J. Edgar
Release date: 2011-11-09
Votes: 2467
Genres: Drama, Crime, History
As the face of law enforcement in the United States for almost 50 years, J. Edgar Hoover was feared and admired, reviled and revered. But behind closed doors, he held secrets that would have destroyed his image, his career, and his life.
Reviews
r96sk
A bit of a bore, is <em>'J. Edgar'</em>. Leonardo DiCaprio puts in a very good performance as the titular character and his co-stars are all solid, but I just found the way that the story is told to be lacklustre. There aren't, at least for me, any memorable scenes and I wasn't invested in the plot at any point really. It's semi-watchable, but goes on for too long to be passably so. It does, as noted, have a neat cast list, with Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts and Judi Dench, among others, involved behind DiCaprio. I think they all give their best, with any issues I have with this 2011 release being away from them. Two duds in a row to start the 2010s from Mr. Eastwood; in my humble opinion, of course.
GenerationofSwine
My only real complaint about Leonardo DiCaprio is that he looks like, well, Leonardo DiCaprio and that is a shame given that given that he doesn't play Lenardo DiCaprio, he plays whoever the script says he is and we all think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread because of that. Except in J. Edgar where, for the first real time, DiCaprio doesn't look like DiCaprio, he looks a lot like the cross-dressing fascist he's portraying. And being Leo, he acts like him too. THANK YOU. For once the studio didn't bank on his face and it paid out. So we not only get to see Leo acting the part, but for the first time we get to really see him looking the part too and the last time he did that was in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." And on top of it all we have Clint Eastwood directing and, honestly, not a fan of him as an actor, love him as a director. Given his politics I walked in thinking Right Wing Love Story...I walked out with "honest depiction" and that helps a lot. Not only does that help, but the scandal around Hoover's sexuality was done appropriately, that is to say it didn't take center stage, J. Edgar did...and, as I said, you were watching J. Edgar and not Leo doing his best to be the man while having to still look like himself. it's just a win all around...except it could have benefited for time. Trim it down a bit. I know he's hugely important to history and Eastwood is a great director with a great cast but...it got a bit long in the tooth at places and that hurt the flow of the film.
Movie Recommendation
Rogue Trader1999-06-25Rogue Trader tells the true story of Nick Leeson, an employee of Barings Bank who--after a successful trading run--ends up accumulating $1.4 billion in losses hidden in account #88888.More...
The Ides of March2011-10-07Dirty tricks stand to soil an ambitious young press spokesman's idealism in a cutthroat presidential campaign where 'victory' is relative.More...
Roman J. Israel, Esq.2017-11-17Hard-nosed liberal lawyer Roman J. Israel has been fighting the good fight forever while others take the credit. When his partner – the firm's frontman – has a heart attack, Israel suddenly takes on that role. He soon discovers some unsettling truths about the firm – truths that conflict with his values of helping the poor and dispossessed – and finds himself in an existential crisis that leads to extreme actions.More...
Marvin's Room1996-12-18A leukemia patient attempts to end a 20-year feud with her sister to get her bone marrow.More...
Wedding Unplanned2017-04-26When she discovers a wedding planer's business card, Alexia instantly says, "YES" to Mathias unaware that it belongs to his mistress. The groom is now trapped between his bride, and his lover who in charge of his unwanted marriage.More...
Jersey Boys2014-06-18A musical biopic of the Four Seasons—the rise, the tough times and personal clashes, and the ultimate triumph of a group of friends whose music became symbolic of a generation. Far from a mere tribute concert, it gets to the heart of the relationships at the centre of the group, with a special focus on frontman Frankie Valli, the small kid with the big falsetto.More...
Curse of the Weeping Woman: J-ok'el2007-03-02An unworldly and closed-minded American travels to a small village in exotic Chiapas, Mexico; at the behest of his estranged mother when his half-sister disappears during a local epidemic of kidnappings attributed to the legendary J-ok'el, the weeping woman, who drowned her own babies, centuries ago and whose spirit has returned to claim more children as her own.More...
Advantages of Travelling by Train2019-11-08After interning her insane husband in a remote psychiatric hospital, book editor Helga Pato returns home by train, where she meets a mysterious man who identifies himself as a psychiatrist.More...
Hereafter2010-10-22Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.More...
Before the Flood2016-10-21A look at how climate change affects our environment and what society can do to prevent the demise of endangered species, ecosystems, and native communities across the planet.More...
Inception: The Cobol Job2010-12-07This "Inception" prequel unfolds courtesy of a beautiful Motion Comic, and explains how Cobb, Arthur and Nash were enlisted by Cobol Engineering.More...
Invictus2009-12-11Newly elected President Nelson Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby union team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match.More...
Endless Poetry2016-03-23A portrait of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s young adulthood, set in the 1940s and 50s, in the electric capital city of Santiago. There, he decides to become a poet and is introduced, by destiny, into the foremost bohemian and artistic circle of the time.More...
The Last Deadly Mission2008-03-12A washed-up Marseilles cop (Auteuil) earns a chance at redemption by protecting a woman from the man who killed her parents as he is about to be released from prison.More...
