HARK!
I hear...opportunity knocking…
So you say you want to be an actor?
Why not—if a mediocre talent like Adam Driver (more on my rant against him later) can make the big bucks, why not you?
But you got to start somewhere—why not as one of Santa’s elves? Remember: there are no small parts, only big egos…
Learn about how to land an elf-ish gig, get a paid commercial job, land a role in a movie (as an extra, at least), find work on low-budget local movies and community theater and much more at Durant Communications.
If you're ready to take the acting dive, please avoid being a no-socks hipster like Driver and aspire to the heights of Idris "Luther" Elba. Cool distance, in-your-face intensity, hardball, light comedy...he's got it all.
He could probably rake in money on silly rom-coms, but not my man Idris: He loves to dip into the dark side, a la “The Wire.”
That's nothing compared to his Big Evil as an outlaw cowboy in “The Harder They Fall.” Elba is absolutely on-the-money here, playing a charming devil. Kind of guy you’d love to hang out and have a beer with—until he smashes your face in with the butt of his pistol.
The great Idris Elba. Getty Images.
Elba leads a mostly-unknown cast that sizzles in this Western from Jeymes Samuel.
Who that?
A complete unknown on the Hollywood scene, Samuel is a British music force known as The Bullitts. So it's not surprise that he handles the music on a soundtrack that pops and crackles.
Hot rookie director Jeymes Samuel and Spike Lee. Getty Images.
Many knew he had an ear...but what an eye!
With many black-hat tips to Sergio Leone, Samuel shoots an absolute bulls-eye on his debut, pumping life into a long-dead genre; previous attempts in the last few decades have ranged from big-cast retreads to half-baked attempts at irony.
Back in troubled times, when the world was at war and/or the floor dropping out of the economy, romantic comedies and musicals were cocktails Hollywood served to soothe nerves. And, when the audience needed a pick-me-up, screwball comedies were the uppers, ranging from the bathtub-meth of the Three Stooges to the pure-coke of the Marx Brothers.
To zone out from worries of German subs and Russian bombs, Westerns were the weed audiences smoked.
And now, “The Harder They Fall” is pure dank.
Except for a couple of too-talky scenes, Samuel rides the movie like an ace cowboy riding a crazed bronco.
The plot is nothing terribly new, the ol’ revenge tale, with Jonathan Majors’ Nat Love tracking down Elba’s Rufus Buck, who did him very, very wrong…
The movie doesn’t make that big a deal of it (except for a funny bank heist), but Elba, Major and about 90 percent of the rest of the cast are Black.
Though it adds to the freshness, that’s hardly the end of the story, here. Samuel’s visual style is explosive yet smooth; despite some crazy angles and pumped-up dialogue, he’s a strong storyteller—a dozen or so characters get their say, but the plot continues to surge forward.
A virtuoso debut.
“The Harder They Fall” is a Netflix production, so guess where it’s playing?
Convenient as heck to watch it from your cozy couch, but this is one that deserves the big screen; hopefully the FilmBar will catch it, someday…
Driver, meanwhile, is a small-screen kind of guy; I’d hate to see his smug face blown up big.
He's a no-socks hipster who is suddenly ubiquitous, with some 10 big movies in the last three years.
I was pretty sick of him after he dudded-out in “Paterson” and “Logan Lucky,” but figured I’d give him one last chance in “Annette,” considering it was directed by the visionary Leos Carax—who, after all, discovered Denis Lavant. But Carax put Driver up in “Annette” as a comedian; tragic miscasting, as this guy just is not funny.
The French director was either gleefully torturing us, or went all-in on Driver.
"Bye, Adam!" Getty Images
But it’s not just Carax: All the big directors have fallen for the extremely- limited, vanilla-bland Driver, from Jim Jarmusch to Spike Lee to Noah Baumbach and now Ridley Scott. The ol’ “Blade Runner” guru unfolds his hand with a pair: “The Last Duel” and “House of Gucci.”
Not one but both star Driver.
Pass and pass again...
I say more Luther and less Adam!
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