There are interesting comparisons between Stephen Daldry’s (The Hours, Billy Elliot) 2008 film, The Reader, and Lone Scherfig’s 2009 film, An Education. Both movies revolve centrally around the emotions a young person feels when they capture the allure of a much older member of the opposite sex whom they find to be sexually attractive. In An Education, it is Peter Sarsgaard’s character, David, who is wooing a young and impressionable Jenny (Carey Mulligan), influencing her so much that she is willing to sacrifice her future for him. In The Reader, it is 36-year-old streetcar conductor Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet – Titanic, Revolutionary Road) taking a liking to 16-year-old Michael Berg (David Kross in his debut performance). I would be interested in learning if An Education was filmed before or after Scherfig had watched The Reader.
Category Archives: 2008
The Express (2008)
In the mold of Rudy, Remember The Titans, Friday Night Lights, and Brian’s Song comes Gary Fleder’s 2008 The Express starring Rob Brown as Ernie Davis, a Syracuse football running back from the early 1960s, and Dennis Quiad as Ben Schwartzwalder, Ernie’s college football coach. Ernie Davis became the first black athlete ever to win the Heisman Trophy. That is a considerable feat, but some people do not know that Davis succeeded Jim Brown at Syracuse University. Jim Brown is arguably the greatest football player and US athlete ever.
Sunshine Cleaning (2008)
The opening scene of Christine Jeffs’ (Sylvia, Rain) 2008 Sunshine Cleaning shows a man purchasing a shotgun at a gun shop and proceeding to blow his head off by reaching into his pocket and pulling out a shell that he brought into the store. Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn, Sahara) plays police detective Mac, who, when ending his investigation of the suicide, meets the crime scene cleanup crew and learns of the above-average wages that this profession brings. Rose Norkowski, played by a convincingly good Amy Adams (Doubt, The Fighter), is Mac’s mistress.