leonardo dicaprio – NZ Film Freak

Top 5: On-Screen Lovers Who Disliked Each Other Off-Screen

After finding out that Kathleen Turner and Nicholas Cage weren’t the best of friends in Peggy Sue Got Married, I decided to find out what other on-screen romances were less than genuine. Apparently there are a few!

It’s a shame that our favourite on-screen couples turn out to be played by people who strongly dislike one another. But from their point of view, what an awful situation to be in! It’s hard enough working with annoying or difficult people, but imagine having to pretend to be in love with them. Ugh. I guess that’s why actors are paid so much.

Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton in The Notebook (2004)
Arguably the most romantic film out there. (I would personally argue against this.) But according to the director, Nick Cassavetes, these lovebirds got into a massive argument on set. Ryan Gosling even asking the director to get a different actress to read Rachel McAdam’s lines off camera. But apparently once the two hashed it out, they got on with it. Then later started dating. Hollywood, eh!

Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson as Christian Grey and Ana Steele in 50 Shade of Grey (2015)
A raunchy romance (which I can honestly say I have not watched or read) with this erotic pair was reportedly not a very convincing one. Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson’s lack of authenticity resulted in multiple retakes, and off-screen they are apparently very cold toward each other.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet in Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Allegedly these star-crossed lovers were anything but. Although if true, I’m not entirely surprised. Claire Danes – 16-years-old at the time – apparently simply got fed up with 22-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio, who was constantly playing pranks on set. Seems like a bit of a playground spat to me.

Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey as Johnny Castle and Baby Houseman in Dirty Dancing (1987)
Dirty Dancing is a favourite for many (although, not mine). While the on-screen romance seemed authentic, apparently Patrick Swayze got fed up with Jennifer Grey’s ‘silly moods‘, and Grey needed convincing to work with Swayze again. (They had worked together before, and didn’t like each other much then either.)

Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts as Peter Brackett and Sabrina Peterson in I Love Trouble (1994)
I haven’t heard of this film before, actually. But the lack of on-screen chemistry between Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts is apparently obvious. They clashed on set, resulting in many scenes being filmed separately. Allegedly, Roberts called Nolte ‘disgusting’, and Nolte said Roberts is ‘not a nice person’, and they have never made-up.

Top 10: Actors Who Stopped Getting Typecast

Ricky Gervais loves being typecast, he says that actors should do what they do best and not feel the pressure to play different parts.

However, this is clearly not the view of a lot of actors who seem to be trying to shake their ‘character’. Some have not been successful, such as Jack Black and Adam Sandler, who forever play the School of Rock and Happy Gilmore type characters.

Jennifer Aniston is still being typecast as her Friends character Rachel in various rom-coms, despite the attempts to ditch it such as in Cake or The Good Girl.

Will Ferrell ditched his ‘mean but dumb funnyman’ character in Stranger Than Fiction, Robin Williams played a very serious role in Good Will Hunting, and Owen Wilson almost detached from the funny guy persona in Midnight in Paris.

For other actors such as Daniel Radcliffe and Robert Pattinson, I don’t think their iconic roles as Harry Potter and Edward Cullen will ever be able to be shaken, sadly. That is despite their clear acting ability.

Meanwhile other actors have been successful in breaking free from their typecast, and are in all sorts of films now.

I think the top five female actors (are we allowed to say actresses anymore?) who narrowly escaped being typecast are:

Rosamund Pike
I wrote about Pike’s change in public perception in my post What are you like, Rosamund Pike. Just when we thought she was forever going to play the smart, elegant and beautiful lady-like characters in films like Pride & Prejudice, Made in Dagenham and The World’s End, she goes and does something like Gone Girl! Which, I’m sure surprised us all. She’s certainly shown Hollywood what she’s capable of. Having said that, have we seen her in anything big since..? Eek.

Emma Stone
She was the rough and ready comedy support actress, and I think that’s where we thought she’d always stay. The Superbad, The House Bunny, Zombieland, Friends with Benefits kind of girl. But then The Help came along, showing her dramatic and compassionate side, then Spiderman, then La La Land, which turned her into an all-singing, all-dancing serious actress! Love her.

Kate Winslet
Sense & Sensibility turned into Titanic, and Finding Neverland turned into The Holiday. Kate Winslet remains a brilliant dramatic actress who sometimes showed her comedic side (like in Extras). But if you look closer at her career, you’ll find some gems that shows a totally different side to Kate Winslet. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind being one, where she plays an eccentric woman. The Dressmaker being another, where she plays a flamboyant Australian. I guess she is still typecast in a way, but she has shown that she can do so much more.

