Director Clint Eastwood at age eighty-nine does not show retirement nor old age when making one of his best movies in years, “Richard Jewell”, a movie of Eastwood’s that isn’t the film you get from him that often. It is required as a crime to refuse to see this motion picture.

Paul Walter Hauser plays the title character of Richard Jewell, whom works as an security guard at a college. However, when his dean notices that he is acting outside his control, he chooses to fire him after his actions. Jewell then chooses to be a security guard for the 1996 Olympic ceremony at Centennial Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

Richard notices during the ceremony that there is a bomb under a bench and that makes him obey the crew to hesitate the ceremony completely because of the explosives he found. The explosives killed two people and injure under a hundred of others.

Now the general public views him as a hero while the FBI perceives him as a possible suspect of the explosives. Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell), his attorney (and also boss of his former public law firm job) and Jewell then start to rebel the FBI that he is a heroic person after all.

It is a shame that movies like “Richard Jewell” are ignored by many audiences (due to them not in touch with the event) that can make the film’s campaign worse like an infectious wound.

Not since 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby” have I seen Eastwood illustrate such a poetic and moving movie that stays with you after the last frame.

It is truly surreal.

This is also one of the most transformative biopics I have seen in a very long time making you feel like you are in Jewell’s own perspective in a non-campy, believable execution.

Paul Walter Hauser is PERFECT as Richard Jewell and even is a look-alike of him. It is one of those detailed character studies where you don’t see the actor, but see the wrongfully accused suspect himself and what he is going through. It is one of those performances that The Academy will overlook in the most harmful way possible. No disrespect to Joaquin Phoenix of course. The way he cautions people to stay away from the bombing chaos at Centennial Park might make Hauser one of the next greatest actors working today along with Kelvin Harrison, Jr.

In my reviews, I have been saying this a lot lately in 2019 because the Oscars sometimes focus on nominating a gender reversed “Driving Miss Daisy” film that something special like “Richard Jewell”.

His relationship with attorney Watson Bryant played by Sam Rockwell is absolutely interesting to watch as they develop their rebellious stages towards the FBI. Sam Rockwell plays a character whom plays as an assistive person of Jewell’s case and also plays as a friend where he cares for Jewell’s life to not be in ruins.

If people say that Jon Hamm as FBI Agent Tom Shaw gives an intimidating A-game performance, then they most focus on arguably Kathy Bates’ best performance as Jewell’s mother Bobi. This is a brilliant, reminiscent portrayal of a mother that truly cares for his son’s dear life. Her relationship with Jewell feels like an important arc to the story.

Like last year in 2018 with “The Hate U Give”, “Richard Jewell” is a serious contender for the most love-to-hate movie of 2019. You want to throw rotten, grotesque green tomatoes at the FBI for how they treated Richard Jewell throughout these six nightmarish years. What makes audiences love-to-hate the movie even more is Olivia Wilde’s performance as newspaper publisher Kathy Scruggs. I will never understand the “controversy” to this portrayal of the publisher because I will always watch a film by face value. Wilde plays a woman whom is toxic to Jewell’s life one way or another.

Joel Cox, long time editor for many of Clint Eastwood’s films, makes this film go by incredibly fast because of making audiences interested in this compelling story.

Clint Eastwood is one of America’s last living golden age Hollywood directors and we should be proud that he handled “Richard Jewell” to perfection. This is moving, magnificent American film making at its finest that everyone should not ignore.

With masterpieces like “Joker”, “Waves”, “Jojo Rabbit”, and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”, this third act of 2019 for movies has created the true decade swan-song to say the least.

Grade: 10/10