Blood Work (2002) - Eastwood churns out uninspired thriller adaptation

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Star/producer/director Clint Eastwood looks determined here on a simple poster for Blood Work in black and reds

McCaleb is a locally famous homicide detective, who is retiring just as he suddenly requires a heart transplantation. A couple of years later he is contacted by a woman, whose sister's heart he now has, who comes to him with a sincere plea: Find her murderer!

Blood Work is written by Brian Helgeland (Payback (1999)), adapting Michael Connelly's (Echo Park (2006)) same-titled 1998 novel, and directed by Californian master filmmaker Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me (1971)), whose 23rd feature it is. Eastwood also produced and plays the protagonist McCaleb in the film.
Eastwood seems hopeful to recapture the success he enjoyed with previous cop thrillers like Richard Tuggle's great Tightrope (1984), which he starred in, but Blood Work lacks more than the sex of that fine film.
Wanda de Jesus (CSI: Miami (2002-03)) plays the young Latin-American woman who comes to McCaleb with her plea for him to help, while she falls for him despite their enormous age difference; a romance which the film doesn't make entirely credible. McCaleb also has a somewhat closer age-wise African-American ex whom he could have gone back to, but instead the filmmakers make this other reach.
Several elements in Blood Work don't come together: Jeff Daniels (Steve Jobs (2015)) is a comic sidekick 'dude' on a boat, SPOILER - who turns out to be a psychopath. His character's 180 degree turn from sympathetic to a racist madman is also not made credible.
An Eastwood fan will have patience with Blood Work due to the star's presence in it, but it is undeniably one of his poorest films, heavy on clichés, unoriginal and lacking in suspense. A big oops.

Related posts:

Clint Eastwood: Sully (2016) - Eastwood's miracle landing biopic is inert and overrated  2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
American Sniper (2014) - Eastwood conveys an American man and myth in electric masterpiece  
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess   
J. Edgar (2011) - Eastwood, Black and DiCaprio's great, intense biopic   
Gran Torino (2008) - Eastwood's actor persona comes full circle in absolute smash (co-producer/director/starring actor)
The Changeling (2008) or, The Christine Collins Story  
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]    
2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Letters from Iwo Jima/硫黄島からの手紙 [Öjima Kara no Tegami] (2006) - The Japanese side of Eastwood's remarkable WWII two-parter   
Flags of Our Fathers (2006) - Eastwood's Iwo Jima portrayal is captivating and profoundly moving

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  
The Dead Pool (1988) - The highly entertaining last Dirty Harry movie (starring actor)
City Heat (1984) - Eastwood and Reynolds wrestle dispassionately in Benjamin's messy period affair (co-starring actor)
Tightrope (1984) - An undervalued Clint Eastwood sex killer thriller (starring actor)
Any Which Way You Can (1980) or, More Monkey Business! (starring actor)
Escape from Alcatraz (1979) - Siegel, Tuggle and Eastwood's phenomenal prison escape thriller (starring actor)
Every Which Way but Loose (1978) or, Honky Tonk Monkey Business! (starring actor)
The Enforcer (1976) - Eastwood teaches revolutionaries a lesson in third, less punchy Dirty Harry (starring star)
The Eiger Sanction (1975) - Eastwood's mountain climbing dud
The Beguiled (1971) - Intense, erotic Civil War kammerspiel thriller (starring actor)  
Dirty Harry (1971) - Eastwood's great, signature renegade cop character comes to life (starring actor)
Coogan's Bluff (1968) or, Dopes and Hippies, Beat It! (starring actor)  
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) - Leone ends his poncho trilogy with certified classic (starring actor)
For a Few Dollars More/Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (1965) or, Return of the Poncho Killer (co-starring actor)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) or, Killer in a Poncho (starring actor) 

Watch a short trailer for the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 31.7 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.63 times its cost)
[Blood Work premiered 6 August (California) and runs 110 minutes. Shooting lasted 38 days in February - ? in California, including Los Angeles. The film opened #5, behind fellow new release xXx, holdover hit Signs, new release Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams and holdover hit Austin Powers in Goldmember, to a 7.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 26.2 mil. $ (82.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.3 mil. $ (4.1 %) and Spain with 987k $ (3.1 %). The film won an award at the Venice International Film Festival. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches higher than this one. Eastwood returned with Mystic River (2003) as a filmmaker and in his own Million Dollar Baby (2004) as an actor. Blood Work is rotten at 53 % with a 5.54/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Blood Work?

