ONLY IN AMERICA
Clint Eastwood should be declared America’s National Treasure—at 80 plus the iconic star-turned-director is making challenging and rigorous cinema. Leonard DiCaprio is heading towards iconic status too—the actor has, in recent years, done such a range of difficult and memorable roles, that he is easily Hollywood’s finest. And he’s not yet 40, some of our muscle-flexing, Peter Pan-types need to learn from him how to handle their careers.
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
There's a chilling Psycho moment in Clint Eastwood's otherwise tepid biopic J Edgar. Following the death of his mother Annie (Judi Dench) J Edgar Hoover, the founding father of the FBI, stands before the mirror wearing her pearls, puts on her dress and in a desperate imitation of her voice, asks himself "to stay strong" before collapsing in a heap sobbing uncontrollably.
In another rousing scene, Edgar gets into a passionate fist-fight with his deputy and possible lover Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) who is incensed to hear that Hoover may want to propose marriage to an actress. These two flashes of insight, sadly, aren't enough to make Eastwood's protagonist an interesting enough character -- and certainly inadequate to humanise a man who is often vilified in American history as a paranoid tyrant who trusted nobody and blackmailed everyone he needed to to keep his position as the Director of the FBI for a staggering 48 years.
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