Brad Pitt – Movies Spotlight – September 2011

Brad Pitt, 47, has established himself as an A-list actor, starring in both blockbusters and prestige films in Hollywood. In September, he stars in Moneyball. It is about the Oakland A’s baseball general manager Billy Beane – the first GM to use sabre metrics to build a competitive team on a budget. The film is directed by Bennett Miller and written by Aaron Sorkin. It looks to be a possible contender for a Best Picture Oscar nomination.

Early Career:

Pitt began his career in 1987 with un-credited parts in No Way Out and Less Than Zero. He had struggled to establish himself early on, and took acting lessons from Roy London. He made his TV debut in 1987 as well with a guest appearance in Growing Pains, and then got a four-episode part in Dallas. The next year, he got his first leading part in the Yugoslavian-U.S. co-production Adriatic. He continued to take guest roles on TV and parts in smaller movies until he got his first big break with a supporting part in Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise in 1991. His character’s love scene with Thelma (played by Geena Davis) defined Pitt as a sex symbol beginning his career as Hollywood’s latest heartthrob. He next took the lead in Cool World (a more adult version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit), but the film was poorly received (though, at the age of 11, I remember eagerly anticipating seeing it). His next big break came in the form of playing one of the leads in Robert Redford’s A River Runs Through It. His performance made him a star in Hollywood, even though Pitt considers it one of his weakest. Now a hot commodity, he took the lead in Kalifornia and a small supporting role in Quentin Tarantino’s first produced scrip True Romance. These two roles built upon the goodwill he accumulated setting him up to be not only a huge star in Hollywood but also an acclaimed actor.

Critics Take Notice:

In 1994, Pitt’s career took an even more significant jump forward with his leading performance in Interview with the Vampire (based on Anne Rice’s novel). However, while the film was received well by moviegoers and critics alike, many critics were not pleased with Pitt’s performance. He also made Legends of the Fall in 1994. The film played mixed reviews, but critics praised Pitt’s performance and he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor. Primarily being viewed as a heartthrob by moviegoers, he decided to play off-type and take a supporting role in Terry Gilliam’s sci-fi opus 12 Monkeys. The role allowed Pitt to show a different side of himself as an actor, impressing many critics and winning the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and receiving an Oscar nomination as well.  In 1996, he took a supporting role in Sleepers. While it was a small role, his performance was a highlight for critics. Pitt took on another offbeat supporting role in Guy Ritchie’s 2000 gangster film Snatch. His gypsy boxer is almost completely unintelligible, but while the film was not as well received by critics as general moviegoer, everyone loved his performance. It also showed off Pitt’s knack for comedy. These five films not only grew Pitt’s popularity among moviegoers but also put him on many a critic’s actor’s to watch list. But, it was his collaborations with director David Fincher that made him an A-list star.

Hollywood Stardom & David Fincher:

Fincher cast Pitt in the lead of his second feature film, Se7en. The film made a fully-fledge star out of Pitt (both with critics and moviegoers) and an auteur director out of Fincher. It grossed more money internationally (and second most domestically) of any of Pitt’s films up until its release in 1995. It also showed off the range that Pitt had as an actor, as his character was deeply flawed. The film is still considered to be a classic (and by many as the best of Pitt’s career). Fincher made The Game next, but then cast Pitt in the co-lead with Edward Norton in his next film Fight Club. Pitt plays Tyler Durden, a role that required a lot of physical work to prepare for, and one that is among his most iconic. While the film was not praised critically upon its release, it has a cult following and is on most critics’ Top 100 films of the Decade lists. These two films with Fincher not only made Pitt a bigger star in Hollywood, but more importantly gave him a ton of acclaim for critics and avid film lovers. In 2008, he again worked with Fincher, taking the lead in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He is wonderful as Benjamin Button, a man who ages in reverse. It is a masterpiece of a film and Pitt received tons of acclaim for his performance, with nominations for Best Actor from the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild. Pitt’s collaboration with Fincher is so profound to his career that if you had to take five films to best represent it, three would be his films with Fincher.

Blockbusters:

