My password to Tuesday's Overlooked Films, Audio & Video over at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.
Robert De Niro is 72, robust, and still making films. Sometimes four to six flicks a year. The Raging Bull star is probably the busiest actor of his era. He made 24 of his hundred-odd films only in the past six years. I have seen less than half of the total. So I'm no authority on his body of work.
The Scorsese veteran plays a widower in at least five of his recent films, including Nancy Meyers' The Intern (2015). As I watched the family drama on cable TV Sunday evening, I recalled an article I'd read in The Independent on why De Niro making bad films was “wildly depressing.”
Is it because there are no constructive roles for actors of his calibre and generation? Is he doing it for the money? I'm inclined to go with lack of suitably challenging roles rather than a love for the green bucks. I'm sure he has made enough. But who doesn't want more?
Illeana Douglas, who worked with the actor on Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Guilty by Suspicion, had this to say in the UK paper: "They talk about De Niro walking through roles, just collecting the money, and I do think that’s true. I’ve heard from financiers that if you have the money De Niro will be in anything, and that he seems to just have checked out, that he knows in a way the gig is up and he’s just getting to the finish line, but I'm not sure if that’s true concerning his performances in Silver Linings Playbook for example, and even in something as benign as The Intern he brings a strange kind of authorial presence to a very lightweight movie."
I can't say if De Niro is making bad films considering that he has appeared in serious dramas, too, in recent years. Action thrillers like Stone, Killing Season, and Heist, which may not match his previously more enduring films. But I quite liked him in The Intern as opposed to his other widower-movies, Dirty Grandpa, Last Vegas, and Everybody's Fine. I have not seen Being Flynn yet.
The Intern is a lighthearted and lazy-Sunday flick in which his character Ben Whittaker, experienced, retired and 70 years, works as an intern in a Brooklyn-based e-commerce fashion startup owned by its hands-on founder and chief executive Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Ben endears himself to his much younger colleagues, always willing to lend a hand, even break the law, and helps Jules cope with office pressures and repair her marriage. Jules learns to respect and value Ben’s trust and friendship, and the two bond like father and daughter. This is their film only.
De Niro is charming in a role that “suits” him well, perhaps because he looks the part of an elderly, kind and affable gentleman and because he doesn’t say much in the film. Along the way he meets Fiona (Rene Russo), a masseuse, and rediscovers love and companionship. And you’re glad he does.
The Intern is a nice film about friendship, love and relationship. There is nothing "wildly depressing" about it. De Niro gets the film out of the way with the flick of his wrist.
The Scorsese veteran plays a widower in at least five of his recent films, including Nancy Meyers' The Intern (2015). As I watched the family drama on cable TV Sunday evening, I recalled an article I'd read in The Independent on why De Niro making bad films was “wildly depressing.”
Is it because there are no constructive roles for actors of his calibre and generation? Is he doing it for the money? I'm inclined to go with lack of suitably challenging roles rather than a love for the green bucks. I'm sure he has made enough. But who doesn't want more?
Illeana Douglas, who worked with the actor on Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Guilty by Suspicion, had this to say in the UK paper: "They talk about De Niro walking through roles, just collecting the money, and I do think that’s true. I’ve heard from financiers that if you have the money De Niro will be in anything, and that he seems to just have checked out, that he knows in a way the gig is up and he’s just getting to the finish line, but I'm not sure if that’s true concerning his performances in Silver Linings Playbook for example, and even in something as benign as The Intern he brings a strange kind of authorial presence to a very lightweight movie."
I can't say if De Niro is making bad films considering that he has appeared in serious dramas, too, in recent years. Action thrillers like Stone, Killing Season, and Heist, which may not match his previously more enduring films. But I quite liked him in The Intern as opposed to his other widower-movies, Dirty Grandpa, Last Vegas, and Everybody's Fine. I have not seen Being Flynn yet.
The Intern is a lighthearted and lazy-Sunday flick in which his character Ben Whittaker, experienced, retired and 70 years, works as an intern in a Brooklyn-based e-commerce fashion startup owned by its hands-on founder and chief executive Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway). Ben endears himself to his much younger colleagues, always willing to lend a hand, even break the law, and helps Jules cope with office pressures and repair her marriage. Jules learns to respect and value Ben’s trust and friendship, and the two bond like father and daughter. This is their film only.
De Niro is charming in a role that “suits” him well, perhaps because he looks the part of an elderly, kind and affable gentleman and because he doesn’t say much in the film. Along the way he meets Fiona (Rene Russo), a masseuse, and rediscovers love and companionship. And you’re glad he does.
The Intern is a nice film about friendship, love and relationship. There is nothing "wildly depressing" about it. De Niro gets the film out of the way with the flick of his wrist.
0 Yorumlar