Reese Witherspoon
I wrote her off, because she’s always played ‘the blonde’. The Legally Blonde airhead, then Sweet Home Alabama and Little Nicky. But then Walk the Line happened, and suddenly Reese Witherspoon was a genuine and talented dramatic actress who could sing beautifully. THEN, there was Wild. And I was sold. I’ve heard she’s amazing in Devil’s Knot too.

Jennifer Lawrence
At first, I thought she was going to forever remain as Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, then I thought she’d be typecast as a sci-fi blue thing in X-Men (I haven’t watched the X-Men series). But each time she managed to escape the typecast hold! With movies like Silver Lining, American Hustle and Joy keeping her not only out of reach of typecasting, but also the highest paid female actor of 2015 and 2016.

The top five male actors who narrowly escaped being typecast are:

Jim Carrey
He may have been typecast during the ’90s as the goofy, outlandish comedy actor of Ace Ventura, The Mask, Dumb and Dumber and The Cable Guy, but there was a sudden turn closer to the naughties. There was Liar, Liar (a personal favourite), and then The Truman Show, which showed a far more serious side. Man on the Moon showed yet another angle, then the biggest leap of all in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In this film, he was a nervous, serious introvert. (It’s joked that Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet swapped their typecast roles in this film.) He was made for the part. He returned to children’s films after that (Dr Seuss and A Christmas Carol), but is sadly slowly riding the curve back to being typecast in cheap and dirty comedy sequels.

Bryan Cranston
This actor was forever Malcolm in the Middle‘s dad. But actually, I think he was born to be a dramatic actor in serious roles. It seems he was accidentally made famous in comedy roles instead! He could have easily stayed on that road of comedy, but he escaped. First came a small role in Little Miss Sunshine, then Drive, then Argo… But suddenly, there was a TV show that no one could stop talking about. Breaking Bad. And now we look at Bryan Cranston a little differently and with a little more respect than we did when he was Malcolm’s dad.

Steve Carell
In his early career, Carell was credited as a ‘Mailroom Guy without Glasses’ in a 1998 film called Tomorrow Night. He soon found himself climbing the ropes in the comedy genre. Bruce Almighty, Anchorman and 40-Year-Old Virgin were quick to follow. Then out of nowhere was Little Miss Sunshine, where Carell played a reasonably serious role of a suicidal, gay scholar. In between his typecasting, serious roles keep cropping up, like The Way Way Back, where he plays a really mean dick of a stepdad. Then Foxcatcher, which I really need to watch. These brilliantly serious roles in his career have acted as a red flag to Hollywood, telling them that he has the ability and the power to resist his comedic typecast.

Jonah Hill
It all began in the massive Hollywood comedies – 40-Year-Old Virgin, Click, Knocked Up, Get Him to the Greek… Then he stepped up a notch and did 21 Jump Street and everyone was like ‘whaaaaaat, is that the same guy?’ because he lost a ton of weight. Not only had his look changed, but so did the kind of work he got. He began to get into more serious roles like The Wolf of Wall Street and Django Unchained in between sequels to successful comedies and animation films. Go Jonah!

Bradley Cooper
Does this guy have the same agent as Jennifer Lawrence? Because he’s in a ton of the same films as her now. He began in comedy, the Wedding Crashers being a memorable feature, Yes Man and The Hangover of course. I thought rom/coms was where he’d stay, but somewhere along the way he got into a bit more action, like Limitless. Then that progressed to The Place Beyond the Pines, American Hustle and Joy. This has extended into superhero films! I personally don’t like the guy because he seems a bit pompous, but he sure can act in a variety of roles!

There are lots of all-rounders or ‘chameleon’ actors who could never be typecast! They show how talented they are in every genre and in every role. These include:
Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Leonardo DiCaprio… The list goes on!

The Great Gatsby

Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Released: May 2013
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke
—

Visually, this film was MIND BLOWING! This is Moulin Rouge! on steroids.

The party scenes are phenomenal! The lights, the atmosphere, colours, fashion, music… It is ground breaking. Just beautiful sets, like we’re being sent to another world.

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The overall feel of the movie is very similar to the likes of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Edward Scissorhands (the garden scenes) and of course, Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet. I think it’s because all of these movies are fantastical and out of this world.

The actors were very convincing, Leonardo DiCaprio gave another ground-breaking performance. Although his accent was a little confusing on occasion, his dialogue was incredible! I feel like speaking formally, like an upper class person from the 1920s now.

