Dark. Mysterious. Unsettling. Romantic. Poetic Prophetic. Andrew Haigh’s (Leon on Pete, 45 Years) All of Us Strangers is an imaginative, transcendent love story with two Oscar-deserving actors portraying empathetic characters searching desperately for human connection. This idyllic love story gives a glimpse from its first scenes that our two leads are destined for something beautifully tragic.
Category Archives: LGBTQ
Maestro (2023)
Each year, a handful of movies are made in a way that is less interested in audience consumption or interest and more in earning awards. The term for this is “Oscar bait.” The 2023-released movie most associated with this term is Bradley Cooper’s (A Star Is Born) sophomore directorial effort, Maestro. It will earn a few Oscars. Cooper might even earn one for Best Director. He’s likelier to earn one for Best Lead Actor for portraying the title character, Leonard Bernstein.
The Inspection (2022)
Heavy military boot comp movies cannot help but draw comparisons to Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. The groundbreaking drama showcased the great lengths that United States Military Academies sometimes go too far to “break” their recruits. Another great example is the under-appreciated but long-remembered G.I. Jane. Both films featured recruits that were not wanted (Full Metal Jacket with the obese, dimwitted Leonard “aka Gomer Pyle” Lawrence (played fantastically by Vincent D’Onofrio) in Full Metal Jacket or Demi Moore as the lone trial candidate of a U.S. Navy female integration program in G.I. Jane. A similar example is Men of Honor, the story of Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding Jr.), the first African-American U.S. Navy Diver.
My Policeman (2022)
Brokeback Mountain set in 1950s Britain? That’s the best comparison I can give to Michael Grandage’s (Genius) understated and tender My Policeman, a movie that is beloved by audiences (96% on Rotten Tomatoes) but shunned by critics (46%). Much of the criticism has to do with Harry Styles (Dunkirk, Don’t Worry Darling), the singing superstar who, earlier this year, broke a Madison Square Garden record by selling out his concert for 15 consecutive nights. Much of the public was ready to declare him the next Justin Timberlake, based upon a single supporting performance in Dunkirk, a role that didn’t require him to do much. Styles was a late choice in Olivia Wilde’s highly anticipated but polarizing Don’t Worry Darling after Shia LaBeouf abruptly backed out. The film faltered for many reasons, including the less-than-flattering reviews of Styles’ inability to match his much more accomplished counterpart, Florence Pugh. My Policeman had been hyped as Styles’ acting breakthrough. He wasn’t nearly as miscast as in Don’t Worry Darling. His performance opposite David Dawson (most recognizable as King Alfred in the Netflix series The Last Kingdom) was one of the many highlights of the underseen My Policeman.
Joe Bell (2020)
Sometimes, when producing a movie, it is based on having a great story, while at other times, it is based on having a great cast. Of course, many other factors can make or break a film, but let’s concentrate on these first two and ask a simple but essential question. What happens when you potentially have the first two, but they conflict? I believe that director Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard, Monsters and Men) likely faced that decision in Joe Bell. Here, he had the true story of a father walking from his hometown in Oregon to New York City to raise awareness for bullying after Jadin (Reid Miller), his openly gay 15-year-old son, committed suicide after being repeatedly tormented at school because of his sexual orientation.