If you aren’t in the mood for a heavy-hitting movie, stay away from Mark Herman’s 2008 World War II-based drama The Boy In the Striped Pajamas. It stars newcomer Asa Butterfield (The Wolfman, Nanny McPhee Returns) as eight-year-old Bruno, the son of a predominant Nazi official. Despite his protests, he is forced to move from the comforts of his Berlin home to the outskirts of the country so that his father can be closer to the concentration camps that he has been a part of organizing and running.
Category Archives: Drama
The Green Mile (1999)
The Green Mile was Frank Darabont’s (The Mist, The Majestic) first movie following The Shawshank Redemption, a riveting prison movie that has found a permanent spot on many critics and movie fan’s top ten of all-time lists. The expectations were high for The Green Mile, if not altogether unrealistic. Like The Shawshank Redemption, this movie was set almost exclusively in prison. Like The Shawshank Redemption, this movie was based on a Stephen King novel. Like The Shawshank Redemption, this movie was set somewhere in middle America, reasonably close to the time frame of World War I, though neither of these movies ever really talks about any war. The Green Mile was set in 1932, while The Shawshank Redemption was set in 1946. The expectations for The Green Mile might have been unrealistic. I say this because of the reasons mentioned above, but also because it starred Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Philadelphia), Hollywood’s #1 leading man at the time, who was fresh off of receiving his 5th Academy Award Nomination for Best Actor after his performance in Saving Private Ryan. While The Green Mile is not as good as The Shawshank Redemption (my favorite film of all time, at the time of this review), it is still an incredible movie that everybody should see at least once.
Half Nelson (2006)
Ryan Gosling is quickly earning a reputation for playing characters with seemingly good hearts, but with deep flaws that prohibit his characters from achieving greatness. Whether it be his quick Ryan Gosling is quickly earning a reputation for playing characters with seemingly good hearts but with deep flaws that prohibit these characters from achieving greatness. Whether it be his quick temper, drinking, or lack of ambition in Blue Valentine, his unbelievably extreme case of social anxiety in Lars and the Real Girl, or his much too overly confident posture in Fracture, Gosling plays characters that you root for at one moment and sympathize with the next. At the same time, you are trying to figure out how he gets so entrenched in each of his roles. If you have not seen any of the movies mentioned above, do so. You’ll be in for a treat. If you want to see his best performance to date, check out Ryan Fleck’s (Sugar, It’s Kind of a Funny Story) highly under-appreciated Half Nelson. Now, I say highly under-appreciated loosely. Half Nelson has received a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes but only $2.6 million at the box office, a somewhat disappointing number.
Eastern Promises (2007)
Eastern Promises was David Cronenberg’s follow-up to his critically acclaimed breakout directorial hit, 2005’s A History of Violence. A History of Violence was a bit overrated, and William Hurt receiving a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for his ten minutes of screen time was a bit of a joke. However, Viggo Mortenson was terrific in his role in that movie, and his work in Eastern Promises is stellar.
The American (2010)
The American starring George Clooney (Michael Clayton, Up In The Air) was a movie I wanted to love but never really did. Clooney is a fantastic actor, but his films, at least to me, are hit or miss. Over the span of a couple of months in 2009, I watched both Michael Clayton and Up In The Air, and these proved to be two favorite films of his EASILY. I thought the days of Leatherheads, Burn After Reading, and The Men Who Stare at Goats were behind him. There certainly is an audience for these last three movies, judging by their modest box office revenue and mixed reviews, but I am not a part of that audience. I much prefer his action movies (Out of Sight), his adventure movies (The Perfect Storm), his smart comedy/dramas (Oceans 11), or films like Michael Clayton and Up In The Air, which are both as close to perfect as movies to get.