Cast: Adrien Brody, Marcia Gay Harden, Christina Hendricks, Sami Gayle, Betty Kaye, Lucy Liu, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Zorich, Bryan Cranston, Blythe Danner and James Caan
Written By: Carl Lund
Directed By: Tony Kaye
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Release Date: April 25, 2011
MPAA Rating: Not Rated (it’s an “R” style, though)
Cast: Adrien Brody, Caroline Dhavernas, Jacob Blair, Adrian Holmes, Ryan Robbins, Lloyd Adams, Adrian G. Griffiths
Written By: Christopher Dodd
Directed By: Michael Greenspan
Genre: Adventure/Drama/Mystery
Running Time: 1 hour, 31 minutes
Release Date: October 15, 2010 (Abu Dhabi Film Festival); April, 2011 (U.S.A)
MPAA Rating: R
A man awakens in the passenger seat of a wrecked car in the middle of nowhere. He has no idea who he is, or how he got there. While piecing together sparse clues and memory flashes, he has to try and sort out fact from fantasy and fear.
Oh, and did I mention he’s badly injured, and trying to survive in the elements?
This man is the only living character on screen for about 90% of this film. So, to say a lot depended on Brody’s performance is an understatement.
He fully holds your attention. Even in a movie like this, where the progress is subtle and slow, he keeps it from being boring. With a lesser actor, it may have been.
As with The Experiment, Wrecked is hard to watch at times. Adrien’s character goes through so much physical and mental suffering, and there’s nothing else going on to distract the viewer. Your focus is always on this man and his misery. He sells the pain so well with his physicality and expressions, it will bring a tear to your eye.
Movie in General: 6/10
Brody Performance: 8/10
Cast: Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker, Cam Gigandet, Clifton Collins Jr., Ethan Cohn, Fisher Stevens, Travis Fimmel, Lavell “David Banner” Crump, Jason Lew, Damien Leake, and Maggie Grace
Written By: Paul T. Scheuring (screenplay), Mario Giordano (novel)
Directed By: Paul T. Scheuring
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Running Time: 1 hour, 36 minutes
Release Date: July 15, 2010 (South Korea), September 21, 2010 (U.S.)
MPAA Rating: R
A group of men, all in need of money for various reasons, sign up for a psychological experiment that pays $14,000 (if they make it the entire two weeks). Half of them are assigned the role of prisoners, the other half, guards. They are given a few rules, and then essentially abandoned by the people running the experiment.
Power changes people. That’s about all I can tell you about the plot without spoiling too much.
Travis is laid off from his job at an elder care facility. He has also started a relationship with a woman named Bay (Maggie Grace), who invites him on a trip to India. He spots the experiment in a newspaper, and it seems like the answer to his money woes.
Travis is assigned the role of prisoner during the experiment, and is soon fighting for the rights of the detainees. He endures a lot of backlash, to say the least.
Sadly, this is the type of movie where almost anything I say will give away plot points. What I’ll say is, Travis basically goes through Hell.
I’ll level with you: this movie is hard to watch. Seeing the mistreatment, and the gross conditions, is enough to turn your stomach.
However, the performances are good (especially those of Brody and Whitaker), and the story is compelling.
If you can handle it, give it a watch.
Movie in General: 6/10
Brody Performance: 8/10
This movie is also known as Manolete, The Passion Within, or Blood and Passion.
Cast: Adrien Brody, Penelope Cruz, Santiago Segura, Josep Linuesa, Nacho Aldeguer
Written by: Menno Meyjes
Directed by: Menno Meyjes
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Running Time: 1 hour, 32 minutes
Released: September 6, 2008 (Toronto Film Festival)
MPAA Rating: Not Rated (I would say PG-13, leaning toward R)
Adrien trained with a dialect coach for this film, but ended up using his own voice/accent, with a few random words pronounced accurately. Sort of like an American newscaster (you know what I’m talking about).
I’m not sure why this happened, given the character he played was a real person born and raised in Spain. Perhaps trying the accent was distracting him too much from the emotional parts, so they scrapped it. Whatever the reason, it’s distracting to have the lead sound American, when everyone else sounds Spanish.
We’re here, guys! We’ve finally reached The Pianist!
Cast: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Emilia Fox, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Ed Stoppard, Jessica Kate Myer, Julia Rayner, Daniel Caltagirone, Andrzej Blumenfeld, Valentine Pelka, Ruth Platt, Ronan Vibert, Andrew Tiernan…
Written by: Wladyslaw Szpilman (memoir), Ronald Harwood (adapted screenplay)
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Genre: Drama, History, Biography
Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Release: May 24, 2002 (Cannes Film Festival); December 4, 2002 (U.S.)
MPAA Rating: R
Cast: Pilar Padilla, Adrien Brody, Elpidia Carrillo, Jack McGee, Alonso Chavez, George Lopez… there are also several actor cameos in a party scene.
Written by: Paul Laverty
Directed by: Ken Loach
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Released: May 10, 2000 (Cannes Film Festival)
MPAA Rating: R
Continue reading “Bread And Roses”
Cast: Andie MacDowell, David Strathairn, Adrien Brody, Brendan Gleeson, Elias Koteas…
Written by: Élie Chouraqui, Didier Le Pêcheur, Isabel Ellsen, Michael Katims
Directed by: Élie Chouraqui
Genre: Drama, War, Romance
Running Time: 2 hours, 1 minute
Released: September 23, 2000 (Spain); March 15, 2002 (U.S.)
MPAA Rating: R
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