A very good movie

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back and since it was available on Disney+, I thought I might as well check it out again. To be honest, if there is one musical genre with which I don't feel any connection whatsoever, that would be definitely Country. Still, even though I don't like the genre, Johnny Cash remains a very intriguing figure and he has made some pretty bad-ass songs. The fact that I didn't know much about Cash made the whole thing even more appealing to me. Eventually, it was a typical directing effort from James Mangold who is not a very bad director but he is definitely not a real artist either so the end-result was a solid but still rather generic biopic though. And yet, I really enjoyed the damned thing. The first reason was that Johnny Cash was such an interesting character, at least, the way he was portrayed in this movie. Indeed, he was so full of insecurity and had such low self-esteem, I could really identify with him. The other reason was that, 20 years ago and 15 years before he would finally get his first Academy Award, Joaquin Phoenix was already displaying that he was one of the best actors of his generation. It was just really cool to see him taking such a generic genre as the biopic and deliver something so heartfelt. The funny thing was that he did not look at all like Johnny Cash. Sure, at the time, he lost against Philip Seymour Hoffman in ‘Capote’ but both of them were some acting giants at the top of their game so you won’t hear me complaining. Concerning Reese Whiterspoon, I do think she did get seriously upstaged by Phoenix (who wouldn’t be?) but I have to agree that she was really good and it was easily one of the best performances of her career. So, the movie focused on the romance between Johnny Cash and June Carter which was fine but they made it look like as if Cash did got clean for her when, in fact, he actually kept using drugs through most of his life. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was far from being really original, I really liked the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

8/10