jmclane-57815 Reviews

The Harbinger (I) (2022)

Character driven which is rare for horror

[8/10 · 10 October 2022]

Lead actor is the real deal and that goes a long way. If you're going to watch an actor carry a movie, he better have "it" and he does. It's rare for these movies you've never heard of. Even more so once you know all his secrets and the film's secrets overall. His emotional range in the film is from 0 to max and everything in between, and all of it is real. My husband and I tend to follow actors and their movies just as much as looking for movies themselves. He's a great discovery. Look forward to watching his future stuff.

All of the acting is great. When the town's secret is revealed you realize the townspeople were great too. The actress who played the wife and mother was wonderful. The daughter was great - heartbreaking watching her dad try to get through to her. Their relationship is the heart of this. The neighbor is an amazing actor. The guy who played the devil was an absolute delight.

As for the movie, this is not one of those films where you can daydream. It is very detail oriented. My husband tends to be more critical of films than I am but when it was over he really enjoyed it. We both thought it was original. We were both emotionally moved at the end. That is rare for him.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Greatest leading man ever?

[9/10 · 10 October 2022]

If not, it's pretty damn close. My husband and I are different than most because instead of just looking for movies we tend to find actors we love and then watch all of their movies. We're fans of the star first and then the movie second. Humphrey Bogart had it all. He was authentic, compelling, and could convey so many emotions with just a twinkle or a tinge of doubt, or suspicion, or fear, or lust, or greed, whatever it was he had to convey, he did it with full conviction. If there's a better movie star that ever lived, I can't name them. There may be actors with more range, but not better movie stars. I think actors can be great even if they don't transform as Day-Lewis does. Don't get me wrong, Day-Lewis is a genius, but an actor who is completely authentic and compelling (something going on underneath) is just as interesting to watch as an actor who transforms themselves.

Dead Man Walking (1995)

Sean Penn touched by God

[8/10 · 10 October 2022]

Him, along with certain actors are touched by God. Meryl Streep, Kathy Bates, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Katherine Hepburn, Bogart, Anthony Hopkins, Day-Lewis, Denzel, Nicholson, Caine, the list goes on.

My husband and I tend to watch actors that we love and then watch all of their movies. Sean Penn has an amazing body of work. We don't care if an actor truly transforms themselves to play a role (but that's impressive) as much as we care about how authentic a performance is. For example, Michael Caine is pretty much always similar and yet he's compelling in every performance he's ever given. But Sean Penn gives a performance here that is next level. Touched by God is the only way to describe it.

Cast Away (2000)

Tom Hanks or Daniel Day-Lewis

[9/10 · 10 October 2022]

They both have their place and there's room for both. These two actors, and I'll throw Sean Penn in there, are touched by God. It's hard to explain but when you see an actor you just know it. Feel it. My husband and I tend to gravitate toward actors rather than movies and then watch all of their work.

Tom and Daniel are truly transformational but their acting is always believable and authentic. My husband and I don't tend to get emotional at movies but Tom Hanks in Forest Gump, Philadelphia, this, etc. Seems to pull those emotional chords for us. Sean Penn did the same in Dead Man Walking. Day-Lewis did that for us in Lincoln. Touched by God.

Lincoln (2012)

Truly a masterful performance by Day-Lewis

[9/10 · 10 October 2022]

My husband and I are a little odd in that we tend to gravitate towards certain actors and follow their work, as opposed to just looking for a movie to watch. We've done that with all of Daniel Day-Lewis's films and for the most part, have never been let down.

He's at the top of his game here. This is is crowning achievement. Besides doing a silly goofy comedy where he has to be completely relaxed and making fun of himself, I think he could do anything. But having said that, that is probably what he will conquer next. You really can't throw a challenge at him that he can't field. He became not just the president of the United States, but arguably the most iconic and certainly the most caricatured of them all. But he did it in as much of an authentic way as he could have.