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Natural Born Killers (1994)
Visually inventive satire that fights congealment by the end
An American romantic crime action film; A story about two victims of traumatic childhoods who become lovers and mass murderers and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media. The film is about how the media is electrified and how some sections of the general public become exhilarated by criminals. It deals with how criminals could be made into celebrities indirectly by the media and the feeding frenzy they inspire in the media and their audience. The film also captured the moral inattention and passiveness of the mass murderer accurately, which Americans often saw on Court TV. Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis were both frightening for their performances, showing amorality and disdain. The film has some graphic power, but not so much for the scenes of violence that were not overly graphic but more a frenzied and psychedelic style that questioned subjectivity itself on a subject of criminality - the cross-cut editing and the lurid exposition elicited a response to the notion of violence. It was effective in incorporating visual elements of popular television into the film's visual tableau, including commercials and a mixture of stocks and styles present in late 80s and early 90s television. The film succeeds in calling attention to a topic through gonzo satire, and the film has verve with its visceral bluntness, but this inevitably leads the social criticism to hollow out in the second act. The good pace and flow it enjoyed led it to lose its footing with the introduction of the prison sequences.
Alien: Romulus (2024)
Pulls the same levers, but with some pleasing variation in the recurring motifs
An American sci-fi thriller horror; A story about a group of downtrodden young space colonists in pursuit of better life conditions who encounter extreme hostility while scavenging a derelict space station. This seventh installment has verve and borrows much of the look and feel of the set design from the first two films, albeit under the guise of a legacyquel, reproducing the same lived-in effect effectively and the same visceral aspect. There are many other callbacks to the entire series, with recurring tropes reimagined or interposed in a clever way. But when they are made too obvious with gunfights, repeated one-liners, and a CGI character resurrection, they land garishly. As for the other visual effects, the rendering of a distant planet system and the depiction of an asteroid belt are mesmerising. The film runs at a good pace; a succession of scene changes early in the film provide distraction and make the exposition interesting, but they don't lead to anything surprising in the plot; this is a fairly formulaic trapped-in-a-spaceship chase flick. There is the odd gripping moment, but there is no feeling of dread; the aliens don't elicit much fear, only disgust in some scenes of impressive gore. Cailee Spaeny eschews histrionics for her part as the blue-collar space miner, producing some feeling in her scenes with the synthetic human 'brother' in the lead. David Jonsson is a good match for her; he is absorbing in his dynamic part, though he doesn't enunciate so well in his longer scenes. As an aside, something may have been lost in the ambition to develop maturer ideas, and the diversion to a thought-provoking question about a relationship between AI and humans is unexplored, but, from a series perspective, the younger cast gives it a well-needed shot in the arm; the backstory to the characters is plausible.
The Searchers (1956)
Americana saga of great scope and beauty
An American epic Western; A story about a middle-aged Civil War veteran in Texas who spends years looking for his abducted niece, accompanied by his adopted nephew. The narrative about heroic solitude and a human wrecking ball as vengeance worked for the film's limited theme about overcoming wrong and triumphing in the end. What prevails is action at the frontier, and it is crafted with precision. Epics must show a sense of time passing, which this film does well for its relatively short running time, even managing to be leisurely about the life of isolated families in the remote early West. John Wayne's compelling portrayal amounts to more than a mere archetype for the linear storyline, but he is a man of simple motive, which gives power to the final third when he is surprised by what he discovers in his search. Conveying an inner conflict in "Ethan Edwards" during the search would have weakened the plot and been at odds with his behaviour. Mercifully, compassion shines through the interstices of his mindset, but this had to come without explication. The story is quite slim and episodic, with several climaxes occasionally testing. Sometimes the tone is inconsistent when Edwards' nastiness alternates with genial humour, a romantic subplot, and characters used for comic relief feel like an unnecessary digression. Some scenes are soundstage filmed, which look more conspicuous in a film with so many outdoor locations. Nevertheless, the picture was a triumph of technique with its photography of an awe-inspiring expanse of scenery and tonal shifts between sequences.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Off-sets traditional aspects of an archetypal Western
An American Western drama; A story about a senator who returns to his home town and recounts his past to a local reporter, saying that when he was a lawyer he was known for killing an outlaw, but there's more to it than the public thinks. The film shows the power embodied by men and how subtly the dynamics can change. The theme is about the inevitable transition from an old social order to modern society and the untamed wilderness made into a cultivated park at the altar of truth - the burnishing of imagery in perpetuity to establish order. The film is a solid, well-composed story, a mostly unsentimental assessment of the Old West that still finds a romantic stance. Some scenes are elegiac; others are thrust deliberately to show violence and disorder in an exciting way. A noteworthy aside, director John Ford helped create Western icons in film for a generation, but here he deftly deconstructs it all.
