drama – Common Man's Critic

Matt Damon pulls up to the Sonic Drive-In on 6^th Street in Stillwater, orders a Sonic burger, tots, and a cherry limeade, and prays over his Sonic meal to kick off the latest film from Oscar-winning director of “Spotlight,” Tom McCarthy. Matt Damon’s Bill Baker is a performance that is sure to go down in history as an unsuspected, but powerful role for Damon. This character, built upon backyard bbq’s in Marlow, Oklahoma, trips to McNellie’s Pub in OKC, and visits with actual roughnecks across the state; Bill Baker is the quintessential image of Oklahoma’s roughnecks.

“Stillwater” released out of competition at the 74^th edition of the Cannes Film Festival on July 8^th and ended in a well-deserved standing ovation that brought the star of the film, Matt Damon, to tears. Damon noted during a press conference for the film the next day that, although it was his 5^th return to Cannes, it “felt like the first time… To be in a room with a thousand other people who are strangers, but who are part of the same community ‘cause we all love the same thing. It was such a great reminder of why we do this.”

Initially inspired by the Amanda Knox case and the immeasurable love that a father has for his daughter, “Stillwater” is the redemption arc of a down-home, Oklahoman roughneck father who has failed his daughter for much of her life – being gone on jobs throughout the majority of her childhood, and turning to alcohol and drugs while he was home. Bill Baker’s daughter, Alison, played by Abigail Breslin, is in prison in Marseilles for the murder of her college girlfriend after deciding to leave Oklahoma State University to go to school in France for no other reason than “it was different – far away.”

Damon’s Bill Baker, now clean and sober, tries as hard as he can to repair the relationship with his daughter that he shattered so long ago, feeling guilty for the position that she’s found herself in. Alison’s mother killed herself when Alison was just a child, but Bill still has lunch with his mother-in-law and even tries to help her pay his bills with money that he barely has enough of himself. Bill is on his latest two-week trip to Marseilles to visit his daughter in prison, to do her laundry, and to bring her new pieces of home. The image of a gold “Stillwater” necklace in the airport giftshop serves not only as the film’s title card inspiration, but will become the glue that pieces together the plot at hand throughout a number of twists and turns that leave the audience constantly questioning.

Upon arriving at his trusty Marseilles Best Western Hotel, Bill is met with rowdy neighbors. Camille Cottin’s single mother, Virginie, and young daughter Maya who is played by a scene stealing Lilou Siauvaud are staying in the room next door while their apartment is being repaired. Virginie would soon become Bill’s confidante, helping him to navigate the culture shock of being an Oklahoman in France. After learning about a new piece of intel that might help to find the real killer of Alison’s college girlfriend, Bill is tasked with staying in Marseilles as the lead is investigated. When Alison’s lawyer refuses to look into the tip, Bill moves in with Virginie and Maya, creating a platonic family structure that allows him the chance to be the father that he never could be to Alison – if he can only manage not to screw it up over the months he spends in Marseilles.

A far cry from “Jason Bourne” but mirroring the emotion of his breakout role in “Good Will Hunting,” Damon’s performance, while not career defining, was certainly the honest and intimate role the actor has been looking for. Damon’s Bill Baker feels like the brutally honest roughneck that he aimed to be, never questioning his motives or beliefs; most memorably when Virginie tells him he’s “acting very American,” to which he responds “Good, because I am” and not offering a moment of hesitation when asked by his French counterparts if he voted for Trump or if he owns any guns. Bill Baker is a caricature of the values of the Oklahoma roughneck, without ever becoming too cartoonish or offensive. The months that Damon spent around Oklahoma, studying people and culture, served him well in his portrayal.

The film yearns to address not only on how the French see Americans, but how the “justice” that people think they seek isn’t actually justice at all. Casting a light on broken government systems both at home and abroad without reaching too far into the controversial, political cookie-jar, McCarthy balances his plot along the line of the lengths a father will go to protect his daughter and the way Bill’s growth throughout the film leaves him forever changed.

“Stillwater” challenges the audience’s expectations for the film and leaves golden easter eggs throughout that manage not to distract from the mystery and immediacy of the plot. The twists and turns of the story land on a brutally emotional and unexpected final scene that is sure to leave audiences with the message that was always at the core of the film. The ending offers the characters a chance at a new beginning in a world that Bill Baker no longer recognizes; knowing that he can never again return to the home and the rose-colored vision of the world that he once knew and held so dear to his heart.

