Tag Archives: Clancy Brown

2020 Films, Adam Brody, Alfred Molina, Alison Brie, Bo Burnham, Carey Mulligan, Clancy Brown, Comedy, Connie Britton, Dark Comedy, Emerald Fennell, Independent, Independent Comedy, Independent Thriller, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Margot Robbie, Max Greenfield, Molly Shannon, Thriller

Promising Young Woman-2020

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Promising Young Woman-2020

Director Emerald Fennell

Starring Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham

Scott’s Review #1,132

Reviewed April 13, 2021

Grade: A

Emerald Fennell, making her film directorial debut, kicks her viewers in the ass with significant help from star Carey Mulligan, with Promising Young Woman (2020).

The actress gives the best performance of her career.

The film is a sexy and haunting experience, mixing black comedy and witty dialogue with an important and timely subject matter- the abuse and victimization of young women by men.

Both men and women can be held responsible, as Fennell makes abundantly clear. Predators often have a share of people who choose to “look the other way” and thereby enable.

This is a constant theme throughout the film involving many characters who are called out for their passivity.

Fennell makes this point during two of the film’s most compelling scenes, calling out a high-powered dean and attorney for their betrayals. The scenes are so powerful that I wanted the characters to suffer as much as the revenge seeker does.

There is also a wackiness in the pacing and dialogue that reminds me quite a bit of the 1999 masterpiece, American Beauty.

The film is depravity, bizarreness, and brilliance all rolled into one. I felt this film in my bones.

Almost every scene is a treat in the mysterious and unexpected, and the film features peculiar characters and creative musical score renditions, and includes a scene and music from the underappreciated masterpiece The Night of the Hunter (1955). Fennell knows her classic cinema.

Mulligan stars as a woman named Cassie who seeks to avenge the death of her best friend, who was a victim of rape when they were in medical school, and their young lives had potential, and such possibility lay ahead of them.

Cleverly, we never see her friend, named Nina Fisher, but she is of vital importance and nearly a central character herself despite her absence.

Everyone said Cassie was a “promising young woman” until a mysterious event abruptly derailed her future. But now, at thirty and still living at home, her parents suggest, via a giant suitcase for her birthday, that it may be time for her to move on.

Cassie is tough to figure out since she’s wickedly clever, sometimes wisecracking, and tantalizingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. She goes to nightclubs looking drop-dead gorgeous and lures men to her rescue, pretending to be inebriated.

What happens when they go back to their pad is shocking, dark, and justified. The men will never see this coming.

Before the presumption is that Cassie is nothing more than a bad-ass, her intentions are not only admirable, but she has a heart and desires love. Promising Young Woman is a dark character study.

Besides the powerful story, Promising Young Woman is riddled with interesting cinematic techniques. Cassie’s parents lounge in their afternoon, watching The Night of the Hunter, a dark fairy tale for adults.

Later, a haunting version of Britney Spears “I’m a Slave 4 U”, complete with a string arrangement, is featured most uniquely.

All the supporting players add pizzazz and strength, some in odd or unclear ways, until certain revelations bubble to the surface.

Jennifer Coolidge as Cassie’s strange mother, Bo Burnham as the smitten Ryan Cooper, and Alison Brie as Cassie’s college friend Madison McPhee are the best examples.

Bo and Madison have the most to hide, but will they or won’t they face Cassie’s wrath? Not much is worse than a woman scorned.

But the main draw is Mulligan. Startlingly good, with an astonishingly powerful, deeply layered performance by her. She showcases a remarkable acting range, effortlessly shifting from brash to darkly humorous and, at times, emotionally vulnerable in her best performance to date.

Two scenes stand out to me.

The first is a delicious scene between Cassie and the female dean of her school, played by Connie Britton. At first dismissive and annoyed by Cassie’s accusations, Dean Elizabeth Walker finally takes notice when she believes that Cassie had kidnapped her teenage daughter and left her with a group of drunken frat boys. What comes around goes around!

