Not being the biggest Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Match Point) fan myself, I’ve always felt that his movies lacked the overall substance I desire in my romances and dramas. Cassandra’s Dream is a movie I would never have given a chance when it was released back in 2007. Likewise, Colin Farrell (The Lobster, In Bruges) or Ewan McGregor (The Impossible, Incendiary) are not my biggest fans. Ferrell has grown on me by shedding his bad boy, box office revenue chasing persona, and doing more indies. I am surprised I even watched it. I’m grateful I gave it a chance after it was released. It was a nice, simple film that kept me entertained for the whole time.
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Category Archives: Ewan McGregor
August: Osage County (2013)
Primarily known for his work as executive director of some of the best television shows of the last 20 years (ER, The West Wing, Third Watch, Southland), John Wells is a newcomer in directing a feature film. Before August: Osage County, he has just one movie credit to his name (2010’s slightly disappointing The Company Men…a movie whose trailer made it seem like it was going to be a contender for movie of the year). But when it comes to assembling casts, I’m not sure a director can do any better. For his first film, he reeled in Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Mario Bello, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Craig T. Nelson. Not bad. But even the cast of The Company Men has nothing on August: Osage County. For this effort, with apologies to American Hustle, Wells has assembled the best cast ensemble you will see in all of 2013. American Hustle got five of the best actors and actresses on the planet, but August: Osage County got eight or nine great ones.
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The Impossible (2012)
The Impossible is flat-out the best movie of 2012. I went into the movie thinking it would be one of the ten best of 2012, but I didn’t think it would crack the top five, let alone take over The Dark Knight Rises. As I’ve stated many times, a great movie has an advantage over other great movies if it is based on a true story. Not “inspired by a true story” or “based upon true events” but “based on a true story.” A great movie can lose a lot in my book if it turns out that much factual information is exaggerated or incorrect. Remember The Titans went from being in my all-time top 25 to fall out of the top 150 because of how factually incorrect it had been. Rather than winning the state championship on the game’s final play, as depicted in the movie, the TC Williams Titans won that game handily 27-0. And while I haven’t sought out any discrepancies between what was shown in The Impossible and what happened, I haven’t heard anybody say that the events were untrue.
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Deception (2008)
Continuing to get my Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine, Incendiary) fix, I caught the directorial debut of Marcel Langenegger, 2008’s Deception. While captivating initially with its slow, almost methodical building of suspense, this movie ultimately tries to outsmart itself by offering twist after twist after twist. By the time the movie crawled to its conclusion, we either figured out the twists, or they were so far-fetched and ridiculous that we didn’t care about them.
Incendiary (2008)
After watching Blue Valentine about 5 or 6 times within my first month of owning it and then re-watching Brokeback Mountain a couple of months ago (the first time I saw it was in the movie theater), I’ve been itching to go on a Michelle Williams streak. I had no idea her filmography was already so long, and while I’m not going to watch some of the films very early on in her career (such as Halloween H20 or But I’m a Cheerleader), I’m anxious to see the movies she’s starred in since her Dawson’s Creek days. One of those movies was Sharon Maguire’s (in just her second directorial effort, following the highly popular Bridget Jones’s Diary) Incendiary.