Angelina Jolie - Is The Aura of Acting Career Fading?
With a clear opinion and great influence, Hollywood desperately needs Angelina Jolie, but at the same time always scorns her talent, or rather polarized and divided because of the image she built.
Returning to 2021 after a few years of absence to treat cancer, take care of her family and children, it seems that Angelina Jolie is no longer able to keep the charm on screen, a prerequisite for actors to have love sentiment from the audience. From "Those Who Wish Me Dead" to "Eternals", two action projects associated with Jolie's strong and sexy style, both faced mixed opinions. The audience thinks that Jolie is still brilliant at the age of approximately 50, but she is no longer "sharp" with each role she takes on. Is Angelina Jolie inherently only "one color" during 30 years of filming or because Hollywood soon realized the goal and true role of Jolie in the contemporary film industry?
The eternity of wretched fate
By all accounts, Jolie's three most resounding roles all share the same formula: anguish. From a former model infected with AIDS, to a dodgy girl in a mental institution and finally to a portrait of a wife accepting her husband's tragic death. Hollywood in general and AMPAS in particular tend to force female stars, especially beauties, to try to get rid of their sexy and elaborate images to transform into unhappy lives. In "GIA", a one-episode TV series, Angelina Jolie causes viewers infinite grief when she has to witness the scene of a pink shadow being beaten by life, to the point of becoming a victim of the disease of the century.
GIA, in a way, resembles the grim fate of Amy Winhouse, the star of the British Pop music scene. Both GIA and Amy are docile sheep, weak to the call of love. When they lose direction, they lose their way and ego. If Amy spent time on stimulants to relieve sadness, keep up the mood to write music, then GIA indulged in partying, having fun, forgetting the dates... They only differ in that, one girl is abandoned because she's lost all her spirit, but the other suffered from mental pain.
Both GIA and Amy became more or less iconic to their generation. And Angelina Jolie herself, with a script that exploits the psychology of the characters that is easy to sympathize with, it is not difficult for her to win over viewers, winning the Actors' Association award, where we understandably have a indirect influence from her father - Jon Voight, who is loved by colleagues and the next generation. However, saying that is not to brush off the sincerity and love Jolie brought to "GIA".
Jolie's intelligence, somewhat bizarre, is once again fully exploited in "Girl, Interrupted" - a profound psychological film from James Mangold. Although most of the film's acting land belongs to Winona Ryder, a star more famous for her friendly and lovely appearance, Jolie easily solved the "problem" for her. In all the scenes Jolie appeared, she was surprised not only by her memorable appearance but also by her wide eyes, sly voice and mysterious smile.
In "A Mighty Heart", Jolie continues to try her hand at biopics, but this time her responsibility is heavier: to some female journalist Mariane Pearl, who wrote a memoir about the most intense period of her life. Her life, next to her courageous husband - journalist Daniel Pearl in the "death place" of Pakistan. "A Mighty Heart" herself also challenged Jolie because Michael Winterbottom's style of pseudo-documentary filmmaking thoroughly captured all emotions; Not to mention there is a scene where Jolie is forced to act entirely with facial muscles, so that viewers cannot see the execution tape of Daniel Pearl, but still clearly see that image of disaster, all over the world. Angelina Jolie's expression set.
It can be said that, ignoring "Changeling" guaranteed by Clint Eastwood and Universal Pictures pouring a lot of money to run the media, "A Mighty Heart" is probably the best movie if only the role of Angelina Jolie is taken into account, regardless to Brad Pitt and his company Plan B standing behind cheering. Clearly, Jolie understands how Hollywood values her after all the luxuries ranging from luxury goods to her expansive role as a politician; she knows for sure that "A Mighty Heart" is the key project to bring her back to the status of a real actress.
The essence of roses
Always controversial because of her lifestyle, not a smooth marriage with Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie also does not hide that she is a rebellious and unusual woman, although there are things that have really deeply influenced her life and her acting career. Remember at the Oscars ceremony in 1999, where Jolie walked up to the podium to accept the Best Supporting Actress award (for "Girl, Interrupted"), she did not hesitate to declare her love for her brother, James Haven. The images in the awards night of the two also created a lot of waves. Fortunately, at that time social networks were still far away, otherwise, how much would the story between Jolie and her brother be dissected.
In 2005, Jolie paired up with Brad Pitt when the ambiguous relationship between him and Jennifer Aniston was still not really clear. However, people can't help but congratulate the leading Hollywood duo, especially when they rode an ice Yamaha on the streets of Saigon in 2006, looking like the Smiths filmed the spin-off in Vietnam. That was also the time when Jolie adopted a Vietnamese-born child - Max Thien, adding to her family's immortal genealogy, despite the controversy surrounding how Jolie chose to adopt.
After all the noise, Jolie entered the frivolous world of Hollywood with dignity, mainly through commercial films such as "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider", "Original Sin", "Alexander", "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"... In which, "Lara Croft" helps Jolie build a standard female action star image; and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" is a movie destined to connect Jolie and Brad Pitt. This is also the period that is said to be the peak of Angelina Jolie's beauty when she continuously appears on the covers of major magazines, showing off her radically sexy beauty, becoming the face for luxury brands... In short, Jolie has now become an A-list star without a blockbuster superhero.
Behind & in front of the camera
When "In the Land of Blood and Honey" announced the directing role of Angelina Jolie, not many people were surprised, because Jolie's ambition to be "something" beyond the framework she was seen before. Years later, when she tried her hand at making documentaries with a bunch of big-name colleagues. This war movie project came to mind when Jolie traveled to Bosnia and Herzegovina as a World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador, collaborating with the authorities throughout the process of reconstructing the concept to the setting, transmission content.
