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…contrived in a “Shakespeare in Love” sort of way…
Some of these have been highly fictitious, such as the brilliant "Shakespeare in Love," which earned multiple Academy Awards…
This is not Shakespeare in Love redux.
…movies about William Shakespeare (whether his life or something less straightforward than that [e.g., Shakespeare in Love, which focuses on what, fictionally speaking, inspired him to write Romeo & Juliet]) have become part of their own genre…
Although there are some thematic similarities with Shakespeare in Love, with the Bard getting ideas that we recognise from his theatrical work, this is a far more testing and upsetting film…
Chloe Zhao's Hamnet is a kind of flip side to Shakespeare in Love.
Leaning a little extra heavily on the Shakespeare in Love button, Lasse Hallstrom's Casanova is a slight, silly, and entirely frothy little confection ... but I'd be lying if I said I didn't find some really entertaining stuff littered throughout its weirdness.
In that sense -- and many others -- the movie recalls the playful, knockabout verve of Richard Lester's 1970s "Three Musketeers" romps -- or, more recently, the 1998 Oscar winner "Shakespeare in Love," without the soaring glories of the latter's Oscar-winning script.
Basically it's just a big, childish farce--more American Pie than Shakespeare in Love.
Comparisons to “Shakespeare in Love” are inevitable, and while it isn’t better than that, it’s not exactly trying to be, regardless of the myriad of similar themes.
Such obstacles are predictably mined for sub-Shakespearean (or, rather, sub-Shakespeare in Love) identity flip-flops in which Francesca's covert career as a writer of women's lib literature is matched by Casanova's masquerading as Papprizzio (at a masquerade ball, no less).
“Miss Sloane” is at once unapologetically melodramatic and surprisingly wonky — similar to, but less elegant than, the legal thriller “Michael Clayton.”
It’s Michael Clayton meets The West Wing , with no kindly and wise elder statesmen to be found.
Directed by handsome drama maestro John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) and positioned as a cross between “Michael Clayton” and “All the President’s Men,” the movie features morally bankrupt D.C. power players and blackmail scenes set in shady parking garages, making inspired use of genre clichés even as it offers a relatively fresh look at one of the most manipulative forces on Capitol Hill today: the special-interest lobbyist.
She roars through this political drama, as glamorously cynical as his 2011 directorial effort The Ides of March, and plays a morally conflicted Washington lobbyist similar to the guilty corporate fixer he rode to an Oscar nomination in Michael Clayton.
The film, directed by John Madden – best known for “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” – moves in gyrations done before and more genuinely in “Michael Clayton” and “Thank You for Smoking,” but does bring a unique lens to the D.C. universe, especially the means of capturing votes and identifying target blocs.
"Scandal" meets "Michael Clayton," this wild thriller about the dark art of lobbying might be the political movie the world needs right now.
She is a whip-smart and seemingly soulless professional, reminiscent of Faye Dunaway's TV executive from Chayefsky's Network .
One more bad thing, except this is one that the movie somehow turns into a good thing: It’s a mishmash of a cynical satire along the lines of “Network” with Frank Capra-style triumph-of-the-little-people melodrama with a con-man caper with a John Grisham legal thriller.
But the pair are also captives of the genre dynamics in which they have chosen to utilize, and while both are doing their best Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky impersonations that doesn’t mean their motion picture has the power, grace or authority of something like Network or The Hospital .
Comparisons to Network would not be inapt for this cutting and corrosive drama packed with high-stakes Washington, D.C., hustlers as cutthroat as anyone on Game of Thrones or House of Cards, all determined not only to beat but to annihilate their adversaries.
It’s Thank You for Smoking and Wag the Dog with all the satire stripped out and just the crass reality remaining.
The film, directed by John Madden – best known for “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” – moves in gyrations done before and more genuinely in “Michael Clayton” and “Thank You for Smoking,” but does bring a unique lens to the D.C. universe, especially the means of capturing votes and identifying target blocs.
