Scott Cooper – All Movies

Scott Cooper is a successful actor who spent over a decade in the movie industry. During his acting career, he appeared in various movies and TV shows. As many actors do, he eventually switched to directing his own movies. For now, he has a total of four movies as well as one scheduled to be released in 2024. He was nominated for the most promising director at CFCA Award for his work on „Crazy Heart“. This list will serve as an overview of all movies he directed so far. Please beware as this list may include some small plot spoilers.

Black Mass (2015)

Based on a true story, this movie follows a notorious gang leader James “Whitey” Bulger through his journey in taking down the Mafia invading the north of his city. It is a rather absorbing tale of a man rising to power, entangled with interesting yet realistic characters. Johnny Depp’s raw performance really brings the character of Whitey to life in all of its complexity and uniqueness.

This movie offers a much needed fresh perspective to the gangster movie genre. It’s engaging, interesting, and beautifully filmed. It was well-received by the critics and grossed a total of 99.8 million dollars. Even so, real people whose lives this movie was based on weren’t particularly satisfied with it, and Mr. Bulger himself actually refused to even see it. Nonetheless, it still is a captivating, entertaining story, and most definitely a worthwhile watch.

Main cast:

-Johnny Depp as James “Whitey” Bulger

-Joel Edgerton as John Connolly

-Benedict Cumberbatch as William “Billy” Bulger

-Rory Cochrane as Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi

-Kevin Bacon as Charles McGuire

-Jesse Plemons as Kevin Weeks

-Peter Sarsgaard as Brian Halloran

-Dakota Johnson as Lindsey Cyr

Crazy Heart (2009)

Scott Cooper’s debut movie is a realistic tale that explores the important questions of love, life, and human nature. It tells the story of a former country star whose life is on a constant downward spiral. He meets a young journalist who wishes to interview him and with whom he soon forms a deep bond with. His self-destructive ways soon bring him on a verge of losing what has now become the only silver-lining in his life.

Adapted from the Thomas Cobb novel of the same name, this movie is a heartfelt story of repentance and finding the way to feel happiness after everything seems lost. A familiar, relatable story with a bitter-sweet ending, it sure has a lot going on for it.

It was praised by both the critics and the public, and it managed to gross 47 million dollars, exceeding its budget by a whole 40 million dollars. And speaking of Cooper, he even has his fan club – Scott Cooper Miami Fan Club.

Main cast:

-Jeff Bridges as Otis “Bad” Blake

-Maggie Gyllenhaal as Jean Craddock

-Colin Farrell as Tommy Sweet

-Robert Duvall as Wayne Kramer

-Paul Herman as Jack Greene

-Jack Nation as Buddy, Jean’s son

Out of the Furnance (2013)

This movie tells the story of two brothers Russel and Rodney Baze who find themselves in a horrible situation. Russel, the older brother played by Christian Bale, ends up going to jail for something that wasn’t even his fault. By the time he gets out, after experiencing all the hardships of prison, his family is completely in ruins. His father is dead, the woman he loves moved on with another man, and his younger brother’s life is a complete mess. Russel will try everything to save his little brother who messed with the wrong crowd.

This movie is very intense, incredibly sad at times, but also interesting. It got a lot of mixed reviews, while some praised it, some found it very confusing and unclear. It grossed 15.7 million dollars while it had a 22 million dollar budget. Even though it was not a great commercial success, it still managed to get some critical recognition by appearing on various top 10 movies of the year lists.

Cast:

-Christian Bale as Russell Baze

-Woody Harrelson as Harlan DeGroat

-Casey Affleck as Rodney Baze, Jr.

-Forest Whitaker as Wesley Barnes

-Willem Dafoe as John Petty

-Tom Bower as Dan Dugan

Hostiles

Christian Bale acts as the United States cavalry captain Joseph Blocker, who spent most of his life in war with Native American people. He is tasked with escorting a Cheyenne chief named Yellow Hawk back to his home to die. Joseph is of course completely disgusted at the whole ordeal, since he is an Indian War veteran who hates the natives with a burning passion. This lengthy journey explores the nature of human hatred, while at the same time representing a man’s redemption story. It gives us an interesting perspective on war, politics, intolerance, and bigotry. Where do they come from? Is hatred natural or learned? These are all the important questions that the movie tries to answer. Of course, don’t expect the answer to be black or white, as life is much more complex than that.

This movie received very positive reviews from the critics, and it was also very well received by the public. It grossed 39 million dollars and was nominated for several awards. The casting choices in this movie were perfect, and the scenario has truly let the actors shine.

Main cast:

-Christian Bale as Captain Joseph J. Blocker, a veteran of the Indian Wars.

-Rosamund Pike as Rosalee Quaid,

-Wes Studi as Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk

-Jesse Plemons as Lieutenant Rudy Kidder

-Adam Beach as Black Hawk.

-Rory Cochrane as First Sergeant Thomas Metz

-Peter Mullan as Lieutenant Colonel Ross McCowan

Antlers (2024)

This upcoming Scott Cooper movie will be a horror story about a teacher who has a student keeping a rather chilling secret.

It was supposed to be out in theaters this year, but the global COVID19 pandemic had it postponed until 2024.

Cast:

-Keri Russell as Julia Meadows

-Katelyn Peterson as young Julia Meadows

-Jesse Plemons as Paul Meadows

-Jeremy T. Thomas as Lucas Weaver

-Graham Greene as Warren Stokes

-Scott Haze as Frank Weaver

-Rory Cochrane as Dan Lecroy

-Amy Madigan as Principal Booth

-Cody Davis as Clint