In 1972, the first-ever Black congresswoman, Shirley Chisholm, launched a trailblazing campaign to become the president of the United States.
Shirley is directed by John Ridley who has directed Cold Around the Heart (1997), Jimi: All Is by My Side (2013) and Needle in a Timestack (2021).
Shirley tells the story of Shirley Chisholm an American politician who became the first Black woman to be elected into the United States Congress in 1968. She also became the first Black candidate for a major party nomination for President of the United States. The film documents the 1972 presidential run of Shirley Chisholm.
There is absolutely no denying what Shirley Chisholm did broke many barriers and was truly inspiring, a lot of that is felt throughout the film, sadly however the movie does have a flaws that hold it back. The main one being this is yet another incredibly safe biopic that goes about as deep as a Wikipedia page, this is sadly a common trend among a lot of biopics and Shirley is no different.
Having that said there are positives which mostly comes from the performances. Regina King plays Shirley Chisholm and as usual knocks it out of the park, even with a lacking script Regina King is able to really turn a lot of the movie around and make certain scenes genuinely powerful. She nails down the accent, actions and mannerisms of Shirley Chisholm which truly is fascinating. Her commanding the screen at any moment she’s given is truly powerful and once again fascinating to watch.
Lucas Hedges returns (his last film performance was in 2020) he plays Robert Gottlieb which while he doesn’t have a whole lot of screentime, Regina King and Lucas Hedges work incredibly well together and actually deliver some charming moments. Hedges also really nails down his portrayal of Gottlieb quite well. The late Lance Reddick plays Wesley McDonald Holder (one of his last performances, there’s still three more film performances after this) does an excellent job and again shows how incredible he was as an actor. He works incredibly well with the rest of the cast and much like Regina King, he’s able to take a lacking script and turn into something really fascinating.
As I said before unfortunately Shirley is a very by the numbers biopic, the directing style is played very safe and falls in line with a lot of other biopics. Which is a shame because Shirley Chisholm’s story is very fascinating and deserves to be told with so much more power.
The true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who make history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports
The Iron Claw is directed by Sean Durkin director of The Nest (2020) and Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011). The film is based on the life of wrestler Kevin Von Erich and the Von Erich family.
I’ve said this before but I’m not a wrestling fan, but reading about the story of Kevin and his family is incredibly sad stuff. Between 1984 and 1993 3 of the five brothers Mike, Chris and Kerry died by suicide and another of the five David died of acute enteritis although this is heavily debated. There was another brother Jack Jr. who died in 1959 by drowning after an electrical shock long before the other brothers deaths. I bring Jack Jr. up because when people talk about the Von Erich deaths they are mostly talking about Mike, Chris, Kerry and David so I figured it’s worth pointing out.
The film itself mentions Jack Jr. In one scene which I thought was sweet and is admittedly one of the film’s very emotional moments. The film doesn’t include one of the brothers Chris, the reason given by Durkin is he was worried the film would be way too depressing and would never get made. To make up for Chris’s absence he incorporates his death with Mike who in real life Chris looked up to and ended his life because of Mike’s death effecting him so much. Some people might not like Chris’s absence and that’s completely understandable, I do think the film makes up for it with large amount of emotion capturing the absolute tragedy of this story.
The performances are all incredibly top notch nobody here gives a bad performance, Zac Efron plays Kevin Von Erich and gives one of the most touching performances I’ve seen from a film this year. It’s a devastating performance that captures the incredibly sad story of Kevin Von Erich, there’s so many moments here where you can absolutely feel the pain in his voice and body language. There’s another scene where Kevin Von Erich is having such a good time being married and dancing with his wife Pam Adikisson (played by Lily James) and his brothers Kerry (played by Jeremy Allen White), Mike (played by Stanley Simons and David (played by Harris Dickinson) this scene in particular is the finale of the happy moments of the film. And the way Zac Efron is able to capture both these times where Kevin is living a much happier life and when he’s surrounded by tragedy which he even goes as far as to consider that the “Von Erich curse” is real (which you really can’t blame him for that) is absolutely incredible and truly shows Efron’s talent as an actor.
Jeremy Allen White, Harrison Dickinson, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany and Lily James are all fantastic here. White, Dickson and Simons do a phenomenal job of capturing the pain and tragedy of the brothers. They all bounce of each other well making this incredibly more sad to watch as the bond all the brothers have here is incredibly grounded. Holt McCallany plays Fritz Von Erich which again much like everyone else here he does such a fantastic job, although the film is much more focused on the brothers and less on the abuse Fritz caused on the brothers. It’s still very much implied through the brother’s facial expressions of clearly not wanting to do something but they want to make their father proud so they do it. Although Lily James isn’t a huge focus, she is still quite incredibly here and naturally fits incredibly well with the cast.
