Tag: Clifton Collins Jr.

EDDINGTON (2025)

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Written & Directed By: Ari Aster

Cinematography: Darius Khondji

Editor: Lucian Johnston 

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Pedro Pascal, Deidre O’Connell, Michael Ward, Cameron Mann, Clifton Collins Jr., Luke Grimes, William Belleau, Amelie Hoeferle 

In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.

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This film Is A Modern Western Fever Dream America Desperately Needs to Talk About

Eddington is one of those films that walks into the cultural conversation like it owns the place. It’s loud, strange, earnest, paranoid, poetic—and you immediately know you’ll be arguing about it for months. It’s a genuine conversation starter, which is why I will gently advise: go in knowing as little as possible.

That said… one has have to talk about it, and talking about it requires spoilers. So consider this your warning, your permission slip, and your parachute.

This is a film that is hard to describe or even evaluate on one review. There are so Many things going o. Where even the littlest action, decision or even detail means more by the ends 

This is a movie that is, by design, divisive. A cinematic Rorschach test. Some viewers will love it. Some will hate it. Some will think they “get” it. Some will swear others don’t “get” it. And others still will simply sit there wondering why the film dared to poke at politics, identity, and American mythmaking with a stick this sharp and this reckless.

But that’s also the point: Eddington isn’t here to soothe you. As it’s a midwest tapestry stitched with paranoia.

Set in a small Midwestern town, the film plays like a modern western that swaps out the black-hatted outlaw for pandemic panic, online conspiracy, fractured identity politics, and the creeping realization that the “outside world” has already invaded long before anyone notices.

The first half feels deceptively simple. small tensions, personal feuds, social anxietie, but those threads keep tightening, knotting, and snapping until the town erupts, not because of a single villain, but because absolutely everyone is too wrapped up in their own drama to actually talk to each other.

It’s a portrait of America where communication has been replaced with suspicion. Where rivalries escalate past all reason. Where every person is starring in their own private conspiracy thriller. Even as the real threats crawl right through the cracks.

By the end, the film begins to resemble a Donald-Trump-era conspiracy fantasy… but with absolutely none of the idol worship or flattery. It’s the nightmare version: the idea that paranoia itself becomes prophecy. That fear becomes religion. That enemies, real or imagined materialize because characters are too busy reenacting their own ideological theater to notice the world burning around them.

The satire bites hard, aiming squarely at both political sides. The left -idealistic, moralizing, eager to be on “the right side of history” treats the town’s homeless man like an inconvenience. The right – fearful, defensive, easily provoked, treats him like a problem to eliminate. And everyone, absolutely everyone, is a hypocrite.

Young “progressive” locals demand justice yet lecture the Black deputy on what he should feel, while he’s simply trying to do his job and survive in a town that barely allows upward mobility. Romantic tensions reveal that personal motives are often far murkier than the ideologies people hide behind. Friendships fracture. Morals bend depending on who’s watching. It makes you wonder if the characters truly feel this or if it’s just performative social justice because that is the trend and what’s popular. Also giving them a sense of rebellion that youth seems to always desire against the aged or old ways. 

By the end the deputy has his own scars and learns the lessons his ancestors had to deal with and learn. Yet still go on day to day in pain. Never being able to forget the injustices. 

The virus infiltrates. Fear infiltrates. Antifa is said to infiltrate. But really, it’s paranoia doing all the infiltrating.

Yes, this is very much an Ari Aster film, though it’s looser, less mannered, and more sprawling than Midsommar or Beau Is Afraid. It’s a messy beauty, intentionally so. The visuals are gorgeous but less overtly stylized; the tone more erratic, more chaotic, more human. It’s a modern western of moral collapse 

If Beau Is Afraid punished its lead for everything, Eddington punishes its lead for exactly one thing: believing revenge is righteousness.

And his downward spiral, though tragic, is compelling in a mythic, moral-fable way.

The third act is where Aster lights the fuse and lets the whole film detonate.

Chaos reigns. Consequences catch up. Characters pay the ultimate price. not for their politics, but for their blindness.