All or Nothing (2002) - Leigh wrangles more working class destinies with great performances

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+ Best Drama of the Year + Best English Movie of the Year + Most Under-appreciated Movie of the Year 

Star Lesley Manville shows affection on this simple poster for Mike Leigh's All or Nothing

The Bassetts are a working class family in one of London's unenviable housing complexes. Their money are small, and their son is eating himself into an early grave in the small flat.

All or Nothing is written and directed by English master filmmaker Mike Leigh (Bleak Moments (1971)), whose 8th feature it is.
The film follows the discouraging but very human characters in the family: Lesley Manville (Dual Balls (1997, short)) is painfully good as the cashier mother, SPOILER who in the end has to face the fact that she is growing cold towards her husband. A young James Corden (The Three Musketeers (2011)) is astonishingly fat and wholly credible as the tragically alienated son.
Leigh is on home turf with the hard-drinking underclass characters, and again he spins gold out of their miseries: Timothy Spall (Wasteland (2012)) has the film's arguably hardest role as a cab driver, who comes up with unmotivated contemplations and unrealistic solutions to them. Decisive for the film's success, it is not without humor: We are given a good time here, while we instinctually get engaged in the sad, simple fates of the Bassetts. All or Nothing is a beautiful film.

Related post:

Mike Leigh: Another Year (2010) or, Life in England

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a 1-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 9 mil. $
Box office: 2.8 mil. $
= Mega-flop (returned 0.31 times its cost)
[All or Nothing premiered 17 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 128 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including London. The film opened #67 to a 25k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #38 and in 16 theaters (different weeks), grossing 201k $ (7.2 % of the total gross). The film's biggest 3 markets were production country the UK with 938k $ (33.5 %), Argentina with 925k $ (33 %) and Spain with 346k $ (12.4 %). The film lost the Palme d'Or to The Pianist; it was nominated for a British Independent Spirit award, 3 European Film awards and some other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Leigh returned with Vera Drake (2004). Manville returned in 4 TV credits prior to Vera Drake; Spall in 3 video, TV and short credits prior to his theatrical return in Nicholas Nickleby (2002). All or Nothing is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.05/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of All or Nothing?

Bombshell (2019) - Toxic US culture laid bare in Roach's great drama

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+ Best True Story Movie of the Year

Three of the world's best actresses as blond bombshells on the poster for Jay Roach's Bombshell

Fox News is the top cable news channel in the US under CEO Roger Ailes, but as a female anchor gets fired, and a new associate producer meets the sinister office culture under Ailes of sexual favors in exchange for a career there, - that vicious culture is finally about to meet its end.

Bombshell is a fascinating true-story drama written by Charles Randolph (The Interpreter (2005)) and directed by great New-Mexican filmmaker Jay Roach (Zoo Radio (1990)).
The challenge here has clearly been considerable: Make a compelling, entertaining and feasibly structured movie about a decade-long culture of sexual harassment and the downfall of Ailes. Along the way the film succeeds in painting a candid portrait of the very particular workplace that is cable network Fox News, as well as, inevitably, president Trump and his transgressive 'loose-cannon' style as his 2016 election campaign is part of the story. Bombshell succeeds impressively; it accepts that Fox News is not a normal workplace and embraces the sensational aspect of the story; sexy people on TV that were bullied and intimidated. But the Trump mania as well as the settlements that conclude the scandal, (eventually Fox paid Ailes and disgraced anchor Bill O'Reilly more severance money than they did the scores of women that were victimized by them), raise the story to something that points to a toxic climate on a national cultural level. Toxic media-fueled bullying and the lack of a common decency base disintegrates the US. - That could be a radical take from the also acerbically funny Bombshell.
The cast is littered with talent: Charlize Theron (Tully (2018)) is transformed by hair, makeup and prosthetics into Megyn Kelly, who especially gets the ball rolling against Ailes. Nicole Kidman (BMX Bandits (1983)) is a force of thunder as Gretchen Carlson. Margot Robbie (Z for Zachariah (2015)) is terrific as the young associate producer, the fictional composite character that is our closest look into the actual misdeeds that Ailes committed against staff and young women at 'casting' meetings. We never see the deeds, - but we get the picture and degradation it means for the women. The paranoid office tension of a fear culture is palpable, and the women come together memorably in a few elevator scenes. John Lithgow (The Pelican Brief (1993)) is great as Ailes, who isn't a monster here but a man who is powerful and held unaccountable for many many years. The cast also has terrific capacities like Connie Britton (Women in Trouble (2009)), Kate McKinnon (Ted 2 (2015)), Malcolm McDowell (Zombex (2013)), Mark Duplass (The Puffy Chair (2005)), Allison Janney (A Thousand Words (2012)), Richard Kind (Fancypants (2011)) and Robin Weigert (The Sessions (2012)).
Bombshell is snappy and thought-provoking, simultaneously entertaining and depressing like a glittery magazine. It calls Adam McKay's brilliant masterpiece The Big Short (2015) to mind, which Randolph co-wrote, without Bombshell reaching the heights felt in that film. It is a still a great piece of filmmaking.