The Alamo (1960)
Blustery but a gripping finale
An American historical war drama; A story set in 1836, about military commanders who lead a small band of American and Texican fighters to resist Mexico's Santa Anna's invading forces at a historic Spanish mission in Texas called Alamo. Based on The Battle of the Alamo, this is an expansive drama of the fort's last stand that feels like it needed a few more drafts to distil it to a more tight story - showing rather than telling and pontificating about the joys of freedom. Its scale and big production values and cinematic might are impressive and attractive, but with too much dialogue and sentimentality it makes its running time feel interminable by the end of the second act. Luckily, the final third is awesome in its scope and ferocity.
In Harm's Way (1965)
Slick but shallow naval melodrama
An American historical romantic war film; A story about a demoted naval captain who is given a dangerous and important mission in the Pacific in World War II. This is a big production, and the director Otto Preminger succeeds with his eye for detail involving the launch of a battle campaign, aided by extensive cooperation from the U. S. Department of Defence, especially the U. S. Navy and the U. S. Marine Corps, with scenes aboard warships at sea and ashore. The action sequences are very good, and the effects are good, with good pacing. But its topic about the effects of war on servicemen is not worked through fully, so the film becomes divided in its own MO. In its broad efforts across two different genres, it is overlong, a bit incoherent, and shapeless; other scenes are slow-paced with fairly flat characters in a conventional storyline that gets resolved too predictably. The biggest gun is John Wayne, who has a commanding presence. As the man of honour, fighting as a man should after a setback.
Hondo (1953)
Exciting and attractively offbeat Western
An American Western; A story set in New Mexico in 1874 about an embittered Indian scout who forms a strong bond with a homesteader and her son in Apache country. This film is an adaptation of Louis L'Amour's short story "The Gift of Cochise." The theme is about a man with a conflict of interests who realises building relationships trumps killing. John Wayne's portrayal of a complex man with deep feelings, holding truth to be the zenith of man's character, but who has mental and physical toughness at the ready, is pitch perfect. Geraldine Page was excellent as the ranch wife, delivering a powerfully nuanced performance for a character who had conflicts within and without too. The narrative is intelligent and dynamic-it fleshed out all the characters and showed the challenges on both sides of the cultures rather than just a battle of 'good versus evil'. Nevertheless, the tension is tortuous, and the battles are handled in an exciting way. The film is photographed well. It captured the vast natural beauty of Camargo, Mexico, where it was filmed using stereoscopic 3-D to great effect.
The Quiet Man (1952)
Gloriously bucolic, joyous, and acted with gusto
An American romantic-comedy drama; A story about a strapping Irish-American boxer who returns to his homeland to forget a tragic event in his prizefighting past and falls in love with a feisty countrywoman, the sister of a man who hates him for purchasing property he himself had his eye on. A beautifully photographed, endearing picture set in a picaresque Ireland. It is delightful for its rollicking comedy melodrama, though a bit overly sentimental about Irish life, and doesn't quite justify the lengthy runtime. John Wayne plays his part well and has great chemistry with the magnetic Maureen O'Hara as a ripe, fiery beauty who is enjoyable to watch.
