Tag James Gandolfini

Quick Hits : Joe, Tim’s Vermeer, and The Drop

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Directed By – David Gordon Green
Starring – Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Gary Poulter, Ronnie Gene Blevins, and Adriene Mishler

I got a lot of flack for watching this film. Why? I got flack because it stars Nicolas Cage. Why do people hate him so much? The guy is amazing. Half the films he makes are so shit that I can’t even stand to watch the trailer but then the guy will turn in a brilliant performance that knocks you on your ass. Leaving Las Vegas, Raising Arizona, Matchstick Men, Adaptation, and now Joe, all fantastic films that are anchored by brilliant Nicolas Cage performances. The man is a working actor and work he does. Cage gives a pretty incredible performance as the title character Joe, an ex con who hires a teenager to help him with work. The teen is played by Tye Sheridan who is starring in yet another film where he befriends a man with questionable character. The reason for this befriendment is because the boy’s father, Wade, is pretty much a complete fucking scumbag. The guy had no redeemable qualities and Joe was there to save the boy. Gary Poulter plays Wade and gives a knockout performance despite never acting in a film before and living on the street. Green picked him off the sidewalks to play the role and while he died after the filming of the movie, his performance as Wade will live on forever.

The film is violent, dark, and unrelentingly depressing but also creates an atmosphere and real sense of feeling. It’s a great film made by a filmmaker who seems to be finding his niche again.

4/5

Directed By Penn and Teller
Starring – Tim Jenison

Holy hell did I enjoy this film. By the end I was almost ready to pick up my paint brush and start painting something. Tim Jenison invents TV broadcast equipment and is an all around smart as shit person. One day he decides that he’s going to try to paint a replica of a painting by one of the greatest painter of all time, Johannes Vermeer. A Vermeer is worth millions due to the fact that it is so photo realistic despite being painted almost 400 years ago. Tim, who is not a painter by any means, is going to try to paint a Vermeer solely with the help of a mirror and an ungodly amount of time and patience. There really isn’t much to analyse here. The guy is just fascinating to watch and I was surprised by how well Penn and Teller made this film. Teller filmed it and Penn narrated and I’m sure produced. Those guys are just too talented to exist anymore. It’s like not even fair.

The film is a joy to watch if you’re even slightly into painting and even if you’re not, it’s still a fucking blast. I had a huge smile on my face throughout the whole damn thing. It’s my favorite documentary of the year.

4.5/5

Directed by – Michaël R. Roskam
Starring – Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz, and Ann Dowd

I’ve been waiting for this film for a long time. I’m a pretty big fan of Michaël R. Roskam’s Bullhead and own it on Blu Ray. When the trailer dropped and I saw that it was adapted from a Dennis Lehane novel I got even more excited. When I found out it has the last on screen appearance of James Gandolfini I marked my calender. The fact that some of my favorite European actors are in it as well certainly added to my anticipation. Well, consider the film a success but one that came with a few flaws. The acting in the film was top notch anchored by Hardy and Gandolfini. We seriously lost a serious talent in Gandolfini who was really coming into his own. It’s a shame we lost him. Hardy builds on his already stellar year with yet another deep and solid performance. I just had a few issues with the story arch and the fact that there are basically two stories to focus on that somehow intertwince by the films end. I enjoyed the film a lot, but the story just wasn’t as good as Lehane’s previous work such as Mystic River or Shutter Island. The camera work and acting however are top notch.

3.5/5

Film Review : Enough Said (2013)

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IMDB Score – 7.2
Rotten Tomato Score – 96%

Golden Globe Nomination for Best Actress – Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Screen Actors Guild Nomination for Best Actor – James Gandolfini

Directed By – Nicole Holofcener
Starring – Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone, Tracey Fairaway, Eve Hewson, and Toby Huss

A divorced woman who decides to pursue the man she’s interested in learns he’s her new friend’s ex-husband.

I didn’t think this movie was going to be for me. Why? Well, I’m 24, not married, never been married, and don’t have children. I thought it was going to be a film that I appreciated but didn’t really understand. In a way, I didn’t understand, but the performances from the two leads and a superb first half left a lasting impression. It’s also good to note that the late James Gandolfini left us with one more amazing performance capping off an entire career of them.

