In my review of Enough Said, I write that the performance of Albert by James Gandolfini was the perfect role for his final movie. Albert was such a likable character in that movie. There were no hidden agendas. The man had some flaws, but those flaws weren’t any worse than the flaws you or I have. I wrote that review when I believed Enough Said was Gandolfini’s final movie before he passed away. I still love his role in this movie, but I’m so glad there was still a movie in post-production that I did not know about. The Drop was a fantastic final film for him, and it could earn him a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination. In this film, Gandolfini returns to what he is most known for as an actor. He’s a little shady, and there always seems to be more about him than meets the eye. With that sly smile of his eyes, his under-the-breath chuckle, and his ability to say something to one person that is so very endearing one minute, but something to another character that is so brutally honest that it makes the person who is speaking feel stupid the next, Gandolfini is a master of disguising his characters and their intentions. He may have turned in the best big screen performance of his career with his final one.
Continue reading The Drop (2014)
Category Archives: John Ortiz
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Silver Linings Playbook was a great movie I would have seen if I had done more research ahead of time. I have known for months now that Jennifer Lawrence is a candidate, if not the favorite, for this year’s Best Actress Academy Award and that Bradley Cooper could snag one of the five nominations in the Best Actor category. The movie might land a spot in the Best Picture category, though it would have little chance of winning. So the Oscar buzz was one reason that got me to the theater. The other was that the movie centered on mental illnesses and broken relationships. Those movies often, but not always, engross me. I saw drama and comedy as words associated with this movie. Perhaps naively, I did not see a romantic comedy. While there was a bit of drama and some attempts at comedy (which I found to be weak), this slowly but surely turned into a romance. By the movie’s conclusion, I was very, very okay with that. Though flawed at times, it came together nicely and felt reasonably original to me. If ten movies are nominated for Best Picture this year, Silver Linings Playbook will and should be one of them.
Continue reading Silver Linings Playbook (2012)