Now a big star in Hollywood, Pitt started to take roles in blockbuster and Hollywood A-list star vehicles. And while these films are mostly not very good, they did make him an even bigger star (placing him among the top 10 male actors). First up he co-starred with Harrison Ford in the action thriller The Devil’s Own. It was a box office success but a critical failure (as many action films are). Next, he starred in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s epic Seven Years in Tibet, which played to negative reviews and box office disappointment. The same could be said for his next: Meet Joe Black, co-starring Anthony Hopkins (it is probably my least favorite of all Pitt’s films that I have seen which numbers 30). Continuing the streak of bad Hollywood films, in 2001 he starred opposite Julia Roberts in The Mexican (probably my second least favorite of his career), but of course it did well at the box office. Working again with Tony Scott (who also directed True Romance), he starred with Robert Redford in the spy thriller Spy Game. Then, he had his first Hollywood critical and box office hit with Steven Soderbergh’s ensemble theist flick Ocean’s Eleven. It also starred George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Matt Damon. He followed it up with his biggest commercial hit of his career (so far) playing Achilles in Troy (funny side-story, apparently filming was delayed for several weeks due to an on-set injury to Pitt’s Achilles tendon…What are the odds?). He then co-starred with (future wife) Angelina Jolie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the second biggest commercial hit of his career (the film was released in 2005, and is commonly thought to be behind his breakup with then wife Jennifer Aniston). He also made two more Ocean’s films (Twelve and Thirteen) during that time. He continues to make blockbuster films today, though not as frequently. His last was 2010’s Megamind.

Great Movies with Great Directors:

With the string of huge commercial hits, Pitt has become a powerful force in Hollywood, which has allowed him to be more selective about his project and having the ability to get films made in the studio system. As a result, he has worked with excellent filmmakers on fantastic films since 2006 beginning with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Babel, an ensemble piece about communication and cultural differences between people. It received seven Oscar nominations and won Best Drama at the Golden Globes. Pitt was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Next, he starred as Jesse James in Andrew Dominik’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It is a stunning performance by Pitt (probably my favorite) and a beautiful film. He won the Best Actor Award at the 2007 Venice Film Festival for it. Returning to comedy, Pitt took a supporting role playing a truly stupid man in the Coen Brothers’ (Joel and Ethan) Burn After Reading. Pitt’s performance was called his funniest to date (not that he had done much comedy). Making another black comedy of sorts, Pitt starred next in Quentin Tarantino’s brilliant Inglourious Basterds as Aldo Raine, the head of a group of Jewish American resistance fighters during WWII (it is probably my favorite film Pitt has made, or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – both are in my top 25 of the last decade). This year, he starred in Terrence Malick’s (brilliant or terrible depending on who you ask) The Tree of Life, which won the Best Film at the Cannes Film Festival. Additionally, Pitt has produced a number of great films through his company Plan B – mostly films he stars in, but also two acclaimed films he did not star in (as well as others): Academy Award Best Picture winner Martin Scorsese’s The Departed and Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass.

Upcoming Projects:

Pitt currently has two films slated for release in 2012, and a ton that he is rumored to be attached to in the future. First, he stars in Cogan’s Trade. Working again with director Andrew Dominik, the film is about a professional enforced who investigates a heist that went down during a mob-run poker game. Next, he stars in Marc Forster’s World War Z (yet another zombie movie…At least it is not vampires). It is about a UN representative who interviews survivors of the great zombie war (of 1812…Not really). 

Career Highlights:

1)      True Romance (1993) – supporting [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

2)      Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) – lead [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

3)      Se7en (1995) – lead* [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

4)      Twelve Monkeys (1995) – lead [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

5)      Fight Club (1999) – lead* [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

6)      Snatch. (2000) – lead [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

7)      Ocean’s Eleven (2001) – lead [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

8)      Babel (2006) – lead [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

9)      The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) – lead* [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

10)   The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) – lead* [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

11)   Inglourious Basterds (2009) – lead* [Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming]

12)   The Tree of Life (2011) – lead [Blu-ray, Streaming]

*Editor’s picks

David Fincher – Movies Spotlight – October 2010

David Fincher is known for his dark thrillers, often working with a saturated color palette. His use of fluid tracking shots, low camera angles, and low-key lighting along with the cold temperature colors has made his style one of the most recognizable – perfectly fitting the tone of his work. He has become one of Hollywood’s best auteur directors (and easily one of the top directors working today). His new film, The Social Network about Mark Zuckerberg the creator of Facebook, is this month’s must see and a likely favorite in the 2011 Oscar Best Picture race.

Early Career:

Fincher started making films when he was eight years old using an 8 mm camera. Once of age, he decided not to go the film school route getting a job instead at Korty Films as a camera loader, among other odd jobs. From there he moved on to the famed Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in 1980, working on such films as Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. But Fincher really wanted to direct films, so he left ILM to gain experience directing commercials. His first was for the American Cancer Society – it featured a fetus smoking a cigarette. The commercial got the attention of producers in LA and he was hired to direct his first film – the Rick Springfield 1985 documentary The Beat of the Live Drum. He then returned to commercials directing spots for such companies as Revlon, Converse, Nike, Pepsi, Sony, and Levi’s. With the birth of the more mainstream music video thanks to the success of MTV, Fincher saw them as a more interesting medium to pursue his directing.

