Loving (2016) - Edgerton and Negga own the screen in Nichols' powerful period drama

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+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Historical Movie of the Year + Best Virginia Movie of the Year

A warm and love-filled embrace between its two stars functions as the focus of this pleasant poster for Jeff Nichols' Loving

When Richard Loving marries his soulmate Mildred in 1958 on a trip to Washington DC, where their interracial bond is allowed, it provokes a judicial interference upon their return home, which forces them apart for years. But the couple won't stand for it, and by their example, they change things for themselves and for couples to come.

Loving is written and directed by great Arkansan filmmaker Jeff Nichols (Mud (2012)) based on the true story of the Lovings of Virginia, and Nichols has arguably made his best film to date with it. It is a thoroughly tender, humanistic and moreover enormously authentic retelling of an important break and hugely affecting chapter of US history on the wrongs of race-based marriage laws.
Both Ruth Negga (Noble (2014)) and Joel Edgerton (Warrior (2011)) give formidable performances as the Lovings, and they get strong support from Michael Shannon (Jonah Hex (2010)) as a photographer and Jon Bass (Jane Wants a Boyfriend (2015)) and Nick Kroll (Vacation (2015)) as the attorneys, who support and encourage their appeal case.
The purity and simplicity of the story stands out and is backed by a handsome score from David Wingo (Joe (2013)). Loving is a splendid work.

Related posts:


Jeff Nichols: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2012 in films - according to Film Exces [UPDATED I]
Mud (2012) - Career-defining, electric Americana
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]    
Take Shelter (2011) or, Madness in Ohio

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 9 mil. $
Box office: 12.9 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.43 times the cost)
[Loving premiered 16 May (Cannes Film Festival, France, in competition) and runs 123 minutes. Co-producer Colin Firth stumbled upon the Loving story in 2009, and the film was later inspired by the documentary The Loving Story (2011). Shooting took place from September - November 2015 in Virginia and Washington DC. The film opened #27 to a 159k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #11 and in 572 theaters (different weeks), grossing 7.7 mil. $ (59.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 2.1 mil. $ (16.3 %) and the UK with 1.1 mil. $ (8.5 %). The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Actress (Negga), lost to Emma Stone for La La Land. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, won 2 Independent Spirit awards and many other honors. Nichols returned with Long Way Back Home (2018, short) and hasn't made a feature since yet. Edgerton returned in It Comes at Night (2017), Negga in Warcraft: The Beginning (2016). Loving is certified fresh at 90 % with a 7.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Loving?

Everything Is Illuminated (2005) - Schreiber's inauspicious debut falls flat

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+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year

Elijah Wood looks serene encapsulated in sunflowers on this poster for Liev Schreiber's Everything Is Illuminated

Everything Is Illuminated is an adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005)) same-titled autobiographical 2002 novel, written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan (2014-16)).

American Jew Jonathan Safran Foer travels to Ukraine in search of illumination as to his roots and family history.

SPOILER What he finds, which is revealed after about 1½ hour, is wholly predictably a mass grave and reconciliation with the peculiar Ukrainians he meets. - They create the film's only bright moments.
It is an otherwise extremely dull time, filled with insufferably long music sequences - with lousy music - and led by Elijah Wood (Set Fire to the Stars (2014)) as the bespectacled, unendurably alienated Foer. If the film had only had a fifth of the self-complacent, pretentious air it flies contently on, it would have been plenty. 
Everything Is Illuminated seems to attempt to be a dramedy, but taken as a drama it is bad, and taken as a comedy it is even worse.

Related reviews:

Liev Schreiber: Pawn Sacrifice (2014) - Zwick, Knight and Maguire's mediocre chess genius movie (actor) 
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (actor)

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

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 3.6 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Everything Is Illuminated premiered September 3 (Telluride Film Festival) and runs 104 minutes. Filming took place in Ukraine and the Czech Republic, including in Prague, from June - August 2004. The film opened #45 in 6 theaters to 66k $ in North America, where it peaked at #29 in 110 theaters and grossed 1.7 mil. $ (47.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 1 mil. $ (27.8 %) and Germany with 205k $ (5.7 %). The film won two awards at Venice Film Festival as well as 'special recognition for excellence in filmmaking' from the National Board of Review. Roger Ebert have awarded it 3/4 stars. Schreiber has only directed two episodes of Ray Donovan since the film, and continues to be acting. Everything Is Illuminated is fresh at 66 % with a 6.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Everything Is Illuminated?

Our Idiot Brother (2011) - Rudd leads another very funny comedy

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+ Best Satire of the Year

Paul Rudd undeniably looks like a simpleton on the poster for Jesse Peretz's Our Idiot Brother

Our hero here is a hopelessly naive idiot, who gets incarcerated for having attempted to sell a small piece of hash to a cop. As he gets released, his girlfriend has dumped him and stolen his dog, so that he is forced to live in shifts with his family members.

Our Idiot Brother starts a bit uneasy, but it is worth staying with, (although one may first detect that it first and foremost is about awful people.) Because it really has quite a few hilarious scenes and a peculiar theme and point about how it's better to be a gullible idiot than an egotistical idiot.
Career men and women in the creative class and organic hippies get hauled over the coals by the film's satire, and it feels good. Paul Rudd's (I Love You, Man (2009)) lovability makes him feasible here despite his character's intense stupidity. Rashida Jones (A Very Murray Christmas (2015)) plays a hot lesbian; Kathryn Hahn (Bad Moms (2016)), Elizabeth Banks (Swept Away (2002)) and Zooey Deschanel (Elf (2003)) are pros as super-bitches; Emily Mortimer (Scream 3 (2000)) is funny as a frustrated housewife, and Steve Coogan (The Trip to Italy (2014)) is also a pro as a major a-hole.
The film is written by Evgenia Peretz (Theo who Lived (2016), producer) and David Schisgall (Theo who Lived (2016)) and directed by Jesse Peretz (Girls (2012-16)).

Related post:

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

Paul Rudd gives an interview about the movie here

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 25.8 mil. $
= Big hit
[Our Idiot Brother premiered January 22 (Sundance) and runs 90 minutes. The film was developed fast and shot in New York in 30 days from July 2010 forward, obtaining a 30 % tax credit. The film opened #5 to a 7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it fell from the top 5 in its second week and grossed 24.8 mil. $ (96.1 % of the total gross). It was released in 10 other countries, with the 2nd and 3rd biggest markets being Italy with 338k $ (1.3 % ) and Germany with 157k $ (0.6 %). Our Idiot Brother is fresh at 68 % with a 6.2 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Our Idiot Brother?