I was wrong: This 2020 Academy Best Picture nominee took even longer to come to fruition. Too bad the writer, Jack Fincher, father of director David, didn't live to see it. Anyway, once again, I gave it priority among the nominees only because of its availability.
We tend to think of Citizen Kane as exclusively an Orson Welles (Tom Burke) work, but Herman J. "Mank" Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) gets credit as a co-writer. Exactly how much credit he deserves is disputed, but in this telling, he writes the entire first draft. This is not easy for him to do in a timely fashion, because he has a drinking problem, a broken leg from a car crash, a half-estranged wife (Tuppence Middleton), the hostility of William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance) over this imminent unflattering depiction, and general unpopularity for not opposing the California gubernatorial run of Upton Sinclair (Bill Nye).
Showing posts with label david fincher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label david fincher. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
Friday, May 14, 2021
Gone Girl (2014)
Previously, I indicated a reluctance to see this movie, primarily because I tend to have trouble liking David Fincher thrillers. But placement on IMDb's top 250 and a Best Actress Oscar nod are nothing I'd sneeze at. This being 149 minutes, I split it across two nights.
Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) is semi-famous for the same reason as Christopher Robin Milne: She inspired a classic children's lit character by the same name. For this reason, many people take notice when she becomes a missing person. We viewers can assume up front that her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), had no part in her disappearance, judging from his surprise at the overturned furniture when he comes home, but others have no such assurance. A lot of circumstantial evidence points to him, and his known behavior isn't utterly winning. The lead detective (Kim Dickens) is pretty lenient toward him, but he and his nearby-living twin, Margo (Carrie Coon, actually nine years Affleck's junior), feel a need to do something before the police decide they have enough cause for a murder charge. And their state of residence, Missouri, practices the death penalty.
Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) is semi-famous for the same reason as Christopher Robin Milne: She inspired a classic children's lit character by the same name. For this reason, many people take notice when she becomes a missing person. We viewers can assume up front that her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), had no part in her disappearance, judging from his surprise at the overturned furniture when he comes home, but others have no such assurance. A lot of circumstantial evidence points to him, and his known behavior isn't utterly winning. The lead detective (Kim Dickens) is pretty lenient toward him, but he and his nearby-living twin, Margo (Carrie Coon, actually nine years Affleck's junior), feel a need to do something before the police decide they have enough cause for a murder charge. And their state of residence, Missouri, practices the death penalty.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Zodiac (2007)
Until Netflix announced the end of its streaming, I kept vacillating on whether to see this, because I find David Fincher enjoyable only about half the time. Another serial killer story under his direction could have invoked unwelcome memories of the popular but extremely disturbing Se7en. Fortunately, having seen Dirty Harry (which gets referenced in Zodiac), I knew that the real killer who called himself the Zodiac had more conventional murder methods. If you can take bloody stabbings and shootings, both survived and not, with no autopsy details, then you can probably take this movie.
The only professional review I'd read -- a mere blurb -- noted the large proportion of time characters spend talking, rather than...I dunno, being Dirty Harry? What did he expect? One fictionalized friendship aside, it aims for a mostly true story -- so seriously, in fact, that the producers hired a PI to find one of the Zodiac's live victims (other relevant characters were more readily reachable). That said, it does feel like they didn't need 2 1/2 hours to tell it. We get the picture: It was a hard case to crack. The mystery is still not officially solved after 40+ years, which limits the potential for satisfaction among viewers at the end. But the mere fact that the film got the case reopened does it credit.
The only professional review I'd read -- a mere blurb -- noted the large proportion of time characters spend talking, rather than...I dunno, being Dirty Harry? What did he expect? One fictionalized friendship aside, it aims for a mostly true story -- so seriously, in fact, that the producers hired a PI to find one of the Zodiac's live victims (other relevant characters were more readily reachable). That said, it does feel like they didn't need 2 1/2 hours to tell it. We get the picture: It was a hard case to crack. The mystery is still not officially solved after 40+ years, which limits the potential for satisfaction among viewers at the end. But the mere fact that the film got the case reopened does it credit.
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