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Showing posts with the label Chris Cooper

Boston Strangler | Average Guy Movie Review

In the early 1960's Boston was hit with a string of murders in which women were strangled in their own homes. Initially investigated by the Boston Police Dept. as individual killings, it was Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley) - a reporter for the Boston Record American newspaper - who originally connected them. She and fellow reporter Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) struggled against obstructions put up by law enforcement and their own colleagues, as well as the sexism and misogyny of the time to report on the case of the Boston Strangler. Another 20th Century Fox property has arrived on Disney+  with relatively little fanfare. With this gritty noir writer/director Matt Ruskin attempts to make sense of the mystery surrounding this illusive killer and his reign of terror over the city of Boston. The movie - which sits somewhere between Zodiac  and Spotlight  - follows the case from the point of view of both McLaughlin and Cole as they carry out their investigation into the killings, ass

Live by Night: Average Guy Movie Review

Ben Affleck's latest project sees the actor/director donning a fedora rather than a cowl. Live by Night - based on the novel by Dennis Lehane - is a story about crime, corruption, greed, hate, revenge and most of all...booze. Set during prohibition, Affleck's Joe Coughlin is a war veteran and an outlaw who gets in deep with members of organised crime and their illegal rum trade. The gangster movie seems to have in recent years gone out of fashion, much like the western. But can Live by Night do for gangster movies what Bone Tomahawk and The Magnificent Seven remake are doing for the western? The movie starts strong with a brilliant car chase through Boston, reminiscent of Affleck's previous movie, The Town. Everything that happens is building towards this revenge story. In seeking his revenge, Coughlin must make alliances with people he would otherwise avoid. These people live in a world of greed, where everyone hates everyone else, and for a multitude of differen