bale and jackman perfectly cast - in multiple senses.
johanssson miscast even with what she’s asked to do.
caine is the glue that gives this gravitas.
nolan is finding his mainstream feet but still with wpf so isn’t capable of what he’s soon to be - the messiness of this as a period piece about magicians is mostly brilliant, but there are moments where you yearn for some more iconography in shooting.
elevated even more on this most recent watch…
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The Prestige 2006
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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A Christmas Carol 2009
there's real understanding of the material here from zemeckis, and it actually aligns with a lot of his interests whilst having a sense of danger/mischief that suits his best work. easily the strongest of his adventures in motion capture, and maybe the most successfully 'him' movie post-cast-away (allied is solid but it really doesn't feel like the same guy who made back to the future part 2, roger rabbit, death becomes her or even contact; THIS DOES! (much of scrooge's…
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Dunkirk 2017
an experiential war procedural.
as one must post 1998, he’s channelling private ryan over mann or kubrick here - but through his own lens. the lack of dialogue is magic after some heavy exposition films (plus the surprisingly short run time).
whitehead looks like a teen version of young bale - the thought is so obvious!
styles in this i guess is a gesture to sinatra in from here to eternity?
the trio of timelines is potentially sondheim-stoppard-self-satisfied but it’s…Translated from by -
Interstellar 2014
finally recognizing how really extraordinary this is. he goes for awe, and awe he gets. you’d say it was his peak if you hadn’t seen what follows.
mcconaughey is actually a perfect fit for nolan - self-serious by this point in his career, but incapable of getting stuck in one gear so he sells the formality of the text with human aplomb. he can’t help but try to find humanity in it - even if it’s rarely surprising or exciting.…Translated from by
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Inception 2010
for a movie that keeps talking about going deeper, this is revealing itself to be startlingly shallow on the first rewatch in a long time.
dicaprio is just stating circumstances and invented adages.
i hadn’t realised how similar tenet was to this. in his popcorn movies, he really does go boring with his leading men (bale’s wayne, here, washington in tenet) in search of cool.
hardy is a fucking electromagnet in this.
there’s a thinness that’s hidden by aesthetic that…Translated from by -
Amsterdam 2022
yes it’s muddy and messy and overwritten and stagnant and up it’s own arse.
but it’s also sincere and idiosyncratic (albeit wilfully so) and has moments that are delightful.
watching on a sofa on a sunday, which feels like a better delivery system for it than a cinema might have been. i actually got invested in the story, enjoyed being in the world and found some of the scenes properly singular.
bale so charming (though he seems to be doing…Translated from by
