 During the debacle of the site being down, I didn’t get a chance to weigh in on the Visual Effects that were narrowed down to ten films. The ten films still in contention for the Visual Effects Oscar are:
- “The Amazing Spider-Man”
- “Cloud Atlas”
- “The Dark Knight Rises”
- “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
- “John Carter”
- “Life of Pi”
- “Marvel’s The Avengers”
- “Prometheus”
- “Skyfall”
- “Snow White and the Huntsman”
Read more on Visual Effects Narrows Down to Ten…
Categories: News Tags: Avengers, Cinema of the United States, Clint Eastwood, Entertainment/Culture, Film, Hereafter, Hospitality/Recreation, John Carter, Peter Jackson, the Oscar ceremony, Tom Tykwer
 Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster will be honored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with their prestigious Cecil B. Demille Award. Announced today by Simon Baker and Kristen Stewart, Foster is the first woman to be awarded with the organization’s highest honor since Barbara Streisand in 2000. Not only is she being rewarded in a year where women are making their marks, she is the youngest recipient since Charlton Heston in 1967. Read more on Jodie Foster to Receive Cecil B. Demille Award from HFPA…
Categories: News Tags: American atheists, American film directors, Amy Poehler, Barbara Streisand, capable director, Carnage, Cecil B. DeMille, Charlton Heston, Cinema of the United States, Clint Eastwood, Emmy Winner Tina Fey, Entertainment, Entertainment/Culture, Film, Golden GLobe Awards, Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Home for the Holidays, Human Interest, Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, kristen stewart, Little Man Tate, Martin Scorsese, Mel Gibson, Money Monster, Morgan Freeman, Movie Release, Nell, Roman Polanski, Simon Baker, The Brave One, the Golden Globe Awards, The Silence of the Lambs, Tina Fey
 Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) was the last film in a foreign language to be nominated for Best Picture by the Academy Awards in the 2007 ceremony. With the recent announcement of the 71 films that will compete for Foreign Language film, many will agree, there are many in there worthy of a Best Picture citation or win.
From 2007 until now, remove one Best Picture nominee and put in a foreign language film in its spot. Read more on Oscar Question of the Day – The Foreign Factor…
 This year’s race for the Academy Award for Best Actor will have no shortage of worthy nominees; in fact I daresay they could nominate five worthy actors right now. However there are still many more performances to be unveiled, work that will end up in the category, work that will not, disappointing audiences, the Academy and critics. Already I think we have seen a preview of that, though Clay might disagree in Bill Murray’s highly touted work in Hyde Park on Hudson, which after seeing at TIFF I felt would slowly drop out of sight and out of contention. The film’s reception at Telluride was weak, and in Toronto the same thing happened, with a rather shocked audience filing out mumbling about the disappointment they were feeling. I have stated already, Murray is never bad, weak or anything remotely negative, just not strong enough to be an Academy Award nominee. It is merely a good performance and lined up alongside the ones I think have a chance so far, it looks oddly out of place, which of course means nothing. Read more on Lead Actor Overstuffed…
Categories: Article Tags: Anthony Hopkins, Ben Affleck, Bill Murray, Brad Pitt, Burt Lancaster, Cannes, Cannes Best, Christopher Walken, Cinema of the United States, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Director nomination, Dustin Hoffman, Entertainment/Culture, Film, Flight, François Cluzet, Good Will Hunting, Hugh Jackman, Jack Nicholson, jamie foxx, Jean-Louis Trintignant, John Hawkes, Kirk Douglas, Lancaster, legendary director, Liam Neeson, Mads Mikkelsen, Matt Damon, Michael Shannon, Movie Release, Omar Sy, Oscar, Oscars, Peter Fonda, Pilot, powerful actor, President, Promised Land, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Kuklinski, Richard Nixon, robert duvall, Robert Zemeckis, serious actor, the Academy Award, the Oscars, The Polar Express, Toronto, Toronto International Film Festival, United States
 And it’s back…bringing you daily questions for you to weigh in on. Some will refer directly back to an Academy Award/Oscar Race and some will be simply about film and actors in general.
