Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
This week, the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe film releases, one of the few franchises that’s been pandemic-resistant and even then wasn’t entirely so in a couple of its outings last year. That said, kicking off blockbuster season is the second solo outing for Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). In celebration, I’m looking at the filmographies of five of the film’s stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Elizabeth Olsen, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Benedict Wong. Below are the results.
Love Actually (2003)
Romantic comedies have been around for centuries and have been a part of the cinematic landscape since nearly the beginning. Every decade has one or two such films that standout above the rest. For the early 2000s, the last period when such films were a prominent fixture at the box office, Love Actually is among the best of them. Featuring a brilliant array of prominent British actors from Hugh Grant to Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley to Colin Firth, with American Laura Linney thrown in for good measure. Early in his film career, Chiwetel Ejiofor made an appearance as Keira Knightley’s husband. This particular segment of the story revolves around Ejiofor’s best man, Andrew Lincoln, who films a videotape of the wedding that reveals that he’s in love with Knightley.
The various interconnected stories are warmly revealing and indelibly crafted. Writer Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) had already proven himself adept at writing such sweetly amusing affairs and stepped behind the camera for the first time and delivered one of the most genuinely wholesome romantic comedies of the era. His subsequent films weren’t as well received, nor did he write anything quite as amusing afterwards, but Love Actually remains a pinnacle of his achievements. If you want something lovely to share with a romantic interest, you couldn’t do much better than this film.
Moon (2009)
From tender romantic comedies, we move forward six years and into the realm of science fiction. David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones made his directorial debut with this fascinating sci-fi masterpiece about a man who is coming to an end of a three-year mission on the far side of the moon. As his psyche begins to crumble with the persistent isolation, he begins to uncover potentially sinister events surrounding his purpose in the mining facility. Sam Rockwell delivers a masterful performance in this claustrophobic and riveting production.
Since the film is mostly set within the mining camp, there isn’t a lot of room for other actors to get involved. Benedict Wong has a very brief appearance in the film alongside Matt Berry as two executives from the parent company that has sent Rockwell’s Sam Bell on this mission. It’s not a terribly important role and it’s almost a disservice to cite this as Wong’s best film; however, nothing else in his filmography even comes close to the quality of this film, the first Doctor Strange included.
A Serious Man (2009)
Anyone who’s followed me for awhile knows that I’m not a fan of the Coen Brothers. There’s something so pretentious about their work. Films like Fargo and Raising Arizona fall right on my overrated list. That said, occasionally, they put out a movie that I like quite a lot. A Serious Man is one of them. The film stars Michael Stuhlbarg as a physics professor fighting for tenure as his personal and professional life begins to crumble around him.
As with all Coen films, this one has a rather unusual narrative, touching on topics that aren’t commonly seen in cinema. Perhaps that’s their appeal. For some reason, the outlandish things that happen to Stuhlbarg’s character are fitting, giving the audience a slyly humorous look at a man trying to justify his faith in a time of massive upheaval. Stuhlbarg commands the screen delivering one of his best performances, giving audiences a browbeaten, diminished figure who can’t win for losing.
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
Speaking of great performances for the featured actor, Martha Marcy May Marlene is easily Elizabeth Olsen’s best performance. She plays a young woman who has recently escaped a cult she was a member of for some time. Through haunted memories, she recalls instances of rape and abuse, burglaries she’s forced to commit, and other heinous acts that lead her to run away and seek shelter with her sister (Sarah Paulson) who claims to have abandoned her once before and to see to her safety.
As the film progresses, we begin to see the awful situations Olsen’s Martha was put through before she could become a full fledged member of the cult and how that psychological conditioning has damaged her psyche enough to make her see threats everywhere and inhibit her ability to interact with those who’ve not suffered from such indoctrination. Olsen is terrific in the film and John Hawkes as the cult leader is her equal. Paulson and Hugh Dancy as her husband are also solid. It’s one of the few films that have adequately and evocatively dealt with the ramifications of cults and their dangerous methods.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
It’s hard to imagine Benedict Cumberbatch ever appearing in a better film. That’s not because he has bad taste in projects, but because his best performances to date have largely been in mediocre or non-taxing films. In Jane Campion’s deconstruction and dismantling of the American cowboy mythos, Cumberbatch plays Phil Burbank, a closeted gay cowboy who bristles at the notion that all the men in his life ultimately leave him. His crass, self-serving, and childish behavior exhibits itself most keenly when confronted with the effeminate persona of Kodi Smit-McPhee’s Peter Gordon, the son of Kirsten Dunst’s widow Rose who ultimately marries Phil’s brother George (Jesse Plemons).
As Phil engages in abusive behavior against Rose, Peter continues to get closer to Phil, feeding on his insecurities. The film moves in smooth, deliberate movements to its bitter conclusion, exposing the toxic masculinity Phil engages in, which ultimately leads to his own destruction. Cumberbatch is brilliant. He makes Phil so brash and cruel, yet as he begins to expose his inner demons, he almost becomes a sympathetic figure. It’s a great film with some of the most stunning framing and composition in modern cinema with brilliant performances and stellar direction all around.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.