Tag: Jon Hamm

2019, Reviews N - Z

Richard Jewell (2019)

by Daniel PrinnLeave a Comment on Richard Jewell (2019)
Richard Jewell (2019)

Richard Jewell posterDirected by: Clint Eastwood. Starring: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde. Runtime: 2h 11 min. Released: December 13, 2019.

American security guard Richard Jewell saves thousands of lives from an exploding bomb at the 1996 Olympics but is vilified by journalists and the press who falsely reported that he was a terrorist. One of my favourite sub-genres of films are false accusation movies where the main character must clear their name with the help of others, and Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell falls into that category. It’s also a story of heroism that turns tragic when Jewell’s five minutes of fame turns into a nightmare.

This nightmare starts when Olivia Wilde’s character, journalist Kathy Scruggs gets a report from one of the leading federal agents, Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm), that they’re investigating Jewell as the bomber. The Feds think he fits the profile because he’s always wanted to be in authority but not able, and this on his resume would catapult him into an authority role. From here, the feds they tunnel-vision onto Jewell because they think it just fits so well.

Wilde and Hamm are both convincingly despicable. Their unlikability feels unrealistic at times, especially Shaw because he’s so cruel to Jewell – and that’s not to mention the unethical things he and partner Brandon Walker (Mike Pniewski) do – but it all feels reflective of how nightmarish this situation must have been for the real Richard Jewell.

Paul Walter Hauser turns in easily one of my favourite performances of last year as Richard Jewell. He’s been on my radar since 2017’s I, Tonya as an absolute scene-stealer as Shawn there, but he steals the entire show here as Jewell. He plays mean security guard at the beginning well but that’s just because he wants respect, and you can tell Jewell just wants to do his job well.

Richard Jewell article
Sam Rockwell and Paul Walter Hauser in Richard Jewell. (IMDb)

His compassion is endless and his patience throughout this whole ordeal is heartbreaking because of the way he’s treated, they don’t deserve that patience. In key scenes he shows he’s just as angry as everyone else even if he doesn’t express it, but you can see it in his eyes. His scenes of vulnerability are great and the only thing that Jewell’s character is guilty of is respecting authority too much. It doesn’t spoil anything, but a scene of Jewell with eating a doughnut is great acting. That sounds silly without context, but it is one of the film’s best scenes.

Sam Rockwell is also great as Richard’s lawyer, Watson Bryant. His fight for Richard is nice and their chemistry is great. The chemistry shines from the opening scene as Richard briefly works at his firm and Watson is the only one who treats him as a person. Kathy Bates is heartbreaking as Richard’s mother Bobi Jewell, and Bates plays her with great vulnerability. If anyone has a harder time in this situation than Richard, it’s his mother and she shows this in a few key scenes. Her recreation of Bobi Jewell’s real-life speech is flawless as she pleas the press to lay off Richard.

The story itself has good pacing and feels like an accurate depiction of what happened. Screenwriter Billy Ray does a strong job with the screenplay, adapting a magazine article by Marie Brenner. The scene where the bomb goes off and its lead-up is so suspenseful and is well-directed by Clint Eastwood. This is truly just a great story of a regular guy caught in an undeserved media circus.

Score: 80/100

2018, Reviews N - Z

Tag (2018)

by Daniel Prinn2 Comments on Tag (2018)
Tag (2018)
Tag poster
IMDb

Released: June 15, 2018. Directed by: Jeff Tomsic. Starring: Ed Helms, Jeremy Renner, Jake Johnson. Runtime: 1h 40 min.

The concept of Tag could sound like the silliest thing ever. It’s literally grown men playing tag because they’ve been playing the game for 30 years and they get together every May to play. The concept only works because it’s true. The film’s based on a Wall Street Journal article called “It Takes Planning, Caution to Avoid Being It” by Russell Adams.

The article’s about a group of 10 friends who started playing the game in Spokane, Washington, in high school, but resumed the game again in 1990 at their high school reunion. A main difference of the stars of the article are their ages – average Joe’s in their late 40s – and these characters are thirty-somethings who started the game on the playground.

It seems that the film has only taken the concept of the game as our main characters are a core group of five instead of the real-life 10, but this is effective for purposes of simplicity. We first meet Hogan ‘Hoagie’ Malloy (Ed Helms) dressing as a janitor in an attempt to tag his friend Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm).

He wants to round up the gang, which also includes Randy ‘Chilli’ Cilliano (Jake Johnson) and Sable (Hannibal Burress), to go to the wedding of their best friend Jerry (Jeremy Renner) to tag the untagged before he retires from the game.

We get the exposition that they have been playing the game for 30 years when Wall Street Journal journalist Rebecca Crosby (Annabelle Wallis), the gender-swapped stand-in for the actual article’s author Russell Adams, interviews Bob for an article but follows this story instead.

The characters have a nice bond because the game was conceived as a way for them to stay in touch and build their friendships around, and the film surprisingly has a ton of heart. It also shows good examples of fun competition and unhealthy competition, like Hoagie’s wife Anna (Isla Fisher) who is willing to do a lot to find out where Jerry is in town. She’s not actually able to play, but she has a lot of funny, overtly aggressive lines.

Tag featured
Jeremy Renner and Jon Hamm in Tag. (IMDb)

For me it’s more than grown men just playing a game of tag because it’s about embracing your inner child and not forgetting to have fun. This film’s fun, and the comedy is outrageous for a reason. Characters dress up as old ladies in efforts to tag others, and it’s that much funnier because it happened in real life.

The elaborate scenes of characters trying to tag each other are just generally hilarious and it must have been a lot of fun for writers Rob McKittrick and Mark Steilen to figure out these set pieces of them trying to tag each other. They’re super creative.

In one scene we get inner monologues of what the characters are thinking as they’re trying to tag Jerry – and Jerry’s monologue is mostly assessing the situation like a military operative. My favourite line of inner dialogue in this scene is from the journalist as she sees a doughnut flying in slow motion: “This is why print journalism is dying.” I was probably the only one who really laughed at this at the theatre, but I thought it was a funny comment on the type of story she’s covering.

She does have a point – but it’s articles like the one Russell Adams wrote that make amusing films like this happen. At Tag’s core, it’s a story about human connection and staying in touch. It even got me a little emotional near the end. As for the comedy, the outrageousness of the characters trying to avoid being tagged is what makes this so much fun, and its over-the-top comedy really worked for me.

Score: 75/100