I watched 8 movies last week:
 |
 |
 kinopoisk.ru |
 |
- Escape from Alcatraz doesn’t do anything more than it says on the tin—and it can’t help but feel a little familiar, in the wake of subsequent prison movies like The Shawshank Redemption—but it’s tense and very enjoyable.
- This Land Is Mine is a remarkably nuanced look at the dangers of collaboration, why so many might choose to cooperate with Nazis, but it’s also a really great character study of cowardice and courage, with at least one great speech by Charles Laughton.
- There’s a lot to love about Dead End, but the standout might be Humphrey Bogart’s performance as a sad and broken man.
- Eephus isn’t exactly a fun movie, even if it is often very low-key funny. Maybe the most telling moment comes late in the film when a long-expected fireworks display happens entirely off-screen, with only one character’s defeated face reflected in its glow. It’s a brilliantly low-stakes but pitch-perfect hangdog comedy.
 |
 |
 |
 |
- The Phoenician Scheme feels very much like Wes Anderson making stop-motion with live actors. That can sometimes make the movie feel unreal and removed, but it’s all so meticulously crafted, often delightfully and playfully so, that it’s hard to mind too much.
- I’ve never played the video game that Until Dawn is based on, but the lazy way the storytelling falls apart near the end doesn’t exactly argue for very compelling source material. Which is a shame, because there’s actually a somewhat clever take on the time-loop conceit, which raises the stakes in some gory and gnarly ways, before that.
- For such a simple plot, The Crossroads is surprisingly convoluted, but it’s well directed, and William Powell is good in it.
- As Brian Tallerico writes, The Amateur “skims the surface of what has worked in spy thrillers of the past, never finding its own rhythm, identity, or personality.” The movie is better cast than it needs to be, but that proves to be more of a distraction than an asset in the end.
I also rewatched Thief. I don’t know that it’s my favorite Michael Mann movie, but it’s got such style, James Caan is so good in it, and it’s got a perfect downer of an ending.