A to Z Challenge 2020 - L

La La Land (2016)
Director: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone
Brief Thoughts: This is a movie I resisted for a while, in large part because I thought it appealed to critics for all the wrong reasons (critics don’t often seem to consider the quality of the film itself as the determining factor in their assessments). It felt like celebrating the increasingly unpopular Classic Hollywood Aesthetic, like an act of defiance to modern audience trends (which of course is exactly what people have been saying about the Oscars for years). And it stars Ryan Gosling. I’ve had a hard time processing Gosling, too. He’s one of those actors who’s been working since he was a Mouseketeer, presumably because he just kept auditioning well, not because he had any specific real appeal. So for a long time I watched his career unfold and had absolutely no interest. When I finally did see La La Land (and Blade Runner 2049), I saw an actor who was doing something I hadn’t seen before, a pretty boy world weariness. “City of Stars” is difficult to forget, too, even though it seems it should be, the antithesis of the usual movie song, which tends to go out of its way to be noticed (but I guess that’s every pop song).

The Last Kiss (2006)
Director: Tony Goldwyn
Starring: Zach Braff
Brief Thoughts: I’m a big fan of the sitcom Scrubs. I was happy when Zach Braff made a successful (for a brief moment, anyway) transition to film with the cult classic Garden State, but I ended up preferring his later effort The Last Kiss, which if it had landed better might have positioned Braff into a Dustin Hoffman-like career. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Director: Clint Eastwood
Starring: Ken Watanabe
Brief Thoughts: Originally conceived as merely a companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers, which was expected to be a big hit, Letters from Iwo Jima instead arrived like a miracle, a movie that would have been impossible decades earlier (there was Tora! Tora! Tora!, but that leaned pretty heavily into standard WWII memories). A movie from the perspective of, and sympathetic to, Japanese forces, spoken in Japanese, by an American filmmaker, and of all people, Clint Eastwood! Completely unforgettable.

Liberal Arts (2012)
Director: Josh Radnor
Starring: Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen, Richard Jenkins, Allison Janney
Brief Thoughts: I’m an even bigger fan of How I Met Your Mother than I am of Scrubs, so it was kind of amusing when Josh Radnor attempted to duplicate Zach Braff’s movie adventure. He ended up with about the same results, but in the process got to direct and star in two movies, the second of which was better, Liberal Arts, which features him as a college graduate whose life sort of loses meaning off-campus, until he finds his way back there and rediscovers himself. I find that easily relatable. Life was far simpler on campus. A microcosm of the world is far easier to navigate. But eventually I started figuring things out.

Life (1999)
Director: Ted Demme
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence
Brief Thoughts: Dipping past the millennium line again; this is another movie that’s criminally ignored, arguably Eddie Murphy’s best movie (and pretty much by default, Martin Lawrence’s), a buddy movie that tosses them into prison for, well, life, sort of the tragicomic version of The Shawshank Redemption.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett
Brief Thoughts: Bill Murray was a huge family favorite growing up, though we mostly shackled him to Groundhog Day (our introductions were Caddyshack, but that was kind of rowdy for a bunch of Catholics to watch repeatedly, and Ghostbusters, but we ended up spending far more time watching the cartoon) and What About Bob? (Baby steps!). I honestly don’t think my siblings would be able to appreciate later Murray, world weary Murray, whether Lost in Translation or the comic absurdity of Life Aquatic (so yes, I am easily the family’s cinephile).

Life of Pi (2012)
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: a tiger (probably?)
Brief Thoughts: A work of genius in book and film.

Lions for Lambs (2007)
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Andrew Garfield, Michael Peña, Derek Luke
Brief Thoughts: A wordy thought piece, but a brilliant look into the times, with an excellent cast. I got the DVD at Target, which included a copy of the script. Somebody at the time realized that it was probably a significant film. And they were right.

A to Z Challenge 2020 - K

Killshot (2009)
Director: John Madden
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane, Rosario Dawson, Thomas Jane
Brief Thoughts: With this one I’m not going to talk about the movie itself (still baffles me that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has had such a hard time finding respect with audiences, though, despite years of interesting material), but how I ended up watching it. I spent five years working at a bookstore chain. One of the things I got to experience was special ordering. Special ordering is great, don’t get me wrong (I suspect people using it, especially at a bookstore chain, either can’t figure out ordering on the internet, don’t trust the internet, or it’s the only way some of them interact with the outside world), but it was always interesting. This particular guy, whether because customer service is always uneven or not, but he was always grumpy. He claimed we never got any of the really good movies inside the store (he always called in his orders), which forced him to special order. Killshot is a fine movie, but I’m not sure I would call it a really good movie. Different tastes, sure, but...Anyway, in the long run I guess I did end up agreeing with him about it once. I special ordered myself a copy of Tom Hardy’s Bronson, which was a really good movie, and would never have passed through the store otherwise. Still, I doubt this guy would have ever seen it, or thought to. Different tastes, sure. Anyway, I still remember his name, a decade later, and not just because I used it for a story. So there’s that!

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.

