2023 has been the year of the biopic. The year may be the successful blueprint that could ignite a trend. Each year, several biopics are released. Some are good. Some are not. In 2023, it has often felt like a new biopic was set for release each week. Some of the better ones were The Iron Claw, Dumb Money, Oppenheimer, Blackberry, Tetris, Maestro, Air, and Sound of Freedom. At some point, there was biopic overload, with films like Golda, Big George Foreman, Rise, Chevalier, Rustin, and Nyad getting lost in the shuffle. Rustin and Nyad are receiving Oscar Buzz for leading acting performances. Yet, if not for this recognition, each film likely would have been missed by the public without even knowing the film existed.
Category Archives: Shailene Woodley
Dumb Money (2023)
I love it when a movie is timely and relevant. I refer to The Social Network, the 2010 origin film about the social phenomenon of Facebook. This social media platform had been made available to the public less than four years earlier. Aaron Sorokin and David Fincher worked magic to create such a masterpiece quickly. I still maintain that The King’s Speech beating The Social Network for Best Picture was one of the biggest shams in Oscar history. It showed just how antiquated and set in their ways The Academy had become. While Craig Gillespie’s (I, Tonya, Lars and the Real Girl) Dumb Money is not entirely on the same level as The Social Network, its timely significance cannot be overlooked. Though in a completely different way, the events in Dumb Money are (to many individuals, organizations, and sectors) as impactful as to those in The Social Network.
Adrift (2018)
Meticulously crafted and tenderly executed, Baltasar Kormákur’s (Everest, 2 Guns) Adrift is a journey not to be best on the largest screen you can find at your nearby cinemas. Lost at sea is one of my favorite genres of movies. This movie stands on its own against such classics as The Perfect Storm, Dead Calm, Life of Pi, Lifeboat, All is Lost, The Deep, and even academy award-nominated pictures like Cast Away and Life of Pi in the sense that it is based on a true story and that the true story is real in the sense that we know exactly what happened because, spoiler, the survivor lives to tell the story. While such stories as Titanic, The Perfect Storm, Open Water, and The Heart of the Sea are based on true stories and are fantastic movies, there is so much fiction added to these stories because we don’t have full accounts of what actually did happen because there either wasn’t someone left at the end to give the proper details or there were so many fictional elements added to the anecdotes that the plot from which the movie was based on has been entirely changed. That is not the case with Adrift, and that is what makes this movie so great. It isn’t “based on” or “inspired by” a true story. It IS a true story, and, ultimately, that’s what we want in the end.
Continue reading Adrift (2018)
Snowden (2016)
I did not see 2015’s Citzenfour documentary about Edward Snowden. Had I, I might not have appreciated Oliver Stone’s (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July) biopic as much as I did. I think part of the reason I was such a big fan of Snowden was that I knew very little about it before my viewing. Sure I knew of Wikileaks and learned a lot from the news, but I didn’t pay. Snowden went from your everyday no name to one of the most controversial figures of this century. Now, if you think this movie will be completely neutral, you don’t know Oliver Stone very well. Heck, this was the same man who directed JFK. His approach has always been very anti-government, and with Snowden, it’s no different. While I haven’t loved all of his movies (Nixon, W., Alexander, Savages, even JFK wasn’t really my thing), there are certainly more than I do like. Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July are incredibly amazing, while other movies such as Natural Born Killers and Wall Street were revolutionary. Snowden might be my third favorite. Snowden was definitely softer in tone and, maybe even the scope, but was, by no means, less controversial. I don’t have a lot of complaints about the movie itself. Some people said it was too long. I did not feel that way. My only problem with it is that it didn’t make Ed Snowden as controversial as he was. Instead, it made it seem that whistleblowing on his country was the right and noble thing to do. For some, maybe most, it may have been. But what we weren’t really shown was the “other side” of the story. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable film that gave a great backstory for why he did the things he did.
Continue reading Snowden (2016)
Insurgent (2015)
As I mentioned near the end of my review on Divergent, what is Kate Winslet (The Reader, Little Children) doing in a movie franchise like this? Anybody could have played the role of this minor character. There isn’t any depth to her character. The movie isn’t going to win any awards. And Winslet could be spending her time in movies that bring out her acting prowess. I understand it from the film’s standpoint. Why not get another big name? Even if it costs 10+ times as much money as getting an unknown actor, it makes sense. The movie, more or less, covers its costs in the first week or two anyway. I’ve always come back to that appearing in movies such as Insurgent allows her to sustain her way of life to take on more roles in independent films that can’t afford to pay her as much because they won’t make as much at the box office. And if this is the reason, then I am cool with it. I am willing to give Naomi Watts (The Ring, The Impossible), who also appears in this movie, the same leeway. It does bother me that these talented actresses are merely supporting less talented actors and actresses in a film that relies on young adult fantasy and adventure scenes rather than the performances of its leads. Nonetheless, I’m willing to accept this with the hope that Winslet and Watts will continue to put out Oscar-contending performances in future films.
Continue reading Insurgent (2015)