There is something very subdued from Paul Dano’s directorial debut, Wildlife, that makes it a more meaningful movie than it probably is. I don’t know if there is a particular term for it other than it felt very Paul Dano-like. The man who never appears to age has delivered in a ton of movies you probably have never seen or left the theater scratching your head over (There Will Be Blood, Love & Mercy, Swiss Army Man, Little Miss Sunshine, Meek’s Cutoff, The Ballad of Jack and Rose). He plays some odd characters, so why wouldn’t his directing style be similar? Interestingly, the cast in his leads one of the most underrated and diverse actors of our generation in Jake Gyllenhaal (End of Watch, Prisoners), who is never afraid to take a risk in a role and is one of the most talented and underappreciated actresses of the same generation in Carey Mulligan (Shame, An Education) who prefers some of the safer roles. As an aside, Gyllenhaal and Mulligan (as of March 2019) have a combined two Oscar nominations to their names. Each should have been nominated at least three times by now…a common theme in my posts is how I think Gyllenhaal has been the sixth Best Actor in a five nomination award on at least three or four occasions. In fact, my very first six-pack post was on Jake Gyllenhaal’s Top 6 Performances. Mulligan is similar, having earned a nomination for An Education, but not one for Shame, Suffragette, Mudbound, Drive…she just has fewer acting credits to her name at this point than Gyllenhaal does. The talented Dano has zero Oscar nominations to his name but should have easily received one for There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis performances are like nothing else, but this young man battled the most talented actor of the last 30 years, scene for scene, all the way up to the brutal conclusion.
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Category Archives: Ed Oxenbould
The Visit (2015)
M. Night Shyamalan (Signs, The Sixth Sense) is no longer the master of terror. He seems to get progressively worse with each film. There are exceptions for some people, I think. For example, I liked The Village more than I did Unbreakable, and while other people panned The Happening, I thought it was okay. However, there is no denying that the man is a fraction of his former self. While he no longer deems it necessary to have a twist in every movie, his last few movies, especially Lady in the Water, The Last Airbender, and After Earth, have been dreadful. With The Visit, a film he both wrote and directed, he tries something new. It fails. Miserably. At least for me, it did. There is an audience for it, evidenced by its $25 million in its opening weekend alone and a 59% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But those who remember the masterful Shyamalan from 1999-2002 are not the same people who will enjoy this. The Visit seems to be a mixture between The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, Funny Games, The Strangers, and Goosebumps. I’ll admit that this was the second movie of a Bryan Buser double and that it was the only movie that matched up when my first movie ended. I saw the film by default, and I was prepared to walk out at any point. I anticipated it. However, there was something about it early on that kept me interested. And then, when I looked at my watch, and I was already 30 minutes into a 90-minute movie, I knew I would stick it out.
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