What was Denzel Washington thinking? Fresh off roles in 1998’s The Hurricane (Academy Award Winner – Lead Actor), the nationally recognized 2000s Remember the Titans, and 2002’s Training Day (Academy Award Winner – Lead Actor), Denzel was arguably at the peak of his acting career. He likely commanded (or was close to it) more guaranteed money per film than any other actor in America. He was probably receiving dozens of roles at a time. And yet he chose to accept the lead role in unproven Nick Cassavetes’s (Alpha Dog, She’s So Lovely) John Q.
Category Archives: Year of Release
American Beauty (1999)
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects, Se7en) isn’t your typical man going through a midlife crisis. A man going through a midlife crisis might quit his job, buy a sports car, cheat on his wife, long for a life with no responsibility, or obsess compulsively over things he can’t have. But all of these things at once? Maybe. But it’s less likely for sure. Sam Mendes (1917, Revolutionary Road) is a well-known director, even though he had directed only eight movies (as of 2020) and earned just one Oscar nomination before that year. But his film struck an accord, and he took home the two biggest trophies of the year for someone in his profession: Best Director and Best Picture for his debut feature-length film, 1999’s American Beauty.
He Got Game (1998)
A few friends and I recently discussed movies we thought warranted a second watch. We debated whether a film aged like fine wine or sour milk. It meant whether we thought a movie held up, or was even better, years after its original release, or whether we didn’t think it was all that good now, even though we once held it in high esteem. One of my friends said Terminator 2 aged like sour milk. Though I haven’t seen it a second time, this movie was so far ahead of its time in terms of technology in 1991, but I don’t doubt it might be unwatchable 30 years later. The sour milk example I gave was The Great Outdoors, a movie that a 12-year-old me thought was hilarious in the theater, but that I didn’t chuckle at once during my 2012 viewing. An example of a movie that aged like a fine wine was Apocalypse Now, a movie I didn’t necessarily love when I first saw it, but one I grew to appreciate as I aged. Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing, and He Got Game are fine wines. I remember thinking it was “pretty decent” in 1998. It has stood the test of time and, as we have seen in recent years, applies more to the sleaziness of college basketball recruiting.
I Still Believe (2020)
Fresh off their 2018 surprise hit I Can Only Imagine, brother directors Andrew Erwin and Jon Erwin once again explore the real-life story of a Christian rockstar (this time Jeremy Camp) and his journey through love and loss that encourages us never to give up hope, even when our faith is heavily tested, even in the middle of tragic circumstances.
The Way Back (2020)
How do you make a basketball movie in 2020 that doesn’t get quickly compared to Hoosiers, Coach Carter, Glory Road, and Hurricane Season, not to mention the many other films about a sports team facing adversity? Sometimes, when you see the trailers for the first time of a movie like Gavin O’Connor’s (The Accountant, Warrior), The Way Back, you kind of groan, thinking, “Here we go again. How are we supposed to get something different from this movie?” But he was unequivocally able to do that. Admittedly, this movie could have been better in its script and sequencing. Still, its parts made up for its occasional lack of cohesion and left you feeling hopeful in a movie you expected to find hope, albeit in a much different way.