The way the story is told here combined with the acting is what really makes this film, it’s told in such a focused and emotional way that quickly grabs the viewer’s heart. Right from the beginning there’s little subtle hints as to what’s going to happen, even if you haven’t heard the story of the Von Erichs you still have this feeling something is going to really hit you like a truck and that’s absolutely the case. Durkin does such as great job of making this as grounded as possible, which is important since this is based off of a true story. With a sad story like this you want to tell it in the most grounded way possibly and luckily that’s the case here.
The wrestling scenes are quite powerful and whether this was intentional or not in some ways really fit together with the tragedy of the story. The wrestling scenes have this extra gut punch where you can really feel and hear the impact, in a lot of other wrestling movies you can tell they are just action scenes. But here you really feel the brutality of it all it’s so well directed and the sound is incredibly sharp.
The final moments of the film is what absolutely got me to cry, I’m not going to spoil what’s said because it’s something you must hear for yourself to get the full impact. But the moments really sum up this film and really wrap up the film in such a beautiful and touching way. The ending is on the hopeful side with the film mentioning Kevin Von Erich having grandchildren and they constantly meet up, it’s truly touching and moments like this that really bring the viewer to tears.
On the verge of securing a golden opportunity, American conductor Leonard Bernstein begins a tumultuous relationship with actress Felicia Montealegre, upturning their lives.
Maestro is directed by Bradley Cooper which is his second film in his directing career the first being A Star is Born (2018). After A Star is Born came out and ended up being one of my favorites of 2018 and the 2010s in general, I was very excited to see what Cooper would do next with his directing career. It’s unfortunate to say that Maestro is a step down from his previous work.
Maestro centers around the relationship between famous American composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre, it’s not a biopic in the tradional sense so at the very least it isn’t trying to do the exact same thing as a lot of other biopics. However that doesn’t mean it fully works as there are a lot of glaring issues here.
I’ll start with what worked well here, Bradley Cooper gives a solid performance as Leonard Bernstein. There’s definitely a few hiccups at times but for the most part he does a pretty solid job, I do think he is much stronger during the last portion of the movie especially during it’s final moments. Carey Mulligan’s performance I was a bit harsh on when I first watched it, I called it “not good” which is not exactly true and would be sort of dishonest to say it is. Like Cooper there are a few hiccups but I actually think she gives the stronger performance, her entrance to the movie being the strongest moment for her performance. Everyone else does a pretty solid job outside of Sarah Silverman (I have no idea what she is trying to go for here but whatever it was it doesn’t work).
The movie itself is beautifully done, the black and white portion of the film looks like you are looking through a very old photo album. Looking back at memories through the years, the color portion is just as strong with great use of color and combine that with the cinematography that does have some genuinely gorgeous shots. The music moments are also quite powerful, there’s one in particular that’s hands down the best part of the movie and is an example of some really strong acting and direction from Bradley Cooper.
The main problem here with Maestro is lack of gaining investment from the viewer and doesn’t have quite the power it needs. It’s quite clear that Cooper did not want to make this a traditional biopic as I said before. However I think he goes a little too far with this, we aren’t given anything on Leonard Bernstein if you are unfamiliar with Bernstein or haven’t heard of him that you are out of luck because this movie isn’t going to tell you about his career. The movie itself is very focused on the marriage which is fine but it’s not very investing and doesn’t really capture what makes Bernstein so exciting. Which is a shame because there are some genuinely beautiful moments between Bernstein and Montealegre that really show during the music moments of the movie, showing just how important their marriage was. But a lot of the time it’s way too slow and doesn’t quite bring enough emotion to the table.
Maestro is not a bad movie don’t get me wrong, it’s just one that had a lot of potential but everything doesn’t quite come together unfortunately. I’m sure there is an audience for this movie, this is just something that didn’t quite click for me unfortunately.
Bayard Rustin, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., dedicates his life to the quest for racial equality, human rights and worldwide democracy. However, as an openly gay Black man, he is all but erased from the civil rights movement he helped build.
Rustin is directed by George C. Wolfe who previously directed Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020). Rustin is a biopic of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, the movie film also tells the true story of Rustin helping Martin Luther King Jr. and others organize the 1963 March On Washington.
