What was Denzel Washington thinking? Fresh off roles in 1998’s The Hurricane (Academy Award Winner – Lead Actor), the nationally recognized 2000’s Remember the Titans, and 2002’s Training Day (Academy Award Winner – Lead Actor), Denzel was arguably at the peak of his acting career. He likely commanded (or was close to it) more guaranteed money per film than any other actor in America. He probably was receiving dozens of roles at a single time. And yet he chose to accept the lead role in unproven Nick Cassavetes’s (Alpha Dog, She’s So Lovely) 2002’s John Q.
Category Archives: Drama
American Beauty (1999)
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey –The Usual Suspects, Se7en) isn’t your usual man going through your typical midlife crisis. A man going through a midlife crisis might quit his job, buy a sports car, cheat on his wife, long for a life with no responsibility, or obsess compulsively over things he can’t have. But all of these things at once? Maybe. But it’s less likely for sure. Sam Mendes (1917, Revolutionary Road) is a highly well-known director, even though he has only directed eight movies (as of 2020) and earned just one Oscar nomination before that year. But his film struck an accord, and he took home the two biggest trophies of the year for a person in his profession, Best Director and Best Picture for his debut feature-length film, 1999’s American Beauty.
He Got Game (1998)
A few friends and I recently discussed movies we thought warranted a second watch. We debated whether a film aged like a fine wine or sour milk in the discussion. It meant if we thought a movie held up or was even deemed better years after its original release or if we didn’t believe it was all that good now when we once held it in high esteem. One of my friends said Terminator 2 aged like sour milk. Though I haven’t seen it a second time, this movie was so far ahead of its time in terms of technology back in 1991, but one I don’t doubt might be unwatchable 30 years later. The sour milk example I gave was The Great Outdoors, a movie that a 12-year-old me thought was hilarious when I watched in the theater, but one that I didn’t chuckle at once during my 2012 viewing. My example of a movie that aged like a fine wine was Apocolypse Now, a movie I didn’t necessarily love when I first saw it, but one I grew to appreciate as it and I aged. Spike Lee’s (Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing) He Got Game is a fine wine. I remember thinking it was “pretty decent” in 1998. It holds the test of time and is more applicable today, as we have seen in recent years, the sleaziness of college basketball recruiting.
Dark Waters (2019)
Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher, Spotlight) continues to show that he is one of the more under-appreciated Hollywood heavyweights in Todd Haynes’ (Carol, Wonderstruck) new release. Dark Waters tells the true story of Cincinnati lawyer Rob Bilott’s extraordinarily long legal battle against the DuPont Chemical Company and the toxic waste it was dumping into the streams and rivers of West Virginia. This poisonous waste contributed to a high rate of cancer cases in the surrounding areas and contributed to an alarming number of deaths among cattle and other animals. The movie is exceptionally well-made. It should be seen by all as it hits on self-regulation, big business, medical disasters, and company cover-ups on such a grand scale that it seems hard to fathom as being possible in today’s world. In today’s society, there is so much scrutiny, regulation, and punishment for companies doing what DuPont did and almost escaped without punishment. Almost.
Bombshell (2019)
Based on the real-life scandal at the Fox News Channel, Jay Roach’s (Trumbo, Meet the Parents) Bombshell tells the story of the eruption that occurred when many women were exposed to a sexually harassing environment due to its chairman at the time, Roger Ailes (John Lithgow- Late Night, The Accountant). Bringing to the surface the accusations of numerous females by the head of the company, Bombshell made, at times, an uncomfortable watch. It felt unfathomable that so much of this could have occurred. However, it also seemed as if you couldn’t make up a story like this had it not been proven true.