HBO Max Movie Review: Juror #2


The new HBO Max movie “Juror #2” is about all that is wrong with the legal system in this country. People are often convicted for all the wrong reasons – including expediency due to the fact that once police investigators think they have found the right person, there is only so much money and time to investigate any situation thoroughly enough. For this one reason alone, way too many people – especially poor people are sent to jail or put on death row, even though they did nothing wrong.

Juror #2 is directed by Clint Eastwood, who is still directing movies at age 94, which according to records makes him the second oldest person to direct a film.

The screenplay for Juror #2 is a very good one about a man having an argument in a bar with his girlfriend during a rainy night and the girlfriend refuses a drive home with her boyfriend and is later found dead after falling off of a cliff. Several incorrect assumptions are made by the police and several witnesses and the boyfriend is arrested for murder. Later when the jury is selected, one of the jurors has significant knowledge of what happened to the woman that night.

Juror #2 has an excellent cast, including Nicholas Hoult as Justin Kemp (juror #2), Toni Collette as Faith Killebrew, the prosecuting attorney, Chris Messina as Eric Resnick the defense attorney, and J.K. Simmons who is excellent as a member of the jury, and a former police officer, who through some simple phone calls and research easily demonstrates major flaws in the police investigations of this alleged crime.

There are excellent courtroom scenes in this story, and along the way the expected ongoing conflicts that all lawyers face over winning a case at all costs against doing the right thing – to save the life of an innocent person.

Juror #2 is receiving very high 93% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and I agree with these ratings and recommend this movie.

Golden Globe Nominations: 2024


FILM:

Motion picture (drama)

  • “The Brutalist”
  • “A Complete Unknown”
  • “Conclave”
  • “Dune: Part Two”
  • “Nickel Boys”
  • “September 5”

Motion picture (comedy or musical)

  • “Anora”
  • “Challengers”
  • “Emilia Perez”
  • “A Real Pain”
  • “The Substance”
  • “Wicked”

Actor (drama)

  • Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”
  • Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”
  • Daniel Craig, “Queer”
  • Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”
  • Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”
  • Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice”

Actor (comedy or musical)

  • Jesse Eisenberg, “A Real Pain”
  • Hugh Grant, “Heretic”
  • Gabriel LaBelle, “Saturday Night”
  • Jesse Plemons, “Kinds of Kindness”
  • Glen Powell, “Hit Man”
  • Sebastian Stan, “A Different Man”

Actress (drama)

  • Pamela Anderson, “The Last Showgirl”
  • Angelina Jolie, “Maria”
  • Nicole Kidman, “Babygirl”
  • Tilda Swinton, “The Room Next Door”
  • Fernanda Torres, “I’m Still Here”
  • Kate Winslet, “Lee”

Actress (comedy or musical)

  • Amy Adams, “Nightbitch”
  • Cynthia Erivo, “Wicked”
  • Karla Sofía Gascón, “Emilia Perez”
  • Mikey Madison, “Anora”
  • Demi Moore, “The Substance”
  • Zendaya, “Challengers”

Supporting actor

  • Yura Borisov, “Anora”
  • Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain”
  • Edward Norton “A Complete Unknown”
  • Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”
  • Jeremy Strong, “The Apprentice”
  • Denzel Washington, “Gladiator II”

Supporting actress

  • Selena Gomez, “Emilia Perez”
  • Ariana Grande, “Wicked”
  • Felicity Jones, “The Brutalist”
  • Margaret Qualley, “The Substance”
  • Isabella Rossellini, “Conclave”
  • Zoe Saldana, “Emilia Perez”

Director

  • Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Perez”
  • Sean Baker, “Anora”
  • Edward Berger, “Conclave”
  • Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”
  • Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”
  • Payal Kapadia, “All We Imagine as Light”

Screenplay

  • Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez”
  • Sean Baker, “Anora”  
  • Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, “The Brutalist”
  • Jesse Eisenberg, “A Real Pain”
  • Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”
  • Peter Straughan, “Conclave”

Score

  • Volker Bertelmann, “Conclave”
  • Daniel Blumberg, “The Brutalist”
  • Kris Bowers, “The Wild Robot””
  • Clément Ducol, Camille, “Emilia Pérez”
  • Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, “Challengers”
  • Hans Zimmer, “Dune: Part Two”

Song

  • “Beautiful That Way” from “The Last Showgirl”
  • “Compress/Repress” from “Challengers”
  • “El Mal” from Emilia Perez”
  • “Forbidden Road” from “Better Man”
  • “Kiss the Sky” from “The Wild Robot”
  • “Mi Camino” from “Emilia Perez”

Animated feature

  • “Flow”
  • “Inside Out 2”
  • “Memoir of a Snail”
  • “Moana 2”
  • “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”
  • “The Wild Robot”

Non-English language film

  • “All We Imagine as Light”
  • “Emilia Perez”
  • “The Girl with the Needle”
  • “I’m Still Here”
  • “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”
  • “Vermiglio”

Cinematic box office achievement

  • “Alien: Romulus”
  • “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”
  • “Deadpool & Wolverine”
  • “Gladiator II”
  • “Inside Out 2”
  • “Twisters”
  • “Wicked”
  • “The Wild Robot”

