Meticulously crafted and tenderly executed, Baltasar Kormákur’s (Everest, 2 Guns) Adrift is a journey not to be best on the largest screen you can find at your nearby cinemas. Being lost in the sea is one of my favorite movie subgenres. This movie stands on its own against such classics as The Perfect Storm, Dead Calm, Life of Pi, Lifeboat, All is Lost, The Deep, and even Academy Award-nominated pictures like Cast Away and Life of Pi in the sense that it is based on a true story and that the true story is real in the sense that we know what happened because, spoiler, the survivor lives to tell the story. While such stories as Titanic, The Perfect Storm, Open Water, and The Heart of the Sea are based on true stories and are fantastic movies, there is so much fiction added to these stories because we don’t have full accounts of what did happen because there either wasn’t someone left at the end to give the proper details or there were so many fictional elements added to the anecdotes that the plot from which the movie was based on has been entirely changed. That is not the case with Adrift, which makes this movie great. It isn’t “based on” or “inspired by” a true story. It is a true story; ultimately, that’s what we want.
Category Archives: Based on a True Story
Thank You For Your Service (2017)
Miles Teller (Whiplash, Bleed for This) is an actor I increasingly like with each passing role. Since arriving on the scene in 2010 with memorable roles in Rabbit Hole and the well-made remake of Footloose, Teller has starred in the forgettable 21 and Over, Two Night Stand, and That Awkward Moment. Furthermore, his time has been consumed with the Veronica Roth Divergent / Insurgent / Allegiant franchise. This series fell way short of the fantastic Hunger Games franchise and the lesser The Maze Runner series. Now, I’m not going to knock a guy for picking movies that are going to bring him a hefty paycheck, especially if there’s part of me that believes he’s doing it so that he can take less money in independent movies that can showcase his skill, evoke emotion, and that I can enjoy.
The Disaster Artist (2017)
Each year, there is at least one movie that I think I will hate and that I end up loving. Some years, it is much easier to pinpoint that movie than in other years. Not in 2017. Based on the trailers and the movie’s premise, I thought I would hate James Franco’s (Child of God, As I Lay Dying) The Disaster Artist. I will say that I knew nothing about Tommy Wiseau or the cult status of his movie The Room. However, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by this movie’s effectiveness. This movie had quite a bit of Oscar buzz heading into awards season. It netted Franco a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Unfortunately (for him), he was hit up with some sexual misconduct claims right around this time, and it very well could have cost him a nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. This was the sixth-best performance of the year. As mentioned in previous posts, I would have gone with four nominated, minus Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel Esq.), and replaced him with Jake Gyllenhaal (Stronger). After seeing this movie, I would have knocked Washington’s performance down to seventh and inserted Franco’s performance as the best not to be recognized with a nomination. His performance was very good. The movie would still have been good had he directed it and cast someone else as the lead, but casting himself was the right call.
Battle of the Sexes (2017)
2017 will go down as a year of very underwhelming movies. The nine films nominated for Best Picture were, by far, the poorest collection since 2009, when a decision was made that up to 10 movies could be nominated for Best Picture if they got enough votes. My Top 10 list has three of the nine movies for Best Picture (#5 The Shape of Water, #6 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, #10 Get Out). It’s hard for me to make a case for my Top 3 (Wind River, Hostiles, Life) receiving a Best Picture Nomination. While great, these movies differ from what the Academy is looking for. But Battle of the Sexes (co-directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris) has everything the Academy looks for in a Best Picture nominee. It’s a period piece that looks very much like a period piece. It’s based on a true story and follows that story exceptionally closely. It has a definite protagonist and a definite antagonist. It has fantastic acting by its leads. It has a strong ensemble cast. It has a little bit of comedy, quite a bit of drama, and quite a bit of unexpected suspense. And its true story changed the course of history. It’s easily the most deserving movie that was not picked by The Academy (most say I, Tonya was the biggest snub), and it’s better and more deserving, in my opinion, than all of the selections.
The Glass Castle (2017)
2017 has been a year that started as strong as any year in recent memory when it comes to movies. From the January and February box office smashes of Split (which I didn’t like) and Get Out to the successful continuations or reboots of franchise movies such as Kong: Skull Island, Alien: Covenant, War of the Planet of the Apes, and Logan to the captivating Life and Wind River, we had about ten movies heading into September, whereas in a typical year, we might have half that many. Now, if I asked a typical moviegoer to name five non-animated movies released before September, the five could not include any of the ones I have just listed. They may have said Wonder Woman, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Dunkirk, Spider-Man Homecoming, and Transformers: The Last Knight. Wonder Woman was fun and well-made, but it offered nothing that any other superhero-origin movie hadn’t already provided in the last ten years. Spider-Man Homecoming, I didn’t even give it a chance.