What completely sells Rustin comes down to the performance and the impact they leave on the viewer, Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin is the clear standout and it’s honestly not even close. Domingo gives such a powerful and transformative performance where he completely turns into Bayard Rustin, between his actions and matching Bayard Rustin’s voice. There’s so much to Domingo’s performance that is truly incredible, the movie itself also goes for this old-fashioned prestige biopic framework that really matches what Domingo is going for here. George C. Wolfe much like in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) he does an excellent job of giving the cast extra power to their roles and moving each scene a long at a solid pace.
The rest of the cast are quite solid such as Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King Jr. the interactions between Ameen and Domingo are truly some of the absolute best moments of the film and really go to show just how important this March really was. There’s joy in seeing a large community come together at a huge scale and stand together.
The dialogue is a huge part where the movie shines, while at times there are some familiar biopic beats with the dialogue, for most of the film it focuses on wanting the viewer to feel the film’s strength. Whether that be through Colman Domingo interacting with the other actors and actresses in the film, or if it’s the film’s focus on standing together and power. George C. Wolfe directs the film in such a powerful and respectful way that makes the film all the more honest and show’s that Wolfe clearly has a lot of passion about the topic.
Rustin’s main flaw is falling a bit too safe with it’s politics, which if you know the true story of Bayard Rustin you will recognize that immediately, unfortunately Rustin does play it a bit safe when it comes to biopics and can feel a bit too traditional at times. But what makes the film work is the overall approach, where the film might not be saying or doing anything particularly new. But between the cast, Colman Domingo’s powerful performance and the direction from George C. Wolfe there is so much here to absolutely love.
Sixty-four-year-old marathon swimmer Diana Nyad attempts to become the first person ever to swim from Cuba to Florida.
Nyad is directed by documentary filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhely and Jimmy Chin who directed Free Solo (2018), The Rescue (2021) and a few others. Nyad is a biopic about Diana Nyad a swimmer who swam around Manhattan in record time in 1975 and then in 1979 she swam from North Bimini, The Bahamas to Juno Beach, Florida. Finally in 2013 she swam from Havana Cuba to Key West, Florida.
Nyad has the right ingredients to be a very strong movie but unfortunately this is yet another biopic that falls into the Oscar bait category. Oscar bait is a term I do think gets overused especially during the last few years where 80% of the time people call a movie Oscar bait simply because they don’t like it. But the term absolutely applies here, the movie does have it’s positives such as Jodie Foster’s performance which has a lot of heart and once again shows that Jodie Foster can really work with a script even if it’s very lacking. Annette Bening’s performance is a very shocking mixed bag, there is a lot of overacting which to be completely fair Bening does her best with the script she’s given but there is also moments where she really shines which is mainly the scenes with Foster and Bening sharing the screen together these moments are genuinely powerful and really stick to the viewer throughout the movie.
The writing is the main issue here, as I said before Bening and Foster do their best with the script that does lead to some good results. But a lot of the time you would think you are watching a soap opera and not a very good one, the way the movie jumps from scene to scene is quite baffling and has a huge “made for tv” type of feel that unfortunately really bogs down the movie. The other part of the problem is Nyad isn’t much different than your traditional sports biopic, it has very similar beats that at this point many people can quickly recognize.
Which is honestly quite a shame because Diana Nyad’s story is very interesting and her story can be absolutely told well, but unfortunately that’s not the case here with this movie. It’s also quite odd that Vasarhely and Chin are in the director’s chair, while I do appreciate them trying something out of their comfort zone but Nyad could have easily been a documentary and would have gotten the same message across.
Jose M Hernandez was born in Mexico. While working in the fields, he co-developed the first digital mammography imaging system. He then persevered to become a crew member on Space Shuttle mission STS-128.
A Million Miles Away is a biopic about José M. Hernández a Mexican-American astronaut, he was also the first migrant farm worker to go to space!
This is a prime example of a biopic that’s really inspiring, sure it follows a lot of the traditional biopic traits. But you can easily tell there was a lot of heart and passion put into this one, the performances especially. Michael Peña is quite fantastic as Hernández he gives such an inspiring and heartfelt performance that will easily capture the hearts of the audience, Rosa Salazar is also quite fantastic as well. The chemistry between Peña and Salazar is absolutely fantastic, the movie goes over José and Adela’s (played by Rosa Salazar) marriage as well as their Mexican-American roots which is important to their story.
