Tag Archives: Jeremy Allen White

Movie Review: The Iron Claw

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The first thing to admire about the new movie “The Iron Claw” is the months of working out and diet suppliments necessary for the two lead actors in this film Zac Efron who plays Kevin Von Erich and Jeremy Allen White who plays Kerry Von Erich to get into such massive physical shape. Hopefully none of this muscular growth was achieved using steriods.

As an in-demand actor, very often there is a good deal of hardship to endure including months of shooting in a bad location and physical endurance to make the movie. The problem with achieving extreme body change to act in a film is that once the movie is over, you have to get back to normal physical shape. If you have to gain or lose a great deal of weight, very often this can mean long-term damage to the body. Extreme examples of this include Robert De Niro in “Raging Bull”, 1980, and Christian Bale in “The Machinist”, 2004 – arguably the most extreme body transformation in movie history.

This movie is about the ridiculous sport of professional wrestling, which is popular only in certain parts of thie United States – even though everything that happens in the ring, is so obviously fake. The professional wrestling moves where one wrestler hits another wrestler in the head while stomping his foot, the throwing the other wrestler to the other end of the ring into the ropes have all been done for decades, and yet this continues to be an entertainment that makes money.

The subject of this movie is the Von Erich family who is one of the most popular wrestling families in history. This family traveled around the middle parts of the United States to small wrestling arenas for decades, trying to earn a living within an insane sport, that is all about fakery.

This is a depressing movie in every way, starting with the main reason why this entire family was cursed, the father of the four brothers Fritz Von Erich, played by Holt McCallany. Fritz was a cruel and abusive father to all of his sons, forcing them into the horrendous profession of wrestling. Fritz frequently pitted one son against the other, causing physical and psychological damage to all four of them. Along with the injuries during the wrestling matches, several suicides added to the belief that this family was cursed.

This movie also stars Maura Tierney as Doris Von Erich, the long suffereing wife of Fritz Von Erich, who had to endure years of tragedies and funerals all because of an abusive husband and an idiotic sport. Lily James is also a standout as Pam, Kevin Von Erich’s wife.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is too high 87%, with my rating around 75%, and a recommendation mainly for the acting and the hard work it took for the 2 lead actors to play these roles.

Hulu Series Review: The Bear Season 2

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The new second season of “The Bear” is about the only example where I have seen a television series so respected that several known actors wanted to be in the second season. This list includes Robert Townsend, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Mulaney, Will Poulter, Oliver Platt, Olivia Colman, Gillian Jacobs, and Bob Odenkirk.

The second season is much different than the first as the cast tries to build the new restaurant from finding 300 thousand dollars in a wall inside the first restaurant and help from the families Uncle Jimmy, played by Oliver Platt. The grand total to start the new restaurant is 800 thousand dollars, which was barely enough to gut and build the new building, which included nothing but plumbing, electricity, and even mold problems. As always with this outstanding series, seeing what people go through with their jobs in the restaurant industry with conflict and problem after problem – makes you wonder how any restaurant can become successful, considering the many pitfalls and huge costs.

All the original cast members are back from the second season, including Jeremy Allen White as the star of this series Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto, who is equally outstanding in this second series. As with the first season the nonstop problems, conflicts, and huge arguments are always there, this time – especially in the 6th episode about a Thanksgiving dinner with the entire family, including Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna Berzato, Carmen’s mother. The argument involving Carmen’s brother Micheal played again by Jon Bernthal and his uncle Lee played by Bob Odenkirk and Micheal throwing a fork at him 3 times, is one of the high tension angry high points of this entire series. This argument and so many others during this Thanksgiving episode culminate with Donna driving her car through the front of the house. Happy Thanksgiving.

The different direction this first season goes is about using the budget allocated to build the new restaurant to also train the employees in high-level food preparation skills in some of the best restaurants. The best part of this involves Richard Jerimovich, Micheal Berzato’s best friend who after experiencing a few days as an employee of a top restaurant, owned by Chef Terry, played by Olivia Coleman, transitions from a very angry attacking impossible person to work with into someone who wears a suit and is a far better person entirely due to his experience in working with the people of this top restaurant for only a few days. One of the best lines during this episode is when one of the managers of this restaurant says to Richard, “Every day here is treated like it’s the Super Bowl”.

Another standout in this series is actress Abby Elliot, who plays Carmen’s sister Natalie and has come from being a cast member of Saturday Night Live over 10 years ago, to a breakout actor in this Hulu series. She should receive an Emmy Award nomination for her performance in this series.

In this new season, Carmen reunites with an old girlfriend Claire, played by Molly Gordon. This relationship also has its share of problems and conflicts due to Carmen’s nonstop working life and the stress he is under trying to kick off a new restaurant in the city of Chicago.

The second season does have fewer scenes of food preparation than the first season, but there are so many other great things about this new season that more than compensate for less showing of food preparation.

Actress Ayo Edebiri once again returns as chef Sydney Adamu, and is once again great in her role. Her best scene is with the simple preparation of an omelet she makes for Natalie, showing the expertise it takes to make something that should be simple into something that is worthy of a top restaurant.

This series did win a Golden Globe and has been nominated for many awards, and should be a shoo-in for best drama series Emmy. This great series should run for at least 5 years, it is that good.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for both season 1 and season 2 of The Bear are a perfect 100% and I agree with this opinion and give this series my highest recommendation.

https://youtu.be/i5U-w1yL4r0

Hulu Series Review: The Bear

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With Rotten Tomatoes reviews of a rare perfect 100% score, the new Hulu series “The Bear” was a must-see from the start. Jeremy Allen White plays Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto, who takes over his late brothers’ mostly run-down but high quality restaurant in the city of Chicago. Very quickly, within this 8 part Hulu series we see how hard it is to run and work in a restaurant like this. This is about nonstop movement, standing up all day, workers crashing into each other within a crowded kitchen, constant cooking, and cleanup. Never ending pressure to get the food done, always within an impossible time limit. Under conditions like this, people lose their temper, they can get very angry and impatient all the time.

Aside from all of this, the owner of the restaurant – in this case Carmen Berzatto (where the movie title Bear comes from) is in financial peril, trying to pay of huge debts that his brother, who committed suicide left behind. Another mainstay of the restaurant Richard ‘Richie’ Jerimovich played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach creates even more tension in the kitchen with his never ending bad moods and anger over one thing or another. His constant outbursts at times I thought was too over the top, but did create many great moments of solid acting by him, his cousin Carmen and other workers in the kitchen.

The third most important character in this series is Sydney Adamu, played by Ayo Edebiri is an extremely ambitious and intelligent chef at a level that one would wonder why she would want to work in such a run down restaurant. Her ambition causes major conflict in many well acted scenes with both Richard and Carmen and also another chef Tina who is jealous of Syndey’s higher position in the kitchen.

Ultimately all of this outstanding acting and constant movement and conflict over 8 great episodes, including the great food they all make creates huge respect for anyone who works in any high frequented restaurant within any major city in this country. This is very hard work, under huge amounts of pressure 8-12 hours a day, and for more than 5 days a week.

There is a good reason why this series is getting such high marks – it deserves it. I highly recommend The Bear.