The House of the Devil (2009)
Tense, nostalgic, well-observed horror
An American horror film; A story about a young college student who is hired as a babysitter and is soon caught up in bizarre and dangerous events as she fights for her life. This is well-crafted, in the tradition of the slasher and supernatural subgenres. It has a slow-burning plot, relying on technique to elicit an unsettling feeling to build suspense. The dialogue provides scant depth to the characters, but there is subtlety from the nuanced performances. It pays homage to horror films of the late 1970s and early 1980s, capturing the period expertly through the use of props and costumes, acting style and in the technical details such as film stock, captions and camerawork.
D-Day the Sixth of June (1956)
Atmospheric love chronicle
An American romance war drama; A story about two army officers who think about a woman - the same woman. They both love her, but will they survive to return to her? Based on the novel by Lionel Shapiro, this is a plodding but atmospheric love triangle. It is an impressive production; there is very little action for such a film title, but the battle scenes are gripping. The story flits between D-Day itself and lengthy flashback sequences covering the period after the Americans joined the allied war effort, which it takes liberties with in terms of a bias that American involvement in the war made it a foregone conclusion. Dana Wynter is strikingly beautiful, and her crisp, light voice convinces us of the romantic attraction of her suitors; her chemistry with the effortlessly smooth Richard Taylor feels natural as it evolves. Todd, limited by less screen time, performs adroitly and with presence as an assertive officer, a man craving an outlet from the pressures of service and dangerous duty. But, as the picture progresses, the romance between Taylor and Wynter moves from wistful to melodramatic, producing some tonal gaps. There is corny and stilted dialogue at times, too. The third act wraps up briskly, but there are surprises. As an aside, a young Richard Todd landed at Pegasus Bridge on D-Day. His words in some of the military scenes will carry extra weight for those who know his war record.
Mad Max 2 (1981)
Taut with brilliant action sequences
An Australian action thriller; A story about survivors in a gasoline-rich dystopian wasteland under attack from marauding bandits. This is a vivid, frightening, and visually arresting actioner. It is a vision of a violent future world, rich in setting and powerful in its depiction of a civilisation in collapse, but its effect is limited to its landscape of anarchy and violence. It has exhilarating action sequences and is amazing with its pace, fast chases, props, machinery, and stunts. Miller had read Jung and some of Joseph Campbell's ideas about the mythological structure of the journey of the archetypal hero, which contrasted with the original film. But, unlike the titular character in the film Shane, where George Stevens built the hero's myth, Max remains sullen, a scavenger; he is reluctant to fight, but it is not clear what he is overcoming to emerge as a hero, other than vengeance and ultimately becoming a'memory'. By serving up a myth in the prologue, the director put up a high hurdle to vault. When the powerful distraction ebbs away, it has been a hell of an experience, but not so resonant. Nevertheless, The Road Warrior is a marvellous action-genre picture with great spectacle and suspense.
Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
With not so much as a teaspoon of tension
An American sci-fi action adventure; A story about a young girl, a clone, who, after releasing cloned dinosaurs to prevent an auction, is now hunted by a genetics company, while she and others are aiming to prevent that company from causing an ecological disaster. This is the sixth film in a series, a cautionary tale about genetic engineering. A half-baked topic about corporate corruption offers nothing meaningful; dinosaur attacks on characters don't hold much tension because of their importance in the story. The two sets of legacy characters have little to do with each other but are dwelt on for screen time. Do-gooder Bryce Dallas Howard flicks a switch from doe-eyed and vulnerable to aggressive and assertive, which is jarring; stock character hero Chris Pratt holds out his hand to placate the man-eating beasts, a behaviorology gift never explained in any of the films. High production values mean technical artists bring a picture to marvel at with impressive stunts, slick action set pieces, and visual effects. However, for a film that rests on its believability of dinosaurs moving in fast motion, they are no more realistic than 30 years ago.
