Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects, Se7en) isn’t your typical man going through a 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 well-known director, even though he had directed only 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 someone in his profession: Best Director and Best Picture for his debut feature-length film, 1999’s American Beauty.
Category Archives: Drama
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 fine wine or sour milk. It meant whether we thought a movie held up, or was even better, years after its original release, or whether we didn’t think it was all that good now, even though 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 in 1991, but I don’t doubt it 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 in the theater, but that I didn’t chuckle at once during my 2012 viewing. An example of a movie that aged like a fine wine was Apocalypse Now, a movie I didn’t necessarily love when I first saw it, but one I grew to appreciate as I aged. Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing, and He Got Game are fine wines. I remember thinking it was “pretty decent” in 1998. It has stood the test of time and, as we have seen in recent years, applies more to the sleaziness of college basketball recruiting.
Dark Waters (2019)
Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher, Spotlight) continues to show that he is one of the more underappreciated 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 DuPont Chemical Company and the toxic waste it dumped into West Virginia’s streams and rivers. 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. Everyone should see it, as it tackles self-regulation, big business, medical disasters, and company cover-ups on such a grand scale that it seems hard to fathom as possible in today’s world. Today, there is so much scrutiny, regulation, and punishment for companies doing what DuPont did, and it 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.
1917 (2019)
1917, the latest venture from director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition), is a stunning achievement in cinematography, visual effects, sound editing, sound mixing, production design, makeup and design, and direction. While not everyone will be all in on the story, it is hard to discredit this movie’s technical accomplishments. I found the story to be a gripping piece of narrative. Still, I completely understand why some will have problems with the sequencing of events, the placement of props, or the overall mission in general. If, like me, you can let yourself become immersed in all this movie brings to the table, you will have one of the more emotional movie-theater experiences of your lifetime.