Eddington refuses to pick a side because it’s too busy examining how people weaponize sides in the first place. It understands that humans are more complicated than the slogans they carry or the propaganda they share. Ideology becomes performance. Performance becomes identity. Identity becomes a trap.

And through all this, the film insists that sometimes the greatest horror story is simply a group of people refusing to truly see one another.

So that the film is about flawed people, not slogans 

Is the film perfect? No. Is it Ari Aster’s best? No 

But Is it vital? Absolutely. It’s ambitious, jagged, clunky in spots, occasionally too big for its own frame, but it’s also alive—full of ideas, full of danger, full of that rare cinematic bravery that demands viewers think rather than simply consume.

The major supporting actors. Some of the film’s biggest names. Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Pedro Pascal all appear briefly but meaningfully, flashing like caution signs in the town’s slow-motion meltdown. Their presence reinforces how everyone is part of the problem, part of the confusion, part of the noise.

Joaquin Phoenix’s acting here is more internal than external and it’s his show the ringleader to reign in. Even if by the end he is one of the acts rather then being in control. Especially the way he wants or hopes he is. 

I could try to link the various theories and interpretations that this film presents but that is for the viewer to discover for themselves and read into,  no I’m not writing that to say that I don’t

Have any or see any. I think half the interest and entertainment isn’t Always what is happening on the screen but how you or an audience reacts to it. 

I can see why some might dislike the film

Though most admit they don’t like the film but It’s 

Not a bad film as it does make you think. As it tries to be a satire that is less comedic and more political exposing the chaos of the pandemic playing out all the theories, fears and politics in a small town and making it come across as a modern western due to it’s Location and strange mix of morals and anti-hero To show that we are all flawed in some way

As when the lead does what he thinks is right out of revenge but leads to his own and others downfall that ends up with him being heroic and paying the ultimate price 

The films shows flaws I. Both sides as it is more interested in showing characters and how they can be lead astray but also victims of circumstance and survival at times 

Who are we to hate because things don’t

go the way they are supposed to or are expected to. People are people not slogans and propaganda that they might brandish or share and at the heart of all these movements the leaders are open to oversight and more interested in the message and less the followers or even supposed victims 

This is not a pass/fail film. It’s a what did this make you feel? film. A what did you see that I missed?film.

The entertainment isn’t just the plot. it’s the audience reaction, the interpretations, the debates in the parking lot afterward.

Eddington is a human horror story disguised as a political satire disguised as a western disguised as a pandemic drama.

It’s a film about how easily we fracture under pressure, how quickly we fall into narrative traps, and how dangerous it is when no one is listening.

Not my favorite Aster film… but maybe the one most urgently worth discussing.

Grade: B+

THE STONED AGE (1994)

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Directed By: James Melkonian
Written By: James Melkonian and Rich Wilkes 
Cinematography: Paul Holahan
Editor: Peter Schink 

Cast: Michael Kopelow, Bradford Tatum, China Kantner, Renee Ammann, Clifton Collins Jr., Kevin Kilner, Taylor Negron, Art Chudabala, David Groh, Jake Busey 

Determined to avoid another night of driving aimlessly around Torrance in the Blue Torpedo, Joe and Hubbs set out on a quest for fine chicks. Their paths soon cross with Tack, from whom they learn about a pair of radical chicks hanging out near the Frankie Avalon place. Over Joe’s objections, Hubbs worms Tack out of the deal, and the pair take a slow ride toward their destiny.

The trailer for this movie drag me in as it was so hilarious at the time that this was a must-see and I have to say definitely not disappointed.

I am probably remembering it as better than it probably is but I generally like this movie as I saw it when I was a teenager and to me, it was a straight-to-home video classic 

This is truly the 1980s suburban teenager dream party film as it is actually nasty funny witty at some points and actually just generally kind of fun. It never overstayed his welcome and it keeps moving forward in the kind of buddy comedy and of itself, only the buddies are already friends at the beginning of the film. This is just like watching their misadventures throughout the situation of the night.