The second is the finale wedding scene, interestingly not featuring Cassie other than by text messages. As the happy young couple says their vows a parade of police cars ruins the moment and the audience cheers victory. It’s a satisfying moment.

The screenplay is original, fresh, and timely. In the “Me Too” movement, the timing is vital and makes the subject matter relevant. Fennell wrote the screenplay- is there anything she can’t do?

Promising Young Woman (2020) is an exceptional film. It’s a controversial revenge film, but it’s so much more. Taking a powerful subject matter and examining the hypocrisy of men and women is telling and eye-opening.

That is why this film is critical to see and brings awareness to a situation that society still too often deems as okay.

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-Best Picture, Best Director-Emerald Fennell, Best Actress-Carey Mulligan, Best Original Screenplay (won), Best Film Editing

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: 2 wins-Best Director-Emerald Fennell, Best Female Lead- Carey Mulligan (won), Best Screenplay (won)

2010 Films, Clancy Brown, Connie Britton, Freddy Kruger, Horror, Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Samuel Bayer, Slasher

A Nightmare on Elm Street-2010

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A Nightmare on Elm Street-2010

Director Samuel Bayer

Starring Jackie Earle Haley

Scott’s Review #1,023

Reviewed May 14, 2020

Grade: C-

Rather a pointless remake, but unsurprising given the speedy attempts at re-doing almost every successful horror franchise in recent memory, A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) offers nothing that the original did not provide better.

Any film that is considered a dud with the word “nightmare” in the title is ripe for the picking as far as jokes and mockery go. The film is not too terrible but is rather mediocre and average to the taste.

There is no reason to watch this offering over the 1984 original, besides perhaps a moment of curiosity.

A quick recap or re-introduction. Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley), a serial killer who crosses the worlds of dreams and reality to slice and dice his victims with his razor-sharp blade-fingered glove, is on the loose in small-town America.

As Nancy (Rooney Mara) and her pals fight for their lives, they also uncover clues to a shocking secret from their past. Freddy was a known child molester decades earlier and was tracked down and burned alive by angry parents seeking revenge after he escaped prison.

He has vowed to destroy the children of those parents who all conveniently still live in the same town.

Capitalizing on the box-office success of a commercially successful yet critically sub-par 2009 offering of Friday the 13th, the light bulb went off and A Nightmare on Elm Street was green-lit and born.

The intention was to make Freddy and the film harsher and scarier than the 1984 original.

This is a severe misstep as what made the original so good was the character of Freddy. What 1980s teenager doesn’t fondly recall oozing with delight at Freddy’s one-liners and quips as he playfully toys with his pray before slitting their throats?

New Freddy is sinister, violent, and banal. Boring!

Earle Haley, a character actor known for 1977’s Breaking Away and finding a well-deserved career resurgence with the brilliant Little Children (2006) is cast as the brutal villain, sans any of the humor.

The actor, small in stature, is cast well on paper and doesn’t purposely ruin the role. It’s just that he is not Robert Englund and therefore never has a chance.

While admittedly Earle Haley is menacing, he lacks the charisma and charm to do very much with the role except try to recreate something that is not his to begin with.

The rest of the teens in the cast are decent but hardly spectacular. The “final girl” is Nancy Thompson (Rooney Mara) changed to Nancy Holbrook in this version in another eye-rolling mistake since no reason is explained for the name change.

It’s like changing Freddy Krueger’s name to Freddy Kelly.

Regardless, Mara champions on in a role she is way too good for. The actress, about to reach stardom for gems like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and Carol (2015) needed a start.

Fair enough.

From a visual standpoint, the film has some jump scares and frights that are stock fare for slick, mainstream horror films, almost now becoming clichés.

The sets are decent with some of the houses and, a church, worthy of mention. Darkness is the main ingredient of this film- it is horror after all, and the filming has a very dark texture even during bright scenes.

Some nice kills flesh out the rest of the experience.

