The Untouchables

More so than a movie, more so than a story, this flick is an entertainment. It can hardly be called flawless, but when you’re watching it you really couldn’t care less, because it is so engaging. Those flaws come largely—and somewhat ironically given the screenwriter’s reputation for a smartly crafted story—from David Mamet’s script, which indulges in a lot of bland exposition in its dialogue and plays fast and loose not only with the history, but also with just plain good storytelling. Despite his legendary arrogance about his craft, this work suggests Mamet doesn’t merit the rep. So if the storytelling is less than Grade A, why then does this movie work so well? Chalk it up to a host of likable characters, truly exceptional production design—everything looks fabulous, from the Armani clothes to the period cars to the detailed build of every inhabited space—and a plethora of fantastic scenes, including great, well-choreographed action sequences, impressive visuals (director Brian de Palma’s handiwork), and a whole catalog of memorable lines. Get enough of those goodies together and an audience will forgive a movie’s flaws. (One extra perspective added by re-watching this film in 2026: just how much Robert De Niro’s Al Capone stirs up echoes of a certain president.) I don’t know about untouchable, certainly not impeccable—but very, very watchable.

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1

How the West was, once. Like another sprawling epic about the nation’s expansion, this movie covers a lot of ground, figuratively and literally, but in this case it does so a bit more reflectively than the gung-ho epics of yesteryear. The story’s disparate threads are indeed so disparate that the viewer must wonder if all these people are ever going to come together, and it is only the promise of at least one more movie that offers hope that it will all eventually tie together. Indeed, it can be difficult to keep everyone straight while watching this flick, as there are so many characters scattered across the landscape—with few of them ever formally introduced—that the viewer must be forgiven for losing track. So clarity of story is not necessarily a strong suit here. Nevertheless, the tales that are being told do mostly make for compelling viewing, especially in the most harrowing scenes (quite a few characters die throughout, starting early on). Added to the stories that hold the interest is a visual feast; this film looks amazing all over. Put it all together and you wind up with a film that’s somewhat flawed, but also very much worth seeing. And one suspects the second chapter, unburdened of the need to perform any backstory, should really start to pull these stories together into a cohesive narrative. Building a cinema epic, much like building a nation, takes a lot of time and effort. 

Let Him Go

This is the sort of movie that a young person cannot watch, or at least cannot watch and really hope to understand. You need the perspective of passing years and advanced life stations in your personal background to really see the stakes in this story. The movie's strong side is its presentation, particularly in its early scenes; the film tells its story with clarity and economy, utilizing good visual and aural details and avoiding  clutter to create a sense of time, place, and sensibility. The leads represent another strength; Diane Lane is both the film's emotional core--showing both determination and vulnerability in equal and equally important measures--and driving force (and she remains quite attractive, even playing someone's grandmother), while Kevin Costner brings his longstanding status as a symbol of fundamental decency to a role that, ultimately, might make the viewer wonder a bit about the real worth of such a character trait. The weakness of this film is almost existential in nature, specifically: what exactly about this story is supposed to make it appealing (or at least appealing enough that moviegoers will want to watch it)? There is an individual--or at least a familial--tragedy in the through lines of this tale...but how much impact can it have on the larger picture of life? The inherent warning about the dangers of this society's redneck subculture remains pertinent--a little too pertinent, in fact--but that's not exactly the sort of thing that gets audiences engrossed, other than with a certain contempt or revulsion. Honestly, if not for the star power of the leads, I doubt very many viewers would wish to bother with what is, ultimately, a dreary and somewhat depressing story. It's not bad, but it's probably a bit too heavy for most to take. Give it a shot if you're really into deep drama, but just know going in that you're not likely to walk away feeling good about things.

Hidden Figures

That space race stuff never gets old. Throw in a bit of civil rights action to go along with it, and there's a chance you might start feeling good about this country again. The best part here is the performance of Taraji P. Henson, who so often plays characters with a hard edge; in this case, she shows a vulnerability and charm that amplifies the intelligence and worthiness of her Katherine G. Johnson. Octavia Spencer portrays Dorothy Vaughan well enough, and Janelle Monae is strong as Mary Jackson in a piece of the story that gets somewhat short shrift in this narrative. Much of the action centers on indignities great and small, so it's somewhat amazing that there's enough "overcoming" to make this ultimately and uplifting picture. It makes you wonder what human resources are currently being forced into unproductivity through cultural blindness. Definitely worth a look, and worth thinking about.

Molly's Game

There's a reason that 'slow' is a synonym for 'stupid." However, 'quick' or 'fast' does not necessarily equate to 'smart' or 'clever.' When you make a movie where the chief angle of the storytelling lies in saying a lot of stuff fast and running a number of visuals by the audience in something near a blur, in order to imply how clever you are, you'd really better have a lot of actual clever behind it, or otherwise the whole thing just comes across as someone trying to convince you of how clever he is, even if he's not. This here's a case in point: there are flashes of the cleverness throughout this movie, but not enough to make you really believe in the intelligence of the script or the writer/director. It would also help if protagonist Molly Bloom really was a sympathetic character, rather than a 'maybe she is, maybe she isn't' heroine of the piece. This film's highest virtue is you get healthy doses of Jessica Chastain, which is never bad, but in this case isn't necessarily enough to lift this work any higher than average. All in all, everyone played this hand into something decent, maybe three of a kind--but a royal flush it isn't.

Draft Day

So it's come to this: the NFL is now producing propaganda films like some 1930s dictatorship. One wonders if there is as much veracity in this exhibition as one might have found in, say, the movie within a movie in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Either way, the Sabols are either spinning in their graves, or dancing in Hell, depending. Much of this movie comes across as Stupid with a capital S, though I must grudgingly admit that there's enough entertainment here to keep the viewer engaged. This is the kind of role Kevin Costner is good at, though everyone else in the cast is basically a cardboard cutout. Watch it if you really dig sports movies; just don't let yourself fall too far under the spell of "the shield."

Man of Steel

A surprise, in that it was much better than I thought it would be. By this point the Superman story is so played out that it seems impossible to make a movie out of it that will actually have any ability to impact the viewer, yet this one does so. The film accomplishes this by tapping into the fundamentals of the story--Superman being clearly the most messianic of all the comic book stories--and laying bare the reason why these movies have become such a huge part of the zeitgeist: our growing desperation and ever-burgeoning desire for someone to come and save us. It’s almost heartbreaking, in that sense, since we don’t live in a movie and can’t expect such a person to truly arrive--but at least we have these few hours of film during which we can dream that dream.

Open Range

A film that's beautiful from the first scene, but not very engaging at the start. That's why it's such a pleasant surprise when the story grows more engrossing and enjoyable as it progresses. The ultimate payoff comes as a satisfying film about realistic, complex characters that never falls prey to being too showy, too heavy-handed, or anything it doesn't need to be. Costner lets his film speak for itself, and you'll like what it has to say.

The Upside of Anger

Alert! There's been a Kevin Costner sighting. Good work, too. Too bad it's in a bad movie. The story is simply not engaging, too weighed down by Joan Allen's flawed central character to make much headway with the viewer. (We're told at the beginning how good she is/was, but we see no evidence of that fact within the story. Kinda hard to generate much sympathy that way...) You can easily see why the movie failed with viewers.

Thirteen Days

Not great, not bad. The historical accuracy is questionable, but some interesting points about power and moral authority are raised, ideas that continue to have practical relevance.