Let that sink in a minute. JOEL FREAKING SCHUMACHER!!!!!
Joel is a writer, director AND producer with an UNBELIEVABLE portfolio, especially for us eighties and nineties kids – he’s worked with our idols like Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Spacey, Cate Blanchett, Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Samuel L. Jackson, Sandra Bullock, Jim Carrey, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon … THE LIST GOES ON AND IT IS PHENOMENAL!!! What’s more, Joel is showing how relevant and ahead of the game he still is joining the Netflix / On Demand TV revolution with HOUSE OF CARDS.
Joel just keeps churning it out! This is one guy you GOTTA hear speak at LSF. I love Joel’s in-your-face directing style that can be fun and flagrant, yet also dark and thought provoking; he’s a really versatile filmmaker and I for one CANNOT WAIT to see him.
Here are 7 of **my** favourite movies he’s helmed:
PHONE BOOTH (2002, director)
The contained thriller has never been cooler in the past three or four years thanks to BURIED, but it was over ten years ago Joel and his team were showing how it was done with this story with a strong moral message about how NOT to treat people (unless you want Kiefer Sutherland to teach you a lesson!).
FLAWLESS (1999, writer/director)
One of my favourite performances of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, this cult gem also features Robert de Niro as a homophobic cop who suffers a debilitating stroke, yet ends up getting singing lessons as part of his rehabilitation programme with the Drag , Queen next door. Make sure you get a copy and watch it before LondonSWF: what’s that, you can’t find it?? “’CAN’T’ LIVES ON ‘WON’T’ STREET”, as Rusty Zimmerman would say!
A TIME TO KILL (1996, director)
Another adaptation of the bestselling John Grisham novel (Schumacher had already done 1990s uber-writer Grisham in 1994 with THE CLIENT), this film sticks in my mind not only because of its dream cast – Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson – but an arresting performance by a young Matthew McConaughey, long before his Man-Candy and Hero-For-Hire roles, showing Schumacher was able to draw that out of him long before McConnahayhay’s Oscar Winning performance in DALLAS BUYERS’ CLUB (2013).
BATMAN FOREVER (1995, director)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Nolan lovers – kiss my ***! Batman is not supposed to be serious as this incarnation of the franchise shows … with not one, but TWO flagrant and ridiculous baddies in the form of Jim Carrey as The Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey TwoFace. YOU SUNK MY BATTLESHIP!!
FALLING DOWN (1993, director)
Michael Douglas was riding high (snarf) after BASIC INSTINCT and he knocked it out of the park with a great performance in Schumacher’s story of antihero who totally LOSES IT. As someone with rage issues myself, Bill is my psychotic poster boy – I mean literally too, there’s a pic of him over my desk: “And now you’re gonna die, wearing that stupid little hat. How does it feel?”
FLATLINERS (1990, director)
As an 80s kid obsessed with the so-called “Brat Pack” actors, Flatliners boasts probably my fave ensemble cast, EVER: Roberts, Sutherland, Baldwin and Bacon?? UM, YES PLEASE. Add a fantastic premise, some brilliant imagery – anyone ever look at a hockey stick the same way again??? – and you got a surefire HIT (arf).
THE LOST BOYS (1987, director)
There’s no way of counting the awesome in this movie, so let’s just remember this quote and bask in the genius of the scene it was delivered:
“My own brother, a goddamn ****-sucking vampire. You wait ’til Mom finds out, buddy!”
So get in that room with Joel Schumacher. Come early. Maybe bring a Bazooka. You might need it.
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Posted by a member of the London Screenwriters’ Festival team.
