Biopic

The Boys in the Boat

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  • Title: The Boys in the Boat
  • IMDb: link

The Boys in the Boat

As director, George Clooney has tackled period pieces before (see Leatherheads, The Monuments Men, and the terrific Good Night, and Good Luck). This time Clooney follows the journey of Joe Rantz (Callum Turner) who joins the University of Washington junior varsity rowing team not out of any love for the sport but as a way to help cover his tuition during the lean years of the Great Depression. Rowing, or crew, isn’t the most cinematic of sports, but the screenplay by Mark L. Smith which adapts Daniel James Brown’s non-fiction novel, plays on the intense conditioning, hard work, and teamwork of the sport with the JV crew the underdog team at a university of underdogs with much to prove to themselves and others.

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Nyad

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  • Title: Nyad
  • IMDb: link

Nyad

Based on true events, Nyad offers the attempts of retired long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) who in her 60s became obsessed with completing the swim from Havana to Florida which she failed to accomplish in her 20s. While in many ways your typical sports drama featuring an athlete overcoming impossible odds, and driven (and haunted) by personal experience, the film’s story is elevated by the performances of Benning and by Jodie Foster who plays Diana’s best friend and coach throughout her multiple attempts to make history.

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Rustin

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  • Title: Rustin
  • IMDb: link

Rustin

Director George C. Wolfe‘s biopic of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo) deals primarily with Rustin’s role in being the guiding force in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. The film is more notable for its performances that plot which doesn’t give us much information about the man other than how his homosexuality and former Communist leanings created friction with the NAACP who disowned him for a period of time before the 1963 march.

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Napoleon

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  • Title: Napoleon
  • IMDb: link

Napoleon

Napoleon is certainly goofier than expected, especially for a film coming from director Ridley Scott. Screenwriter David Scarpa‘s script paints the French soldier, and later emperor, who dominated Europe for the better part of two decades as an uncouth petulant cuck forever stuck between his grand ambitious destiny and his love for Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby). The unexpected version of Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix) gives the film its unique feel but also obscures the military strategy of a man who conquered half of Europe by really only delving into the plans for his failed campaigns in Russia and at Waterloo.

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Priscilla

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  • Title: Priscilla
  • IMDb: link

Priscilla

A far cry from the overindulgent train wreck of 2022’s Elvis, writer/director Sofia Coppola‘s latest film casts the spotlight not on Elvis Pressley (Jacob Elordi) but on Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) and how Elvis’ fascination with her changed her life in both positive and disturbing ways. Those who place Elvis on a pedestal may take issue with Coppola’s screenplay, as did Lisa Marie Pressley. However, the film is adapted from Priscilla’s own 1985 biography, notably toning down some of the more shocking moments of their lives together, and Priscilla served and as an executive producer to the film.

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