J.Edgar

Shit, I did a DiCaprio movie last time?
Fuck it, here we go.

J. Edgar. Don't worry, no spoilers.
Hoover was a repressed gay, died half naked on the floor, and had thousands of pages of important confidential information destroyed when he died.

Ok, all-the-spoilers, but really, you should know better than to expect courtesies from me.

Now that that's over with, here's the dirt.

DiCaprio was stellar as Hoover; as young Hoover, old Hoover, and every horrible little man in between.
Hammer (Armie) was as convincing as a young Tolson, but the makeup threw me off as an old man. I don't know what they did wrong, but it was just never convincing. It always looked like a young man in old man makeup. Gandy was convincing.
What took me about Hoover was obviously his unending arrogance. The man stole Bobby Kennedy's fireplace for pete's sake.
what I really enjoyed was the way the entire experience had me convinced that being an arrogant, single minded, self-serving prick could really pay off if you were persistent enough about it. Turns out you also have to be mildly to moderately delusional.
It almost occurs to me that the portrayal of Hoover is impossibly arrogant, that the real Hoover couldn't possibly have done that. I suppose I could be wrong, but then Eastwood seems a little arrogant to me too, so I suppose his villain had to seem arrogant even by comparison.

The story was either brilliantly non-linear or an abandonment of storytelling to highlight the percieved character flaws of a highly conflicted man. I can't decide.

Either way, the movie was long as balls but I didn't mind. Visually soothing, which I appreciated; and engaging. I definitely recommend.

again... not doing a movies of the week on Leo.... so suck it.