Tuesday, November 24, 2020

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

Jack says this is bound to get Oscar nominations. A huge distinguished cast, mostly men, leads this excellent drama which centers on the actual 1968 trial but has plenty of background, both recreated and in archival footage. I wept at the riot scenes that took place before the Democratic National Convention that year.

Sacha Baron Cohen doesn't exactly go against type to play Abbie Hoffman, since Hoffman was a loud-mouthed iconoclast. Cohen's performance here is riveting. And the rest of the cast are no slouches either: Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin, Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, Mark Rylance as William Kunstler, John Carroll Lynch as David Dellinger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Richard Schultz, Frank Langella as Judge Julius Hoffman, and so many more.

Aaron Sorkin, no stranger to courtroom drama, directs and writes. I noticed that the dialogue is not the usual Sorkin rapid-fire, but, instead, is at a more normal pace. A number of instances of poetic license also differ from history.

As I write I'm listening to the soundtrack by Daniel Pemberton on Apple Music and it can also be found on Spotify and more.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new winner of the Producers Plethora Prize. Forty-three producers listed on imdb. Here's the running list. The plethora may have to do with the fact that the project had been in development for over thirteen years before this year's release, with Steven Spielberg attached to direct and many other actors attached to star.

Cohen was last blogged for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Redmayne for The Danish Girl (Oscar nominated), Rylance for Dunkirk, Lynch for Private Life, Gordon-Levitt for Knives Out, Langella for Captain Fantastic, Sorkin for Molly's Game, and Pemberton for Yesterday. Strong won an Emmy earlier this year for Succession, and was also good in Molly's Game, the series Masters of Sex, and The Big Short, among others.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences agree with us, averaging 90 and 91%, respectively.

We streamed this Netflix original on November 18 and were glued to the couch for the entire 129 minutes.

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