TELEVISION:

TV series (drama)

  • “The Day of the Jackal”
  • “The Diplomat”
  • “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”
  • “Shogun”
  • “Slow Horses”
  • “Squid Game”

TV series (comedy or musical)

  • “Abbott Elementary”
  • “The Bear”
  • “The Gentlemen”
  • “Hacks”
  • “Nobody Wants This”
  • “Only Murders in the Building”

TV series (limited or TV movie)

  • “Baby Reindeer”
  • “Disclaimer”
  • “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
  • “The Penguin”
  • “Ripley”
  • “True Detective: Night Country”

TV actor (drama)

  • Donald Glover, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”
  • Jake Gyllenhaal, “Presumed Innocent”
  • Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”
  • Eddie Redmayne, “The Day of the Jackal”
  • Hiroyuki Sanada, “Shōgun”
  • Billy Bob Thornton, “Landman”

TV actor (comedy)

  • Adam Brody, “Nobody Wants This”
  • Ted Danson, “A Man on the Inside”
  • Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”
  • Jason Segel, “Shrinking”
  • Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”
  • Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”

TV actor (limited series or TV movie)

  • Colin Farrell, “The Penguin”
  • Richard Gadd, “Baby Reindeer”
  • Kevin Kline, “Disclaimer”
  • Cooper Koch, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
  • Ewan McGregor, “A Gentleman in Moscow”
  • Andrew Scott, “Ripley”

TV actress (drama)

  • Kathy Bates, “Matlock”
  • Emma D’Arcy, “House of the Dragon”
  • Maya Erskine, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”
  • Keira Knightley, “Black Doves”
  • Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”
  • Anna Sawai, “Shōgun”

TV actress (comedy)

  • Kristen Bell, “Nobody Wants This”
  • Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”
  • Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”
  • Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”
  • Kathryn Hahn, ‘”Agatha All Along”
  • Jean Smart, “Hacks”

TV actress (limited series or TV movie)

  • Cate Blanchett, “Disclaimer”
  • Jodie Foster, “True Detective: Night Country”
  • Cristin Milioti, “The Penguin”
  • Sofía Vergara, “Griselda”
  • Naomi Watts, “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans”
  • Kate Winslet, “The Regime”

Supporting actor

  • Tadanobu Asano, “Shōgun”
  • Javier Bardem, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”
  • Harrison Ford, “Shrinking”
  • Jack Lowden, “Slow Horses,”
  • Diego Luna, “La Máquina”
  • Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”

Supporting actress

  • Liza Colón-Zayas, “The Bear”
  • Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”
  • Dakota Fanning, “Ripley”
  • Jessica Gunning, “Baby Reindeer”
  • Allison Janney, “The Diplomat”
  • Kali Reis, “True Detective: Night Country”

Stand-up comedy performance

  • Jamie Foxx, “What Had Happened Was”
  • Nikki Glaser, “Someday You’ll Die”
  • Seth Meyers, “Dad Man Walking”
  • Adam Sandler, “Love You”
  • Ali Wong, “Single Lady”
  • Ramy Youssef, “More Feelings”

Movie Review: The Fire Inside


In the history of movie making, many of the best screenplays are about true stories, even better are true sports stories. The new movie “The Fire Inside” is one of those great true stories about an athlete, this time an amateur woman boxer, Claressa Shields played by Ryan Destiny, who is the first boxer in history, man or woman to win the gold medal in two consecutive Olympics: 2012 London and 2016 Rio.

Claressa’s story is about being poor in the worst living conditions in Flint Michigan, where every day was a struggle to stay alive and try and find the strength to make it to another day. This story starts in 2006 when Claressa was 11 years old and would wander over to a local boxing gym where a boxing trainer Jason Crutchfield, played by Brian Tyree Henry would train young boys how to box. At first, Jason refused to train a girl, but through perseverance, Claressa was eventually trained by Crutchfield who soon found out that this young girl had a powerful “fire inside”.

Despite her extremely dysfunctional home life, Claressa’s impressive work ethic and determination, are portrayed very well in this story, all the way through a series of boxing tournaments that led Claressa to China and then to the London Olympics in 2012 – an almost impossible feat for a 17-year-old girl from a poor neighborhood in Flint Michigan.

Once the Olympic gold medal is obtained, the real-life part of this story begins because of all of the endorsements that were expected to rescue Claressa from her life of squalor – none of them came through, despite the efforts of Claressa’s coach Jason Crutchfield to find her a deal. This was because marketing executives did not think that a woman fighting other women was good for selling products. This part of the story I thought was the best, reminding us that calling life “unfair” has never been a strong enough word.

The conclusion involved Clarissa moving to Denver to train with the Olympic team try try and win another Gold medal, supported financially by the U.S. Olympic team. This choice turned out to be the only option Clarissa had to generate an income from her Gold medal that at one point, she thought of selling to a Pawn Broker.

The actress who played Clarissa, Ryan Destiny, has a perfect movie star face, excellent acting ability, and did a great job in all of the boxing scenes. Brian Tyree Henry is also great in his role as a boxing trainer living in a very poor neighborhood trying to help kids.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this film are a very accurate 95% and receives my highest recommendation.