Sometimes, when producing a movie, it is based on having a great story, while at other times, it is based on having a great cast. Of course, many other factors can make or break a film, but let’s concentrate on these first two and ask a simple but essential question. What happens when you potentially have the first two, but they conflict? I believe that director Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard, Monsters and Men) likely faced that decision in Joe Bell. Here, he had the true story of a father walking from his hometown in Oregon to New York City to raise awareness for bullying after Jadin (Reid Miller), his openly gay 15-year-old son, committed suicide after being repeatedly tormented at school because of his sexual orientation.
Category Archives: Genre
Stillwater (2021)
Inspired loosely around the story of an American college student accused of murder in a foreign country but proclaiming her innocence while studying abroad, director Tom McCarthy tries to recapture the magic of Spotlight in Stillwater, his first effort since 2015’s Best Picture Winner. Many of us (not including me) remember the Amanda Knox story from 20 years ago. Knox, studying abroad in Italy, was convicted of killing her roommate. She spent four years in prison before ultimately being acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court. McCarthy’s film is far from a true story, though this might be his second Best Picture nominee in five years if it had been. However, this being a work of fiction does lead to too much implausibility and story convenience. It doesn’t make it a better or worse movie per se. But it does make it a slightly less believable one.
Old (2021)
So highly ambitious, so incredibly flawed, but oh so engrossing is M. Night Shyamalan’s (Signs, The Sixth Sense) return to form his latest mind-**** Old. Suppose you’re new to Shyamalan (which I would understand if you are a bit younger and have avoided all of his critical flops since 2002’s Signs, Old might be the coolest thing you’ve ever seen. For the rest of us, we know that somewhere in the film will have a twist. It’s a matter of either trying to figure it out (which is something we inherently do now) or trying to enjoy the ride. I attempted to do both. I succeeded in enjoying the ride. I did not figure out the twist. There’s also the idea that Shyamalan might try to do one of these types of movies without a twist so that it also can be something that plays in your mind. All in all, I was able to set aside all of the many, many imperfections associated with Old and appreciate it for what it was worth and then some.
Wrong Turn (2021)
I recall watching the original Wrong Turn movie in the movie theater in 2003. I enjoyed the movie so much that I bought the DVD when I discovered it in the previously viewed movie bin a few years later. I went over fifteen years between viewings because I wanted to wait for that perfect dark and stormy night to revisit this gem of a film that introduced me to the slasher movie genre. Unfortunately, my rewatch of the movie fell flat. I thought the movie was so poorly made and cheesy that I couldn’t believe I had initially been spooked by it. However, as I look back, I realize this was because I had nothing to compare it against. Of course, there were the Friday the 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, and Halloween movies, but those had all been established franchises well before I was born. And honestly, I had no interest in watching any of these.
Four Good Days (2020)
I sure did want to like Four Good Days, Rodrigo Garcia’s (Albert Nobbs, Passengers) Heroin-recovery-centered drama co-starring (Mila Kunis – Black Swan, The Book of Eli), and Glenn Close (Dangerous Liaisons, Fatal Attraction). It had everything I wanted in my heaving-hitting addiction dramas. It had a strung-out lead in 31-year-old Molly (Kunis) and that one person that, hopefully, all people have who will do anything to save this person they so dearly love. In this case, it is Molly’s mother, Deb (Close). The elements were in place for this to be a movie that knocked it out of the park. However, it was so severely flawed that it sometimes inadvertently detracted from the story it was trying to tell. As much as I struggled with its flimsy screenplay, its miscasting of Deb with Close, and its peculiar ending, it stuck with me so much that I wanted to go home immediately after watching it to review it. There is zero percent chance that Four Good Days ends in my 2020 Top Ten Movies of the Year list, but I fully imagine that I will remember every little bit about this movie at the end of the year as I do today (May 6th), and not for the wrong reasons.