stiv-7

James Mangold happens to be one of my favourite directors, and not just because of what he was able to do with the Wolverine franchise. I love his ability to infuse a sense of heart into every frame. It helps that he's working with great actors and manages to coax their best performances out of them.

Granted, Christian Bale's accent is all over the North of England, but ultimately it doesn't matter, because you believe him as this passionate and difficult race car driver. This is also one of Matt Damon's best performances. It's easy to see why this was nominated in 2019 for best picture because it's both crowd-pleasing and a rock-solid piece of filmmaking.

The supporting cast shouldn't be discounted either. Tracy Letts, once again, turns in a stellar performance, and Jon Bernthal plays against type as Lee Iacocca and it pays off.

Some may dismiss it as a "dad" film, but for me, it's the finest "dad" film in awhile.

... and came out mildly satisfied. I had two expectations of this film: (1) that it would be somewhat better than Return of the Jedi, which I consider the worst of the original trilogy; and (2) that it wouldn't completely retcon The Last Jedi. I consider it a modest success on both counts. Without getting into spoilers, I will say that while I have some issues with how The Last Jedi was treated by this film, it didn't erase it from existence.

As for the former, while there is a desire to wrap everything up with a pretty bow, it too, is somewhat tempered.

So, not perfect, but better than I expected.