Being the Ricardos (Aaron Sorkin, 2021). Some funny lines and running jokes, as you expect, and an overbearing tendency to have everything fit neatly together, as you might also expect. The most interesting thing going – I will try to write more about this – is the film’s depiction of the creative process, which in this world (despite the end result being slapstick comedy) is serious and disciplined and difficult. Nicole Kidman’s performance is therefore split between the two styles of Lucille Ball and Lucy. Javier Bardem also nails it.
Oslo, August 31st (Joachim Trier, 2011). A previous film by the director of The Worst Person in the World. It is not, I think, up to the level of the current one, but you can see things falling into place; it is about a young addict (played by Worst Person co-star and National Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actor Anders Danielsen Lie), in rehab but taking a day in Oslo. The influence of Ingmar Bergman is visible here, especially those scenes where someone simply stops the flow and gives voice to the most naked kind of despair.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »