The usually curmudgeonly Todd McCarthy has been won over by Invictus:
Once again in his extraordinary late-career run, Eastwood surprises with his choice of subject matter, here joining a project Freeman had long hoped to realize. In fact, the filmmaker has frequently dealt with racial issues in a conspicuously even-handed manner, most notably in “Bird,” and his calm, equitable, fair-minded directorial temperament dovetails beautifully with that of Mandela, much of whose daily job as depicted here consisted of modifying and confounding the more extreme views of many of his countrymen on both side of the racial divide.
And:
Props for Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon:
Freeman, a beautiful fit for the part even if he doesn’t go all the way with the accent, takes a little while to shake off the man’s saintlike image, and admittedly, the role of such a hallowed contemporary figure does not invite too much complexity, inner exploration or actorly elaboration. That said, Freeman is a constant delight; gradually, one comes to grasp Mandela’s political calculations, certitudes and risks, the troubled personal life he keeps mostly out of sight, and his extraordinary talent for bringing people around to his point of view.
And of Damon’s perf:
With the exception of the meeting with Mandela and a couple of family scenes, most of Damon’s screen time is spent in training or on the field, and it’s meant as highest praise to say that, if he weren’t a recognizable film star, you’d never think he were anything other than a South African rugby player. Beefed up a bit (or, perhaps more accurately, slimmed down somewhat from “The Informant!”) and employing, at least to an outsider’s ear, an impeccable accent, Damon blends in beautifully with his fellow players.
Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt calls it “timid” but also praises the subject of the film:
When released during a December storm of Oscar contenders, “Invictus” will pull its audience from adventurous, older moviegoers. Even the presence of Matt Damon, along with Morgan Freeman, will bring in only a small number of younger people. But for those who do buy tickets, it will be a pleasure for them to encounter a movie that’s actually about something.
44 Responses for "Invictus, “Extraordinary Late-Career Run” for Eastwood"
Looks like the floodgates are open Sasha. What did you think about the film?
I really loved it. I’ll write more about it in a bit.
Well, just out of the gate, people like, but not love “Nine” and think it’s got a BP, Best Actor DDL, Best Actress Marion C, and Best Supp. Actress, Penelope Cruz, OR they REALLY don’t like it.
Negatives also on TLB from everyone it seems washing away all its’ nomination possiblities, IMHO.
But “Invictus” is raking up RAVES everywhere you look, so it is by far the strongest of the unseen year’s end FOUR. BY FAR. In alllll categories.
And that leaves us with “Avatar”s which has eye-popping visuals, but what else? Having seen those 24 mins. they were rushing out (I was caught in a test aud. situation. They didn’t know it was me.Guess I must’ve been dressed down that day.)I thought it was idiotic and boring even at 24 mins.No script to match the effects, as I’ve said many times.
But will the Academy watch it in the theatres as TOm O’Neill posited? Rather than on their DVD players at home, as most do? Probably not.
So “Invictus” is the Oscar-front-runner winner of those four, I think.
Any surprises left? Well, “Brothers” perhaps. David Letterman was unstinting in his praise of it on his show the night before last, when he had Natalie Portman as his guest. He couldn’t stop raving about it.
“It’s the best film of the past 10, 12 years!” he exclaimed to a more than surprised Portman.
So THAT could be a wonderful shot in the arm to this seemingly locked-down-already season. I love surprises!
But “Invictus” obviously is now going to rule the race.
Clint does it again, seemingly, and everyone loves him.
They also love Freeman and Damon, BTW. ALL of the three of them previous winners. But we’ll see…
I love when things start to heat up.
Is “Invictus” safe to add to the tracker now?
#3
Yes, there is a surprise left and it`s name is Sherlock Holmes, the little movie people in real life are excited about. And apparently, some great buzz is emerging from industry circles too. This may suck audience away from Avatar, the big movie I`m very exited about, as are Internet geeks.But I honestly don`t see any excitement for it among people I know and they are all pumped to see Holmes. Also, I`m seeing from other forums that Avatards face the same problem with people they know. Outside of geek community, nobody seems to care about Avatar or they are just cautious and wanna wait for WOM first.
BEST PICTURE: Precious
BEST DIRECTOR: Jason Reitman, UP IN THE AIR
BEST ACTOR: Jeff Bridges, CRAZY HEART
BEST ACTRESS: Gabourey Sidibe, PRECIOUS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christoph Waltz, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Mo’nique, PRECIOUS
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Up
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Precious
People, believe me, in January everything will be “Precious”.