As it had the rebelliousness of a teen movie, even though you could tell, nobody was really a teen in the movie, and it seem more of a throwback to maybe a more certain California suburban lifestyle. They don’t make movies like this at all anymore, which is why it stays memorable whereas at the time it might’ve been just another and this film is rude and crude and not afraid to offend anyone, nor does he go out of his way to do that either.

It’s also generally unrepentant when it comes to the material of the film, which really feels like a throwback to the 1980s teen sex comedy. Only there is a lot of talking about sex in the idealization of women as sex objects, but there isn’t that much actual sex there is nudity. 

Renee Ammann seems to be the sex object of the film that all men or most of the men desire throughout, she is the bombshell that brings all the boys to the yard literally but what I really liked was the ridiculous side characters and the comedy between them and how ridiculous they were. As she is treated like this precious object or treasure, that is meant to be held possessed, and had. Then discover while she is good, looking, she’s human, and not necessarily all that special.

Of course, by the end the main character realizes that it’s not all about sex it’s also about who you get along with, and who has a better personality, and you just generally vibe with, as far as chemistry. as he is more the romantic of the two, and though his best friend is a jerk. They still remain friends until the end. 

Think of this as a harder edge and less out their version of DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR, and movies like that?

It’s also how I discovered the song Don’t Fear the Reaper by Blue Öyster Cult before it was heavily used again in the movie THE FRIGHTENERS. It also helped me to discover and appreciate the band also. Before they became legends with the infamous Christopher Walken, Will Ferrell Saturday night live cowbell sketch.

The film can be seen as two friends on a quest that never really goes out of anywhere that they are unfamiliar, but seeing it in a new light, and facing up to the challenges that they come upon on this quest. As after all, it’s about the journey, not the prize. They even learn something about themselves.

This is a general R-rated teen sex comedy. That’s a throwback and I appreciate it for what it is. It doesn’t try to be anything more. I mean the title loans to tell you what you’re in for so while it’s not great cinema, it is at least entertaining for the audience that would want to see a movie called The Stoned Age. And do not believe it to be a sequel to Encino Man. Which one of the actresses actually had a small role.

It’s just fun lowbrow humor. A fun, cold comedy that came from a short film and was intended to be the first of a trilogy starring the two main characters. 

You can look at it as a nostalgic throwback to dumb or stoner comedies along the lines of Pauly Shore, movies, or the dude where’s my car type.

Grade: C+

TRIPLE 9 (2017)

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Directed By: John Hillcoat 
Written By: Matt Cook 
Cinematography By: Nicolas Karakatsanis 
Editor: Dylan Tichenor 

Cast: Chiwetel Ejofer, Casey Affleck, Norman Reedus, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Woody Harrelson, Clifton Collins Jr., Kate Winslet, Gal Gadot, Teresa Palmer, Michael K. Williams, Michelle Ang, E. Roger Mitchell 

A crew of dirty cops are blackmailed by the Russian mob to execute a virtually impossible heist. The only way to pull it off is to manufacture a 999, police code for “officer down”. Their plan is turned upside down when the unsuspecting rookie they set up to die foils the attack, triggering a breakneck, action-packed finale filled with double-crosses, greed and revenge.

The film feels like the story should have added up to something bigger and more meaningful. Like how each character was a puzzle piece as we wait to see how eventually they will all fit together. This is clearly a manly man film that drips of machismo though for all of it’s toughness it does take time to actually show the complexities of the situations they have found themselves in. As this is a heist film beautifully filmed but feels like a typical caper film only done more slowly and supposedly intricately. As the crew seems more forced and involves working for the Russian mob.

The film Doesn’t really highlight or fetishize the heists as much as other films. Here it is more done matter of fact. This film seems to care more about the characters involved.

The film doesn’t even seem too involved in what was the initial hook of the film. Where the cops in order to pull off a robbery plan on killing a fellow cop to distract all other police from them Pulling off a heist. Though with so many things going on in the film that all Lead to one another eventually and come to a head. Seems more realistic but also makes everything on the same level and never really that high up.

Even though most of the time it seems Chiwetel Ejofer as well as a few other characters seem to constantly be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Where it also seems the people who put them up for these robberies want them To fail as their actions seem to more sabotage them.

