The Trial Of The Chicago 7 (2020) - Movie Review

After several years as a writer, with a voice so distinctive that it bears his name in common parlance, Aaron Sorkin made his directorial debut with Molly’s Game a little while back. Now, while it showed him having ample ability at bringing his own words to the screen (basically the minimum required of writers-turned-directors), there’s something else about that feature that seems to have been overlooked. I got into it in my review proper, and even brought it up looking at Let Him Go a few days ago, but essentially, his first leap showed him as an astounding director of actors. He managed to squeeze a career-highlight performance out of Kevin Costner, and that kind of rapport isn’t something that just every Joe Bloggs with a camera can pull off. So when he’s handed an even bigger all-star cast for his follow-up, you better believe that effect is amplified.

Ready Player One (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: In the year 2045, most of the world has been become desolate and most of the population spends their time inside the OASIS, a virtual reality containing pretty much anything a person could want. However, with the death of OASIS co-creator James Halliday (Mark Rylance), a new game has been established. Before his death, Halliday placed hidden items within the OASIS. Whoever finds all of the items first not only gets major bragging rights, but also becomes the official owner of the OASIS itself. As adventurous teen Wade 'Parzival' Watts (Tye Sheridan) tries to hunt down the items, and corporate CEO Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn) sets out to seize the OASIS for himself, the race is on to find Halliday's Easter Egg and both the virtual world and the real world hang in the balance.

Dunkirk (2017) - Movie Review

Christopher Nolan is one of those directors who seems to ferociously divide audiences, usually in reference to the director’s more staunch defenders. He has made some truly incredible films, like the cerebral heist flick Inception and the ground-breaking superhero film The Dark Knight, both of which I’d count among my favourite films ever… but the guy’s reputation has been stuck in a bit of a mire for a while now.

 

Interstellar wasn’t that well received overall, and while The Dark Knight Rises still holds up as a good Batman film, it and combined with his involvement in Man Of Steel resulted in the current state of the DC Extended Universe, one that was definitely painted with Nolan’s dark brushstrokes from his Batman work. Naturally, as is the case with pretty much all of his films, the marketing for his latest has been rather inescapable. Knowing my own hesitance to full-force advertising of films and my want for him to pull through with a film that I don’t have to defend quite so hard as something like Rises, this is already looking like an interesting situation for a film’s release.

 

But that’s all background noise; what’s the actual movie like?

The BFG (2016) - Movie Review

Steven Spielberg is one of those filmmakers that downright demands attention, although not for reasons you may think. Sure, he’s the guy largely responsible for the modern-day blockbuster and has helped shape American cinema into what it is today, but in the last few years, it seems like the guy has kicked into a higher gear. Along with working with alarming regularity for a filmmaker of his stature, releasing five films in as many years, he has also taken to collaborating with some pretty high-profile names during that time. Between working with Peter Jackson along with some of the biggest names in British screenwriting on The Adventures Of Tintin, putting a script written by legendary playwright Tony Kushner to the screen with Lincoln or bringing in the Coen brothers to help polish up last year’s excellent Bridge Of Spies, he seems to be a magnet for big-name talent behind the scenes right now. And keeping up with that pattern, he has brought a bunch of his regular teammates to make a big-budget version of a story by Roald Dahl, responsible for Matilda, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and The Witches, among many other classics. So, with all this hype behind it, how does it hold up?

Bridge Of Spies (2015) - Movie Review

This is the kind of double act that film buffs construct entire fantasy worlds around. On one hand, we have filmmaking maestro Steven Spielberg, the man who helped define cinema as it stands today. He is the reason why the word 'blockbuster' exists in Hollywood. On the other hand, we have the Coen brothers, whose captivating and poignant stories have gone to dominate both the underground and the mainstream. Hell, how many filmmakers do you know of whose works have inspired an entire religion around them? But you know the saying about what the road to Hell was built on; just because you have two great tastes doesn’t automatically mean you’re on the verge of the next Reese’s. But, out of respect for three legends of the craft, I will hope and pray at the altar of Welles that this all pans out for the best.