I’ve finally found the first “award buzzing” movie of 2014 that has lived up to its hype. While there have certainly been a handful of other films that I’ve found to be good, there hasn’t been a movie, except for maybe Nightcrawler, that has lived up to the hope I had for the movie. That has certainly changed with Bennett Miller’s (Moneyball, Capote) methodical and engrossing Foxcatcher. While this movie isn’t for everybody, film purists will love it. This movie will likely garner a Best Director Academy Award and, without a doubt, will land Steve Carell (Crazy, Stupid, Love., Date Night) his first Best Actor nomination. In addition, mark Ruffalo (Reservation Road, Shutter Island) likely will also earn a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. And not to be lost is the performance of Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street), who gives the performance of his career. This film’s three of the best performances of the year can be viewed alone. Continue reading Foxcatcher (2014)
Category Archives: Steve Carell
Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)
Crazy, Stupid, Love. is a terrific, lighthearted romantic comedy. In many of my reviews, I’ve stated that 2010 was the best year for movie releases, despite not having that one super scary or laugh-out-loud funny movie that you would expect a great year to have, I have also noted this to be the case. While 2011 has yet to come close to measuring up to 2010 (based on what I’ve been seeing/reading about the fall/award season releases), it has had some good movies. It’s had three films already that I would put in my Top 20 comedies of all time. I don’t think any of these are in that Top 10 range, but Horrible Bosses, The Hangover Part 2, and Crazy, Stupid, Love. All fall into that second tier. I believe Bridesmaids will also fall into this group once I see it. In terms of pure comedy, Crazy, Stupid, Love. doesn’t have as many laughs until your stomach hurts movies, but I would say that it is the best overall movie in this group. This movie had the potential to be great, but like many good movies that don’t reach that elevated status, there is a flaw in the screenplay that is very hard to ignore.
Date Night (2010)
I’m not the biggest fan of romantic comedies despite what my VHS movie collection of the 1990s might suggest. I’ll be the first to admit that despite all of the crappy romantic comedies (i.e., just about every Ashton Kutcher movie), there are some good ones. I’m a big fan of movies like (500) Days of Summer, Notting Hill, and The Money Pit. Date Night falls right in line with those movies. The most significant difference between Date Night and the other three is that it’s not quite as heavy. Not that the three movies that I just mentioned are by any means downers, but they do have slightly more sentimental moments than Date Night.