The Bride (2026)

Movie or at least Curio of next year ?

The Bride, Maggie Gyllenhaal's second film after The Lost Daughter (2021) is a revisonist retelling of Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale), with Jessie Buckley (Fargo sez, IV) as The Bride, Christian Bale as Frankenstein's Monster, and Jake Gyllenhaal, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening.

The Bride is a mix of Poor Things and Joker (Folie a deux), with elements of Public Enemies (Bale again..), Bonnie and Clyde and other goodies of the 30's era. 

Just fyi, there was another The Bride, starring Sting, Clancy Brown as the Monster aka Viktor and Jennifer Beals as "Eve", directed by Franc Roddam, in 1985.

Filmele anului 2024 in Romania, topul meu

 din Culturama de decembrie (cu modificarile de rigoare).  Topul total urmeaza aici (in ingles ;), serialele aici. 

2024: The Good The Bad & The Ugly

Un an de filme bune, filme rele și filme despre care nu îmi pasă (mă refer aici doar la premiere în cinematografele românești).

Un an greu din toate punctele de vedere ;)

Pe scurt, trebuiesc punctate (chez moi:):

Internationale:

Furiosa (George Miller, O saga Mad Max) pentru mine (v Culturama de iunie), e filmul-cult al anului.

Și #1, far from the madding crowd ;)

Anora (Sean Baker) e cel mai bun film și totodată cea mai bună comedie, Palme d'or la Cannes și va fi la Oscaruri la greu, 

dar se va lupta cu:

Emilia Perez de Jaques Audiard, premiul Juriului și de interpretare (colectiv) la Cannes , un muzical risque cu carteluri mexicane și schimbare de sex, votat drept filmul european al anului, cinci premii EFA și favoritul la premiul pentru cela mi bun film străin (sure bet!) .

Civil War/ Războicivil-un film politic, cam anti-american și nihilist de Alex Garland.

Joker: Folie a Deux (Todd Phillips) -muzicalul anului și totodată cel mai ciudățel și non-climatic sequel făcut vreodată.

The Apprentice: Sebastian Stan este e impecabil ca un june Donald Trump, școlit de ”avocatul diavolului”, Roy Cohn (un excepțional Jeremy Strong): Biopicul care trebuia să ia premiul de interpretare la Cannes, boicotat pe cît se poate de Trump & co.

The Bikeriders, deși flawed, filmul lui Jeff Nichols documentează minuțios o epocă pierdută și va deveni un film-cult. 

Horror: MadS/Noapte decoșmar, pentru mine (Franța, s/r: David Moreau)

Interesante au fost și Blink Twice, Sting, Oddity, Never Let Go, chiar si Longlegs și Heretic (Eretic: Labirintul morții) 

-(despre Nosferatu din 2025 aici).

-iar The Substance nu a intrat decit in ianuarie 2025, de vazut in cinema pentru cei "curajosi", aici. 

fun sequel (& musical): Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 

Indie art-house: Love Lies Bleeding (Dragoste, minciuni și sînge), de Rose Glass./ acum pe max/

Al doilea Lanthimos al anului, Kinds of Kindness/Forme de bunătate, de la Cannes, unde a luat premiul de interpretare masculină (Jesse Plemons).

Danezul Bastarden/Bastardul/Promised Land (Nikolj Arcel), cu un excepțional Mads Mikkelsen, dar e de anul trecut.

Tot de anul trecut (v. topul meu total aici!):

PoorThings / Sărmane creaturi(Yorgos Lanthimos, 4 premii Oscar din 11 nominalizări, via Veneția), Perfect Days/Zile perfecte (Wim Wenders, cel mai bun actor la Cannes),                                              The Zone of Interest/ Zona deinteres (Jonathan Glazer, Oscar pentru cel mai bun film străin și cel mai bun Sunet).

Cele mai ”ciudate” premiere (toate cu an de producție 2023):

Francezul Vincent doit mourir/ Să moară Vincent !, de Stephane Castang.

italiano-elvețianul LaChimera de Alice Rohrwatcher

chinezul He bian de cuo wu /Râul ucigaș, de Wei Shujun

canadianul Les ChambresRouges/Camera roșie, de Pascal Plante

și teutonul Die Theorie von Allem/Teoria universală de Timm Kroger, care a luat premiu la Veneția și la Sitges, un thriller stilizat alb-negru despre Multivers și fizică cuantică

România.

