Stations I admit to thinking the Deadpool experiments are offensive. They have introspection of the kind I study, but it is one-dimensional and the humour doesn’t justify the sacrifice of self-aware sophistication. But this folds in the best parts of ‘Pulp Fiction’, and I find it superior in many ways. I find Tarantino’s literal quotes… Continue reading Bullet Train (2022)
Month: September 2022
Trents Last Case (1952)
Hidden This should be a superb movie in the mystery tradition. It has a truly complex plot that has several reveals, and a suitably Holmes-like detective. The problem is that we see the detective working things out like a Poirot would. But we learn absolutely nothing until the end. So I cannot recommend it on… Continue reading Trents Last Case (1952)
Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
Ancient Chase DNA What I find curious is how franchises become more ordinary over time. This is far from an original observation in terms of world construction and story. It makes sense to reuse these, because that defines the franchise. So we get the same basic world, same bad guys and situations (here amplified a… Continue reading Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
The Man Without a Map (1968)
Life as Navigation Everyone has an anchor when they enter a film. With a little exposure to world cinema, that anchor for each film is rooted in the tradition you select from that culture. This is a personal choice, made long before you encounter the film. Quite possibly, no national cinematic tradition offers a starker… Continue reading The Man Without a Map (1968)
The Equalizer (2014)
Tattoo Signals Standard fare: good guy is endowed with superhuman killing capability, presumably used in the past for what the Agency thought was good. In simple retirement, he is drawn by his sheer goodness into massive, efficient elimination of the bad guys. There isn’t much else to this. What’s interesting here are three stereotypes that… Continue reading The Equalizer (2014)
In Bruges (2008)
The Setup There are a lot of writerly things going on with this script. Most of them are standard devices. Almost too standard. But there is something I noticed. The spoiler here is that the story takes over by the very end and the structure of the story forces the characters to knowingly act as… Continue reading In Bruges (2008)
Mifune The Last Samurai (2015)
Cut Vision is the strangest thing. If we see too much of something we believe it less. Stories are like this; the things that are left out can carry the agency more powerfully, and often the missing is referenced by the obvious. I like filmmakers that understand this. Scorsese is all about the lead actor.… Continue reading Mifune The Last Samurai (2015)
Goldstone (2016)
Less Lessons The shape of this is ordinary. The forces at work are familiar: big company, coopted locals, indigenous victims. It happens to be well crafted, so is better in quality than most. But it has two features that endear it, at least to me. It has the desolate outback of Western Australia. This is… Continue reading Goldstone (2016)
I Am Cuba (1964)
Sculpted Spatial Force Is this the best film ever made? For me today in its afterglow it is. I’m so fickle. I think if all else were equal, I’ll always take embodied, real cinema that is coherently integrated. The way of telling the story is ideally complex and folded, using tricks to make the story… Continue reading I Am Cuba (1964)
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
The Game I’ve enjoyed the series in spite of itself. When it started, it had three things going for it: a general stylishness, some original fight choreography, and a novel world’s cosmology. The first two have since been bested, including films with Keanu. We still have the cosmology, the world. That’s what you build your… Continue reading The Matrix Resurrections (2021)