As a closing post to Dell's blogathon, I decided to homage some of the women of the film industry whose birthdays fell on this closing week. As I haven't seen all of their works to write one or more individual posts, I'm going to pick the best I've seen from them. But before getting into it, I'd like to thank Dell for yet again hosting this wonderful series.
In birthday order...
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
I haven't seen a lot of the filmmaker's work so I had very limited choice but Zero Dark Thirty is by far her best work in my opinion. This is a compelling war film that sucks you in immediately with a story that frustrates you in the same way it frustrates its main character. The screenplay is flawed, but Bigelow's direction is flawless. Not only she gets an outstanding performance from Jessica Chastain, but she delivers a tense and suspenseful film.
Elizabeth Marvel, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
I had seen Elizabeth Marvel in many roles, mainly on television, but it's her performance in Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) that struck me the most. She doesn't have the screen time she deserves and yet never misses the chance to shine whenever she has a scene as she gives a quirky and hilarious performance as the troubled Jean and makes us feel sorry for her — she has achieved so much in her career, more than her brothers and yet she is the forgotten child.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 10 Cloverfield Lane
This is when I first saw Mary Elizabeth Winstead and you could say it was love at first sight. Or better, at first performance. Her performance as Michelle, a girl abducted and kept in a basement as the Cloverfield apocalypse was happening, is strong and believable. She captures the character's fear and nervousness perfectly without acting helpless the whole time, and she really makes you feel those same emotions Michelle feels.
Emily Mortimer, Lars and the Real Girl
I'm not very familiar with Emily Mortimer's work but I've been meaning to watch more since I watched Lars and the Real Girl. Here Mortimer steals the show with a wonderful performance as the caring and worried sister-in-law, the sympathy and at times frustration she shows towards her brother-in-law feeling incredibly genuine.
Once again, thank you, Dell, for hosting the blogathon this year too!
Very cool way to honor these women for their birthday week. Thanks for contributing so often!
ReplyDeleteThank you! And again, thank you for hosting!
DeleteThis is a really cool idea. I like Mortimer a lot, I hope you check out more of her work. Mary Elizabeth is wonderful too. Elizabeth Marvel definitely stood out in that film.
ReplyDeleteI will! Many of them are on my 2020 watchlist (I made a new one because I realized there are films I'll never watch lol)
DeleteI am so, so with you on Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I don't think 10 Cloverfield Lane was the first of her movies I watched but it was definitely the one where I realised I needed to watch everything she appears in!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way. She is pretty much the reason I finished season 3 of Fargo.
DeleteWinstead was so good in this movie! Brilliant film in itself too, one of the better thrillers I've seen in last few years
ReplyDeleteI know right! And it came as a shock to me, a good one though, because I wasn't expecting it to be that good.
DeleteNice idea for a post.
ReplyDeleteI'd agree that Zero Dark Thirty is Bigelow's best piece of direction (I hated The Hurt Locker) even if I enjoyed Point Break more.
I haven't seen your other picks and am not that familiar with Winstead or Marvel's work but I'm not an Emily Mortimer fan. To me she's always just sort of there in anything I've seen her in.
I'm yet to see Point Break but from what I've heard it's Bigelow's most enjoyable film so I'm really looking forward to seeing it. Plus it has Keanu Reeves.
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