Earlier in the year, before the likes of Swiss Army Man and Moonlight had come out, I had Jeff Nichols's Midnight Special as my top movie of the year(so far). Mr Nichols has chosen his projects very carefully and taken his time to make each one, so when I saw that he had another movie coming out in 2016 I was surprised, and then even more surprised when I learned that it would tell the story of the landmark supreme court case Loving V. Virginia I almost fell off my seat. Not that it does not seem like something that Nichols would do but it does stand out a bit from his other movies. Is Jeff Nichols ready to become a household name? Does the story live up to the Oscar hype? Read on to find out.
The movie is shot beautifully, as is every other Jeff Nichols movie. He is one of the last firm holdouts to still shoot on film not named Paul Thomas Anderson or Quentin Tarantino. The countryside of Virginia has never looked better to me, even surrounded by the extreme bigotry that was going on. Nichols puts some of his strongest scenes right in front of some amazing views and even if the story is kind of bogged down, at least the view is nice.
The performances from both lead actors here are tremendous. Ruth Negga has a sadness of understanding in her eyes through the whole movie. She knows what is happening to her is wrong but also knows that she can't do much to change it. Even when she starts getting help she almost pushes it away because unfortunately she understands the world she is living in. Joel Edgerton is quickly becoming not just one of my favorite actors working today but he is becoming my most respected. This guy just has something watchable about him, and no matter what role he inhabits he always comes strong. After is starring/directing role in last years not too well known "the gift" I started taking notice of Edgerton and he has not disappointed me since. He breathes life into Richard Loving in an almost against type role for Edgerton, but at this point this guy can do anything so I don't know if he even has a type anymore.
Jeff Nichols has written all of the scripts of movies he has worked on. I can appreciate his writing without falling in love with it and Loving is probably his most dull script. His movies have a simplicity to them, that can get a bit more complex depending on the movie, but usually he keeps things fairly easy to understand and follow. Loving just has nowhere to go, its not a poorly written movie, but there is nothing exciting here. This leads into my issue with the movie, which is that it is pretty boring.
Going in I did not know much about the events of the movie, and more horrifyingly how recently they occurred. I did not want the movie to paint with a wide brush or to show any group/race of people as being any better than any other, I think its kind of the point of the whole thing, But unfortunately this movie could have used some extra conflict. The story of the Lovings is an incredible one, again maybe mostly because the world they lived in is only about 40-50 years ago, not 100 like I thought, but it is not exciting enough for a feature length movie. Not much happens other than a few moments of extreme prejudiced and some infuriating court rulings.
I don't want to be misunderstood, what the Lovings did is truly incredible and a story of love and acceptance that we could all use right now, but movies, while a platform to tell these types of stories, have to be entertaining and no amount of pacing can change that about Loving. The direction in this movie is some of the best Jeff Nichols has ever done and you could say that both leads give the performances of their careers until this point, but two hours is two hours. I appreciate Nichols for not fabricating things to make the movie more exciting because this is an important piece of history and punching it up would absolutely tarnish the original goal of the Lovings. When Loving comes to your town in the wake of awards season which I'm sure it will be nominated in a few categories, give it a shot, but don't say I did not warn you.
The movie is shot beautifully, as is every other Jeff Nichols movie. He is one of the last firm holdouts to still shoot on film not named Paul Thomas Anderson or Quentin Tarantino. The countryside of Virginia has never looked better to me, even surrounded by the extreme bigotry that was going on. Nichols puts some of his strongest scenes right in front of some amazing views and even if the story is kind of bogged down, at least the view is nice.
The performances from both lead actors here are tremendous. Ruth Negga has a sadness of understanding in her eyes through the whole movie. She knows what is happening to her is wrong but also knows that she can't do much to change it. Even when she starts getting help she almost pushes it away because unfortunately she understands the world she is living in. Joel Edgerton is quickly becoming not just one of my favorite actors working today but he is becoming my most respected. This guy just has something watchable about him, and no matter what role he inhabits he always comes strong. After is starring/directing role in last years not too well known "the gift" I started taking notice of Edgerton and he has not disappointed me since. He breathes life into Richard Loving in an almost against type role for Edgerton, but at this point this guy can do anything so I don't know if he even has a type anymore.
Jeff Nichols has written all of the scripts of movies he has worked on. I can appreciate his writing without falling in love with it and Loving is probably his most dull script. His movies have a simplicity to them, that can get a bit more complex depending on the movie, but usually he keeps things fairly easy to understand and follow. Loving just has nowhere to go, its not a poorly written movie, but there is nothing exciting here. This leads into my issue with the movie, which is that it is pretty boring.
Going in I did not know much about the events of the movie, and more horrifyingly how recently they occurred. I did not want the movie to paint with a wide brush or to show any group/race of people as being any better than any other, I think its kind of the point of the whole thing, But unfortunately this movie could have used some extra conflict. The story of the Lovings is an incredible one, again maybe mostly because the world they lived in is only about 40-50 years ago, not 100 like I thought, but it is not exciting enough for a feature length movie. Not much happens other than a few moments of extreme prejudiced and some infuriating court rulings.
I don't want to be misunderstood, what the Lovings did is truly incredible and a story of love and acceptance that we could all use right now, but movies, while a platform to tell these types of stories, have to be entertaining and no amount of pacing can change that about Loving. The direction in this movie is some of the best Jeff Nichols has ever done and you could say that both leads give the performances of their careers until this point, but two hours is two hours. I appreciate Nichols for not fabricating things to make the movie more exciting because this is an important piece of history and punching it up would absolutely tarnish the original goal of the Lovings. When Loving comes to your town in the wake of awards season which I'm sure it will be nominated in a few categories, give it a shot, but don't say I did not warn you.