Mank (David Fincher, 2020) — A-
Hillbilly Elegy (Ron Howard, 2020) — D-
Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly, 1952) — A+
Venom (Ruben Fleischer, 2018) — B
The Polar Express (Robert Zemeckis, 2004) — C
Water for Elephants (Francis Lawrence, 2011) — C+
Holidate (John Whitesell, 2020) — C-
Pixels (Chris Columbus, 2015) — C
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Steven Spielberg, 2011) — A-
The War of the Roses (Danny DeVito, 1989) — B
Tesla (Michael Almereyda, 2020) — B
Set It Up (Claire Scanlon, 2018) — A
Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff, 2003) — A-
Why Him? (John Hamburg, 2016) — C
When We First Met (Ari Sandel, 2018) — B+
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Alfonso Cuaron, 2003) — A-
One of the most important, and most overlooked, aspects of moviemaking is casting. Sometimes, no matter how strong the script, the direction, and even some performances, a miscast role can ruin a movie. I don’t think that Gary Oldman as screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz in David Fincher’s Mank ruins Mank. I do think he’s miscast and I think it’s easily the worst part of the movie. Oldman is good, but he’s not so excellent that it makes me feel like he’s the only person who could’ve done it. Oldman is a 62-year-old man playing alternatively a 34 and 44-year-old, and at no point is this believable. When Mank is a spry young playwright breaking into Hollywood, I don’t get any of that from Oldman on screen. When he’s older, he fits really well as an alcoholic, crumbling, haggard man, until you realize he’s only supposed to be 44. Mank is sardonic but charming, jaded but principled, and shambles through the movie like a drunk one-liner spouting prophet. It’s something I could easily have seen from, I don’t know, Gosling, Downey, Bale, or Clooney. Maybe those guys are too handsome? Maybe you go with Giamatti or John C. Reilly. I don’t know, I’m literally just brainstorming, and I know that casting is a lot more than just slotting someone into a position with no regard towards availability, I just find it hard to believe that someone like Fincher couldn’t have found someone more suited to this role who could’ve played it just as well (or better) than Oldman did.
Like I said, I don’t think this ruins the movie. This movie manages to be about Hollywood without feeling self-indulgent or pretentious. It’s politics and social issues feel relevant and spot on. It’s as funny as I can remember any Fincher movie being, with the possible exception of The Social Network. It jumps back and forth between time periods with no problem or confusion at all. It deepens our understanding of one of the greatest movies of all time without really dwelling too much on the actual creation of the movie. It’s just … not perfect, as many of its helmer’s films often seem.
Alternatively, great casting can’t save a terrible script. I have no problem with casting Amy Adams as an Ohioan drug addicted single mother of two, nor with Glenn Close as a hard-ass, widsom-spouting grandmother. But everything else about Hillbilly Elegy? Despite disliking the book that spawned it, poor reviews, and a general indifference towards Ron Howard as a director, I tried really hard to go into Hillbilly Elegy with no expectations and a clear mind. But I think even if I was able to fend off any outside influence, I wouldn’t have found much in the movie enjoyable. Take away the implied politics and it’s basically just condescending poverty porn with a wicked victim streak. I absolutely adore Amy Adams; she’s probably one of my five favorite working actresses and I’ve even loved her career choices as often as I have the actual performances. Arrival! Enchanted! The Fighter! The Muppets! The Master! Catch Me If You Can! Julie & Julia! These are movies I love that she is great in. That being said, the very fact that she agreed to be in this movie made me momentarily question all of that. I kind of understand the instinct to tell a story with these characters, but I have no idea how anyone would settle on this as the narrative to tell it through and all I could think about was what JD Vance’s Kate McKinnon character of a grandma would say if she found out he grew up to be a bad Terminator.
- Singin’ in the Rain is delightful and I very much enjoyed watching it.
- I kinda love how Venom knows exactly what it is. Venom’s casual dialogue, mostly to Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock, feels like something that is missing from any other comic book movie other than the two Deadpool movies, which go all the way in the opposite direction.
- Polar Express is so strange and honestly, I’m not even somebody who is bothered by uncanny valley animation. I love Christmas so some of the Christmas stuff just works for me and the train hi-jinx are fun, but
- I love old circus stuff, love Reese Witherspoon, hate watching animals get tortured, but felt mostly ambivalent on Water for Elephants. It’s got lovely production design and an admirable love triangle plot between Robert Pattinson, Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz, but not much else.
- A light, snarky straight-to-streaming Christmas movie starring Emma Roberts, a newly unearthed Hemsworth, the (still wonderful) face-mask formerly known as Kristen Chenowith, seven people I’ve never heard of, and the sixth most popular white guy from the past few seasons of SNL should not have as many plot holes as Holidate does.
- Ten minutes in, Pixels makes Kevin James the president and it gets dumber from there. The misogyny and flat comedic timing of latter day Chris Columbus — formerly a creator of culture-defining hits like Home Alone, Adventures in Babysitting, and Mrs. Doubtfire — cancels out any of the slacker charm of Adam Sandler’s dad-humor Happy Madison productions.
- Spielberg having a kinda, sorta, disputed miss on the fourth Indiana Jones movie and then immediately following it with a fantastic Indiana Jones movie in the form of an animated adaptation of Tintin is such a baller move. The Adventures of Tintin is an old fashioned adventure movie that absolutely moves. Although, and to be clear, I loved this about it, but I have no idea who this movie is for, other than people who like the books and people like me. It’s much more adult than your typical animated fare — alcohol and guns and a plot involving family legacy, secret scrolls, and an opera singer.
- Movies about terrible people being terrible to each other don’t generally land that well for me. Sometimes The War of the Roses is funny enough to overcome it, and I’m glad that it sticks to its guns all the way through in terms of that mean streak.
- Tesla is a real mood movie. It’s very understated and contemplative, at least, much more-so than your typical biopic. It’s nearly-too-clever storytelling device combined with its bizarrely low energy made it feel pretty refreshing, even though it never felt exciting.
- On rewatch, Set It Up only rises in my eyes. Maybe it’s because there have been so many streaming service rom-coms in the past few years that have been too generic and stale and watching one that really nails it feels so satisfying, but I think it’s near a perfect movie. To the point where, when my wife came in and saw I was watching it without her 75 minutes in, I seriously suggested starting it over.
- There aren’t many actors who I dislike enough that I try to avoid their movies, but I generally try to avoid James Franco movies. Of course, I will also watch anything with Zoey Deutch in it. Meaning my reaction to the casting of James Franco in Why Him? is also “why him?”
- Similar to Set It Up, I rewatched When We First Met, having remembered it as a superior streaming rom-com. It’s not as good as that movie, but it is a charming take on the sci-fi comedy-dramas like Groundhog Day, Big, and 50 First Dates.