The Wrestler

And this week's Friday night movie has been... The Wrestler!

Original image located here. Accessed 16th May 2025

A lot has been said about this movie, with it being the resurrection of Mickey Rourke's career and being one of the best movies of the 2000s. So it therefore becomes difficult to bring something new to the table.
Personally I enjoyed it and think the approach of making this movie comparable to a documentary worked wonders. Rourke is in top form and credit is due to taking wrestling seriously. 

So is this movie the evil cousin of Rocky and Raging Bull? Well that's one way of putting it. But personally I find it fitting that this movie came out the same year as Iron Man: Both movies

• star an actor who had fallen out of favour, 
• delivering a performance that effectively breathes new life to their career 
• in which they play someone who mirrors their personal life.  

But ultimately this wasn't an easy watch so next week I think I might watch something more fun *checks schedule*....Oh hello.....

Ordinary People

  And this week's Friday night movie has been... Ordinary People!

Original image located here. Accessed 4th November 2024

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 53 (1980)

And now we enter the eighties.
I can't say I was looking forward to this decade as it seems to have gone down in history as one of, if not the weakest decade of Oscar Best Picture winners. Granted it is sandwiched between two heavyweight decades, the 1970s and 1990s, but between them, they have plenty of standouts - the 1980s not so much. Furthermore, it appears that if there have been complaints about the disconnect between what was popular at the box office and what was popular with the Academy voters then the 1980s may have been the starting point of it (a problem that still persists to this day).
Still I did this year long undertaking to see movies I wouldn't have normally seen and am willing to be surprised so best foot forward...

So we have Ordinary People: A film that was Robert Redford's directorial debut and which, famously, beat out Raging Bull for Best Picture. But I will argue that time has been kind to this movie for it's representation of mental illness. In recent years, mental health has become a talking point like never before and such concerns do echo those raised in this movie. Redford shows a capable hand with his directing and shows his subjects in a manner that is sympathetic & far removed from soap opera melodrama. Great acting all round too, especially from the late great Donald Sutherland.

Perhaps it is fitting that this should follow Kramer vs Kramer as both films show a collapse of the traditional family unit. Seems the era of New Hollywood wasn't prepared to leave just yet...

Raging Bull

And this week's Friday night movie has been.....Raging Bull!

 Original image located here. Accessed 4th November 2016

Once again, I have myself facing down one of THOSE movies: A movie widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time that it comes across as intimidating. Will I like this or not? How will i address a rate of expectation that can't possibly be reached?

Well to be honest I'm not sure if i can add anything that hasn't been already said about this movie: It's the anti-Rocky, it's Robert de Niro's show, the >direction is top notch, the cinematography gripping, the fighting brutal and the drama compelling.

But I will say at least I now know where Ant-Man (in Civil War) got the phrase "I'm the Boss! I'm the Boss! I'm the Boss!"