When Films Collide--A Great Hollywood Story At Odds With An Average Detective Flick
There is a fantastic film within "Hollywoodland"! That film stars Ben Affleck and Diane Lane, both giving superlative performances. As TV Superman George Reeves, Affleck connects with a role that some say mirror his own situation. He's an appealing, handsome actor of limited range who is not generally regarded for having actual talent. And Affleck steps up to the task of inhabiting that persona--he shows the frustration, rage, and longing for respect that comes with being typecast as Superman. Diane Lane plays the wife of a studio exec who fancies Reeves and turns him into her kept "boy." Well, an older woman never looked so good! Lane just seems to get better and better as the years go by. She hits all the right notes in a performance that's wickedly sexy, desperate, charming, and funny--all rolled up into one.
This relationship, her open marriage to Bob Hoskins, his courtship with a golddigger played nicely by Robin Tunney, and the tale of Reeves' struggle in...
Broken Lives
"Hollywoodland" is everything that the dreadful "The Black Dahlia" isn't: interesting, beautifully acted, intelligent, respectful to it's time and place which in both cases just happens to be Southern California circa 1945-1959. Both concern a death: one perhaps a suicide and the other definitely a murder.
Directed by Alan Coulter with a genuine empathy for his characters sad, sordid lives: a brilliant Ben Affleck as TV Superman George Reeves, a committed though out-of-the-box style performance from the always interesting Adrian Brody as a down-on-his-luck Private Investigator, Louis Simo and the luminous Diane Lane as Reeves paramour and fading beauty Toni Mannix.
Coulter spends a lot of time on the back lives of these three which adds texture and resonance to their film lives and by extension the film. Of particular note is Simo's story: his son, his ex-wife (the terrific Molly Parker), his father or lack thereof. Brody is particularly thoughtful and emotionally open in...
When Films Collide--A Great Hollywood Story At Odds With An Average Detective Flick
There is a fantastic film within "Hollywoodland"! That film stars Ben Affleck and Diane Lane, both giving superlative performances. As TV Superman George Reeves, Affleck connects with a role that some say mirror his own situation. He's an appealing, handsome actor of limited range who is not generally regarded for having actual talent. And Affleck steps up to the task of inhabiting that persona--he shows the frustration, rage, and longing for respect that comes with being typecast as Superman. Diane Lane plays the wife of a studio exec who fancies Reeves and turns him into her kept "boy." Well, an older woman never looked so good! Lane just seems to get better and better as the years go by. She hits all the right notes in a performance that's wickedly sexy, desperate, charming, and funny--all rolled up into one.
This relationship, her open marriage to Bob Hoskins, his courtship with a golddigger played nicely by Robin Tunney, and the tale of Reeves' struggle in...
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