Tag Archives: Willem Dafoe

Dead For A Dollar review — Not too much good, mostly bad and ugly

September 28, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Walter Hill | Written by Hill and Matt Harris | 114 min | ▲▲△△△ | On Digital and VOD Walter Hill is a towering figure in Hollywood genre filmmaking. He directed The Driver, The Warriors, 48 hrs, and Johnny Handsome. He learned his craft at the side of Sam Peckinpah. His career is legendary, but since… Read More

The Northman review — Rage, religion, and po-faced myth

April 29, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Robert Eggers | Written by Eggers and Sjón | 137 min | ▲▲▲△△ | Crave Welcome to another bleak, violent historical tale from American auteur Robert Eggers, with plenty of his now well-established horror-tinged weirdness — lots of dolly-ins and characters staring into our souls — but all at a much bigger scale.… Read More

Nightmare Alley review — del Toro’s noir is grim, gorgeous, and glacial

December 21, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Guillermo del Toro | Written by del Toro and Kim Morgan, based on a novel by William Lindsay Gresham | 150 min | Crave In October 2017 I was in Toronto for two reasons: One to attend the 50th birthday party of a good friend, the other to see Guillermo del Toro's remarkable… Read More

Spider-Man: No Way Home review — Amazing and spectacular, both

December 20, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Jon Watts | Written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers | 148 min | Amazon Prime Let's have a chat about the definition of "fan service." It's a term that gets thrown around a lot lately, especially in relation to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's the idea is that these movies' producers are… Read More

The French Dispatch review — I don’t really get it. Still worth seeing, though.

November 1, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Wes Anderson | Written by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Hugh Guinness, and Jason Schwartzman | 108 min | In Cinemas I've long appreciated Wes Anderson's strange magic. I have plenty of time for his tiny twee classics like Moonrise Kingdom, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and the writer-director's masterpiece, The Grand Budapest Hotel.… Read More

The Card Counter review — Paul Schrader’s all in with dark thriller

September 9, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Paul Schrader | 109 min | In Cinemas "Nothing can justify what we did. If you were there you’d understand that. Otherwise, there is no understanding.” This is a little truism spoken by William Tell (Oscar Issac) —his surname's actually Tolliver, but his nom-de-pari is the poorly chosen Tell. He's a professional… Read More

The Last Thing He Wanted review — Promising thriller loses the plot

March 19, 2020 flawintheiris

Directed by Dee Rees | Written by Rees and Marco Villalobos, from the book by Joan Didion | 115 min | Netflix 35 years ago, The Last Thing He Wanted wouldn't have been an outlier. It would've joined other political dramas based on actual geopolitical events, stories of fictional journalists and innocents caught up in dodgy… Read More

Motherless Brooklyn — Edward Norton’s genre epic mostly works

November 8, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by Edward Norton } Written by Norton, adapting the novel by Jonathan Lethem | 144 min | Crave Plus How did Norton, who hasn't directed since Keeping The Faith in 2000, manage to get this feature made, one where he produces, writes, directs, and acts? I'm impressed, but just the same I'm often a… Read More

The Lighthouse review — Gothic, gloomy, and gross

October 23, 2019 flawintheiris

Directed by Robert Eggers | Written by Robert and Max Eggers | 109 min | On Demand I saw this feature at the closing night screening of the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival, and despite the hubbub and festival enthusiasm, the presence of the filmmaker and one of his stars, Willem Dafoe, I didn't much… Read More

#FIN2019 Final Day — Highlights, Random Observations, and The Lighthouse review

September 20, 2019 flawintheiris

While I didn't take in quite as many films as I'd hoped, or may have on other years, I still feel like I got to take a solid bite out of the 2019 FIN Atlantic Film Festival, including seeing many more documentaries than usual. Feature Highlights: Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Arab Blues, Parasite,… Read More