Filmul românesc al anului (și nu numai): Anul nou care nu a fost -premiii de la Veneția la Cairo, Frankfurt, etc, peste 100.000 de spectatori în cinema ! V. interviu în numarul trecut din Culturama cu Bogdan Mureșanu, regizor, scenarist și producător. Vești bune pentru ce care nu l-au văzut (și cei care vor să îl revadă): un nou Cadou de Crăciun (re: scurt metrajul său premiat din 2018, care, după cum am mai scris poate fi văzut pe canalul Cinepub de pe youtube), de pe 22 decembrie ANCNF intră pe streaming pe Netflix.

Trei kilometri pînă la capătul lumii, filmul lui Emanuel Pârvu, propunerea României la Oscar, via Cannes și Queer Palm, premiul Universităților europene la EFA (European Film Awards). Deocmadată nu e pe streaming.

Pe listele criticilor de film anglo-americani (Sight & Sound, BFI, New York Times, etc.) se regăsește filmul lui Radu Jude despre care am scris deja (ca la majoritatea titlurilor, v. blogul meu sau arhiva Culturama), Nu te aștepta prea mult de la sfîrșitul lumii, care a ieșit în toamna lui 2023. Poate fi văzut pe max (HBO max).

Documentar: 

NASTY , de Tudor Giurgiu, Tudor T. Popescu, Cristian Pascariu.

Mrs. Buică (Eugene Buică-din2023, dar l-am văzut în 2024

ALICE ON & OFF / Isabela Tent

Dezamăgirile anului- (top 3)

Morometii 3, absolut nenecesar si neinspirat (uninvolving)

Megalopolis (Coppola magnum opus propriu finanțat), 

și cel mai trist ”cash-in” , Gladiator II.

Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)

Folie à Deux is the curio of the year

flop of the year, more so than Furiosa

cost 200 mil . $, three times more than Joker (2019)

least sequel ever

most divissive film of 2024

musical of this year

dysfunctional love story 

opening animation says it all there (done by Sylvain Chomet no less)

and how about that ending ? 

Tarantino loved it

"The Joker directed the movie. The entire concept, even him (Phillips) spending the studio’s money — he’s spending it like the Joker would spend it, all right?” Tarantino said. “And then his big surprise gift — haha! — the jack-in-the-box, when he offers you his hand for a handshake and you get a buzzer with 10,000 volts shooting you — is the comic book geeks. He’s saying fuck you to all of them. He’s saying fuck you to the movie audience. He’s saying fuck you to Hollywood. He’s saying fuck you to anybody who owns any stock at DC and Warner Brothers […] And Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un film de Joker, all right, is what it is. He is the Joker.”

and Hideo Kojuma says in 20 years it will be considered a masterpiece. 

RIP Norman Jewison

Norman Jewison was one of the most serious & eclectic directors that ever were. We was versatile in all genres but he cared for social and political issues and made important films, like his peers, Sidney Lumet, Mike Nichols, Sydney Pollack, his contemporaries. Like all of them he started his career in Television, in the Fifties. He survived his era and was retired long ago now, his last film being 21 years ago (The Statement, 2003). He died at 97 years of age without winning a single Oscar -he was but nominated Seven Times...

Jewison could've done just three films and he would've made history, and film history. In the Heat of the Night, Jesus Christ Superstar and Fiddler on the Roof. Others can say The Cincinnati Kid or The Thomas Crown Affair, the two films he did with Steve McQueen, his friend but also his most difficult actor (as he said). I'd say also Rollerball, with a brilliant James Caan. Amazing film even today ! Weird that John McTiernan remade two of his films that didn't need any remake at all.

