Ryan McNeil
More basketball this week that kept my attention away from film for three nights. But my team appears to be on its last legs, so I’d imagine my attention will be turning back to film right soon.
Not a moment too soon either, with the TV season wrapping up!
#52FilmsByWomen continued this week with MONEY MONSTER directed by Jodie Foster.
Foster is only the second actor/director I’ve looked to in the series, and the first one since my project began twenty-one weeks ago.
Actor/directors have always struck me as an interesting mix, since it seems like they’d speak the language a bit better than most. It’s not a requirement, of course, since nobody we’d put on the directing Mount Rushmore got their start as an actor. Still, you gotta believe it must be a handy tool to have in the kit.
This was actually the first feature I’d seen by Foster, previously only acquainted with her work on House of Cards and Orange is The New Black. When I take those shows and this movie and put it all together, it certainly leaves me curious to fill in the rest of her filmography. She has a way of making the stress in her characters palpable, and a real knack for raising the tension in a scene.
Where actor/directors are concerned, I often believe that they turn into sponges and absorb ideas from every director they work under. So in that case, is it any surprise Foster is as talented as she is when she is able to combine her own sharpened wits with those of Scorsese, Hopper, Allen, Donner, Zemeckis, Fincher, Jeunet, and Spike Lee?
I couldn’t help but hear Foster in Julia Roberts’ character, Patty. There was something about her steadying influence and her being a moral compass that I have come to equate with Foster over the years. Perhaps it’s because of what I’ve heard her say in interviews, or perhaps it’s the characters she’s come to play. Whatever its origins are, watching a movie like MONEY MONSTER and feeling its well-executed tension start to wash over, I know that if I was in that situation, I would certainly wish to have Jodie Foster’s voice in my ear.
Someone hand me a copy of LITTLE MAN TATE…
Here’s the week at hand…
Screenings
MONEY MONSTER – Much like my next selection, I fear this solid selection is going to get lost in the shuffle as the year goes on.
THE NICE GUYS – More on this as the weekend goes on.
Streaming/Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Never Seen
DRAFT DAY – As a sports fan, this was a worthwhile watch just to see the flurry of transactions at the end.
JOHN WICK – Not too sure what everyone I know was going on about with this one, but in the end it seemed pretty harmless.
TAKEN – I know, I know, I should have seen this ages ago. I’m not going to chase down the sequels, but I must admit – this one was cool.
Streaming/Blu-Rays/DVD’s I’ve Seen Before
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD – Nowadays they call the “The Matt Brown Special”.
Boxscore for The Year
90 First-Timers, 59 Re-Watched
29 Screenings
149 Movies in Total
How’s about you – seen anything good?
First-Timers: The Dance of Reality, Leviathan, Paper Towns, Woman in the Dunes, Poetry, Friendly Persuasion, Love & Anarchy, Entourage, and just now, The Hunt.
Re-Watches: Monsters Inc., The Karate Kid Part III, and Seduced and Abandoned.