Catch-Up Film Review: Jackie

"I Never Wanted Fame, I Just Became A Kennedy..."

Of the many Oscar nominated movies this year, there are still are few which have managed to slip by my eager eyes even after the conclusion of the ceremony on Sunday, one which ended in a somewhat controversial yet wholly hilarious fashion of course and one which ended up with a final tally of zero wins for Pablo Larraín's first English speaking movie in the form of Jackie, a cinematic adaptation of the life of First Lady Jackie Kennedy, one which focuses primarily on events within her life directly after the infamous assassination of her husband John F. Kennedy in 1963. With critical success all around and a barnstorming level of hype regarding the performance of Natalie Portman in the leading role, Jackie is yet another case of a film this year which suffers from the remarkable amount of reputation which precedes it, and whilst films such as Moonlight, at least on second view, and La La Land are examples of movies which stood up and deserved the many plaudits propelling them forward, Jackie is indeed a solid body of work with some superb individual elements, but ultimately a movie which is not as memorable or exciting as many that have preceded its' release this year. 

Of the most impressive elements of Jackie, Natalie Portman in the leading role is of course as superb as you would expect, with her performance a strangely captivating depiction of one of the most famous faces of the mid 20th century and one which almost requires the audience to tune their ear in order to distinguish performer from performance, particularly in regards to an accent and tone of voice which is extremely peculiar to say the least and actually requires an immediate referral to YouTube in order to find out whether the real Jackie Kennedy actually spoke in such a manner. Alongside Portman, composer Mica Levi continues her supermassive success in Under the Skin with an equally eerie soundtrack, one which succinctly captures the sense of strangeness of a post-assassination life of Jackie Kennedy whilst also seeming entirely out of place, with it having a sense of belonging to a knuckle-biting horror flick instead in a surrealist Lynchian-esque conundrum. Whilst these individual elements are impressive, the winding narrative of the movie becomes mildly dwindling after a while where the second half of the movie doesn't carry the immediate captivation of the first, resulting in a very solid adaptation of one of the most respected First Lady's to ever grace the White House. 

Overall Score: 7/10

Film Review: The Founder

 "If I Saw A Competitor Drowning, I'd Shove A Hose Down His Throat..."

Whilst not a huge fan of McDonald's selection of economically priced fast-food personally, with it tending to come out quicker than it seems to have gone in, a film regarding its' elusive early success isn't something I would immediately choose to lap up either, with the most strikingly interesting movie depiction of the multi-billion fast-food franchise being Super Size Me, a documentary which put off everyone who saw it from ever buying a McDonald's again. However, with a leading man in the form of the modern incarnation of Michael Keaton, a man whose career is most definitely at the peak of its' powers after successful turns in both Birdman and the superb Spotlight, both of which picked up Oscar wins for Best Picture, as well as Saving Mr. Banks director John Lee Hancock in the armchair, The Founder is a surprisingly enjoyable comedic drama which utilises the abilities of Keaton in the leading role to the extreme, adding a much deeper and interesting level to a movie of which's narrative doesn't exactly have the same stopping or selling power as the man in which the movie attempts to portray. 

Whilst not privy to the history of McDonald's in any format at all on a personal level, the titular "founder" of the fast-food giants at the heart of the film is a character many cine-literate audiences may have seen many times before, one which has featured in the likes of Wall Street and more recently The Wolf of Wall Street, with Keaton's magnetic portrayal of Ray Kroc being one of greed-inflicted determination, resembling fictional portrayals of similarly hateful white-collar figures including Jordan Belfort in Scorsese's three hour orgy of vomit-inducing sleaziness. Whilst Keaton's Kroc doesn't hit the the heavy heights of hatred which others before him have mustered, The Founder doesn't exactly adhere to a strictly balanced POV in terms of the historical elements of the company either, settling for a portrayal of a character which is seeped in shady sliminess. Whilst the movie does feel anti-climactic at times, Keaton manages to worm his way into holding the movie together in a fashion better than my stomach manages to hold a Big Mac on a cold Saturday evening.

Overall Score: 7/10