Barbara Stanwyck's three 1941 performances (The Lady Eve, Meet John Doe and Ball of Fire) can only be properly compared to he greatest athletic feats. Seeing her seamlessly blend rat-a-tat comedy banter with profound dramatic frailty is like watching Brazil effortlessly dazzle the 1970 World Cup with their "jogo bonito."
It's easy to make it all about her, but there's obviously a lot to praise in this movie. The "eight dwarfs" are an incredible excuse to have a gaggle of…
I have not read Alice Walker's original novel, which I gather is quite different in tone (though not in story) from this movie, so take it with a grain of salt when I say what I thought about the most watching this movie was Tyler Perry's Diary of a Mad Black Woman. The gospel-fueled climax to Shug's storyline is the moment when it all clicked together. Because of where Spielberg was in career, because of his populist sensitivity (which was…
Major disappointment. Works best if you think of Franz Rogowski's character as an Ace Ventura type wacky guy at the center of a broad 90s comedy who simply destroys everything in his path with wacky shenanigans. It's not so much that he's unbelievable as a human, but that it's puzzling to think why the other characters in the movie would fall in his orbit. If they had half as much personality as his character does, then maybe it'd work as a movie about a trio of maniacs. As is, it's just puzzling.
Feel like I'm going crazy seeing how much everyone loves this absolute nothing of a movie.
At least we all agree McDonagh is a pretty unstylish director, but I cannot fathom the praise he gets as a dramatist. What, exactly, is so good about this screenplay? The broad and archetypal characters (really, another young village idiot with a heart of gold)? The way in which every scene leads exactly where you predict it will go when it starts, or even…