Gatsby: Come on, old sport!

I wasn’t expecting much from Toby Maguire, and for a while believed that Ewan McGregor could have done a better job, until it was mentioned to me that his “pluckiness” was what made his character convincing. Which, I thought was a good point.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Carey Mulligan, but I have to say she did a pretty decent job in this film – her eyes are incredible! Like, she plays such a depressed character, and her eyes tell you that from the first scene. Carey Mulligan has since become one of my favourite actors.

carey-mulligan-as-daisy-buchanan-in-the-great

The music was perfectly selected. Florence + the Machine’s Over Your Love is my new favourite song at the moment. But, the coolest track was Lana Del Rey’s 1920s Jazz version of the popular Young and Beautiful.

However, there were some major disappointments.

This is a film that is based strongly on characters. They fuel the story almost conclusively. Therefore, it was so disappointing that I did not become attached to any of the characters. I was not rooting for or against any of them – I didn’t feel like I had gotten to know them properly.

People are complicated, these characters were not, considering it was such a ‘people story’. Too many of their thoughts and emotions were not portrayed clearly. Most of the time there was a lot of emotion without obvious reasoning behind them.

I was forever looking too deep into the plot, expecting complicated and unforeseen twists. When in fact, the plot is too easy to figure out. I think it is supposed to be very mysterious, which was not portrayed in this film.

They should have kept the audience one step behind – like in the Sherlock Holmes films – until the end for a huge “I did not see that coming!” moment.

I wish the character development was more insightful, and the plot line more curious and unexpected.

Nevertheless, as I said at the beginning, the aesthetics were simply candy for the eyeballs. It enforces the idea that Baz Luhrmann was the ideal director for the film; the parties, grand interior shots and wonderland-esk exterior shots, simply gorgeous.

Oh, I bet Baz Luhrmann could have done an amazing version of Alice In Wonderland…

Jodie’s rating: 6.5/10

Django Unchained

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Released: December 2012/January 2013
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson
—

Django.
The D is silent.

Well, I got to say, the first quarter of the movie is incredible! Django (Jamie Foxx) being freed by a strange man named Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) and the show-down that occurred between Schultz and the Speck Brothers who were transporting Django and other slaves to a plantation. This is where Django and Schultz become a team and continue the journey as Bounty Hunters (killing criminals and selling their corpses for rewards).

Dr. King Schultz: My good man, did you simply get carried away with your dramatic gesture, or are you pointing your weapon at me with lethal intention?
Ace Speck: [cocks shotgun] Last chance, fancy pants.

It was a fantastic start to another incredible Tarantino film… Or at least that’s what I thought… Let me tell you, the idea of “less is more” is not something that Tarantino agrees with.

It slowly (and boy do I mean slowly!) unravelled to reveal a story that consisted of long scenes of dialogue with very sudden outbursts of bloody gunfire that would last an eternity. Particularly the final fight.

Well you think it’s the final fight until another scene of dialogue and another fight follows. By the time it reaches the actual final gun fight, you’re so over the blood and gore that you’re immune to the tragedy of it all and the impact of the violent film has subsided.

If you’re worried that this film is going to be too sadistic… Don’t worry. It’s not. I’m not going to lie, I did flinch when a slave was ripped apart by dogs, and when a horse was shot in the head… But it is essentially a black comedy – it ain’t no Saw. It is seriously more comedic than violent, especially with the scene featuring Jonah Hill.

Christoph Waltz was absolutely hilarious too. Actually, this guy is going to get a whole paragraph dedicated to his acting. He is totally incredible! Did you know that he can speak three languages fluently!? English, French and German, which he speaks in Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. His way of acting is unlike any other… you can’t even tell if he is acting or not because he is just so natural. *Sigh*. Maaaan… He needs a hi-5. His character had some wicked quotes too.

You silver-tongued devil, you.

Unfortunately, some things were unintentionally funny. Like Quentin Tarantino’s cameo… Yeah. That was… Weird. Especially since him and another character were speaking with an Australian accent. That literally came out of nowhere, so confusing! It was kind of disturbing.

I have to make a quick point about the horses. They were SO well trained! Incredible stunt horses. Being a horserider myself, I tend to get really picky about how the horses or riders are doing something wrong, like if the horse-doubles look very little alike or how the actors can’t ride or how sometimes I notice that one of the riders is totally out of control of their horse.
But I couldn’t fault any of the horses or riders in this film! Particularly Jamie Foxx when he was riding a horse with no bridle or saddle… Actually that was yet another left-field occurrence. It was kind of pointless, unexpected and weird.

