The Fighter
Directed by David O. Russell
Paramount Pictures
2010
I prefer Geoffry Rush more as an actor and would have preferred him winning the 83rd Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his roll as speech therapist Lionel Logue in The King's Speech. But as good as his performance was, it did not compare to Christian Bale's portrayal of Dicky Ecklund in The Fighter. Serious about his acting, Bale lost weight (again, for The Machinist) for the roll of the drug-addled Ecklund. Equal to Bale's performance was Melissa Leo as the overbearing mother, Alice Ward, mother to the two protagonists and seven daughters, all who lived with her. After previous nominations (Frozen River), her win here was much overdue. The movie plot? Think of an uneducated Irish Rocky Balboa from Southy.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
The Last King of Scotland (2007)
The Last King of Scotland
Directed by Kevin Macdonald
Fox Searchlight
2007
The 2007 movie The Last King of Scotland, based on Giles Foden's book of the same name, was a performance vehicle for Forest Whittaker's Oscar-winning portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's rule from 1971 to 1979 in the same way that Kiss of the Spider Woman (Island Alive, 1985) was the sled William Hurt road to his Oscar at the 58th Academy Awards in 1985. A splendid diamond of a performance pressed into a marshmallow of a movie. For those of us who where of age to know that was going on in Uganda during the period, Whittaker's performance is chilling in its accuracy and implications. He captured perfectly this smiling madman's appeal and terror.
The novel The last King of Scotland is somewhat dramatized. The actual story surrounding the events in Amin's life are easily as compelling.
Directed by Kevin Macdonald
Fox Searchlight
2007
The 2007 movie The Last King of Scotland, based on Giles Foden's book of the same name, was a performance vehicle for Forest Whittaker's Oscar-winning portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's rule from 1971 to 1979 in the same way that Kiss of the Spider Woman (Island Alive, 1985) was the sled William Hurt road to his Oscar at the 58th Academy Awards in 1985. A splendid diamond of a performance pressed into a marshmallow of a movie. For those of us who where of age to know that was going on in Uganda during the period, Whittaker's performance is chilling in its accuracy and implications. He captured perfectly this smiling madman's appeal and terror.
The novel The last King of Scotland is somewhat dramatized. The actual story surrounding the events in Amin's life are easily as compelling.
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