J. Edgar ...

[uwe]

Anybody seen it? Stunningly well executed biopic of a truly complicated and mulit-facetted man. DiCaprio proves once again that he is the male actor of his generation and it's not just the excellent make up of a vintage Hoover that helps him be convincing:







Armie Hammer as his FBI Deputy Chief Clyde Tolson and gay love of his life, Judi Dench as his oppressive and overcaring mother and Naomi Watts as his life-long personal assistant Helen Gandy are stellar as well. The film works on several layers, the political implications (Hoover's eternal conspiracy fears against either communists or the Mob coupled with his sincere love for America), his pivotal contribution to modern day crime fighting (he would have loved the possibilities of obtaining data IT offers today!), his homosexuality and love for Clyde Tolson which he dared not live but could not hide either and finally his distaste for his contemporaries left (Eleanor Roosevelt, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King) and right (Senator Joe McCarthy - "an opportunist", Richard Nixon - "will do anything to stay in power").

DiCaprio and Clint Eastwood (who has directed the film in his sparse, yet detail-loving manner, but had nothing to do with the screenplay) as well as the gifted and surprisingly young Dustin Lance Black as the screenplay writer portray Hoover as someone you both learn to fear for his control-mania, learn to admire for his stubborness in establishing the FBI as what it has become against all opposition as well as learn to have real sympathy with for his love to Tolson - the romance between the two is touching.

DiCaprio is becoming more and more a modern Marlon Brando as regards his acting talent (minus Brando's self-destructive erraticism) and if you thought he was great in Aviator - he certainly was - he tops it here.

Uwe

[Chris P.]

Cool! I will try to watch it asap.

[gweimer]

The more I see DiCaprio, the more I like him. I thought he was really good in The Departed and Catch Me If You Can, too.  If I ever get out to rent a movie, I'll keep this one on my list.

[dadagoboi]

I saw it the week it was released in theatres and I agree with the critical consensus.  Bad from plot to makeup.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/j_edgar/

[uwe]

Easy, there are other voices too:

"Critical responseReviews have been mostly mixed, with many critics praising DiCaprio's performance but feeling that, overall, the film lacks coherence. As of May 19, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 44% of 211 critics have given the film a positive review, with a 55% approval rating among top critics with a rating average of 5.8 out of 10 and 6.7 out of 10 respectively. The website's consensus is that, "Leonardo DiCaprio gives a predictably powerhouse performance, but J. Edgar stumbles in all other departments: cheesy makeup, poor lighting, confusing narrative, and humdrum storytelling."[17] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 59 based on 42 reviews.[18]

Roger Ebert wrote that the film is "fascinating," "masterful," and praised DiCaprio's performance as a "fully-realized, subtle and persuasive performance, hinting at more than Hoover ever revealed, perhaps even to himself," awarding the film three and a half stars (out of four).[19] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, writing, "This surprising collaboration between director Clint Eastwood and Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black tackles its trickiest challenges with plausibility and good sense, while serving up a simmeringly caustic view of its controversial subject's behavior, public and private."[20]

J. Hoberman of The Village Voice wrote that "Although hardly flawless, Eastwood's biopic is his richest, most ambitious movie since the Letters From Iwo Jima-Flags of Our Fathers duo, if not Unforgiven."[21] Chris Pandolfi from Popzara lauded the film, calling it "a well-researched period drama, complete with accurate costumes, convincing sets, and appropriately nostalgic lighting and color schemes," also calling it "a superbly acted character study about a man once considered the second most powerful in America – although he could have easily been the first, considering the control he had over elected officials."[22]

Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a mixed review: "Any movie in which the longtime FBI honcho features as the central character must supply some insight into what made him tick, or suffer from the reality that the Bureau's exploits were far more interesting than the bureaucrat who ran it – a dilemma J. Edgar never rises above."[23] David Edelstein of New York Magazine reacted negatively to the film and said that "It's too bad J. Edgar is so shapeless and turgid and ham-handed, so rich in bad lines and worse readings." He praised DiCaprio's performance: "There’s something appealingly straightforward about the way he physicalizes Hoover's inner struggle, the body always slightly out of sync with the mind that vigilantly monitors every move."[24]"

I couldn't fault the film's approach of an old Hoover recounting his life in his own, not always truthful view (as the film later shows in a dramatically interesting scene with his lover Clyde Tolson who sees through Hoover's revisionism). And the bad make up criticism is beyond me, with the exception of Clyde Tolson who's maybe aged in the same a little clichéd Hollywood way that has become the standard all the way since Kubrick's 2001 to Benjamin Button.



DiCaprio's and Watts' make ups otoh are stellar and of a quality I haven't seen before on a screen.

[dadagoboi]

I watch on average more than a dozen films a week, J.Edgar didn't do much for me.  Not that it means much but it didn't receive a single Oscar nomination.

[uwe]

Like a lot of Eastwood's work (and Reford's btw too, maybe old actors when they turn directors tire of the bludgeoning effect of many big Hollywood productions), it has a documentary, TV movie feel to it, in this case enhanced by the biopic subject. But once you get over the "this is neither a cinemascope blockbuster nor a lovingly amateur indie film", I found it easy to get into it. I didn't have much of a concept of Hoover other than the most obvious things and how he looked, but was quickly intrigued by the depiction here.

And I liked how it did not dismember its subject (which would be all too easy to do from a today viewpoint and a generally surveillance-wary society), but showed empathy. I also found DiCaprio's "we can't really live our love, my mother hates faggots and what would the Bureau think, but let's cherish what we have together"-stance as opposed  to Armie Hammer's/Clyde Tolson's emotional outcry "How can you pretend to not be gay and date women!" very nuanced. The scene where they meet each other for the first time and both realize within a bat of an eyelid that they are made for each other is pretty strong and confirms what gay colleagues have told me here that it doesn't take them more than a second to recognize "whether someone is on our team or the other one". And the scene where an enraged Nixon spits "the old cocksucker!" summed up the ugly side of homophobia succinctly.

[Highlander]

Not seen this one yet but I've tended to wait for the dvd to become cheaper so tend to buy then (the shelves are groaning with my movie collection - just finished re-watching all of Battlestar Galactica over the last 10 days whilst doing my research - - as close as I can get to a "toaster" ) but Di Caprio is someone who seldom disappoints - Shutter Island was a great role for him as was Inception... much to my wife's disgust off I went to see Titanic 3D recently too...

Eastwood's Hearafter was a disapointment for me, as an aside...

[uwe]

Shutter island is a devastating classic, Inception I thought overrated. And for an eastwood film Hereafter was decidedly weak, the supernatural theme was somehow ill at ease with his style of directing. I liked the one with Angela Jolie though where she showed she can still act (last time she did that was in Girl Interrupted) and not just look otherworldly gorgeous.

[Highlander]

Hearafter, to me, was almost like someone becoming very aware of their own mortality...

Not seen Changeling - worth investigating...?

Another stunning role for Di Caprio is The Departed and for Eastwood, as director, are the pairing of Flags and Letters... he has made so many stunning movies but I think he ended his acting with some highs, in Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino... what a way to bow out...

Eastwood often sticks with actors, as does Scorsese, and they often bring out the best in them...