. Suddenly he couldn’t do anything right. But Be Cool is a great movie, and it’s another of those great Vince Vaughn spotlights that no one ever seems to appreciate, because inexplicably no one realizes how great Vince Vaughn is. It’s also the earliest Hollywood indication that Dwayne Johnson was going to be able to help audiences forget that he used to be known as The Rock and end up having a hugely successful movie career.
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Director: Benh Zeitlin
Starring: Quvenzhané Wallis
Brief Thoughts: A truly magical modern fable concerning Hushpuppy and her journey in the Bathtub. In a different year it might have captured the public zeitgeist in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but it was somehow either too early or too late. Either way, it’s one of my favorite movies.
Big Trouble (2002)
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Starring: Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci, Zooey Deschanel, Ben Foster, Johnny Knoxville, Tom Sizemore, Dennis Farina, Janeane Garofalo, Patrick Warburton, Omar Epps, Jason Lee, Sofia Vergara, DJ Qualls, Andy Richter
Brief Thoughts: As if that cast weren’t enough! It’s Tim Allen’s fourth best movie role, after Scott Calvin, Buzz Lightyear, and Jason Nesmith. Somehow by this point everyone forgot what a huge legacy he had already developed. Ignoring this instant classic was like the symbolic nail in the coffin. Based on a book by Dave Barry, still my defining humorist of modern times.
The Break-Up (2006)
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston
Brief Thoughts: Here’s another prime example of the inexplicable inability to appreciate how awesome Vince Vaughn is. To my mind, this is a classic romance. I guess because the turn of the millennium seemed to close the book on Hollywood romance (between Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, and Jerry Maguire, the preceding decade was, admittedly, a pretty good one) it became hard to appreciate the newer stuff. Vaughn is never more broadly appealing, going beyond his usual chattermouth jerk persona in his lament over losing Jennifer Aniston, who, you recall, is Jennifer Aniston, who at this point was still struggling to confirm that she was a big deal, and not just because of Friends.
Buffalo Soldiers (2001)
Director: Gregor Jordan
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Anna Paquin, Scott Glenn, Michael Peña, Idris Elba
Brief Thoughts: Here’s yet another movie I never understood how it could possibly be ignored. A wicked military satire and classic showcase for Joaquin Phoenix, perhaps it can finally be rediscovered thanks to Phoenix himself finally receiving wide acclaim thanks to Joker.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
A to Z Challenge 2020 - A
Here’re some movies that begin with “A”:
A Ghost Story (2017)
Directed by: David Lowery (The Old Man & The Gun)
Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara
Brief Thoughts: Lowery is unquestionably one of the best directors working today. You don’t have to worry about him being poached for a blockbuster project, since that already happened (Pete’s Dragon), an artist in the order of Terrence Malick who crafts his movies with exquisite patience, with increasingly fascinating results. It took Malick decades to reach the breakthrough that was The Tree of Life; Lowery’s first major release (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, which also stars Affleck and Mara) was released a mere four years prior to Ghost Story, which spends its time obscuring Affleck under one of those traditional bedsheet looks as he watches time progress for Mara, and eventually later occupants of his house.
A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)
Directed by: Seth MacFarlane
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson, Neil Patrick Harris
Brief Thoughts: MacFarlane is far better known for his TV show Family Guy and the movie Ted, but for me he will probably never top Million Ways, a ruthless western satire that will forever appear irrelevant to movie fans who can’t make room, for one more movie, next to Blazing Saddles. Fun fact: Theron and Neeson later made appearances in MacFarlane’s Star Trek tribute series The Orville. Features Neil Patrick Harris’s fourth most iconic performance, after Doogie Howser (pretty sure I’ve never seen this show), Dr. Horrible, and Barney Stinson, but his best mustache ever, and the best song about mustaches ever. I mean, if that is not praise enough, I do not know what is.
A Monster Calls (2016)
Directed by: J.A. Bayona
Starring: Felicity Jones, Liam Neeson
Brief Thoughts: Jones plays a mother dying of cancer. My mom died of cancer the year before the movie was released. Watching it (and reading the book on which it’s based) was part of my grieving process. Originally I wasn’t sure how much of the story’s impact came from the confluence, but I think I’ve settled into admiring the breathtaking creative achievement as much for its own sake as for its resonance. Doesn’t hurt to capture Neeson (there he is again) in a perfect vocal performance, one of his best parts ever, in a career with no shortage of contenders.
A Thousand Words (2012)
Directed by: Brian Robbins
Starring: Eddie Murphy
Brief Thoughts: Maybe it’s because my first Eddie Murphy experience wasn’t Saturday Night Live or Beverly Hills Cop or 48 Hrs. (I still haven’t seen any of that material), but rather Trading Places, but I’ve never had a problem separating the legend from the talent. I watch movies like Bowfinger, Life, and A Thousand Words, and it’s the sonic genius in Murphy’s vocal performances (Mulan, Shrek) that I experience. The particular genius of Thousand Words is that it has Murphy play completely against type, forced to display his considerable physical comedy chops (an art that has been ignored since the golden age of film) rather than his famous mouth, in a twist that is usually reserved for Jim Carrey movies.
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