Me and 3 Jessica Chastain Movies

Jessica Chastain has become one of my favourite actresses over the years. She has been in so many great movies already and there are also some good ones to look forward to, like “Crimson Peak”. Here are the three Jessica Chastain movies I watched.

A Most Violent Year

Genre: Drama/ Crime/ Action/ Thriller

Year: 2014

Director: J.C. Chandor

Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Alessandro Nivola, Albert Brooks, Elyes Gabel, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Peter Gerety, Christopher Abbott, Ashley Williams, John Procaccino, Glenn Fleshler, Jerry Adler, Annie Funke, Maathew Maher, David Margulies, Pico Alexander

Description: In New York City 1981, ambitious immigrant Abel (Oscar Isaac) fights to protect his business and family during the most dangerous year in the city's history.

Opinion: The movie slowly reveals itself and the calm way the story is told really works. Great performances by Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain.

Favorite character: Anna Morales (Jessica Chastain)

Most memorable quote: “When it feels scary to jump, that is exactly when you jump, otherwise you end up staying in the same place your whole life, and that I can't do.” – Abel Morales -

Best scene: The car chase scene, where Abel is trying to follow the man who stole one of his tankers.

Lawless

Genre: Crime/ Drama

Year: 2012

Director: John Hollcoat

Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain, Guy Pearce, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan, Gary Oldman

Description: A trio of bootlegging brothers are threatened by a new special deputy and other authorities angling for a cut of their profits.

Opinion: It’s a good western/ gangster film. Nice setting, good acting and fast paced. An uncomplicated, enjoyable watch. Favorite character: Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy)

Most memorable quote: “It is not the violence that sets men apart, alright, it is the distance that he is prepared to go.” – Forrest Bondurant -

Best scene: The moment where Forrest finds out that Maggie helped him when he was attacked and that something happened to her as well, although she doesn’t want to admit to it.

Zero Dark Thirty

Genre: Drama/ Thriller

Year: 2012

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, Jason Clarke, Chris Pratt, Joel Edgerton, James Gandolfini, Kyle Chandler, Taylor Kinney, Jennifer Ehle, Frank Grillo, Mark Duplass, Harold Perrineau

Description: A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May 2011.

Opinion: The movie could be dull because of the length and all the politics, but it’s Jessica Chastain that makes this movie worthwhile. Great and strong film!

Favorite character: Maya (Jessica Chastain)

Most memorable quote: “I'm the motherfucker that found this place. Sir.” – Maya -

Best scene: Where Maya is telling her superior why it’s important to find Osama Bin Laden and that she is the one who is going to find him.

Favorite of the 3: “Zero Dark Thirty”

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 27: Lawless

Director: John Hillcoat

Genre: Crime/ Drama

Runtime: 115 minutes

Year: 2012

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Jessica Chastain, Guy Pearce, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan, Gary Oldman

Description: A trio of bootlegging brothers are threatened by a new special deputy and other authorities angling for a cut of their profits.

Review: They are inaccessible, the legendary image of the Bondurant family. Wars, epidemics, nothing got to them for decades. This family is the focus of “Lawless” directed by John Hillcoat. Leader is Forrest, and we also have older brother Howard and the youngest Jack.

“Lawless” is set in the thirties of the twentieth century in Virginia. De brothers Bondurant are leading an okay life, with their own illegal trade in beverage. But when a new sheriff comes to town, this life changes. Sheriff Rakes wants everyone to live by his rules and the Bondurant family is his biggest problem. Where others surrounder to Rakes, the Bondurant brothers don’t give in and fight him.

Although the leader of the Bondurants is Forrest, the leading role is for Jack. Shia LaBeouf manages to keep up with the other big names in the cast. Jessica Chastain shines as always, but she isn’t given that much to do. Gary Oldman is hardly in it and Guy Pearce is a creepy, convincing Sheriff. But it’s Tom Hardy that steals the show. There is something about Hardy that I can’t resist.

“Lawless” is a good western/ gangster film. It’s a movie that does lots of good thing, like the setting, the actors and the pace. But the lack of depth is a negative, both in the story as the characters. This makes “Lawless” an uncomplicated enjoyable watch.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

Movie Trailer Sunday (35)

This weeks trailers are about a spooky hotel, the Bondurants brothers, a couple going to therapy, a woman returning to her hippie mother and a couple struggling to be 40.

