Real life doesn’t fit a movie narrative – real life rarely accommodates twists, dramatic speeches, or neat climaxes. In Spotlight, an excellent return to form for writer-director Tom McCarthy, a true story is presented exactly as it (presumably) happened, for better …and sometimes for worse. Spotlight follows four journalists (Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton,…
“Where are you going!?” “Nowhere.” Australian director Sue Brooks takes a prismatic approach to Looking for Grace, a tale of family, infidelity and theft told from a variety of perspectives. It’s not quite Rashomon, though. Fractured, non-linear narratives rely on the strength of their individual storylines as well as the whole, whether aiming for ‘everything’s…
Early in The Hateful Eight, John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russell) encounters Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), warning him to move slowly – “molasses-like” – while keeping his firearm fixed on the stranger. You could say that the film itself is comparably molasses-like; dense and dark in its substance while deliberately unhurried in its…
Filmed in Supermarionation is a modest documentary about the production companies responsible for – amongst other series forgotten to anyone who isn’t old and British – Thunderbirds. Talking heads recount from the ramshackle early days of the studio (involving flagrantly terrible puppetry from amateurs who knew no better) all the way up to post-Thunderbirds series…
The first chapter in a book-to-film young adult franchise has to balance telling a complete story with setting the stage for future entries. The 5th Wave is the latest to attempt that challenge, but it never finds its footing – the story is plodding, anti-climactic, and never gives any sense of the world needed for emotional investment…
There was a heaviness in the air when I put on The Grey Blu-Ray. It was Monday night; not long after the news of Bowie’s death, not long after a friend’s father had passed away. The air was warped by the weight of the precariousness of life, particularly given my own circumstances; I was visiting my parents…
Todd Haynes’ adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1950s lesbian romance novel is an elegant exercise in visual storytelling. Carol is aesthetically nuanced, lensed with layered graininess and often obscured or muted by windows and reflections. Though thin in narrative, a single frame transcends story, with imagery becoming subtext for characters’ emotional states and positioning us as outsiders. Therese (Rooney…
Over at Junkee I’ve written about Making a Murderer, examining how the series manipulates viewers and how, ultimately, those manipulations are in service of a good cause – reinforcing the presumption of innocence. Generally, this is where I’d conclude a repost here on ccpopculture; a quick gesture to the piece which should theoretically speak for…
Tom Hooper might’ve made a great painter. Like the protagonists of his latest film, Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne) and Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander), he has an eye for colour and composition that produces some memorable images. But cinema is about more than striking individual images; it’s about, among many other things, how images combine and…
Brian De Palma’s films are an acquired taste. That’s especially apparent with Body Double, an uninviting experience for those unfamiliar with the director with plenty to offer those who’ve come around to his distinctive style. As a straightforward (and rather lurid) thriller, it’s somewhat unsatisfactory, hamstrung by its inherent implausibility and its leading man’s anti-charisma.…
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