If there is money to be made in Hollywood, it will be made. The true motivator of remaking A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) was profit over art. This is a reality and not so much a criticism, after all, it’s called the entertainment biz for a reason.

The changes made to the script do it no favors and if a remake had to be done, it was better left alone and not fooled with.

Jackie Earle Haley does his best, but he is not and never will be the real Freddy Krueger. Robert Englund has that dubious honor.

2015 Films, Andrew Garfield, Clancy Brown, Drama, Independent, Independent Drama, Laura Dern, Michael Shannon, Ramin Bahrani

99 Homes-2015

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99 Homes-2015

Director Ramin Bahrani

Starring Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon

Scott’s Review #633

Reviewed April 13, 2017

Grade: B+

99 Homes is a 2015 independent film containing an underlying theme of morality as its central message, bubbling to the surface throughout the run.

Our main hero is faced with a major dilemma.

Set in 2010 amid the dark economic housing crisis where thousands of families lost their homes to foreclosure, the film is depressing but turns uplifting towards the end.

Reminiscent of The Big Short (2015) and Inside Job (2010) in subject matter, we witness a wonderful performance by Andrew Garfield in the lead role, with a worthy supporting turn by Michael Shannon as an opportunist.

Director Ramin Bahrani immediately creates tension with a taut musical score that bombards the screen. We see a poor victim of foreclosure, having shot himself to avoid the humiliation of being evicted from his home, followed by the introduction of a powerful real-estate mogul, Rick Carver.

Carver has wisely capitalized on the slew of Florida working-class families, living well beyond their means and novice homeowners, booted from their homes thanks to adjustable mortgages that they cannot afford to pay.

Andrew Garfield plays Dennis Nash, a struggling construction worker, raising his young son and presumably supporting his mother (Laura Dern).

They are fated to be evicted even though they have tried to win an extension with the court- months behind in their mortgage payments. They feel victimized and are forced to move to a seedy motel that houses many others in the same circumstances.

Desperate for work, Dennis ironically ends up working for Rick and becomes encased in the dishonest world of real estate scheming- manipulating banking and government rules at the expense of homeowners down on their luck.

The main point is the exploitation of the “working man” at the expense of “the man” and Rick is an example of this beast. Dennis represents the goodness of humanity as he wrestles with the moral repercussions of evicting families since he has met with similar circumstances.

Is the money worth the pain and the hardship he causes people? How is it Rick has no morals, but Dennis does? Will Dennis choose money and lose himself in the process? What would the viewer do?

Despite the morality questions, the film does play like a slick thriller, with a few slight contrivances and the “wrapped up in a neat bow” style ending.

This slightly makes the film lose its luster at times. It is implied that it ends happily for Dennis and that Rick gets his “just desserts”, but what about the characters kicked out of their homes?

Sadly, as in real life, they are largely forgotten by the end and play as footnotes in a larger story. Some follow-up as to what happens to them might have been nice.

99 Homes is a thinking man’s film and will undoubtedly leave the viewer asking what he or she would do in many situations that Dennis faces.

The emotions ooze from the face of Andrew Garfield as Bahrani uses many close-ups and enough cannot be said for Garfield’s bravura performance.

In one heart-wrenching scene, he is forced to evict a man and his wife and children from their home, the man is reduced to tears, comforted by his wife-Dennis is pained.

In another, an elderly man with nowhere to go is evicted, and defeated by the side of the road.

These scenes may have played as overwrought, but Garfield convincingly brings honesty and raw emotion to the work.

Laura Dern is good in her role as a young mother, Lynn,  to Garfield’s Dennis and I am perplexed why she was cast- she barely seems old enough to play convincingly as his Mom, but she does pull it off.

However, I could not help but desire more meat from this Oscar-nominated Actress- sure there is one great scene when Lynn realizes the extent of Dennis’s involvement with Rick, but I wanted more.

Still, the acting all around in this film is superb.

What left me so bothered by 99 Homes (2015) is that situations just like the ones that played out in the film are examples of countless real-life occurrences people experienced due to greed, dishonesty, and uncaring fellow human beings and that is a sad realization.

