John Wick (2014) Review
John Wick (2014) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Two stuntmen directed it for twenty million dollars, put the camera far enough back to see the whole body, and built an entire criminal economy out of about…
Willem Dafoe has been nominated four times and has built a filmography that moves between studio blockbusters and difficult independent work without any apparent hierarchy between them. He came from the experimental Wooster Group theatre company and never fully left it.
The face does an enormous amount. He played Christ in The Last Temptation of Christ and the Green Goblin in Spider-Man within fifteen years, and both are plausible.
Platoon, Wild at Heart, Shadow of the Vampire, The Florida Project and The Lighthouse show the range, and the last of those is a two-hander in which he delivers a several-minute curse in period dialect without cutting.
He works constantly, frequently for first-time directors, and has said he chooses projects by the people, not the part.
Adrianne PalickiJohn Wick (2014) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Two stuntmen directed it for twenty million dollars, put the camera far enough back to see the whole body, and built an entire criminal economy out of about…
Chloe SevignyAmerican Psycho (2000) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Mary Harron read a novel everybody called unfilmable and found the comedy in it. Made for seven million dollars, mostly in Toronto, and it is far funnier and…
Anjelica HustonThe Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Anderson's least loved film and his saddest. A failing documentarian on a converted research vessel, hunting a shark that may not exist, and the…
Brian McCardieSpeed 2: Cruise Control (1997) rates 3 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The sequel that removed the one thing making the original work. A cruise ship cannot go fast, and the whole premise was speed.
Cary ElwesWhat if the actor in Nosferatu was a real vampire? The conceit is irresistible.
Claudia KarvanThe Spierig brothers imagined a near future where vampirism has won. It is a genuinely smart science-fiction idea, and for its first hour the film is a sharp dystopian satire.
Aaron Taylor-JohnsonRobert Eggers brings obsessive period craft to the third great Nosferatu, with a ferocious Lily-Rose Depp at its center. Nosferatu earns its 8 as the most beautiful and uncompromising vampire film in years, Robert Eggers bringing his obsessive period craft…
Forest WhitakerOliver Stone's 1986 Vietnam drama. Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe.
Chiwetel EjioforSpike Lee's 2006 Manhattan bank heist. Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Build.
Colin FirthAnthony Minghella's 1996 wartime romance epic. Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas.
Asia Argento1998 Abel Ferrara sci-fi with Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe as corporate spies. Adapts William Gibson cyberpunk story.
Oscar IsaacSchrader's 2021 gambling drama. Oscar Isaac as an Abu Ghraib veteran on the poker circuit.
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