Tag: new movie review

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We’ve heard this little scene, we’ve heard it many times, people fighting over little things and wasting precious time.

Dan Seeger

Aaron Sorkin is setting himself as the preferred cinematic chronicler of the major figures of the digital age. So far, that’s working out pretty well. Following The Social Network, Sorkin turns his keyboard to the one person who commands more attention and fascination than anyone else who’s made their millions (or, rather, billions) off of circuit boards fueling nearly miraculous tools of communication and information processing. The late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and brilliant orchestrator of modern age cult of personality, has already been the subject of enough film treatments that it’s possible to create a considered list of … Continue reading We’ve heard this little scene, we’ve heard it many times, people fighting over little things and wasting precious time.

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We don’t know the meaning of fear, we play every minute by ear

Dan Seeger

Amazingly for a director who used to routinely face a barrage of critical darts for a supposed inability to progress past the childish stuff of frothy fantasy, Steven Spielberg has become one of the most dependable cinematic chroniclers of the planet’s tumultuous history. Across the last decade, with the odd exceptions of a misguided Indiana Jones sequel and a diversion into computer animation, Spielberg has been filming in the past. That’s not an entirely newfound preoccupation, of course. Even before Munich, which I’m using as the dividing line ahead of this era of Spileberg’s filmmaking, Spielberg kept cycling back to historical … Continue reading We don’t know the meaning of fear, we play every minute by ear

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Oh, now I don’t hardly know her

Dan Seeger

Guillermo del Toro takes a clear, unbridled pleasure in sharing the wildest worlds of his imagination. Like Wes Anderson — and this is probably the sole cinematic instinct the two directors have in common — del Toro loves to spread his favorite playthings all over the screen. While Anderson presents them meticulously arranged, under glass, and with an implicit instruction that they must not be touched or moved even a millimeter, del Toro upends the toy box and romps delightedly as the colorful contraptions come raining down. It’s not that he has no control. The film that remains his finest proves decisively … Continue reading Oh, now I don’t hardly know her

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Tomorrow’s sun with buildings scrape the sky

Dan Seeger

For a sizable portion of his career — at least since Back to the Future first positioned him to be able to take pricey risks in his projects — director Robert Zemeckis has been most enlivened by material that allows him some opportunity to bend the latest cinematic technology to the needs of classic Hollywood narrative. At its best, this has led to films where the exuberance of Zemeckis’s relentless invention gave truth to the overused term movie magic. It also led to an unfortunate stretch of years that found him stuck in the Uncanny Valley. Even at the most dire, the … Continue reading Tomorrow’s sun with buildings scrape the sky

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The boys are worried, the girls are shocked, they pick the sound and let it drop

Dan Seeger

Sicario, the new drug war drama directed by Denis Villeneuve, is delivered with the certainty that it has all sorts of profound things to offer about the dire state of the world. It is serious and intent, a brave face with just the merest hint of a quiver. Unfortunately, despite it’s stalwart intentions and clear self-regard, Sicario is a movie without much to actually say, a problem compounded by an overly stylized approach that makes its relative emptiness become almost unbearable. Written by Taylor Sheridan, the film purports to examine the cross-border drug trade with a barbed focus on the widespread … Continue reading The boys are worried, the girls are shocked, they pick the sound and let it drop

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We have just discovered an important note from space

Dan Seeger

Ridley Scott has been directing feature films for nearly forty years, doing so at a reasonably prolific rate. Included among his films are a pair of science fiction efforts (Alien and Blade Runner) that are widely considered classics and have absolutely influenced the similar genre efforts that followed with a pervasiveness that only Star Wars can rival. He’s received three Best Directing Academy Award nominations and presided over a Best Picture winner. While I think even his most fervent adherents would acknowledge that he’s signed his name to more than a few clunkers, by any fair estimation Scott has had … Continue reading We have just discovered an important note from space

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‘Cause when life looks like Easy Street there is danger at your door

Dan Seeger

Uncle John feels like a first feature. In this instance, I mean that as a compliment. The directorial debut of Steven Piet (who co-wrote the screenplay with producer Erik Crary), the film has a small-scale resoluteness, a commitment to telling an understated story with care and calmness. While the occasional evocative shot springs up, the film mostly proceeds with a smart humility. Piet isn’t trying to dazzle the audience. Instead, he wants to tell his story well, which is a far more admirable goal than wrenching attention with anxiously gaudy visuals. In assessing Piet’s commitment to the integrity of his narrative … Continue reading ‘Cause when life looks like Easy Street there is danger at your door

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How do you know you’ll recognize me? I’m not too clear, but I’m easy to see

Dan Seeger

I’m not often able to assert the following right after seeing a new movie: I have a clear favorite scene in Mistress America. Tracy (Lola Kirke), a young woman in her first semester of college, has just been charged by her new friend and anticipated step-sister, Brooke (Greta Gerwig), with picking up some pasta for dinner. Alone in the grocery store, Tracy is flummoxed by the array of options before her, both in trying to determine which brand is fancy enough to impress her older, more worldly companion and simply which damn shape she should opt for. Maybe the ones that … Continue reading How do you know you’ll recognize me? I’m not too clear, but I’m easy to see

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Now I’ve got goons on my landing, thieves on my trail, Nazis on my telephone, willing me to fail

Dan Seeger

As is often the case with the most significant media innovations, the introduction of the the sort of pervasive punditry that absolutely infests broadcast new a few decades later came about as a sort of desperate accident. ABC was mired in last place, trailing well behind competitors CBS and NBC, when it came time to cover the presidential nominating conventions of the Republicans and the Democrats. The other networks opted for their usual gavel-to-gavel coverage, something ABC couldn’t afford. (It’s worth noting that this was at a time when the conventions were far more likely to be newsworthy events, as opposed to … Continue reading Now I’ve got goons on my landing, thieves on my trail, Nazis on my telephone, willing me to fail

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By the time I get to Phoenix she’ll be risin’

Dan Seeger

Phoenix takes place in Germany shortly after the end of World War II. The city of Berlin is reeling, much of it still in ruins, and the portion of its Jewish population that somehow survived the concentration camps is returning, warily ready to restart their lives but still understandably burdened by spiritual wounds that will likely never heal. One of those returning is Nelly (Nina Hoss), whose face was badly damaged by a bullet wound. The doctor charged with reconstructive surgery asks her about the appearance she’d like him to provide. Nelly insists she wants to look like herself, a choice … Continue reading By the time I get to Phoenix she’ll be risin’