150 Word Review: 'Juror #2' (2024)
Peer pressure
Clint Eastwood is 94 years young, and Juror #2 is believed to be the iconic actor and director's last movie. For fun, I chose not to believe that. Juror #2 is sturdy filmmaking, a twisty legal thriller starring actors playing flawed characters grappling with morally complex issues. Nothing too fancy. My first thought watching this was, "How old-fashioned." And then: "I wish stories about our justice system that ask basic questions about what is right or wrong were fashionable."
Nicholas Hoult is juror #2—a writer roped into a murder case. The facts: A couple fights at a bar. The man is violent; the woman storms away into the darkness and rain. She ends up dead. Is he guilty? Hoult's character says no, and the reason why drives Eastwood's look at civic duty. Is this as good as the classic courtroom drama 12 Angry Men? No. But it's riveting nonetheless.
We'll miss him when he's gone. Bird is the best music biopic I've seen, and by God I've seen a few.
It felt like a good 90s movie, a cousin of Grisham.