1st film of his saw -in Romanian Theaters- was And Justice for All (Dreptate pentru toti)-1979, with a hectic Al Pacino. We call this movie now, And Justice for Al ;)  Also In the Heat of The Night (In arsita noptii, 1967), I saw on the cinema but on a re-run, a film about Racial prejudice that made Sidney Poitier famous as detective Tibbs and a brilliant Rod Steiger as chief Gillespie, he won an Oscar for best lead-these days that would've been supporting part (while Poitier wasn't even nominated :( ), great score by Quincy Jones, title track by Ray Charles, and it's another one of those films who directed itself-no director win, but won 5 Oscars: for best film, best script, and gave Hal Ashby his only Oscar-for editing, 5 awards in total !!!

In the 80's he made less interesting and engaging films, except Moonstruck (1987) which had a fabulous showcase for a young Nicolas Cage and 3 Oscar wins-one for Cher, also the pic got awarded the Silver Bear in Berlinale.  In 1999 he did The Hurricane, about the boxer Rubin Carter, wrongfully accused for murder and imprisoned hard, another story of Race and social injustice, with a grand Denzel Washington (that he kinda discovered and pushed into A Soldier's Tale -1984), film that introduced me to that brilliant Bob Dylan "Hurricane" song. Denzel was nominated for an Oscar for this and won best actor in Berlinale.

Last film of his I saw was The Russians are Coming The Russians are Coming (1966), a re-watch last year due to the death of Alan Arkin which is fabulous in this underrated and forgotten comedy cold war classic (close to Billy Wilder's best). 

I was a big fan of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), which was a big hit for us on video and I saw very late Fiddler on the Roof (1971), on a private screening and a night to remember with it's biggest fan, in his flat, a certain director which I love very much ;)

All in all, Norman Jewison was one of the Greats. They don't make 'em like this anymore. Too bad...but grateful for all the films he did and I loved. RIP...

Variety Obit here.

Top films of 2023

Tough year. 4 me...saw way less movies and series than in 2022, almost like half !!! but it was a much better year for films IMO. More 2023 tops to come-series, soundtracks, albums & concerts. 

Killers of the Flower Moon-Martin Scorsese

& Oppenheimer -Christopher Nolan, 

I would put these two ex aqueo I guess there are very important films that will stay on. Cillian Murphy should win his Oscar (but there's the Giamatti factor and I go for that), as Nolan, Downey jr., Gorranson and all involved. It already started well, all Critics society, Golden Globes, BAFTA and Guilds awards included. For Killers it's again Scorsese's losing streak (Irishman style).

----------------------------------------- not seen yet (at that date): 

The Zone of Interest, Perfect Days, Monster (saw it in Feb. 2024 and it's not my cup of cinema), Io Capitano, Poor Things. Waiting for them in theaters, yet. 

*Later Jan. 28th Note: Just saw Perfect Days, in the cinema, an Ozu film by Wenders :), and it would've made the top of the top, it's clearly one of 2023's best films and more than that. My review here. 

**Later later note -Feb. 13-saw Poor Things in the cinema, it's a curio and a stunt but fascinating nonetheless arthouse shock Cinema ! My review here.

***Later later Later note (Feb. 20th) -The Zone of Interest, clearly one of the year's best, a true masterpiece of avant-garde and essential cinema. My review here.

-----------------------------------

*Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves -I wasn't so impressed, it's the same film all over again, but with lesser cultish actors, liked better Le Havre and The Lights of Dusk. I mean, good, warm, heartfelt, uberminimalistic, but same tour of Aki's pub we know so well. Also, didn't do much with the dog....and the fact they watch The Dead don't Die :( when on the posters there's so much better films...

& the rest: 

Xmas film if there was one: The Holdovers-Alexander Payne-Paul Giamatti and Payne at their best. 

guilty pleasure? Babylon -though technically it's from 2022, saw it in 2023, January. My review here.

Action film of the year: Sisu -Jalmari Helander 

Sequel/franchise; Indiana Jones and the Dialof Destiny -James Mangold

Psychotronic film of the Year: Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii/Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World by Radu Jude. Just saw this apocaly-pic (in the cinema sense ;) in a theater, with people, and so I had to change /add this item to the Top. More on this here.

***

Mentions for acting: May December -Todd Haynes -Julianne Moore & Natalie Portman (& for the Michel Legrand theme from The Go-Between)

Ferrari - Michael Mann- might be Adam Driver's best part and most restrained, or at least of recent date.

