Daniel Day-Lewis (The Last of the Mohicans, The Unbearable Lightness of Being) is the Brett Favre, Sugar Ray Leonard, or Michael Jordan of acting. I say that for two reasons. He’s the best at what he does (and there aren’t many out there who would disagree, and even if they tried, they wouldn’t have much of a foot to stand on), but also because he threatens to, and often does, retire from his craft, only to, after a non-predetermined set of time, return to peak performance. He retired from stage acting in 1989 when he walked off the stage during a production of Hamlet. After 1997’s The Boxer, he took up cobbling for five years (where he made exactly one pair of shoes before Martin Scorsese pulled him out of retirement to star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Gangs of New York, a film that netted him his third Best Actor Oscar nomination at the time. He then went into hiding for another three years before
Category Archives: Academy Award Nominees
I, Tonya (2017)
Boy, do I have a completely different opinion of Tonya Harding after seeing Craig Gillespie’s (Lars and the Real Girl, The Finest Hours) I, Tonya. The movie revolves around the 1994 Winter Olympics when her main competition for a gold medal that year (Nancy Kerrigan) had her knee taken out after a 1993 skating session in Detroit, MI, by someone on Harding’s payroll. Kerrigan’s recorded screams of “Why?! Why?!” that were then shown in media outlets worldwide still resonate in our heads. Harding became the punchline of every late-night talk show host’s monologue. Unlike any other time in history, we had a physical, life-altering altercation between two of the best competitors in their sport. Even without all the facts, we identified Kerrigan as the protagonist and Harding as the antagonist. And rightfully so. However, it is made clear from the film’s first scene that what we were about to see was a “mostly true, wildly contradictory” account of what happened. Yes, Gillespie only gave us one side of the story. Still, it’s a side that makes us think of Harding as an extremely sympathetic, misinterpreted, and even likable character who was, perhaps, as much a victim as Kerrigan was. I have a newfound affinity towards Harding that I hadn’t had in the 24 years since the nearly 25 years since the incident happened.
Darkest Hour (2017)
Before I start the review for Darkest Hour, we should get one thing out of the way. Gary Oldman (Sid and Nancy, The Dark Knight Rises) will win this year’s Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. Whoever the other four nominees can skip the ceremony. Buried in thick coats of makeup and padding that make him unrecognizable, Oldman (who was only six years younger in real life than the many he was portraying on screen was at the time of this movie but who takes better care of himself physically than the man he is portraying) pulls off one of the most remarkable actor character transformations in recent memory in his portrayal of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. His performance will be compared to Colin Firth’s portrayal of King George VI (who ironically was a character in this movie) in 2010 The King’s Speech, a role in which he earned numerous awards, including the coveted Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Oscar.
Hidden Figures (2016)
I get knocked a little bit when I talk to my friends about Hidden Figures. The Ted Melfi (St. Vincent) directed movie based on the untold story of Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson – Hustle & Flow, Four Brothers), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer – The Help, Snowpierecer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe – Moonlight, Made in America) as brilliant African-American women who were hired by NASA and who served as the brains behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race and galvanized the world. When I rip on the movie a bit, it is not because I think it is not good, but because it’s just a little too predictable and too PG for me. While I enjoy and recognize a movie based on a true story, I appreciate a darker, edgier movie. When I say a movie is too Disney for me, it has nothing to do with Disney. It concerns a movie being too toned down for my jaded self to appreciate. And, unfortunately, that’s my feeling on Hidden Figures.
Fences (2016)
We all know about Alonzo Harris (Training Day). Most of us know about Frank Lucas (American Gangster). Some of us even know Tobin Frost (Safe House). Add Troy Maxson to that list of vile characters portrayed by Denzel Washington. Okay, so the character he portrays in Fences (a movie he also directed) isn’t as bad as those depicted in the above films. He’s a different kind of evil. There is some good in Troy. He means well. But he is a complete hypocrite. He talks about doing right by others, providing for his family, and teaching them the importance of right over wrong. But in the end, Troy does only things that fill his massive ego. And in doing so, he hurts everyone who has ever cared for him.