Hustle & Flow (2005) - Brewer's Memphis rapper breakthrough

♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best Tennessee Movie of the Year

 

A carefully balanced poster that showcases the bling and contrasts of Craig Brewer's Hustle & Flow

DJay is a pimp in Memphis, Tennessee, who aspires to a life as a hiphop recording artist by conning his way close to local star Skinny Black. - He winds up incarcerated, - but with a radio hit.

 

Hustle & Flow is written and directed by Virginian master filmmaker Craig Brewer (The Poor & Hungry (2000)), whose 2nd film it is.

It is a fairly realistic and quite entertaining music crime-drama, despite the protagonist's path being too far away from many viewers' life to fully ignite identification. The film has good one-liners and performances, but also weary, expletive-filled lingo and male delusion. It is mainly a movie about dreams.

 

Related reviews:

Craig Brewer: 2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  

Black Snake Moan (2006) or, The Mississippi Blues 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

 

 

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 2.8 mil. $

Box office: 23.5 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 8.39 times its cost)

[Hustle & Flow premiered in January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 116 minutes. Shooting took place in Memphis, Tennessee from July - August 2004. The film opened #7 to a 8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it decreased from there but enjoyed a long theatrical run, grossing 22.2 mil. $ (94.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 416k $ (1.8 %) and Australia with 339k $ (1.4 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars, winning for Best Song (It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp by Three 6 Mafia). It lost Best Actor (Terrence Howard (Fighting (2009))) to Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote. It was also nominated for an Independent Spirit award, a Golden Globe, won 2 National Board of Review awards, and 2 awards at Sundance, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Brewer returned with Black Snake Moan (2006). Howard returned in Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005, TV movie) and theatrically with Four Brothers (2005). Hustle & Flow is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Hustle & Flow? 

The Firm (1993) - Pollack and Cruise scored big with 1993's lesser Grisham adaptation

♥♥♥

+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year

Tom Cruise looking ponderous and running in a suit in a steely blue-toned poster for Sydney Pollack's The Firm could really sell a film in 1993

A freshly Harvard-graduated lawyer joins a firm in Memphis that launders mob money, and he soon gets the attention of the FBI.

The Firm is written by David Rabe (Streamers (1983)), Robert Towne (Drive, He Said (1971)) and David Rayfiel (The Morning After (1986)), adapting John Grisham's (The Summons (2002)) same-titled 1991 bestseller, and directed by great Indianan filmmaker Sydney Pollack (Tootsie (1982)). 1993 saw the release of another high-profile Grisham adaptation, Alan J. Pakula's infinitely better thriller masterpiece The Pelican Brief.
The Memphis law-firm is presented as an almost mythical, pompous institution, and the story's point of having this firm laundering the entire earnings of the Chicago mob seems a bit silly. But besides this the narrative unfolds without a hitch, as an intimidating gang of fine actors (including Gene Hackman (Wyatt Earp (1994)), Ed Harris (Sweetwater (2013)), Hal Holbrook (Haven (2001, TV movie)), Jerry Harding (The Magnificent Seven (1998, TV-series)) and others) doodle around to Dave Grusin's jazzy piano score.
Tom Cruise (The Mummy (2017)) leads confidently, but his wife is played without vision by Jeanne Tripplehorn (Steal This Movie (2000)), and since The Firm places considerable weight upon their relationship, - and has a long running time, - it lowers the suspense, which lives best in the film's noirish, cat-and-mouse-like scenes.

Related post:

Sydney Pollack: Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Kubrick signs off with thrilling, sexually oriented adaptation (actor) 

1993 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch a 2-minute clip from the beginning of the film here

Cost: 42 mil. $
Box office: 270.2 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The Firm premiered 23 June (New York) and runs 154 minutes. Shooting took place in Washington, Memphis, Tennessee, the Cayman Islands, Massachusetts, including Boston, Arkansas, and Washington, D.C. from November 1992 - March 1993. Hackman's credit was a matter of dispute, as Cruise's contract stipulated above-title credit for him alone. Hackman got pre-title credit in the film and went uncredited in the end credit scroll and on the posters. The film is reportedly faithful to the novel in most respects but has a different ending. The film opened #1 to a 25.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed atop for another two weeks and stayed in the top 5 for two more weeks (#3-#3) and grossed 158.3 mil. $ (58.6 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this review. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Supporting Actress (Holly Hunter, who won the Best Actress Oscar that year for her performance in The Piano), lost to Anna Paquin in The Piano, and Best Score (Grusin), lost to John Williams for Schindler's List. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, a Grammy and received other honors. A TV-series sequel also called The Firm was released in 2012 and canceled after its first season. Pollack returned with Sabrina (1995). Cruise returned in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994). The Firm is certified fresh at 76 % with a 6.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Firm?

My Blueberry Nights (2007) - A slice too cute

♥♥

Stylized and otherworldly, but very pretty, this strong-colored poster for Wong Kar-Wai's My Blueberry Nights

My Blueberry Nights is great Chinese co-writer/director Wong Kar-Wai's (In the Mood for Love (2000)) American debut. 

