Mostly a rethread of Shoplifters and the similarity really doesn't do the film any favors as it's hard not to compare Broker to the vastly superior film the man released four years earlier. Maybe the film could have gotten away telling largely the same story, but the script is so much poorer and the emotional beats especially do not land like they should.
Scene after scene the film hits on the most obvious beats as very little in here feels…
When I saw the film the first time, I wholeheartedly loved it, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of my head that something was off. I ignored the feeling because I couldn't put into words what was bothering me. I was still overtaken by the overwhelming energy and the emotionality of the film, so I just focused on everything which I connected with and what I loved about the film.
This time around it was like watching…
Still exceptional when it comes to the pure tenacity of a thrill ride blockbuster, but where Maverick really shines is how solid the characters, the dialogue and the performances are. The film really understands that it needs to grip you even when there isn't action and it effortlessly pulled me in and kept me engaged regardless of what scene we were talking. I even loved how cheesy most of the drama between Teller and Cruise is and god bless Jennifer…
Doing Nightmare Alley with Elvis is certainly a fascinating choice for a film, but I'm not sure it's a fully successful one? Like on a very deeply visceral level I'm not gonna lie, this was total torture. I'm extremely sensitive to stories about characters being manipulated and exploited and this is nothing else than that for two and a half hours. In the back-half I started feeling anxious to such a strong extent that I began craving for that feeling…
My father walked into the room part way through the film and asked me what I was watching. I summed up the gist of the movie and what was happening and I specifically highlighted that there's a relationship of intimidation and domination between Phil (Cumberbatch) and Peter (Smit-McPhee), where Phil bullies Peter since he perceives him as weak. Dad stayed in the room for a while and witnessed the beginning of the sequence where Phil begins to bond with Peter…
From a purely storytelling perspective, Sweet Smell of Success blew my mind. During the past years I've become increasingly aware of when women are getting short changed on screen and specifically how often they're horribly written and given nothing to do. In here that is the exact thing that happens, men do things and the women don't get anything to do than just react. We have two men who are flat out villains, seeking to break up a woman's engagement…
