Million Dollar Baby (2004)

 

Clint Eastwood directed, co-produced and scored the music for what may be the greatest film he’s ever been associated with. This is an incredibly powerful and moving drama.

Clint plays boxing coach Frankie, who reluctantly begins training a woman – Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) for the first time. Maggie comes from a poor background and her family is heartless and manipulative. Frankie represents the father she lacks, while Maggie fills a space in Frankie’s life caused by his estranged daughter. It seems like it’s going to be a boxing drama, but it takes on a far more personal and upsetting direction in the final third.

The writing and characterisation is brilliant, full of tenderness, compassion and nuance. 

Morgan Freeman delivers a career-best performance as Eddie Dupris, the gym assistant and a former boxer.

The Black Dahlia (2006)

Confused and confusing mess of a crime thriller based on a James Ellroy novel. You think you know where it’s going and then it becomes a different sort of film – again and again, with so many twists and turns that fatigue quickly sets in. 

The performances are hammy and one-dimensional. The “1940s” look is self-conscious and over-stylised, but also inconsistent. None of the characters engage. You end up not understanding what’s happening and not caring either.