What a great actor Paul Newman is. An eight-time Oscar nominee for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Newman finally won for 1986’s The Color of Money. During 11 years between 1958-1969, Newman received an Oscar nomination an astonishing six times. We have all seen the first two of these (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Hustler) movies. His third nomination was as the title role of the slightly less recognized Hud.
Category Archives: Drama
The Ledge (2011)
The Ledge is one of many movies with a trailer that hooked me and made me think the film would be terrific. I reevaluated my decision when I saw that it made just $ 5,000 at the box office and earned a whopping 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, as I was updating my Netflix queue, I saw it was already coming to my house. So I gave the movie a chance that very night it arrived, thinking I’d have it on, but I would probably be glancing at it while doing some work online. However, I gave it a chance, and it hooked me. Usually, this type of movie would be one I would mock (see below). But for reasons unknown, the story caught me, and while the situation did get a little absurd, I didn’t see it as being unreasonable because of the characters and what drove these characters.
Everything Must Go (2011)
Everything Must Go was not Will Ferrell’s (Old School, Blades of Glory) first attempt at anything more than silly humor. He did a great job as a socially awkward and isolated IRS agent in Stranger Than Fiction. In more of a subdued role (Winter Passing), Ferrell plays a would-be musician. This movie could have been better, and Ferrell looked out of place. While he can still crank out $100 million laugh-out-loud comedies (2010’s The Other Guys, 2008’s Step Brothers), he is still trying to show the world that he can do more than make people laugh. He does just that in Everything Must Go, a movie with a few subtle laughs but one with its lead character not delivering the joke. In this regard, the film did an excellent job.
Incendiary (2008)
After watching Blue Valentine about 5 or 6 times within my first month of owning it and then re-watching Brokeback Mountain a couple of months ago (the first time I saw it was in the movie theater), I’ve been itching to go on a Michelle Williams streak. I had no idea her filmography was already so long, and while I’m not going to watch some of the films very early on in her career (such as Halloween H20 or But I’m a Cheerleader), I’m anxious to see the movies she’s starred in since her Dawson’s Creek days. One of those movies was Sharon Maguire’s (in just her second directorial effort, following the highly popular Bridget Jones’s Diary) Incendiary.
Leaving (Partir) (2010)
Subtitled movies don’t bother me as much as they used to. There used to be a day when I would only watch a subtitled film if someone forced me to watch one in one of my high school classes. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I seek out movies with subtitles, but I no longer instantly reject them. In fact, before watching Leaving (Partir), I watched two other Kristin Scott Thomas French subtitled movies (Tell No One) e le Dis à Personne and (I’ve Loved You So Long) Il y a Longtemps que Je T’aime. I was a huge fan of I’ve Loved You So Long. I would have enjoyed Tell No One more had I been paying more attention to it. I may be willing to give it another chance one day. This brings up my next point with subtitled movies. If you hope to get anything out of a subtitled film, you’ve got to devote your 100% attention. I did that with I’ve Loved You So Long, and I did that with 2009’s Leaving as well.