Babylon (2022)
Dazzling, manic; an overplayed ode to movieland
An American epic historical black-comedy drama; A story about the rise and fall of Hollywood careers during the transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s. The burgeoning era of the American film industry was no less prurient, harsh, or nasty on its artistes than modern-day Tinseltown, which is why the film's theme is interesting: people who are subject to rapid change and exposed to excess, struggle to curb their personal indulgences and suffer for their art in the hope of big success. The tone is provocative and tragi-comic, but in overstating excess in the way it does, too many character stories don't lead anywhere; lavish Felliniesque scenes with their sweeping camera shots and high-spirit music test one's patience in the longer sequences. Also, it doesn't quite capture the period: stage sets, props and costumes look over-embellished. The self-entitled way some characters speak sounds like they belong to the 2020s, not the 1930s. There is no one to especially care about, with only Brad Pitt's "Jack Conrad" being relatable. All in all, it dazzles and shocks to please. There's a definite feel of good intention to show the magic of the movies, but sometimes the story lacks cohesion.
Sniper: Rogue Mission (2022)
Misbegotten actioner
An American action thriller; A story about U. S. Marine Sergeant Brandon Beckett (son of Thomas Beckett, a decorated Master Gunnery Sergeant of Force Reconnaissance Scout Snipers) who discovers a human sex trafficking ring but loses his badge after a corrupt federal agent is implicated. Brandon teams up with allies from his past to discover the identity of the agent and stop the ring. This, the ninth installment in the film series, underwhelms with its weak story and unconvincing dialogue. There isn't much of an atmosphere and the villains don't help to create any tension. A derivative plot aims to disguise these shortfalls but the humorous tone of the film (a break with tradition in this series) contrasts with a serious tone about trafficking which is a mistake. Sayaka Akimoto's Lady Death is a welcome return to the fold but her highly-trained assassin is a mismatch to the corny shenanigans. All in all, disposable and forgettable and lacking in action.
Aliens (1986)
State-of-the-art sci-fi
An American horror thriller and sci-fi; A story about a commercial space tug officer who joins a crew of battle-hardened marines to investigate an incident on an exomoon, but they find they are no match for what lies in wait for them. Essentially, it is a combat picture set in the future. It is visceral and has plenty of energy, successfully manipulating the audience through protracted scenes of claustrophia and then steadily building the tension that culminates in unremitting tension in the finale. As a film sequel, it could not replicate the novelty of the first film, but the marvellous craftsmanship adds a new form of distraction: better staging, better special effects, and better props, which confirm a graphic power. Sigourney Weaver is the best thing about the film, with her natural air of authority and a maternal instinct that make for an impressive 'battle of the females' idea.
The Zone of Interest (2023)
Evocative film about the indifference of evil
A British-Polish drama; A story about the commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, Rudolf Höss, and his wife, Hedwig, who strive to build their dream life for their family. This film's bucolic setting and location is at the extreme edge of the effects of genocidal German government policy; a middle-class, German family life in the 1940s. The title refers to Interessengebiet, the euphemistic name for the restricted zone around Auschwitz. The film is an adaptation of Martin Amis's novel. The director conducted painstaking research and used archival evidence and personal testimonies which made his depiction of Nazism all the more studied and precise. The formalist elements like the staging and the cinematography are vital to the substance and evocative power for a film with a formal tone. The controlling idea was not to understand the horrific crime but to show ardour for an idyll by people who were complicit yet uninterested in suffering. But beyond the first 45 minutes, there is little development in the horror and no glimmer of hope and humanity from the scenes shown in inverse. Occasional aberrant behaviour in minor characters keeps the tension tight. The director aims for an unassailable horror, the kind that quietly creeps up on us but unshown, and it achieves this. But the details of the crimes begs an answer to why Höss, a World War I soldier, could become Auschwitz-Höß,and this is left unanswered. A switch in location to Oranienburg could have suggested an answer, but nothing turned up. The coda sequence set in modern-day felt like an adjunct, even if it absolved the director of any perceived flippancy. Nevertheless, it is a triumph of tonal and visual storytelling. The performances are excellent. The soundscape and sound effects are brilliant and startling.
