Friday Top Five: Robert DeNiro

Needless to say, I didn't get to see The Spectacular Now last weekend (hopefully this weekend, although I'm beginning to think it's not going to happen with me and this movie). I did go to see The Family last weekend, however. I didn't write about it because, well, I had a birthday and somehow also managed to pull my back out and it took days to recover which, of course, OF COURSE, I blamed on getting older. Anyway, I didn't feel like sitting in front of a computer for any longer than I had to (I do it all day at work). The short story on The Family is - eh. It's a fine little movie about a mob informant (Robert DeNiro) and his family (including Michelle Pfeiffer and Dianna Agron, who is so pretty it physically hurts me)who hide out in a small French town and try to assimilate although it doesn't necessarily go as planned since they are all sort of crazy. The movie was pretty average, although it did have its moments and funny parts. Overall, I give it a C+. Still, it got me thinking about Robert DeNiro and the crazy great career he has had (or at least up until about the mid-90s anyway). So, I decided to focus this week's Top Five on his career. And let me tell you. It was HARD! I'm pretty satisfied with my top five although on any given day the order can change. So, here it is:

05. As Jimmy in Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
Goodfellas is one of my favorite movies of all time. And DeNiro is damn near perfect in it. However, for me, this is more Ray Liotta's movie than DeNiro's, which is why it ranks so low on my list. His performance is excellent as the outwardly calm and steady killer who on the inside is a paranoid mess. This movie is the great Scorsese masterpiece and every single performance from Liotta and DeNiro to Joe Pesci and Lorraine Bracco - are all brilliant.
Best Quote: "You took your first pinch like a man and you learn two great things in your life. Look at me, never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut."

04. As Max Cady in Cape Fear (Martin Scorsese, 1991)
I'm not the biggest fan of remakes but when said movie is remade by Martin Scorsese and stars DeNiro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis (who I think is hugely underrated as an actress)? I'm in! DeNiro stars as a convicted rapist who gets released from prison and hunts down the lawyer and family who sent him away. His performance is raw and terrifying and also, sort of sexual. DeNiro is absolutely haunting and does evil really, really well.
Best Quote: "Maybe I could chop you into 40 pieces."

03. As Michael in The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)
As far as movies from the 1970's go, this is about as perfect as you can get. It won the Best Picture Oscar back then and all these years later, it is still as effective. Christopher Walken may have won a (super deserved) Oscar, but DeNiro gives just as strong of a performance. He's cool and quiet but with so much going on behind the eyes that you almost miss how quietly effective his performance is. He's not showy and loud like in some of his other roles. This is much more intense and reserved, but not any less great.
Best Quote: "A deer has to be taken with one shot. I try to tell people that but they don't listen."

02. As Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
I don't even know what to say about how good DeNiro is in Taxi Driver (and it's not even his best role!!!). As an ordinary man back from Vietnam who becomes a night time cab driver because of his inability to sleep, we get to watch the transformation of a normal guy into an absolute maniac. It's a chilling performance and DeNiro nails it, again, without going too far over the top (the way he tended to do in his later films). Taxi Driver is a cinematic masterpiece and most of it is thanks to DeNiro's amazing performance (okay, and Jodie Foster's revelatory performance but this list isn't about her!).
Best Quote: There are so many to pick from, and there is the most obvious choice, but... "Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man."

01. As Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
It's no surprise that most of DeNiro's best roles have been directed by Scorsese. Their partnership was and is iconic and produced some of the best movies of that era. DeNiro plays a self destructive boxer who is violent in the ring, which helps him win and win, but also destroys his life outside of the ring. If you haven't seen this movie, you can probably already imagine all the ways in which DeNiro in his prime nailed this role. He gained 60 pounds. He absolutely disappeared into this role. He won an Oscar and I personally think they should have given him two.
Best Quote: "Yeah, he's a nice kid, pretty kid, don't know whether to f**k him or fight him."

Silver Linings Playbook

I know that Silver Linings Playbook is flawed. Perhaps it's because, when I saw it, I still had a bitter taste in my mouth over Les Miserables. Or maybe Silver Linings Playbook is just a very likeable, very sweet, well meaning movie. But I sort of loved it.

Directed by David O. Russell, the story is about Pat (Bradley Cooper), a man who went a little nuts after he found his wife Nicky cheating on him in their home and was committed to a mental health institution in Baltimore. At the start of the film, his well meaning mom (Jacki Weaver) takes him out of the hospital and home to Philly, where he struggles to assimilate to normal life, while trying to win back his cheating wife who has a restraining order and zero interest. His father (Robert DeNiro in a refreshing role) is an Eagles loving bookie and his brother (Shea Whigham!!) is successful in every way he is not. Eventually he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), and she's a mouthy widow who speaks her mind and doesn't take any of his crap. The two eventually team up to perform in a dance contest.

