This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
INSIDE MAN is a masterpiece of genre filmmaking. Is it a bit over-the-top and unbelievable? Yes, but so is DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Jodie Foster's character and the whole "gay" angle from Lumet's masterpiece are a bit too convoluted, confounding, and complicated, and stand in the way of both film's excellent central genre premise: a bank robbery of egos.
But, while DOG DAY AFTERNOON's social commentary sort of fell flat, INSIDE MAN's social commentary hits hard. Here is yet another film…
Where were you when the planes hit the towers? I was celebrating my birthday.
And what a birthday it was. One of the most white bread, suburban, spoiled, only-child birthdays that's ever been had.
The day started like any other. We went to school. I brought brownies for the whole class as was tradition. But by the time they were gone, we were gone: told to go home. School let out early on my birthday? What a stroke of good…
Exquisite.
DECISION TO LEAVE is Park Chan-wook's most mature, refined, and well-directed film. Don't expect any early 2000s shocks, extreme violence, or gimmicks. This is, in many ways, a standard noir, albeit tilted on its edge due to the man behind the camera. Of course with that you can expect a convoluted mystery, plenty of twists and turns, and intrigue out the wazoo. And, if any of you know me by now, noirs aren't really my thing.…
