Meh. There are many better movies to see this year than Aaron Sorkin’s (The Trial of the Chicago 7, Molly’s Game) Being the Ricardos. However, the 2021 Academy Award nominees seem more prominent regarding name recognition than in prior years. Movies that in previous years likely wouldn’t have sniffed a nomination are likely to get multiples this year. Being the Ricardos, with Sorkin and Academy favorites, four-time Oscar nominee Nicole Kidman (The Others, Lion) and three-time nominee Javier Bardem (Biutiful, No Country for Old Men) will receive recognition. Kidman will get a nomination for acting (though she has no chance of winning), but Bardem will not. The film could receive a best-picture nomination, making me cringe.
Category Archives: Aaron Sorkin
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Just because a film has the revered Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, Steve Jobs, The American President, Charlie Wilson’s War, Moneyball) attached to it as a screenwriter doesn’t mean we should automatically assume it will be a hit. The screenwriter has hit some home runs on the big screen. He’s the mastermind behind a few of the most revered television shows (The West Wing, Sports Night, The Newsroom) of the last 25 years. But that doesn’t mean that everything he touches will turn to pure gold. Venturing into just his second movie as a director (Molly’s Game), The Trial of the Chicago 7 is far from a film that should receive a Best Picture nomination. Sadly, it could very well win the top prize for 2020. Of the eight Best Picture nominated movies for 2020, only three finished in my top ten. In other years, I don’t think any of the three would have found a spot in my end-of-the-year list. 2020 was not a great year in the history of the world. The year in film was no exception.
Molly’s Game (2017)
I’ve mentioned many times that I am so glad I am not addicted to gambling. I have other vices, and the added temptation of a big payday by sacrificing my own hard-earned money with less than successful odds sounds absolutely miserable.
In Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, he tells the story of Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year, Take Shelter), an Olympic level skier who once ran one of the most exclusive high-stakes poker games for more than a decade, two years before her arrest that saw FBI agents surrounding her house with automatic guns in the middle of the night. It’s a legitimate directorial debut and one that is worthy of its high praise. But despite how well made the movie is, I believe it to be a much more enjoyable and educational film if you are familiar with poker. I have no idea how to play the game, so while I was fascinated by the movie, there were definitely many parts where I felt like the odd one sitting around a kitchen table because there were many terms thrown around that I did not understand as well as actions, motives, dialogue, and even purposes that felt very foreign to me. As a result, the movie didn’t hook me like it did many of the other films that Sorkin also wrote (The Social Network, Moneyball, Steve Jobs, Charlie Wilson’s War, not to mention his credits as a lead writer on television’s The West Wing and Newsroom). That’s not to say Sorkin should stick to screenwriting. He absolutely should not. It’s just that I will look forward to seeing him direct a movie revolving around a different theme in the future rather than revisiting Molly’s Game, a film that, frankly, will be one that I will forever forget about soon after I write this review.