My Collection: "The Brody Shelf": Part Two

Shelf two, part one:

• The Darjeeling Limited, Criterion Edition. The regular DVD is in my Wes Anderson section in another room. One of my favorite Adrien performances. I love this movie. It was the first Wes Anderson movie I ever saw, which I think is why it's my favorite. There's a drawing of Adrien's character, Peter Whitman on the cover of this that is darling. See?
  

  

• A Matador's Mistress is its U.S. title, but this movie is also known as Blood & Passion, or Manolete. It's about legendary bullfighter Manuel Laureano "Manolete" Rodriguez Sanchez (Adrien), and his relationship with actress Lupe Sino (Penelope Cruz). It's a visually beautiful film (especially the matador costumes), but struggles to find itself.


• The Brothers Bloom, on DVD, and BluRay. One of Adrien's best performances. I love this movie! It has its flaws, but they are minor and few. Mark Ruffalo and Adrien as a pair of con-man brothers! Come on!


• Cadillac Records, DVD, and BluRay. This movie should be way better than it is. It had the potential to be great. Annnd... moving on...


• Giallo. Hoooo boy, I have even fewer nice things to say about this one. It makes Cadillac Records look like Citizen Kane.


• Splice is suddenly a thing. It came to Netflix in late June (2020), and was in their top 10 most streamed titles within the week. This little sci-fi thriller from 2010. I'm glad it's getting attention, as I've always felt it was a little underrated.


• Fantastic Mr. Fox is a stop-motion animated film by Wes Anderson, based on the book by Roald Dahl. Adrien has a brief cameo as a mouse who is a tailor. It's quite adorable, but lasts about 10 seconds. I have two versions of this DVD, so one is on the Adrien shelf, one is with my Wes Anderson movies.


• High School is another underrated movie. It's written off as a "stoner comedy," which it is, but it's smarter than most. Adrien plays "Psycho Ed", a local pot dealer, and kind of steals the show. Click his name to see a little page I did on him.


• Predators (DVD), and the Predator Triple Feature set (BluRay). The set features the original Predator, Predator II, and of course, Predators. To read a ridiculously detailed piece I wrote about this movie, click here (new window).


• The Experiment is one I actually had on BluRay first. For some reason, the DVD was hard to find. I finally had to buy a "lot" someone listed on eBay to get it. I kept a few of the other movies, but gave most away. I just wanted The Experiment, man. It's actually a decent movie, I just have a hard time watching it. It's intense.


• Wrecked is a movie many of us can probably relate to a bit, being in quarantine all these months. It's all about isolation and disorientation. It's just Adrien on screen most of the time. It's a good thing he's so captivating to watch.


• Detachment. This one, like The Pianist, and The Experiment, is a little intense to watch too often. It's a powerful movie about the failings of the U.S. educational system (and interpersonal relationships). Highly underrated and under-seen. I recommend it. It's very close to being Adrien's best performance.

Shelf two, part two:

• Midnight in Paris, DVD and BluRay. The toy rhinoceros ties in with that, as well. Adrien appears in a scene as Salvador Dali. His line, "I see... a rhinoceros" has become legendary, and spawned many a gif and meme. Oddly enough, this three-minute long appearance is what solidified my fan status. More about that here.


• Love, Marilyn is a documentary about Marilyn Monroe's diaries. Various actors read excerpts aloud, one of them being Adrien. It's pretty interesting, actually. This was also hard to obtain, so it's a prized item. Adrien will soon be in a movie called Blonde, playing Arthur Miller, one of Marilyn's husbands.


• Back to 1942 (DVD, and BluRay), a movie about famine in China during World War II. Adrien plays Theodore Harold White, a heroic (and very real) photojournalist who helped get aid for the starving civilians, by showing his photos to people in power.


• InAPPropriate Comedy. I put off buying this one for years. It's not a movie I was keen on having in my home, if that gives you any indication. It eventually bothered me to have the gap in my collection, so here we are. Adrien's segments as "Flirty Harry" (a gay Dirty Harry who makes double entendres) are literally the only watchable thing in this so-called movie. Word on the street is Adrien has said he regrets being in this one. He likely had no idea how offensive and/or gross the other segments would be while filming his.


• Third Person. This confusing movie that not a lot of people saw, contains one of my favorite Adrien performances. Go figure, eh? Sidenote: my favorite "love scene" he ever did is also in this movie. It's not explicit, but rather, kind of playful and tender.


• The Grand Budapest Hotel (DVD, and Criterion Edition). Another of Adrien's roles that has spawned gifs and memes by the truckload. Several people have even gotten Dmitri tattoos. This is arguably Wes Anderson's most beautiful film. There's another version with my Wes films (regular BluRay, I think).


• Houdini: DVD, BluRay, and Emmy "For Your Consideration" package sent out by The History Channel (also a DVD). The latter, I think is really cool. I scored that on eBay. Anyhoo... it was a two-night miniseries where Adrien played Harry Houdini, who was actually his childhood hero. He was nominated for an Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series of a Movie Emmy in 2015.


• American Heist is a downright terrible movie (it co-stars Hayden Christensen, so there you go). But, you know... collections.


• Dragon Blade is also a little hokey. From random singing, to John Cusack being an American-accented (and acting) Roman, and Adrien being a vaguely British-accented Roman. It's worth watching for the battle between Adrien and Jackie Chan, though.


• Backtrack (DVD, and BluRay). This "mystery thriller" movie was far better than people gave it credit for. This is a hill I will die on. Bonus: Australians praised Adrien's accent for it's authenticity, which was kind of a relief, to be honest. He's struggled with accents a time or two. I chuckled at how good the casting of his character's father was, by the way. Spot on.


• Septembers of Shiraz. To be honest, I've only seen this once so far. Adrien plays Isaac, a falsely imprisoned Iranian Jewish man in the 1970s. There is quite a bit of brutality... and quite a bit of overacting (by just about everyone, not just him). Kind of disappointing, over all.


• Breakthrough was a Nat Geo series about scientific, well, breakthroughs. Adrien narrated the episode called "Decoding the Brain." It was a fascinating show. Fun fact: He was nominated for an Emmy for his narration in 2016. Back to back nominations was pretty cool.


• Dice "For Your Consideration" package sent out by Showtime (another eBay find). Among the Emmy nominations Showtime was seeking, was one for Adrien's guest spot on Andrew Dice Clay's show Dice. Therefore, the episode is on this disc. Score. The episode, "Ego" was absolutely fantastic. I was actually very surprised he didn't get the nomination.


• Oh, Manhattan Night, I just don't know what to make of you. Are you good? Are you bad? Just "meh?" I really haven't decided. But, welcome to the shelf.


• Actually, I feel similarly about Bullet Head. Parts of it are good, some even approach greatness... but it falls kind of flat overall. The ending, though, is pretty darn good. It's better than Manhattan Night, I think.


• Air Strike is in that "so bad, it's good" category. My personal favorite scene is a man doing a classic "jump away from an explosion," while holding a piglet. I love pigs, so that's likely why I dig that. As for Adrien, it's a cameo. And you can tell he thought he was in a much better movie.

The End... for now.

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