& Saltburn -Emerald Fennell -Barry Keoghan, which I loved in The Banshees of Inisherin (my top film of 2022), and a proof he will make a good Joker !

One-character piece film of the year- Inside-Vasilis Katsoupis -with a most brilliant Willem Dafoe.

Curio of the year: Beau is Afraid-Ari Aster (& my review here).

Super-hero flick: Guardians of theGalaxy vol. 3 (James Gunn) & my Review here

Film romanesc/Romanian film: Libertate-Tudor Giurgiu (at the time i had no Jude screening) -here's the review in Romanian, and here in English !

Thriller: The Killer-David Fincher, if Fassbender's character would've listened  to a different band than The Smiths I would've liked it better-like if he listened to The Pixies for ex ;), -also discovered a really cool comix through this ! -my review here  

Musical of the year-Wonka (also prequel)

Animation-The Boy and the Heron-Hayao Miyazaki

Horror -When Evil Lurks / Cuando acecha la maldad, Demian Rugna -Argentina

Nicolas Cage Award of the year: Sympathy for the Devil. 

Dream Scenario , I saw in cinema and wasn't too impressed, Cage did it before in Adaptation, it's like a sort of Beau is Afraid 2 (no wonder Ari Aster is involved), film ain't too funny and loses breath fast, rather liked him in Butcher's Crossing, with his shaved head. 

Comedy:  Beau (mostly, when he is not afraid :), Next Goal Wins -Takia Waititi with a great Michael Fassbbender, also having the time of his life, The Holdovers. 

Disapointment of the year -Napoleon-Ridley Scott, totally miscast , out of breath, all over the place but nowhere where it should be. Beau is not Nap...

*** gotta mention Paul Schrader's Master Gardner -which even played in Romanian Theaters for about...a week :( , I saw it in 2023 but the film is from 2022, premiered at the Venice film Fest. It's Schrader's best since Auto Focus (2002) and Better than The Card Counter and First Reformed, his last two films which were also wriiten by Schrader. A great Joel Edgerton performance too. 

Documentary of the Year (4 me): 

Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan (2020, Julian Temple)  -because I saw it after Shane died...

Wonka (2023)

Wonka is the prequel to Roald Dahl's children classic book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) -back then, when the children fares were bleak and dark and scary, which was cool;). Shamefully, no book by Dahl was ever published in communist Romania. I first hear about him as a screenwiter of Bond (You Only Live Twice) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 

The first film version of the book (which is huge in the world and especilly Anglo-Saxon culture) was called differently, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971, directed by Mel Stuart), with a brilliant Gene Wilder in one of his most beloved parts. Nice songs and dwarves dressed as Oompa Lumpas, but cheesy set design and so so production values and direction. More like a darker Disney childern film of that age.

I guess you have to grow up with the Oompa Loompas, which we didn't. So we just saw that 1971 film because a new version was coming out in 2005, the weirdly creepy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, directed by Tim Burton, with scary score by Danny Elfman and a Marilyn Manson inspired weird-o performance by Johnny Depp.  Freaky and all-in-all a curio misfire.

So the idea of a prequel isn't bad, because it's explained in the book how Wonka was betrayed before by everybody and sacked finally all his workers and from then on he became a recluse and a mystery. Sort of like Howard Hughes ;). I liked specially the idea of the secret Willy's mother kept, 'cos that reflects a secret my father taught me in my childhood.

But the bet standing was to find an actor to be able to stand tall compared to Wilder and Depp and so, Timothee Chalamet was a risky bet but it works. Actually for me it is the 1st time I'm really liking the guy. The director and his vision was also a tricky choice. So, Paul King, the name didn't ring any bell to me. The director of Paddington and Paddington 2, two children films I haven't seen but I heard are very good. Though, something attracted me to Wonka. Might be the chocolate....

Another asset is Hugh Grant, as Lofty, the resourceful Oompa Lumpa, somehow Grant which I couldn't stand in his Rom Com nice boy days I like a lot these days, especially in his collaborations with Guy Ritchie in which he parodies himself silly (The Gentlemen, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre). he came here via Paddington 2, in which he partook.

