The House with the Clock in Its Walls (2018) Starring Colin Hanks as an aspiring writer with dreams of going to Stanford and Jack Black as his dim-witted stoner brother, Orange County is smart, sweet and filled with comedy luminaries like John Lithgow, Harold Ramis, Catherine O'Hara, Chevy Chase, and Gary Marshall. Jake Kasdan's Orange County, written by School of Rock's Mike White, was a clever teen comedy that managed to be original, funny, and heartfelt in amidst a landscape of raunchy American Pie clones. Where to Watch: Fubo, Showtime, Showtime apps/add-ons, Cinemax Go, or rentable on most platforms. Army of the Dead and The Forever Purge's Ana de la Reguera co-stars, along with late Lucha Libre legend Silver King. It's a charming entry in Black's catalogue, one that finds himself toning down his more-familiar, manic persona for a mild-mannered heroic turn. Jared and Jerusha Hess' follow-up to 2004's sleeper hit Napoleon Dynamite was a fun fable featuring Jack Black as a Catholic friar who secretly moonlights as a luchador to earn money for a struggling orphanage. Where to Watch: Fubo, Showtime, Showtime apps/add-ons, or rentable on most platforms. Witty and wise, High Fidelity would be a big stepping stone toward Black getting headlining roles over the next decade. It was a role that showcased both his comedic and musical talents. And while it’s no secret which side Linklater is on (Tiede even lived in the director’s garage when he was temporarily freed, before being resentenced to life in prison), the extent to which justice should be determined by the community or by the law is ultimately a matter for viewers to decide – if they can ever reach a conclusion, or want to stop rewatching an amazing film.Where to Watch: HBO, HBO Max, Cinemax Go, or rentable on most platforms.Īfter spending the '90s doing bit roles in notable films like Waterworld, The Cable Guy, and Dead Man Walking - and Tenacious D even appearing in Bio-Dome - Jack Black was washed in a wave of acclaim for playing prickly music snob/record shop worker Barry in Stephen Frears' High Fidelity. The truth, like in most things, is probably somewhere in the middle. To convince the jurors, Davidson amplifies his negative character assessment, and we have two extremes: the conservative townspeople standing by Bernie no matter what (despite him being “a little light in the loafers”, according to one local), and the DA screaming blue murder. Davidson successfully moved the trial to a different county, telling a journalist, “I’m not sure I can find 12 citizens in Panola County willing to convict Tiede.” In the film, he propels a counter message: Bernie is a killer, pure and simple, and murder can never be excused. Out to nab Bernie, and sickened by the community’s support of him, is a yee-haw district attorney, Danny Buck Davidson played by Matthew McConaughey, in another of the film’s pitch-perfect performances. The consensus is that a sweet, decent, giving man one day lost control, regretfully – but not unforgivably – shooting dead a crotchety miser who lived a life of meanness. Linklater frames the film as a campfire conversation about their relationship, regularly cutting to the townspeople of Carthage – mostly actors, but some playing themselves – who narrativise the couple’s lives, arranging the story to suit their biases, preconceptions and unashamedly pro-Bernie stance. The pair’s oddest-of-odd-couple friendship has a “sugar mumma” vibe about it, Bernie befriending the wealthy and widely loathed Nugent, becoming the heir to her estate, and traveling the world with her in the lap of luxury. Nugent is brilliantly portrayed in the film by Shirley MacLaine as a crusty old bag who makes Ebenezer Scrooge seem magnanimous: a performance so good, so bitterly unlikeable, I imagine the great actor sucking the juice out of a lemon before the cameras rolled. He then spent large amounts of her money, mostly on charities and civic activities. In 1996, Tiede shot dead 81-year-old widow Marjorie Nugent and stuffed her body into a freezer, where it was found nine months later.
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