Entering awards season two years removed from the success of his directorial debut The Father, a film that was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two, Florian Zeller’s follow-up, The Son, had some lofty, albeit slightly unrealistic expectations, if for no other reason that some deemed it a continuation of the story. In contrast, others viewed its Christmas Day limited release to mean that the production company believed the movie would hopefully receive the same critical acclaim (98% critics, 94% audience) as The Father and wanted to keep the film fresh in voters’ minds as possible. Sadly, the film failed to resonate with either group (a paltry 26% critics and a lukewarm 67% audience). As a result, the film will fail to reach $1,000,000 at the box office despite a star-studded cast that flanked (and outmatched) the relatively unknown Zen McGrath (Dig), who played the title character.
Category Archives: Hugh Jackman
Bad Education (2019)
Bad Teacher. An Education. Bad Education. Bad Santa. Like with a human being, one might say there is nothing more personable to a person than their name. However, it can become lost in the weeds when a movie doesn’t have a title that can quickly be associated with it. Furthermore, if the film isn’t memorable and has no recognizable title, it’s likely to get even further caught in the weeds. Such could have been, and likely was to many, Cory Finley’s (Thoroughbreds) Bad Education.
The Front Runner (2018)
An upstart politician gets caught being seen with a woman who is not his wife. A scandal ensues. Would-be presidential candidate resigns amidst the controversy. Just because a story happens doesn’t mean you need to make a movie about it. At best, Jason Reitman’s (Up in the Air, Young Adult) Gary Hart biopic should have been a straight to cable drop. But really, a 60-minute documentary on The History Channel or something would have sufficed. That’s not to see The Front Runner was a bad movie. Because it wasn’t, it’s just a movie that didn’t need to be made. Reitman, a fantastic yet underrated director fresh off the incredibly impressive Tully with also such films like Juno and Thank You For Smoking among his credits, had no business involving himself with a movie that, no matter what he did, wasn’t going to register with the critics or with the audiences because:
- Even though it is a 30 year story at the time of its release, it is one that everyone knows.
- , it iIt’s a story that we, as a society, tried to make into some huge deal,, whereas 30 years later, we realize that a politician cheating on his wife is something that hardly bats an eye.
- It’s a story that raised some issues related to morality tried to be a little preachy in a day and age where none of us is interested in hearing and seeing preachy…especially from a story that is trying to be relevant in today’s society but really does feel 30 years old.
The Greatest Showman (2017)
I’m not going to lie. The only reason I watched Michael Gracey’s The Greatest Showman was that it was the topic of one of the sermons at my church. Each year we have a summer movie series (In 2018, the movies were Forrest Gump, Good Will Hunting, The Princess Bride, The Shawshank Redemption…I had seen all four, of course, and watched all of them again before that week’s service to refamiliarize myself with each of these amazing films. Then on Labor Day weekend, we have our Family Weekend, where the children of our church sit with their parents rather than going to the classes that they usually go to. We show a truncated version of a movie, and this year it was The Greatest Showman. So I added it to my Netflix queue. It arrived two days before my church service, and I watched it the night beforehand. I’m not a fan of musicals, although I will say that the incredible La La Land has, if nothing else, allowed me to consider that I could potentially enjoy a musical. And, while it certainly wasn’t my cup of tea, I did enjoy The Greatest Showman and would actually consider watching it again one day with one or more of my three young nephews.
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Logan (2017)
James Mangold’s (3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line) Logan is about to set the standard for the next wave of superhero movies…the death of a major character. In an age of movies (particularly superhero ones) where we’ve seen sequels, prequels, and reboots, we have yet to see the story’s beginning, middle, and definite conclusion. We’ve seen plenty of superhero movies that COULD be a conclusion story, but we’ve all learned the hard way that we think is the end probably isn’t the end unless we see that character killed off. And, let’s be honest, even then, we don’t really know. When there is the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars to be made, who are we to believe that the end is the end. Oftentimes, the end is determined by a crappy movie in a series that doesn’t resonate with audiences or critics. Sometimes, that movie can be a concluding story, but often it is not. But (spoiler, but not really) based on what happens at the end of the film, I don’t expect to see him back. I know I probably will in some other fashion, but that can be an argument for a different day. Until then, I’ll continue to sing the praises of Logan. And at the time of this review, I have it as a top-five Marvel movie of all time.
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