My 5 Favourite Adam Driver Roles

In celebration of Adam Driver’s birthday today, I’ve made a Top 5 list of my favourite roles of his. You probably know him as that tall guy in the mask who likes to throw a temper tantrum, but he’s been in quite a few movies before The Force Awakens! Sadly, a lot of them are very mediocre indies, but he tends to be the hidden gem in them.

Before I kick off, I’d like to throw in an honorable mention, because I seemingly can’t stick to even my own rules, but he played such as small role in this movie I didn’t want to include it. If you haven’t seen Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) yet, you really should, even if it’s just to see this wonderful musical number:

At the time of writing, that video has 1,572,844 views. I think I'm probably responsible for at least 25,000 of those. So now that’s stuck in my head for the rest of the day, here’s the actual top 5:

#5 Midnight Special (2016), Sevier

Another small role for Adam, but part of a fantastic Sci-Fi movie. Sevier is the NSA agent hunting down Alton, a young boy with special abilities. Sevier becomes quite fascinated by Alton, and ultimately abandons his primary goal to help the boy instead. It’s a very different role to what he normally plays, but his natural goofy charm really shines.

#4 While We’re Young (2014), Jamie

I’m still mad that this movie wasn’t very good. It could have stuck to a real conventional, predictable romcom plot and I would have enjoyed it more. Jamie and his wife(? girlfriend?) become good friends with an older couple, and both pairs learn from each other, which of course includes goofy/fun Adam Driver, my favourite kind, but of course the movie turns all dark and weird. Classic example of a great role in a bad movie.

#3 Hungry Hearts (2014), Jude

Where the previous movie left me disappointed, Hungry Hearts just made me mad and sad. Adam Driver’s on-screen wife (I’m sure this time) becomes obsessed with purity, leaving their newborn baby starving and not growing. It’s a difficult movie to watch, but it’s very well acted and my heart just broke for Jude. You want to hug him and tell him everything will be okay, but at the same time, give him a slap and tell him to take control of the situation!

#2 Girls (2012-2017), Adam Sackler

Maybe I’m cheating a little, because Girls is a TV Show, but hey, this is my list! If anyone out there happened to wonder how Adam Driver got the role in Star Wars, look no further than his character here. Often childish, and occasionally violent, Adam Sackler is a multi-dimensional character. I know it’s not a popular show, but watching Adam’s character grow throughout the seasons has been fascinating, and I hope he has a happy ending when it all ends in 2017.

#1 Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Kylo Ren

The role that started this whole obsession of mine just had to be number 1, really. I know Kylo Ren has been shrugged off as a whiny character, but I think there’s a lot of room for character backstory here. You don’t just turn to the dark side for no reason, and I doubt a Snoke Apprenticeship is an easy thing to win. I’m both excited and terrified to see Kylo Ren in the next 2 movies, only because I know he’ll die in the end, and that will make me sad. There’s surely no coming back for him now, no matter how strong the pull from the light is. Is there?

BONUS! I know I already picked an honourable mention, but I just can’t leave this list here. You can’t mention Kylo Ren without mentioning his SNL alter-ego, Matt the Radar Technician. The whole world has seen that clip now, and I’ve seen it too many times to count, but it still makes me laugh. Pleeeeaaaase, powers that be, make Matt canon. I don’t even need to see him, just let General Hux make an off-hand comment about a bumbling idiot in a blonde wig, or something!

It’s now just a few days until Paterson (2016) is released in the UK, and I really can’t wait for that. I don’t think I have a cinema date yet though…

Review: Midnight Special (2016)

Date night! This might be the first movie Jenna and I actually watched together at the cinema THIS YEAR. Is that right? What did we actually watch together last?  Urm I think you might be right, I don't actually remember the last time we went!

Anyway, I do love our cinema trips. They almost always involve a cheeky Nandos, and I get a free ticket thanks to those delightful meerkats and Jenna’s Cineworld card. I did not approve of the life size, all too real Idris Elba cutout in the foyer that terrified me every time I looked it. So mesmerising at the same time, though… This feels like the ideal time to mentions Allie's joke about Idris' elbow....you may have had to be there! Did you actually hear that? I can't help calling him Idris Elbow but I thought I only got halfway through that sentence before the cardboard version of him terrified me!

On to the movie! I don’t want to tell you too much about the plot of Midnight Special, because it’s one of those that’s better the less you know, but this is what I could tell from the trailer and the summary on IMDB. A young boy named Alton with mysterious, special powers (Jaeden Lieberher) is on the run from the government with his father (Michael Shannon). That really is all you need to know. That, and the fact that this is a Sci-Fi movie.