Norah Jones (Wah Do Dem (2009)) plays a woman who falls in love with a man played by Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)), who runs the cutest little pie café under the train tracks somewhere in New York. 

- Really, you might think? 
But that is the plot of My Blueberry Nights. It sounds picturesque and very delish, and it is, but too much so, also.
The main problem for me with the story-line is that as Jones' character, (the pop singer also debuts here as an actress) Elizabeth leaves New York to cleanse herself after a break-up, going from Memphis to Vegas, waitressing, while Law's character writes her stacks of postcards, sending them every which way all over the country, because he has no clear idea where she is, desperately trying to get her back. He even reserves a chair for her in his café, and keeps making the blueberry pies that no-one else orders except for her, just in case she comes back. And all of this is based simply on a single kiss they shared one night when she was asleep on his counter, as well as dozens of unforgettable late night talks over vast amounts of blueberry pies... - I mean, come on! What absurd version of reality is this? If they had had sex, I might have bought into it. Not that sex necessarily needs to be the core of everything romantic, but this premise was just way too platonic and implausible for my taste.
Apart from this objection, other critics like New York Sun's Meghan Keane have pointed to Wong's slightly clichéd portrayal of America. To me, it seems he just doesn't know the country personally, which I guess is true, and in the case of My Blueberry Nights this lack of familiarity doesn't elevate the movie as can sometimes be the case, when foreign filmmakers create their versions of America.
On the positive side, there are fine performances from Natalie Portman (Black Swan (2010)) and David Strathairn (The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)) in supporting roles, and a sweetness and likability to Jones' character and her acting that cannot be denied. It may be just the quality that soulful singer Jones naturally possesses, but it is there alright.
Also, of course, Wong's talent for creating beautiful pictures and using colors very vividly is still impressive and undeniable, here in collaboration with cinematographers Darius Khondji (To Rome with Love (2012)) and Pung-Leung Kwan (2046 (2004)).
At the end of the day, though, My Blueberry Nights mostly resembles a perfect women's magazine accompaniment, - almost as sweet and unbelievable as Lasse Hallström's horrendous Chocolat (2000), - yet a good deal better than that turkey nonetheless.
While waiting for Wong's coming martial arts film, The Grandmaster (2013), we may wonder why he did not have a better screenwriting partner on his first American project than novelist and short story writer  Lawrence Block (A Walk Among the Tombstones (1992), novel)), who obviously did not help Wong to a more credible plot. Of course, it is possible that he tried, and that Wong was simply too bull-headed to listen. 
In any case My Blueberry Nights does not compare to Wong's great films, Happy Together (1997) and In the Mood for Love (2000). These, - especially the latter, - are amazing films that everyone should watch. Wong has also given the world the truly pretentious 'sci-fi' turkey, 2046 (2004), which nonetheless won quite a lot of critical acclaim, (but don't be fooled, the film is utterly pointless.) 

Related posts:

Wong Kar-Wai: The Grandmaster/一代宗師/一代宗师/Yīdài Zōngshī/Jat1 Doi6 Zung1 Si1/ (2013) - Visuals prevail in Kar-Wai's strange kung fu spectacle 

My Blueberry Nights (2007) - A slice too cute
2046 (2004) - Kar-Wai's visually resplendent, empty hull of a movie 

The 2000s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Top 10: Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

In the Mood for Love/花樣年華/faa1joeng6 nin4waa4/huāyàng niánhuá (2000) - Kar-Wai's delectable home run 

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Top 10: Best gay-themed titles

Happy Together/春光乍洩 (Chun gwong cha sit) (1997) - Kar-Wai's expat love drama magic

1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Chungking Express/重慶森林 (1994) - Kar-Wai's urban love drama is a visual treat 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 10 mil. $

Box office: 22 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2.2 times the cost)

[My Blueberry Nights premiered 16 May (Cannes Film Festival, France) and runs 95 minutes. The idea for the film came from a short by Wong, which he had screened in Cannes in 2001. Shooting took place in 7 weeks from June - August 2006 in Memphis, Tennessee, Nevada, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, California and in New York. Jones and Law's kissing scene was reportedly shot 150 times, taking 3 days. Due to Wong's prior status as an original filmmaker auteur, My Blueberry Nights competed for the Palme d'Or (the main prize) at Cannes 2007, although the film isn't really worthy of that honor at all. It opened #43 to a 74k $ first weekend in North America, where it never attained a higher rank, although it spread from 6 to 69 cinemas during its 15 week run, grossing just 867k $ (3.9 % of the total gross). Its three biggest markets were Japan with 4.2 mil. $ (19.1 %), France with 3.3 mil. $ (15 %) and Germany with 1.9 mil. $ (8.6 %). Wong made 8 shorts in the years after the film, before he returned theatrically with The Grandmaster/Yi Dai Zong Shi (2013). Jones returned appearing as herself in 30 Rock (2009, TV-series) and theatrically in Wah Do Dem (2009); Law in Sleuth (2007). My Blueberry Nights is rotten at 45 % with a 5.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.] 

 

What do you think of My Blueberry Nights?