Aaron Sorkin’s bombastic “Trial of the Chicago 7” screened for press last night. The Twitter reactions were mostly positive, some flat-out raves, mostly from Oscar pundits who are currently very hungry for contenders to emerge in such a lame duck year.
Reviews are embargoed until tomorrow, so don’t consider this a “review,” but I did signal out on social media Mark Rylance, Frank Langella and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the film’s best performances, whenever they are onscreen, the movie is nothing short of gripping. Most of those scenes take place inside a courtroom. Some of the bigger name actors are, unfortunately, miscast - especially Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, and Eddie Redmayne.
This is only Sorkin’s second directing job after his strong 2017 debut “Molly’s Game” and he has definitely refined his chops, opting for a more sweeping approach here, the slickness displayed in ‘Molly’ is still very apparent, but this new one is an unfortunate example of ‘90s Oscar Bait. The direction in ‘Trial’ is efficient, but very glossy and the writing is precise, but maybe a little too precise.
“Trial of the Chicago 7” was tailor-made for the boomer crowd, more specifically, the token Oscar voter, not necessarily a bad thing, but you know exactly what you’re going to get here; over-the-top monologues, speechifying, preachiness, combustibly emotional moments and, of course, a rousing finale in the courtroom - it’s all there, and Sorkin milks every moment to the nth degree. One realizes quickly that he hasn’t necessarily left his ‘90s politi-drama roots at all, this is very much a movie made by the guy behind “The West Wing, “The American President” and, of course, “A Few Good Men.”