Bloch reuses a lot of elements from Psycho but here explores more of the trauma and psychology behind the violence. Castle's showman sensibility heightens the murder scenes, often as tense little spectacles. Good screams and sounds. Crawford is brilliant.
You can figure out the ending about halfway through, but the parlor scene after is so ridiculous and silly I guess it's ok. The Columbia logo woman at the end is decapitated!
Doesn't totally cohere or form a satisfying conclusion with all the fun mechanics it introduces (perhaps a few too many), but it's nice! Maybe the most detailed Pixar real world setting and then a very abstract one too. I liked all the elements of this man's life. Enjoyed it all a lot, moment to moment, but stepping back, it's harder to find the...purpose.
Liked the zoning out montage toward the end; almost starts to feel like a city symphony or the end of L'Eclisse. For a moment, at least. The zone was one of the strongest ideas here and maybe could have been a movie.
I rolled my eyes and blew raspberry sounds at every historical invention and Sorkinism, but I still found it entirely entertaining. You could argue that its fun, digestible approach isn't appropriate or right, and you'd be correct. But it's still pretty fun and digestible! I did enjoy watching it very much. Big stars, big moments! Mostly historically inaccurate.
Here's the thing. I was watching a little behind the scenes video with Sorkin about this movie, and he was talking about…
