#2,213 - Spectre

Our Brand is Crisis - ★★★☆☆
No no, the plot is something to do with an election. The movie is about revenge. Selfish, shameless, futile revenge. And how it fixes everything.

The Host - ★★★½☆
This was more fun than I was expecting. Maybe I always have a fondness for a movie whose real villain is bureaucracy.

Trumbo - ★★★☆☆
This is a structurally weird movie. Trumbo just wins and wins and wins. I bet it's fun for a bunch of actors to fill out the supporting cast of Hollywood legends.

Spectre - ★★★☆☆
It's fine; it's a Bond movie.
• Maybe the worst song on record though?
• Blofeld could have been handled better, but at least it wasn't a Khan situation.
• Do Bond movies ever have a B-story? - Is this the looming influence of Mission: Impossible?
• I think a little continuity adds flavor to the 007 movies, but in this case: too much.

A Year of Gangbusters! IV

One time, Jeffrey Jay was on Gangbusters! and it was terrific. 

Also, the Gangbusters! 1-year Anniversary Show! is on Friday. 

#succinct #brief #compact #tothepoint #onpoint #eliminateneedlesswords #elementsofstyle #strunkandwhite #ebwhite #charlottesweb #weboflies #houseofcards #brevity #brevityisthesoulofwit #atwitsend #atworldsend #letsbooboo #terse #condensed #condensation #condescension #itmeanstalkingdownto #itsmenstalkingdowntown #somepercentagemustwork #notallstalking #thereallisaching #pithy #epigrammatic #verbose

#2,209: Bridge of Spies

Exam - ★★½☆☆
I was hoping this movie would remind me of Cube, and it kind of does, but it's not as satisfying. It doesn't commit hard enough often enough.

Circle - ★★★☆☆
Where Exam felt like a movie written straight-ahead, front-to-back, based on someone's notion of an interesting way to start a script, Circle feels like a movie written with an outline, maybe even an idea of how a movie might end and constructed from there. The opening here might be a little more clumsy, but it marches swiftly on towards a bold conclusion, which is a much more satisfying thing to do.

Closer to the Moon - ★★½☆☆
This is a kind of interesting story told in a sort of boring way.

Bridge of Spies - ★★★★★
This movie had everything! Spies? check! Bridge? check! A maybe too-safe feeling hero? check! Lovely, deliberate, and motivated camerawork? check!

I had a really great time watching this, especially with all the on-screen spying going on. I was a little disappointed when the bridge finally showed up, because I didn't want to get to the end of the story. I didn't know I could be more satisfied with my movie-going experience until the credits finally rolled and some goof in the back shouted out 'that was terrible!'

Plus, if you live in the US, take your ticket stub to participating Burger King restaurants for the promotional tie-in Bridge of Fries! Mine came with a Tom Hanks of ketchup.

The Prayer, by Matthias Schubert

As crowdfunding videos go, this is a pretty good one. And as filmmakers go, Matthias is a pretty good one too.

He's the cinematographer of the two best feature films I've helped to make: The Selling and Diani & Devine Meet the Apocalypse, as well as an awful lot of commercials I've found myself working on over the past year. I trust him to make a movie worth making. Help him do that on Seed&Spark.

#2,205: Sicario

The Double - ★★½☆☆
Really dug how the opening tosses you in the deep end. Liked seeing what life was like for Sam Lowry's co-workers. Probably a bad sign that I found the actual plot less interesting, once it finally got in gear.

Miracle Mile - ★★☆☆☆
Fun to see my neighborhood 30 years ago. Almost any time a character is going somewhere in this movie they're going the wrong direction in reality. I was never not interested to see what this movie had next in store. Feeling very interested in remaking (or at least swedeing) this.

John Wick - ★★★☆☆
I think I heard a little too much about this one in advance, but like John Wick himself, it lived up to its reputation. Stays just on the right side of the line between action movie world-building and goofiness that tends to trip up your Ultraviolets and such.

Sicario - ★★★½☆
• Denis Villeneuve is someone who seems very interested in whether the ends justify the means.
• Everyone who manages to actually hurt Kate is an employee of the United States government.
• Benicio Del Toro IS Jack Reacher IN Sicario!
• I'm happy that serious movie season has arrived.