Little Children is a somewhat misleading name for a movie that doesn’t have much to do with children or anyone physically small. While a couple of kids are in this movie, they are non-descript and serve as props more than anything else. The leads are all middle-aged adults, though their undisciplined and erratic behavior suggests they are anything but. The protagonists act as entitled brats, while the antagonists are fundamentally flawed. It becomes apparent that we are on a collision course between all involved in a film whose setting is present-day New England, but that very well could be in any town in America.
Category Archives: 2006
Babel (2006)
More than a decade before earning back-to-back Best Director Oscars (Birdman, The Revenant), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directed a series of unrelated hyperlink films. The idea behind hyperlink movies is that you have a movie that tells completely different stories in entirely different settings but is connected or influenced in ways unknown to the characters (and, for periods, the audience). These films started gaining popularity with the success of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic in the year 2000. When done correctly, hyperlink films can be incredibly memorable. Traffic won four Academy Awards and was a favorite for Best Picture in 2000.
The Painted Veil (2006)
I will mark The Painted Veil as the best movie I may have *never* seen. A friend and I talked about how much we each love (500 Days) of Summer, and she said I needed to see The Painted Veil, her second favorite movie. She and I have very similar tastes in pop culture, so I told her I would give it a chance. I remember seeing the preview back in 2006 and thinking it was just another typical romantic period piece that I would probably find boring. I was more than pleasantly surprised. This movie was incredible, and I’m so grateful my friend and I had the conversation we had, and she encouraged me to see it.
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Sherrybaby (2006)
Maggie Gyllenhaal demonstrates her range as an actress in the little-known but critically acclaimed Sherrybaby. Gyllenhaal is a household name by now, though she hasn’t been in too many blockbuster movies. In fact, as of 2011, her only film that earned more than $75 million at the box office was The Dark Knight, which would have made its money regardless of whether she had been in it. This statement doesn’t mean to take anything away from Gyllenhaal. She is a very talented actress and will be a Hollywood A-lister for the next decade and more. However, in the movies I have seen her in thus far (namely Stranger Than Fiction, Crazy Heart, The Dark Knight), I’ve seen her play the same sweet girl next store who is likable, urns heads, and puts the needs of others before her. There’s always a fear that if an actor repeatedly plays the same character, she will be typecast and find it difficult to break that mold. Seeing Gyllenhaal star as the lead character in Sherrybaby showed me that she has the range and won’t allow herself to get pigeonholed into that same sweet character we’re accustomed to seeing her in.
Half Nelson (2006)
Ryan Gosling is quickly earning a reputation for playing characters with seemingly good hearts, but with deep flaws that prohibit his characters from achieving greatness. Whether it be his quick Ryan Gosling is quickly earning a reputation for playing characters with seemingly good hearts but with deep flaws that prohibit these characters from achieving greatness. Whether it be his quick temper, drinking, or lack of ambition in Blue Valentine, his unbelievably extreme case of social anxiety in Lars and the Real Girl, or his much too overly confident posture in Fracture, Gosling plays characters that you root for at one moment and sympathize with the next. At the same time, you are trying to figure out how he gets so entrenched in each of his roles. If you have not seen any of the movies mentioned above, do so. You’ll be in for a treat. If you want to see his best performance to date, check out Ryan Fleck’s (Sugar, It’s Kind of a Funny Story) highly under-appreciated Half Nelson. Now, I say highly under-appreciated loosely. Half Nelson has received a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes but only $2.6 million at the box office, a somewhat disappointing number.