There is much to unpack with Francis Lawrence’s (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, I Am Legend) ambitious spy thriller Red Sparrow, a 2018 early summer release that mainly flew under the radar domestically ($46 million) but excelled internationally ($150 million). Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) is, as of 2018, probably the actress who can command the most money per movie. If not number one, she’s pretty darn close. But that doesn’t mean that every movie she does will earn her an Oscar nomination or gross $100 million. And she’s not that choosy. Since bursting onto the scene with 2010’s Winter’s Bone, the first of her four Oscar nominations and one of the best breakout performances in the last 25 years, Lawrence has starred in more than 15 movies before the release of Red Sparrow. And while she can excel at portraying various characters, a Russian spy will not go down as one of her Top 10 performances of all time. It’s not that she was as bad as Dominika Egorova, a Russian ballet dancer who is, more or less, forced into the life of being an undercover operative after a terrible leg injury ruins her dancing career and leaves her needing money to pay for her mother’s medical expenses.
Category Archives: Charlotte Rampling
45 Years (2015)
I drank the Kool-Aid on this one. In many previous reviews, I discussed who would receive the five Best Actress Academy Award nominations. I kept including Charlotte Rampling (Melancholia, The Eye of the Storm) as one of the five based on everything I had been reading. I regret including her name, but, in my defense, January 29th was my first chance to see 45 Years. I saw it a day later and am uncertain what I just saw. I love heavy dramas and movies about broken relationships. I also like slow, methodical movies if they are building towards something. The pieces were in place for 45 Years, but this movie ultimately didn’t do it for me. I realize I am in the minority when I give it a less-than-average review. Nevertheless, it earned a stellar 96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Deception (2008)
Continuing to get my Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine, Incendiary) fix, I caught the directorial debut of Marcel Langenegger, 2008’s Deception. While captivating initially with its slow, almost methodical building of suspense, this movie ultimately tries to outsmart itself by offering twist after twist after twist. By the time the movie crawled to its conclusion, we either figured out the twists, or they were so far-fetched and ridiculous that we didn’t care about them.