Reaction Shots

This is a highly misleading poster. Which, given the protagonist, might make sense.  It’s been a weird year. Let’s just get that out of the way. We are very far from returning to normal, if that ever was really a thing. We were able to return to theaters and even that still feels weird/exceptional to me. If the omicron variant continues to pick up steam, we may see that return to the theatrical experience draw down again, in which case, I am grateful for what I have been able to see on the big screen. The latest is very much worthy of gratitude. Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket” is yet another film revelation of this guy’s immense talent. “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project” cemented him in my pantheon of original, heartfelt voices in 21st century cinema.  His use of non-professional actors, his remarkable sense of place (he has a special feel for the Gulf Coast, both Florida’s and Texas’), but mostly his sense of the humanity of the characters puts him up there with Richard Linkl...

For Part One, go here . Guillermo del Toro’s take on “Nightmare Alley” is apparently based more on the novel. I’ll keep that in mind but I don’t know if that’s going to do much for how I read the film. Taken on its own, his reading of the material is chock full of signature touches of remarkable beauty, lyrical surrealism, and set-ups the like of which no one else can do.   Much of the visual mastery owes to Dan Laustsen, del Toro’s cinematographer since “Crimson Peak” (not to mention the recent “John Wick” films) and that alone is almost enough to keep you engaged. The story is almost note for note the same as 1947’s version, but with more of a back story for Stanton Carlisle (Tyrone Power in the earlier version, Bradley Cooper here) and more Grand Guignol violence here. The take on Molly (Rooney Mara) is different; she’s not nearly as naive as her predecessor; Daniel Straithairn’s Pete is perhaps more nuanced than Ian Keith’s (both performances are great, by the way); Toni Colle...

Ahead of the release of Guillermo Del Toro’s remake of “Nightmare Alley”, I took it upon myself to rewatch this gem after nearly a half century since catching a glimpse on TV. Much of it (most) went over my head but it was permeated with enough despair - too much - to miss. Watching it with fresh eyes, I’m astonished that I’ve not seen it in subsequent years and frankly, just plain astonished. I disagree with the assessment that it’s not a classic and to some degree with James Agee that it’s “intelligent trash” (it is, but it’s not that exclusively). It’s unsettling in its lead amorality and the gray areas he inhabits. This is to say nothing of others in the film and in and of themselves would be almost characters were it not for a smarter than the material demands script and intense performances all around.  It opened to mixed reviews in 1947 and failed at the box office but it proved that Tyrone Power was much more than heir to Errol Flynn’s swashbucklery. Actually, he had pro...

The Review “West Side Story” is practically a religious text for me. I prefer it to its Shakespearean source material, cherish the original film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, and have seen it on stage a couple of times. Steven Spielberg’s latest opus is a miraculous, nearly perfect film adaptation that hews more closely to the original book than the film with a script by Tony Kushner that eclipses that of the 1961 film.  It boasts some of Janusz Kaminski’s finest cinematography, beautiful note-perfect performances, and of course, that score and those lyrics. Its emotional beats ebb and flow and overwhelm and threaten to overwhelm, but this is innate to the material and not a result of Spielbergian indulgence (which to honest, he hasn’t really indulged in in quite some time).  I had extreme trepidation about Spielberg mounting Sondheim’s masterpiece from an extreme distrust of his sentimentality to the possibility that he’d let the camera do too much of the a...