The race for the five Best Actor nominations might be the Academy Awards’ toughest race. It seems like Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) is a lock. There has been some major buzz for a couple of movies that have run in limited release only (Ethan Hawke – First Reformed) and Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate). Ryan Gosling had a huge push heading into First Man, but that movie was completely underwhelmed with critics and audiences, and his fine performance could be a casualty in this tight year. A new crop of contenders could swoop in for a spot or two (Rami Malek –Bohemian Rhapsody), John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman), Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased). And then there are a couple of oldtimers who turned in a couple of possible final career performances (Clint Eastwood – The Mule) and Robert Redford (The Old Man & the Gun). But I will state, for the record, that one of the men listed above, not named Bradley Cooper, will be knocked out for the career-defining role of Viggo Mortensen (Appaloosa, A History of Violence) in Green Book. We can talk about Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Hidden Figures) all that we want (and we will). But Green Book is a Mortensen-driven vehicle and a movie that is an absolute must-see. I am a huge Mortensen fan. The Road is one of my all-time favorite movies, and his performance in 2007’s Eastern Promises was absolutely deserving of an Oscar nomination. But I was not a huge fan of 2016’s Captain Fantastic (a film I enjoyed to an extent but had no desire to review). I absolutely thought that the Oscar nomination should have gone to Jake Gyllenhaal (Nocturnal Animals). If, based on the preview, you are worried about Green Book basically being Driving Miss Daisy 2, rest assured that it is not. That, honestly, was my biggest trepidation. And don’t let the PG-13 rating fool you either into thinking that this will be something light-hearted and fun. It pushed the envelope with its language and tone at times. I’m not going to say that this is as dark as the Tom Cruise/ Jamie Foxx 2004 movie Collateral, but it is not designed that way either. While that movie, too, was driven by the performances of its two leads, I don’t think it had nearly as much to say as Green Book did. And I’m also not going to suggest that this movie doesn’t play out exactly as you might expect it to because it absolutely does.
Continue reading Green Book (2018)
Category Archives: Viggo Mortensen
A Walk on the Moon (1999)
I somewhat have an affinity for Viggo Mortensen (The Road, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring). His movie Eastern Promises (the only film he has received an Academy Award nomination for) was the first movie I ever reviewed for my blog. It wasn’t the most straightforward movie to review and one that I would like to see one day again and then read what I wrote for that first review, but that will be something that comes later. He’s a solid actor who seems to do fewer and fewer movies each year, but when he’s on his A-game, there aren’t many who are better. I had never heard of A Walk On the Moon before it showed up as a Netflix recommendation. I quickly threw it in the queue, and I’m glad I did. In addition to a fabulous performance by Mortensen, this was a solid movie with one of the significant foundations of human life at the forefront. It’s the most surprising movie I’ve seen this year, and I may have to reevaluate my 1999 top 10 list. I’m guessing this movie won’t be quite good enough to get on there, but there might be a chance. Maybe this review will be the deciding factor.
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The Road (2009)
John Hillcoat’s (Lawless, The Proposition) The Road is the best film adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel. Yes, I know that this means I preferred The Road over 2007’s Academy Award-winning Best Picture No Country For Old Men. The Road is a good adaptation of McCarthy’s novel, though not a great one. The novel, with the same name, presents a desolate 2929 America where nomadic tribes scour the earth, looking for any signs of life that would allow them to sustain existence. With the animals and vegetation extinct, cannibalism is alive and prevalent, though the number of people inhabiting the earth dwindles yearly.
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Eastern Promises (2007)
Eastern Promises was David Cronenberg’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed breakout directorial hit, 2005’s A History of Violence. A History of Violence was a bit overrated, and William Hurt receiving a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for his ten minutes of screen time was a bit of a joke. However, Viggo Mortenson was terrific in his role in that movie, and his work in Eastern Promises is stellar.