Tag Archives: Willem Dafoe

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Poor Things (2023) Movie Review

December 28, 2023 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of Yorgos Lanthimos’ films (Kinetta is a bit of black sheep for me, but it has its interesting moments). Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Favourite are all in my personal top 10 from their respective years. Alps and Killing of a Sacred Deer intrigue me enough that rewatches could easily lift them into top 10 lists of their own. Lanthimos makes exciting and unique films. He has a fantastic grasp of tone and morbid humor. And he pulls great performances out of his casts. Although Poor Things is imperfect, it checks all of these boxes, as well.

Poor Things is something of a libertine Frankenstein story. In Victorian England, a surgeon called God (short for Godwin Baxter) tasks a young medical student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) with Continue reading Poor Things (2023) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Tommaso (2020) Movie Review

June 10, 2020 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Willem Dafoe’s title character in Tommaso is conspicuously similar to the film’s writer-director Abel Ferrara. Tommaso is an American of around Ferrara’s age living in Rome with Nikki (Cristina Chiriac), a wife half his age, and their young daughter (played by Ferrara’s real-life wife and young daughter). He is a writer-director trying to crack the code of his next movie, which sounds like a heavily meditative, self-reflexive piece (not unlike Tommaso itself reads).

Dafoe, no stranger to Ferrara after multiple collaborations over the years, is primed to fill this role. In an early scene at an AA meeting, Dafoe monologues expertly about Continue reading Tommaso (2020) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Motherless Brooklyn (2019) Movie Review

November 4, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton) is an assistant private investigator working under a man named Frank (Bruce Willis). Frank is his mentor, his father figure. Lionel was an orphan when he was taken under Frank’s wing. When Frank is murdered, it is only natural that Lionel will do whatever is necessary to uncover the reason behind his death. What he does not expect, though, is how entrenched this mystery is within a conspiracy of political power.

Lionel suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome. He is also OCD and can remember every word a person says. In terms of characterization, it is kind of Continue reading Motherless Brooklyn (2019) Movie Review →

A Movies, Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Drama, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

The Lighthouse (2019) Movie Review

September 24, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

It may be cliched to refer to beautiful-looking films with the phrase “every frame is a painting,” but in the case of Robert Eggers’ latest, The Lighthouse, many of the shots are picturesque. The introduction of our two characters, lighthouse keepers Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) and Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe), looks like a stoic portrait. The reverse shot that follows, depicting the lighthouse on the black ocean, looks like a Gothic landscape piece.

The shot compositions in The Lighthouse are the icing on the cake that is this film about the mental disintegration of the two men, who find themselves Continue reading The Lighthouse (2019) Movie Review →

2019 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2019 Oscar Predictions – Best Actor

January 22, 2019 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

The Best Actor race is a tight one this year. You have fan favorites like A Star is Born. Crowd-pleasers like Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book. Transformative performances in Christian Bale and Rami Malek. And Willem Dafoe is in there, too. Because why not?

The Nominees:

Continue reading 2019 Oscar Predictions – Best Actor →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Vox Lux (2018) Movie Review

December 10, 2018 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Vox Lux appears to be a scathing commentary on the cynical pop music industry (and the cynical nature of fame in contemporary culture) while simultaneously being a sympathetic endorsement of the pop star as a burdening position of symbolic courage and confidence. These two narrative aims clash throughout Brady Corbet’s film, causing both tension and befuddlement.

The immediate callousness is the toughest pill to swallow, and it is a callousness that follows through the remainder of the film. If you can stomach the Continue reading Vox Lux (2018) Movie Review →

2018 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2018 Academy Awards Predictions – Best Supporting Actor

January 23, 2018 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Not unlike his Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri co-star Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell seems to have this award locked up. But there are no sure things in this world.

The Nominees:

Continue reading 2018 Academy Awards Predictions – Best Supporting Actor →

2018 Academy Awards, Award Ceremonies

2018 Academy Awards Predictions – Best Supporting Actor Nominees

January 8, 2018 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

The Oscars Best Supporting Actor category is one that has yet to be narrowed down. There are a couple of sure-things. There is also plenty of upset potential. The well of actors in the category runs deep. Let’s try to figure it out!

The Nominees:

Continue reading 2018 Academy Awards Predictions – Best Supporting Actor Nominees →

2018 Golden Globes

2018 Golden Globes Predictions – Best Supporting Actor

December 11, 2017 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

Someone tell me, is this the first time an actor has received a major award nomination for only doing reshoots? This is the easiest award nomination Christopher Plummer has ever received!

Anyway, let’s talk predictions.

The Nominees – Best Supporting Actor

Continue reading 2018 Golden Globes Predictions – Best Supporting Actor →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Murder on the Orient Express (2017) Movie Review

November 10, 2017 Alex Brannan Leave a comment

In Murder on the Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh directs Kenneth Branagh as Agatha Christie’s famous detective Hercule Poirot. The film informs us of his reputation by opening with Poirot solving a crime in front of an abundant crowd, as if he is the main attraction at a circus. In case this was not enough—and because the script felt the need to address its own ludicrous facial hair creation—Daisy Ridley’s Mary Debenham recites her first line in the film thusly:

“I know your mustache…from the papers!”

When the plot of the film begins in earnest—in which a mobster criminal (Johnny Depp) hiding on the train is Continue reading Murder on the Orient Express (2017) Movie Review →