Warning: This post contains spoilers about J. Edgar. For the past few years, I haven’t been much of a fan of Clint Eastwood’s work. While he no doubt possesses storytelling skills as a director and certainly maintains an incredible presence as a movie star, I’ve found that critics who constantly praise his work often overlook its general lack of finesse, tired and sometimes visionless formal approach, and habitual ham-fistedness. When watching Eastwood’s work, I get the impression, supported by stories of his uniquely economic method of filmmaking, that he thinks of himself as something of a Woody Allen for the prestige studio drama, able to get difficult stories right in one take. The end product, for me, says otherwise. While I was a fan of the strong but still imperfect Mystic River (2003) and Letters From Iwo Jima (2006), the moment that I stopped trusting Eastwood came around the time the song “Colorblind” appeared in Invictus two years ago, throwing any prospect of nuance and panache out the window. Eastwood, despite having helmed several notable cinematic successes, has recently been coasting on a reputation that doesn’t match the work. He is, in short, proof of the auteur problem: that we as critics forgive from him transgressions that would never be deemed acceptable with a “lesser” director. As you can likely tell, my expectations were to the ground in seeking out the critically-divided J. Edgar. I was prepared, in entering the theater to watch Eastwood’s newest, to write an article about [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

In Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, the director once again returns to his cinematic bread and butter with a large-scale historical epic, this time focusing on an American institution and an American icon. As J. Edgar Hoover, Leonardo DiCaprio attempts to navigate the personal and professional life of America’s first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a man bent on uncovering the secrets and deceits of others, even as he too viciously guarded his own perceived defections. Hoover was a man obsessed with big ideas and even bigger ideals – especially the concepts legacies, notoriety, heroism, and adoration (particularly of the public variety), but J. Edgar is at its best when it sticks to the smaller moments of the man’s big life. Despite predictably fine and focused details like historically accurate (and gorgeous) sets, costumes, and props, J. Edgar skimps on the big framework, unable and unwilling to scale back on its story, leaving most of the film feeling somehow both bloated and empty.

People always jest about Clint Eastwood being a papa’s boy of the Academy, and even after a string of movies ranging from just good to flat-out tedious, that belief hasn’t changed much. When films like Changeling and Gran Torino — one being forgettable and the other being plain laughable — garner nominations, it’s a clear sign that the once-great director doesn’t have to do a whole lot to get a few nods thrown his way. Come this awards season, that may remain the case. A trailer for J. Edgar has finally arrived, and it looks like the type of Oscar bait film that Kirk Lazarus would star in. From DiCaprio’s inconsistent-sounding accent to his questionable old man make-up, all signs point to a tedious bio film; events being told, rather than a story. The production design is clearly topnotch, but it’s impossible not to cringe during this “Give me that Oscar!” trailer.

It was inevitable that a movie studio would pick up the highly successful Broadway musical based on the highly successful compact disc put out by band Green Day. It’s fitting that it would be Universal to option American Idiot considering their growing interest in musical storytelling – or at least their proposed future in interest in telling stories like Les Miserable and Wicked. Deadline Neches is reporting that the studio has hired Dustin Lance Black (Milk, J. Edgar) to write his first screenplay that doesn’t involve real-life political figures. His skill is unmistakable though, and his political experience will help color this story about three small-town guys despairing at their suburban existence through pop-punk. I, for one, welcome the adaptation because it’s high time a screen musical involved shooting up heroin. Universal has also signed Michael Mayer to direct the film, which is an interesting choice. His Tony-winning, Broadway background is notable, and he’s directed two features including A Home at the End of the World and Flicka. Essentially, he’s in a unique position to match musical sensibility with cinematic knowledge. In a sense, he might emerge as a new Adam Shankman. As a life-long fan of the band, it’s great that they’ve branched out so much and maintained mainstream appeal over more than two decades, but I can’t help but hold out hope for a musical based on “Dookie.”

After seeing Invictus get rightfully shut out on Oscar night — lets fact it, folks, the movie was bad — director Clint Eastwood is moving on to what is sure to be his next Oscar-grab biopic. This time, he’s bringing his lens back into the confines of the United States, putting focus on the controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.