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The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers that walked into the wrong theater have time to leave before the main action starts.

-Tarkovsky

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How Nope Tricks Your Ears

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Usually against color-grading old films but this looks amazing.

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These are actually really well done.

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Minority Report (2002, dir. Steven Spielberg)

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saw two great movies last night

Mikey and Nicky - Elaine May

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The killing of a Chinese bookie - John John Cassavetes

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NO SPOILERS

Saw the new Batman today after it being hyped all weekend. Twitter says The Batman is on par with Heat and Se7en. Its not.

It was fine. Reeves does NOT turn into Fincher or Mann with this movie. Having said that it is a good, fun, movie. But its not “cinema.” 

Pros: The opening. Zoe Kravitz. Personification of the Batmobile is genius. Colin Farrell. I liked how the movie did not focus on origin stories but instead treated characters like ongoing parts of Gotham. The cinematography and color grade are gorgeous, possibly the best in the batman series. 

Cons: The Riddler plot (which I had heard was inspired by Chinatown) never reaches that unpredictable and epically destructive level the trailer promises. Riddler vs Batman never gets to the same place as Batman vs Joker via Dark Knight and remains sort of awkward throughout. 

There were other things

Dano (a great actor) performance is mostly lost as it ranges from his role in There Will Be Blood to Prisoner to Michael Buffer and never really lands.

When Batman goes to see the Penguin he knocks on the front door of the nightclub???????

Everyone is whispering (like M. Night or True Detective 2 style)

Batman’s involvement at crime scenes always feels awkward, and he just randomly drops clues to crime scene investigators, instantly solving riddles or recognizing blood clot patterns with a glance.

Alfred has like 2 scenes.

Gordon spends most of the movie following Batman around saying things like “Man that’s your thang,” and “How do you know that?”

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Best things I’ve seen since Covid started. 

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No Time To Die - thoughts

The plot was distractingly vague at best, and illogical at worst. Where plot usually takes a back seat in Bond films, in No Time To Die its centerstage. The lack of motivation for the villain, as well as the lack of an explanation as to how the villain seemingly doesn’t age despite a 20+ year jump in time is hard to overlook. 

Action set pieces, from the opening horror styled flashback to subsequent sequences on the bridge in Italy, car chase in Scotland, and end sequence on the island are all filled with action and yet ineffective at creating any moments of suspense, awe, spectacle or fun despite following the visual language Roger Deakins created on Skyfall. The outlier being the Cuba sequence where the film really comes to life for a brief moment with Ana de Armas.

The death of Bond in concept is really interesting. Though killing him off in a stock end-of the-world set piece he has overcome in countless films for decades/generations is underwhelming and unimaginiative. Shouldn’t something special bring his demise? Isn’t that the point of doing the death of Bond? The missed opportunity is reminiscent of how wasted Christoph Waltz talents as Blofeld were. 

Giving Bond a family at the end of the film felt rushed, and unearned emotionally. The ending, and death of Bond accumulating to a clumsy message that is hard to discern. Despite Bond earlier in the film choosing to leave his wife for 5 years with no intention of seeing her again he later chooses after discovering he has a daughter and that his wife is innocent of his convictions, to die as he is infected with nanobots programed to kill his loved ones. Apparently being part of your daughter’s and wife’s life from a distance is not worth living for? A great message for all of us living through a pandemic and unable to celebrate holidays with our families.

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so good

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The Man Who Knew Too Much - Alfred Hitchcock

Mission Impossible - Christopher McQuarrie