Fatale

 Fatale (2020)

Starring Hilary Swank, Michael Ealy, Mike Colter, Danny Pino, and Damaris Lewis

Directed by Deon Taylor

Written by David Loughery

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating:  D

The Hunt

 The Hunt (2020)

Starring Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Ike Barinholtz, Wayne Duvall, Ethan Suplee, Amy Madigan, Reed Birney, Justin Hartley, and Emma Roberts

Directed by Craig Zobel

Written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: B

New Year's Eve

 New Year's Eve (2011)

Starring Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Abigail Breslin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Robert De Niro, Josh Duhamel, Zac Efron, Hector Elizondo, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Seth Meyers, Lea Michele, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sarah Paulson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Til Schweiger, Hilary Swank, and Sofia Vergara

Along with James Belushi, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Matthew Broderick, Cary Elwes, Carla Gugino, Cherry Jones, John Lithgow, Ryan Seacrest, and Nat Wolff

Directed by Garry Marshall

Written by Katherine Fugate

Click here for my Letterboxd review

The RyMickey Rating: F

Movie Review - Conviction

Conviction (2010)

Starring Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell, Minnie Driver, Melissa Leo, Peter Gallagher, and Juliette Lewis

Directed by Tony Goldwyn

There's nothing wrong necessarily with being a by-the-books drama.  Sure, it may not win you accolades, but sometimes a movie doesn't call for tricks or surprises.  Conviction, a true life drama about a man wrongly accused of murder and the sister who vowed to free him, doesn't have any tricks up its sleeve.  Unfortunately, it also doesn't have any emotional drive up its sleeve either and that ultimately knocks what is a perfectly acceptable film down a couple of notches.

In 1980 Massachusetts, a young woman is murdered and Kenny Waters (Sam Rockwell) is taken in for questioning related to the crime.  While nothing happens for two years, in 1982, Kenny is arrested and convicted of the murder.  Knowing in her heart that her brother is innocent, Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank) decides to head to law school to get a degree to help her brother appeal the ruling.  Things aren't easy for her and she finds herself having to jump over many legal hurdles, but, let's be honest here, there really wouldn't be a movie if things didn't turn out for the best.

And it's that inevitability that is part of the reason there isn't a huge emotional arc in play here.  To me, director Tony Goldwyn is to blame because he fails to let the strong brother-sister bond between Betty Anne and Kenny emotionally grab the viewer.  Yes, he tries, but there was nothing there to pull me in.  Instead, I was watching a perfectly adequate drama that felt a little more distant than it should.

That criticism said, all of the actors here are quite good.  Hilary Swank is perfectly suited for the working class, slightly rough-around-the-edges Betty Anne, and Sam Rockwell plays Kenny surprisingly tenderly  with enough hints of anger to make him a possible suspect.  Minnie Driver as Betty Anne's friend, Melissa Leo as the female cop attempting to make a name for herself with Waters' case, and Juliette Lewis as a witness for the prosecution all make the most of their roles as well.

Conviction is certainly a decent drama and one that was worth watching.  It's just that it could have been better had the director somehow created a more emotionally charged relationship between all parties involved.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-

Movie Review - Amelia (2009)

Starring Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, and Ewan McGregor
Directed by Mira Nair

Every time I watch a biopic, I state this: the biopic is my least favorite genre of film. I don't give a darn about them at all because there's never any tension because you inevitably know the ending. I know Amelia Earhart's plane is going to crash.

Still, I wanted to like this movie more than it allows me to like it. It looks rather sumptuous...costumes, sets, and the like look good. But the direction is just silly and several of the flying shots look computer-generated. Plus the script which includes some of the worst voiceover lines I've ever heard was much too philosophical and "new agey" for its own good. Plus, how many times have we seen the tired old biopic set-up of the subject of the pic looking back on their life through a series of flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks!)?

Swank is okay as Earhart, but she was rather stiff (then again, I guess Earhart was a tad on the manly side in terms of her demeanor). Gere was fine, but nothing special. And McGregor's role was simply a throwaway and really amounts to only a slightly lengthy cameo.

I wasn't expecting much and I certainly didn't get much from this.

The RyMickey Rating: D