Right-Winger Mostly Succeeds in Complimenting Sean Penn
"Sean Penn is an outstanding director and I'm betting he gets the best performance we've seen from Robert De Niro in 15 years. Watching De Niro overact in the tradition of his pal Al Pacino has been more than a little heartbreaking. But Penn was able to direct scenery-chewer Jack Nicholson into one of his best performances in The Pledge, a near-masterpiece everyone should see regardless of your personal feelings about Penn. No doubt, Sean Penn is an asshole, but he's an asshole capable of telling superb, character-driven stories that stay with you long after the lights come up." Well, it's something. [Big Hollywood]
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Comments
I'm a right winger and i got to say, Into the the Wild was pretty freaking amazing.
I am a big fat lefty socialist bleeding heart tree-hugger, and I think Sean Penn is an asshole. Loved The Pledge and Into the Wild, despite it.
I think people on both sides of the aisle can agree that Sean Pean is a supremely talented artist, generous philanthropist, and ginormous douchebag.
"Into the Wild" was awful, and Penn didn't deserve to beat Bill Murray the year he won for "Mystic River" or Frank Langella the year he won for "Milk". He gave one of the best performances of the '90s in "Dead Man Walking", though, and he did do an amazing job directing Nichols0n.
I'm looking forward to his De Niro project, but predicting it to be De Niro's best work in 15 years seems a little premature. It's an amusingly specific statement. "Robert De Niro's performance in this movie that hasn't begun shooting yet and that I don't know all that much about is a notch above his successful comedic work in "Meet the Parents", although it falls slightly short of the heights he reached in "Wag the Dog"."