{"id":147239,"date":"2025-09-10T19:33:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T19:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/147239\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T19:33:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T19:33:06","slug":"scott-glenn-soars-in-an-uneven-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/147239\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Glenn Soars in an Uneven Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIf you stay for the end credits of the new film starring Scott Glenn<\/a>, you\u2019ll see this message: \u201cThis film owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the films of Dario Argento, John Hughes, and Tony Scott.\u201d If you\u2019re wondering what the work of those directors has in common, the answer is, not much. But it signifies the eclectic stylizations of Hank Bedford\u2019s film, receiving its world premiere at the Oldenburg International Film Festival<\/a>. While not everything about Eugene the Marine proves successful or even coherent, it\u2019s audaciously original enough to merit attention. And it gives Glenn, who reminded us of his greatness in the most recent season of The White Lotus<\/a>, his best starring role in many years.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 86-year-old actor, a former Marine himself (his face should be on recruitment posters), plays the title role of Eugene, who lives alone in his spacious old house with his wife\u2019s ashes on the fireplace mantel. His hostile son Andrew (Jeremy Bobb) wants him to sell the house and even enlists a smarmy real-estate agent (Jim Gaffigan<\/a>) to show his father an assisted-living facility. But the proud Eugene will not hear of it. Even when he hears mysterious noises coming from inside the walls and starts drilling holes to investigate.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEugene the Marine\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tA great performance in an uneven film.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tVenue: Oldenburg International Film Festival
Cast: Scott Glenn, Jim Gaffigan, Annette O’Toole, Shioli Kutsuna, Jeremy Bobb, Delaney Quinn
Director: Hank Bedford
Screenwriters: Hank Bedford, Cesare Gagliardoni
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1 hour 28 minutes\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tTrue to his former military vocation, Eugene lives a regimented life, his days mapped out in hourly increments on his calendar, including time devoted to working out, gardening and playing Sudoku. He also dotes on his granddaughter Becca (Delaney Quinn), even honoring her request to Zoom by purchasing a new computer on which he learns how to navigate Facebook.<\/p>\n

\n\tSoon Eugene is coming out of his shell and making new, much younger friends, including a friendly computer salesperson (Shioli Kutsuna) and a spacey barista (Charley Ferguson), and, thanks to social media, reuniting with an old friend, Frances (the always welcome Annette O\u2019Toole), who soon becomes a romantic interest.<\/p>\n

\n\tThroughout the early, character-developing scenes, the filmmaker throws in nightmarish visual and aural flourishes, leaving us guessing as to their meaning. And then those surreal moments become reality when several of the people with whom Eugene has come into contact, including the guests at a freewheeling party he uncharacteristically throws, are brutally murdered.<\/p>\n

\n\tBedford (Dixieland), who shot in 16mm, utilizes a variety of vintage cinematic devices including split screens and old-fashioned wipes between scenes, giving the film a distinctly nostalgic, horror-film vibe. That\u2019s particularly true in the bonkers final act, which among other things provides the opportunity for Gaffigan to dance maniacally to Lady Antebellum\u2019s hit \u201cNeed You Now\u201d (one of many fun needle drops, which also include Don Gibson\u2019s \u201cSea of Heartbreak\u201d during a jaunty montage and classical selections when Eugene shadow-boxes like De Niro in Raging Bull<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n\tBut for all of the director\u2019s love of old-school horror, the low-budget Eugene the Marine is far more effective as a character study than a genre film. That\u2019s largely due to the terrific performance by Glenn, to whom Eugene the Marine is a sort of homage. Whether shown vigorously doing push-ups (the elderly actor is still in tremendous shape) or in tender moments with O\u2019Toole that remind us that sensuality needn\u2019t diminish with age, Glenn owns the film from first moment to last, investing his crusty character with dignity and subtle humor.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am a dinosaur,\u201d Eugene tells the salesperson when she asks about his familiarity with tech. The same definitely can\u2019t be said of Glenn when he\u2019s still delivering such nuanced, compelling work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you stay for the end credits of the new film starring Scott Glenn, you\u2019ll see this message:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[91167,88,91168,206,91169,91170],"class_list":["post-147239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-annette-otoole","tag-entertainment","tag-jim-gaffigan","tag-movies","tag-oldenburg-international-film-festival","tag-scott-glenn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}