Related posts:

Jay Roach: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Trumbo (2015) - Good actors and a thrilling true story make this biopic work 
Dinner for Schmucks/Dinner with Schmucks (2010) - Carell carries Roach's flawed but utterly hilarious comedy 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 32 mil. $
Box office: 59.6 mil. $ and counting
= Big flop (has grossed 1.86 times its cost to date)
[Bombshell opened 13 December (USA) and runs 108 minutes. Development of the film was announced shortly after Ailes' death in May 2017. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California from October 2018- ?. The film opened #19 to a 319k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #6 and has grossed 31.7 mil. $ (53.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets are Australia with 4.8 mil. $ (13.4 %) and the UK with 2.9 mil. $ (4.9 %). The film's release has been upset by the corona-virus pandemic. The film was nominated for 3 Oscars: It won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling and lost Best Actress (Theron) to Renée Zellweger in Judy and Supporting Actress (Robbie) to Laura Dern in Marriage Story. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, won 1/2 BAFTA nominations and several other honors. Roach hasn't announced his next project yet. Theron returns in The Old Guard (2020, VOD); Kidman in The Undoing (2020, TV-series) and theatrically in The Prom (2020); and Robbie in Megan Thee Stallion & Normani's Diamonds (2020) music video and theatrically in Birds of Prey (2020). Bombshell is fresh at 70 % with a 6.73/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bombshell?

At Kende Sandheden (2002) - Malmros' fascinating, well-acted look at his surgeon father

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+ Best B/W Movie of the Year + Best Mega-flop Movie of the Year

Star Jens Albinus concentrated in the middle of surgery on this visually sparse poster for Nils Malmros' At Kende Sandheden

Late in his life the esteemed neurologist Richard Malmros is haunted by a period in the 1940s in which he and other doctors did home operations using a radioactive property, which later turned out to cause cancer.

At Kende Sandheden is written and directed by Nils Malmros (En Mærkelig Kærlighed (1968)), co-written with John Mogensen (Barbara (1997)). It is based on the life of Malmros' own father. The Danish title translates to, 'to know the truth'.
The film is a father portrait, which impresses with strikingly detailed and realistic brain surgery scenes, - stemming from the fact that Nils Malmros is also educated as a surgeon and performed all the surgery scenes with his own hands, - and four outstanding actors' performances, each of them perfectly cast:
Lasse Broust Andersen is phenomenal as young Richard Malmros; Jens Albinus (Stille Hjerte (2014)) as the adult Richard Malmros; William Rosenberg (Fætrene på Torndal (1973)) is tremendous as the old Richard Malmros; and Søren Østergaard (Operation Cobra (1995)) as the son filmmaker, whom he actually also resembles quite a bit.
For some time it is feared that the film will collapse in search of a focus between bio-drama, the journalistic uncovering plot line and the father-son drama, but At Kende Sandheden keeps it together with its compelling core about the unpleasant choices, consequences and guilt that life brings about, exemplified by the fascinating doctor character. Richard Malmros as a character reflects the double-sided element of the doctor's profession, often teetering between courageous heroism and fatal monstrosity.
At Kende Sandheden is told in a brisk pace; it is a good film, although there seems to be some depths to the story that it never uncovers.

Related post:

Nils Malmros: Sorrow and Joy/Sorg og Glæde (2013) - Malmros' film of his life's major tragedy

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]  

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain - but probably a mega-flop
[At Kende Sandheden premiered 23 August (Norwegian International Film Festival) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place in Denmark, including Copenhagen. The film sold 89,506 tickets in production country Denmark, which makes for a gross around 6-7 mil. DKK. The film likely cost at least 20 mil. DKK and so should be considered a mega-flop. It was screened at 9 international festivals. It won 3/ 6 Robert nominations (Danish Oscar). Malmros returned with Aching Hearts/Kærestesorger (2009). Albinus returned in 3 TV and video credits prior to his theatrical return in In Your Hands/Forbrydelser (2004); Rosenberg in Opbrud (2005). 725 IMDb users have given At Kende Sandheden a 7.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of At Kende Sandheden?

