Ed's Review Dot Com

A+E Studios, Big Indie Pictures, Killer Films,

Kevin Kline, Dakota Fanning, Susan Sarandon, Max Casella, Jane McNeill, Bryan Batt, Matt Kane, Patrick St. Esprit, Jason Davis, Ric Reitz

As the film opens, Errol Flynn (Kevin Kline) has been reported to have died in the arms of his 4th wife, a young girl named Beverly Aadland (Dakota Fanning). Beverly’s mother, Florence (Susan Sarandon) is at the airport to meet her daughter when they are confronted by a host of reporters trying to get a glimpse of the girl who was with the famous actor when he died. The premise of the story is Florence’s attempt at fame herself, and perhaps the Hollywood mother a bit too push trying to get her daughter’s career going, has met a writer who wants to interview her about her daughter Beverly and the last days of Errol Flynn. The book is done without Beverly’s knowledge or consent, but via flashback, we get to see the entire story from the very beginning up until the time the book is released.

This is a biographical story. It seems that’s all I’ve been seeing lately, which is a bit odd, but that’s what it is. This is a bit sordid, but I must admit Susan Sarandon did an amazing job as Florence the Hollywood mom, who though she didn’t push her daughter into engagement with a movie star knows to have a thing for very young girls, she certainly enabled it when she had a chance to stop it. Kevin Kline is perhaps not the perfect choice for Errol Flynn, although he did a decent job of the role and kept it interesting. This is not his story anyway. Dakota Fanning, on the other hand, always seems to get into these roles. She’s playing a girl of 15 who has a fake birth certificate and is actually in the chorus line at Warner Brothers as a pretend 18 year old when Errol picks her out of the chorus and makes his predatory advance toward her. It is a bit creepy of a role, and I was never quite comfortable watching it, although I suppose since it’s really her mother’s view of the story, we have no way to know what’s true and what is the mother’s fantasy of the whole thing. All in all, it’s a bit slow, and painful to watch, and is not superbly done, but for an independent film, and a biography of the glory days of Hollywood after all, it’s not all bad. After watching the film, I researched some of the facts, and it seems like it was rather devastating time for Beverly, and despite her pleas to her mother, Florence just had to go through with the book for the fame and notoriety. It is a tragedy and a love story, and I don’t think any of the people in the story can be totally blamed for what happened, even the old lecher Errol Flynn himself who really seemed smitten by the girl, and certainly had the means to make it happen. This is a look at the seedy side of the old Hollywood studio days when movies were king.

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Fox 2000 Pictures, TSG Entertainment, Annapurna Pictures,

Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Édgar Ramírez , Elisabeth Röhm, Dascha Polanco, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen

Joy (Jennifer Lawrence) is loosely based on the true story of Joy Mangano, a successful early TV marketer who built an empire on her own inventions. Joy is struggling with a broken family and trying to survive with all the crazy occupants of her house, when she determines to set out to make and sell the self wringing mop that she invented. Borrowing money from her father’s new beau, and he ex husband and even taking a 2nd mortgage on her house she sets out to pull off this miracle, but wading her way through the rough storm of the ruthless business world is about to take her down.

This is a loose biographical film based on the real Joy Mangano, but of course a lot of poetic license has been taken. Jennifer delivers a really stunning performance as the harried mom trying to make the best out of all the trouble, and Bradley Cooper is pretty decent as an executive at QVC who gives her a chance or two. Robert DeNiro offers some support as well as her father, giving advice right and left, but not being very coherent most of the time. All in all it’s a comedy of errors, and though it’s not a truly wonderful film, due to the weakness (I think) in the script itself, these actors did the best the could with a kind of flawed script, I think. Still, I did find it entertaining, and did not hate it like so many did. I didn’t find it boring, and to be honest, Jennifer Lawrence, I though, really nailed the role. She is really getting good these days. I found it pulling me into the story and enjoying the stages poor Joy had to go through to get tough enough to survive in this harsh environment we know as business. I recommend this film, and thought it wasn’t a bad film at all.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Annapurna Pictures, Likely Story, Media Rights Capital,

Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Michael Hall, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave

In 1999 the news screamed out the story of the richest man in history to be convicted of murder, when John DuPont (Steve Carell) heir to the DuPont chemical fortune was sent to prison for murdering David Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) in the driveway of DuPont’s guest house where he and his wife and children were living. The Schultz bothers, older brother David, and younger brother Mark (Channing Tatum) were a couple of the best gold medal winning wrestling champions in US History. This film is Mark’s story of how we met John DuPont and John’s efforts to buy his way into Olympic wrestling in a effort to maintain a level of importance. He opened the Foxcatcher facility and trained many US Olympic wrestlers there with the help of the Schultz brothers. This is the story of what happened and though we may never know why it happened, at least it is an interesting tale of the events of that day that shocked the country when the new came out.

This is an interesting biographical film. Like most Hollywood versions of true story, it is based upon the events that happened, but not absolutely true to all the facts. What we have though is a very strong cast acting their way through a fascinating story. Steve Carell was even nominated as best actor for his performance, a very somber role for the usually funny Mr. carell, but certenly within his wheelhouse for sure. Channing Tatum gave a really strong performance as did Mark Ruffalo. Even Vanessa Redgrave gave a charming performance as John DuPont’s mother, even though it’s very short. It is still a great performance. Critics of the film call it slow. It does certainly plod along, and at 2 hours and 15 minutes, it probably could have been shorter, but I didn’t find it boring at any point. The time was well used to develop the characteristics of each of these characters, and with the star cast, it takes time to fully develop that. In the end, even at over 2 hours running time, it feels like we’ve missed some of the facts, and it was off to Wikipedia to learn more about the story. I give credit to the writers, directors, and producers for presenting a great feature film on the subject, and am really impressed with the level of acting that went into it. I found it an interesting story, and recommend this film to those who enjoy biographical historical tales that are stranger than fiction.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Marvel Entertainment, TSG Entertainment,

James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till

Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) is the most powerful mutant in history, but he has been buried away for centuries, trapped under a pyramid. But when he’s unleashed, he has the power to draw skills and power from other mutants and add them to his own. He chooses four powerful mutants as his minions, including Magneto (Michael Fassbender) who is heartbroken at the loss of his family and extremely broken and discouraged. Meanwhile Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) has kept his school for mutants open and has a bunch of new recruits who are mutants that are discouraged and feel different who want to learn to control their powers. But with Apocalypse’s return, and his plan to destroy the Earth and start over with a new kingdom with him as supreme ruler, Xavier will have to count on the new recruits and Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) to lead them into battle against the end of the world.

When I went to the theater over the Memorial Day weekend, I had to choose between X-Men:Apocalypse and Marvel’s Civil War. Despite the fact that the young man who sold me the tickets insisted that X-Men was a better story, I had my doubts. I still haven’t had a chance to see the Civil War movie yet, so I can’t comment on whether he is right or not, but I have to first give two caveats. One, I am not a big comic book fan in particular and usually feel pretty ho-hum about the whole genre. Two, I am especially bland when it comes to the X-Men in general. I’ve never been a huge X-Men fan anyway. But I must admit, this was a pretty good story. I found it interesting to learn about the new characters, and there was a lot of humor, especially with those who haven’t learned to control their power yet. Apocalypse was a bad guy, but not the baddest I have seen, by any means, and he went down fairly easy, when you come to think of it. But the back story of Magneto was very well portrayed, and you can really understand his pain as it was well played. The action was great, the 3-D effects are fantastic, and the whole things rolls along smoothly. At over 2 1/2 hours, it’s a fairly long film, but I was sad when it ended, as it was very entertaining. Certainly if you like the comic book genre, this is an excellent film, and even if you don’t, like me, it’s still a good movie in its own right. I recommend this action adventure fantasy film as one of the better ones I’ve seen. I enjoyed it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog