Reviews

Yet in the same film there are highly stylized sequences that are really nicely shot, like a series of tableaus showing different sex positions (man on top, woman on top, "I'm the king of the world", and so on) that for me landed just on the right side of sweet not stupid.

Jamie Gulpilil is an engaging lead, though he definitely has to deal with comparisons to his charismatic father, who also narrates the film.

There are a lot of layers to what is happening with Jack, and while the film can't avoid a few "underdog team coached by curmudgeon" tropes, I appreciated the way that the film portrayed Jack's at times desperate desire for the young players not to repeat his own mistakes.

I am SO GLAD that in checking out a little about the film about 30 minutes in, I came across the trivia that this movie is based on an unproduced screenplay from Jacques Tati, and that the main character is styled after Tati.

This isn't a slam on Renner, who is fine in his role, but more a question about why every scene in this movie centers white characters when one of its goals seems to be addressing the issues---boredom, isolation, drug use--that mar the lives of the people (and especially the young people) on the res...

It's one of many ways that the film leverages the fact that Aaron's character is a man and not a woman: we can just barely believe that Aaron would stay in a room with a man who, like ten minutes after they meet, strips naked in front of him.

There's a plot point in both the original film and this adaptation (MILD SPOILERS) that about a third of the way or halfway through the film, Joe learns that Kathleen is his secret correspondent.

Centering largely on a young, pregnant woman named Ruth (Karen Meagher), the film documents the increasingly futile efforts of the government to manage the crisis and of the citizens to deal with the fallout from the nuclear attack.

Though I hadn't seen the movie at the time, I remember that there were discussions about who would be nominated for which Academy Award: the film splits its time almost perfectly between its three lead characters, though with her dominating and unforgettable performance as Queen Anne, it's not surpr...

I was overall pretty impressed by this film, which is the kind of movie that sort of makes up the rules and reality as it goes, but always with a kind of consistent dream logic.