While the film comes off as more of an ensemble film. It also leaves a bunch of premonitions in certain characters words and actions and also while taking place in Atlanta’s it is unfortunate that while the film gives the most of characters a certain humanity. It also has most of the minority characters be criminals not necessarily evil but they seem more subordinate and characterized as the bad guys. Where as the more heroic characters of which there are only really 2 are both Caucasian though Woody Harrelson’s character isn’t the most moral he is seen as one of the good guys.

The film never truly explains the relationship between Chiwetel Ejofer and Gal Gadot’s Characters since they have a child but are they still together. Is she being dangled in front of him by her sister. Are they seperated?

Kate Winslet seems to let her outfits and make up do most of the work as she is given less to do and more exists as a presence, but clearly is having fun vamping it up more or less. She seems to be slumming here or more like a case of stunt casting. Replacing Cate Blanchett

The film stays within the films of director John Hillcoat’s usual films with pitch black stories and violent ends with characters who lore or less feel loved in. As next to LAWLESS, this is probably his most commercial film. He tends to make films that are more filled with agressions and machismo real manly men type films.

This film feels longer than it should and could easily have been shortened. As it feels like a film full of character and characters who get short changed more due to plot mechanics that while introduced in a different way feel way too familiar. The double crosses are expected but the triple crosses feel unexpected.

Woody Harrelson has fun with his role as a detective who while is no stranger to bending the rules he still manages to be a strong moral character. As he seems to have let the job get to him. Though as a veteran he also treats it more trivially. Replacing Jeff Bridges.

Casey Affleck as the new guy comes off on bit is handed a kind of bland good cop character. He was actually cast after both Shia Lebouf, Chris Pine and Charlie Hunnam dropped out of the film.

The film tries to be more about mood and atmosphere but never comes off that strong nor does it ever seem to find that right tone. As it almost tries to come off as a modern-day western but not one where you are expecting the gunfights. One that is more about bravery and strength of moral and character not to mention loyalty

Grade: C

187 (ONE EIGHT SEVEN) (1997)

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Directed By: Kevin Reynolds
Written By: Scott Yagemann
Cinematography: Ericson Core
Editor: Stephen Semel

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, John Heard, Kelly Rowan, Clifton Collins Jr., Karina Arroyave, Tony Plana, Lobo Sebastian, Jack Kehler, Jonah Rooney, Method Man, Richard Riehle, Antwon Tanner 

15 months after being stabbed 9 times by a student at work as a high school teacher in NYC, Mr. Garfield is working in LA as a substitute teacher come full-time. He refuses to be a victim anymore.

This is the story of a man, a teacher pushed over the line. A vigilante tale that shows the bloody aftermath. Rather then it just solving everything. That revenge can make some things worse m. As there will always be someone else to take the place of the initial problem. 

It seems in the end all this was meant to teach his tormentors enemies a lesson. One way or another. To make characters who were actually willing to see past all of this and understand this is not a lifestyle.

By the end even in death, there seem to be everlasting enemies.

The film seems to want to make a point but by the end. The lesson seems kind of empty 

The film seems to have a dry and saturated style and film style. That keeps things interesting and vivid. At times it makes the look seem all the More desperate and offers a kind of stuck-in-the-dumps look for the character’s surroundings.

The film shows not all the Villains are criminals but also the so-called do-gooders. It plays it’s morality like a modern-day western. Where once the hero has let the villains get to him that he behaves like them he has been infected with their propensity towards violence and menace. While trying to show that some hope can grow in the middle of nihilism.

Though this is more of a character study with Star Samuel L. Jackson in the starring role. One of his first. It also is a character study of two characters bound to clash. As each raises the stakes against one another.

This also allows him to be an orator and raise his voice which is one of his strengths as an actor.

Though the film is filmed and treated more as a thriller. Most of the time it speaks more through emotions and moods rather than physical. 

This is one of the first movies where Samuel L. Jackson is in the leading roles. Which was one of the reasons at the time that inspired me to see it In Theaters on opening weekend. Where I ended up loving the style of the film but by the end felt mildly disappointed.

