Don't Always Disagree

                Just so we’re clear, I didn’t like the narration in this movie because I never like the narration in any movie.   As examples go it was perfectly fine in and of itself, I don’t mind listening to Nicholas Hoult talk about things.   I just don’t like narration in general.   I don’t want to say something as severe as “narration is never a good idea” because there are plenty of examples where narration improves the movie (‘Sunset Boulevard,’ ‘Wings of Desire,’ etc.), it’s just that all too often it acts as a crutch for the filmmakers.   I have no proof, but I’m going to guess that well over half of the movies that use narration weren’t meant to, they had to fall back on it when they couldn’t make the movie work otherwise.   Be it budget cuts, blown coverage, actor availability for reshoots, something else about the movie went wrong first and, in order to make a cut that’s at least ...

              As anyone paying attention is already aware, Tom Cruise is probably a terrible person.   His entire career depends on that “probably.”   The occasional re-eruption of the ‘problematic artist’ debate will always rub up against him because of his ties to the cult of Scientology, but since there’s been no actual confirmed malfeasance on his part, even from those high-profile celebrities who have exited the Church, he’s never really been central to the debate.   Everyone can agree he’s super creepy and probably genuinely insane, and his proximity to the center of Scientology means he’s at least aware of the terrible, terrible things it does (just look up Sea Org to start down that rabbit hole), but no one has any actual dirt on him.               The reason I bring this up is that if you want to examine contemporary film auteurs y...

                I resisted the charms of Gerard Butler for as long as I could, but I think I’m finally a fan.   The clincher was reading up on the production of this movie and finding out that Butler himself was the one who insisted that the movie be called ‘Plane.’   The only reason I took notice of this movie at all was because of the post-ironic online buzz about that one-word title.   The actual movie is, for most of its runtime, a great deal better than that one word implies, although it does fully justify such a schlocky title by the end. Plain.               My first note when watching the movie was a happy little sentence celebrating that Butler got to use his actual Scottish accent.   It’s likely a coincidence that the original 2016 pitch was from fellow Scot Charles Cumming.   Cumming has been writing spy novels since...