Just found out Clint's back, baby!!! Three Americans face a terrorist attack aboard a train bound for Paris.
He directed this? Wow. Saw the commercial a couple of times over the weekend and thought it was something on par with that movie featuring real soldiers from a few years back.
This has such an odd supporting cast. Jenna Fischer, Judy Greer, Jaleel White, Thomas Lennon, Tony Hale. I haven't seen much of Eastwood's work from the last decade, but Sully was fun and Gran Torino is a masterpiece. He has made so many incredible films though. One of the best American directors around.
I meant Act of Valor, couldn’t remember the name. Never would’ve guessed this was made by someone of Eastwood’s caliber — has similar early/new filmmaker vibes — though he does have plenty of duds himself.
Do you follow Neil Bahadur on Letterboxd? He’s way more articulate on Eastwood than I am, but he’s written two piece on Gran Torino that get to the core of what makes the film so great. If you’re interested: dreamland and https://boxd.it/5Q005
I didn't see Gran Torino for years after it came out, but a lot of the praise for it, especially from French critics, is a lot of projecting based on his former work. It has some of the worst acting I have ever seen in the movie, and having himself play the man that gives his life to save the kid is too indulgent.
idk why but you liking eastwood is truly surprising to me he’s been hit or miss for me. i’ll check this out still
I think he's great! I only really got into him last year when I watched a ton of his stuff. But like Unforgiven, Breezy, Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, Mystic River, Bridges of Madison County are all like masterpieces or very near to me. Stuff like Space Cowboys and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil are great too. I think he's one of the best contemporary directors making films in the classical style of John Ford and such. The pieces I linked above (and more from that writer) as well as the Cahiers du Cinema writing on him helped shape my view of his work.
i think his most recent material has kinda sullied my overall opinion of him and the previous stuff unfairly, bc yeah, a lot of those films stand up as pretty great in my mind still
I'm gonna try and squeeze in one or two of his recent films I haven't seen before this comes on Friday. What should I pick? The Changeling J Edgar American Sniper Jersey Boys Hereafter (seen before but I barely paid attention and it was at least 6 years ago)
I love Jersey Boys lol but I know I’m firmly in the minority on that one From everything I’ve heard, Changeling is one of his worst Haven’t seen the others but plz report back !!
I was leaning towards Jersey Boys above all because I lot of people I follow and trust think very highly of it. There’s older stuff I’m more interested in but I wanna fill the recent gaps before the new one. I finally watched Flags of our Fathers yesterday which I thought was great. One of his most directly damning films about the failures of America. Really want to see the other Iwo Jima film now.
I need to revisit Flags of our Fathers. I watched it like 3/4 years ago when I was just starting to really get into film, let alone Eastwood, and don't think I gave it the attention it deserved. Haven't seen Letters from Iwo Jima either but I've had the DVD sitting here for months oops
J. Edgar has a lot of great unintentional comedy. They make Leonardo DiCaprio look like Charles Foster Kane when he trashes the room.
Changeling is great but the source material is disturbing. I later read “The Road Out of Hell” based on the Wineville Chicken Coop murders and it’s fucked up!