Sort by
Listing Movies
Display Movies
Alibi Mark (1937)
Filmmaker(s): Joseph Henabery

When an out-of-work Chicagoan travels west as a hobo on a freight train, he finds himself falsely accused of murder.

Signs of Trauma, Film as Meal Wow, what a strange film. My interest in these comments is in the qualities of introspection: where the viewer is placed in the narrative and how different layers of that stance are manipulated. The CCC, as duly described in this...


Published October 2, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
Bullet Train (2022)
The end of the line is just the beginning.
Filmmaker(s): David Leitch

Unlucky assassin Ladybug is determined to do his job peacefully after one too many gigs gone off the rails. Fate, however, may have other plans, as Ladybug's latest mission puts him on a collision course with lethal adversaries from around the globe—all with connected, yet conflicting, objectives—on the world's fastest train.

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...


Published September 30, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
Trents Last Case (1952)
A Woman's Kiss That Killed
Filmmaker(s): Herbert Wilcox

When a wealthy business man is found dead reporter Philip Trent is sent to investigate. Against the police conclusions, he suspects the assumed suicide is really a murder, and becomes highly interested in the young widow and the dead man's private secretary.

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...


Published September 30, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
The epic conclusion of the Jurassic era.
Filmmaker(s): Colin Trevorrow

Four years after Isla Nublar was destroyed, dinosaurs now live—and hunt—alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators ona planet they now share with history's most fearsome creatures.

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...


Published September 30, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Ones |
Tagged: , ,
The Man Without a Map (1968)
Filmmaker(s): Hiroshi Teshigahara

A private detective is hired to find a missing man by his wife. While his search is unsuccessful, the detective's own life begins to resemble the man for whom he is searching.

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....


Published September 30, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
The Equalizer (2014)
What do you see when you look at me?
Filmmaker(s): Antoine Fuqua

McCall believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets Teri, a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can’t stand idly by – he has to help her. Armed with hidden skills that allow him to serve vengeance against anyone who would brutalize the helpless, McCall comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have nowhere else to turn, McCall will help. He is The Equalizer.

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...


Published September 30, 2022
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
In Bruges (2008)
Shoot first. Sightsee later.
Filmmaker(s): Martin McDonagh

Ray and Ken, two hit men, are in Bruges, Belgium, waiting for their next mission. While they are there they have time to think and discuss their previous assignment. When the mission is revealed to Ken, it is not what he expected.

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...


Published September 23, 2022
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
Mifune The Last Samurai (2015)
A documentary about Toshirō Mifune
Filmmaker(s): Steven Okazaki

An account of the life and work of legendary Japanese actor Toshirō Mifune (1920-97), the most prominent actor of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema.

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...


Published September 22, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
Goldstone (2016)
Where worlds collide.
Filmmaker(s): Ivan Sen

Indigenous Detective Jay Swan arrives in the frontier town of Goldstone on a missing persons inquiry. What seems like a simple investigation unearths an intricate web of crime, corruption, human trafficking, and coordinated exploitation of indigenous people’s land. Jay must bury his differences with young local cop Josh, so together they can bring justice to Goldstone.

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...


Published September 21, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
I Am Cuba (1964)
Filmmaker(s): Mikhail Kalatozov

Four vignettes about the lives of the Cuban people set during the pre-revolutionary era.

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...


Published September 21, 2022
| Categorised as Fours, IMDB Comments |
Tagged: , ,
preloader image