Enough Said is about two middle aged recently divorced parents who meet at a party and take a chance with one another and go out on a date. This is where the magic of the film resided with me. If this was a film starring any other combination of people I don’t think I would have liked it as much but the chemistry between Louis-DreyFus and Gandolfini had me belly laughing from how, well, freakin’ adorable it was. These were two people who had been through the dating scene, found somebody they thought they loved, lived through a divorce, and are now trying again. It was fun watching them feel each other out, stumble through awkward conversations, and basically act like kids again. James Gandolfini, who is famous for being a brash and brutal human being, was funny, endearing, and kind. It was a version of him that people don’t really get to see. It really shined a light on his acting chops and it’s sad we won’t be able to see more of that with his passing. Julia Louis-Dreyfus complimented her partner perfectly and as the film revolves mostly around her journey, she proved to be an exceptional emotional force as she leap through comedy into melancholy gracefully. Honestly, I think she got robbed this year at the Oscars. I would have loved to have seen her up there instead of maybe Amy Adams. Adams was great but Dreyfus kind of came out of the blue to deliver such a real performance in this film.

The only real gripe with the film is one that I can’t help but have. I hate scenarios like the one that Dreyfus found herself in during the middle and end of the film. Now this isn’t particularly a spoiler due to the fact that it’s in the synopsis but her character is a masseuse who finds herself working for and eventually becoming friends with her boyfriends ex wife. Catherine Keener, who plays the ex wife has no problem talking shit about her ex husband, whom Dreyfus is emotionally involved with, and instead of ending that relationship then and there, Dreyfus keeps quiet and lets the situation play out. I have always cringed at these situations and rarely enjoy them when they happen. It’s like those old fashioned sitcoms where the male character sets up two dates ON THE SAME NIGHT? OH MAN HOW IS HE GOING TO SWING THIS ONE? I have always found it annoying that people would put themselves in these idiotic situations and I find myself squirming and waiting for it to end. Now, I understand the importance that this situations holds in the context of the film, but it just took me out of it for a good forty five minutes. The beginning of the film was just so sweet and perfect and it was overshadowed a little bit by too much awkwardness. The film thankfully ended on a better note.

That being said, I enjoyed the film a lot. I loved the acting from both leads and the dialogue/writing was smart, witty, and most of all funny. It’s a shame we lost such a great actor in James Gandolfini but I’m glad that he at least was able to give us one final gem as he teamed up with Julia Louis-Dreyfus to give us and on screen couple that should be up near the top of the best couples in recent film history.

4/5

Suggested Viewing – Crazy Stupid Love, Lost in Translation, Away We Go



Film Review : Killing Them Softly (2012)

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IMDB Score – 6.3
Rotten Tomato Score – 75%

Directed By – Andrew Dominik
Starring – Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins, and Sam Shepard

Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse.

For the record, I did not come up with the synopsis. Three dumb guys? Yes, well they’re dumb, but come on IMDB you can do better than that.

I’m a huge, HUGE fan of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The film was just a perfectly paced, photographed, and told story and was a perfect piece to complete the trifecta to No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood. If you ever have eight hours to kill, a marathon of those three films is really cool. I’m also a fan of his first film which is the vastly underseen Chopper with Eric Bana. Dominik wrote the screenplay for his newest film based off a novel by George V. Higgins called “Cogan’s Trade”. It ended up being a very conflicted watch for me.

What I liked…

First of all this is a wonderfully cast film. Every single dude in this movie is awesome and it was great seeing them all work together. Mendelsohn ended up stealing every scene but I’m a huge fan of his ever since I saw him in Animal Kingdom. We get a very small but great dose of the late Gandolfini and Pitt was fun as his smart albeit very cynical gangster. I also thought it was a very well shot film with a CRAZY ASS death scene in the middle of the film utilizing slow-mo and CGI that looked great when usually it looks like a bag of crap. The film, which is mostly a dialogue driven film kept my attention the entire time but I may have to admit it was mostly due to the fact that I loved seeing all these actors on screen with each other.

What I didn’t like…

I don’t know what the message was supposed to be. Capitalism is bad? No seriously, that’s the message. I know this because it was SCREAMED at my face for the entire time. It was not subtle in any way. For a film called Killing Them Softly, there was nothing soft or subtle about the way they got their point across. It was also a highly cynical and dark film which is fine when it fits the character but Brad Pitt’s Jackie just seemed to be preaching from the mouth or Dominik most of the time. It got old. I’ve always been a fan of a slow burn so that aspect didn’t bother me at all. It also ended VERY abruptly without tying anything together. It’s almost like they ran out of money. It just didn’t sit well.

Overall I enjoyed the film and it looked great, especially that scene I mentioned earlier. It’s a short 90 minute film so I’d say take a chance on it. The cast is amazing and the directer is promising.

3/5