Robert De Niro (Raging Bull, Taxi Driver) reunites with director Martin Scorsese (Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street) for this crime drama that sees everything from the mob to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in this three-and-a-half-hour effort that, if you stick with it, will give at least some sense of satisfaction to those willing to endure it. This all-star cast, which includes Scorsese teaming with Al Pacino (The Godfather, Scent of a Woman) for the first time, also includes Joe Pesci (My Cousin Vinny, Casino), Harvey Keitel (Bugsy, The Piano), Anna Paquin (The Piano, Almost Famous), Ray Romano (The Big Sick, CBS’s Everybody Loves Raymond), Jesse Plemons (Hostiles, The Post), and Bobby Cannavale (I, Tonya, Ant-Man).
Category Archives: Academy Award Nominees
Joker (2019)
A movie that didn’t need to be made often will benefit from the doubt if that same movie pays due diligence and does the movie right. Those wondering why we need a Joker origin story when there is a perfect origin story in The Dark Knight (one of the 25 best movies ever made) should find some relief in knowing that the Christopher Nolan trilogy story will not be confused with Todd Phillips’ (War Dogs, Old School) Joker. This film never mentions the word Batman nor refers to anything related to, perhaps, the most iconic comic book franchise of all time other than references to Gotham City and a billionaire businessman named Thomas Wayne.
Chocolat (2000)
Lasse Hallstrom’s (The Cider House Rules, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape) brings a fresh taste to a small, mythical French village in 1959 in his new film Chocolat. This fictitious fable delivers a gentle, kind, and uniquely original message. Its peculiar characters, everyone-knows-everyone small-town vibe, new neighbor intrigue, and sympathetic humor mix together more sweetly than the many chocolate recipes created by the film’s protagonist, Vianne (Juliette Binoche – The English Patient, Dan in Real Life).
Cast Away (2000)
Tom Hanks is an American cinema legend. From Splash to Big to A League of Their Own to Philadelphia to Forrest Gump to Apollo 13 to Saving Private Ryan to Toy Story to The Green Mile and everything in between, Hanks has crafted some of the most memorable performances any generation has ever seen. But, if you notice a trend in the above movies, these and many other classics occurred before 2000, when Robert Zemeckis’s (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) Cast Away had its theatrical run. Since then, Hanks’ has starred in quality movies like Road to Perdition, Catch Me If You Can, Charlie Wilson’s War, Captain Phillips, Saving Mr. Banks, and Sully. However, there have also been misses like The Da Vinci Code trilogy, Larry Crowne, Cloud Atlas, Ithica, The Circle, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Indeed, his career still has more ups and downs, but his overall portfolio isn’t quite as robust. Plus, in the last 20 years, he has taken more time off between projects. I mention all of this because he’s been my favorite actor for a large portion of my life, and I would prefer him acting more often with fewer duds in between.
Babel (2006)
More than a decade before earning back-to-back Best Director Oscars (Birdman, The Revenant), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directed a series of unrelated hyperlink films. The idea behind hyperlink movies is that you have a movie that tells completely different stories in entirely different settings but is connected or influenced in ways unknown to the characters (and, for periods, the audience). These films started gaining popularity with the success of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic in the year 2000. When done correctly, hyperlink films can be incredibly memorable. Traffic won four Academy Awards and was a favorite for Best Picture in 2000.