Good, inspired music by Jody Talbot and Neil Hannon, the guys from the band The Divine Comedy, Chalamet has a good voice and songs and cues are taken from the 1971 film (the Oompa Loompa song, Pure Imagination, etc.). A lot of the score sounded to me like Alexandre Desplat's music for Grand Budapest Hotel, or in that direction. 

Very good choreography and production values a sure plus. The budget sure helps, this is an 125 million $ production, the 1971 film cost then were 3 million $, even compared with inflation it's ten times more, heck of a budget. How many zillions of chocolates it that?

3 1/2 out of 5, 7 out of 10 !

RIP Tina Turner

The Acid Queen, Dame of Rock'n Roll is gone... Tina Turner was 83, living in Swizerland and retired a long time now...

There's an  doc on her on hbomax, Tina (2021), her life in 5 acts.

From Ike & Tina, the Phil Spector years, to The Rolling Stones-she was the one who taught Mick Jagger how to dance-, to Tommy and Private Dancer (composed by Mark Knopfler, 1984) to doing one of my top James Bond songs is GoldenEye (1995), sang by her, composed by Bono and The Edge.

She was also Aunty Entity in the third Mad Max film from 1985, Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome.

Biopic What's Love Got To Do With It in 1993 with Angela Bassett.

obit in The Guardian here

Mick Jagger

@MickJagger

·

3h

I’m so saddened by the passing of my wonderful friend Tina Turner. She was truly an enormously talented performer and singer. She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous. She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her.

OSCARS 2023-who will win (and who won)

OSCARS 2023 -95^th Academy Awards Edition

Here's not who should win, anything from TheBanshees of Inisherin (my faved, see here my top films of 2022) to Elvis (both with 9 nods), not the puzzling Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO), a very OK film but not so overhyped- 11 nominations??? !!! 

And it will win at least 6 awards for sure...(in th end it won Seven!!!)

No Fabelmans, no Triangle of Sadness, no Tar, no Top Gun; Maverick...

of course there can be surprises, as this is the Oscars, and there always are, I hope to be wrong ;)

Now this year I opened a VOYO account to watch live as they announced they will show them in original and dubbed separately. We'll see how this works...AND how did it work was it didn't. The show started at 2 am Ro time and half an hour later their broadcast didn't start. So I closed the account, shameful...luckily I got a link from a friend who faithfully watches them live, Thanks BM :)

BEST FILM: Everything Everywhere All At Once

DIRECTING: The Daniels (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheiner) -Everything Everywhere All At Once

BEST ACTOR: Brendan Fraser -The Whale

BEST ACTRESS: Michelle Yeoh -EEAAO

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Ke Huy Huan-Everything Everywhere All At Once

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jamie Lee Curtis -EEAAO

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Martin McDonagh-The Banshees of Inisherin should've won but Everything Everywhere All At Once won WGA so it's EEAAO

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Women Talking -Sarah Polley (also won WGA)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mandy Walker -Elvis (will be the 1st woman DOP winning for a feature film!!!), also won ASC award. (N.A. they gave it to newcomer James Friend for All Quiet...like there was something new that escaped (sir) Roger Deakins when he did 1917 and won his 2nd Oscar there)

EDITING: Elvis, and well Elvis has left the building...EEAAO won this one too...

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Elvis (N.A. All Quiet on the Western Front won)

COSTUME DESIGN: Elvis (Babylon should've won) and it went to Wakanda Forever...

So Black Panther was worthy for the second time???? Same costumes, same designer, another blank they pulled...

SOUND: Elvis vs. Top Gun: Maverick, and Top Gun it is!!!

VISUAL EFFECTS: Top Gun: Maverick (c'mon, wasn't an Avatar enough? can't believe they went with it...)

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING: The Whale

ORIGINAL SCORE: Carter Burwell -Banshees-could win, Justin Hurwitz -Babylon should win'

and ze Germans won...Volker Bertelman for All Quiet on the Western Front (really? :(, and you had John Williams there at 90 years of age and 53 nominations...

ORIGINAL SONG: they all spoke of “Naatu Naatu”  from RRR (which is on Netflix btw), seconded by Rihanna  with “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

RRR makes history as the first Bollywood song to win!!! Namaste!!!