It’s generally believed that Paul Giamatti was snubbed in a big way for Alexander Payne’s Sideways (2004). The five actors that made the lineup were Don Cheadle for Hotel Rwanda (2004), Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland (2004), Leonardo DiCaprio for The Aviator (2004), Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (2004), and Jamie Foxx for Ray (2004). If you were going to insert Giamatti into the lineup, which actor would you remove? Read more on Oscar Question of the Day (10/2/2012)…
Categories: Editor, Question of the Day Tags: Alexander Payne, Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, Cinema of the United States, Clint Eastwood, Don Cheadle, Entertainment, Film, Finding Neverland, Hotel Rwanda, jamie foxx, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Million Dollar Baby, Oscar Question of the day, Oscar race, Paul Giamatti, Screen Actors Guild Award
 After seeing Trouble with the Curve, at best a two star movie, with the Amy Adams performance the finest in the film, I think it is safe to say that there will be no Best Actor Oscar nomination for eighty two year old Clint Eastwood this year. It is simply not a very good film, and Eastwood’s performance, though entertaining is of the “been there, done that” school, the same sort of cranky old bird we saw in Gran Torino (2008). Now the first time we saw Eastwood in this mode it was interesting, and I quite liked his work in Gran Torino (2008) but to see him do almost exactly the same thing in this film was tiresome and more than a little disappointing. Any chance, any talk of an Oscar nod for Eastwood will stop within the week, if it has not already ceased. Read more on The Sun Has Set in the Eastwood…
Categories: Article Tags: Clint Eastwood, Clint Eastwood in the 2000s, Daniel Day-Lewis, Entertainment/Culture, Films, gran torino, Hugh Jackman, jamie foxx, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Joaquin Phoenix, Joel Cox, John Hawkes, Oscar, Phillip Serymour Hoffman
 This old-fashioned father-daughter story feels like an old chestnut from the world of theater, even though it has no roots in the stage. It’s the sort of film that used to be called “heartwarming” and “moving” or the type of movie that audiences flocked to see hoping for something that allowed them a good cry. Today, because we have seen so many of these sort of films, it looks clichéd and, as I have stated, very old-fashioned.
The picture marks the first time Clint Eastwood has acted in a film directed by another since In the Line of Fire (1993) which was helmed by Wolfgang Peterson. This time the director is one of Eastwood’s own, a man who has worked with him for many years, Robert Lorenz, and I wonder, well…Why? Why would Eastwood need a director at this point in his career to give a performance he has given before and that frankly, he could have phoned in? His reputation as a filmmaker is impeccable, he shoots fast and cheap, actors revere him and I struggle with the fact I cannot see another director guiding him!! Surely Lorenz would be wondering all the time what Eastwood was thinking? How was he doing? Was he doing a good job? Read more on Trouble with the Curve (**)…
Categories: Film Reviews Tags: Amy Adams, Clint Eastwood, Director, Film, fine character actor, Human Interest, In the Line of Fire, John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, Madison County, Meryl Streep, Mickey, Million Dollar Baby, Movie Release, Robert Lorenz, the bridges of madison county, Wolfgang Peterson
 How far can the chemistry of a cast get you? Director Robert Lorenz tests that very theory with his film ‘Trouble with the Curve’, a very old fashioned and harmless flick that coasts along on the goodwill generated by its actors. For some, that might be enough, but I wanted more. The interactions between Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams are mostly enjoyable, with something similar being said for how both of them deal with Justin Timberlake, but at the same time the acting is a bit on the disappointing side. Read more on Trouble with the Curve (**)…
 Could we have Marco Beltrami back in the race this year? We’ll see.
Read the Press Release:
(WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA) September 11, 2012— Two time Academy Award nominated composer Marco Beltrami scores Trouble with the Curve, opening September 21. The film’s all star cast includes Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, and John Goodman. This is the first film Eastwood has starred in but not directed in nine years (In the Line of Fire). The film marks the first feature-length directorial debut of Robert Lorenz, Eastwood’s Assistant Director for 15 years, with projects including Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, and Blood Work. Varese Sarabande will release the soundtrack album for Trouble with the Curve October 2. Composer Marco Beltrami provides an emotional score that supports the touching relationship between father and daughter and also the heroics of the game of baseball. Read more on Two-Time Academy Award Nominated Composer Marco Beltrami Scores Trouble with the Curve…
Sean Penn in “This Must Be the Place”
Is there any question left that Sean Penn is the finest actor of his generation? Can there be any further doubt that Penn stands alongside Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, early Al Pacino and early Robert de Niro as one of the screens greatest actors? Read more on Why is Nobody Talking About Sean Penn?…
Categories: Article Tags: Clint Eastwood, Directors Guild of America, Dustin Hoffman, Gus Van Sant, I Am Sam, In the Valley of Elah, Into the Wild, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, mystic river, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Allen
The first trailer for Robert Lorenz’s Trouble with the Curve dropped on Tuesday, and today we get a look at the first poster for the movie. Clint Eastwood is featured front and center, gazing out at a baseball game that he is scouting while the floating tagline – “Whatever Life Throws At You” – foreshadows the struggles he will endure and how he will adjust to them. Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, and Robert Patrick also star in Trouble with the Curve, due out September 28th.