"In the Land of Blood and Honey" is not merely a two-hour historical drama with a budget of 13 million USD, but Jolie's power is to alert the US government during the war in Bosnia, under pressure from the revolutionary press, as well as a few independent critics. Don't forget, since 2007 Angelina Jolie is a member of external relations, her role and position is clearly not just a Hollywood star making movies; and the unnamed Bosnian love story that FilmDistrict introduced just to simplify the political flavor of the work.
Unfortunately, "In the Land of Blood and Honey" wasn't good enough to make Angelina Jolie a promising director, in part perhaps because she touched on the subject matter too much in the first film. However, the lesson from the movie "bomb" (the revenue is only 1/10), helped Jolie understand the problem: she needed a better script, collaborators who understood the project more, and put too much into the direction of public opinion, turning the work into a "psychological attack", "a weapon without the smell of gunpowder"...
2017's "First They Killed My Father" and especially 2014's "Unbroken" more or less left movie lovers with the so-called original nature of a storyteller. "First They Killed My Father" narrates the story from the past through the perspective of an insider - Loung Ung, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge massacre. Notably, producer Rithy Panh belongs to the ranks of veteran filmmakers in the country, and Maddox Jolie-Pitt, Jolie's adopted son, who acts as a production coordinator, is also of Cambodian descent. With such a seasoned source of support, "First They Killed My Father" is enough to convince viewers both in terms of art and affirms Jolie's directing talent.
After the feature film "By the Sea" was released on the 10th anniversary of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" with Brad Pitt, which failed in sales, Angelina Jolie took a break from acting for four years, before returning to the screen by flesh and blood in "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil". Although the effects with the first part are still quite hot, the second part of "Maleficent" is not as explosive as expected, falling into technique and forgetting the compelling story. However, Disney still tries to salvage the third part, scheduled to be released in two years, in the context of blockbusters that are in decline, "lack of salt" seriously.
During 10 years with Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie is full of enthusiasm for the profession, especially in the field of directing. After ending the marriage of the century, and facing breast cancer, Jolie said that she had to move away from film projects that required effort and time.
Set to hit theaters in a period that hasn't really recovered, Warner Bros. Pictures was not very interested in "Those Who Wish Me Dead" even though it was the first movie Angelina Jolie returned with the once-resounding female image. The film's crew is not mediocre: director Taylor Sheridan is both a good screenwriter and good at thriller thrillers. But "Those Who Wish Me Dead" follows the style of filmmaking in the 90s, seems to lack the element of surprise, and falls on the occasion when the audience has not really waited to see the movie in theaters, leading to the failure of the film.
But on the other hand, it is questioned whether Angelina Jolie still has the aura of an actress or just a political artist icon? It is important to remember the most sublime stage of the acting profession, around the 2010s, Jolie was still overwhelmed by her own fiery beauty. Not to mention, being famous as alcohol thanks to her personal image makes many critics not escape the gaze of the sexy icon, or rather, do not seriously appreciate her artistic work, because looking at her shoulder Everyone only sees Angelina Jolie, not the character.
If Taylor Sheridan is unlucky in her collaboration with a top star, then in turn, Chloe Zhao, the famous Asian female director after 2020, is not much better. Zhao is expected to bring a new vision to the Marvel superhero universe like how DC got Patty Jenkins for Wonder Woman 2017. However, Marvel crammed in too much for the "Eternals" proposition of their new chapter, so the film is half-baked in every aspect, but a work lacking before and after like "Eternals" lasts more than two hours, it is a test for viewers.
In "Eternals", Angelina Jolie transforms into the warrior goddess Thena, who is closely related to the Gilgamesh race in the immortal race universe. This isn't Jolie's first time playing a superhero, 2007's "Beowulf" also introduced Jolie in the image of the water queen, and the film received a B- from CinemaScore, which is extremely cute for commercial films, especially action movies. "Beowulf" followed "Eternals' downfall" when it came to relative sales, but was constantly met with harsh reactions from top writers.
In general, "Eternals" is not bad, it has enough action elements, exploits advanced techniques well, but next to the Marvel warriors, the movie seems to need to learn how to "get used to" to approached by many Marvel fans wondering about the role of the "Eternals" in the familiar superhero universe. While Marvel's attempts to influence the relationship between the superheroes they create, critics say "Eternals" disappoints because audiences don't find the ideal film to convey: without any great story...
Angelina Jolie's role in "Eternals" seems to only satisfy the eye-pleasing criteria. The cramming of "Eternals" is also the reason to push the film out of orbit, although the global box office is still "hot", and even with the lyrics, "Eternals" will survive by the Marvel brand and fan's love the genre in general, and Jolie in particular.
Currently, there are about three or four film projects she is negotiating, in which, Jolie may take on "Behavior" as a director. "Behavior" follows the life of wartime photographer Don McCullin, which is still in pre-production, but it's heard Jolie is eyeing Tom Hardy for the male lead. In addition, fans are really looking forward to "Every Note Played" where Jolie has high hopes of returning to the "race" for the Oscars, thanks to the advantages that the novel "Every Note Played" mentions: wife, a former pianist, reluctantly returned to care when she was terminally ill. Most of these projects have not really activated, this is probably depending on the aura of Angelina Jolie's acting career: fading or simply slowing down?
SOURCE: GERMANY NOISE