Gladiator, The Last Duel, Blade Runner, or Alien, it is not. Ridley Scott’s Napoleon was my most anticipated movie of 2023. The elements were in place. It had the director. It had the actor (Joaquin Phoenix – Walk the Line, Joker). It had the story. Yet, the pieces never came together. Instead, it was a two-hour and 38-minute chaotic mess that offered no logical transition of scenes, little connection between characters, and easily forgettable battle scenes that left much to be desired. This film was a catastrophic failure in many ways.
Category Archives: Joaquin Phoenix
Joker (2019)
A movie that didn’t need to be made often will benefit from the doubt if that same movie pays due diligence and does the movie right. Those wondering why we need a Joker origin story when there is a perfect origin story in The Dark Knight (one of the 25 best movies ever made) should find some relief in knowing that the Christopher Nolan trilogy story will not be confused with Todd Phillips’ (War Dogs, Old School) Joker. This film never mentions the word Batman nor refers to anything related to, perhaps, the most iconic comic book franchise of all time other than references to Gotham City and a billionaire businessman named Thomas Wayne.
The Sisters Brothers (2018)
My first impression of the trailer of Jacques Audiard’s (Dheepan) The Sisters Brothers was that it too quickly and too easily reminded me of a Quentin Tarantino movie. The trailer teetered the line of whether it was a drama or a comedy, a comedy masquerading itself as a drama, a drama trying to go for so much dark humor, or a variety of other techniques made famous by one of the most recognized and revered directors of our generation. But, honestly, to compare Audiard’s film to one of Tarantino’s would be doing a disservice to Audiard because, with all due respect, this movie is better than anything Tarantino has directed since Pulp Fiction, except for 2009’s Inglourious Basterds. This Tarantino was one that I really liked but one, like each of his movies, had more than a few scenes that were difficult to watch. I know plenty of fans out there think I’m crazy for not liking The Hateful Eight, Django Unchained, Sin City, Kill Bill, Jackie Brown, etc., but these just haven’t been my kind of movies. Some of the stories are good, and some of the screenplays he creates are worthy of the Oscar nominations they receive. Still, I just can’t personally get past so many of the uncomfortable scenes, especially his unneeded yet repetitive use of the “N” word over and over again. I haven’t seen a Tarantino film in the theatre since 1996’s From Dusk Til Dawn (a movie whose first half I loved before falling apart). The Hateful Eight was a movie I turned off after 15 minutes because of its excessive use of the “N” word. Django Unchained, a film that uses the “N” word over 100 times, was one that I suffered through because it had received a nomination for Best Picture of the Year, and I watch all Best Picture nominated movies. I am still upset that I gave that movie over two hours of my time. But this is not a post to voice my displeasure over Tarantino. It is a review to celebrate Audiard’s in making a name for himself in this unique movie, which I didn’t totally love but did appreciate. What a 2018 it was for Joaquin Phoenix (Reservation Road, Irrational Man)! This man had had an amazing year. He had Best Actor Oscar buzz surrounding three different movies (Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, You Were Never Really Here, The Sisters Brothers). And while he ultimately did not receive his fourth Oscar nomination, he carried three completely different films, playing three completely different characters in movies that earned 89%, 76%, and 86%, respectively. He’s become a pretty polarizing actor and angered many people with his retirement hoax back in 2009/2010 just to promote his movie I’m Still Here. Nevertheless, the man continues to deliver in absolutely all of his movies. And he delivers here as Charlie Sisters, the younger brother of Eli (John C. Reilly – Chicago, Stan & Ollie), two hitmen who work for The Commodore. They aren’t particularly unlikable men, but they do terrible things, such as killing anyone their boss asks them to kill without question. Part of the Tarantino part, I think, is the guiltless consciousnesses. While I don’t think Charlie and Eli particularly WANT to kill any of these people, it doesn’t necessarily seem like they are losing sleep after they do so. Continue reading The Sisters Brothers (2018)
Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot (2018)
What a year for Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line, Her) is set to have. With four movies set for release in 2018, Phoenix is an early favorite for a Best Actor Academy Award for the critically acclaimed and still under-appreciated You Were Never Really Here. Say what you want about that movie if you’ve seen it, but you can’t knock on his amazingly even performance. And the highly anticipated The Sisters Brothers (fall release) is also receiving some early Oscar buzz. As good as he was in You Were Never Really Here and as good as he probably will be in The Sisters Brothers, his performance of the year will be as John Callahan, the quadriplegic cartoon artist in the biopic Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, a movie that many moviegoers will forget because of its title, but not because of its story or the performances of its lead. I admit that I was skeptical of the title and the trailer because you never really know if a Phoenix movie will be great or terrible these days. But I have trust in director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester). If nothing else, I knew the movie was not going to be f***ing suck (Alex Ovechkin Stanley Cup quote…my team’s average is a combined one win a decade, so I’m going to milk the Washington Capitals championship for a long, long time). And the movie certainly didn’t suck. In fact, people often ask me if I watch movies through the eyes of a fan or of a critic. And more often than not, it goes back and forth, but I feel like I’m always analyzing the movie. However, when a movie is great, the critic’s lens gets taken off, and I’m in it for the ride as much as the persons sitting on my left and right. And that was the case with this movie. I was just really invested in the story and the characters. It reminded me a lot of The End of the Tour, a movie which, admittedly, I enjoyed slightly more than Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot. But it had that same sort of vibe with me.
Continue reading Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot (2018)
You Were Never Really Here (2018)
So conflicted…Lynne Ramsay’s (Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin) You Were Never Really Here really is not a great movie. Yet it received an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4 stars on Roger Ebert’s website. A few times during my viewing, I wanted to say aloud, “This movie sucks,” but, of course, that is something I would not do. But you can imagine how surprised I was when the movie received a round of applause after its conclusion. I was flabbergasted, but I was in an art theatre (this was the only place it was showing). It had been a good year and a half (Arrival) since the audience had last clapped at the conclusion of a movie. So I decided I would read a little about this movie and see what I missed that others saw. First, I will say that the performance of Joaquin Phoenix (Gladiator, Walk the Line) was extremely good. He was so even and heavy as a down and outgun for hire suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from what he witnessed while serving in the military and from suffering from events of his childhood he was never able to process. If we only look at Phoenix’s character as a character study, we’ve got something. We’ve actually got something good that we could build different stories around that would work. But this story? This story revolves around an issue that, honestly, many people will have a problem digesting. I understand that we want to have intrigue and surprises in the story, but not at the cost of what becomes the focal point of everything that happens. Ramsay could have done the same thing with a twist on the story that wouldn’t have made us squirm in our seats so much that really could have been as equally effective. Granted, this movie was adapted from an existing novel. Still, I believe the plot could, and should have, been changed. Hence, my internal conflict.
Continue reading You Were Never Really Here (2018)