Here his character is ambivalent about the danger he faces from his students before he is actually attacked by one. He decides to relocate to what looks like another rundown urban school. Where things are on at first and even has a kind of blossoming friendship/romance until she sees his scars so that rejection eats at him couples with threatening and menaces at school all over again. Triggers him and when the principal is more screwed of being sued then protecting his staff. He feels that he so left with only one other option. 

The film also offers Karina Arroyave one of the biggest roles of her career. As most do her career before this film she had been playing small roles in these types of films where an educator makes a difference. (LEAN ON ME, STAND AND DELIVER) in smaller roles. Here she gets a string vulnerable role where she gets to make a mark as one of the mroe innocent characters. Where her character is treated mroe like property of the gang in a more sexual way. (This might be why as she in real life is older than her character but still looks young. Why she got the role instead of someone who might have been age-appropriate.)  In this battle fo wills between the teacher and Clifton Collins Jr. (in only the second I had seen him in a film) 

I remember him from his first role in THE STONED AGE and then an about-face in this film.  so just him  showing range in his first roles so early was impressive. As soon he would be all over the place in different roles though usually Criminals. Though none ever felt the same as the last. 

He has had a long career, sometimes he can be bland as in light it up where you expect him to do more as it I was one fo the roles he can do easily and bring Charisma maybe not his fault maybe the script or director’s fault 

One of the big calling cards of the movie’s promotion was the casting of rapper Method Man in the film. At the time he was the hot new rapper part of the Wu-Tang Clan at the time. Here he has a small cameo role in the film. The same thing happened when he was cast in the film COPLAND.

The last act of the film that is based around the movie THE DEER HUNTER. Is truly bonkers even as it tries to be run of the mill.

As this is a film that you can easily write off as simplistic or one-note as just another Vigilante thriller but the film is much more interested in the characters, motivations, guilt, and morality behind their actions and decisions.

This was also director Kevin Reynolds follow-up film to WATERWORLD. Where obviously he was trying to make a much smaller and more dramatic film. 

In The end, this comes off as the Los Angeles version of a street movie and a skewered look at the teacher who makes a difference genre. Showing more the dangers they face in the day today. 

Grade: C+

POETIC JUSTICE (1993)

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poetjust

Written & Directed By: John Singleton
Cinematography: Peter Lyons Collister
Editor: Bruce Canon 

Cast: Tupac Shakur, Janet Jackson, Regina King, Joe Torry, Maya Angelou, Q-tip, Tyra Ferrell, Khandi Alexander, Jenifer Lewis, Tone Loc, Ricky Harris, Clifton Collins Jr., Michael Rapaport, Lloyd Avery II, Robi Reed, Roger Gueneveur Smith, Yvette Wilson, Kimberly Brooks, Maia Campbell, Michael Colyar, Sarena Mobley, Lori Petty, Billy Zane 


After witnessing the murder of her first and only boyfriend, young Justice decides to forget about college and become a South Central Los Angeles hairdresser. Avoiding friends, the only way for her to cope with her depression is by composing beautiful poetry. On her way to a convention in Oakland, she is forced to ride with an independent-minded postal worker whom she has not gotten along with in the past. After various arguments between them and their friends, they start to discover that their thoughts on violence, socially and domestically, are the same. Justice may finally feel that she is not as alone as before.

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THE MULE (2018)

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themule1

Directed By: Clint Eastwood
Written By: Nick Schenk
Inspired by the New York Times Magazine Article “The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year Old Drug Mule” by: Nick Soloman
Cinematography: Yves Balenger
Editor: Joel Cox 

Cast: Clint Eastwood, Dianne Wiest, Taissa Farminga, Clifton Collins Jr., Bradley Cooper, Michael Pena, Alison Eastwood, Laurence Fishburne, Andy Garcia, Lobo Sebastian, Victor Rasuk, Robert LaSardo, Eugene Cordero, Ignaccio Serricchio 


The movie was inspired by the story of Leo Sharp, a World War II veteran in his 80s who became the world’s oldest and most prolific drug mule for the Sinaloa Cartel.

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