The murder mystery is being reinvented in the wake of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out trilogy, though that doesn’t mean every film in the genre will be worthwhile. However, you can see how Johnson’s film served as the blueprint for Anton Corbijn’s A Talent for Murder. Patricia Highsmith’s psychological thriller is refraimed within the trappings of a whodunit, though its conclusion may be
Read MoreIt feels great to not only see a major blockbuster that looks and feels like a movie—with heightened colors, expressive camerawork, baroque lighting compositions, A-list actors giving boisterous, theatrical performances—but also to see great reverence expressed for the source material it’s adapting. In fact, Kitao Sakurai’s transposition of CAPCOM’s Street Fighter might be the first live-action film entry in a franchise
Read MoreAnyone who thinks image-making matters less than “the story” (whatever that means) should watch David Fincher’s The Social Network and Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning side by side. Shot by the same cinematographer, Jeff Cronenweth, it won’t be long before you realize why Fincher’s film stands the test of time as one of the most impactful masterpieces of the 2010s. But
Read MoreThe one good thing about Michael Showalter’s Verity is that it has more verve than previous adaptations of Colleen Hoover’s work. It’s not very good, but at least Showalter has fun with compositions that recall the oeuvres of Brian De Palma and Paul Verhoeven. Plenty of split-diopters and superimpositions create a quasi-campy quality as cinematographer Jim Frohna captures Lowen Ashleigh’s (Dakota
Read MoreDirectorial choices can undoubtedly hamper a film, and no motion picture released this year proves this inextricable fact more than Paul Greengrass’ The Uprising. The film is allegedly a prequel to the legend of Robin Hood, but not really. The marketing desperately tried to convey that this was a thrilling reinterpretation of the archetypal story, but Greengrass’ style proves unsuitable for
Read MoreWithin the first second of Josef Kubota Wladyka’s Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, the American filmmaker of Polish and Japanese descent immediately grabs our attention with large (and maximalist) title cards that announce a boisterous theatrical event. Divided into six chapters (plus an epilogue), Wladyka follows a Japanese dancer named Haru (Rinko Kikuchi), who competes in ballroom competitions with her boyfriend Luis (Alejandro Edda). A story
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