Jaws. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Raiders of the Lost Ark., Empire of the Son. Jurassic Park. Amistad. Saving Private Ryan. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Minority Report. War of the Worlds. Munich. War Horse. Lincoln. The Post. Ready Player One. West Side Story. This massive list of Steven Spielberg-directed movies can be rattled off easily by anyone over 35 who grew up in America. Spielberg could be a synonym for the term “movie director.” However, with 30 full-length featured directing credits already to his name, 2022’s The Fabelmans is the one that is being called, if not semi-biographical, at least his most personal. If that’s true, we get a pretty neat, though not overly sentimental, look at Spielberg’s early influences and how he began honing his craft before becoming the most distinguished director of the last 50 years.
Category Archives: Michelle Williams
After the Wedding (2019)
A sub-par movie with excellent performance best describes Bart Freundlich (Wolves) as slightly disappointing After the Wedding. It’s not that this movie was bad. It was just so far-fetched, yet it tried to take itself oh so seriously. When everything added together, it was hard to take this movie seriously, even when each of our leads did so without batting an eye. It should have been a movie I disliked because of its many flaws. Yet, as flawed as this movie was and how easy it is not to recommend, I still found myself thoroughly entertained and enjoying it.
The Greatest Showman (2017)
I’m not going to lie. The only reason I watched Michael Gracey’s The Greatest Showman was that it was the topic of one of the sermons at my church. Each year, we have a summer movie series (In 2018, the movies were Forrest Gump, Good Will Hunting, The Princess Bride, and The Shawshank Redemption. I had seen all four, of course, and watched all of them again before that week’s service to refamiliarize myself with each of these fantastic films. Then, on Labor Day weekend, we have our Family Weekend, where the church’s children sit with their caregivers rather than go to the classes they usually attend. We show a truncated movie version, and this year, it was The Greatest Showman. So, I added it to my Netflix queue. It arrived two days before my church service, and I watched it the night before. I’m usually not a fan of musicals, but I enjoyed The Greatest Showman and would consider watching it again one day.
All the Money in the World (2017)
You know it’s a great year for actresses in a leading role when Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine, Manchester by the Sea), arguably the most outstanding actress of her generation, gives one of the best performances of her career and won’t even get a sniff when it comes to an Oscar nomination. But that is what we had in 2017. We have a year that, as a whole, hasn’t produced many great movies, nor has it given us many great performances for actors in a leading role. Still, it has given us so many excellent lead actress performances that the likes of traditional heavyweights Williams, Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game), Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes), and Jennifer Lawrence (mother!). Williams gives one of the top five performances of her career in Ridley Scott’s (The Last Duel, The Martian) All the Money in the World. But it likely will be forgotten for two reasons.
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Manchester by the Sea (2016)
While it may not end up in my top five movies of the year, Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea was almost perfect. I said the same thing when I started my review for Nocturnal Animals a week ago. Both movies could potentially be serious contenders, but both had some serious holes. While Nocturnal Animals will likely not receive any nominations com, Manchester by the Sea will likely earn multiple ones. Manchester by the Sea will likely finish as one of my five favorites of the year, but boy, did it have the possibility to be number one.