La La Land 2021? With 2021? With half a dozen ways different ways to start this review swirling through my head, I decided to best refer to La La Land, my favorite movie musical of all time. Because there is a new runner-up. While Joe Wright’s (Anna Karenina, Atonement) Cyrano doesn’t entirely leave that pit in your heart when it concludes, it comes pretty darn close. Both breathtakingly beautiful and painstakingly heartwrenching, Peter Dinklage (Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, I Care A Lot) is astounding as Cyrano de Bergerac, a role he was destined to play.
Category Archives: Joe Wright
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.