It’s got one of the greatest openings to a movie I’ve seen for a long time. The logos of the production companies are still being played, but you can hear a news report in the background giving an amber warning for a missing child, kidnapped by a man named Roy (Shannon). Quickly we realise we’re in the motel room occupied by Roy, Alton and a friend of Roy’s, Lucas (Joel Edgerton). In the middle of the night, the three leave their room and drive at speed through the night. 

Right from the outset, my mind had questions floating around. Who is Lucas? Why are they on the run? Where has Alton been kidnapped from? As the movie creeps along, most questions get answered, but more crop up constantly, and that’s one of the greatest things about Midnight Special. It leads you on at a relatively slow pace, but keeps you guessing throughout. Just when your mind has caught up, it picks up pace again and gives you a fresh batch of thoughts. It also made me jump pretty badly, twice! I’d actually only started trusting the movie again when it got me the second time.  

I am struggling to put together any kind of coherent review for this film.  One thing I will say is that I'm glad I completely forgot the trailer, going into this with an open mind is kind of the only way to watch it.  It's a slow burner that's for sure, refusing to give away anything but the bear minimum of information and building on that.  I think it was nearly 30 minutes before they confirmed that one of the men 'kidnapping' this boy, was actually his father. Had they have provided all the information as we went along I don't think I would have been as engrossed as I was, i was constantly waiting for the answer to a question which inevitably posed a new question!

The performances are great all round. I only really discovered Joel Edgerton last year in The Gift, and his role here was completely different. I’m looking forward to seeing more of his movies. Michael Shannon is an actor I’ve seen very little of also, and he was the star in this one, saying more with his expressions and body language than he did with actual words. I felt Kirsten Dunst was a bit wasted, personally, but maybe that’s because I wanted to know more about her past, and didn’t. Adam Driver was everything I wanted him to be, playing a more serious role than I’m used to seeing him in, but with the right amount of awkwardness for it to still be him.

I was really impressed with Shannon (i'd expect nothing less), Edgerton (no idea what to expect) and Driver (if I said I didn't like him Allie would cut me out of her wedding!). Lieberher did a really good job of playing someone smarter than all the adults around him but still providing a vulnerability that made you want to just hug him.  Don't get me started on Dunst, I don't like her, this had not made me like her anymore.  In fact, I think the whole film could have been just as good without that character entirely.

I want to keep this spoiler free, so I won’t discuss the ending, but afterwards, Jenna and I both agreed we needed to sleep on this one before we knew how to feel. I thought about it the whole drive home, stayed up far too late reading into it, and spent my break at work telling a colleague about it. I love movies that do this to me! When I started writing this, I’d told myself I was giving Midnight Special an 8, but actually putting my thoughts into words has made me realise I enjoyed this more than I thought I did.

It took me four days to work out how I felt about this and how to put that into words.  It's slow paced, providing enough tension to keep me on the edge of my seat without having to resort to excess CGI and huge set pieces. 

Looking Forward to Seeing in the Cinema this Month: April 2016

I cannot possibly be writing the post for April already, surely!  When this post goes live, Allie will be getting married and I will be turning 31 NEXT MONTH...WTF!!!!!

I've known for ages what my movie would be for this month due to my slightly inappropriate obsession with Taron Egerton.  

Eddie the Eagle is the true story of Brit Eddie Edwards AKA Eddie the Eagle and his determination to get to the Olympics in the 80's.  He went on to compete in the Ski Jumping category at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988 with the help of fictional coach, Bronson (Hugh Jackman) and won the hearts of fans everywhere.

I don't know many details of the history of Eddie the Eagle and I dying to google all about him but I'm fighting the urge so hopefully I won't know the entire story before I see it!!

Eddie the Eagle is released in UK Cinemas on 1st April 2016.

I'm suspicious of anything that happens on 1st April! I guess that comes from having prankster parents, but how funny would it be if you turned up for Eddie the Eagle on April Fool's Day and the cinema was just like, 'LOL. Here, watch some turd movie instead'. But I digress. You know what...... that wouldn't be in the slightest bit funny, in fact Cineworld if you're reading this, I would be mighty pee'd off and would consider boycotting your establishment!  Ok I wouldn't boycott as such, but I would certainly start bringing my own snacks.....

 

Can we rename April 'weird obsession' month here? As much as I know I'll be seeing Captain America: Civil war soon, there's something else I'm looking forward to more.

Midnight Special, baby! You heard me. I didn't even know this movie existed until last week when my family went out to see 10 Cloverfield Lane. The trailer for Midnight Special started playing and I darn near threw popcorn everywhere before squealing at the sight of Adam Driver on the big screen again!

It's a Sci-Fi flick about a child with special powers. I'm assuming the authorities want to perform all kinds of research on him, and that's why his father goes on the run with him, but I'm trying not to read too much into it. The review scores look good so far though, and the rest of the casting sounds promising. Fingers crossed!

Midnight Special is released in UK cinemas on 8th April 2016.