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.
Although the top box office film this weekend will be Black Adam, it’s George Clooney and Julia Roberts who I want to tackle in this week’s 5 Favorites post. Both actors got their start in the 1980s, Clooney starting out on The Facts of Life on television and Roberts getting her big break in the film Mystic Pizza. Roberts would rise to stardom as the decade faded in her one-two punch of Steel Magnolias and Pretty Woman and Clooney would become a sensation with his co-starring role on the NBC medical drama ER. This week, they both return to the romantic comedy genre in Ticket to Paradise where they play warring exes coming together to protect their daughter from a questionable nuptial engagement. Tackling both, I was able to isolate each’s absolute best roles. Roberts’ came at the beginning of her lengthy career while Clooney’s came two decades later.
Steel Magnolias (1989)
The story of six southern women facing various tribulations, but finding strength in one another, Steel Magnolias is centered in and around Truvy’s (Dolly Parton) in-home beauty salon. In addition to Parton, there’s Sally Field as M’Lynn in the ostensible lead position, Julia Roberts as her daughter Shelby, Daryl Hannah as newcomer Annelle, Olympia Dukakis as gossip Clairee, and Shirley MacLaine as misanthrope “Ouiser.” They work through life, death, tragedy, and comedy together. It’s a terrific ensemble brought together in an adaptation of a stage play that doesn’t feel as stage bound as many such films can.
Getting into too much depth in the story, or specifically what goes on with several of the characters, might detract from the more emotional moments in the film, so I’ll just leave it at this. The performances are all terrific. The weakest link is Hannah who plays the mousy Annelle. She does adequately, but when working opposite the likes of MacLaine, Dukakis, and Field, it’s easy to pale in comparison. Then again, neophyte Roberts nails her role and rightfully landed an Oscar nomination for it. MacLaine and Dukakis are tremendous together, playing easily off one another for the best buddy pairing you could expect. Hell, a buddy comedy with just those two would have been wonderful.
No original review.
Pretty Woman (1990)
Moving on to Roberts’ second Oscar nomination in as many years, Pretty Woman was directed by Garry Marshall from a script by J.F. Lawton. Although it’s not credited as such, Pretty Woman is like a modern take on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion about a wealthy man (Richard Gere) who takes a hooker (Julia Roberts) under his wing and turns her into a socially-acceptable figure. Of course, things don’t always go the way they are intended and both of them end up teaching the other lessons about life and love. Plus, the “hooker with a heart of gold” cliché got its biggest and broadest exemplar with this film.
While the whole thing seems rather trite today, in its day, it was a huge success and it further cemented Roberts’ star status. While she would never really have as big a hit as this, she went on to great things as you might have heard. As for this film, it has its problems and Marshall is that kind of director. He spins a good yarn, but there’s always some superficiality to some of the content. That said, Roberts and Gere give terrific performances. It’s a trifle of a late-80s, early-90s aesthetic that may well be one of the last of its kind, released before the combination blockbuster special effects event film/indie heyday that would emerge from the 1990s.
No original review.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
I don’t often include animated films for actors simply because voice over work requires just a shade less skill simply because the animators give the figures their facial expressions, sometimes based on the actors, but not always. Regardless, it’s Clooney’s vocal work here that elevates the film beyond its twee beginnings. Directed by Wes Anderson, the film is about a thief named simply Mr. Fox (Clooney) whose crime spree endangers his family and community as a trio of farmers come out in search of his hide. However, Mr. Fox is clever and while he has some setbacks, he will delight and thrill the audience before the film’s conclusion.
Something of a cross between a heist film like Ocean’s 11 and a Coen Bros. thriller, Fantastic Mr. Fox is every bit the Wes Anderson film. It’s delightfully appointed, filled with a bevy of talented actors (Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Willem Dafoe most especially), and it is the most broadly accessible film in the Anderson filmography. It’s a film that can please kids, but will more pleasantly appeal to adults who want a grown-up edge to their narratives. Worth seeking out for Clooney and Anderson completionists, but a good time for some of those who aren’t enamored with the Anderson style.
Up in the Air (2009)
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner adapted Walter Kim’s novel of the same name about a downsizer named Ryan Bingham, played by Clooney, whose human resources, employment-termination firm is hired to go into regional locations and let go most or all of a company’s staff. As a frequent flyer, he meets a fellow traveler (Vera Farmiga) with whom he starts a casual relationship, meeting up as frequently as they can while on the road. When an ambitious new hire (Anna Kendrick) tries to modernize their procedures through teleconferenced terminations, Clooney protests and is assigned to give her an in-person example of the process to acquaint her with procedures and how he handles the difficult task ahead of him with each new event.
Reitman’s film was his most successful at that point in his career. After turning in terrific work with Thank You for Smoking and Juno, Up in the Air cemented him as one of his generation’s best filmmakers. Unfortunately, it was all down hill from there. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Directing, and Adapted Screenplay as well as for each of the principle actors. While Clooney’s wasn’t the best of the year, it was one of his best performances ever and the same can be said for both Farmiga and Kendrick, the latter of whom should have been more solidly in the hunt for a win that year than she ultimately was.
The Descendants (2011)
Clooney has been known to work with some very talented directors. Anderson and Reitman came before this one by Alexander Payne. Payne managed to bring out of him an even better performance than in Up in the Air. Here, Clooney plays Matt King, a successful attorney pressured by his relatives to sell a plot of Hawaiian real estate. A boating accident leaves his wife comatose, forcing him to care for his two troubled daughters alone. Shailene Woodley brilliantly plays the eldest daughter who must come to terms with information her father reveals about her mother’s affair. Meanwhile, Clooney’s resolve is crumbling as he faces assaults from all sides without any idea of how to adequately handle them all.
Payne’s films always feature fascinating interplay between the characters, giving his actors a great deal of material to work with. Clooney and Woodley excel while Beau Bridges, Judy Greer, and Robert Forster provide solid support. This was Payne’s first film since his major Oscar success Sideways, but was the first feature film he co-wrote the screenplay for without Jim Taylor. This one, he adapted Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel alongside Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. It was easily one of the best films of the year and garnered five Oscar nominations including Picture, Directing, and Adapted Screenplay. Clooney was one of the five and certainly should have been more in contention for the Oscar than he was. Woodley, much to the Academy’s great shame, was not nominated.
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