A to Z Challenge 2020 - I

Idiocracy (2006)
Director: Mike Judge
Starring: Luke Wilson, Dax Shepard, Maya Rudolph, Terry Crews, Justin Long
Brief Thoughts: Office Space became an instant cult classic and one of my all-time favorites, so it was always going to be a tough act for Mike Judge to follow. Idiocracy is basically the Terry Gilliam version of Office Space, and a somewhat, surprisingly accurate vision of the future about a decade ahead. Still waiting to be embraced as another Judge classic.

The Illusionist (2006)
Director: Neil Burger
Starring: Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel
Brief Thoughts: Even though Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige was released the same year, I continue to prefer The Illusionist. Edward Norton has a complex history, and while he’s apparently difficult to work with (which matters not at all to the audience), he delivers reliably excellent results. His ability to star in major releases, though, ended around this time, so that’s another reason to celebrate this film. Also, Paul Giamatti was coincidentally cooling as an attraction after American Splendor made him leading man material. But he remains fascinating no matter the size of his role. With apologies to Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, this is a truly irresistible one-two punch for me.

In the Valley of Elah (2007)
Director: Paul Haggis
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, James Franco, Susan Sarandon, Josh Brolin
Brief Thoughts: The movie itself immediately resonated with me as a sober meditation of the times, but what continues to interest me about it (other than “Elah” leaving an imprint on my poetry) is the fact that it’s one of several supporting roles from Josh Brolin that littered the period. I still can’t account for why Brolin was suddenly such a hot commodity after toiling for years in relative obscurity (other than having a famous dad), but the happy result was, a few years later a highly visible career and, of course, Thanos. (I mean, it was probably No Country for Old Men, but it’s more fun to make it sound mysterious.)

Instinct (1999)
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding Jr., Maura Tierney, Donald Sutherland
Brief Thoughts: Dipping below the millennium divide for a moment, in honor of one of my favorite obscure movies, at the time dismissed as Anthony Hopkins playing another prisoner of questionable character. But Ethan Powell is a far cry from Hannibal Lecter. This is one of the most deeply affecting human dramas I’ve ever seen. It also features Cuba Gooding Jr. in his second best role (Jerry Maguire), and Maura Tierney in her best movie (second best: Liar Liar).

Isle of Dogs (2018)
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Dogs
Brief Thoughts: Obligatory listing.

It Comes At Night (2017)
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Starring: Joel Edgerton
Brief Thoughts: I’ve never gotten around to catching A Quiet Place, since I caught It Comes At Night first. They’re both horror movies about desperately trying to remain silent. This one’s about a self-isolating family (perfect for the pandemic era!) and filled with moody atmosphere and, well, Joel Edgerton.

A to Z Challenge 2020 - H

Hancock (2008)
Director: Peter Berg
Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman
Brief Thoughts: Obviously, superhero movies are somewhat omnipresent these days, but they’re mostly adaptations from comic book source material. Just as the boom was hitting, along came Hancock. Will Smith was still on his incredible box office hot streak at the time. Later, when he’d fallen out of it, he ended up joining up with the genre again in one of the adaptations with Suicide Squad. Here, though, he was pure Will Smith as a superhero who’s completely out of control, and as far as the trailers were concerned, that’s all you needed to know. Except there’s a huge twist involving Charlize Theron. I love the twist. I love this movie.

Hanna (2011)
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett
Brief Thoughts: Saoirse Ronan had a long lead time before breaking out with Lady Bird, being featured in various movies while most people still couldn’t pronounce her name (“Sher-sha,” for the record). Here’s one of the more interesting ones, costarring two huge names in Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett, Bana just as he was losing his star status (sadly) and Blanchett reliably picking the most interesting projects. Anyway, the concept was later adapted into a TV show, so there were definitely people who noticed how awesome this movie was.

Hell or High Water (2016)
Director: David Mackenzie
Starring: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges
Brief Thoughts: Chris Pine is one of the most interesting actors working today, but he rarely gets parts that showcase his value. This is by far his best role to date, and best film. Tagging along are Ben Foster (who seems to have caught the eye of casting directors much more effectively based on his work in the film), uttering the best line in the movie (“I am a Comanche.”) and Jeff Bridges, doing his best No Country for Old Men.

Hollywoodland (2006)
Director: Allen Coulter
Starring: Ben Affleck, Diane Labe, Adrien Brody, Bob Hoskins
Brief Thoughts: The significance of George Reeves’ Superman on the generation of kids who grew up watching him can’t be understated. There’s a picture of my uncle trussed up in a Superman costume. I had a teacher in middle school talk, during math class, decades after the fact, about the trauma of Reeves’ death. This movie is about the continuing murky circumstances surrounding it, whether murky because fans don’t want to admit what seems likely (much as the JFK conspiracy theories are mostly motivated by needing a bigger story than a lone gunman to explain the assassination) or because (like JFK) there’s just enough potential to make things sound a lot more interesting. Ben Affleck began a popular comeback with this unexpected role, as Reeves, with my personal (second) favorite Adrien Brody performance as the classic noir private investigator trying to discover the truth. (His best is clearly Dalí! in Midnight in Paris.)

A to Z Challenge 2020 - G

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.

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.