Oleanna (1994)
Archetypal characters clash in a play on male and female psyches
An American drama; A story about a flustered college student who visits the professor who failed her in one of her subjects. Confrontation leads to an escalation of a feud. This two-hander has an intriguing premise, if somewhat over-simplified. The effectiveness of its message, about social mores of a teacher-pupil relationship and the nature of learning, is thwarted by characters who begin to grate in their prolonged animosity and odious reasoning. The stagy dialogue descends to stilted delivery - possibly not the fault of the actors - but the director who failed to adapt the shooting script to produce a more natural sounding interaction. Nonetheless, the power struggle is arresting and the performances are adroit, with Macy and Eisenstadt well cast in their roles.
You Will Remember (1940)
Musical tribute with a moving coda
A British biographical drama; A story about Victorian songwriter, Leslie Stuart, who escaped a life of poverty in Manchester, England, to achieve international success in the early 1900s before falling back into obscurity and hardship. This is a straightforward story, based on a true story of rags-to-riches, handled with candour and humour. Robert Morley is a good embodiment of the naive, confident musicmaker, and it's a delicate portrayal of the man who saw peaks and troughs in fortunes and suffered the changes in his reputation. There is good supporting performances early on from Maurice Kelly as Young Tom Barrett, the infant prodigy, and from Emlyn Williams as his loyal friend Bob Slater. The quaint and catchy Edwardian musical comedy tunes help to keep it bouncing along. But it is the film's final sequence that brings a special poignancy and a message that talent and good spirit never die.
I vitelloni (1953)
From Rimini With Love
An Italian drama; A story about five young 'bullocks', callow at crucial points in their lives, dreaming of success as they drift lazily through life in a small coastal village. This is a character study about a womanizer, a fame-craver, a dreamer, a big-city lover, and an aspiring writer. It is an intelligent film with a message about provincial life from acute observation not just entertainment, providing authenticity about the gap between the characters' hopes and the reality they face. While it lacks unity in narrative, simultaneously it manages to be artful in form and evocative about real life. The performances are all good and it has a memorable musical score.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Engrossing, entropic chronicle
An American-British biopic thriller; A story about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, appointed to develop and design the atomic bomb. After his scientific team's work came to fruition, he faced the consequences of speaking truth to power. This is a character study of political history based on the biography, American Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. It isn't an emotionally impactful drama, but suspense is developed from the plot and its chronicling of true events and real people. A screenwriter has a prerogative to tell the story they want to tell; this one is how the main character is treated. Despite its meticulous, fact-based psychodrama, it is a broad story. The theme is the contradictions inherent in human personality, which can bear a great burden for one and all, and how we cannot know truth with perfect accuracy, much like the uncertainty principle of physics. But as a representation of true events, it shows so little examination of the shock of one having built the bomb that could destroy the world, which begs the question of how mass killings would have had an effect on Oppenheimer, which isn't answered. Also, it ignored the crucial roles British science and the Australian physicist Dr Mark Oliphant played in jump-starting the quest. A tour de force from Cillian Murphy, who harnesses the anguish, guilt, gloom, and haughtiness of the title character in a layered performance. The optics captivate, which they must, and they haunt, as they should, given the enormity of real-life events. They are also brilliant at showing how ambition and morality can end up in silos. Exposition was critical for the plot, so great minds of the age who had varied involvement in the arms race were introduced. The first forty-five minutes worked hard with biographical detail. A hiatus in its accompanying musical score led the way for suspense to build to a gripping centrepiece sequence wherein the director's expertise in choreography was evident. Long-feature films need to earn emotional engagement. The third hour's pacing, with its long governmental hearings and political scrapping, was dense. Overall, a bold film about a complicated legacy with many strong supporting performances. Strong visuals and brilliant sound design.