OMG, everything? Like, Precious wins SFX? Over game-changer Avatar? OMG! Best Oscahs evah!
@Ordinary Cow I’ll have to remember your AD Name so when the nominations roll around I can remind you how off you were. Precious has no shot to win the Oscar, even if it was great (which I think it’s not) there’s too much going against the it.
Mo’Nique’s performance is over-rated, Gabby is fine but def not great, there’s really nothing great about the film.
The book on the other hand by Sapphire is great. I had much higher expectations for it, the buzz coming from Sundance, all the ass-kissing Oscar blogs were doing on it. I still think it gets nominated and so does Mo’Nique, and the writing, but Daniels isn’t assured a nomination either.
So Kris doesn’t like it? Now I must see the film!
Kris hated No Country for Old Men. I almost never agree with his opinions on films.
Hahaha – yeah my film opinions much more jive with Sasha over Kris these past years, love both their sites of course. Great slips of reviews I’ll be seeing Invictus opening weekend.
LOL at Stephen Holt for saying these two trade reviews are raves. They’re “good, not great” reviews, far from any kind of rave. If these were raves, they wouldn’t be calling it “timid” or a “very good story very well told” (if it was, it’d be an “amazing story, told beautifully”).
That snippet about Damon’s performance is really odd.. To me, all it’s really saying is that Damon did a great job playing the part of a rugby player. Very faint praise. I hope he can still get in for The Informant.
I would call Todd McCarthy’s review a rave for sure, especially consider how he holds himself back almost all of the time.
Still, Invictus is the film that some have their knives sharpened for – there is one every year. We have become very cynical. Films that don’t dwell in that cynicism tend to get fairly harsh treatment in the land of “everybody has a blog and an opinion.” I’m still partly from the Capra school of Hollywood filmmaking; I am still open to the hopelessly idealistic.
I’m sorry but everybody is RAVING and SCREAMING for PRECIOUS. Watch the critics, watch the box office… Maybe “Precious” doesn’t win Best Picture, but it’s gonna be “Precious” or “Up in the Air”.
And when I said “everything” I meant EVERY AWARDS CEREMONY, not every award, because obviously “Precious” would lose visual effects, art direction and best supporting actor.
Youre happy now, Oscarmoviebuff84?
Interesting bit about Letterman praising Brothers. Can’t wait to see the film. Has anyone seen it?
This has got to be the worst year for film in a long long time. I just got out of a screening of Up in the Air and kind of felt like… wait… THIS is our front runner? It was great but should not be a winner by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe Clooney should win but that’s about it. I don’t see Precious winning (not even close to original or that special), The Hurt Locker and An Education feel too small, A Serious man too minor-Cohen-y, Inglorious Basterds too over the top, Up is too animated, Star Trek, District 9, and Julie and Julia are too light, Bright Star is forgotten… what does that leave us with as potential winners?
Nine- If what Stephen is saying is true, it probably won’t win.
Invictus- Maybe, but it still doesn’t feel right.
A Single Man- You never know…
Avatar- I doubt it, but the film in its entirety might blow us away
The Lovely Bones- If what Stephen says is true then it has no chance
In other words… this year sucks. I’m depressed.
So, if Invictus wins that means Morgan Freeman will hold the record for appearing in the most BP winners (Four — Driving Miss Daisy, Unforgiven, Million $ Baby). Hmmm.
I still think Clint Eastwood is too prolific for his own good. It seems to me for him to truly stake another win, he’s going to have to top an of his other recent films and somehow make us forget his other recent victories.
The academy loves Clint but not that much.
Hey Sasha,
From McCarthy’s article, it sounds like he actually preferred Damon in terms of acting, would you say Damon outshines Freeman?
Ivictus will get in, but I doubt they will reward Clint Eastwood with another Best Picture win. I believe the only director to have won Best Picture more than twice is William Wyler (correct me if I’m wrong).
1) The Best Years of Our Lives, 2) Mrs. Miniver & 3) Ben Hur. He also won Best Director for all those films.
Would they give Eastwood that same treatment?. I’ll have to wait and see Ivictus and all the other films to make my final say, but so far I have not seen any film worth any damn thing. They’ve all been good solid films, but nothing to cheer for as of now (and I’ve seen The Road).
The academy might not love Clint that much, but they do know when the man is at his game and that time is now. Glad to know you loved it Sasha. Can’t wait to read your thoughts about the film.
