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rogmortsmith
Reviews
The Lesson (2023)
A subtle and intriguing film
Describing this as a thriller was probably a bad idea, as it seems to have led a lot of reviewers to expect car chases, gunfights and things blowing up. It's a much subtler film than that.
This is an intelligent and intriguing film with some excellent performances. Some reviewers seem to have found the character of JM Sinclair, feted novelist and domestic tyrant, unbelievable - I only wish it were! Surely the pantheon of American literary lions proves it is anything but.
It does make a couple of missteps, however - the moment when Liam confronts Sinclair with what he knows doesn't quite land, and are we really supposed to believe that Liam's memory, however remarkable, allows him to recall a novel word for word from reading it once?!? That stretches credulity. I also wish Julie Delpy had been given more to do, she is underused here.
Anyway, we should be grateful that films like this are being made, an island of intelligence in the midst of a sea of Marvel comics idiocy.
By the Way, Woody Allen Is Innocent (2020)
Thank you Rick Worley
I only wish more people would see this than that HBO garbage.
Enemy (2013)
You too can make a David Lynch movie
Actually, you almost certainly can't. It turns out David Lynch is incredibly talented, and throwing a few surreal elements into a stilted and turgid narrative doesn't result in Mulholland Drive, or anything like it.
As for the "split personality" trope, I can't do better than recommend the speech given by a character in the movie Adaptation about what a hackneyed and lazy device that is.
One thing I'll say for this is that Jake Gyllenhaal is excellent – you never have any doubt which of the two he's playing. But this script requires him to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.