Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Doubt (2008)

4/28/2016

Doubt (2008) - Shanley's masterful religious drama

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Drama of the Year + Best Religious Movie of the Year

The somber, elegant poster for John Patrick Shanley's Doubt

We are at a Catholic school in New York in the 1960s, where a sermon given by Father Flynn leads the nun principle to suspect him of disturbing irregularities that soon find corroboration from a younger nun. - But what is really the truth?

Doubt is an adaptation of master New-Yorker filmmaker John Patrick Shanley's (Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)) 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play Doubt: A Parable, which he has rewritten for the screen and directed himself.
Not for a second did I feel that the film is a theater adaptation. Shanley, production designer David Gropman (Burnt (2015)) and the again masterly yet simple photography by Roger Deakins (Sicario (2015)) along with an almost imperceptible score by Howard Shore (The Yards (2000)) lead us through Doubt in the most cinematic way possible. And yet, it is an actors' film if any is, with Oscar-nominated Meryl Streep (A Cry in the Dark (1988)), Oscar-nominated Philip Seymour Hoffman (Moneyball (2011)), Oscar-nominated Amy Adams (Pumpkin (2002)) and Oscar-nominated Viola Davis (Trust (2010)) all giving formidable performances, not to mention the many boy actors in it.
The story manages to juggle the double-sided risks of acting in a possible molestation case; the risk to wrongfully destroy a man's life - against the risk of neglecting to shield an adolescent. In a case with no 'smoking gun' such as this, Streep's character accepts to pass judgment based on signs that she interprets, heightening the film's title theme. But Doubt juggles many great themes SPOILER and end up breaking one's heart. It is full of secrets and truths at the same time and is, in short, a masterpiece.

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2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 50.9 mil. $
= Minor hit
[Doubt premiered October 30 (AFI Fest) and runs 103 minutes. The film was shot on location in the Bronx and Greenwich Village from December 2007 onward. It opened wide (in just 1,267 theaters) #10 to a 5.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 33.4 mil. $ (65.6 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 3.5 mil. $ (6.9 %) and Italy with 2.3 mil. $ (4.5 %). Of its 5 Oscar nominations the film won none, one of the major snubs of the year: Streep lost Best Actress to Kate Winslet for the great The Reader. Hoffman lost Best Supporting Actor to Heath Ledger, who won posthumously for the great The Dark Knight. Adams and Davis lost Best Supporting Actress to Penélope Cruz for the great Vicky Christina Barcelona. And Shanley lost Best Adapted Screenplay to Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire. Doubt was nominated for the 5 same things at the Golden Globes, where it also went home empty-handed there. Doubt is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.9 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Doubt?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

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

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Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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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.

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

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4/28/2016

Doubt (2008) - Shanley's masterful religious drama

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