#samuel l jackson
Films I’ve Watched in 2020 (324/324)
Death to 2020 (2020)
dir. Al Campbell, Alice Mathias
“Some of the doctors caught the virus early on and tried to raise the alarm. But blowing the whistle while you’re on a ventilator? Ah, that’s a big ask.”
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How do you emphasize to the audience that something is important? Well, you could always cut to a close-up, but how about something subtler? Today I consider ensemble staging — a style of filmmaking that directs the audience exactly where to look, without ever seeming to do so at all.
Eight Ways to Get the Audience to Look at Someone/Something:
1) Let Them Speak
2) Make Them Brighter or Bring Them Closer
3) Let Them Move (Especially Hands or Eyes)
4) Put Them in the Center of Frame
5) Turn Them Towards the Lens
6) Separate Them from the Group
7) Isolate Them by Moving the Camera
8) Have Other People Look at Them
“I keep having these memories. I see flashes. I think i had a life here… but I can’t tell if it’s real.”
I read The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey and watched the Apple TV+ limited series.
Here’s my take.
The Book
“That’s how Ptolemy imagined the disposition of his memories, his thoughts: they were still his, still in the range of his thinking, but they were, many and most of them, locked on the other side a closed door that he’s lost the key for. So his memory became like secrets held away from his own mind. But these secrets were noisy things; they babbled and muttered behind the door, and so if he listened closely he might catch a snatch of something he once knew well.”
This literary-mystery novel wasn’t what I was expecting, but kept my attention. The layered idea of an untrusting, testy, hoarding elderly man living in isolation with early stages of dementia, the will to remember and ultimately making a deal with the devil to tend to unfinished business is a clever take.
Mosley vividly depicts Ptolemy’s wandering mind in the midst of his depleting memory and the bonds he forms in the present, as well as those he formed in the past, but mentally addressees presently. Think of a dream state. The relationship between 91-year-old Ptolemy and 17-year-old Robyn was initially unsettling because of the sexual references then veers into a close friendship, treating each other with care and protection like family, bringing clarity to each other’s life.
The Series
The limited series is a great adaptation of the novel. The one thing this visual portrayal captures that the book falls short of is the innocence of Ptolemy and Robyn’s grandfather-granddaughter or uncle-great niece like relationship from beginning to end. (Those sexual references in the book that gladly doesn’t make it to the screen.)
The layers of protection amongst our primary characters, the things they hold onto and how it all carries back to past life lessons and present revelations is well-translated from book to screen. Samuel L. Jackson and Dominique Fishback deliver compelling performances that feels like the characters were made specifically for them and complements one another, along with fitting actors to fill out the ensemble cast. The cinematography is vivid when it comes to showing Ptolemy’s state of dementia and well-thought out in terms of angles and scene structure, as well as the use of dull and vibrant colors to represent a foggy life versus one of clarity.
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Pulp Fiction(1994)
Starting tomorrow Variety’s Actors on Actors will begin rolling out. Who are part of this year’s Emmys season lineup?
Jennifer Aniston (“The Morning Show”) with Sebastian Stan (“Pam & Tommy”)
Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”) with Adam Scott (“Severance”)
Viola Davis (“The First Lady”) with Samuel L. Jackson (“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey”)
Jared Leto (“WeCrashed”) with Amanda Seyfried (“The Dropout”)
Anne Hathaway (“WeCrashed”) with Jeremy Strong (“Succession”)
Zendaya (“Euphoria”) with Andrew Garfield (“Under the Banner of Heaven”)
Courteney Cox (“Shining Vale”) with Faith Hill (“1883”)
Tom Hiddleston (“The Essex Serpent” and “Loki”) with Lily James (“Pam & Tommy”)
Jung Ho-yeon (“Squid Game”) with Sandra Oh (“The Chair” and “Killing Eve”)
Christina Ricci (“Yellowjackets”) with Sydney Sweeney (“Euphoria”)
Cynthia Nixon (“And Just Like That” and “The Gilded Age”) with Bowen Yang (“Saturday Night Live”)
Martin Short (“Only Murders in the Building”) with Jean Smart (“Hacks”)
Josh Brolin (“Outer Range”) with a mystery guest.
Trick or Treat Studios has created a replica of the Mr. Snuggles puppet as seen in Spiral: From the Book of Saw. Sculpted by The Scary Closet’s Mark Anthony, the puppet stands 16.5" tall and is packaged in a window box. It costs $199.99 and is expected to begin shipping on October 26.
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Trick or Treat Studios has created a replica of the Mr. Snuggles puppet as seen in Spiral: From the Book of Saw. Sculpted by The Scary Closet’s Mark Anthony, the puppet stands 16.5" tall and is packaged in a window box. It costs $199.99 and is expected to begin shipping on October 26.
