Mark it: 2018 will go down as the year we achieved peak Ethan Hawke.
And this week, he delivers again.
Twice, in fact.
Credit: IFC Films
If Foleys name doesnt ring any bells, youre not alone.
The Austin-based singer-songwriter found little commercial success in his too-short lifetime.
Like the real-life Foley, theyre storytellers and yarn spinners first and foremost, fame and fortune be damned.
As a director (this is his fourth feature), Hawke has an unerring eye for casting.
He matches the right actors with the right parts, which is harder than it sounds.
And hes a real revelation.
Stardom wasnt what he was after.
He was more interested in opening his emotional veins to reveal something more true.
Foleys story isnt exactly a pleasant one.
He could be difficult.
There were drugs and dust-ups and self-destructive outbursts.
He seemed constitutionally incapable of not blowing any big break that came in his radius.
But Hawke wants to show us the warts-and-all side of an unsung genius.
If that framing equipment feels a little too familiar, well, it mostly works.
And its one of the few cliches Hawke leans on in this otherwise original film.
