![]() And, yeah, despite strong reviews and a paid national sneak preview meant to build word-of-mouth, Only the Brave earned just $23 million worldwide on a $38m budget. Both Mark Wahlberg movies were relatively good, but both struggled as audiences either sought out feel-good true-life stories like Hidden Figures and Sully or escapism like La La Land and Rogue One. And I noted that Only the Brave was seen as a risk since it was similar in content and intentions to the two disappointing Peter Berg true-life tragedies Deepwater Horizon and Patriots Day. Because the other Black Label Media release to go from Lionsgate to Sony is Only the Brave, which was one of last year’s best movies.Īt the time, I noted that Lionsgate probably dumped Sicario 2 because they knew that an action thriller starring Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro sans Emily Blunt would struggle to stand out in the marketplace. However, if Soldado is any good, I’ll be the first to say so despite my misgivings. Like Snow White and the Huntsman, Sicario was a female-led genre film that was successful enough to spawn a sequel for the male co-star(s) with lead actress getting kicked to the curb. One of them was Sicario 2: Soldado, which I’ve given no end of grief for essentially being a sequel to Emily Blunt’s grim “War on Drugs” thriller without Blunt. ![]() ![]() There was a slight uproar earlier this year when Lionsgate unloaded two Black Label Media releases from their 2017 schedule, only for those films to get picked up by Sony. Again, what makes the film stand out is the sheer quality of the writing and the time the picture allows to show these folks living, learning and changing before the proverbial end. In a departure for this kind of movie, the screenplay makes her into a three-dimensional human being, someone with opinions, contradictions and someone whose words and deeds have an impact on the plot. It might just be a firefighter movie thing.And the "exclusive" clip above highlights one of its best elements, namely Connelly's terrific performance in what otherwise could have been a stock "supportive wife" character. Still, even he can’t keep himself from the occasional aerial glamour shot of the team, posing in formation on top of a mountain while guitars blare. Only the Brave feels like a film that would have made sense coming from Peter Berg or Michael Bay, but Kosinski mostly pulls back on the macho cheerleading to find something more objective, and ultimately, deeply emotional. Despite their title, these hotshots are anything but. Most of Marsh’s job involves watching the blaze from a distance, taking temperature and humidity readings, and checking the wind direction. There’s little in the way of minimalist architecture or light-up catsuits to be found among this grubby crew, but there’s a sense of quiet shared by all the films, a resistance to all-out bombast. The film is improbably directed by Joseph Kosinski, apparently putting his sci-fi auteur dreams on hold after the gorgeous but hollow Tron: Legacy and Oblivion. But Teller and Brolin lead the film with incredibly watchable naturalism that never descends into sentimentality. Connelly in particular, as Marsh’s loving but long-suffering wife, feels well-positioned to subvert many of the expectations around that kind of character … until she doesn’t. The cast, by the way, is incredibly stacked - Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Connelly, and Andie MacDowell all acquit themselves agreeably in roles that feel like they could have used a lot more screen time. Oftentimes it plays out like a condensed season of television, a format for which it might actually have been better suited, with its long, subtly rendered character arcs and ensemble cast. Only the Brave is meandering and picaresque, sometimes to its own detriment. Cue a predictable yet comforting redemption arc, from McDonough’s fast friendship with hazer turned roommate Chris (Taylor Kitsch) to the surrogate father he finds in Marsh, who we come to learn may not be that different from him. Meanwhile, young addict Brendan McDonough (Miles Teller) stumbles his way into fathering a child, and suddenly feeling the urge to step up and be responsible for her, arrives at the department looking for work. ![]() ![]() The film opens with them still uncertified and frustrated at their inability to stave off yet another fire. Led by their supervisor Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin), they became local heroes, but if you don’t know their story I’d advise against Googling it, or the GQ article the film is based on. Only the Brave is based on the true story of Prescott, Arizona’s Granite Mountain Hotshots, the first ever municipal fire crew to be certified as Hotshots (that is, the class of firefighter that deals on the ground with wildfires). Miles Teller on His New Movie, Superhero Franchises, and Being Likable (or Not) ![]()
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