Warm Evenings

From the outset, death is an indelible, omnipresent character in “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”  — a silent supporting actor that both propels the movie forward and charges it with a current of tangible urgency.  An urgency that was never truly capitalized by the filmmakers.

Get the full take here.

The irony of Mallory Kane’s statement early in “Haywire” that she “doesn’t like loose ends” never registers until the credits roll more than an hour later. As the theater goes black and you see Steven Soderbergh’s name plastered on the screen, that gestating nugget comes full-circle: “Haywire” is one long fluttering loose end.

Conceptually, the movie is a sort of Jason Bourne meets Ocean 11. Soderbergh juxtaposes hepcat suspense music against a backdrop of covert action that not only eliminates “real sound” but acts as a postmodern wink at the suave origins of the espionage thriller. We get the soundtrack to Bond, but the ferocity of “Taken.”

Treated right, the disparity can make a film more tangible for an audience, welcoming them into the fold of un-reality while simultaneously allowing the brutal authenticity of the situations to flower.

“Haywire,” however, is maltreated, falling in neither circles of this imaginary Venn diagram.

Read the full take here.

Contraband doesn’t worry itself with build up or rising action. It jumps right into the thick of things. It’s third base with out a dinner date.  And I wish that was a compliment.

The purpose? A misguided hope that brevity and speed confuse viewers enough to realize they’re missing out on serious narrative foreplay.

Get the full take here.

I have a serious penchant for the work of John le Carre.  I honestly expected to be disappointed with the latest cinematic adaptation of his classic novel.  I was not.  And I’m glad for that.

You can get my full, though disjointed, take here.

Why shouldn’t one see War Horse?  In the words of Barry from High Fidelity, “it’s sentimental tacky crap, that’s why.”  Check out the full take here.