Erin Brockovich
2000
Steven Soderbergh
We watched Annette, the new Adam Driver flick, a couple nights after watching Erin Brockovich. This isn't an Annette review—I wouldn't even know where the fuck to begin—but I think it was interesting watching back-to-back with today's NSI movie. Annette's main theme (I think?!) is exploitation, as the back half traces Baby Annette's journey from exploited to free of the metaphorical chains her father locked her in (and also, she's a puppet... it's a whole thing). Which is a good theme! Always something to chew on.
But comparing it to Erin Brokovich, I just find the latter so goddamn refreshing. Here we have our titular lead character, who from Minute 0 to Minute 130 is fully in control of her own destiny. External forces try to shape Brokovich, for sure, but through determination, grit, charm, sass, and so on, she remains true to herself.
I guess that makes the movie sound a little generic! Sorry! It's really not! At least not in my view. I think I was just impressed with what kind of movie it ended up being. I was under the extremely misguided impression that this was going to be a romantic comedy, but what I ended up seeing was a David/Goliath story of a woman with no law degree who rallied a town around a cause, and won. For real, it was just plain exciting to not only see the "big guys" be toppled, but even more so it was exciting to see in real time someone find their niche, or their place in this world based on their particular set of skills.
It's great watching an underdog story, but it's also fun watching someone who is good at something clean up at that thing. Erin Brokovich somehow combined the two effortlessly. Good movie.
GRADE: 4.5 pukes out of 5
NEXT TIME: There are movies that we can start while Willow is still awake, but Eyes Wide Shut is probably not going to be one of them.
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