Zardoz (1974)
Visually striking, whimsical adventure
An American-Irish science fantasy; A story set in the distant future is about an exterminator who finds a way into a community of bored immortals who preserve humanity's achievements, but he is the only virile man and powerless against elitist hyper-intellectual women. Special effects, lush photography, and creative ingenuity in stage design helped this film to be thought-provoking, but there is a palpable sense it fell short in scope and ambition. The main theme-the substitution of one's humanity for a life of intellect-and the topic of immortality and its inherent problems were interesting. Nevertheless, the story suffered for handling too many systems of thought using characters that were not built out sufficiently; subjects raised, like eugenics, anthropology, and artificial intelligence, are left unexplored yet important to the story, and this made the dialogue occasionally sound recondite. Sean Connery is well cast; he embodied both the elemental aspects of Zed and the inquisitive aspects of his transformation. Charlotte Rampling, as a haughty, sensual immortal, performs well too.
North to Alaska (1960)
Plain rough-and-tumble fun
An American comedy, western-northern adventure; A story set in 1901 about two prospectors who got rich in the Nome gold rush. One sets off for Seattle to find the other's fiancée, but surprise is in store for them. This is heartwarming slapstick traditionally conceived to deliver light humour with action. The spiced-up romantic sequences make it a little uneven, but John Wayne is adept in delivering the light comedy machismo, shining as the gold prospector. Stewart Granger is strong support as his wily counterpart. Ernie Kovacs provides some dry amusement. Hathaway directs it with a good pace and conducts an impressive bar-room brawl.
Hatari! (1962)
A colourful and impressive spectacle in Tanganyika
An American adventure and romantic comedy; A story about a group of professional game catchers who find their lives changed when a woman photographer arrives at their farm. This light-hearted safari romp is photographed well in colour and captures a striking backdrop of wildlife on the plains of East Africa. The action and frolics are enjoyable, which is just as well because it is quite loosely scripted with a simple plot. Its appeal mostly rests on the spectacle of a real safari-no stuntmen or effects-animals being chased by jeeps and trucks and a pursuit of wild animals, which lives up to its film title: danger, in Swahili. The scenes showing the trapping of animals might be too heavy for some viewers with a heightened awareness for animal welfare, but no shots were fired; it is nonetheless an authentic document of animals as seen in the wild. The action and adventure captured are a little raw, and there is not much character development, but a rugged John Wayne makes an impact, albeit with competition for screen time with interesting wildlife.
The Longest Day (1962)
Tour de force
An American war film; A story about the events which occured during 6 June 1944 in Normandy, France, the huge task of preparing for D-Day. This film, a grand scale semi-fictionalized documentary of the greatest ever amphibious operation, Operation Neptune, does justice to the military undertaking with its scale and production. As an aside, as well as conveying the logistics needed for this incredible invasion, it takes meticulous care in showing the horror of the events. The composite picture of D-Day from multiple national viewpoints brings an authenticity. The power of the story carries through to the end of its long running time, avoiding gung ho and keeping occasional melodrama to a low ebb. However, it falls a little short of being resonant in the dramatic tension and dialogue was sparse which thwarted the promise of one great performance. This gave rise to the unfortunate impression that several marquee players were rolled out in a star identity parade.
How the West Was Won (1962)
A patchwork stitching of vignettes but the spectacle is astonishing
An American Western adventure; A story set in 1830s about a New England farmer and his family who make an East-West crossing of America by way of rivers and plains, through conflict and in the midst of the Civil War, to the building of the railroad and encountering different characters along the way. This chronicle has great spectacle and scale, not least by its presentation in Cinerama, but is in effect a recap of Westerns hitherto and cannot boast anything new in style, and the writing is not so fresh. James Stewart and Gregory Peck help to establish the character drama with some helpful support by John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark. Hathaway, Marsh and Ford shouldered the directing responsiblities for their story phases, and they excelled, but without one person's clear vision it suffered from overemphasis of frenetic action, and an answer to the overall theme - see title for reference.