As an indictment of the lobbying business, the film lacks the satirical wit of Jason Reitman’s “Thank You for Smoking.”
We don’t see a lot of cinematic representation of the lobbying world; when it’s played for drama like it is here (as opposed to the satire of something like 2006’s excellent “Thank You for Smoking”), there’s a lot of potential.
The last notable film that comes to mind that centered on a modern political lobbyist was Jason Reitman's amusing Thank You for Smoking (2005) but, given its concentration on women trying to hold their own with the big boys, a more direct parallel is provided by this year's Equity, a solid, if not entirely realized, look at women fighting to make their mark in investment banking.
The Imitation Game (2014)
Directed by Morten Tyldum
influenced Operation Mincemeat (2022)
Plot Themes
The attachment of a personal story made Operation Mincemeat seem like it was trying to copy The Imitation Game .
Based on a novel by Ben Macintyre and adapted by Michelle Ashford, the film recalls other wartime British thrillers, such as Their Finest, The Imitation Game, and most recently, Darkest Hour.
Couple that with the calibre of war films that us Brits deliver – The Imitation Game , 1917 and The Reader to name but a few – and I knew that John Madden’s Operation Mincemeat was going to be right up my street.
Joining a laundry list of titles about behind-the-scenes ingenuity that helped win WWII, think “The Imitation Game” or “The Darkest Hour,” “Operation Mincemeat” manages to hold down the fort even when its own clunky storytelling (and lengthy runtime) can sometimes stand in the way.
Ranging from big action thrillers ( Dunkirk ) to the tense cerebral mind games of espionage and tactics like The Imitation Game , all while tugging at the heartstrings.
It would be natural to compare "Proof" with " A Beautiful Mind " (2001), another movie about a brilliant and mad mathematician.
"Proof," based on David Auburn’s wildly popular stage play, is a sensitive take on the same mathematical milieu and emotional terrain that Ron Howard traversed in the Academy Award-winning picture "A Beautiful Mind."
While the movie cannot escape comparisons to Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, it doesn’t necessarily deserve to be paired with that superior picture.
With "Proof," the new Gwyneth Paltrow movie based on the award-winning play by David Auburn, we are once again back in "A Beautiful Mind" territory.
No, I'm not asking for a movie to teach us math, but even the similarly environed A Beautiful Mind attempted a visual math lesson, which at least meant the filmmakers tried to be considerate of their subject matter.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)
Directed by Tom Gormican
influenced by Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
"Massive Talent" is a house of mirrors where he's able to poke fun at himself, his persona and his career, and there are references to his gonzo work in "Moonstruck," "Leaving Las Vegas," "Face/Off," "National Treasure," "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" ("underrated for sure," Cage quips), "Croods 2" and more.
Just because Nicolas Cage is playing himself and we get a myriad of references to his greatest roles as well as a few we might have forgotten about (hello, “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”), and just because the characters comment about how certain plot developments are driven by marketing concerns and have been done to death, that doesn’t obfuscate the fact we’re still seeing those very plot developments play out.
As much fun as it may be to hear references to Captain Corelli’s Mandolin , The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent works better because it makes the central relationship work.
It opens with a clip from Con Air , contains tongue-in-cheek nods to The Croods 2 , Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Guarding Tess , and features a scene packed with Cage-flavoured props, from Mandy ’s chainsaw to the twin gold guns from Face/Off .
Nick has a tension-filled relationship with his ex-wife Olivia (played by Sharon Horgan), a former makeup artist whom he met on the set of his 2001 movie “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.”
But the pair are also captives of the genre dynamics in which they have chosen to utilize, and while both are doing their best Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky impersonations that doesn’t mean their motion picture has the power, grace or authority of something like Network or The Hospital .
And yet, as with J.C. Chandor’s 2011 “Margin Call,” one gets the sense that actors must not see this kind of material often enough, settling for ersatz Sorkin when it’s the best they can get.
