Paragraphs of Love III

The Paperboy

Since 2011, Matthew Mcconaughey has starred in a legendary string of films: The Lincoln Lawyer, Bernie, Killer Joe, Magic Mike and The Paperboy. All are noteworthy films, I believe all are available at Redbox and I recommend seeing them all. But this post isn’t about Mcconaughey, I just wanted to point that out. 

The focus of this post will be on The Paperboy. It’s a thriller written and directed by Lee Daniels (the same guy who brought us Precious, produced Monster’s Ball and is currently directing The Butler starring Forrest Whitaker, Terrence Howard, Oprah Winfrey etc). I like to describe Daniels’ filmmaking as eccentric, obscene and violent and The Paperboy is no exception. 

It has a star studded ensemble cast which includes Mcconaughey, John Cusack, Nicole Kidman, Zac Effron, David Owelowo and Macy Gray. The story is set in the old South. It revolves around an inmate on death row (Cusack), a woman who falls in love with him through writing letters back and forth (Kidman), two reporters investigating what they believe to be a wrongful conviction of the death row inmate (Mcconaughey and Owelowo) and the reporter’s kid brother who lost his college swimming scholarship and is back home because he has no where else to go (Effron). Macy Gray is the family’s maid and narrates the film.

In a span of 101 minutes, this film tackles uncomfortable issues like race relations, the N word, homosexuality, addiction, unconventional sexual relations, the prison system, psychopaths, parent abandonment, misogyny etc.

No doubt, after viewing this film, you will probably think, “that was strange,” but it is a compelling story, it adresses issues that often go unmentioned in standard Hollywood films, and Kidman’s performance alone is worth any admission price (but the entire cast did a wonderful job, I really liked Effron in this film). I enjoyed this movie and think it’s Daniel’s best work yet. 

 

Argo [Movie Review]

You know how movies based on true stories always have the pictures of the real people at the end? Well in Argo, they paired the photographs of the real person right next to the actor or actress who portrayed him or her, with a small caption. I was amazed at how much the actors looked like the real life characters they were playing.

Then, for the final photograph of the main character, the mastermind behind Argo, the format was changed. No longer were the photographs of the actor and real life person shown in a frontal side by side. In this shot, the real Tony Mendez and the actor who played him, Ben Affleck, were shown standing, in a side profile, shaking hands. At this moment, for the very first time, I realized something.

Tony Mendez isn’t white!

As evidence in the photos, meticulous care was taken to physically portray the actors accurately with their real life counterparts, so why wasn’t a Latino actor cast to play Tony Mendez? Hollywood cheats and steals when it comes to giving people of color quality, lead roles. 

While I enjoyed Argo, the white-washing of Tony Mendez served as a huge disappointment to me. But to discuss the film, Affleck proves for the third time, that he’s an exceptional director, if only a mediocre actor. 

The pacing of this film was everything. I don’t remember ever feeling so anxious about a situation presented on the big screen of a movie theater. I cared about these characters, I was emotionally invested in their well-being. I was rooting for Mendez. I wanted my fellow Americans to be okay.

Despite this film evoking some sense of patriotism within me, it wasn’t an American love story. I felt like this was an accurate depiction of the parts both America and Iran played in this fiasco: the good, the bad and the ugly.