“Stillwater” had its world premiere at Festival de Cannes 2021 on July 8^th. Focus Features will release it in theaters in the United States on July 30^th.

Beautiful Boy tells a riveting and heartbreaking tale of a father and son duo, living out the tortures that come along with drug addiction. The film is based on two separate books written by David and Nic Sheff, detailing their lives while battling addiction and the struggles that come along with it.

David Sheff, played by Steve Carell, is a journalist in San Francisco. Divorced from his first wife, and the mother of his son Nic, David maintains custody of his son, played by Timothee Chalamet. The film begins as we see David seeking out help to better understand what his son is going through as a crystal meth addict. The story then embarks on a journey detailing the seemingly unbreakable bond between the father and son. Nic’s mother lives in Los Angeles while he lives with his father, step-mother, and two younger siblings from his fathers second marriage in San Francisco. We see flashbacks of Nic and David throughout the year, chronicling Nic’s childhood and the impending destruction of his relationship with his father, and have a front row seat to watch David try to grapple with the fact that he didn’t know his son as well as he previously believed.

We watch the relationship between David and Nic fall apart as Nic falls deeper into the throes of his addiction. David and his wife Karen play the loving caretakers, looking out for Nic’s best interest when he is admitted to rehab for the first time. Nic, with a history of running away from his problems rather than facing them, quickly enters the first of many relapses that will continue to test the boundaries of his father’s support.

As David reminisces on his time raising Nic, and tries to understand where he went wrong, or what lead to his son turning toward drugs, there seems to be no evidence as to why this has happened. David struggles to come to terms with the fact that his son has put himself into this dangerous situation and seems to want to try to understand why Nic continues to regress. Emotions are high and each time David tries to break new ground he is met with anger and opposition from Nic.

David goes as far as reaching out to doctors and continuously doing research on addiction to try to maintain hope, or find a way to better help his son, but each time we think Nic is finally in a position to pull himself out of the depths of addiction, he relapses, turning up again in worse shape than ever before.

Nic says the drugs have allowed him to feel a way nothing else ever has; saying it took his life “from black and white to technicolor.” Like many people, it takes Nic hitting his absolute lowest, and his father finally conceding that there is nothing else he can do for his son, to realize he has to make a change for himself to beat his addiction to drugs. After breaking into his fathers home, and promptly running away to avoid facing his father and the disappointment that he feels, Nic’s girlfriend overdoses and nearly loses her life. Nic calls his father begging to come home, saying that he’s ready to face and overcome his addiction, but that he can only do so on his own terms, at home, with the strength of his father, step-mom, and siblings by his side. David tells Nic that he loves him, but that would be impossible. He has decided that he can’t help him and that he can no longer handle the outbursts, relapses, and struggles that Nic continues to put him through. He tells him he loves him, wishes him the best and hangs up the phone.

The one thing missing from this film is the dark truth of how drugs and alcohol ravish the bodies of addicts. This story focuses on the mental and emotional pain and suffering of Nic and the people closest to him, while providing only a sprinkle of the imagery associated with the disease of drug addiction. Even after multiple instances of overdose, Nic appears as if he could easily hide the fact that he’s been addicted to crystal meth for years. There is only one scene in the film that even begins to show the severity of the toll that the drugs have taken on his body, in which we see him shooting up in the bathroom of the diner he often visited with his father as a child. The tracks on his arm are like an image straight out of Requiem for a Dream, but this imagery is really the only thing convincing the audience that Nic is a drug addict, rather than a feverishly ill teenager.

This film is a heartbreaking look into drug addiction and the effects that it has on not only the person suffering from addiction, but the people who care the most about them. It is a stark reminder of the seriousness of the condition, as well as the amount of work it takes to overcome. The film includes information about what drugs such as crystal meth do to the brain and how they damage the human body, and closes with information detailing Nic’s road to recovery over the last 8 years.

With striking and emotional performances by both Carell and Chalamet, it comes as no surprise that Chalamet received Golden Globe nods for his performance as Nic. Carell, seemingly out of his niche as a comedian, delves into his role in drama and gracefully delivers the emotion that conveys the pain that David Sheff felt as he watched his son slowly fall apart before his eyes.