Clint Eastwood’s late style.
Invictus will get a nomination for sure.
I also think BP is going to either Up in the air , Invictus or A Single Man.
I’ve just seen A Single Man and while Colin Firth gives an impressive against type performance, I have to say the film overall did little for me.
Julianne Moore is also good in a very showy supporting role (but she shouldn’t win for this) but other than that the film didn’t move me, not even as a gay man.
I have a friend going to the States the weekend Invictus opens so if I haven’t been to a preview before then, I’ll see what he thinks.
McCarthy’s review is obviously positive, but the devil is always in the details for me: most of his specific praise consists of props for Damon “really” seeming like a rugby player, and the match seeming real despite being computer generated. Apart from a cursory nod to the bodyguards conveying the “uncertain state” of the nation, this is otherwise a very vague, if unmistakably positive-slanted review. I would not call it a rave, and the only info I take away from it is “the film is technically competent, polite, and solid.” For his part, Honeycutt over at THR actually comes out and uses that word: “polite.”
This sounds very typical Clint to me. As always, I hope I’m proven wrong, as I was with Letters…
As for Sasha’s comment #13, I’m skeptical about these preemptive strikes against people who might not like it being reduced to “they’re cynical, their knives are sharpened, on the whole we don’t believe in idealism anymore.” I think this reading is a bit unfair, as, speaking for myself at least, I’m not terribly intrigued by the film yet not because it seems idealistic but because the trailer conveyed almost nothing about the characters, and I value strongly-developed characters. I’m also mezzo-mezzo on it because I’m just not crazy about Eastwood as a director: I think he’s dramatically inert and uninterested in nuance; his strength — swift pacing — is also his weakness in that he pays very little attention to what makes people so idiosyncratic. It takes a great actor like Sean Penn or Gene Hackman to come out of an Eastwood film with an interesting performance.
So, I don’t know. I wouldn’t call that coming at the film with knives just because. Eastwood has put out a hell of a lot of films lately, and I don’t think it’s unfair to approach this one cautiously if you think most of the others are weak.
16) I think there’s something to be said for separating a film’s impact or success on its own terms from its appearance as an Oscar winner. I think Up in the Air is great, if flawed, but don’t really see it being a strong player in the BP race, despite the great reviews it’s received. It’s a lot like a Sideways or Broadcast News — a smart, savvy, and emotionally resonant comedy that many nominate and few tip for the win. It has a lot to say about how modern living produces certain kinds of loneliness and snows people under, but it says it mostly on an individual level, which usually doesn’t suit Oscar voters in years when there are much clearer ’social pictures’ (read: Precious.)
In Oscar terms, that might make it a washout, but wouldn’t you agree that it doesn’t *play* as a typical end-of-season prestige film? In other words…why judge it *as a film* by that standard if you think it’s “great”?
“So, if Invictus wins that means Morgan Freeman will hold the record for appearing in the most BP winners (Four — Driving Miss Daisy, Unforgiven, Million $ Baby). Hmmm.”
No, Jack Nicholson.
I think Jack Nicholson has only appeared in three BP winners (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Terms of Endearment, The Departed). Or am I missing one?
Robert,
Nope, those are the three. Actually, there’s a lot of actors over the years who’ve been in 3 BP’s over the years, but no one has broken that 4-film barrier.
Can’t wait to see Invictus. And Up in the Air. And Nine. Sherlock Holmes.
December’s going to be a busy month.
Whoever said that this year was the worst year for film in awhile is an idiot (and clearly wasn’t around last year).
Wallis Clark 5
Franklyn Farnum 6
Bess Flowers 5
Robert Karnes 4
Edwin Maxwell 4
But no one’s really heard of them, so.
Also, besides that only Wyler’s made 3 Best Pics, only 3 directors’ movies have gotten a total of 5 awards from BP/BD: Capra 5/13, Ford 5/14, and Wyler 6/25. If Clint wins either BD or BP, he would be 5/10. And frankly I just don’t think he deserves to be up there or have such a strong record. I hated MDB.
J.,
I bow in your general direction! Though I will adjust my statement to having “Credited” performances in more than 3 Best Pictures (I can find loopholes anywhere!)
There’s another review of it over on Huffington Post from a critic (?) I’ve never heard of, Pamela Ezell:
“Invictus isn’t a great movie but it’s got great moments.”
