Dunkirk (Zefferellis, Ambleside)
Believe the hype. This is a taut, beautifully put together, almost impressionistic account of the Dunkirk evacuation, that somehow captures the big picture and certain personal stories that illuminate the human drama of the situation.
The score is wonderful, a series of variations on "Nimrod" that eventually resolve to the famous melody itself at the end of the film.
It's a really assured piece of work, by a director at the peak of his powers, evidently supported in telling the story his way by studio, cast and crew and trusting in cinema as a primarily visual medium - no lengthy expositional speeches here.
Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance stand out in particular in that cast, (Hardy's role as the Spitfire pilot reminding me slightly of his turn as Ivan Locke) but everyone does well, conveying a lot with few words.
Definitely recommended - I can't wait to see this again.
Jurassic World (Netflix)
Ok, but overly long, and no great shakes narratively. Nods a lot to the earlier films - not one to hurry to the top of your list, but not necessarily one to remove either.
The Hateful Eight (Prime)
"The Eighth Film from Quentin Tarantino" the titles announce portentously. How Tarantino is it? Well, very. He's still not employed an editor willing to stand up to him, and the film is baggy and over explanatory as a result. Individual scenes are gorgeous, but linger and linger past the point of one's patience being tried, either to get in more dialogue, or more of something in the frame that he evidently thinks "cool".
Despite having Morricone on board (and providing a score that manages to be reminiscent of the Westerns Tarantino clearly admires so much while stopping short of parody) there's the same jolting anachronisms in the non-original music that jolt you out of the film. And it's talky - boy, is it talky. The characters waffle at length, sometimes towards a point, and sometimes not. Everyone, pretty much, gets to call Samuel L. Jackson "n****r", and Jackson gets to call the sole female character "b***h", as do most of the male characters. Maybe this is edgy.
Really good actors struggle to escape the stereotypical characters they are given to play, with mixed results - Kurt Russell is pretty good (but better in Bone Tomahawk), Walton Goggins is a revelation, somehow transcending the triteness of his narrative arc.
It's gory, but with the same moral dizziness that characterises a lot of his other films, with pretty grim stuff being played for laughs sometimes (Jackson's shooting, the hanging) and sometimes not (the killings in the flashback section). It's a film that revels in a sadism that I found quite uncomfortable at times.
If you like Tarantino, you might like this, but it's not a patch on Django, and that's not a patch on any number of better Westerns that it self consciously homages. The hype around this director continues to mystify me, personally.
