Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Molly's Game (2017) - Chastain is luminous in Sorkin's great true-crime debut

11/28/2020

Molly's Game (2017) - Chastain is luminous in Sorkin's great true-crime debut

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Star Jessica Chastain in an extreme close-up in B/W and shades looks cool AF on the poster for Aaron Sorkin's Molly's Game

Molly Bloom's career as an Olympic skier collapses with an accident, and a few years later she gets arrested by a small army of FBI agents, now as the leader the country's highest stakes illegal poker game.

Molly's Game is written and directed by debuting great New-Yorker filmmaker Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men (1992, writer)), adapting the same-titled 2014 memoir by the real-life Molly Bloom.

Jessica Chastain (The Color of Time (2012)) is out of this world in the complex, riveting part as the extremely driven and intelligent Bloom, SPOILER who eventually finds herself in over her head in pursuit of a goal that begins to fade in the horizon. She is radiant here as the tough survivor. Idris Elba (Thor (2011)) is good as the sexy attorney who takes her case despite its legally dubious elements.

Sorkin relates the story with dense dialog and a high pace. Molly's Game is grand in width, comparable to a down-played style-wise recent film in the Martin Scorsese tradition, though with a female protagonist, which Sorkin's great script and Chastain's flawless performance never makes a sensational point in and of itself.

There is fun (Chris O'Dowd! (The Program (2015))), dramatically satisfying moments, - Kevin Costner (Dragonfly (2002)) is good as Bloom's psychologist father, - excellent lighting, editing and more. Molly's Game is a splendid piece of work that is more than it may appear.

Aaron Sorkin: The day after the day after ... the 2018 Oscars

Oscars 2018: Predictions and Film Excess' favorites

Moneyball (2011) - Miller makes compelling baseball movie history (co-writer)

The Social Network (2010) - Fincher's a-hole biopic leaves me cold (and more anti-Facebook than ever) (writer)

A Few Good Men (1992) or, You Can't Handle the Truth! (writer)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 30 mil.$

Box office: 59.2 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.97 times its cost)

[Molly's Game premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 141 minutes. Bloom approached Sorkin with her book on her own, as he was her favorite writer. Shooting took place in Ontario, including Toronto, and in New York from November 2016 - January 2017. The film opened #19 to a 1.1 mil. $ first weekend in 271 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #7 and in 1,708 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 28.7 mil. $ (48.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 5.8 mil. $ (9.8 %) and France with 4.3 mil. $ (7.3 %). The film was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, lost to James Ivory for Call Me By Your Name. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, a BAFTA, and several other honors. Sorkin returned with The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020, VOD). Chastain returned in Woman Walks Ahead (2017); Elba in The Mountain Between Us (2017); Costner in The Highwaymen (2019). Molly's Game is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (6-24)

11/28/2020

Molly's Game (2017) - Chastain is luminous in Sorkin's great true-crime debut

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (5-24)

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