‘BEING THE RICARDOS’ A Lucille Ball Biopic Without Bite

December 7, 2021 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Aaron Sorkin, Alia Shawkat, Being the Ricardos, Clark Gregg, J.K. Simmons, Jake Lacy, Javiar Bardem, Nicole Kidman, Tony Hale 1 Comment

After three directorial efforts, I think it’s safe to say that Aaron Sorkin is a boring director. The celebrated scribe’s career began with early works like A Few Good Men and The Rock before rising to prominence pulling triple duties as writer, executive producer, and creator with NBC’s mega-hit The West Wing. Sorkin’s vocation hit a high note through the early aughts, earning an Academy Award nomination for his writing work on Moneyball and winning an Oscar for David Fincher’s excellent The Social Network – still his best work to date. Sorkin turned to directing with 2017 Molly’s Game and followed that decent-enough effort with the awards-desperate courtroom drama The Trial of the Chicago 7. Both films revealed a creator that apes the style of other better directors with none of his own. Read More

‘THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7’ A Timely, Effective But Unremarkable Courtroom Trial

October 15, 2020 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Aaron Sorkin, Alex Sharp, Eddie Redmayne, Frank Langella, Jeremy Strong, John Carroll Lynch, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Michael Keaton, Netflix, Out in Theaters, Phedon Papamichael, Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II 3 Comments

Aaron Sorkin lives and dies by the legal pen. Dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s within his characters’ puffed-up political proceedings or as they finesse through complex legalese is the writer-turned-director’s bread and butter. As a writer, no one can alchemize technical jargon and otherwise boring statistician noise into storytelling gold quite like Sorkin. Within the exhibits of his great successes, nothing towers higher than The Social Network, though dedicated fans of The West Wing would gladly point to that popular and long-standing series as the high watermark of his career. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘STEVE JOBS’

October 14, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Aaron Sorkin, Daniel Pemberton, Danny Boyle, Elliot Graham, Jeff Daniels, Kate Winslet, Michael Fassbender, Michael Stuhlbarg, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Seth Rogen, Steve Jobs 2 Comments

A sweetly sour punch of cinematic vitality, Steve Jobs is alive, it’s kinetic and it’s an intellectual kick to the shins. With a soaring foundation in Aaron Sorkin’s lively script, the dramatic biography hums along in real time, deconstructing the mythology of a recently controversial figure, the eponymous Steve Jobs, as he navigates his way to the top of the personal computer heap. From top to bottom, no detail has been spared as Danny Boyle’s signature aesthetic doddlings add a certain touch of magical realism to the affair while Michael Fassbender’s award-worthy central performance grounds the film in a degree of stone-washed, near-robotic cynicism. It’s an odd marriage of misanthropic megalomania and surprisingly salty sentiment that works for almost every minute of its run time. Read More