In its best moments recalling J.C. Chandor’s debut Margin Call, freshman screenwriter Jonathan Perera’s script sat on last year’s black list before becoming snapped up.
There are a lot of elements to enjoy in British director John Madden's eleventh feature – including the pace of dialogue exchanged in a way that almost matches the famously breakneck speed of His Girl Friday .
Four of her colleagues “Jerry Maguire” with her, but not her trusted protege (“The Newsroom’s” Alison Pill), who tries to make a name for herself by bringing down Sloane.
And so, she pulls a Jerry Maguire and jumps ship to a boutique firm called Peterson Wyatt to work the other side of the gun-control issue.
In what she herself recognizes is a “Jerry Maguire” move, she quits, taking her staff with her — except for Jane (Alison Pill), her closest aide, who opts to stay with the high salary and opportunity for partnership.
The bulk of the story deals with Sloane and her team (many of whom followed her Jerry Maguire -style from her last gig) trying to secure the votes of 60 senators in 84 days to pass gun control legislation, which leads to some dutifully constructed, fast paced, Sorkin-esque walk-and-talks that play out between the warring sides.
Moving with urgency, Alexander Berner's (2011's " The Debt ") editorial prowess masterfully finding the parallels between its six time frames, "Cloud Atlas" nonetheless takes the time to listen to, and exhibit aching empathy for, its mountainous collection of characters (nearly all of the actors are featured in up to six different roles, many of them unrecognizable under make-up and effects wizardry).
First-time screenwriter Jonathan Perera launches Miss Sloane with a tantalizing, sharp-edged premise that recalls the great paranoid political thrillers of the 1970s, savage indictments of political and corporate corruption such as The Parallax View, All the President’s Men, and Network.
Directed by handsome drama maestro John Madden (“Shakespeare in Love,” “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) and positioned as a cross between “Michael Clayton” and “All the President’s Men,” the movie features morally bankrupt D.C. power players and blackmail scenes set in shady parking garages, making inspired use of genre clichés even as it offers a relatively fresh look at one of the most manipulative forces on Capitol Hill today: the special-interest lobbyist.
I’m going to wear my recommendation for “Miss Sloane” like a badge, because I’m a sucker for political thrillers from “The Day of the Jackal” to “The Parallax View” to “Three Days of the Condor’ to “Absolute Power” to “Enemy of the State” to “The Interpreter.”
Director John Madden probably wouldn’t mind Miss Sloane being compared to The Verdict or And Justice for All .
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Directed by George Lucas
influenced by Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Likewise, the Faustian deal he dangles before Anakin constitutes Lucas’ best recent work as a screenwriter (though "Shakespeare in Love" wordsmith Tom Stoppard is rumored to have had a hand).
Rumor has it that “Shakespeare in Love” writer Tom Stoppard did an uncredited polish on Lucas’ dialogue.
This dual attitude – at once reverential and disrespectful – aligns Tom Hooper’s film with John Madden’s Mrs Brown (1997), which likewise featured a plainspoken, non-English outsider coming to the aid of a psychologically distressed royal.
From Elizabeth to The Queen to Shakespeare in Love to Mrs Brown, usually leading to Oscar gold.
The stars who do the heavy lifting are costume designer Sandy Powell ( Shakespeare in Love , The Aviator ) and production designer Dante Ferretti ( Casino , Gangs of New York ), who give expert form and function to a storybook world where Cinderella can go for a ride in the woods and meet an undercover prince, "Kit" (Richard Madden), leaving him so smitten that a royal ball is announced to which every eligible maiden in the land is invited.
I’m going to wear my recommendation for “Miss Sloane” like a badge, because I’m a sucker for political thrillers from “The Day of the Jackal” to “The Parallax View” to “Three Days of the Condor’ to “Absolute Power” to “Enemy of the State” to “The Interpreter.”