STACK #244 February 2025

MOVIE FEATURE

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IN EASTWOOD WE TRUST Juror #2 marks Clint Eastwood’s 40th directorial endeavour, at the age of 94. GENRE: Thriller drama RUN TIME: 1h 54m

• Juror #2 is out Feb 12

D elving into themes of justice, morality, and personal accountability, Juror #2 centres on Nicholas Hoult’s Juror #2, a family man grappling with a profound ethical dilemma during a murder trial. In his hands rests the power to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict - or free - the accused killer. As the trial unfolds, Kemp becomes increasingly convinced that he may have inadvertently caused the victim’s death on the same night, leading him to wrestle with the decision to confess, or manipulate the jury to avoid self-incrimination. Featuring Toni Collette as the assistant district attorney prosecuting

the case, the film co-stars J.K. Simmons as a former homicide detective and fellow juror; Zoey Deutch as Kemp’s schoolteacher wife, and Kiefer Sutherland as a lawyer and Kemp’s Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. Eastwood’s deft direction emphasizes the moral grey areas of the justice system, exploring how deeply flawed humans navigate their roles within it. The film moves beyond traditional courtroom drama tropes, focusing instead on Kemp’s psychological turmoil and the ripple effects of his decisions on both the trial and his personal life. Critically praised for its nuanced

storytelling and moral depth, Juror #2 is a testament to Eastwood’s ability to craft thought-provoking narratives. It highlights the fragility of justice when weighed against human imperfection, offering a poignant reflection on guilt, responsibility, and redemption in a system designed to uncover the truth. Making his feature directorial debut with the 1971 thriller Play Misty for Me , the legendary Dirty Harry star has enjoyed a prolific career as an actor, director, and producer. With Juror #2 receiving critical praise, Eastwood cements his status as a master filmmaker, delivering one of his most acclaimed films in the past 50 years. Gill Pringle

He survived a plane crash in 1951. His uncredited film debut was in Revenge of the Creature (1955), a sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). The classic Man with No Name trilogy did not translate to stardom in the US, as Hollywood did not consider spaghetti westerns to be respectable. He declined lead roles in Superman (1978) and Apocalypse Now (1979), as well as the iconic role of James Bond in Live and Let Die (1973). The boots he wore in Unforgiven (1992) are the same ones that he wore in the TV series Rawhide . Fun facts about CLINT EASTWOOD

LIKE THAT? YOU'LL LOVE THESE!

Anatomy of a Fall, Just Mercy, Dark Waters, A Few Good Men, Bridge of Spies

A labour of love, Megalopolis stands as Francis Ford Coppola's most personal endeavour, one that has been decades in the making. T he film stars Adam Driver as an ambitious architect and inventor BUILDING MEGALOPOLIS GENRE: Sci-fi drama RUN TIME: 2h 18m • Megalopolis is out Feb 5

Francis Ford Coppola and Adam Driver

THE COPPOLA FAMILY They’re all related

speaking to the press at Cannes. "I very much wanted to write this story. I just started filling notebooks with ideas or things I found while reading. I thought, you know, everyone knows America is a reincarnation of Republican Rome because our founders didn't want a king but wanted it to be like Rome's republic. In the summer of 2001, he held table reads in New York, where Robert De Niro, Paul Newman, Leo DiCaprio, Uma Thurman, James Gandolfini, and Russell Crowe were some of the actors who participated, and the film went into pre production. But, just months later, the tragedy of September 11 happened, and work came

to a halt. The years passed with more script readings and workshops, but it was a combination of Coppola turning 80 followed by the pandemic that provided the impetus for him to fully develop the project. If critics described Megalopolis as the work of a filmmaker past his prime, then Coppola, 85, seemed nostalgic when he met the press at Cannes. “There’s so many people when they die, they say, ‘I wish I had done this. I wish I had done that’. When I die, I’m going to say, ‘I got to do this’. I got to see my daughter (Sofia Coppola) win an Oscar, and I got to make wine, and I got to make every movie I wanted to make.” Gill Pringle

named Cesar Catilina, who hopes to use his discovery of a powerful “miracle” material, Megalon, to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster. Originally conceiving the idea for Megalopolis in the early 1980s, after being inspired by the historian Sallust, Coppola was compelled to make a film drawing parallels between the fall of Rome and the future of the United States by setting the events of the Catilinarian conspiracy of 63 BC in modern New York, while pointing a finger at the roots of fascism. "I had cooked up this idea," he recalls,

Francis Ford Coppola Eleanor Coppola (wife) Sofia Coppola (daughter) Roman Coppola (son) August Coppola (brother) Tahlia Shire (sister) Gia Coppola (granddaughter) Romy Mars (granddaughter) Jason Schwartzman (nephew) Robert Schwartzman (nephew) Nicolas Cage (nephew) We could go on…

MORE COPPOLA FILMS FOR YOUR COLLECTION

The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The Outsiders, Bram Stoker's Dracula

28 FEBRUARY 2025

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