
I’m guesting on movie podcast SpyHards again
I join special agents Scott and Cam to talk about the 2017 Doug Liman film American Made.
handcrafted film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
I join special agents Scott and Cam to talk about the 2017 Doug Liman film American Made.
Ejiofor and Hathaway are game, but they’re grasping for something solid, and don’t find it. A deeply unsatisfying novelty artifact of the pandemic that fails to create a necessary sense of transgression.
Style and humor galore, and a hugely entertaining performance from Tom Cruise. But should a true story of immense governmental corruption be quite this fun?
A witty, clever, character-driven bit of science fiction wonderfulness, full of suspense, surprise, tension, and an unexpected poignancy.
About 25 minutes of footage from the film and a Q&A with director Doug Liman reveals some pleasant surprises (and a reason to worry). No spoilers!
Wasn’t there a TV soap called Edge of Tomorrow years back? (It was two soap operas, in fact: Search for Tomorrow and The Edge of Night.)
This ain’t the real *12 Rounds.* Not the actual movie. It’s more like a storyboard. Or an animatic. That’s it. Just to give you an idea of what the real movie’s gonna look like. Man, you’re gonna love it, I swear.
Oh my god could this be any more delicious? It’s hot and sexy and stuff blows up real good and there’s genuine *wit* and smarts and luscious allowance for the mysteries of lusty attraction and even lustier strife between men and women and did I mention it’s hot and sexy even though there’s hardly any actual sex worth mentioning actually in the movie?
So, Go’s three interconnected tales follow a diverse group of Los Angeles twentysomethings as their lives bang up against one another in a scenario that’s the 90s in a nutshell, from the Xer point of view: sex and danger that’s both exciting and terrifying (the clever script uses the word ‘go’ both in the imperative, let’s-get-out-of-here sense and also in the imperative, orgasmic sense, as a synonym for ‘come’). And is if to demonstrate typical Xer cynicism, it all happens while holly jolly Christmas passes by practically unnoticed in the background.