Point Blank (1967) Review
Point Blank (1967) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Lee Marvin threw the script in the bin, handed his script and casting approval to a British director who had never worked in Hollywood, and the result is…
Tag: Ambiguity
Ambiguity done well is generosity: the story trusts you to finish it. This tag collects reviews and essays on deliberately ambiguous films and fiction, where unanswered questions are the craft, not the flaw.
1970sKlute (1971) Review
Klute (1971) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The film is called Klute and it is not about Klute. Jane Fonda won the Academy Award for a performance built out of therapy sessions and a tape recorder,…
1990s12 Monkeys (1995) Review
12 Monkeys (1995) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A time travel film in which the loop cannot be broken and everybody involved eventually works that out. Gilliam made it for twenty-nine million dollars in Philadelphia and…
1990sThe Usual Suspects (1995) Review
The Usual Suspects (1995) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A confession improvised from the noticeboard behind the detective's head. The twist survives knowing it, which is the only test that matters.
1970sA Clockwork Orange (1971) Review
A Clockwork Orange (1971) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Kubrick makes you enjoy a monster's company, then cures him, then asks whether the cure was worse. Withdrawn from Britain by its own director for nearly thirty…
2000sMunich (2005) Review
Munich (2005) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Spielberg's coldest film and the one that cost him most. A revenge picture in which every success makes the situation worse, and the argument is in the arithmetic.
1980sDonnie Darko (2001) Review
Donnie Darko (2001) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A time loop film that works better as a portrait of adolescence than as a mechanism. Failed on release for reasons of timing, found its people on DVD,…
1960sL’Avventura (1960) Review
L'Avventura (1960) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A woman vanishes on a yacht trip and the film loses interest in finding her. Jeered at Cannes, given a jury prize by the same festival, and on best-of…
2000sEastern Promises (2007) Review
Eastern Promises (2007) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Cronenberg on the Russian mafia in London, where the body is the filing system and the tattoos are the documents. The bathhouse fight works because nobody in it…
1980sBrazil (1985) Review
Brazil (1985) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A clerical error kills the wrong man and a whole film proceeds from a typo. The most internally consistent world in the genre, and Gilliam fought Universal for two…
AmbiguityA Reason to Look Twice
A small-time investigator photographs a woman meeting a man who isn't her husband and tries to blackmail her. He thinks he's caught a cheating wife. He's caught a spy who can't tell him what she is, can't pay him, and…
AmbiguityLot Fourteen
A foundation contractor drills through a coffin lid and finds forty dead souls underneath, one of whom is past reasoning and wants him dead in the hole. Dale talks for his life, makes the wrong offer, and learns that the…