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Django Unchained has generated quite a bit of excitement upon release. Quentin Tarantino’s previous film Inglourious Basterds was hailed as a remarkable return to form from the maverick director so hopes have been considerably high.
The plot centres on a freed slave and a bounty hunter who set out on a mission to free the wife of the slave from a charismatic but cruel plantation owner. Along the way, there is much mayhem and shooting exploits.
Undoubtedly there is some fine acting on display here. Jamie Foxx puts in a tremendously understated performance as Django, the freed slave, while Christoph Waltz is excellent as the bounty hunter. The Austrian-born actor’s star is on the rise following his Oscar win a few years ago. Leonardo Di Caprio continues his fine run of form as the dastardly plantation owner while Samuel L Jackson provides a fine slice of wit as a loyal house slave.
Django Unchained has performed well at the box office and is well in the reckoning for success at the Oscars next month. Tarantino has proven time and again that he can do whatever he wants. There is plenty of crude and racist language to be heard but also some sophisticated humour on show.
The length of the film is a crucial point. At over 160 minutes, it is a tad long and could certainly have been a bit shorter. There is plenty of blood and guts but fans of Tarantino wouldn’t have it any other way.
There is much to savour about this film but it falls far short of his best work. Having said that, it is an ambitious project to create a modern spaghetti western and Tarantino manages to achieve exactly what he set out to do.
Jules Winnfield
The film follows the Executive Bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) in his goal to get world class hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) from London to the Hague to testify in the trial of Belarus dictator Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman). The only question is who wants to kill Kincaid more, the goons hired by the dictator or his own bodyguard. There’s are some subplots as both men try and get back to the women they love, but it would be a little too generous to say that there is more to this movie than that.
Stylistically it is refreshing to see Ryan Reynolds not only try to play the straight man in this comedy duo, but it’s not terribly unsurprising that he can excel in this role as his previous work on The Woman in Gold showed that he has much more range than most probably associate with his career. As Deadpool pointed out it’s not his superior acting ability that got him this far, but that ability might keep him riding high for longer than anyone initially expected. At this point it would be nearly pointless to talk about the fact that Samuel L. Jackson does a spectacular job in his role, probably because there isn’t a role he can’t blend into well. Sadly, while Gary Oldman does an adequate job, it’s a role anyone could have played and didn’t require the excellence of Gary Oldman to do it.
It is simply a wonderfully enjoyable film. Not really intended to be more than a fun excursion of two hours.
However, there is one brief moment of depth in the film where Kincaid points out that most of the people that Bryce protects are fairly corrupt and that the only people he takes contracts to kill all deserve it (by his standards at least…it’s also clear that he’s fairly amoral so what counts as something worthy of death in Kincaid’s mind is almost certainly skewed from what most would consider morality). But in his own defense Bryce points out that he doesn’t get to decide who lives and who dies. And I think this is a very relevant point to make in the current political climate.
Jackson’s Kincaid is what we would all prefer to do in life. Be it with a fist, a gun, or as in the case of this movie, a broken beer bottle to the carotid artery; most of us look at rallies –of unquestionably vile Nazis, Klansmen, and alt-right scum countered by communists butchers who would be willing to repeat the atrocities of the last century of communist horrors all because they’re too stupid to understand even basic economics—and think I would really enjoy seeing this scum just wiped off the face of the planet. A modern Stalingrad which wiped out both Nazis and Communist would probably fill the hearts of many with a song…because let’s be bluntly honest, between the alt-right and antifa there isn’t a single decent person in either group. And deep down we would all like to indulge our inner Kincaid and at the very least punch them.
However, despite these urges we have to go with our inner Bryce and follow the law, because we don’t get to decide who lives and who dies. That is not for us. We have to follow the law, and annoyingly defend the right to speak for these sacks of shit. Now we may take the highest amount of glee when they step one nanometer over the law and bring down the harshest punishments possible, and be so incredibly justified in mercilessly defending ourselves when either group turns violent (as they always do). Which to a great degree is how Bryce deals with the violent people in his life—they’re pretty much all dead the second they go against him.
And I’ll grant I’m shoehorning this into a situation the writer was probably not thinking about, but it works. So, go for the humor and action, but take away one small scene that can illustrate some more relevant concepts.…
Happy Birthday John Travolta!
The Avengers (2012) dir. Joss Whedon
In The Mighty Thor #341, Thor actually meets Clark Kent. After asking Nick Fury to help him create a human identity to go by to blend in, Nick gives him a pair of glasses, insisting “They always worked for that other guy!” Then in the hall, Thor runs into Clark Kent, who leaves suspicious of him. It’s not related to the plot, but a fun little easter egg!
I wonder what would happen if Samuel L Jackson was in the Wizard of Oz? http://weej.co.uk/the-wizard-of-oz-starring-samuel-l-jackson/
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Bring it here brother