Film Excess' 7th birthday movie masterpiece: The Fearless Vampire Killers/Dance of the Vampires (1967) - Witness Polanski's incredible, underrated Gothic horror comedy

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A strange, partly humorous and partly menacing poster for Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers

A disgraced professor from Königsberg and his young assistant have traveled to Transylvania to find and prove the existence of vampires.

The Fearless Vampire Killers is written and directed by French-Polish master filmmaker Roman Polanski (Knife in the Water/Nóz w Wodzie (1962)), with Gérard Brach (The Bear/L'Ours (1988)) contributing story elements. It is Polanski's 4th feature.
Polanski's vampire movie is in every way an overwhelming experience: Enormously wittily written both in terms of characters, dialog and plot and with production design and costumes, hair and makeup of very high quality, the film is also memorable for specific scenes: The castle and its mirror effect, for others the male-on-male rape attempt; both are quite simply unnerving and frightening scenes.
At other times the film is incredibly funny: Polanski himself is convincing and impressively hilarious as the fearsome assistant Alfred, who falls for smashing Sharon Tate (Eye of the Devil (1967)). Other actors are also noteworthy: Jack MacGowran (How I Won the War (1967)) as the Einstein-like professor, and Ferdy Mayne (Conan the Destroyer (1984)) and Iain Quarrier (Wonderwall (1968)) as the ominous count and his son are both tremendous.
The title is ambiguous, and perhaps the film as such was too refined and in a way high-brow for its audience or at least many of the distributors regrettably seemed to think so at the time.
The humor in The Fearless Vampire Killers has a Mel Brooksian side to it, though it is less coarse and vulgar than most of his films, and in my book it beats his famed Gothic horror spoof mega-hit Young Frankenstein (1974). Watching The Fearless Vampire Killers today also can't but make one wonder where Polanski might have gone, if it hadn't been for Charles Manson and his 'family's cowardly murder of Polanski's then wife Tate in 1969.

Related posts:

Roman Polanski:  2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Carnage (2011) - Polanski castigates modern parents in great play adaptation
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  The Ghost Writer/The Ghost (2010) - A master at work 
Chinatown (1974) - Polanski's masterpiece 

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Cul-de-Sac (1966) - Edge-of-the-world island tale meanders at times, but is ultimately a winner  
Two Men and a Wardrobe/Dwaj Ludzie z Szafą (1958, short) - Polanski's remarkable, surreal short 
Previous Film Excess birthday movie masterpieces: Film Excess' 6th birthday movie masterpiece: The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003, documentary) - Morris attains a stunning depth and historic wingspan in chilling, inspiring and mind-boggling must-see
Film Excess' 5th birthday movie masterpiece: Hunger/Sult/Svält (1966) - Oscarsson leaves you breathless in Carlsen's impressionist masterpiece
Film Excess' 4th birthday movie masterpiece: From Here to Eternity (1953) - Zinnemann, Taradash and Jones' Hawaii-set classic
Film Excess' 3rd birthday movie masterpiece: Anatomy of a Murder (1959) - The courtroom movie to rule them all
Film Excess' 2nd birthday movie masterpiece: The King's Speech (2010) - Hooper's soaring, royal masterpiece about overcoming human frailty
Film Excess' 1st birthday movie masterpiece: Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart 

Watch  the correct version's cool opening of the film here

Cost: Estimated 2 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[The Fearless Vampire Killers premiered 13 November (New York) and runs 108 minutes. Polanski gave Tate the part after he had successfully scared her to a scream with a terrifying mask. Shooting took place in England and Italy. The film was mutilated in the US, where the title was changed to Dance of the Vampires and between 12 and 20 minutes was cut out, and an animated opening sequence was made to underscore that the film was marketed as a farce. Facts concerning the film's theatrical performance are regrettably not to be found. Polanski returned with Rosemary's Baby (1968). MacGowran returned in 3 TV and a short credit prior to his theatrical return in Wonderwall (1968); Tate in Valley of the Dolls (1967); and Alfie Bass (Come Play with Me (1977)) in Up the Junction (1968). The Fearless Vampire Killers is fresh at 69 % with a 6.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fearless Vampire Killers?

