J. Edgar
J. Edgar ping pongs between the career dawning and twilight of the legendary J. Edgar Hoover, bookends distinguishable by the rolling hairline and jowls sported by Leonardo Dicaprio (excelling as usual in the lead role). Interim details are filled in by the dictates of Hoover to his hand picked biographer to flesh out a career that lasted through a litany of 20th century presidents most of whom wanted him gone but backed down when they realized they were embarrassingly caught up in the thorough scope of Hoover’s not always legal investigations –all of which stayed safeguarded for decades with his trusted personal Secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts). Paradoxical peccadilloes abound – this macho top cop was a cross dressing mama’s boy who lived in denial of his homosexuality but could not deny his attraction to Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer) the man he hired to be his second in command despite a complete lack of qualifications save for a fabulous fashion sense. Also undenied is Hoover’s contribution to law enforcement investigation pathology which was nonexistent when he took over the bureau but became a juggernaut under his administration, initiated by the Lindbergh kidnapping but getting most of its traction due to Hoover’s paranoia about communism. J. Edgar is an expansive expansion by director Clint Eastwood of what we know by hearsay and history of the freaky guy who headed the FBI for some fifty years – yet not in an unsympathetic way.