The topic of cancer is never an easy subject to tackle. It’s rarely a positive thing and whenever a film tries to tackle the subject it usually ends on a low note, due to the depressing nature of it all, but leave it to director Jonathan Levine to perfectly walk that line of comedy and drama. 50/50 is not a straight up drama nor is it a laugh out loud comedy, instead it can be described as a very authentic film.
A powerfully empathetic performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt saves 50/50 from succumbing to the annoying presence of Seth Rogen and his hophead propagandizing.
Jeremy of We Got This Covered wrote, "One of the best films of 2011 came in the form of a cancer dramedy directed by young filmmaker Jonathan Levine and starring Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. 50/50 hits all the right notes as it walks the fine line of being a hilarious comedy and an emotional drama. It’s authentic, honest and it makes for one hell of a film. The film is anchored by its heart-felt performance by JGL, but Rogen, Kendrick and the rest of the supporting cast help make the ensemble team feel just as important. Levine knows how to find the strengths in his actors and shape-shift the film into a cluster of emotions."
Movies Hate You Too writes:
This week sees the release of several of last falls bigger financial or critical hits; the Rock'em Sock'em Robots film, a cancer 'comedy', and a horror film that hits Blu-ray surprisingly quickly. As far as catalog releases go there are films from Woody Allen, Alfred Hitchcock, and films starring the late, great Richard Pryor available for the first time ever in HD plus a monster movie classic gets the royal treatment from the Criterion Collection.
I can't wait to get my copy of Real Steel. Out of this weeks releases that's the one I'm interested in. That was such a good movie. I went in expecting to like it some but ended up loving it and going back to see it again.
I'm kinda "eh" about Real Steel, so I won't be buying that one. Though Netflix did ship it out to me today, so I'll have it tomorrow.
On that note, I'm much more interested in 50/50 and Paranormal Activity 3. Both of those I bought (from Amazon) so should have those this week too.
I do like the Blu-ray releases of the Hitchcock movies too.
Did they bundle up the best of Hitchcock or just several of his movies? If Psycho, The Birds, and Rear Window are in that it would be great.
No it's no bundle. They just did individual Blu-ray releases on a few of his movies: Notorious, Rebecca and Spellbound.
I really enjoyed this one! The trailers looked good, but the final product was so much better! I hope everyone gets around to seeing it.