In print and/or public anyway.
While friends, family and assorted usual suspects who know me know that I'm not bashful about offering up my two cents (seven cents adjusted for inflation) privately, my standard operating opinion has always been that media "reviews" of movies are like political speeches.
If you're bound and determined to vote for something, there's nothing I can say to change your mind.
And if you're bound and determined to vote against something, there's nothing I can say to change your mind.
No matter what "critics" and/or "pundits" would like us to believe, we are, at the heart of it all, very much creatures who need to see for ourselves.
That said, being that I'm not above preaching what I don't practice from time to time, here's a couple of Lincoln heads (seven adjusted for inflation) regarding the recent "bio/docudrama" avoided by Showtime and aired by the Reelz Channel....
"The Kennedys"
- the casting of arguably iconic roles was, a minor bone or two not worth picking, spot on...(and, yes, that includes Katie Holmes as Jacqueline Kennedy...naysayers get a copy of any other movie with any other actress playing Jackie O, do an A/B comparison and then shut up)....
- speaking of casting, Barry Pepper, as Bobby, continues to deliver on the potential all of us first saw when he was snipering the shit out of Nazi Germany in "Saving Private Ryan"...btw, find a copy of the Billy Crystal directed "61" and watch Barry Pepper literally become Roger Maris...
- oh...and I take back, for a second, what I said about casting bones not worth picking....the guy picked to play Frank Sinatra should fire his agent for allowing him to play a part so superficially cliche, predictable and cartoonish...if Frank were alive, that actor and agent would be in some jeopardy, cause, look, paisan, Frank KNEW some guys, capice'?)...
- the dialogue managed to avoid many, if not all, of the pitfalls that inevitably accompany a dramatization of real life people/events...the "cliche'/cringe" factor was low...even to a lay expert on the Kennedy era/family like this writer...(not having been there, I can't swear to it, but, I gotta shiny JFK half dollar that says Joe Sr. never actually put his arms around Jack and Bobby and said "boys, this country is ours for the taking..."...even if it was...and they did...whichever screenwriter put that line in Tom Wilkinson's mouth deserves twenty minutes in the penalty box and/or a day's banning from the craft table)...
- most of the depictions of the "real life events" ring relatively true, given the scrutiny the empirical documentation available in this age of the Google makes possible...and if certain "quotes" were placed out of actual time and space context (JFK's accurately documented quote about the amphetamine injections he received for his back troubles, "I don't care if it's horse piss, it works" wasn't said where or when the movie implies, but picky picky), the producers get slack cut in the category of historic license...on the other hand, though....
- a movie that obviously prided itself on so much attention to accuracy in wardrobe, makeup, period set dressing, adherence to historic events, even well done, too often overblown, New England Hahh-vud accents surprised me with their blatantly blowing it a couple of times...
- ...the "real life" scene in the Kennedy compound on election night 1960 was, by all available evidence, a beehive of activity...the depiction in the movie seems remarkably under populated and under energized...
- ...the hospital corridor at Parkland in Dallas on November 22 has Jackie sitting forlorn and blood stained and, essentially, alone as a lone doctor or two walked by as if it were just another slow day in the hospital...again, all the evidence available testifies that the place was a madhouse that day...both this, and the aforementioned election night, scene seem out of place in a basically high quality presentation, looking, if nothing else, like scenes shot on the cheap in a direct to video type movie....
- the music, often an underrated, but essential, component of a well made film is evocative, impacting and pitch perfect in both tone and context...
And, in answer to the inevitable question(s), "who cares?" and/or "who asked you?", I refer you back to my earlier comments about having no illusions my opinions necessarily mean anything to anybody but me.
And, then, offering up a more basic answer to your question(s)....
"...Ask not...."
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