Based on a true story

The Irishman (2019)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Steven Zaillian (screenplay)/Charles Brandt (source material)

It’s like a beautiful paint by numbers picture. It looks exactly like what it’s supposed to look like. Pretty, to be sure, but safe. There’s everything you would expect, but very little you wouldn’t. And for me, that’s what made it just a bit disappointing. It was long, although that in and of itself isn’t a reason to malign a film. Here, though, I just felt like we had seen all of this before from Director Scorsese and his merry band of gangsters in earlier films. What draws me to crime films is that glimpse into a world so unfamiliar, so if you want me to invest three hours, you’ve got to give me something a little different. I will say that it was worthwhile to see Joe Pesci cast against type as the calm, circumspect one. And Al Pacino FINALLY gets to play the loud boisterous guy for a change! (I kid, I kid!)

IMDb voters give it an even 8.0. I’ll go with a 7. There’s nothing really wrong with it, and maybe my expectations were too high going in, but it just didn’t “wow” me in the way that his previous films have. If you can spare the three-plus hours, it’s definitely worth a watch, but I don’t see myself going back to it again and again, like I do with, say, Goodfellas. (running time 3:29)

Lawless (2012)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

mv5bmjaxnjuynjuwn15bml5banbnxkftztcwmdgwotiyoa-_v1_

(Originally from Facebook – August 13, 2013)

I’m not sure why I missed this one the first time around. It’s got a great cast. Maybe the advertising? I should know better than to listen to them anyway. It’s the true (although I’m always hesitant to use that term) story of three brothers who run moonshine in 1930s Virginia. Continue reading →

Dunkirk (2017)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

mv5bn2yyzjq0ntetnzu5ms00ngzkltg0mtetyzjmmwy3mwrhzjm2xkeyxkfqcgdeqxvymda4nzmyoa-_v1_sy1000_cr006741000_al_

Michael Bay makes a film that places action over character, shoehorns in too much story for the running time, and fills it with moments clearly designed to tug our heartstrings, complete with a tear-jerker of a score, and the critics make him their whipping boy. Chris Nolan does the same thing, and it’s a masterpiece. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but there were moments in Nolan’s latest film, Dunkirk, that seemed to me just as carefully constructed to elicit the same kind of “guy cry” moments as ones in The Rock or Armageddon (and yeah, I cry when Bruce Willis blows himself up. What’s it to you?) That’s not to say I didn’t like the film, or those moments. They work as they’re supposed to. But in the end, much like the story of Dunkirk itself, the film seems like a failure dressed up to look like a success. Continue reading →

Christine (2016):

/ Shawn / 2 Comments

mv5bmjiwotmxntm4ml5bml5banbnxkftztgwndq1mzk5ote-_v1_sy1000_sx676_al_

Unfortunately, the best performance by an actress in a motion picture this year probably won’t get the Academy Award. It probably won’t be nominated, even. Hell, you likely won’t even see it, unless you take my advice and seek out Rebecca Hall’s performance as tragic news reporter Christine Chubbuck in 2016’s Christine. The film itself is well made, if low-budget, but what elevates it above the crowd is Hall. She is magnificent, giving as strong a portrayal of depression as I’ve seen, in that it doesn’t play into convenient scenes and stereotypes; the illness insinuates itself into every scene, every aspect of her life, from dealing with her mother, whom she lives with, to obsessively analyzing a video of herself, and wondering if she nods too much. Even her gait makes her seem that she’s uncomfortable in her own skin. It’s a heartbreaking portrayal, and often difficult to watch. Continue reading →

Woman in Gold (2015)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

mv5bmtexmtuxndq5mjdeqtjeqwpwz15bbwu4mdk4ntgxmzqx-_v1_sy1000_cr006741000_al_

How DO you solve a problem like Maria? If you’re Austria, you do it in court. This is a movie that shouldn’t work. It’s overly sentimental, it doesn’t quite seem to know what kind of film it wants to be, and we essentially know from the beginning of the film how it will end. And yet I found myself completely engrossed and often moved by it. The story itself is fascinating—Maria Altman was a young Jewish woman when she fled from Nazi Germany to the U.S., leaving behind her family’s fortune, including a Stradivarian cello, and—more importantly—a painting of her aunt by the artist Gustav Klimt. The painting was stolen by the Nazis, and eventually became known as “Woman in Gold,” since they whitewashed all hint of Aunt Adele’s Jewish background. Continue reading →

Kajaki (2014)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

mv5bmtq5mjq2mju5nv5bml5banbnxkftztgwmzi2mzg5nje-_v1_sy1000_cr006741000_al_

aka Kilo Two Bravo

I love it when a movie surprises me. Because I didn’t read the description too closely, I went into this one thinking it was a horror film. As it turns out, it’s a surprisingly effective, taut thriller. Now when I say  “thriller,” I don’t mean “action” or “horror” or any of the other genres that thrillers are often confused (or blended) with. This is a very simple story—a unit of young British soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan, guarding the Kajaki Dam. Two of them leave their post to set up a sniper’s nest to cover some suspicious locals who may be Taliban. Continue reading →

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016):

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

mv5bmju3otq5ndc3ml5bml5banbnxkftztgwotewntkxnze-_v1_sx640_cr00640999_al_

I wasn’t sure I was going to buy John Krasinski as a bearded, ex-military tough guy. I wondered if every once in a while somebody would shout out something obvious (“They’re storming the gate!”) and he’d turn to face the camera and smirk. But it turns out he’s definitely believable as a tough guy. As are all the major leads—James Badge Dale and Pablo Schreiber in particular. Continue reading →