Nothing in this film is particularly remarkable or memorable in any way. It isn’t really meant to be. It’s a breezy affair from an experienced filmmaker, a fun heist film with relatively minimal conflict and broadly sketched stakes. That’s not to say the stakes aren’t there; they just don’t feel all too prominent. Soderbergh doesn’t quite give us enough to really flesh out his characters, but he manages to imbue them with just enough humanity to help them transcend caricature status. This results in some unexpectedly poignant scenes, mostly involving the relationship between Tatum’s character and his daughter. It additionally absolutely helps that the cast is great all around, with the standouts being Daniel Craig’s zany safecracker and Riley Keough’s stylishly steely hairdresser (seriously, when has this woman not been great? She is on a rise to stardom and I am lucky to witness it). This is also quite a funny film, and Soderbergh does a nice job with camera positioning and misdirection in order to mine visual humor from his scenes.
Columbus Review
17 AugThe best scene of Columbus is serene, yet dripping with emotion. It’s deeply passionate, a small slice of life that speaks volumes even though it’s as quiet as can be. I won’t give too much away here, but what sparks it is a question from one character to another about a building they’re standing in front of. It has to do with meaning, with personal connection, with finding something amidst the complicated assembling of inanimate objects. It has to do with your engagement with the world around you, and the value within that process is something that Kogonada certainly understands and connects to. That’s one of the more profound ideas that the film expresses, and it’s done so in a visually lyrical manner. Kogonada makes his human characters living, breathing elements of the architecture in the background, utilizing symmetry from both visual and character-based standpoints as Jin and Casey (Cho and Richardson, the latter of which is particularly incredible) wander through their environment.
Detroit Review
6 AugIt’s easy to try to do too much with a historical film. As a filmmaker, you might feel the need to cast a wide net over the events in question, going down a laundry list of important events in an effort to do due diligence to history. I prefer the approach taken by Detroit, which zeroes in on the Algiers Motel and stays with it for over an hour. The film certainly provides context for the tensions that flare in that motel, opening the film with an excellent prologue that places you right in the heat of the Detroit riots. However, Bigelow’s concerns do not lie with the riots as a whole; rather, she and Boal are interested in how the backdrop of the riots feed into an event like the one at the Algiers Motel. The approach has some flaws, of course. Are there some meandering scenes with iffy dialogue? Yes. Are there moments a bit lacking in nuance? You bet. Does the character development sometimes fail to match up with the intense emotions we’re asked to feel for the characters? Sure. Are various perspectives omitted? Absolutely.