cult film freak: joel edgerton

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Written by James M. Tate / 9/18/2015 / 1 Comment / 2015 , crime , joel edgerton , johnny depp , mob

JOHNNY DEPP IN BLACK MASS

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2015</td></tr>
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For the many who think Johnny Depp is the end-all of acting, well here's some good news... He begins and finishes BLACK MASS with not only a physical transition into Boston crime lord James "Whitey" Bulger, but his eyes are penetrating, evil, and best yet, creepy as hell...<br />
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One effectively spooky scene, where he kind of threatens a cohort's wife, turns MASS from a crime genre ala Martin Scorsese, including a groovy Rolling Stones track during a montage of violent money-making, into a sinister horror flick where the subliminal power of implied evil exceeds the often gratuitous violence, an obvious attempt to push the GOODFELLAS envelope even further:<br />
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In fact, there's one intentionally awkward moment where Depp turns the table (literally sitting at a dinner table), and you can almost hear him say, "Do I look funny to you... like a clown?"<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Movie Score: ***</td></tr>
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Actually, he resembles MATRIX actor Joe Pantoliano combined with political advisor James Carville... yet that makeup isn't one bit distracting. And Depp aside, an equal amount of screen time belongs to Joel Edgerton as FBI agent John Connolly: Having grown up a South Boston "Southie" with Bulger, their lifelong friendship and crooked business relationship moves the story from backroom conversations into blood-drenched boulevards. Unfortunately, with so many sudden deaths, there aren't enough explanations as to why each victim <i>sleeps with the fishes</i>. After a while, the entire film seems like a collection of ultra-violence with bouts of seedy dialogue and family melodrama.<br />
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Perhaps if centered more deeply on a few important <i>deals</i> to make the victims mean more than an overall body count, BLACK MASS could be, like its cinematic predecessors, more of a pointed, personal mob character-study than a vague biopic of a really bad dude breaking rules on either side of the law. In that, Depp does play deadly and nefarious with sublime perfection. But he deserved a slightly better movie to really shine.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Anonymous tip wasn't really: it was former actress beauty queen <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2013/01/more-american-graffiti.html">Anna Bjorn</a> who got Whitey captured</td></tr>
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2015, crime, joel edgerton, johnny depp, mob

JOHNNY DEPP IN BLACK MASS

year: 2015 For the many who think Johnny Depp is the end-all of acting, well here's some good news... He begins and finishes BLACK M...

Written by James M. Tate / 8/08/2015 / No comments / 2015 , jason bateman , joel edgerton , rebecca hall , thriller

JASON BATEMAN & REBECCA HALL & JOEL EDGERTON IN THE GIFT

2015, jason bateman, joel edgerton, rebecca hall, thriller

JASON BATEMAN & REBECCA HALL & JOEL EDGERTON IN THE GIFT

year: 2015 rating: *** THE GIFT is both exactly what it seems and nothing like it's supposed to be. Well that's the eventual tur...

Written by James M. Tate / 12/13/2014 / No comments / 2014 , biblical , christian bale , joel edgerton , ridley scott , sigourney weaver

CHRISTIAN BALE IN EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS

2014, biblical, christian bale, joel edgerton, ridley scott, sigourney weaver

CHRISTIAN BALE IN EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS

year: 2014 rating: ** Right before the strategic waves crash down, when the Red Sea finally parts, it's really more... drained. ...

Written by James M. Tate / 5/10/2013 / No comments / 2013 , based on literature , carey mulligan , drama , joel edgerton , leonardo dicaprio , romance , tobey maguire

LEO DiCAPRIO IN THE 2013 ADAPTATION OF THE GREAT GATSBY

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2013 rating: *</td></tr>
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There’s a humorously subtle moment towards the end of THE GREAT GATSBY when, after the title character erupts in a jealousy-driven tantrum, our humble narrator, Nick Carraway, played by a fitfully cast Tobey Maguire, forgets it’s his thirtieth birthday. Too bad because Carraway makes for a worthy pawn/middleman in a complicated love triangle, and eventually the audience forgets about him as well...<br />
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No surprise as the story’s really about Jay Gatsby, who has tons of money, a giant mansion and parties to end all parties. The closer we get… or rather, the closer Nick Carraway gets … the more can be distinguished of a man who once seemed infallible. Turns out Jay’s got an immense crush on Daisy Buchanan, played by an underwhelming Carey Mulligan – she’s an apple of his eye and not without a worm.<br />
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That’s a cue for one of the more interesting characters and our sole antagonist: Joel Edgerton’s Tom, Daisy’s polo playing playboy husband, is liken to old school villains created solely to be hissed at (think Billy Zane in TITANIC). To manipulate a modern audience he’s given racist views, and at one point even disagrees that the sun is getting hotter. Either way, we know he’s not the right man for Daisy because, well, Gatsby loved her first.<br />
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ROMEO AND JULIET director Baz Luhrmann, no stranger to MTV style excess, brings the vibrant pulse of the roaring twenties to life – yet there’s not a genuine feeling we’re really in that era. Could it be the abundance of hip-hop and/or rave music playing while bodies flail and booze pours from endless champagne bottles? Or perhaps it’s the impressive but overall distracting 3D that gives F. Scott Fitzergerald’s human novel somewhat of a corny superhero vibe: Then again, Gatsby<i> is </i>a brooding millionaire whose power lies in his secrets, and vice versa. <br />
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Beneath all the glitz, within the bombastically colorful playground of high society, is a familiar tale – not much different than a high school romance – about a guy who loves a girl he can’t get. It’s that simple. And perhaps the novel’s brilliant writing made up for the fact there’s more theme than plot running through those timeless pages. Yet on the big screen, once the party’s over and we’re left with two otherwise classy men competing like Neanderthals for the love of a vulnerable woman, it’s a downhill climb.<br />
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Leonardo DiCaprio takes a little getting used to in the title role. He’s not really large enough a presence to fill the shoes of such a famous literary icon. But his melancholy expressions of a loveless soul make up for the initial letdown of seeing him for the first time after the grandiose build-up of his character. Beneath the layers, either shown in flashbacks or described incessantly by an awestruck Carraway, DiCaprio, always attempting to challenge himself with eclectic roles, gives Gatsby a genuine aura that unfortunately this big budget, special effects driven extravaganza takes away from.

2013, based on literature, carey mulligan, drama, joel edgerton, leonardo dicaprio, romance, tobey maguire