Collateral
Collateral plays with the idea of how different people cross paths and influence each other almost as if it were planned. The film starts with Vincent (Tom Cruise) arriving in the city dressed in the outfit he will be sporting the entire film. We see Max (Jaime Fox) driving a woman, Annie (Jada Pickett Smith) to her job. They banter back and forth for a few minutes before she exits and hands Max her card saying “maybe we can…
Taxi Driver
God’s lonely man?
“It is not good that the man should be alone”
To complete the unofficial trilogy of Scorsese and De Niro’s collaborations I have to conclude with one of Scorsese’s most acclaimed works, Taxi Driver. Raging Bull explores the concept of Man vs self through the semi-biographical tale of Joey LaMotta, King of Comedy displays the world of idolatry in a satirical fashion, and Taxi driver is a brutal depiction of a lonely man in the…
Heat
Emphasizing the importance of family and exploring the ambiguous margins.
When speaking of this film I often hear people say that it’s “such a great heist film” but that seems to be an oversimplification. The film is so much more than that.
Recently I watched a YouTube video of Jonathan Pageau and in a section of the video he speaks of the role of the ‘hero’. His example of X-Men was the best to illustrate his thinking in my…
Beverly Hills Cop
Bring back (good) action comedies
Beverly Hills Cop fits within a genre of film that doesn’t really exist anymore. Where we could get immature male protagonist, who were incredibly cool while remaining competent. It seems that I cannot name another character in recent memory to successfully do this (Shawn Spencer is the only name to come to mind), in fact I can’t really recall a film of late that has made me laugh this much either.
The…
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
An informed defense
George Lucas is one of the most popular filmmakers in Hollywood but despite his fame he still remains one of the least understood. There’s a tendency, especially among modern audiences, to critique a film without attempting to understand it first. Lucas, in the prequel trilogy, channels some of his most talented skills as a filmmaker/storyteller and brings together his knowledge as a film lover in order to craft incredible films. …