Director, Bharani, surrounded by a stellar cast, brings this realism to the big screen in raw, honest, storytelling.

Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Best Supporting Male-Michael Shannon

2016 Films, Alden Ehrenreich, Alison Pill, Channing Tatum, Clancy Brown, Coen Brothers, Comedy, Dark Comedy, Dolph Lundgren, Emily Beecham, Fisher Stevens, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, Jonah Hill, Josh Brolin, Ralph Fiennes, Satire, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Wayne Knight

Hail, Caesar!-2016

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Hail, Caesar! -2016

Director Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Starring George Clooney, Channing Tatum

Scott’s Review #377

80074084

Reviewed February 16, 2016

Grade: B+

Hail, Caesar! (2016) is a quirky film created and directed by the Coen Brothers, who are known for offbeat films such as Fargo (1996), No Country for Old Men (2007), and Raising Arizona (1987).

Hail, Caesar is a satirical comedy about the Hollywood film industry during the post-World War II period of the 1950s.

The film features a bevy of current Hollywood talent, including George Clooney, Channing Tatum, Josh Brolin, and Scarlett Johannsen, including singing, dancing, and scandalous matters.

All give fine performances and add humor and wit to the film.

The plot centers on the character of Eddie Mannix (Brolin), a celebrity “fixer” and real-life person who works as an executive for Capitol Pictures and whose primary responsibility is to ensure that famous Hollywood stars remain out of trouble.

The period is 1951, a particularly scandalous time in pictures. One of the biggest stars of the time, Baird Whitlock (Clooney), is suddenly kidnapped and held for ransom while completing a big epic film for the studio.

Mannix must race to keep the crisis out of the news and safely get Whitlock back.

Indeed, there are interesting subplots, including handsome yet talent-less Western actor Hobie Doyle, hired by the studio to appear in a sweeping period piece directed by suave Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes), and DeeAnna Moran (Johannsen), unmarried and with a “bun in the oven,” determined to keep herself out of the tabloids.

I loved the look of the film, as numerous films occur within it. The 1950s set pieces and designs are exquisite, particularly the period piece set, lavishly designed with classic doors, a staircase, flowers, and a cast dressed to the nines.

It brings back an extravagant time.

The film is a satire, to be sure. Still, it also addresses the serious subject of communism (especially for that period), Russia, and Russian defectors, all involved in a plot to prove a valuable point.

Despite the film being a comedy, this is worth serious consideration. Many Hollywood writers make money for the studios and are rewarded with underwhelming salaries.

The same holds true in Hollywood today.

This point can spill over into other walks of life as well, and the point of the “little man gets screwed” is explored. Communism is also explored throughout the film as the central message- an important message that resonates.

Another interesting tidbit that Hail, Caesar!Mentionss, though only on the surface, is the burgeoning onslaught of television programming.

Suddenly, an increasing number of people were purchasing TVs and avoiding the glamour of films, opting instead for the comfort of their couches.

What a different time it was!

An intriguing, favorite character of mine belongs to Channing Tatum’s portrayal of Burt Gurney, a Gene Kelly-like character famous for singing and dancing numbers. A sizzling sailor dance gives edge and sexuality to the film.

A revealing scandal involving Burt and Laurence is fantastic and delicious.

My favorite scene belongs to Frances McDormand, who shamefully only appears in one scene- quite memorable. As film editor C.C. Calhoun, she diligently shows Mannix film dailies in the hopes of discovering a clue in the disappearance of Whitlock. When her scarf gets caught in the projector, hilarity and grotesqueness ensue.

It is a classic Coen Brothers comedy.

Hail Caesar! (2016) succeeds as a witty, comical throwback to a wonderful time in film history, with a political edge that historians will appreciate and Coen Brothers fans will relish.

Perhaps not their most creative or memorable, but enjoyable all the same.

Oscar Nominations: Best Production Design