Hollywood loves a comeback. Look at Ben Affleck and the love shown him when he stepped behind a camera a few years ago, and is now considered among the best directors in modern film. This years comeback kid could be Oscar winner Kevin Costner who was the hottest actor in movies in the years spanning 1988-91, winning an Oscar as Best Director for his western epic Dances with Wolves (90) a film I love. Costner had come to fame in the late eighties for his work in The Untouchables (87), Bull Durham (88) and Field of Dreams (89) before directing his western which earned him his only nomination for Best Actor. He was the toast of the industry for Dances with Wolves (90) a three hour western, one third of which is spoken in Lakota with subtitles, making a film that was intelligent in its study of the plight of the Native American in the Old West. One year later he gave another fine performance in Oliver Stones electrifying JFK (91) and hit box office gold with The Bodyguard (92) a terrible film which audiences adored pairing Costner with Whitney Houston -- under the guidance of Clint Eastwood he gave what might be his best performance as an escaped convict in A Perfect World (93) before falling off the radar in a series of weak films and ego driven pieces that got out of control -- Waterworld (95) was awful, The Postman (97) marginally worse, and suddenly Costner was out of the picture -- he made a small comeback with the superb western Open Range (03) which he directed and starred with Robert Duvall, and in the last ten years has earned a solid reputation as a reliable character actor -- he won an Emmy two years ago for his powerful performance in The Hatfields and the McCoys (2012) -- now he is back with what might be his finest film performance, as a widowed lawyer struggling to keep his grandchild when the childs other grandmother sues for custody -- Black and White (****) is superb -- Mike Binder wrote and directed the film, and its biting honesty makes a powerful statement about racial issues not in society, but in a family -- Costner is a powerhouse as a grieving husband who just his wife, who blames the father of his grandchild for the death of his daughter, and who wants to keep his grandchild so she has a better life -- with biting dialogue, and a challenging subject the film offers the actors a chance to flex their considerable muscles, and challenges audiences with its touchy subject matter -- Oscar winner Octavia Spencer is outstanding as is Anthony Mackie but it is Costners film, and with the right campaign could garner the actor a well deserved Oscar nod for Best Actor -- the film makes clear that even in this so called progressive society, matters of race are hardly ever just sheer black and white.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 23:45:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015