I am a big fan of author Cormac McCarthy. I loved his novel “The Road” and thought the film adaptation was spectacular. It was one of those movies I went into not knowing what to expect, but came out loving it. I read the book after seeing The Road in the theater, and the book was just as good as the movie. I liked the movie so much that I created a trailer for it. I enjoyed No Country for Old Men, but I certainly didn’t think it was the best movie of 2007. I have yet to read the novel, but I will at some point. I picked up two more of his novels this past year. The first was a book called “Outer Limits,” which I enjoyed parts of. The second was “Child of God,” parts of which I enjoyed. I thought both movies were random and very different from “The Road” and how I would expect “No Country for Old Men” to read. I had heard that James Franco (As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury) was directing an adaptation of a McCarthy novel, but I didn’t know it was Child of God until I finished the book.
Category Archives: 2014
Exodus: Gods and Kings
Exodus: Gods and Men was a movie I thought would be great, then terrible, and then okay. It ended up being pretty good. I am a massive fan of Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Rises, Out of the Furnace) and Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator). Bale has had numerous hits over the last decade. I’ve seen 13 of his previous 15 movies, and I’ve been a big fan of all of them. Once as reliable as they come, Scott has had some misses in recent years, most notably The Counselor and Robin Hood. Both of these movies should have been great, and both underwhelmed.
Bale plays the role of Moses. Say what you will about Bale, but he’s not afraid to venture outside the norm. He takes chances. I love him as an actor. In the last 5+ years, only a handful of actors have been better (DiCaprio, Pitt, Gosling, Gordon-Levitt, Michael Fassbender, Bradley Cooper, and Tom Hardy) come to mind. The traditional heavyweights outside DiCaprio and Pitt (Hanks, Will Smith, Washington, Cruise, Day-Lewis, De Niro, etc.) have dropped out of the spotlight. Others (Day-Lewis, Hanks) have fallen into the pattern of doing the same movie repeatedly (Tom Cruise saves the world, Denzel Washington saves a plane, a train, a subway, a boat from catastrophe, etc.). Others have gotten into the habit of just making movie after movie to earn a paycheck without the intent of making a great film (De Niro).
Still Alice (2014)
Still Alice is a slightly above-average movie with the best lead performance you’ll see from an actress all year. There are only a couple of shoo-ins at this year’s Academy Awards. I believe that most categories are predictable, but there will be a couple of surprises. The big ones that will not come as a surprise are Patricia Arquette (Best Supporting Actress – Boyhood) and Julianne Moore for her performance as a 50-year-old woman suffering from Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease in Still Alice. Each year, there is a movie that earns a significant award but is not recognized in any other category. This year, that movie is Still Alice. I’m not a huge fan of Moore. I think she’s good, but she’s slightly overrated. Nonetheless, she is due to be recognized, and this is the lead performance that is head and shoulders above the other contenders.
A Most Violent Year (2014)
The best movie of 2014 that has flown under the radar is, without a doubt, J.C. Chandor’s (All Is Lost, Margin Call) A Most Violent Year. As I will mention in the paragraphs below, this movie is subtly fantastic. But before I get into the film, I want to talk about Chandor. This guy is quietly establishing himself as a master of two crafts. A Most Violent Year is just his third movie, but it is the third he has directed and written the screenplay for. And all three films have earned at least 88% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, even though none made more than $8 million at the box office. All three movies are unique, and Chandor has already worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood (Robert Redford, Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Oscar Isaac, David Oyelowo, Jessica Chastain, and Albert Brooks). He has already signed Mark Wahlberg to star in his next project. And while All Is Lost and Margin Call were both unique movie experiences, A Most Violent Year is Chandor’s crowning achievement to date.
The Judge (2014)
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.