Admittedly it does take awhile to get to the NASA stuff, but when the film focuses on family, the dream of going to space and heart it absolutely nails that down wonderfully. The writing is also quite strong here with tons of heartfelt scenes and a lot of dialogue that is quite inspirational there’s seriously a lot to love here.
Overall A Million Miles Away surprised me, it’s a biopic that might not be one of the absolute best out there. But Hernández’s story is told in such a beautiful way that you can’t help but feel happy by the end of the film.
A Million Miles Away is available on Amazon Prime Video.
Saúl Armendáriz, a homosexual amateur wrestler from El Paso, Texas, rises to international stardom when he creates the character Cassandro, the `Liberace of Lucha Libre.’ He upends not just the macho wrestling world, but also his own life.
Biopics in recent years have become far more frequent, in some ways it’s a positive since audiences are introduced to people who they might have never heard of. On the other hand biopics being pushed out the door leaves room for some studios to really skim through said person’s story. Unfortunately that’s what happened here with Cassandro.
Cassandro is a biopic about Saúl Armendáriz who became a wrestler and used the stage name Cassandro, he is a former NWA World Welterweight and UWA World Lightweight Champion.
Reading Armendáriz’s story it’s a very interesting one, a gay amateur wrestler slowly but surely climbs his way to international stardom, who along the way has a journey of expressing his sexual identity, going through loss, poverty and such. It’s an aspiring story that really deserves to be told in great detail but sadly that’s not the case here unfortunately.
Cassandro is told as if someone was skimming a book they have to study for a test and declares that’s enough to pass, but in reality you are missing a lot of key details that are important. I will say that the performances all around are quite great the standout being Gael García Bernal who plays Cassandro, there’s a few moments where the movie clearly has it’s heart in the right place and has a few emotional moments that really do shine. Bernal’s performance is incredibly charming and really keeps you rooting for him throughout the film. The filming and score are also quite decent as well, they fit the tone for what the movie is going for especially towards the end.
The main issue here is we really don’t get to see Cassandro overcome obstacles in a lot of detail, heck by the second fight he’s already a runaway star which really leaves the viewer puzzled as there is so much to his story not being told very well or just flat out missing. The movie takes the form of less then a biopic and more of a traditional underdog story that plays incredibly safe. I’m not saying the movie needed to include every single thing about Cassandro’s life but at the very least give more details and don’t leave out parts that could make this movie impactful.
During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.
I saw Oppenheimer back a few weeks ago (July 29th to be exact) it took me a bit to review it because it’s one of those films where it sticks with you after watching it. I’m going to cut right to the chase Oppenheimer is a very powerful film that approaches topic of the nuclear bombs in a much different way than some people would expect.
Before that let’s get into the cast which nobody turns in a bad performance, everyone here does a fantastic job everyone also contributes to the film in their own way. The ones who standout for me are Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett and Tom Conti. Cillian Murphy plays Robert Oppenheimer the inventor of the nuclear bomb, throughout the film we follow Oppenheimer and in a very interesting approach we actually get to go inside his mind. We enter his mind when the bombs reach Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he gets the thoughts of him building a weapon of mass destruction. Thinking of the consequences and what will happen going forward.
This is especially brought up during the final shot of the film and with Tom Conti as Albert Einstein, even if Conti is only in a few scenes, he’s a very important part of the whole film. The scenes with Conti and Murphy together are brutally powerful capturing fear one of the main elements this film does a magnificent job of capturing. The fear comes from making a powerful weapon that could potentially destroy the planet which was actually somewhat of a main concern at the time, this is especially shown during the Trinity Test which was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. It’s a very intense scene with powerful sound and incredibly raw acting that really makes you feel like you are right there.
After the nuclear weapons hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer becomes “the father of the atomic bomb” something he regrets as the destruction and mass fatalities haunt him. Oppenheimer tells Harry Truman played by Gary Oldman to restrict further nuclear weapon development which Truman dismisses while also calling Oppenheimer a “crybaby.” This is another part of the fear kicking, the fear of just realizing you created a weapon of massive destruction and it will keep evolving until it could actually destroy the world. Which leads to the ending of Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein together fearing that the weapons one day could lead to a nuclear holocaust.
The way Oppenheimer approaches the bombings is a very interesting one, rather than flat out showing you the destruction it goes with a much more atmospheric and psychological approach. We get glimpses of some of the casualties and damage Oppenheimer’s mind but never enough to take away from the film’s different approach. Instead the bombings are felt through the performances and atmosphere rather than just directly showing it. Oppenheimer has this brutal atmosphere that might not be brutal in the sense that you think of when you hear the word, but much more psychologically.
