Well, hello there, kind folks. If you’re visiting this blog of mine, I presume that you have a certain interest in the cinema. As for me, even since my early childhood, I have had a deep love of everything related to movies and television. As far as I can remember, I have been more at ease in front of a screen than in the yard, outside, playing. It is a great way to travel, though other people’s stories, without having to foot any kind of steep bill. Over the years, I feel that movie-watching has even fuelled my own creativity.

All that being said, I welcome you in my Cinephile’s Nest. I hope you enjoy it here, feel free to come back at any time. Here you will find reviews of current movies and older ones. TV shows also. Some classics that have remained some of my favourites, some that have disappointed me. I will use a very basic star (*) system to grade them from 1 to 5 (5 being sliced bread level). Remember, these are just my tastes. I will try to explain in each review what I liked about these particular movies, without giving spoilers.

Il y aura aussi des critiques en français pour les films francophones, car j'aime également le cinéma dans ma langue maternelle. Avant d'apprendre l'anglais, plus jeune, je louais des tonnes de films traduits en français, surtout ceux de Bud Spencer et Terrence Hill. Ma mère a eu le choc de sa vie lorsqu'un jour, dans la boîte d'un de ces films, Deep Throat avait malencontreusement inséré. Une expérience formatrice pour le jeune cinéphile que je suis.

Bienvenue à tous, amusez-vous bien.

I welcome you all here, enjoy yourself.

Monday, December 16, 2019

Richard Jewell (2019)

Genre: Biographical / Drama
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Paul Walker Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde
Running Time: 129 minutes



This film is inspired by the true events of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, during the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, and their aftermaths. It showed how security guard Richard Jewell, who found and reported the suspicious package responsible and then helped evacuate people to reduce the damage, was later suspected by the FBI to be the main suspect.

The performances of Paul Walker Hauser, Sam Rockwell and Kathy Bates are clear highlights here. They carried that film. They made you care for their characters. Olivia Wilde did the best she could with what she was given. Her performance as Kathy Scruggs, the real-life reporter who first exposed Jewell as the prime suspect of the bombing, was a little big, but it is clear the filmmakers were not going for subtlety here. Scruggs was to be seen as the “bad guy”, whether it was justified or not.

In that sense, this film had a clear agenda: Defending Richard Jewell’s honour once and for all. The performances on screen did a great job at making us feel sympathy for a man whose life was ruined by a witch hunt that left its mark.
Rating: ««««

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