Little Children is a somewhat misleading name for a movie that doesn’t have much to do with children or anyone physically small. While a couple of kids are in this movie, they are non-descript and serve as props more than anything else. The leads are all middle-aged adults, though their undisciplined and erratic behavior suggests they are anything but. The protagonists act as entitled brats, while the antagonists are fundamentally flawed. It becomes apparent that we are on a collision course between all involved in a film whose setting is present-day New England, but that very well could be in any town in America.
Category Archives: Patrick Wilson
Lakeview Terrace (2008)
In the mold of great thrillers like Unlawful Entry, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Sleeping With the Enemy, Pacific Heights, Single White Female, and Deceived comes Neil LaBute’s (Death at a Funeral, The Wicker Man) 2008’s underappreciated Lakeview Terrace. This is a movie designed to elicit powerful reactions among its audiences. While this movie never felt that farfetched (until maybe its final scenes), it seems less like a fictional story than I believed it to be, given what we see daily about racism and racial violence as I write this in 2020.
The Founder (2016)
As John Lee Hancock’s (Saving Mr. Banks, The Blind Side) progressed, I couldn’t help compare his lead character Ray Kroc (played by Michael Keaton – Spotlight, Birdman) to, perhaps, the most iconic television figure in the last 25 years. But, of course, I’m talking about Walter White from the AMC series Breaking Bad. Now the founder of The McDonald’s Corporation certainly didn’t go to the extremes that Walter White did when he transferred himself from a quiet high school chemistry teacher to a ruthless, cutthroat drug Kingpin, intent on destroying everything in his path by any means necessary to get what he wants. Nevertheless, Hancock’s version of Kroc felt similar in the sense that when we meet him, he is a man of integrity, doing whatever he can within the confines of the law to make a living. But, by the end of the film, he is an entirely different man, caught up in his greed, power, and wealth. But, like White, he reaches a point where he feels that he is virtually invincible to those around him as well as to the laws of the land. And just like Breaking Bad, The Founder becomes a must-watch.
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Young Adult (2011)
Young Adult is one of those movies that some people will love and some will hate, while others will only be able to decide if they love it or hate it once it concludes. It is more of a polarizing movie than most. People will remember this movie more than they would an average $10 million budget dramedy. This is particularly true for many Generation Xers who can identify with its lead character Mavis (Charlize Theron – Monster, North Country), a woman approaching 40 who is going through a major midlife identity crisis.
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The Ledge (2011)
The Ledge is one of many movies with a trailer that hooked me and made me think the film would be terrific. I reevaluated my decision when I saw that it made just $ 5,000 at the box office and earned a whopping 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, as I was updating my Netflix queue, I saw it was already coming to my house. So I gave the movie a chance that very night it arrived, thinking I’d have it on, but I would probably be glancing at it while doing some work online. However, I gave it a chance, and it hooked me. Usually, this type of movie would be one I would mock (see below). But for reasons unknown, the story caught me, and while the situation did get a little absurd, I didn’t see it as being unreasonable because of the characters and what drove these characters.