Juror #2

While every one else around me was watching holiday films, I curled up with Clint Eastwood's Juror #2...

I remember when substitute teachers would wheel a television into the classroom when all else failed. One of the go-to films they’d play was 12 Angry Men, a McCarthy-era story about jurors deliberating over a murder conviction, but really a portrait of divided America in that moment. Clint Eastwood astutely sees a parallel between that era and the one we’re currently living in and while this isn’t promoted as a reboot of 12 Angry Men, it absolutely is.

From the moment it begins, you see Clint Eastwood’s fingerprints on the film casting Nicholas Hoult then subsequently putting him in a blazer that looks like it was purchased from Walmart. It makes sense because Clint Eastwood’s audience grew up watching Dirty Harry and probably bought their grandchildren AR-15s for Christmas from Walmart.