We lost Gene Hackman this past year, the legendary actor and star of The French Connection (1971), directed by William Friedkin. This film is dark and gritty, and exactly the kind of realistic action/thriller I live for experiencing. Hackman portrays Popeye Doyle, a tough-as-rocks narcotics agent on the tail of a big international heroin score.
More complexly put, it delicately walks the tightrope of being commentary on our sociopolitical landscape and simultaneously being a laugh-out-loud satirical comedy. Oh, and it’s an action film. PTA pulled out all the stops for this one, not only assembling an ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, Sean Penn, and newcomer Chase Infiniti...
The performances by Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright steal the show. Fantastic comedic and tense moments are offset by a majority of cringeworthy dialogue and the most awkward scoring choices I’ve ever heard. It felt like watching a soap opera at more than a handful of moments. Going off of that, the police dialogue had to be some of the worst I’ve ever seen. The redeeming moments are within the tense action scenes, led by the direction of Lee with Denzel on the move.
I have seen almost all of the Coen Brothers’ films, but Barton Fink (1991) continued to slip under the radar. And how? This is easily their most creative and inventive story! It follows John Turturro as the titular character, a neurotic young man who writes plays for the theater in the 1920s.
Aug 314 min read
'Crazy' is a term of art; 'Insane' is a term of law. Remember that, and you will save yourself a lot of trouble.
― Hunter S. Thompson
Scatch any cynic and you'll find a disappointed idealist.