It may sound cheesy, and parts of it are, but it's also a lot of fun, and just a really well meaning, sweet movie. The screenplay is great - it's equal parts hilarious and heartfelt. The chemistry between Cooper and Lawrence is so damn good, it's truly a pleasure to watch. My biggest problem with the film is that Tiffany being caught up on Pat seems like a major character flaw. She's this strong, independent woman who wastes her time and half of the movie chasing a man who couldn't possibly be less interested in her. He's in love with someone else, and uses every single opportunity to let her know that. Why would a young, beautiful girl waste her time on a man like that? I know, I know. I guess the answer is love, or whatever, but I just found that part of it sort of insufferable. I also didn't like how the movie started out so strong and became more cliched and commonplace as it went on. But the positive things about the film (like, it's not Les Mis!) and the performance, and just the overall likeability definitely outweigh these small problems.

I read this article from Paste about the 25 best performances of the year, and Jennifer Lawrence was on the list. And she deserves it! But I really liked what they said about her, which was something to the effect of, She can literally do anything she wants right now. And I think that's true. Post Hunger Games, she's probably the biggest star not named Kristen Stewart under 25 in Hollywood. Plus, unlike Stewart, she's got the talent to back up the stardom. Plus, she's drop dead gorgeous. She absolutely can do anything in the entire world next. As Tiffany, she comes on the screen like a bat out of hell, and elevates every single scene she's a part of. I hope she wins the Oscar in a few months because she's that good in this movie. Cooper is pretty impressive as well. I've never seen him play a character so well rounded before. He's been good in other movies, but this is his first real, fleshed out character with ticks and nuerosis, and Cooper nails it. Weaver, who WOWED in Animal Kingdom a few years ago, makes a meaningless part feel real and sweet. And DeNiro is back to form, playing the sort of character he should have spent the last decade playing. He's absolutely a joy to watch, and if Meet the Fockers made you forget what a great actor he is, this movie will remind you.

Overall, Silver Linings Playbook is definitely a crowd pleaser. It's sweet and funny, fun and just plain cute. In a year of dark, depressing, divisive movies, Silver Linings is a rare feel good love story.

Grade: B+

Mini Reviews

Every year, I try to watch as many film released within that year as possible, so that at the year's end I have as many films as possible for consideration onto my best and worst lists. So, I've been keeping up with films I missed at the theater or that went straight to DVD through Netflix. Here are some mini reviews for those films.

Being Flynn
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Paul Dano, Olivia Thirlby
Plot: A wannabe writer discovers his deadbeat dad is sort of a loser despite the fact that he claims to be the greatest living American writer.
Thoughts: Solid acting from Dano and DeNiro can't save this cheesy, melodramatic, boring mess of a movie.
Grade: C+

Friends With Kids
Starring: Jennifer Westfeldt, Adam Scott, Maya Rudolf, Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm, Chris O'Dowd, Ed Burns, Megan Fox
Plot: A woman in her upper 30s and her longtime best friend decide to avoid the pratfalls of their friends who got married and had kids and just stay friends and have a kid.
Thoughts: The first two thirds of this movie are an absolute joy. The cast is fantastic and it's genuinely touching and funny and well-written. However, a cliched third act threatens to ruin everything.
Grade: B-

Hick
Starring: Chloe Grace Moretz, Blake Lively, Eddie Redmayne, Juliette Lewis, Rory Culkin
Plot: A young girl realizes she's had enough of her hick family and decideds to run away to Vegas where she plans on finding a rich man. She meets some shady people along the way.
Thoughts: A super mess of a movie, although Moretz is great. But even Juliette Lewis (who really isn't in enough movies these days) and Rory Culkin (the best Culkin!) can't save this mess.
Grade: D+

Innkeepers
Starring: Sara Paxton
Plot: On the last weekend run for a Bed and Breakfast, two co-workers decide to investigate the fact that the place may haunted.
Thoughts: A fairly effective, yet predictable, ghost story. The moments of boredom and the overall lameness is nearly saved by a really great ending.
Grade: C+

