American Made Has Tom Cruise Doing Strong Work In Committing 1980's Debauchery

My yearning for Tom Cruise to do more non-blockbuster work has been heightened by seeing him in American Made, which has Cruise delivering one of his better performances in a while as Barry Seal (Tom Cruise), an airline pilot who passes time in his mundane life by smuggling certain everyday items across the border for those willing to pay up for such items. He's caught in the act by a CIA agent known as Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) who offers Barry the chance to use both his piloting skills and his yearning for a more exciting life by piloting a plane that can take photos of the bases of operations for Communist insurgents located South of the American border.

The 1932 Take On Scarface Still Remains One Of The Best Gangster Movies!

Howard Hughes is like a never-ending source of historical trivia. The guy's eccentric and reclusive private life is already the stuff of legend, and while I was well aware of him having a heavy hand in the film industry, I had no idea he was a staunch fighter against The Production Code (an entity meant to curb raunchy or unsavory behavior in American cinema) while he was the producer of the 1932 version of Scarface. Apparently, he told the directors in charge of this project (Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson) to forego any consideration for having their Scarface adhere to the guidelines of The Production Code and instead focus on making the most realistic and highest quality movie they could.

Raging Bull Refuses To Box Its Character Into Conventional Sports Movie Narratives

My favorite part about Martin Scrosese's work is how much is bubbling underneath the surface of his works. Taxi Driver captures the post-Vietnam angst of an entire generation looking for a hero in an incredibly dangerous and psychotic way while The Wolf Of Wall Street provides an unflinching look at 21st century corruption. Something like Silence could fill multiple essays with its subtext and underlying ideas. For Raging Bull, there's admittedly not quite as much going on beneath the surface (it's very much a typical "Career victory leads to personal destruction" tale) but it's still quite the riveting tale, no doubt about that.

Focus Review

The Con, The Chef, The Wife And His Lover

There's a lot of money stolen, exchanged and gambled in Focus, a con artist feature that's kind of a drama, sort of a comedy at times, and mostly functional without ever being memorable. I doubt anyone will get bored by it, but I also doubt you'll be quoting it weeks later or contemplating the more intricate aspects of it's performances. It's the kind of movie that's born to be sold for five dollars at your local Kroger, but that doesn't mean Focus is without it's distinctive charms.

Tammy Review

This movie made more money in a single day than
The Immigrant has made in a month-and-a-half. We have failed
people. We have become monsters.

Let's get this out of the way; Tammy isn't a good movie. In fact, I'll even be bold and say it's a bad one. It's not abysmally, soul-crushingly awful like God's Not Dead or Transformers: Jesus Christ, That Movie Refused To End, but yes, Tammy is bad. And it's poor quality is only emphasized by the ambition that project contains. Ya see, the movie is really more of a drama than anything else, with numerous moments that are supposed to be devastating in terms of emotional impact. And considering Melissa McCarthy was one of three writers on the project, I gotta give her props for attempting to expand the range of movies she appears in.