More than a decade before earning back-to-back Best Director Oscars (Birdman, The Revenant), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directed a series of unrelated hyperlink films. The idea behind hyperlink movies is that you have a movie that tells completely different stories in completely different settings but connected or influenced in ways unknown to the characters (and for periods of time the audience as well). These films started gaining popularity with the success of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic in the year 2000. When done correctly, hyperlink films can be incredibly memorable. Traffic won four Academy Awards and was a favorite for Best Picture in 2000. Four years later, Crash maxed out on the hyperlinked film method, earning six Oscar nominations and taking home three awards, including Best Picture. Inarritu’s first hyperlink (and first feature-length) film, Amores Perros, wasn’t really marketed and was missed by many. While receiving high marks from critics, it earned less than $5 million at the box office and hasn’t been a movie that many people have gone back and seen, despite the success of his two Oscar-winning movies. I did actually watch Amores Perros after it was recommended by a friend and did not love it. Inarritu’s second endeavor, 21 Grams, was loaded with Hollywood A-listers (Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Melissa Leo, Benicio Del Toro). It also resonated with critics (80%) and audiences (86%) but earned just $16 million domestically. I also saw 21 Grams and found it to be incredibly boring. His third movie, 2007’s Babel, is easily his best hyperlink movie and, in my opinion, his second-best overall (behind The Revenant, which just happens to be my favorite movie of all time). While just 69% of critics gave it a favorable rating (77% audience), it earned seven Academy Award nominations (winning one), including Best Picture and Best Director. For those who see this movie and don’t like it because of its pace or its length (or for whatever other reason), I won’t try to talk you out of it. It’s certainly not for everyone. And while the overall story and the arching angle wasn’t the most complex or even the most interesting, the acting was absolutely top-notch, with some of the biggest Hollywood heavyweights bringing their A-game while unknown actors taking center stage and making a name for themselves.
Continue reading Babel (2006)
Category Archives: Elle Fanning
Live by Night (2016)
For the last three or four years, I’ve said that I think and hope that Ben Affleck can be our generation’s Clint Eastwood. Affleck has completely transformed himself into a Hollywood A-lister. With a career that really began with Kevin Smith movies like Mallrats and Chasing Amy, Affleck became a household name when he won an Academy Award (best original screenplay) for Good Will Hunting, a film in which he co-starred with Matt Damon. Affleck then stars in big-budget blockbusters such as Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and The Sum of All Fears. But after he started dating Jennifer Lopez and co-starred with her in both the forgettable Jersey Girl and Gigli, a movie that many people have called one of the worst movies ever made, his perception as an actor began taking a turn for the worse. Forgettable money grabbers like Daredevil, Paycheck, and Surviving Christmas accompanied tabloid fodder and, seemingly, in the blink of an eye, Affleck became sort of a joke in the Hollywood circles. Meanwhile, best friend Matt Damon was striking gold with everything he touched. But in 2007, Affleck dabbled with directing for the first time and had one of the best directorial debuts of all-time with the quiet, understated, and much revered Gone Baby Gone. Knowing he needed a break from being in front of the camera, Affleck turned to his brother Casey Affleck as his leading man. Not only did it launch Casey’s career, but critics and fans alike wanted to know if Ben was a one-hit-wonder as a director or if this was a sign of things to come. Fortunately, this was just the start for Affleck, who has since directed The Town (my second favorite movie of all time), and Argo, the Academy Award Winner for Best Picture of 2012. Affleck also reemerged as a leading man with The Town, Argo, State of Play, and the amazing Gone Girl. In all honesty, Affleck was due for a dud. But, personally, I felt like I owed it to him to see whatever his fourth movie behind the camera would be. I was excited about Live by Night when I first heard about it, but I went in with lower expectations after seeing the critics’ score of 33% and the audience’s score of 57% on Rotten Tomatoes. While this easily was his worst movie as a director, it wasn’t bad, but rather because his other movies were so good. I didn’t love Live by Night, but I by no means disliked it. It was longer than it needed to be and had a couple of too many storylines. But Affleck created a well-crafted story with some memorable characters, and, honestly, I’ll probably watch this movie again when it comes to Netflix so I can better analyze it and catch all of the parts that I might have missed.
The Nines (2007)
The Nines did nothing to convince me that Ryan Reynolds (The Proposal, The Amityville Horror) is the great actor many consider him to be. I’m still waiting on one Ryan Reynolds movie that I enjoy. I’m expecting I will enjoy The Green Lantern, but my enjoyment of this movie might be despite Ryan Reynolds and not because of him. I also suspect I will enjoy Buried when I watch it. I have heard good things about his performance in that movie. As for now, Ryan Reynolds did nothing in The Nines to improve my perception of him as a lead actor.
The Door in the Floor (2004)
Sometimes, life doesn’t go as planned, and sometimes, we have to find ways to deal with these events, which is the theme of the drama/comedy The Door In The Floor (2004). Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart, True Grit) and Kim Basinger (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile) are at the top of their game as parents who have fallen out of love with each other following the deaths of their teenage sons. Tod Williams effectively adapts the first third of the John Irving novel “A Widow For One Year” in his directorial debut.