trabuquera
Modesty Bag
Both late and disappointing:
The Outfit (2022) - intermittently ingenious but set-bound mini-noir with Mark Rylance as an (apparently) meek 'n mild tailor working among dangerous Chicago gangsters. Only there are twists. Not bad at all but very stagey, doesn't really use the visuals to much advantage. Also, Simon Russell Beale's accent as a supposed Irish-American neighbourhood hood boss is an absolute outrage. Makes me realise that both these two can act up a storm but neither has much ability with the code-switching, believable change of voice that is also meant to be part of the job.
Triple Frontier (2019) one of those perennial on-your-list Netflix things I finally cleared off but it wasn't worth the run time. Starry cast, amazing locations and high budget can't compensate for a bodged, lumbering script and a lack of any real intelligence. Supposedly a "high-octane Special Ops heist actioner" about a bunch of mercs robbing a drug lord for millions and millions and getting away clean - it ought to be exciting, right? But instead adds up to a plodding, dimwitted and ... surprisingly boring .... exercise in logistics. Couldn't help thinking of all those 'can you do lateral thinking?' questions in job interviews involving ferrying fox, geese and grain over a river without any eating the other. Worst of all, although there is an intriguing moment or two where it seems it might be about to grow a conscience and turn into some sort of critique, basically treats the entire continent of South America as a big boys' playground for 'murican mercs and there is no sense whatsoever of any of "the locals" being, y'know, humans with dignity. So gunning them down by the dozen is AOK then. Even flawed exercises like Three Kings or Sicario have more integrity than this. Truly surprising that Oscar Issac and Pablo Pascal - who I'd previously considered to be relatively right-on for Hollywood types with roots further south - got involved in this absolute farrago. Don't bother with it.
The Outfit (2022) - intermittently ingenious but set-bound mini-noir with Mark Rylance as an (apparently) meek 'n mild tailor working among dangerous Chicago gangsters. Only there are twists. Not bad at all but very stagey, doesn't really use the visuals to much advantage. Also, Simon Russell Beale's accent as a supposed Irish-American neighbourhood hood boss is an absolute outrage. Makes me realise that both these two can act up a storm but neither has much ability with the code-switching, believable change of voice that is also meant to be part of the job.
Triple Frontier (2019) one of those perennial on-your-list Netflix things I finally cleared off but it wasn't worth the run time. Starry cast, amazing locations and high budget can't compensate for a bodged, lumbering script and a lack of any real intelligence. Supposedly a "high-octane Special Ops heist actioner" about a bunch of mercs robbing a drug lord for millions and millions and getting away clean - it ought to be exciting, right? But instead adds up to a plodding, dimwitted and ... surprisingly boring .... exercise in logistics. Couldn't help thinking of all those 'can you do lateral thinking?' questions in job interviews involving ferrying fox, geese and grain over a river without any eating the other. Worst of all, although there is an intriguing moment or two where it seems it might be about to grow a conscience and turn into some sort of critique, basically treats the entire continent of South America as a big boys' playground for 'murican mercs and there is no sense whatsoever of any of "the locals" being, y'know, humans with dignity. So gunning them down by the dozen is AOK then. Even flawed exercises like Three Kings or Sicario have more integrity than this. Truly surprising that Oscar Issac and Pablo Pascal - who I'd previously considered to be relatively right-on for Hollywood types with roots further south - got involved in this absolute farrago. Don't bother with it.