Lockout
Starring: Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace
Plot: In the near future, there is a maximum security prison floating in space. The president's daughter (Grace) happens to be there when a riot breaks out. A conman (Pearce) is sent in to save the day.
Thoughts: Super cliched in just about every way, but also not such a bad way to spend a mindless summer night. Pearce is the saving grace as a smart ass anti-hero.
Grade: C-

Project X
Plot: High schoolers throw the most epic party ever.
Thoughts: It wants to be Superbad or The Hangover, but it's not nearly funny enough to be either. It tries its best to be shocking but that's not enough.
Grade: D+

The Woman in Black
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe
Plot: A young man goes to the English countryside to investigate the death of a woman.
Thoughts: Totally boring and cliched up until about the last 5 minutes when it finally got compelling, but too little too late.
Grade: D

Limitless

Okay, so there is this little pill called NZT. If you take it, it completely opens your mind up to a world of new possibilities. Instead of only using 20% of your brain, you use all of it. You can recall facts that the normal you wouldn't even realize you knew. You can learn languages in a matter of a weekend. You can teach yourself to play the piano in three days. Oh, and you can learn all kinds of algorhythms that will help you crack the code of the Wall Street world and make you a millionaire in less than a month. Would you take it? What if you found out, after the fact, that all the other people who took the experimental drug are now either dead or very sick. Would you still take it? That's the dilemma that Bradley Cooper's Eddie Morra is faced with.

Eddie starts off the movie a hot mess. He has long strangly hair. He starts drinking at noon. He'd just been dumped by his publisher girlfriend (Abbie Cornish). He's a writer with a book deal but he sits and stares at the computer for hours before writing a single sentence (I know how that feels!). Then he bumps into an old friend, Vern (Johnny Whitworth). Vern was a one time run of the mill drug dealer but now he's better dressed and maybe into something a little more... prestigious. He introduces Eddie to a pill called NZT which Eddie immediately takes. He goes home and he writes 90 pages of his novel in an afternoon. He's feeling better, seeing things differently, having sex with a woman who used to hate him. So, he wants more.

That's just the beginning of Limitless, which is a damn good movie - exciting, adrenaline inducing, thrilling, intense. It's just a fast paced movie, it sort of takes your breath away with its frenetic pacing which only serves this movie about a man whose brain is working faster than yours ever will. The paragraphs above? That's only the first 20 minutes or so of the movie. There are plenty of twists and turns (some of which you see coming a mile away). Limitless has such a fast pace, that it's almost hard to nitpick, but nitpick I will. Like I said, there are particular plot twists that you see coming almost immediately. There are certain big action sequences that get resolved through very implausible ways. The movie focuses almost entirely on Cooper (which is fine because he's great) but almost wastes Robert DeNiro and completely wastes Abbie Cornish. Some of the hokier filmmaking choices I could have done without (letters falling from the sky as he's writing his novel, etc.).

As I said, the movie focuses almost entirely on Bradley Cooper and he is more than up for the challenge. In fact, he's superb in every aspect of this role - as the vulnerable, shy, sort of miserable man at the beginning and then as the confident, charming man throughout the rest of the film. His eyes even seem to shine a little brighter when he's on NZT. I think it's refreshing to finally see him carry a film, and do a damn good job doing it! He's been resigned to playing jerks in supporting roles for so long that it's nice to watch him be the star, and be someone who is more likable than not. Screen icon Robert DeNiro is very nearly almost wasted as a big shot Donald Trump-esque character. It's a shame that kids today only know him as that funny old guy from the Meet the Parents movie. There's an entire generation who don't know that he was once considered a living legend and one of the greatest actors of all time. I wish he'd do more films like this because when he actually has screen time he's damn good, like the DeNiro we all remember and want back so desperately. The same can't be said for Abbie Cornish, who I really am trying to like. I'm finding it hard though and this one note role isn't going to help her case with me. She's got one good scene and it involves her prowess as an ass kicking action star and not her acting skills. That said, I'm more excited to see her kick ass in Sucker Punch next week now!

Overall, Limitless certainly has it's flaws, but it's such a thrilling ride from start to finish that you almost won't even care. Plus, it can open a fun little discussion with your friends over whether or not you would take NZT.

