95 posts categorized "Biopic"

November 12, 2023

RUSTIN

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.ColeSmithey.comThis ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

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ColeSmithey.comMagnificent.

"Rustin" is a prime example of ensemble filmmaking that works like a charm.

Coleman Domingo gives a tour de force performance as gay political activist Bayard Rustin, advisor to Martin Luther King.

Here is a fully fleshed out representation of a complex black gay humanitarian struggling to help bring equality in a racist political and corporate American climate of hate.

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This is Coleman Domingo's moment. What a talent!

"Rustin" has a lot to say, and it says it all with supreme clarity and expediency.

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Screenwriters Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black (screenwriter on "Milk") did their homework, and it shows.

This film's pacing and editing is exquisite.

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"Rustin" is all substance, with appropriate '60s era style.

Supporting turns from Chris Rock and Jeffrey Wright pop with serious intentionality.

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This is a perfect movie to go in knowing nothing about it.

Director George Wolfe hits another one out of the park on the heels of his perfect "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."

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Smart of Netflix to do a theatrical release before "Rustin" goes to streaming. I saw it at the Paris cinema on 58th Street.

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This movie will take you by surprise.

Rated PG-13. 106 mins.

5 Stars

Cozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

September 15, 2023

RADICAL WOLFE

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.ColeSmithey.comThis ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

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Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

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ColeSmithey.com Richard Dewey’s informative documentary about famed New York City author Tom Wolfe places subtle reflection on Wolfe’s coded right wing stance.

Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Wolfe adopted his signature white suit as an extension of his public persona as a dandy.

The suit harkens to plantation owners whose authority over his enslaved subjects, demanded complete subjugation.

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It is this similar brand of intellectual superiority that the Yale-graduated Wolfe lorded over the media, his fans, and his many enemies.

Wolf could easily have been the inspiration for the Elvis Costello song "This Town" (from his 1989 "Spike" album).

The chorus goes:

"You're nobody in this town
You're nobody in this crowd
You're nobody till everybody in this town
thinks you're poison,
Got your number, knows it must be avoided
You're nobody till everybody in this town
thinks you're a bastard"

Wolfe was big into the cult of his own personality, or lack thereof.

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The film’s title "Radical Wolfe" tips its hat toward the radicalization of the Republican party that ‘70s and ‘80s era reprobates such as Morton Downey Jr. and Donald Trump seized upon.

Ironic, not ironic how Conservative came to equate as Radical ideology.

The term Conservative should be altered to reflect its actual intent.

Transparency is as transparent does, so "Radical" is the new term for Conservative.

Out with the old, in with the new.

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Telling is the fierce degree of hatred that Tom Wolfe instilled in his literary rivals.

Hunter S. Thompson, John Irving, and J.D. Salinger all rebuked Tom Wolfe for his cruel stance and grandiose style that Wolfe used to attack sacred cows, such as Leonard Bernstein.

There is no question that Tom Wolfe was a groundbreaking writer and journalist. The fast paced biopic takes us through Wolfe's dynamic books that made him the most financially successful author of his time.

We get hooked.

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"The Right Stuff," "The Bonfire of the Vanities," and "The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test" made Tom Wolfe a very wealthy man indeed.

Although, Wolfe's daughter appears, along with such iconic figures as Michael Lewis, Gay Talese, and the dubious Peter Thiel, we never get any sense of Tom Wolfe as much of a family man. The film explicitly leaves out any mention of Wolfe's wife.

Weird.

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"Radical Wolfe" has the potential to inspire its viewers to read a Tom Wolfe book. You might even venture into the work of Wolfe's contemporaries, Hunter S. Thompson, John Irvine, Joan Didion, or Kurt Vonnegut.

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Taste, chew, eat.

Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat.

Not Rated. 76 mins.

5 Stars Screen Shot 2023-08-02 at 10.22.44 PMCozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

January 30, 2023

BLONDE

  ColeSmithey.com    Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

Welcome!

This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

Cole Smithey on Patreon

 

ColeSmithey.comStraight masterpiece.

Screenwriter/director Andrew Dominik's filmic adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates's 2000 fictionalized novel of the same title serves as a trenchant indictment of capitalism, the media, and of an incoherent American patriarchy that knows nothing but abuse.

Ana de Armas is uncanny in her fearless portrayal of Hollywood's most iconic actress.

Stunner.

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It's a coincidence that in the same year that Austin Butler embodied Elvis Presley with an otherworldly performance of rigor and inspiration, Ana de Armas hits a similar if not more profound height of authenticity.

Elvis and Marilyn were each prisoners of their enormous fame/marketability.

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Ana de Armas may just be the finest actor of our time.

Unforgettable.

Spellbinding.

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Through the darkness and pain of a constant stream of traumas, Norma Jeane Baker battled demons near and remembered with a sharp intellect that Andrew Dominik keenly exposes through Ana de Armas's high-wire performance.

Indisputably, Andrew Dominik is a true master artist of Cinema.

The proof is in the pudding.

Gracefully cuts quick to the bone.

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Audiences familiar with Dominik's past films, "Chopper" (2000), "The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford" (2007), and "Killing Them Softly" (2012), might have an inkling for the depth of visually dynamic storytelling on display in "Blonde."

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"Blonde" functions as a feminist narrative that digs in dark corners of 20th century American reality and ideology where beauty is a trashy fad object to be worshiped, reviled, used up and thrown away.

Rigorous feminist think piece. You bet.

Joyce Carol Oates was no slouch.

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So, if you're real serious, read Joyce Carol Oates's novel "Blonde," because you can.

And, besides, Joyce Carol Oates is still alive at the time of this writing, and even gave Ana de Armas

props for her exquisite portrayal of Norma Jeane Baker/Marilyn Monroe.

Right on.

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Norma Jeane Mortenson revolted against the cold indifference of those who imagined they owned her, which was just about everyone.

Rebel.

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It was a herculean effort that could not be sustained for very long.

What we are left with is just a memory of a rare, fragile, talented young woman being bought and sold into modern-day slavery under the guise of Hollywood.

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These days people give their lives away on social media and YouTube for pennies. 

People's lives are reduced to content.

This phenomenal film is not that.

This is Cinema.

Take your content and shove it.

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Rated NC-17. 166 mins.

5 Stars“ColeSmithey.com“

Cozy Cole

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