2005 Also Ran Movies

"The Upside of Anger"

Set in the Detroit suburb of Toronto this movie was very odd. The lady's husband runs off and she spends a year going on a bitchy tear only to discover he's been dead in the back woods the whole time. Joan Allen struggles mightily to bring more to it than that but the script lets her down. Kevin Costner, funny as a washed up Detroit Tiger doing sports radio, is the one enjoyable part. His best line, which I use as often as I can, "I think you know my position on free food."

"Walk the Line"

This movie commits one of the cardinal sins of a biopic-making it's protagnist's story dull and taking away it's singularity. Just another drugged musician wrestling with personal demons and success was how this one came across to me despite the heroic acting efforts of Joaquim Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. They can play every instrument in the band but if the script is lacking...

"Broken Flowers"

After several movies of full of it I'm over the mopey Bill Murray. What rang absolutely true in "Lost in Translation" now just seems tired. I hope his next role has a little zing to it. And to praise this movie for celebrating older actresses just pisses me off. They are some fine actresses, of course they did great things with their small parts. I don't want to applaud people for choosing them, I want them to get busy using them more.