I had read somewhere before seeing Django Unchained that there is a part where Leonardo accidentally slams his hand down onto a wine glass while in character. I looked out for it, and it makes the scene a hundred times better because for a split second you see the shock on his face, but he carries on. Throughout the scene he picks glass out of his hand, even smearing his own blood over another actor’s face. Awesomely grotesque, I have got to say! Good on you, DiCaprio. He played an mildly insane and overpowering man very well!

Gentlemen, you had my curiosity, now you have my attention.

The music was pretty cool. My favourite song was one called Freedom by Anthony Hamilton and Elayna Boynton. But out of nowhere a hardcore rap song blared against while a group of horses and riders walked from one end of the screen to the other… The mood of the movie was sort of ruined by odd little choices like that.

It wasn’t as sadistic or gory as I was expecting it to be. Also, the story line did not involve as many personal details about many characters, like there was in Inglourious Basterds. It made the entire movie seem distant, making it difficult to lose yourself in the movie.

I reckon Quentin Tarantino was just having fun in this movie. I reckon it would have been much more entertaining being on set every day rather than sitting through a Lord of the Rings-length Western/Black Comedy/Romance/Action movie.

Still confused by what I just watched…

Jodie’s rating: 6/10
You need to watch this trailer to listen purely to Christoph’s voice! His use of inflection is perfection!

Inception

Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan
Released: 2010
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine
—

Wow! If you liked the Matrix you’ll like this!

A mind-twisting film which demands the full attention of viewers as it’s not an ‘easy watch’. By that, I mean that a passive audience is not going to be handed the complex idea of dream inception and deep characters on a platter.

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the primary dreamer or extractor hired by a corporation-owner, Mr Saito (Ken Watanabe) to plant a lucrative idea into Robert Michael Fischer’s (Cillian Murphey) mind via a dream. This is to encourage him to decide to break up the energy conglomerate which he recently inherited to make way for Saito’s company.

inception_luciddreaming

Despite this not being an easy task. But to add to the challenge, Cobb’s late wife invades the dreams, potentially sabotaging the entire job and putting the dreamers (including Joseph Gordan-Levitt and Ellen Page) in fatal danger. This is because dying in a “dream within a dream” will not wake them up, but send them into limbo which is basically no-man’s land for what seems like an eternity.

That was a mouthful!

This epic film is a James Bond action meets Matrix science fiction meets a totally unique twist of a psychological thriller, which incorporates the modern fear of privacy invasion and increasing reality that companies have the most power.

With so much going on and so much to think about during the movie, the two and a half hours whizz by.

My favourite scene would have to be the parallel storyline of the van that is driving the unconscious dreamers, with the storyline of the conscious dreamers within somebody else’s dream. (Yes, it’s difficult to explain).

It’s the fast-paced dream versus the slow motion van that explains the time difference between dreaming and real life.

The count-down begins as the slow motion van is driven off of the bridge and the dreamers need to accomplish the mission and wake up before their physical selves drown in the van. It’s so intense!

The cliff-hanger ending leaves much debate between viewers – so after much philosophical thinking, logical analysis and heated debates with friends, you would be back in the cinema for a second viewing or buying the special edition DVD from the nearest store.

The devoted and flabbergasted viewers will find themselves questioning how they come to certain decisions (are we in a dream?) in the same way the Matrix promoted questions of fiction and reality (is this world physically real?). In the same way as Sims players question if somebody is playing our lives out.

Of course, different people take away very different things from this movie. The most popular comment being “I don’t get it.”

INCEPTION. With a stream of shallow chick flicks and rom-coms, Inception was a breath of fresh air for those who enjoy a bit of an “epic”.

Of course, the film and talented cast is not all that creates such a movie – Hans Zimmer’s haunting scores were essentially what gives you chills!

Not forgetting the song that was the cue for the dreamers to wake up in the film (and is everybody’s alarm clock sound now) – Non, Je Ne Regrette Rein sung by Edith Piaf. It stirs emotions of apprehension and nostalgia in the audience which is parallel with the characters’.

I’m sure you can tell that I am an Inception fan, but I have to say that such a long and complicated film has less entertainment value by the third or fourth viewing.

However, it’s a “must have” for all dedicated DVD collectors or movie-making enthusiasts.

Even if it is a DVD that is not watched frequently, it’s a film that will always spark conversation and is kept handy for casual social viewing for a wide audience.

Jodie’s rating: 8.5/10