Occasionally, poorly received biopics are victims of having all the necessary elements in place, except for a compelling story. One notable example is the 2009 film Invictus. Filmgoers had been clamoring for a biopic about Nelson Mandela. When Clint Eastwood signed on to direct a movie starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela, it seemed like a lock that the film would be, at the very least, a best picture candidate. Eastwood, with three Best Director Oscar nominations (Mystic River, Letters from Iwo Jima, Million Dollar Baby) over the previous half dozen years, was at the peak of his behind-the-camera career. Freeman, also at the height of his career, had been just about everybody’s favorite choice to play the South African anti-apartheid activist turned politician, whenever the right opportunity arose. And yet, we ended up with a movie that revolved around a rugby team attempting to qualify for the 1995 World Championship. Invictus wasn’t a bad movie. By many accounts, the film was a success. It earned positive scores with critics (75% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.3 on IMDB, 7.4 on Metacritic). While it failed to break even domestically (with just $38 million in revenue from a $60 million budget), it earned an additional $85 million internationally. While Freeman did earn an Oscar nomination for his portrayal, many of us wonder what could have been had the film centered on a more compelling story.
The same could be said of Scott Cooper’s (Hostiles, Out of the Furnace) Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, the 2025 Bruce Springsteen biopic. The film could have touched on a variety of aspects of Springsteen’s life. It chose to center on the time around his writing of his quiet, retrospective Nebraska album.
Continue reading Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2025)
Armageddon Time, James Gray’s (
Just because a film has the revered Aaron Sorkin (
I’ve mentioned many times that I am so glad I am not addicted to gambling. I have other vices, and the added temptation of a big payday by sacrificing my hard-earned money with less-than-successful odds sounds miserable.
The Judge was exactly what I thought it would be: an average fictional movie released in the heart of better films based on true stories. There was a lot of hype around this movie, but I felt it would do nothing for me. And that was what happened. Audiences seemed to like this movie, while critics slammed it. I’m in favor of the critics. At best, this was an average movie. At worst, it was a movie that tried every trick to get you to think it was a great movie. The fact that Robert Duvall (Apocalypse Now, The Apostle) got a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination is a bit of a joke. His performance is a bit of an embarrassment compared to the other four nominees. The highlight of this movie is not the story. Nor is it Duvall. If you are going to see this movie at all (which I would recommend you don’t), you should see it for Robert Downey Jr.’s (Iron Man, Chaplin) outstanding performance.