81
Watched in 3D! My second experience with these old-fashioned Vincent Price chillers, after THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (which I kinda loved), and I enjoyed this one even more. Clearly a huge influence on e.g. DOCTOR WHO and THE TWILIGHT ZONE, both of which would start not long afterwards, in its constant low-stakes creepiness, even as nothing qualifies as explicitly “scary.” There’s absolutely a world in which I give this like a 64, call it “solid,” and move…
60
I refuse to enter the Discourse about you-know-what, but I guess I should acknowledge that Smith is rather good, often working against the script’s hagiographic impulses to make us kinda despise Richard even as we’re practically forced to recognise how much he was right about. I could mostly roll with the hagiography / exoneration throughout, though, just because KING RICHARD’s angle on the sports-biopic is so distinctive: if this were a film about The Greatness Of Venus And Serena,…
There was a time when Wes Anderson’s style was new. A time when it was fresh, and exciting. While he didn’t really find his stride until The Royal Tenenbaums, for years afterwards what he was doing onscreen was something nobody had really ever done. He seemed to be projecting his very soul onscreen for everyone to see: deeply flawed and endlessly pedantic, but also with an enormous heart. Indeed, the typical Anderson hero tends to mimic Anderson himself as a…
I don't throw around the word "masterpiece" too much. Unless I'm around Christopher Nolan. In Dunkirk, he has crafted his FOURTH (count them) masterpiece. Every note of this film hits right, from Hans Zimmer's score to the brilliant acting not only from veterans like Rylance, Cillian Murphy and Kenneth Branagh, but from people like Harry Styles, who is way better than you would expect. This is almost silent filmmaking, so when the dialogue hits, it's unexpected and shocking, like Churchill's speech at the end. This might turn out to be the best film of the year. If so, it deserves it.
