MOVIE: Eddington (2025)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Eddington Year: 2025 Rating: R Length: 148 minutes / 2.47 hours Making a film set in and somewhat about the effects of the COVID pandemic feels far too close for comfort. And yet, Eddington (2025) paints both sides of this culture war in a way that highlights their hypocrisy while also taking a huge left turn in the third act that was so far from the realm of the possible that it almost made the whole movie pointless. Of course, perhaps that was the point: that citizens ultimately don’t have control over the results that large corporations want for this country. Set in the early months of the 2020 COVID pandemic, the titular New Mexico town of Eddington is facing the same left vs. right arguments about the virus and what to do about it. Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) clearly wants to help people but is portrayed as a low-intelligence right-wing believer in individual rights. In contrast, Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) is running...
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MOVIE: Napoleon (2023)

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Napoleon Year: 2023 Rating: R Length: 158 minutes / 2.63 hours On paper, this movie had a lot going for it. Ridley Scott, partnering with Joaquin Phoenix again after the wildly successful Gladiator (2000) felt like this was a surefire entertaining film. Instead, the few scenes of military action were the only things that made this movie worth watching. Usually, when I watch a biopic about a famous individual like Napoleon Bonaparte, I’d expect something eyebrow raising that I didn’t know before. Napoleon is not that kind of film, as it is filled with history that I already knew, and I don’t consider myself a scholar of Napoleon. A lot of biopics tend to either show the genius of their titular character or cast light on their odd behavior (despite their angelic public persona). Napoleon has moments of both, each of which undercuts the effectiveness of the other. I can’t take his military success seriously when he has such peculiar bedroom habits, and I find...
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MOVIE: Joker (2019)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Joker Year: 2019 Rating: R Length: 122 minutes / 2.03 hours With the saturation of superhero movies between Marvel and DC at all-time highs, it was only a matter of time before a movie like Joker (2019) would come along. If anything, the current socio-political environment in the real world is ripe for this kind of story. While superhero films are appealing to show how individuals with exotic abilities can do battle in CGI-heavy fight sequences, there is a certain amount of horror involved with Joker in the sense that it could realistically happen. There aren’t any radioactive spiders. There isn’t any high-tech gadgetry. There’s only mental illness. I applaud the team behind Joker for not resorting to hackneyed comic book origin stories like chemical spills or “tit for tat” vendettas (even if we had to watch one of the same origin stories again near the end). The casting of Joaquin Phoenix was initially an odd choice, but he nails the role. His type of methodical acting almost humanizes one of...
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