Blue Bayou was a film I knew nothing about three days before my viewing and one I have been incredibly excited about since. I love a well-crafted, heavy drama, and this film told me, after watching the first 45 seconds of the trailer, that this was something that I would see opening weekend. The Rotten Tomatoes scores enhanced my excitement about the movie (73%, 96%).
All posts by bryanbuser
CODA (2021)
CODA stands for ‘Child of Deaf Adults.’ It’s a perfect name for Sian Heder’s (Tallulah) feel-good movie of the summer. While, at times, it feels like a sappy Hallmark or Lifetime original, CODA is held together by its protagonist Ruby (Emilia Jones – What We Did on Our Holiday, Two for Joy), a seventeen-year-old high school senior, who is the only non-deaf member in her eccentric, but loving, deaf family.
Flag Day (2021)
n a film he directed, Sean Penn (The Indian Runner, The Crossing Guard) picked a fine time to put himself in front of the camera for the first time. Flag Day is just Penn’s sixth directing effort and only his second since 2007’s Into the Wild, which he has openly admitted is the pinnacle of his Hollywood career. That is a crazy thing for someone who had won an Oscar for Best Actor just a few years prior (Mystic River) and again a year later (Milk). In an interview promoting Flag Day, I read that Penn had written two books and would have continued to write more had they had the same success. However, with those novels faltering, perhaps he felt directing gave Penn more autonomy than directing and that this is how he wanted his accomplishments to be with his work behind the lens rather than in front of it.
Joe Bell (2020)
Sometimes, when producing a movie, it is based on having a great story, while at other times, it is based on having a great cast. Of course, many other factors can make or break a film, but let’s concentrate on these first two and ask a simple but essential question. What happens when you potentially have the first two, but they conflict? I believe that director Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard, Monsters and Men) likely faced that decision in Joe Bell. Here, he had the true story of a father walking from his hometown in Oregon to New York City to raise awareness for bullying after Jadin (Reid Miller), his openly gay 15-year-old son, committed suicide after being repeatedly tormented at school because of his sexual orientation.
Stillwater (2021)
Inspired loosely around the story of an American college student accused of murder in a foreign country but proclaiming her innocence while studying abroad, director Tom McCarthy tries to recapture the magic of Spotlight in Stillwater, his first effort since 2015’s Best Picture Winner. Many of us (not including me) remember the Amanda Knox story from 20 years ago. Knox, studying abroad in Italy, was convicted of killing her roommate. She spent four years in prison before ultimately being acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court. McCarthy’s film is far from a true story, though this might be his second Best Picture nominee in five years if it had been. However, this being a work of fiction does lead to too much implausibility and story convenience. It doesn’t make it a better or worse movie per se. But it does make it a slightly less believable one.