Killers of the Flower Moon meets Braveheart with elements of The Patriot and The Revenant? I’m unsure where Nikolaj Arcel’s (A Royal Affair, The Dark Tower) The Promised Land falls when compared to these four powerhouse movies. It has elements of each of these films, yet still feels wholly unique. When Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt, Another Round) is the lead actor, especially in independent movies, particularly those filmed in his native Danish language, it’s a near guarantee that the film will be great.
Category Archives: Based on a True Story
Ferrari (2023)
2023 has been the year of the biopic. The year may be the successful blueprint that could ignite a trend. Each year, several biopics are released. Some are good. Some are not. In 2023, it has often felt like a new biopic was set for release each week. Some of the better ones were The Iron Claw, Dumb Money, Oppenheimer, Blackberry, Tetris, Maestro, Air, and Sound of Freedom. At some point, there was biopic overload, with films like Golda, Big George Foreman, Rise, Chevalier, Rustin, and Nyad getting lost in the shuffle. Rustin and Nyad are receiving Oscar Buzz for leading acting performances. Yet, if not for this recognition, each film likely would have been missed by the public without even knowing the film existed.
Maestro (2023)
Each year, a handful of movies are made in a way that is less interested in audience consumption or interest and more in earning awards. The term for this is “Oscar bait.” The 2023-released movie most associated with this term is Bradley Cooper’s (A Star Is Born) sophomore directorial effort, Maestro. It will earn a few Oscars. Cooper might even earn one for Best Director. He’s likelier to earn one for Best Lead Actor for portraying the title character, Leonard Bernstein.
The Iron Claw (2023)
Talk about a gut punch of a movie. As a pro wrestling fan, I’ve known of the tragedy of the Von Erich family for years. However, while I know of the circumstances around each of the brothers, I was only familiar with the one brother who made it to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment – WWE). Kerry Von Erich had a two-year run as The Texas Tornado in the early 90s. His time in WWF was when I was getting into pro wrestling, and The Texas Tornado was one of my favorites. A biopic about the Von Erich family had been in talks for years before Sean Durkin’s (The Nest, Martha Marcy May Marlene) The Iron Claw came about. I’ve read pre-screener reviews about how emotionally devastating this movie was for months. While I felt prepared for my watch, I left feeling wrecked. What a masterful feat.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Martin Scorsese’s (Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street) Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer were my most anticipated movies of 2023. It had so much of what I look for in a movie. First and foremost, it had Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant, Revolutionary Road), my favorite actor. Secondly, it looked like a tension-driven drama with fiery characters enriched in their story and setting. Thirdly, it was based on a true story. When all things else are equal, I lean on based on actual story films as a deciding factor. Even with a ridiculous run time of 3 hours and 26 minutes, I was convinced that the gripping tale wouldn’t have me counting the minutes for the film to end, which I did on multiple occasions with Scorsese’s last film, the insufferable The Irishman. While Killers of the Flower Moon might struggle to finish in my end-of-year top ten list, it was a worthwhile theater-going experience. While it felt long at times, it certainly did not drag in the way that I feared it might. Scorsese dignifiedly shed light on an important story in our country’s history.