Have a look at the poster after the jump…
Read more on First ‘Trouble with the Curve’ Poster…
 Normally I don’t report any retirements too often. Peter O’Toole, Clint Eastwood (allegedly), all are great actors that have had their time in the sun.
Bob Hoskins, the great British actor has announced that he will be retiring after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Hoskins, who was nominated for his brilliant performance in Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa (1986), has been a dependable and well-regarded thespian for years. As a younger film-generation critic, he will always be Eddie Valiant, the toon-hating detective that assisted Roger Rabbit in clearing his name.
Hoskins was received several Golden Globe nominations over the years. He was nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) and received a Supporting Actor mention for his role as Vivian Van Damm in Stephen Frears’ Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005). Read more on Bob Hoskins Retires due to Parkinson’s Disease…
Four time Oscar winner Clint Eastwood shines in the first trailer for Robert Lorenz’s Trouble with the Curve. I have to admit I’ve been  somewhat skeptical of another nomination coming for Eastwood’s performance, which would be his third for acting – his first since Million Dollar Baby (2004), but after seeing the trailer I’m liking his odds a whole lot more. Trouble with the Curve looks to be more than just another sports film, as the trailer hints at it also being both a romantic/comedy (between Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake) and a father/daughter family drama. There seems to be a whole lot of emotion (that I wasn’t expecting) coming from this little trailer, and it looks as if we have another film to start getting excited about. Eastwood plays an aging scout suffering from vision problems whose daughter (Adams) tags along on a long road trip to act as his eyes while he does his thing, a skill based on years of intuition and gut instinct. Trouble with the Curve also stars John Goodman and Robert Patrick, and will hit theatres September 28th.
What do you think?
Read more on Eastwood Looks to Knock One Out of the Park in ‘Trouble with the Curve’ Trailer…
 I love the films of Clint Eastwood.
Well most of them.
In my book, Clint Eastwood: Evolution of a Filmmaker, I state, had anyone ever told me in the seventies that one day Eastwood would be among the great directors in film history, a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Director, I think I would have laughed in their face. At that time he was thought of very much as a movie star, an actor of limited ability, and an actor who had an interest in directing. By 1976 that interest in directing had led him to helm the thriller Play Misty for Me (1971), the strange little romance Breezy (1973) and the outstanding western, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) which Orson Welles called a magnificent film and chastised audiences and critics for not noticing Eastwood’s gifts as a director. Eastwood continued making films, Bronco Billy (1980), Honky Tonk Man (1982), personal films that were a trade-off for doing yet another Dirty Harry film or something the studio wanted him to do. Knowing the success of those studio financed his little films, he did them without argument, allowing himself the freedom to make his own films unwithered by studio brass. His movies came in on time and under budget, so the studio had no reason to complain. It would be another twelve years before the critics and audiences really sat up and took notice. Read more on On the Oscar Chances for Clint Eastwood…
Joaquin Phoenix in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master”
Oscar Predictions, how I love thee yet how I hate thee. As I revealed the newest set of predictions this time around and took a look at the next five months, I haven’t dived into serious awards analysis in a while. A lot of the reason was I felt it was too early and we didn’t know enough. I had an epiphany recently however; we never know what the Oscars are thinking. Even after critics’ awards drop, Golden Globes, SAG, Critics Choice Awards are televised; all mean nothing at the end of the day. Oscar will always do what she wants to do, even when everyone is telling her the obvious choices.
Granted, I am one of the few that thinks they can actually pick some great choices among their winners. I was and still am in the camp that Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist was the best film of last year. I couldn’t have chosen a better film. Does that mean everything that accompanied The Artist was the best? Absolutely not. What Oscar often lacks are edgy, loud, or mainstream choices. Could they have found room for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive or for its leading man Ryan Gosling? How about Steve McQueen’s Shame with the best leading male performance of the year, Michael Fassbender? Like I said, they’re not perfect. And here’s a look into the future…they never will be.