Cargo2009-09-24The story of CARGO takes place on rusty space-freighter KASSANDRA on its way to Station 42. The young medic LAURA is the only one awake on board while the rest of the crew lies frozen in hibernation sleep. In 4 months will Laura's shift be over.More...
Mr. Nice2010-10-07Biopic about 1970s Welsh marijuana trafficker Howard Marks, whose inventive smuggling schemes made him a huge success in the drug trade, as well as leading to dealings with both the IRA and British Intelligence. Based on Marks' biography with the same title.More...
Racer and the Jailbird2017-10-04When Gino meets racing driver Bénédicte, it's love at first sight. But Gino has a secret. The kind of secret that can endanger their lives.More...
If Not Us, Who?2011-03-10In the early 60s, Bernward Vesper and fellow university student Gudrun Ensslin begin a passionate love in the stifling atmosphere of provincial West Germany. Dedicated to the power of the written word, Bernward and Gudrun found a publishing house whose first publication is, paradoxically to many, a controversial past work of Bernward's ostracized father, an infamous Nazi author. Bernward defends his father's writing ability, even if he is haunted by his father's suspicious past.More...
Warlock1959-05-15A band of murderous cowboys has imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. With the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town, the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as de facto town marshal. He arrives along with his friend, Tom Morgan, and sets about restoring law and order on his own terms whilst also overseeing the establishment of a gambling house and saloon.More...
Angels with Dirty Faces1938-11-26Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood.More...
Similar Movies
Midnights with Adam
2013-05-08Over the course of one night, a newly out-of -the-closet young man struggles to hold back his feelings for his straight best friend while dealing with the problems and complications of being different in a hetero-normative world.Saw IV
2007-10-25Despite Jigsaw's death, and in order to save the lives of two of his colleagues, Lieutenant Rigg is forced to take part in a new game, which promises to test him to the limit.The Last Emperor
1987-10-04A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.Face/Off
1997-06-27In order to foil a terrorist plot, an FBI agent undergoes facial transplant surgery and assumes the identity of a criminal mastermind. The plan turns sour when the criminal wakes up prematurely and seeks revenge.GoodFellas
1990-09-12The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.American Beauty
1999-09-15Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.A Spot for Frog
2022-06-01Locked out of the school art room, a creative non-binary teen named Frog grapples with anxiety as they seek a new place to eat lunch. Imagination blurs with reality in this hybrid work of live action and animation about finding a place to belong.Dharmaveer
2022-05-13A biopic on life of a Hindu nationalist leader Anand Dighe, through various incidents narrated by his close aides.Summer Dreams: The St...
1990-04-29Dramatization looks at the tumultuous relationship that existed between rock group The Beach Boy's Brian and Dennis Wilson and their father, Murry. It also examines their struggles with drugs and alcohol.Malee
2024-11-14Him, Dean, Chopper, and Kane, four best friends meet again at the funeral of Dean's mother. They volunteer to stay with Dean, who is left alone at his house in Ayutthaya, and help Dean with his things as Dean intends to sell the house. As soon as they step into the ancient house, a strange phenomenon begins to emerge, especially after Him accidentally puts the sacrificial manohra dancer's chada on his head. The spirit of the dancer follows Him without stopping.Terenci: la fabulació...
2023-09-15An account of the life and work of the charismatic Spanish writer Terenci Moix (1942-2003).Uncontrolled Love 2
2016-08-20Xie Yan realizes his love for Shu Nian, but Shu Nian hides his feelings. After Shu Nian is fired by Xie Yan's father, their relationship faces more turmoil.Transamerica
2005-02-14A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.Basquiat
1996-08-09The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.Downfall
2004-09-16In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.Saint-Narcisse
2021-11-25Dominic’s fetish is… himself. Nothing turns him on more than his own reflection. That’s why discovering that he has a twin brother, raised in a remote monastery by a depraved priest, causes him major consternation. Fate brings the two young men back together again, and their fraternal relationship is torn between sex, revenge and redemption.Some of My Best Frien...
1971-10-27Regulars gather at The Blue Jay, a gay bar in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, to celebrate Christmas Eve 1971 with people they consider family.Sanwri - Love Beyond ...
2022-06-01Bhanwar, a simpleton young man in the rural Rajasthan wants a bride for him but gets duped. Instead of a woman, he is married off to a transgender person – Sanwri. Having no resort Bhanwar and his uncle decide to keep Sanwri for their household work but fearing the social ostracization they also try to keep her actual identity a secret. Bhanwar and Sanwri eventually fall in love and fight to survive as a couple in a conservative, oppressive society where marriages are meant to take place only between a man and a woman, and traditional norms are more important than humanity.Ingeborg Bachmann – J...
2023-06-09When Ingeborg Bachmann and Max Frisch meet for the first time in Paris in the summer of 1958, they are already international celebrities of the literary world. In the four years that follow, they dabble in great love and an open relationship between his hometown of Zurich and her adopted Rome.Catch Me If You Can
2002-12-16A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. An FBI agent makes it his mission to put him behind bars. But Frank not only eludes capture, he revels in the pursuit.