After seeing an episode of I Shouldn’t Be Alive a few years ago that showed the story of Aron Ralston, the adventure seeker who got his arm pinned between a boulder and a rock wall and managed to survive, I didn’t know if there was a need for a full-length feature film. I figured that the only way that Danny Boyle’s (Slumdog Millionaire, Yesterday)127 Hours would be able to affect me was if there was a masterful lead acting performance, some stylish directing, or a combination of the two. Fortunately, that was precisely what happened.
Category Archives: Genre
True Grit (2010)
I am the first to admit that I am not as big a fan of Joel and Ethan Coen-directed movies as most people are. While I did enjoy Fargo (1996) and A Single Man (2009), I wouldn’t say I liked Miller’s Crossing (1990) and Barton Fink (1991). While I thought No Country for Old Men was pretty good, it was not close to being the best movie from 2007. Then there are the other Coen-directed movies I would prefer to see. These include Burn After Reading (2008), The Ladykillers (2007), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), or O Brother, Where Art Though? (2000). I appreciate a good Western. Once True Grit was nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, it became a no-brainer that I saw the movie, despite my reservations about the Coens.
The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Lisa Cholodenko’s critically acclaimed 2010 film The Kids Are All Right shows that the rawest of human emotions cannot be limited to age, race, gender, disability, social status, or, as is the case in this movie, sexual orientation. In this movie, Nic (Annette Bening – American Beauty, Being Julia) and Jules (Julianne Moore – Still Alice, Far From Heaven) are lifelong partners, raising two children with the same sperm donor, Paul (Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher, Spotlight). Joni (Mia Wasikowska – Alice in Wonderland, Crimson Peak) is the 18-year-old daughter whom Nic carried while Jules is the birth mother of 15-year-old son Laser (Josh Hutcherson – The Hunger Games, Journey to the Center of the Earth).
Edge of Darkness (2010)
Watching Mel Gibson as a loving father gone raging madman in Martin Campbell’s (Casino Royale, The Mask of Zorro) 2010 Edge of Darkness doesn’t seem as much a stretch of the imagination as it might have seemed a few years ago. In his first starring role since 2002’s Signs, Gibson plays Thomas Craven, a detective of the Boston Police Department and a single father of one. After Craven witnesses the killing of his 24-year-old daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic), murdered on the steps of his own by a drive-by shooter, he becomes obsessed with finding out who killed his daughter and, more importantly, why. This movie was a modest success both with critics and with audiences. Still, it made over $100 million less than the 2008 Liam Neeson movie Taken, which is similar in plot but delivers the goods and has you rooting for Neeson. This is more than you can say for Gibson’s character.
Love & Other Drugs (2010)
The 2010’s Love & and Other Drugs trailer makes it seem like the movie is a romantic comedy. In actuality, that could not be further from the truth. While there is quite a bit of romance and lots and lots of humor, the movie is far more profound and dramatic than I could have imagined. No purely romantic comedy can take you through the range of emotions that Love & Other Drugs will take you through. This movie slipped under the radar, earning just $32 million at the box office. Referred to more as “that movie that has Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Brothers) and Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married, Interstellar) naked the whole time,” it was more than it was anything else. I saw the movie for two reasons. The first was that I was intrigued by the buzz surrounding this movie’s release date.