The biggest compliment I can give Rebecca Miller’s (The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Maggie’s Plan) unmemorable She Came To Me was that it was creative. I crave originality. While none of the singular components were necessarily imaginative, the sum of the parts brought a freshness that kept me engaged. Unfortunately, I left feeling uninspired and disappointed as Miller dipped in and out of genres. Pegged as a romantic dramedy, I never felt involved enough with the characters to take the film seriously. Likewise, the comedy was a miss for me, though I heard some chuckling from the other ten or so people in my theater. And, while the film centered around intimate relationships at its core, this was far from checking off the romance genre checkbox. In all, it was pretty messy as it crawled towards a predictable finish line, misusing the talents of three of Hollywood’s biggest names in the process.
Category Archives: Anne Hathaway
Armageddon Time (2022)
Armageddon Time, James Gray’s (Ad Astra, The Lost City of Z) 1980 take on the pursuit of the American Dream, is a film with good intentions, but one that felt plagued by a plot that we’ve seen hundreds of times in cinema before. Even more detrimental to its predictable story was its attempt to impart wisdom to its audience, almost all of which we are already keenly aware of, especially in its release year of 2022. Unfortunately, The United States of America has been notorious for its class privileges, inequalities, and injustices. While we all have the opportunity to pursue the American Dream, specific paths often have far more obstacles to overcome than others. Gray successfully showcases this, but it’s hardly a discovery, and its overarching story has become quite a cliche.
Dark Waters (2019)
Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher, Spotlight) continues to show that he is one of the more under-appreciated Hollywood heavyweights in Todd Haynes’ (Carol, Wonderstruck) new release. Dark Waters tells the true story of Cincinnati lawyer Rob Bilott’s extraordinarily long legal battle against the DuPont Chemical Company and the toxic waste it was dumping into the streams and rivers of West Virginia. This poisonous waste contributed to a high rate of cancer cases in the surrounding areas and contributed to an alarming number of deaths among cattle and other animals. The movie is exceptionally well-made. It should be seen by all as it hits on self-regulation, big business, medical disasters, and company cover-ups on such a grand scale that it seems hard to fathom as being possible in today’s world. In today’s society, there is so much scrutiny, regulation, and punishment for companies doing what DuPont did and almost escaped without punishment. Almost.
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
To say that the Jonathan Demme-directed Rachel Getting Married is the role that Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries, Love and Other Drugs) could be considered by the ultimate compliment and, simultaneously, something that you hope isn’t true. I say that for a couple of reasons. First of all, if this is her crowning achievement, then what a movie to hang your hat on. With all due respect to 2012’s Les Miserables, Hathaway’s one performance as, of the end of 2018, that has earned her an Academy Award win, I personally have a difficult time comparing that movie to Rachel Getting Married for no other reason than because, while I have from time to time, I don’t typically review musicals. Much like documentaries or animated movies that I never review, I don’t know if I have a lot of insight or much that I can offer when it comes to a singing film. With that said, I did review Les Miserables and found Hathaway’s scene-stealing performance as Fantine to be the highlight of a movie and a story that I enjoy. But, to me, it didn’t compare to the powerhouse delivery she delivered four years earlier in her first Oscar-nominated performance as 25-year-old Kym, a recovering drug and alcohol addict current living in a treatment recovery program who is given a weekend release so that she can partake in the festivities of her older sister wedding in the infrequently seen Rachel Getting Married. The second reason that I hope this is not her career-defining performance is that, at the time of this writing in January 2019, Hathway is just 36 years old and already has a Best Lead Actress Oscar nomination (for this movie) and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar win. My fear, though, is that it’s been six years since she’s done a film of that nature or magnitude and the trajectory of her career seems to be leaning towards more fun, crowd-pleasing, and revenue inducing roles (The Intern, Oceans 8, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Rio, Rio 2, etc.) than some of the thicker, heavier stuff that earned her early critical acclaim. However, as I look at her IMDB page, she already has a movie called The Lifeboat scheduled for a 2024 release.
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The Intern (2015)
It’s a good feeling when a fading legend proves that he still has something left to give. Robert De Niro (Cape Fear, Taxi Driver) is one of the most accomplished and legendary actors of all time, having earned seven Academy Award nominations for acting, including two wins (The Godfather: Part II, Raging Bull). He has proved that he can be successful across many genres, including drama (The Deer Hunter, Cop Land), comedy (Analyze This, Wag the Dog), action/adventure (Midnight Run, Ronin), and mystery/suspense (Heat, Sleepers) to name a few. He can play some of the most likable characters we’ve ever seen (Leonard Lowe in Awakenings, Jack Byrnes in Meet the Parents) as well as some of the most reprehensible, violent, and hostile characters who we will never forget (Max Cady in Cape Fear, Ace Rothstein in Casino, Al Capone in The Untouchables and many, many more). Unfortunately, he has become (what my friend Tim affectionately refers to) a movie whore in recent years. One can hardly fault him for his work ethic and desire to earn a paycheck, but most of us would be amazed to know that De Niro has made more than 20 films since 2010’s Little Fockers. Only two of these films (Silver Linings Playbook for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Limitless were the only two that earned more than 60% on Rotten Tomatoes). While he was excellent in each of these two films (and pretty terrible in the other 18), Nancy Myers’ (It’s Complicated, Something’s Gotta Give) The Intern reminds us just how endearing and versatile that De Niro can still be. He is a part of cinematic history who people will take about in 50 years the same way that we talk about James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, and Clark Gable today. Perhaps De Niro will be even more revered because today’s cinema has allowed its actors to portray characters with much fewer restrictions.
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