Welcome to "Ranked"-a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted relevant superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Jon Bernthal-whose latest project "Sharp Stick" releases in theaters tomorrow.
Jon Bernthal's Filmography Ranked:
19.Fury (C+)
18.Grudge Match (B-)
17.The Peanut Butter Falcon (B-)
16.The Accountant (B-)
15.The Unforgiveable (B-)
14.We Are Your Friends (B-)
13.Date Night (B)
12.Snitch (B)
11.Those Who Wish Me Dead (B)
10.Widows (B)
9.Shot Caller (B)
8.The Wolf of Wall Street (B+)
7.Small Engine Repair (B+)
6.Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (B+)
5.Ford v. Ferrari (B+)
4.King Richard (A-)
3.Sicario (A-)
2.Baby Driver (A)
1.Wind River (A)
Top Dog: Wind River (2017)
Taylor Sheridan's first credited directorial effort is one of the more impressive movies released in the past 5 years and a confirmation that his directorial instincts are just as sharp as his writing ones (Sheridan penned Sicario and Hell or High Water before he added director to his responsibilities here).Wind River is a smart, brilliantly acted (Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen and Gil Birmingham are particularly terrific) slow burn murder mystery thriller that takes the time to firmly establish its characters before cranking up the tension to a suffocating degree in the final act ahead of its quietly powerful conclusion.
Bottom Feeder: Fury (2014)
David Ayer's noble intention to make a tribute to WWII tank crews can't save Fury from being a middling war film with a bizarre lack of narrative focus and thinly drawn characters that are difficult to get invested in.
Most Underrated: Small Engine Repair (2021)
A combination of COVID (it was initially set to premiere at the canceled 2020 edition of South by Southwest), being distributed by a tiny studio in Vertical Entertainment and the dark places the story goes buried the release of Small Engine Repair-which is damn shame because it's a really great movie. Writer/director/lead actor John Pollono successfully turns his own play into a movie by staging scenes with the camera in mind without sacrificing its intimate scale, surrounding himself with a pair of actors (Bernthal, Shea Wigham) that completely threw themselves into parts that required a lot of different emotions as well the creation of a tricky relationship dynamic between old friends who are trying to heal very deep wounds that have recently been opened up and writing a really tight, uncomfortable script that reckons with masculinity, generational trauma and the high cost of humans acting on their most vile violent/predatory impulses.
Most Overrated: The Accountant (2016)
It's bizarre to find myself siding with professional critics on a not overly well-reviewed action thriller that was warmly embraced by audiences, but then again, The Accountant isn't a standard entry in the genre. This twisty story about an autistic accountant/weapons and martial arts expert (a deeply committed Ben Affleck in yet another underappreciated performance from the modern day king of underappreciated performances) who quietly launders money for various criminal enterprises that has his clean little operation go in up flames after he's hired to audit a robotics company with a really sketchy payroll situation is an inherently silly movie that makes the fatal mistake of taking itself way too seriously. Its straight-faced idiocy laced with undertones of cornball family melodrama gets so extreme by the time 62nd big reveal in the final half hour surfaces that it's hard to focus on anything else besides the pervasiveness of its dumb, contrived storytelling decisions. But hey, at least Affleck's performance and the fight scenes go pretty hard.
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