As far as acting, writing and directing goes everything is incredibly top notch here, Christopher Nolan takes a 3 hour long biopic and creates something truly different than you would expect, it’s a creative and masterful way to approach this subject. As I said at the beginning Oppenheimer sticks with you, perhaps it’s because of the very real message of one day one of these weapons will become so powerful that it will cause a nuclear holocaust, perhaps it’s the very raw performances that are both haunting and grounded or maybe it’s the final scene of Cillian Murphy and Tom Conti leaving the viewer with one of the most powerful scenes of the year. Whatever the case might be what is clear is that Oppenheimer is one of the best films of the year.
The unbelievable tale of one of America’s most fascinating phenomena — Beanie Babies. Flashing back to the ’90s and early 2000s, an in-depth look at how the era-defining zeitgeist came to be.
The Beanie Bubble is yet another film released in 2023 about a very popular brand or product, so far we have had Air which was about Air Jordans, Tetris which told the incredibly wild true story behind the iconic game, BlackBerry which told the rise and fall of the once popular cellphone and Flamin’ Hot the story about the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, the story told ended up being a huge lie outside of a few details. Tetris, Air and BlackBerry were fantastic films that did a fantastic job of telling the story of these products in very creative ways. Flamin’ Hot was definitely the worst of the bunch, while it wasn’t terrible it was a very beat by beat biopic that really did not do a whole lot.
The Beanie Bubble is about the Beanie Babies and the craze that was going on in the 90s, everyone I grew up had at least one of these guys heck I had a bunch of them. So I was pretty interested to see how this movie would go and while I will say that this is better than Flamin’ Hot (at least this movie is not based on a total lie), but very strangely this movie suffers from some of the exact same problems.
Let’s start with the positives because there is a decent amount to really like here, for starters I do think the cast does an excellent job with what they are given. Zach Galifianakis, Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook and Geraldine Viswanathan all give excellent performances that each add to the movie quite well, the three leading ladies for most of the movie aren’t in any scenes together so it’s quite neat to see them together later on in the movie.
Ultimately the main point with this movie is showing that the founder Ty Warner did not give any credit to three women who helped design and think of ideas for the Beanie Babies the three women being Robbie, Shelia and Maya. Which is a very important detail to talk about, unfortunately the conclusions of the movie are way too simplistic and reductive to really leave the viewer with any kind of impact.
That’s honestly the major problem here and what I hinted at earlier when I said that The Beanie Bubble suffers from some of the exact same problems as Flamin’ Hot it’s a very typical biopic that follows a lot of familiar beats and really doesn’t do anything to standout. The Beanie Bubble at gets the edge mainly due to trying to say something about giving credit, but even then it’s told in a way that is way too simplistic.
Richard Montanez, the son of a Mexican immigrant, was a janitor at Frito Lay when he came up with the idea for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. His creation, inspired by the flavours of his community, revitalises Frito-Lay and disrupts the food industry.
2023 has this interesting trend of films based off of brands which include Tetris, BlackBerry and Air all of which have been quite fantastic films and are some of the highlights so far this year. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Flamin’ Hot, not only is it below average but the story itself isn’t true at all.
Richard Montañez made 90% of the story up the only part that is true is that he eventually became an executive of Multi-Cultural Marketing at Frito-Lay, everything else in between Montañez’s upbringing and when he gets promoted is false, which is a shame because to some viewers this is definitely inspiring heck there are moments where I found it to be quite inspiring myself.
But what about the rest of the movie? The acting at the very least is solid enough Jesse Garcia does a solid job as Richard Montañez and connects to the rest of the cast quite well, Dennis Haysbert also gives a solid performance even if he plays a very traditional mentor figure Haysbert has the charisma and acting power to make it work.
The writing unfortunately is where the movie falls a bit flat, there’s a lot of typical biopic cliches that are very noticeable. Seeing a janitor become an executive is inspiring but it’s a type of story that has been seen numerous times before, even if you took away the fact that 90% of the movie is based off of a lie it would still be a very generically told story.
It’s a bit of a shame because the movie itself isn’t necessarily terrible, there’s a lot of genuinely great moments with great acting and some character bits that are once again pretty inspiring. But when you really boil down to it Flamin’ Hot isn’t anything special and not something you will ever come back to.
Jerome Reviews... 