James Mangold Makes Movies for All the Adults in a Family to Enjoy

Earlier today I heard a comedy writer I like say something that I found to be pretty profound. He and one of his other podcast hosts were talking about "A Complete Unknown". Sean Clements said he liked it, and then he dropped one of the better quotes I've ever heard. He said some form of, "I hope James Mangold continues to make movies that me and my folks like". I couldn't agree more.

I also recently saw "A Complete Unknown", with my mom I might add, and I liked it quite a bit. You can go read my blog about the movie on the site. My mom loved it too. When we drove home we talked about all the things we liked about the movie. My biggest takeaway was the direction. The movie had a nice flow, the music scenes were shot beautifully and the actors seemed to understand the assignment. I credit a good portion of all of this to the director.

After hearing Clements comment, and thinking about my personal experience with "A Complete Unknown", it got me thinking. Now, my favorite Mangold movie is "Logan". This is not one for my mom, but my dad may like it if he ever watched it. I think it is the best version of how brutal and violent a mutant like Wolverine can be. I also think the idea of making more of these mutants in a lab and how rough and wrong that is was a nice touch. He also gets a tremendous performance from Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. Those two are dynamic actors, but he got the best out of them. But the performance he pulled from Stephen Merchant was a stroke of genius. I only knew Merchant from comedy movies and shows, but he pulled off one of the better dramatic performances I've seen. It was a masterful job from Mangold getting that out of Merchant.

I did some more diving into his movies this afternoon, I found even more movies that fit into the genre of me and my folks having a good time. "Ford Vs Ferrari" has no right being as entertaining as it is. I had zero expectations going into that movie and it was great. "Walk the Line" kind of started the resurgence in these movie biopics. That is a Mangold directed movie as well. He got Oscar worthy performances out of Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. He helped those two become even bigger stars. Phoenix became Johnny Cash. Reese Witherspoon was dynamic as June Carter. That movie is special and important to many, many people. Hell, without "Walk the Line" we would have never gotten "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story". Mangold also directed "The Wolverine". This was the follow up to "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". "The Wolverine" was going to be better no matter what, but it actually revitalized that character in my opinion. "Knight and Day" is a fun movie with star power. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz have wonderful chemistry and they make this formulaic movie kind of worth watching. And the remake of "3:10 to Yuma" is a great action western. That movie made me want to watch some older westerns because of how much I liked it.

The one thing that all these movies have in common with my liking of them, the ones my folks have seen seem to enjoy them as well. James Mangold makes non threatening movies that the whole family will enjoy. The cliche works here and works like a charm. I'm curious to see what Mangold does next, but whatever it may be, I bet my folks and I will really enjoy talking about it afterwards. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "A Complete Unknown"

Yesterday my mom and I went to see "A Complete Unknown". Let’s discuss.

I was a bit skeptical going into this movie. I usually enjoy music biopics, but when it's an artist that I like, I get a little hesitant. I have yet to see the Bob Marley fictional biopic "One Love". Marley is my favorite artist of all time, I have watched documentaries about him, I have dove about as deep as one can into his music catalog. He is too important to me to watch someone else play him. I know that I would be too hypercritical about a fictional movie centered around Bob Marley. And while I adore Bob Dylan, he is not on Marley's level for me. I've also kind of fallen off a bit from music biopics. I thought the Freddy Mercury movie with Rami Malek was bad. I have not seen "Rocketman", and don't know if I'll ever see it. I rewatched "Ray" during COVID and it didn't hold up for me like the first time I saw it. I am a snob about music, and when the story is fictional and given the Hollywood treatment, I tend to tune it out. But, with a push from my mom, and my newfound fandom of Timothee Chalamet, I decided to give this one a go.

I'm glad I did. I appreciate my mom urging me to go with her. I thought this movie was excellent. I should have known with James Mangold directing that the audience was in good hands. He did great with "Walk the Line" and "Logan" is my favorite "superhero" movie. He is a good director, and he knows how to shoot musicians. Chalamet is a revelation here. He could have made his version of Dylan a cliched impression. He could have just used a funny voice and kind of walked his way through this movie. He didn't do that. As my mom said, he embodied Dylan. He became him. From his look to his voice to even playing guitar and singing the songs himself, Chalamet absolutely knocked it out of the park.

My mom also said something else that really stood out to me after the movie too. She said that she could see Chalamet becoming a new age Humphrey Bogart or Cary Grant. This kid is hyper talented. He seems to pick good movies most of the time. I love his portrayal of Paul Atreideis in both new "Dune" movies. I thought he did a superb job as a young Willy Wonka in "Wonka". I like his stuff in movies like "Don't Look Up" and "Ladybird". And after seeing him play Dylan, he is now one of my favorite actors working today. And he definitely had help.

Scoot McNairy, as a sickly Woody Guthrie, helped move the story along. I thought Ed Norton did great things with his version of Pete Seeger. Elle Fanning was great as Dylen's first partner after he moved to NYC. Monica Barbaro was wonderful as Joan Baez. Boyd Holbrook was convincing as Johnny Cash. I mean, pretty much everyone in this movie seemed to understand the assignment and ran with it and did some great things.

I also liked that the story of the movie was Dylan's early rise to fame and him playing at the Newport Folk Festival up until he goes electric. And I thought the way they handled the whole ordeal of him going electric was perfect. This movie never got cliche and sappy. They showed Dylan's genius, but also how tough it would be to collaborate or be in a relationship with him. I felt bad for Pete Seeger after Dylan's rise to fame because he became a second hand person in his life.

I loved this movie. The reason to see this and watch it again and again is Chalamet's performance. He is dynamic and I hope he continues to do cool stuff in his acting career. He is a talented dude. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.