Stillwater (2021)

Matt Damon plays a cold hick from Oklahoma. A large part of the film is very awkward. The connection of ice cold Damon with a dark-skinned French girl, who appears to be a far better actor than Damon, is not credible. She barely understands any English while Damon pours his heart out to her. But she understands one keyword to not her head and the bond forms.

For no explainable reason, a French woman who is considering helping him asks whether he voted for Trump. It had no purpose other than to denigrate Trump at the expense of this film. And to add insult, the white man has a criminal record so he didn't vote at all.

Moving further along, someone helping Damon on his quest discuss other people. Why? Because all he wants to do is put an Arab kid in jail. He doesn't care about justice.

Damon's character understands the point about racism and justice. But for some unexplainable reason, he mentions that only cares about is his daughter. So of course, the response from the French lady is that he sounds like all Americans.

This was a woke farce. It's disappointing because it could have been a good film. These activists must steamroll all over any audience and force them to admit that black people and Arabs and Muslims are the greatest victims on Earth. Each time the film promises to move forward in some direction, a stumbling block appears to remind us of just how much white supremacy exists and how detestable spoiled Americans are. And quite frankly, the supposed victim is so bratty that you're constantly hoping she stays in jail for the rest of her term.

Fmovies: Pop this movie anytime of the day, I guarantee yah you will sleep better than a coma It's like watching paint dry and you wake up to realize you have been asleep for days and the story hasn't even gotten close to the first point of the entire movie.

This is how good this movie is for insomnia, as for entertainment I think this movie should have been made a docie.

Very loosely inspired by the Amanda Knox case of an American student convicted of murder while studying abroad Tom McCarthy's STILLWATER follows it's own path for the majority of his screenplay (co-written with a trio of writers). Not only is the action transported from Italy to Marseille, France, but the focus isn't on the imprisoned young woman here named Allison (Abigail Breslin), but on her single father Bill (Matt Damon). The other main characters are Virginie, a single French woman (Camille Cottin) and her young daughter Maya (Lilou Siauvaud) who befriend and assistant the American as he tries to find the real killer.

Bill's dogged pursuit of freeing his daughter may seem to have the makings of an international thriller, but, McCarthy is much more interested in creating a slow burn drama. Bill is an uneducated 'ugly American' who has a history of personal failure. He roams around sporting a trucker hat even after temporarily moving to France to work on his daughter's release. At one point, one of Virginie's friends bluntly asks if he is Trump voter. Damon gives a strong performance as the determined Dad, even if he chisel's down the rough edges a bit too much at times. Breslin is good as are the pair of French actresses. The final scenes are quietly powerfully played by the quartet.

McCarthy will never be considered a stylist, but, here, as in THE STATION AGENT, THE VISITOR and SPOTLIGHT he frames the actors well. Masanobu Takayanagi camerawork is solid in capturing the local color without being picturesque and Mychael Danna's score is effective without calling attention to itself. The movie could have used some tightening in the script and editing as the movie occasionally loses the focus of where it's going. Set aside the tabloid details of the true crime case and appreciate the understated presentation in STILLWATER.

Stillwater fmovies. I've read several reviews that said Matt Damon was boring and inhibited. The truth is that he portrayed Bill Baker perfectly. It was not meant to be a John Wick stunt festival. Instead, it displays the actions of a typical southwestern father in a perfectly believable manner. Bill Baker may be too dull for east and west coast audiences, but he is adequately representative of many Oklahoma/Texas citizens.

The storyline was criticized as not demonstrative of the real life story upon which it was based. That may be, but as a fictional story it stands on its own merit. You see a father's love for his daughter and the choices he makes to redeem her.

I do agree that it was a bit lengthy. There were multiple scenes that could have been trimmed without sacrificing the story.

And Hollywood scriptwriters? Not everybody in life uses profanity like that all the time.

Stillwater was an absolutely fascinating journey. Stillwater starring Matt Damon. Follows a father who moves from Oklahoma to Marseille, to help get his daughter out of prison for a murder she claims she didn't commit.

The Good- This is a unique and fascinating journey. Some of the choices in this film were unpredictable and some of the twists here work very well. Matt Damon gives an amazing performance in this film and one of the best performances I have seen him give in a film. If you are interested in this film you should definitely go and watch this. The second act of this film was amazing and the focus of the movie changes here a lot. Some people might not like what they do in the third act. Personally I didn't mind it too much, it didn't ruin the film for me but I do think I'd have preferred them to go down a different route.

The Bad- I do think this was 10 or 15 minutes they could of taken out of the film, especially in the first act. The first act was very weak. The film does take it's time to find it's focus and rhythm.

Overall Thoughts- Stillwater was a beautifully shot movie that takes you on a very fascinating journey and gives you some very strong performances from all of our leads. The themes and messages are the strongest parts of this movie. It isn't a perfect movie however the good outweigh the bad enough for me to recommend this movie to people. Overall I'm going to give 'Stillwater' a 8/10.

No spoilers here. Go see this movie before reading about it. This is a very interesting, well written, directed, and acted movie. It is well worth the time and price of admission. Ignore the critics who nibble at the edges of this fine piece of cinema. The audience in the theater indicated that we were all enjoying it. This is why, pandemic or not, I love watching movies at the theater.