• It’s not Bigelow’s Hurt Locker or Zero Dark Thirty (military story, Mark Boal script) – Chandor doesn’t have Bigelow’s talents for action direction— it’s also not Ocean’s 11 (male-heavy, star-studded heist film)—Chandor doesn’t ooze breezy chic in the lighting and score—but it’s a solid update on The Treasure of Sierra Madre (complete with Mules)with a believable production design color theme
  • Greens galore- the jungle, the truck- hundreds of items, duffle bags, bags carrying money, the interior paint in the mansion—color design like 2018’s Leave No Trace with hints of Eastwood’s 2000’s – again—it’s not Antonioni doing Red Desert but it makes for an admirable mise-en-scene – it’s about money and greed and we get that but it’s effective
the bags, the uniform, the jungle, the tree painted in the background– greens
the color choice for the bag of money is no accident- believable (not an evaluation, a description with this word choice) color/production design themes here from Chandor
  • The “getting the band back together” scenes make it hard not to think of Soderbergh
  • The soundtrack is great- had to be expensive- Metallica, CCR- Dylan’s “Masters of War”
  • Great (and horrifying) image of donkey falling to death in a cloud of green bills
  • It hits the themes a little on the nose in the over script- I like the color choices—but the “he didn’t die for this money he died because of it” is just talking about the theme
  • Nice ending with the guy who memorizes numbers knowing the coordinates—open
  • Recommend