I am a firm believer that in ten, fifteen years time, we may have an Academy that embraces films like The Dark Knight or performances like Tang Wei in Lust, Caution. It’s not THAT time yet. Read more on Too Many Actors, Too Little Spaces – A Look at Best Actor…
Categories: Article, Editor Tags: Best Actor, Brad Pitt, Cinema of the United States, Clint Eastwood, Entertainment/Culture, Films, Hugh Jackman, Jack Nicholson, Joaquin Phoenix, John Hawkes, kevin bacon, Killing Them Softly, Leonardo DiCaprio, Les Miserables, Martin Freeman, Martin Scorsese, Million Dollar Baby, Paul Thomas Anderson, Peter Weir, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ryan Gosling, The Master, The Sessions
 The second half of the year is upon us. The race is about to heat up with big Oscar hopefuls coming down the pike. Our John Foote will be in attendance at the Toronto International Film Festival and many films will be unveiling themselves to critics alike. There is a very unclear yet still feasible shape to the race looking from ten thousand feet.
There are internet jitters building for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master starring Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman. With the trailers released and now the film being pushed up to September, it looks as though we may be in store for a master class in filmmaking. Phoenix also looks to be a lead contender for his first Oscar after delivering in his previous nominated works, Gladiator (2000) and Walk the Line (2005). Phoenix does have tough competition ahead of him including what looks to be a critical darling-type performance coming from John Hawkes in Ben Lewin’s The Sessions. Early word is very positive for the film and the turns by Hawkes along with co-stars Helen Hunt and William H. Macy. Since Hawkes’ initial nomination two years ago for Winter’s Bone, he hasn’t shown any signs of letting up. He was arguably left off last year in Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene and will be seen later this year in Julia Dyer’s The Playroom and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. There seems to be a tremendous following and support for him in his current state. Speaking of Spielberg, we’re still awaiting some type of marketing material for his upcoming Lincoln biopic. No poster or trailer has been released with very few stills leaked online. One starts to think if it will even be ready in time.
Taking a look at the next couple of months, the circuit will begin to reveal itself.
Read more on Oscar Circuit: “It’s the time of the season”…
Categories: Article, Editor, Oscar Circuit, Oscar Predictions Tags: Amour, Amy Adams, ang lee, Anna Karenina, Anne Hathaway, Arbitrage, Argo, Ava DuVarney, Ben Affleck, Bill Murray, Bradley Cooper, Brave, bryan cranston, Carey Mulligan, Chris Pine, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Walken, Clint Eastwood, Cloud Atlas, Colin Farrell, Daniel Barnz, Daniel Day-Lewis, David O. Russell, Django Unchained, Editor, Elizabeth Olsen, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Flight, Fun-Size, Great Expectations, Halle Berry, Helen Hunt, Hyde Park on Hudson, jamie foxx, Joaquin Phoenix, Joe Wright, John Goodman, John Hawkes, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, judd apatow, Justin Timberlake, kathryn bigelow, Killing Them Softly, Laura Linney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Les Miserables, Liam Neeson, Liberal Arts, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Logan Lerman, Looper, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Martin McDonagh, Michael Haneke, Middle of Nowhere, Moonrise Kingdom, nicole kidman, Not Fade Away, olivia colman, Olivia Williams, Oscar Circuit, oscar predictions, Paul Thomas Anderson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Quentin Tarantino, Rian Johnson, Richard Gere, Rise of the Guardians, Roger Michell, Russell Crowe, Rust and Bone, Sam Rockwell, Seth Rogen, seven psychopaths, Silver Linings Playbook, Skyfall, Steven Spielberg, the dark knight rises, The Grandmasters, The Guilt Trip, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Impossible, The Man with the Iron Fists, The Master, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Sessions, tom hanks, Trouble with the Curve, Viola Davis, Woody Harrelson, Wreck-It Ralph, Zero Dark Thirty
 First images have surfaced for Robert Lorenz’s film Trouble with the Curve starring Academy Award Winner Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, and Justin Timberlake. The film tells the story of an ailing baseball scout that takes his daughter along for one last recruiting trip.
This has been labeled the “final” acting performance from Clint Eastwood, whom has delivered when directed by himself in roles like Million Dollar Baby (2004). However, Eastwood has had a few hiccups in films like Gran Torino (2008) and Blood Work (2002). Is there a consensus out there for Eastwood to having an acting award to accompany his two directing Oscars? Either way, this is a project to keep an eye on for the rest of the season especially after the success of Bennett Miller’s Moneyball, which seemed to follow the same equation.
