The MCU Phase 2 – Finding the Formula
Iron Man 3 through Ant-Man, in release order with scores and craft notes. Phase 2 found the formula and set both the ceiling and the floor of the franchise.
Tag: Writing Craft (Page 9)
1990sSe7en (1995) Review
Se7en (1995) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The rain never stops, the city has no name, and the killer wins exactly as planned. Fincher's second film, made after a first one he has disowned.
1990sThe Big Lebowski (1998) Review
The Big Lebowski (1998) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A Raymond Chandler plot handed to a man with no interest in solving it. Failed on release, found its people later, and spawned a festival and something…
2010sParasite (2019) Review
Parasite (2019) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A house built on a vertical axis, a family climbing it, and a genre change at the midpoint that almost no film survives. The first non-English winner of Best…
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 Withdrawn from Britain by its own director for nearly thirty…
2000sAtonement (2007) Review
Atonement (2007) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A thirteen-year-old tells a lie and two lives end. The last ten minutes do not reveal a fact, they change what kind of object you have been watching.
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.
AmbitionAll About Eve (1950) Review
All About Eve (1950) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. The best script ever written about ambition, in a film where everybody is intelligent and nobody has to be dim for the schemer to win. Fourteen nominations,…
1960sDirty Dancing (1987) Review
Dirty Dancing (1987) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A film about class and an illegal abortion, marketed as a summer romance. Made for five million dollars by people nobody expected anything from, and still running forty…
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,…
2000sRoad to Perdition (2002) Review
Road to Perdition (2002) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A gangster film shot like a painting, about a man teaching his son a trade while trying to keep him out of it. Conrad Hall's last work…