#Doc holliday emote hattip movie#
This movie came out in 1975 and I’ll be blunt: it has not aged well. Almost everyday people are half-scared, half-cynical when receiving the latest news of a disaster with rolled eyes and big “sighs”.īe warned though: as with most films that rely heavily on character and theme development, it might feel at times too slow and drag on, but only if you’re not totally invested or immersed in the movie, which I KNOW you will be. It’s that sense of imminent threat, that foreboding, gut feeling generated by these times of uncertainty something BIG and not entirely good is about to happen. On a more cheerful note (sarcasm-laden tone), I can’t help but notice parallels with what’s currently happening in the world today with the underlying doom-and-gloom feel of the movie. Is this just madness from a deteriorating mind or a genuine supernatural warning from the divine? That’s what entices you to sink further into the film. This is what ultimately pushes him to prepare for the worst as any responsible, loving father would do to try to save his family by refurbishing an old storm shelter on their property. Things escalate further when he begins to have hallucinations in his waking state. This is when his wife Chastain’s “Samantha” character gets ample time to exhibit the depth of emotion, to which Chastain absolutely solidifies the role with such dignity and fortitude.ĭirector Nichols storytelling is nothing short of remarkable as you find yourself drawn to Curtis’s dilemma, of straddling between the “real world” and a genuine visceral reaction his vivid dreams give him.
You could see Curtis trying to navigate as best as he can yet he knows that his deteriorating condition could ultimately be his family’s undoing.
While everything may seem idyllic, things become interesting when Curtis begins to have strange, very realistic, and often terrifying dreams with an apocalyptic bent. They have a deaf daughter, and the trio tries to live their lives with all its struggles in rural America. Shannon’s character, “Curtis” plays a blue-collar type with his loving wife played by the equally talented Jessica Chastain who has also made quite a name for herself in the past decade. It also crosses into the paranormal, even Biblical elements without any heavy-handedness of preachiness as Nichols narrated the story in cotton ball-levels of subtlety. While the film is straightforward in its plot, it is rich, as in *thick* with several complex themes like the character’s apparent slowly deteriorating coherence with reality, the trauma of parental abandonment, the struggles of a young family, and a wife trying to keep it together. This would actually be the second pairing of Shannon and Nichols working together on a film (first would be 2007’s “Shotgun Stories” and later 2016’s sci-fi flick “Midnight Special”). Some bragging rights and shiny stats first: the film has received A LOT of recognition from circa 2011 - 2012 which include but not limited to: the Cannes Film Festival ( Critics Week Grand Prize - Nichols), the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films ( Shannon and Nichols for Acting and Writing respectively) and the Zurich Film Festival ( Best International Feature Film) and a bunch of other accolades internationally.
It also made me look out for his performances in many films after that (you see a dark, brooding megalomaniac as the General Zod character in “Man of Steel” contrasted with a tired, defeated husband role in last year’s brilliant ensemble film “Knives Out”). Both cases project a genuine sense of authenticity and this film is essentially what put him on the map with director Jeff Nichols at the helm. Other times, you sense just how natural he is inhabiting his roles so effortlessly, it’s like feet sliding into well-worn running shoes. He “exudes” his emotions but in a paradoxical, dualistic way: sometimes you feel his strained, weary face as he winces with the kind of pain anybody would get when a hammer strikes the thumb instead of the nail. I can’t help but see a Brando (Marlon) or a Rourke (Mickey) in the way he projects a character.
I’m just going to come out and say it: Michael Shannon is one of America’s finest actors currently and has the potential to be one of the finest of his generation. MINOR SPOILERS ahead for the adventurously idle). Just like the year itself, it was a bit of a bumpy ride back in the saddle. (2020 is turning out to be one for the history books, in the most awful ways possible! This attempt at getting back to writing for more than half a year is basically a psychic craving for some semblance of normalcy.