Out to own today:
Arrival
 | “I used to think this was the beginning of your story. Memory is a strange thing,” Dr Louise Banks (Amy Adams) We are continually bombarded with bombastic science-fiction cinema. When something more thoughtful comes along, e.g. ANOTHER EARTH, TIME CRIMES, they automatically stand out. Sci-fi is arguably the most transporting of genres – at its peak it presents new ideas, commenting on our current predicaments, in an exhilarating fashion – when blockbusters manage the feat, the sublime can be attained, e.g. CLOSE ENOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, CONTACT, DISTRICT 9, LOOPER, etc. Like INTERSTELLAR, ARRIVAL commenced with such promise: An atmospheric, thoughtful attention to detail, but then derails into hokey nonsense. What a shame! [To read more, click here.] |
The Chamber
 | "That’s the business we’re in, secrets remain secrets," Red (Charlotte Salt) When you don't have large resources and are making an action thriller, you need an electrifying script. Zinging dialogue and coruscating performances, though set ostensibly in one room, can be propulsive, e.g. GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. Even if you are not David Mamet on peak form, last year’s RATTLE THE CAGE, a thriller staged in a single room police station was an entertaining genre exercise. THE CHAMBER, after a brief preamble locates the supposed dramatic fireworks to a tiny submarine. The resultant damp squib is dead in the water, the sub-90 minute runtime drags. [To read more, click here.] |
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