Being Flynn ~ Film Review

Recently, I watched the movie, "Being Flynn."
Robert De Niro was in it so I checked it out at the library.
I mean De Niro, it had to be good.

As the characters and the story began to unfold
I wondered if this was going to be another -
life is shit and therefore
my life is shit drama.

Soon I was wrapped up in this
crazy, dark,
skeptically hopeful world
that the writers, Nick Flynn and Paul Weitz,
inadvertently kicked around and
then brought it
slap crack bam
to my attention.

As these characters lives collided
something wonderful happened.
I was pulled into this moment of clarity that they some how managed to capture on film.
That moment...
I've never felt anything like that quite so organically before.

No, I have seen
that moment before:
Denzel Washington in, "The Hurricane" and Denzel Washington in, "Flight"
and yeah
now I'd seen that moment,
from the inside out
in Paul Dano's performance, who stars as Nick Flynn
and yes, in Robert De Niro, who stars as Nick's father.

The understated, raw feel, and
almost voyeuristic subtlety
of the directing by Paul Weitz was
insightful and poignant.

Those moments of realization
of some aspects of a truth
that had not been understood
and even when it was
being revealed
was not
not done so
completely...
was thought provoking.

The scene with Robert De Niro, toga donned, reaching from the gut
to describe the city
burning
... was fucking magnificent.  And it doesn't stop there.

The entire cast
turned this random swirling of life
as it is
into a series of moments
that was so intense
I got all shook up.

The music, original music, by Damon Gough
expressed this

this primal yearning
that could not
would not be satisfied
by some inarticulate or obscured
non-descript life.


The cinematography by Declan Quinn
was as gritty as I'd expect
and yet
there was this scene when Nick, Paul Dano
dances
when the camera
was as much the story teller
as any other part of this film.

The editor too, Joan Sobel, created this
continuity through chaos that was just
brilliant.
I felt like I was on a train...
no
a train wreck
no a train righted
almost
and it was exhausting
and exhilarating
and an echo down that dark alley
that I recognized as being
all too real.

Bra-fuckin-vo!