{"id":34882,"date":"2024-01-04T09:58:24","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T14:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=34882"},"modified":"2024-01-04T09:58:24","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T14:58:24","slug":"finestkind-2023-written-directed-by-brian-helgeland-starring-ben-foster-toby-wallace-jenna-ortega-tommy-lee-jones-z-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=34882","title":{"rendered":"“Finestkind” (2023) written & directed by Brian Helgeland, starring Ben Foster, Toby Wallace, Jenna Ortega & Tommy Lee Jones \/ Z-View"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Finestkind <\/strong><\/em>(2023)<\/p>\n

Director:\u00a0 Brian Helgeland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Screenplay: Brian Helgeland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stars: Ben Foster<\/strong>, Toby Wallace, Jenna Ortega, Tommy Lee Jones, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Lolita Davidovich, Clayne Crawford, Meghan Leathers, Celeste Oliva <\/strong>and Tim Daly.<\/strong>
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Tagline: None.<\/p>\n

The Plot\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Charlie (Wallace) and Tom (Foster) are half-brothers.\u00a0 They have the same mother, but different fathers.\u00a0 Because of this, they come from opposite worlds.\u00a0 Charlie’s father is a rich attorney.\u00a0 Tom’s dad is a working class fisherman.\u00a0 At one time Charlie and Tom had a great relationship. But they drifted apart.<\/p>\n

Now that Charlie’s graduated college he wants to spend the summer fishing with Tom.\u00a0 Despite some bad luck at first, Charlie’s summer is looking up.\u00a0 He and Mabel (Ortiz) have hit it off.\u00a0 Tom and his fishing crew have accepted him.\u00a0 Now if Tom and his dad could just patch up their differences.\u00a0 Things go sideways when Tom gets greedy.<\/p>\n

Really sideways.\u00a0 Losing Tom’s dad’s boat bad.<\/p>\n

So they decide to do a “one-time” drug deal.\u00a0 What they don’t know is that someone has a plan of their own.\u00a0 One that will lead to betrayal and murders.<\/p>\n

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m a Brian Helgeland fan.\u00a0 As a writer we can thank him for L.A. Confidential, Man on Fire, Mystic River,<\/em> Assassins, Payback<\/em> and more.\u00a0 He also directed films such as Payback<\/em> and 42<\/em>.\u00a0 With Finestkind<\/em>, Helgeland served as both screenwriter and director.<\/p>\n

Finestkind<\/em> doesn’t follow the typical Hollywood screenplay format.\u00a0 Some reviewers have complained that Finestkind<\/em> can’t decide if it’s a family drama or a crime story.\u00a0 I find that a silly complaint. The guy who wrote it, directed it.\u00a0 He knew exactly what he wanted, a family drama that involves a crime story.\u00a0 Others have nitpicked that the movie takes too long to get to the crime, twists and action.\u00a0 I like that Finestkind<\/em> doesn’t follow the expected movie timeline.<\/p>\n

Helgeland takes his time.\u00a0 \u00a0We come to understand the characters, their lives and the choices they’ve made. Helgeland is supported by an excellent cast.\u00a0 Tommy Lee Jones is always great and I’d put his performance here near the top of his resume.\u00a0 Ben Foster always delivers.\u00a0 Jenna Ortega is a powerhouse.\u00a0 The camera and audiences love her.\u00a0 With good reason.\u00a0 Toby Wallace is new to me, but I’ll be watching for his future films.\u00a0 Kudos to Clayne Crawford for a smaller but important role.\u00a0 He nails it.<\/p>\n

Finestkind <\/strong><\/em>(2023) earns 4 of 5 stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Finestkind (2023) Director:\u00a0 Brian Helgeland Screenplay: Brian Helgeland Stars: Ben Foster, Toby Wallace, Jenna Ortega, Tommy Lee Jones, Ismael Cruz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,51,54,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-crime","category-movies","category-z-view"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34949,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34882\/revisions\/34949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}