Ready to call it a career, Frank James (Sam Shepard – Out of the Furnace, The Right Stuff) promises his brother Jesse (Brad Pitt – Legends of the Fall, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) one last train heist with the notorious James Gang. Then, Frank will drift off into the sunset and live out the rest of his life quietly. But what will happen to Jesse? Well, he will be assassinated by the coward Robert Ford. The film’s title gives the plot away unless somehow we are talking about the assassination metaphorically. We are not. So what keeps director Andrew Dominik’s (Blonde, Killing Them Softly) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford such an alluring watch for its nearly three-hour runtime?
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If you want to watch a sweet drama that commits you to think outside the box, then Craig Gillespie’s (I, Tonya, The Finest Hours) might be that secret little hidden movie that might be for you. Starring Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine, The Nice Guys), this tender, sweet film is like nothing you’ve ever seen. And if the premise scares you away because it looks stupid, watch the trailer. If the trailer still doesn’t do it for you, read what some top reviewers said. If that doesn’t work, then trust me a little. “The Ryan Gosling Dates a Sex Toy” movie is not what Lars and the Real Girl is about. At all.
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Director David Gordon Green is quietly creeping into the upper echelon of movie directors. However, he is probably a name most people still have not heard of. Green is known for doing these smaller, independent, character-driven movies that are often set in Anytown, USA. To me, the movies are incredibly realistic because they dive so deep into raw, everyday emotions, explicitly dealing with love and lust and jealousy and anger and hurt. Keep in mind as I say this that he has also directed stupid humor comedies like Pineapple Express, The Sitter, and Your Highness, but that shows how ultra-talented the man is. The movies I am talking about are George Washington, Undertow (which I didn’t like but appreciated), and Snow Angels, a film I admire in every aspect. I’d need to go back and watch Snow Angels again (a movie I watched for the second time ever, no more than 3 or 4 months ago) before deciding if I like it or All the Real Girls better. To me, both of these movies capture the pureness of simple film-making.
Continue reading All the Real Girls (2003) →
Movies I Watch That Inspire Me to Critique!