The most interesting use of Mann's techniques and thematic interests I've come across so far. Masculine fragility and paranoia are not the main focus here, but rather the building blocks of what should really be a straightforward shut-case legal procedural transformed into some strange mythology about the contradictions of economic liberalism and democracy. With its opening depicting two maverick hard-hitting American journalists interviewing political extremists with a once-characteristic fearlessness, you'd expect this to be a certain kind of movie where…
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The Light Across the Street 1955
Incredible automobile hysteria! A trucker movie, basically. This has almost nothing to do with Bardot, as she's unfortunately relegated to a completely passive and unthinking role, and everything to do instead with the promise of the vehicle -- personal mobility, a vessel for the masculine performance of nonchalance, beautiful women waiting for their drivers' return, the crossroads and waypoints stocked with handsome rugged mechanics and nonchalant drivers with lofty protector's morals.
Pietri's easy manner is grafted to the prosperity of…
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Challengers 2024
Ultimately too self-absorbed, unfeeling and self-conscious to succeed for me. For a het "pick me" soft fantasy it remains a little too content in its premise save for the bewildering addition of a child that doesn't actually exist. Similar to a family without family, relationships without relations, I found it juvenile in its choice to also depict sex without sex, opting for tersely explicit conversations of 90s comedy, but sans humour -- I think 90s clothing magazine ads managed implication…
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Little Women 2019
I still think of how bad this was months later. It's basically if all of the celebrities you hear about against your will were in a reality TV show in costume and pretended they were *wink wink* in a time period, but everyone is convinced they just saw One of Cinema's Greatest, eyes glazed with tears, bundled in parasocial emotional warmth. Conversely, I was left with a sense of utter mindreeling incomprehension followed immediately by the insecurity of perhaps, unrealizing,…
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