An engaging and detailed docudrama proceduralHoward Shore does great work here with his subtle scoreAcademy Award winner for best picture and screenplay and that—and the acting- are the strengths of the film—I’m not dying to see what McCarthy does nextIt does actually break away from McCarthy’s tendencies in terms of themes as auteur from The Station Agent, to The Visitor to Win/Win these are largely fish out of water stories- I guess you could argue that Liev Schrieber as the Jewish lead editor from Miami and Stanley Tucci as the quirky Armenian lawyer are the heroes in Boston—a foreign

Dirk Bogarde is fantastic-  not only a dual role (they didn’t really have these in 1959 like we see with Dead Ringers, Adaptation and so many others more contemporary cinema – I guess Alec Guinness was doing a bit of this work but still- it shows not only range for Bogarde but tremendous complexity and inner angst even within one of his roles here)- he’s amazing- and a revelation in 1959 and the beginning of an impressive decade to 15 years for him Olivia de Havilland- 20 years after Gone with the Wind is great here- She’s a great

1.0- October 2018 electricity on the stage thanks to Aronofsky's DP Matthew Libatique and raw intimacy in the dramatic off-stage scenes thanks to two (or three if you count sam elliott) powerhouse performances (tremendous moment here) you can definitely see the beautiful stage lighting work and comparisons with like Black Swan Cooper’s performance is very good- but certainly very borrowed from Sam Elliott’s voice (a point acknowledged, in a way that’s very well done in the film), part Kris Kristofferson—part Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart for sure Lots of closeups as a camera choice—typical of an actor turned director-

I think only now with the hindsight of McKay’s established style in The Big Short and Vice is Anchorman archiveableLike the rest of his work this has a ridiculous quote in the prologueWe have cameos and deep casting (from little known at the time Seth Rogan and Kathryn Hahn) to Tim Robbins, Jack Black and Ben Stiller—cameos, inventive cutting and deep casting are there in McKay’s 2010’s workSplit-screen editing-- inventive montagesIt’s hilarious—absolutely—but we have the influence of Apatow’s abundance of improve both good and bad (Will Ferrell uses “mountain” twice as a punch-line in 5 minutes which is just

A Biblical parable—a film of two halves that reminded me of the work of Ermanno Olmi, Bertolucci, Walt Disney, Bresson, Being There and Apichatpong WeerasethakulShot on 16mmRural first half—grounded in neo-realism with hardships, unprofessional extras and real babies crying. This could be the Olmi film—there’s the peasants vs the patrons which could be Bertolucci’s 1900Lazzaro (not an accidental name with the surprise death and resurrection) is a simpleton, a saint, he has a uniform, he’s genuine—reminded me of Bresson’s Donkey in Au Hasard Balthazar or Bess in Breaking the Waves in waysThe Marquis as pure evil drops this into

It’s British New Wave (clearly Richardson from Look Back in Anger, Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner) taking on some of the style of the French New Wave- mainly TruffautOne of the best edited films of the 1960’s- the editing is a characterAcademy Award wins for picture, writer, director and scoreFirst of 5 noms for FinneyFinney was one of the go-to first faces on the acting side of the British New Wave- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning- 1960—he’s also a small role in Richardson’s The Entertainer It updates Henry Fielding’s for the modern generation—not quite like Sofia Coppola did

A meditation on isolation and celebrity that has to be seen in the context of Sofia’s brilliant oeuvre. These are hermetically-sealed worlds- Virgin Suicides, The Beguiled-- privilege- Bling Ring, Marie Antoinette Opens with a metaphor that annoyed some but I loved it- Stephen Dorff is literally driving his Ferrari in circles on a road to nowhere then spends the bulk of the film in his Hotel California hell—Bonfire of the Vanities Golden Lion in Venice winnerA tone poem—I wish the visuals were a little stronger (we’d have a sure must-see top 5 of the year film) but still- more