Check out another picture after the jump. Read more on First Images drop for “Trouble with the Curve”…
 When the Los Angeles Film Critics Association gathered in December to announce their annual awards, it began an extraordinary movement that would see the film they honored go all the way to the Oscars. Their film of choice was Clint Eastwood’s powerful western Unforgiven (1992), a summer release, which took awards for Best Film, Best Director (Eastwood), Best Actor (Eastwood), Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman), and Best Screenplay. Though the film had been highly praised by critics upon release, there was genuine surprise when the picture grabbed top honors from the LA scribes. Their choice would begin a movement that would sweep the film into the Oscar circle, earning awards for Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. In many ways critics played a huge part in allowing audiences to discover the film, and with these early season awards played a huge part in the Academy Awards campaign, something Eastwood mentioned in his Oscar acceptance speech. The wins from the LA critics would cause Warner Brothers to throw all their support behind Unforgiven (1992) seemingly forgetting they also had Spike Lee’s superb Malcolm X (1992) in the race, something that did not please the film’s director and producers (rightly so). Read more on Unforgiven — 20 Years Later…
 Happy 4th of July to all our fellow Americans here on the Awards Circuit. As our readership is full of international men and women from all around the world, we salute any of your independence days if you celebrate it. This is also a special shout out to all our service men and women who continue to protect so I can have the ability to type this very sentence.
There are many films that have come out over the years that celebrate America in all her glory and where she’s come from. Listed below are my ten favorite films (in no particular order) that celebrate independence and America. Feel free to share your own take on the subject either for here or your own country.
Read more on Ten Favorite Films About Independence…
Categories: Article, Editor Tags: All the President's Men, Born on the Fourth of July, Clint Eastwood, Editor, Forrest Gump, Independence Day, letters from iwo jima, Oliver Stone, Rocky, Roland Emmerich, Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg, Sylvester Stallone, To Kill a Mockingbird, tom hanks, Top Ten
- The events of the previous week – as far as the Oscar season goes – were, shall we say, a complete and utter shitstorm. Obviously the Ratner fiasco was the biggest thing on every Oscar-watcher’s mind for the past few days, but we at The Awards Circuit had plenty of other content for y’all despite that, such as:
Read more on Circuit Round-Up (Week Ending 11/13)…
Categories: Circuit Round-Up Tags: billy crystal, Brett Ratner, Circuit Round-Up, Clint Eastwood, Colin Farrell, dancing with the stars, eddie murphy, Immortals, J. Edgar, Jack And Jill, Keira Knightley, Melancholia, puss in boots, the artist, The Help, The Son of No One, the x factor
 Admittedly Kris Tapley over at Hit Fix beat me to this, though I have been tooling around on it for a week or so.
Actors revere Eastwood. They admire the fact he does not get in their way when they are working, creating a character for him in his film. They are hired to serve his film, and they know this. Going in there is an understanding that they will show up and have the role create and be ready to work. Maybe they know he often shoots and prints rehearsals, maybe they will learn that as Meryl Streep did while shooting The Bridges of Madison County (1995). Eastwood creates a hushed set for his actors, so they have a quiet area in which to create. There is no yelling, no temper fits, no cussing someone because you can, just a well oiled machine that the actors are expect to become a part of very quickly. There is a discipline and professionalism that is simply implied and if the actor struggles with that, Eastwood deals with it. Kevin Costner found out the hard way. An Oscar winning directing himself, he pitched a fit over something silly, and stormed off to his trailer. On the spot Eastwood decided to shoot the scenes he needed with Costner’s double, over his shoulder. They had the scenes done by the time Costner returned from his tantrum at which point he very sheepishly apologized and never again let Eastwood down. As Eastwood stated to him, “I am here to shoot film, not fuck around.” And shoot film he did that day. Rarely does he do more than three takes, believing the actors do their best in the early ones, and for those actors who do not do their best in three…catch up and do it. He does deal with egos on his set, and as Sean Penn aptly said, “he is the least disappointing icon in America.”
