The Upside of Anger

Pros: Allen, Costner, supporting cast, Binder as actor, writer, and director
Cons: Some story holes

Life was never ideal for the Wolfmeyer family of suburban Detroit. Terry Wolfmeyer had long suspected that her husband was cheating on her with his Swedish secretary. Her suspicions seem to be confirmed when the secretary quits to go home, and her ...

Pros: Outstanding performances
Cons: I had a dream about Kevin Costner... wait. That's a bonus!

I think Kevin Costner is one of the most under-rated actors of the last 20 years. Every role I've ever seen him in, he managed to make me really feel what his character was feeling... His role as the drunken ex-baseball star neighbor dude in ...

Pros: Joan Allen, Joan Allen, Joan Allen, Kevin Costner.
Cons: A couple of small holes.

...Joan Allen's picture should be one of the five faces on TV as we watch the Academy Awards ceremony next year. She is that good in this film. The Story This two hour movie opens with an overhead shot showing a sea of black umbrellas on a ...

Pros: decent acting, attractive girls, nice scenery
Cons: slow-moving, boring, felt pointless

When The Upside of Anger ended, I thought to myself, “Well, the book is probably better.” Alas, there is no novel that we can refer back to and rely on to fill in the gaps. The film, written and directed by Mike Binder, is confusing, boring, ...

Pros: Binder's Writing/Directing, Cinematography, Look, Score, & Cast notably Allen & Costner.
Cons: A Bit Predictable at Times.

Considered to be one of the most gifted but underrated actresses of her generation, Joan Allen has appeared in several small films like Peggy Sue Got Married and Tucker: The Man and his Dreams for Francis Ford Coppola and other films like ...

Pros: The way Binder handles his characters, especially his own.
Cons: Film is too short to fully develop the story.

I don't quite know what to say about Mike Binder. His creative instincts brought forth such gems such as 'The Sex Monster', 'Blankman', and the TV series 'Mind of the Married Man'. As an actor, he has a singularly repulsive screen presence that is ...

Pros: Kevin Costner’s best movie in years
Cons: Few

Before I jump into my review, I want to be clear… I’m not really a fan of Kevin Costner. The last movie of his that I was really excited about was No Way Out, but that was more the story than his performance. Despite his status as a ...

Pros: Joan Allen, Joan Allen, and three times Joan Allen; Costner
Cons: Very derivative

"A case in point in anger's ability to change us is my mother," Popeye Wolfmeyer (Evan Rachel Wood), the youngest of the Wolfmeyer girls, narrates at the beginning of THE UPSIDE OF ANGER. "Anger has turned my mother into a very sad and bitter woman," her ...

Pros: Mildly entertaining
Cons: Average stuff: trite and predictable dialogs and situations

I realize I had not been at the movies since mid-December. With films like Sideways being nominated for Oscars, one cannot be too positive about the general quality of Hollywood's products. As my first movie of the year I picked, by the mechanism ...

Pros: Good cast, Kevin Costner at his most appealing.
Cons: Wasted the good cast with a poor script, unlikeable characters

Joan Allen plays a woman with three teen-aged daughters and one finishing college. We learn that her husband has recently left her and we witness how she copes by drinking and neglecting her children. She becomes reacquainted with her neighbor, played by ...

Pros: Kevin Costner is handsome.
Cons: Everything else about this movie was a negative.

Wow... with Kevin Costner starring, I expected something completely different. The plot was weird and depressing and immoral. It was full of mouthy people and bad behavior. Had I been by myself, I would've turned the movie off after about 15 minutes; but I was with a group of women with varying opinions as we watched. In the end, though, we all agreed that it was one of the worst movies we'd ever seen.