She gave it a 6 out of 10, full review:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-ezell/iinvictusi-translation-ob_b_372144.html
According to her profile at HuffPo, Pamela Ezell has been a professor at Chapman U (?) and a producer for Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Foundation. She’s a comment moderator for HuffPo and this Invictus piece (an essay, not a review) is her first published blog post there.
Most of you readers have had more of your writing appear online than Pamela Ezell has.
Her opinion has been up all day and there are only 3 comments.
Haha, that’s some sleuthing, Ryan!
She does appear to have seen the film though, so whether it’s a proper review or essay, it’s an opinion.
HuffPo people obviously aren’t as ardent and chatty as we are.
“HuffPo people obviously aren’t as ardent and chatty as we are.”
well, depends on the topic, aspect ratio. Showing Levi Johnston with his pants off can stir up 655 comments. Maybe we should occasionally try that around here.
I can’t stay away from the HuffPo Entertainment tab. It’s such a perpetually gasp-inducing train wreck.
IMDB
currently
- up in the air 8.3 (453 votes)
- priecous 7.5 (2,509 votes)
- Invictus ?
I think this is also the worst year in film as well. So Craig I guess I’m an idiot too. The best actress category, in my opinion is weak also. Your telling me a first timer and no namer are the predicted leaders to beat a thesp as talented as Meryl Streep ? But I will go on record that the Oscar ceremony might get some of the best ratings in years because of Precious. Just like this last year was the highest voting percentage for the Presidency from african-americans of all time, maybe more will tune in for the for the Oscars who had never paid much attention to it before as well and help boost it’s ratings.
‘Precious’ (even though I loved it) will knock me to the floor if it wins anything other than Best Supporting Actress (I even have my doubts about that).
It think it may end up being a race between ‘Up in the Air’, ‘Invictus’, and ‘Nine’.
My rule of thumb. If I LOVE it and think it is the years best, it never wins (or gets nominated).
Vince: Last year the winner of the best actress category was in arguably the worst movie of the year, imo. I’d take two newcomers as front runners over another veteran actress in one of the worst films of her career, good performance or not.
Craig maybe you should cool it on calling people idiots.
1. I agree with you about The Reader. It was a horrendous film and her win for that (and not for Eternal Sunshine or whatever else) is obscene.
2. This is a considerably worse year for film than last year. I did say that I thought Up in the Air was great but let me clarify by saying that I don’t think it is a great FILM. A very good one, but not a great one. It just doesn’t have that feeling. I got that feeling with Slumdog. I got it with The Dark Knight. I got it with Wall-E. Why don’t I have it with Up in the Air, Avatar (haven’t seen it yet, but the feeling was there in advance with TDK), or Up? Up is the best of the three and even that one pales in comparison to Wall-E. This year is far worse than last year.
Please Please PLEASE let Nine be amazing
also, whoever compared Up in the Air to Sideways, that was a nice call, but Sideways was about 80x better so I would’ve been happy with that winning BP.
God I hope it’s good because that car story he did, something about a Pontiac or Buick, I forgot, anyway, it bored me to tears. And I hated Eastwood’s cumudgeon old man in Detroit….absolutely hated it.
Clint Eastwood just has to breathe and he gets nominated for an Oscar.
#42: I disagree on that. In fact, he had TWO great movies last year (I still don’t understand why Americans seemingly hated Changeling, and yet the Academy nominated Jolie, by far the worst part of the film) and got zero noms.
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Clint Eastwood intentionally chose an anti-God title for a film about a Christian
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The Invictus poem is anti-God secular humanism. Invictus was a favorite poem of Timothy McVey who wrote it out just before his execution.
Mandella was a Christian. This movie title is a slap in the face to Mandella. It was his faith that carried him through his difficult life.
The movie title should be based on the poem by Dorthy Day, My Captian. Dorothy Day was a follower of the beliefs behind Invictus until she became saved and saw the ugliness of the Invictus beliefs.
My Captain by Dorothy Day
Out of the light that dazzles me, Bright as the sun from pole to pole, I thank the God I know to be, For Christ the conqueror of my soul.
Since His the sway of circumstance, I would not wince nor cry aloud. Under that rule which men call chance, My head with joy is humbly bowed.
Beyond this place of sin and tears, That life with Him! and His the aid; That, spite the menace of the years, Keeps and shall keep me unafraid.
I have no fear though strait the gate, He cleared from punishment the scroll; Christ is the Master of my fate, Christ is the Captain of my soul.
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