Read more on Best Performances in Eastwood’s Films…
Categories: Article Tags: armie hammer, Article, best lists, bird, Clint Eastwood, forest whitaker, gene hackman, gran torino, Hilary Swank, J. Edgar, ken watanabe, Leonardo DiCaprio, letters from iwo jima, marcia gay harden, Meryl Streep, Million Dollar Baby, mystic river, Sean Penn, the bridges of madison county, unforgiven
Okay, so in perhaps my worst Weekend Openings yet, I predicted that Brett “rehearsing is for fags” Ratner’s Tower Heist would be “the guaranteed hit of the weekend.” Looks like my crystal ball was broken last week, or more likely I just foolishly underestimated the power of an animated cat with a Spanish accent. Not this time. Puss in Boots will probably hold on to the top spot a third time this Veteran’s Day weekend (though with my luck it’ll tumble now).
The most successful new release will most likely be Immortals. Or, at least it had better be, because dear god America will be lost forever if the other one grosses more. Declaring war on humanity, King Hyperion searches for a weapon that would free the Titans and take revenge on the Gods who imprisoned them. The Gods select as humanity’s champion Theseus to stop the king of Crete. The only interesting thing about this sword-and-sandals epic to me is that it’s from the visually creative Tarsem Singh, who at least will guarantee some great eye candy. Critics are once again dazzled by his impressionistic aesthetic but are less enthused about the film’s shameless style-over-substance. I’m going to predict an $18-23 million opening, and if Immortals ends up on the high side of that, it could be looking at Oscar nominations for Art Direction, Sound, Costume Design and/or Visual Effects. Read more on Weekend Openings (November 11-13)…
Categories: Weekend Openings Tags: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Documentary Feature, Best Foreign Language Film, best picture, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, Clint Eastwood, Immortals, Into The Abyss, J. Edgar, Jack And Jill, Kirsten Dunst, Lars von Trier, Leonardo DiCaprio, London Boulevard, Melancholia, Oscar hopefuls, Tarsem Singh, Weekend Openings, Werner Herzog
Warner Bros. Pictures
The problems start almost as soon as the lights dim in Clint Eastwood’s eagerly anticipated biopic, “J. Edgar”. J. Edgar Hoover, the iconic American lawman, director and overseer of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is late in his life, elderly, puffy in appearance, gruff in tone, and passionately dictating to his lead biographer, Agent Smith (Ed Westwick), the events which led to his appointment as a top ranking official in the Justice Department. We catch him almost in mid-sentence it seems, as he jumps right into running through the details surrounding the storied Palmer Raids of 1919, a strategy used to snuff out perceived left-leaning anarchists after the conclusion of World War I and during the height of the Red Scare of Communism in America. From the opening moments, we are scrambling to catch up to the facts and details Hoover is sharing; details perceived to be basic and primary for most viewers, but presented in a hazy and unframed context.
Directed by Clint Eastwood, “J. Edgar” falls victim to many of these moments. Context is fleeting and the screenplay from Oscar-winning writer Dustin Lance Black (Milk) feels akin to flipping randomly through a biography of Hoover’s life – or worse, a textbook. Black and Eastwood have opted to tell Hoover’s story in a non-linear cross-cutting style which, either because of some surprisingly shoddy editing by Eastwood’s long-time collaborators Joel Cox and Gary Roach or Eastwood and Black not being on the same page, “J. Edgar” is undoubtedly well-intentioned, but amounts to nothing more than a turgid, meandering 137 minutes.
Read more on J. Edgar (**)…
"J. Edgar" seems to be a real Oscar contender.
J. EDGAR
Directed by Clint Eastwood
There is little doubt in my mind that like Oliver Stone’s brilliant Nixon (1995) there will be critics who admire Eastwood’s J. Edgar and those who do not. They will each have their own reasons and be downright passionate about their opinion, because Eastwood’s work, and the subject of Hoover brings out such emotions.
Count me in as one of the critics considering this an American masterpiece (however flawed) and brilliant study of a man’s tortured soul. Oddly though he hated President Richard Nixon, the pair had more in common than either would liked to have confessed. Daringly, writer Dustin Lance Black, who won a well deserved Academy Award for Milk (2008) and Clint Eastwood have explored Hoover’s life warts and all, focusing on his huge contributions to law enforcement in the United States, but not forgetting what a cruel, vicious and vindictive man he could be. The film is also about power, how to build it, keep it insulated, keep yourself in a position where you are not only respected but feared, never recognizing what you are doing to be an abuse of that very power. For fifty years he held the position of FBI Director, in some cases because Presidents feared replacing him because of what he might had on them. Presidents, the highest office in the land, feared J. Edgar Hoover, and they were right to do so because he was sometimes vicious in his zeal to protect the fabric of America, never really understanding that often he was he people needed protecting from.
Read more on J. Edgar (****)…
|