A Walk to Remember (2002) or, Annoying Girl and Idiotic Guy Find Each Other and Love Like the Wind, Which You Can Feel But Not Touch

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The two young stars in a loving embrace on this pleasant poster for Adam Shankman's A Walk to Remember

  
The high school's tough boy opens his eyes to its quiet outsider achiever girl after a near-fatal, stupid accident, - but the girl carries a heavy secret.

A Walk to Remember is written by Karen Janszen (Dolphin Tale (2011)), adapting the same-titled 1999 novel by Nicholas Sparks (The Choice (2007)), and directed by Adam Shankman (Cosmo's Tale (1998)).
It is a very slow (and dull) teenage romance, which appeals strongly to certain young segments, (teenage girls namely.) The story is served and acted with sincerity, and solid values like love, faith and loyalty get a push.
But these circumstances are hindered by the protagonists mostly being very aggravating (her) and braindead (him). The music video aesthetic that was popular at the time also doesn't heighten A Walk to Remember, which is banal and overly simplified.

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 11.8 mil. $
Box office: 47.4 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.02 times its cost)
[A Walk to Remember premiered 23 January (USA) and runs 102 minutes. Sparks had written the novel inspired by his sister, who succumbed to cancer in 2000. Shooting took place from April - May 2001 in North Carolina. The film opened #3, behind holdover hits Black Hawk Down and Snow Dogs, to a 12.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 41.2 mil. $ (86.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 1.4 mil. $ (3 %) and Australia with 1 mil. $ (2.1 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Shankman returned with Monk (2002, TV-series) and theatrically with Bringing Down the House (2003). Mandy More (This Is Us (2016-20)) returned in Elton John music video Original Sin (2002) and theatrically in Try Seventeen (2002); Shane West (Hollywood Rules (2011)) in A Time for Dancing (2002). A Walk to Remember is rotten at 27 % with a 4.11/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Walk to Remember?

24 Hour Party People (2002) or, Tony Wilson's Factory

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Steve Coogan's large head and the styles of the European dance set of the latter part of the 20th century make up this poster for Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People

Tony Wilson is a TV-host and a music pioneer in 1970s Manchester, and in the dozen or so years to come he helps punk and rave groups to emerge and break out on his Factory Records.

24 Hour Party People is written by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Millions (2004)), based on the actual Wilson and his record company, and directed by Michael Winterbottom (Butterfly Kiss (1995)).
Steve Coogan (The Look of Love (2013)) is terrific as Wilson, and the film has an original concept, in which Wilson himself comments the story directly to us from time to time, breaking the fourth wall.
24 Hour Party People has some funny episodes, and the title sequence seems designed to induce epileptic seizures. The music, save for that by Joy Division, is unimpressive, and the majority of the musicians around Wilson appear to be faceless losers.

Related post:

Michael Winterbottom: The Killer Inside Me (2010) - Despite minor qualities, Winterbottom's adaptation is a nasty failure

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 2.8 mil. $
= Uncertain 
[24 Hour Party People premiered 13 February (the UK) and runs 117 minutes. Shooting took place in England. The film opened #59 to a 34k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #32 and in 37 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1.1 mil. $ (39.3 % of the total gross). The rest of the film's gross sheet is incomplete; but it only grossed 379k $ (13.5 %) from its apparent 2nd biggest market, production home the UK. It won 1/2 British Independent Spirit award nominations and was shown in competition in Cannes, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 3 notches higher than this review. Winterbottom returned with In This World (2002). Coogan returned in 6 TV and video projects before his theatrical return in Coffee and Cigarettes (2003). 24 Hour Party People is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.27/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 24 Hour Party People?

Portrait of a Lady on Fire/Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu (2019) - Sciamma spoils us with picturesque period romance

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+ Best Blockbuster of the Year (2,797.3 mil. $ gross) + Best Superhero Movie of the Year + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 761.9
mil. $ range+ Best LBGT Movie of the Year + Romance of the Year 

Star Adèle Haenel has caught fire on this poster for Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire

