The Promised Land (2023) ****
Mads Mikkelsen attempts to turn fallow land into crops in 1700s Denmark and runs afoul of a local landowner that exposes the cruelty of the class system. A well-crafted and beautifully photographed period film that slowly amps up the conflict to the boiling point, and Mikkelsen is great as the stoic farmer with nothing to lose until a community forms around him. It's a powerful performance shaped by subtle glances and the merest hints of expression.
Richard Jewell (2019) ****
A security guard becomes the center of a bombing investigation. It's not a story I followed when it happened, but Eastwood's take is how the government and media can be weaponized to destroy an innocent person's life. It's bolstered by great performances, particularly Paul Walter Hauser, who deftly plays the dim-witted patriot without devolving into caricature. Despite the weak ending, Eastwood's strength lately seems to be these no-nonsense Sidney Lumet-styled legal dramas.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) ****
Melissa McCarthy's an alcoholic writer who resorts to crime to pay her bills with the help of her vagabond friend Richard E. Grant. McCarthy could have made this a likable scoundrel, but underplays it so much that there's no joy in her rebelliousness, which actually works for the film. She's just an angry loser. As for Richard E. Grant, he's one of those actors like David Thewlis who made a mark on me early on and I've been waiting decades for them to get a role that fully utilizes their obvious talents. This isn't that role, but it's the closest Grant might ever get to his Withnail & I heyday.
A Simple Plan (1999) ****
Money is pure evil. At the time I saw this as a discount Fargo with its hick criminals and pregnant woman in the wintery rural upper midwest. There's none of Sam Raimi's trademark style and it's primarily an acting showcase for Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thorton, who are both terrific.
The Beginning or the End (1947) ****
Docudrama about the building of the atomic bomb that's dramatically inert but a fascinating reconstruction of historical events. Supposedly made for an audience 500 years from now, I wonder what its true purpose was outside of the public's curiosity about how the bomb came to be. It's definitely propaganda for American superiority and bragging about the no-longer-top-secret Manhattan Project, but it's also a sober cautionary tale about the enormous power humanity has unleashed. Either way, I got more out of it than Oppenheimer.
