• After a disappointing debut, little odessa, it is the arrival of young auteur (31 at the time) James Gray
  • Gray’s marks as auteur draw tons of similarities to coppola- the classic narrative here (which is really well done) owes much to the Godfather and american new wave cinema of the late 60’s and 70’s—his casting of james caan, Burstyn and Dunaway also are a nod to that—both Burstyn and Caan are terrific here
  • Overall it’s just a jaw-dropping cast not only with those actors mentioned here previously but young actors Wahlberg, joaquin phoenix and Charlize theron
  • The lighting and décor is a stand out- a green yellow lighting that is part Gordon Willis and part David Fincher
  • Opens with a party (the godfather), even the score sounds a little like a knock-off Nino Rota, there’s even a hearing that is right out of the senate hearing in godfather 2
  • Woefully underrated by metacritic- 58 score
  • There’s a decent sized flaw here and it’s the way wahlberg’s character is written- his intelligence fluctuates way too much depending on what the narrative needs. He’s very shrewd in portions and unbelievably dumb in others. It’s bad form.
  • Fantastic shot of the deep shadows under the eyes of Phoenix in the finale
  • Not in the top 10 of 2000 but in the archives
  • Highly Recommend