A soon to be married aristocrat lady spends a period at a reclusive seaside house, where a talented female painter is tasked with making her portrait. The two reach a profound connection in those precious days.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is written and directed by great French filmmaker Céline Sciamma (Water Lilies/Naissance des Pieuvres (2007)). Sciamma presents another very woman-centered tale with a subtle feminist current running through it, this time especially evident in a scene of the painter's placement at an art opening, where she has been used to paint a 'master' artist's paintings but naturally without any credit given.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a picturesque (cinematography by Claire Mathon (Atlantics/Atlantique (2019))) and delicious treat, a sort of lesbian counterpart to the short-term romance gay 'guilty pleasure' of recently, Luca Guadagnino's great Call My By Your Name (2017). - Short and sweet, turning to bittersweet and tears, as the passion it describes becomes but a burning memory.
The attraction is subdued and confined to looks and dialog for the majority of the film, which undoubtedly leaves some audiences a bit restless, before the genie is let out of its lamp so to speak. Then it is still much less explicit than many other recent romances, but plenty sensual, deftly utilizing the looks, the sounds of the surf and smoldering fire to render the heightened sense of existence such powerful feelings of love and desire provoke.
The title seems to work on two planes, as Adèle Haenel's (Ogres/Les Ogres (2015)) aristocrat subject literally catches fire at a beach-set bonfire scene one evening in the film, but also poetically seems to have her soul set afire by the sudden storm of love that she experiences with the other. Haenel and Noémie Merlant (The Brother (2016)) are both outstanding in the film.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a near-perfect portrayal of the rush, redemption and pain of finding love and losing it.

 

Related post:

 

2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 4 mil. €, approximately 4.45 mil. $
Box office: 9.7 mil. $ and counting
= Flop (has returned 2.17 times its cost so far)
[Portrait of a Lady on Fire premiered 19 May (Cannes Film Festival, in competition) and runs 120 minutes. Shooting took place from October - December 2018 in France. The film opened #39 to a 67k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 334 theaters and grossed 3.7 mil. $ (28.1 % of the total gross). Its release was disrupted dramatically by the corona pandemic. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been France with 2.3 mil. $ (23.7 %) and South Korea with 1 mil. $ (10.3 %). The film was shortlisted as France's submission for the Oscars but wasn't ultimately chosen. It was nominated for a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, won 2 awards in Cannes, 1/10 César award nominations, 1/3 European Film award nominations, nominated for an Independent Spirit award and won a National Board of Review award. IMDb's users have voted the film in at the site's Top 250 at #232, sitting between La Haine (1995) and It Happened One Night (1954). Sciamma has not announced her next project yet. Haenel has also not announced her next project yet; Merlant returned in Shakira (2019, short) and theatrically in Jumbo (2020). Portrait of a Lady on Fire is certified fresh at 98 % with a 9.01/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Portrait of a Lady on Fire?

Garden State (2004) - Braff's hugely overrated deadweight debut

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+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year

Three stars wearing trash bags screaming on top of an abandoned locomotive make up this quizzical poster for Zach Braff's Garden State

A young man returns home to his mother's funeral. His father also acts as his psychiatrist, who has kept him on anti-depressants ever since he was involved in his mother's accident that left her in a wheelchair. But now he meets a lovely girl, and everything changes.

Garden State is written and directed by debuting Zach Braff (Scrubs (2001-10)), who also stars in it as protagonist Andrew. 
The fundamentally interesting story of the medicating father is what attracts about Garden State, and Ian Holm (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)) is a scoop for the film as Andrew's father.  But Braff in the lead shows no promises as a dramatic actor here, and his character never grabs our interest, perhaps because he is so painfully suppressed and wimpy at the same time, across from Natalie Portman (My Blueberry Nights (2007)) as the film's excitable Manic Pixie Dream Girl-type male fantasy stock character. 
Garden State is overly stuffed with 'mood-setting' hit songs, which doesn't keep it from deflating like a turgid piece of cutesy indie pastry puff. In fact Garden State is at its most aggravating when it is semi-sophisticated.

 

Related post:

 

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.5 mil. $
Box office: 35.8 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 14.32 times its cost)
[Garden State premiered 16 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place from April - May 2003 in New Jersey, Los Angeles, California and in New York. The film opened #30 to a 201k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #11 and in 813 theaters (different weeks), grossing 26.7 mil. $ (74.6 % of the gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK and France, each with 2 mil. $ (5.6 %). The film won 1/2 Independent Spirit award nominations, a Grammy and 1/2 National Board of Review nominations, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 3 notches higher than this one. Braff returned with 3 TV and video projects before his theatrical return, Wish I Was Here (2014). As an actor he returned with a voice performance in Chicken Little (2005) and 3 TV and video titles prior to his physical theatrical return in The Last Kiss (2006); Peter Sarsgaard (The Sound of Silence (2019)) in Kinsey (2004); Portman in True (2004, short) and theatrically in Closer (2004); and Holm in The Day After Tomorrow (2004). Garden State is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.44/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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