DOCUMENTARY: Navalny

ANIMATION: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio  

FOREIGN (INTERNATIONAL) FILM: All Quiet on the Western Front

--------------------------------------------------------Im Westen nichts Neues----------------------------------------

HOST: Jimmy Kimmel (third time's a charm!)

nice entry on a par with Daniel Craig's London Olympics ;)

here's his entrance and opening monologue (see how long it stays on you tube...that Robert Blake joke was mean...:()

Honorary Oscars:

Euzhan Palcy (producer, director)

Diane Warren (muzician)

Peter Weir (director)

Michael J. Fox -humanitary award „Jean Hersholt”.

Top Soundtracks 2022

new composers (Michael Abels, Colin Stetson), as the old Usual Suspects :)-Burwell, Zimmer, Pemberton, Desplat, Holkenborg, Elfman, Reznor/ the order is not ascending or descending...

The Top of the 2022 Films is here.

The Top of the 2022 music albums is here.

Babylon-Justin Horwitz

Elvis -VA

Nope-Michael Abels

Top Gun: Maverick -Va incl. Harold Faltemeyer, Hans Zimmer 

The Banshees of Inisherin-Carter Burwell

Bones and All-Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness -Danny Elfman 

The Menu-Colin Stetson

See How They Run-Daniel Pemberton (sounding like Desplat for Wes Anderson's GBH)

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio-Alexandre Desplat

3000 years of Longing-Tom Holkenborg (very unusual and elegiac underscore for TH)

&

Slow Horses(TV)  w Mick Jagger/Daniel Pemberton's song Strange Game

*****

no Nick Cave & Warren Ellis for Blonde- too hard to digest score and film...I wouldn't have recognised ever it's Cave... 

RIP Alan Parker

30 years ago he was my favourite director.  From Midight Express to Birdy, through The WALL into Angel Herat and Misssissippi Burning, with a touch of  Fame, Commitments and Bugsy Malone. Now mr. Alan Patker, Sir and CBE is no more :( He died Friday July 31st. He was 76. 

His later career was not so interstting (Evita, Angela's Ashes, The Life of David Gale) and he stopped making films since 2003.  A hugely influentaial filmmaker, if only for Pink Floyd's The Wall, which he said about that MTV should give hima dollar for every shot and cut they stole from , he would be a billionaire. Good night, sweet prince , or as Birdy said, ¬What ?¬. I hope you have a nice cosy seat in the Midnight Express...

RIP Joel Schumacher

Joel Schumacher, the director of Falling Down (in my book, his best film) died today. He was 80.
He shot a film in Romania, where I was supposed to meet and interview him. It never happened :(
The film, a Gothic horror movie, Blood Creek (aka Town Creek), flopped. I kinda liked it and here's my review !
I kinda liked his first Batman film, Batman Forever, all the comic book colors, and even Val Kilmer. His second one  (Batman & Robin, as we called it, Fatman & Wobin ?) was painful, like crucifiction (pun intended !). B and R killed Batman for over 10 years and now has its place in the kingdom of worst movies ever. Was it so bad ? I don't know, I've seen much worse, it was not a man film, just dumb.
My second favourite film of his is Phone Booth, written by Larry Cohen.  And Tigerland, done before, with the same Colin Farrell. I kinda liked his Phantom of the Opera, which was again massacred by critics and hated by the audiences. He did a good thriller with Nicolas Cage, the snuff themed 8MM and he worked again with Cage on Tresspass (2011), which was his last film, after this he only directed some House of Cards episodes. 

A director of many genres, and former costume designer (The Last of Sheila and two Woody Allen films, Sleeper and Interiots), he rose to proeminence with the so called ”Bratpack” films, St. Elmo's Fire, The Lost Boys and Flatliners. Then he did the John Grisham law thrillers (The client, A Time to Kill), plus some drama with Julia Roberts, and the comedy remake of Cousins. He was at best uneven, maybe picking too much of what he was offered. But he crafted some damn good films, if he would”ve done them in the 50”s, 60”s or 70țs he would”ve been compared with great journeymen directors like Edward Dmitryk, Robert Aldrich, Don Siegel, but he was doing big studio pictures, so called A pix, with ans A Budget and with B sensibilites, and in those smaller ones he succeded best !
Obituary in Variety here .