Grade: B

Stardust, The Number 23

Stardust - This film isn't exactly an intellectual film. It doesn't exactly have the most substance. It's isn't exactly a great film. But, it is a whole lot of fun. It does everything a fairy tale should do. It has action, adventure, and love. So, Stardust is not spectacular but it is fun. At this point in this summer full of bad movies and even worse sequels, that is more than enough for me. The movie follows Tristan (Charlie Cox) who crosses the Wall into a magical world in order to find a fallen star and bring it back to the fickle woman he loves (Sienna Miller). Well, he does find the fallen star and it looks an awful lot like Claire Danes! If only the movie were so simple. It seems everyone wants the fallen star. Evil, evil witch Larnia (La Michelle Pfeiffer... who is always at her best when she's being bad) wants to find the star, cut out her heart and eat it so she can stay young forever. Meanwhile, two warring princes (Mark Strong and Jason Flemyng) are trying to find the prince because of a necklace she wears around her neck. Whoever can turn the diamond into a ruby gets to become king after their father (Peter O'Toole in a small but solid role) dies. There's a lot going on in this film and lots of wonderful actors like Robert DeNiro, Rupert Everet and Ricky Gervais pop up in small roles. The movie is funny and even though it's a bit on the long side, it's still captivating to watch. The plot is solid and fantastical with all the witches, unicorns and magical candles. The acting is a little hit or miss for me. Well, mostly hit. DeNiro absolutely steals the show. There is one particular scene that will forever change the way you look at DeNiro. Promise. Pfeiffer is fantastic, as always. This really is the summer of Pfeiffer. I love her when she's playing a nice person but I love her even more when she's playing a villain. She does it so very, very well. Cox is a charming, solid actor. The weakest link? Well, unfortunately for a film that relies so heavily on her, it's Claire Danes. There's this thing she does. I don't know how to explain it. It's almost like she uses her face too much to express emotion. Yet, at the same time, she's not really all that expressive. I can't explain it. It used to be an endearing thing when she was younger. It worked for her on My So-Called Life and in Romeo + Juliet and other films. But, she's not young anymore. She's growing up and she should becoming a better actress. Unfortunately, I think she hit her peak at 15 or 16. This thing she does it bothered me in Evening as well. But there she was part of an ensemble and it was more about other characters as much as it was about her. Here, in Stardust, the film relies so heavily on her character that you really can't ignore 'the thing.' The movie is flawed, it's not perfect. It's charming but it's disposable. Will I remember this movie in December? I'm not so sure. However, compared to other films that were released this summer, Stardust is one of the better films.

Grade: B

The Number 23 (DVD) - This is an okay concept mixed with a horrible script, distracting cinematography and mediocre performances. It's been a while since I've been so bored with a film. I had expectations with this film but nothing major. I wanted to see it in theaters but never got around to it. The plot makes little sense and leaves so much to be desired. I don't even want to bore you with plot. Long story short: Jim Carrey plays Walter Sparrow and his wife Agatha (Virginia Madsen) buys him a book for his birthday called The Number 23. In it, a man becomes obsessed with the number 23 and then so does Sparrow. He finds a lot of similarities with his own life. Can you see where the hell it's going? Because I could! From a mile and a half away! The premise is obvious and tedious and not convincing in the least. The story really fails to give a true fact or formula to this whole 23 nonsense. Most of it is such a huge, hugh, stretch (especially the whole 'pink' thing... something about red being a certian number and white being a certain number and when you add them up and divide by 4 (because there are four letters in pink, OF COURSE) then that's 23! Ridiculous. How about the dog. Ned. What? The name has 3 letters and he has 2 eyes so 23? Jesus Christ). 32 is the reverse of 23! What a laugh. I thought this was a drama. There's really nothing there to convince ME (and YOU) that this is genuine. There is never a moment where I (or YOU) thought, "Oh my! This is brilliant! Can this be? Yes, this is genius! The number 23 really is universal." Since it fails to do this, we really can't buy into Walter's obsession with the number 23. He comes off as a lame guy who is either insane or bored or both. As if this obsession isn't enough, he then becomes obsessed with finding the author of the book (who knows him so well *wink, nudge*) to find the answers he's searching for. Turns out the author is a killer and the killer might still be out there so Walter becomes obsessed with finding the killer before he kills more people. The movie lacks a focal point. It's about a book and a man and a man in a book. Suicide Blondes and saxophones and pink and sleazy psyhciatrists and cakes and dogs named Ned and detective magazines and women in red. Trying to be film noir, much? This movie is just plain bad. I'm not going to give this movie an F because Jim Carrey plays a disturbed man very well (somehow that doesn't surprise me). However, his character has no development. You don't care about him or get to know him or have any empathy for him. This review is sort of all over the place just like the movie. Whatever. Now I'm going to go sit down and write a film about the number 5 and how it cursed me in my life. Like... I spent 5 dollars to sit through this terrible movie that a 5 year old could have written in 5 minutes.

Grade: D-