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No Sudden Move (2021)

Steven Soderbergh is reliable. Around 2011 he made a movie called Haywire, a relatively simple spy action thriller centered around MMA star Gina Carano, and during the publicity of that movie Soderbergh waged war on the "shaky camera" aesthetic or style that had permeated hollywood action movies since the berth of Jason Bourne. He talked about how he always wanted the viewer to know where they are during the course of a movie - have a good sense of space, maintain the 180 degree lines etc. - especially during a chaotic fight sequence. I remember watching Haywire and feeling disoriented because every action movie for years had been so shaky, and this movie's action had an almost defiant clarity. Shots were often static, and the action progressed through cuts and editing in a way that actually - at the time - made the movie feel old. But as Hollywood has moved away from nauseating handheld cameras back towards conventional ways of shooting action, this movie is actually agi...
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American Gangster (2007)

A grim portrait of ambition and greed, largely told differently than other gangster stories but retaining a conventional arc. Ridley Scott tells this story in familiar fashion and employs every great actor he can find to flush out his material. And there are incredible scenes with great actors that haven't been in scenes before, perhaps reason enough to see this. A standoff in a diner between Denzel and Idris Alba comes to mind. But the final act of this film devolves into a morality tale that loses its legs even quicker the second title cards tell the passage of 15 years. If this movie is 2.5 hours - needlessly so - then why not take the extra five minutes to show us that passage, or better yet just trust the audience to get it? Quick hits: Russell Crowe never at any point is convincingly from New Jersey. Or even from North America. Denzel/Alba, Denzel/Crowe are amazing scenes and Denzel is super cool A lot of scenes we've already seen in other movies. So is this movie additiv...
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Vox Lux (2018)

I met a teacher in Colorado who had led the survivors out through Columbine High School after SWAT and Littleton PD had cleared them to exit. She didn't describe it to me this way, but I remember the photos they published in the 90s and the horror I felt. I didn't even know what sensationalized meant yet, but it was horrific and brutal. I remember my brain doing the work for me, imagining the trauma and horror the survivors must have felt as they walked out through the carnage. I thought about - and still do - the horror I would endure if that were to happen to my child, or maybe even worse if my child were responsible.  They put up a memorial to the two kids that shot up the white suburban affluent high school outside Littleton, Colorado. And people went berserk. Or so my wife who didn't go to CHS but was in high school in Denver when this happened. And the people in Littleton didn't mince words - they took out their anger and grief by putting the blame squarely on inn...
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Civil War (2024)

Alex Garland's movies never seem to be without controversy, just not the form that you would expect. Annihilation is a sci-fi mystery that seems to leave the viewer either dumb-founded at its conclusion or impressed by its depth. Needs a rewatch from me though. Ex Machina - a movie I have not seen - is apparently about the need for innovation in technology and the corruption and toxicity that naturally occur in a capitalist state. At least that what I've gathered from various reviews and Podcaster. I'll edit this if/when I see it. But the point remains that Ex Machina is a divisive movie of its own right, as all Garland's movies seem to be. I am not sure I've talked to a single person who watches an AG movie and leaves it anything short of pensive; his movies illicit a reaction even from the staunchest, most cynical viewer. So Civil War is released in 2024 featuring highly controversial subject matter - a dystopia United States having fallen into civil war, thereunt...
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