Rewatched April 18th, 2023
Up to 10 stars this viewing. It's just such an amazing film made by such an incredible filmmaker. PTA is by far one of the best working directors and screenwriters today and this film made the fifth of his to score 10 stars from me. I feel like a lot of my reviews say how criminal it is that the Academy hasn't awarded or nominated someone for an Oscar, but PTA is perhaps one of the biggest examples of how the Academy has failed to truly award him with a win. I mean 11 nominations and still no win??? Come on now! Anyway, as far as performances Julianne Moore really shines here. Mark Wahlberg is really at his best here. Burt Reynolds also gave an excellent performance, but it's hard to get the background info about him firing his agent for this film out of my mind when watching it even though he is really great. William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Heather Graham, John C. O'Reilly, Don Cheadle, Thomas Jane, and Luis Guzman in their supporting roles are all great as well, especially Macy, Hoffman, and Graham. The cinematography by Robert Elswit is also groovy (had to for the time period 😁). The soundtrack is full of excellent tracks from that time. Everything else is just top notch as well. Just amazing!
Up to 10 stars this viewing. It's just such an amazing film made by such an incredible filmmaker. PTA is by far one of the best working directors and screenwriters today and this film made the fifth of his to score 10 stars from me. I feel like a lot of my reviews say how criminal it is that the Academy hasn't awarded or nominated someone for an Oscar, but PTA is perhaps one of the biggest examples of how the Academy has failed to truly award him with a win. I mean 11 nominations and still no win??? Come on now! Anyway, as far as performances Julianne Moore really shines here. Mark Wahlberg is really at his best here. Burt Reynolds also gave an excellent performance, but it's hard to get the background info about him firing his agent for this film out of my mind when watching it even though he is really great. William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Heather Graham, John C. O'Reilly, Don Cheadle, Thomas Jane, and Luis Guzman in their supporting roles are all great as well, especially Macy, Hoffman, and Graham. The cinematography by Robert Elswit is also groovy (had to for the time period 😁). The soundtrack is full of excellent tracks from that time. Everything else is just top notch as well. Just amazing!