Propaganda, Music Videos and Alien 3:

Fincher joined the video production company Propaganda Films, a company that by 1990 was producing almost a third of all music videos made in the US. Propaganda Films has a very impressive list of directors that went on to success in film including: Fincher, Michael Bay, John Dahl, Antoine Fuqua, Spike Jonze, Alex Proyas, and Mark Romanek. At Propaganda Films, Fincher made many iconic and well know music videos for artists Madonna (Express Yourself and Vogue), Billy Idol (Cradle of Love), Paula Abdul (Straight Up), Aerosmith (Janie’s Got a Gun), The Rolling Stones (Love Is Strong), Nine Inch Nails (Only), and Michael Jackson (Who Is It), among many others (and multiple videos for a few of the listed artists). After directing several highly praised music videos, he finally got his chance to do a feature film. 20th Century Fox hired him to do the next in the successful Alien series – Alien 3. But Fincher became entangled in disputes with the studio over the budget and script. He felt that Fox was not putting the necessary trust in him as a filmmaker (though remember this was his first feature, and on a higher profile film). When the film came out in 1992, it was met with poor reviews from critics and did not perform well with the general movie-going population either (he is not the only very talented director to produce an average film while working on the Alien franchise as Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection aka Alien 4 is considered the worst of the series and not a very good film in general). The experience was awful for Fincher and he went back to music videos working with The Rolling Stones (see above).

Brad Pitt and Settling into the Hollywood System:

In 1995, Fincher was dawn back into feature films by a great screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker called Se7en about two detectives tracking down a serial killer whose murders are based on the seven deadly sins. Again, he had issues with the studio, this time New Line Cinema, when they wanted him to shoot a new ending refusing to use the original one due to its disturbing and shocking climactic scene. But star Brad Pitt stepped in and said he would not be apart of the project if the ending was changed. The film opened with the original ending to acclaim from critics and fans alike. The film is widely regarded as one of the best of the decade. Fincher and cinematographer Darius Khondji’s use of the bleach-bypass process to create a dark look is heralded by filmmakers and often copied. Next he made The Game with Michael Douglas about an executive who is given an odd birthday present by his brother – a live-action game that begins to dominate his life. It also opened to good reviews from critics, but only mild box office success. He then cast Pitt in Fight Club, a film about an insomniac who starts a bare-knuckle fighting club that evolves into a cult-like group. Surprisingly, given the film’s almost unanimous love today, the film opened to bad reviews from critics and failed at the box office – though many of those same critics and fans changed their tunes, as the film appeared on many best of the year and best of the decade lists. Aside from Alien 3, Fincher started his career with three very good films and buckets of critical acclaim. So, for his next film he made the David Koepp scripted film (probably his first mistake was working with Koepp; sure he is famous and highly successful, but his scripts generally yield poorly structured and not great films) Panic Room. It is probably his most mainstream film (and also probably the worst of his career, not counting Alien 3). He then took a five year break developing Zodiac with screenwriter James Vanderbilt about the hunt for the Zodiac Killer. It was the first film he shot digitally (as digital is the growing medium now), aside from a few sequences that digital could not accommodate. Upon its release, it was one of the best received films of the year, but could not maintain its buzz and failed to garner a single Oscar nod and it struggled at the box office. Due to this, it is considered as one of the most underrated films of the decade (though I was not a huge fan). Up next Fincher decided to again work with Pitt on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button about a man who ages backwards. The film was beautifully done receiving an Oscar best picture nod and Fincher his first best director nod (and it is one of my favorites of the year). Fincher has a fantastic track record critically, with Panic Room being the only blemish on his resume (Alien 3 not being entirely his fault). Now with The Social Network, he is again primed to have an Oscar contender in a number of categories.

Future Projects:

Fincher is currently in the process of filming his next film, a remake of the Swedish crime-mystery (and first of the Millennium Trilogy) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Fincher has a great crew on the film with a script from excellent screenwriter Steven Zaillian, his producer from The Social Network Scott Rudin, production designer Donald Graham Burt, who did his last three films, and newcomer cinematographer Fredrik Backar. The film will star Rooney Mara (poised for a breakout year; she is also in The Social Network), Daniel Craig, Robin Wright, and Stellan Skarsgard. Then, he is attached to direct the action film The Killer based on the French graphic novel by Matz. He is also producing the animated film The Goon starring Paul Giamatti based on the comic series by Eric Powell. Fincher is one of the best, and every film he makes has cinema fans eagerly awaiting its release.

David Fincher Selected Career Highlights:

1.)    Seven (1995)* – Director – available on Blu-ray/DVD

2.)    The Game (1997) – Director – available on DVD

3.)    Fight Club (1999)* – Director – available on Blu-ray/DVD

4.)    Zodiac (2007) – Director – available on Blu-ray/DVD

5.)    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)* – Director – available on Blu-ray/DVD

*editor’s picks

David Fincher’s Filmography is also available on Netflix.com to rent and stream