Hotel Transylvania
Description: Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, Dracula's (Adam Sandler) lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free from meddling from the human world. But here's a little known fact about Dracula: he is not only the Prince of Darkness; he is also a dad. Over-protective of his teenage daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), Dracula fabricates tales of elaborate dangers to dissuade her adventurous spirit. As a haven for Mavis, he opens the Hotel Transylvania, where his daughter and some of the world's most famous monsters - Frankenstein and his bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves, and more - can kick back in safety and peace. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem, but his world could come crashing down when one ordinary guy stumbles on the hotel and takes a shine to Mavis.
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Starring: Adams Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Kvin James, Fran Drescher, Cee-Lo Green, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Koechner
Trailer: Trailer "Hotel Transylvania"

Lawless
Description: We follow the freewheelin' Bondurants brothers, bootlegging siblings taking the law into their own hands. This is the story of the rural hard-men that created the big city gangsters. Brazen and fearless, these young rebel brothers helped build the American Dream in this exuberant tale of what was to become crime's first major gold rush. The youngest brother, Jack (Shia LaBeouf), fancies himself the next Al Capone; he dreams of sharp suits, guns, girls and fast cars, no matter the cost. Ambitious and impulsive, he takes the family's small-scale moonshining operation to the big leagues, to impress the gorgeous but off-limits Amish girl, Bertha (Mia Wazikowska). The middle brother, Howard (Jason Clarke), is the brawling muscle - loyal but reckless - never one to turn down a taste of white lightning. And eldest brother, Forrest (Tom Hardy), reluctantly accepts the changing times with grace and grit, leading the family with strength of character and silent determination against the beginnings of corporate greed. An enigmatic and stunning Maggie (Jessica Chastain) comes to town with a hidden past, igniting his passion and almost saving him in the process. As the Bondurants' legend grows, so too does the danger, and it's not long before the brothers must face the consequences of their transgressions, or rewrite the myth and the law themselves.
Director: John Hillcoat
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Mia Wazikowska, Jessica Chastain, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce, Jason Clarke
Trailer: Trailer "Lawless"
Comment: It's been a while since we saw Shia LaBeouf in a movie (not counting the sucky "Tranformers" franchise). And To Hardy and Jessica Chastain are our new rising stars.

Hope Springs
Description: Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) are a devoted couple, but decades of marriage have left Kay wanting to spice things up and reconnect with her husband. When she hears of a renowned couple's specialist (Steve Carell) in the small town of Great Hope Springs, she attempts to persuade her skeptical husband, a steadfast man of routine, to get on a plane for a week of marriage therapy. Just convincing the stubborn Arnold to go on the retreat is hard enough, the real challenge for both of them comes as they shed their bedroom hang-ups and try to re-ignite the spark that caused them to fall for each other in the first place.
Director: David Frankel
Starring: Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell
Trailer: Trailer "Hope Springs"
Comment: I always liked Meryl Streep for her viariety of roles.

Peace, Love and Misunderstanding
Description: Diane (Catherine Keener) is a conservative New York City lawyer who is in desperate need of an escape after her husband asks for a divorce. Along with her two children (Elizabeth Olsen and Nat Wolff), she takes refuge at her estranged hippie mother Grace's (Jane Fonda) farmhouse, where she is exposed to a motley crew of free thinkers. What was meant to be a stress-free getaway quickly turns into a reminder of why Diane escaped her mother's hippie lifestyle in the first place, but the reunion forcers her, her children, and Grace to search for peace with each other and with themselves.
Director: Bruce Beresford
Starring: Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chace Crawford, Elizabeth Olsen, Nat Wolff
Trailer: Trailer "Peace, Love and Misunderstanding"

This is 40
Description: We follow Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) (from the movie "Knocked Up") as we see first-hand how they are dealing with their current state of life.
Director: Judd Apatow
Starring: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Megan Fox, John Lithgow, Jason Segel, Iris Apatow, Maude Apatow, Melissa McCarthy, Albert Brooks
Trailer: Trailer "This is 40"