Steven Soderbergh’s latest film, available on HBO Max, feels like the product of the filmmaker getting together with some frequent collaborators to knock out a film just because they enjoy it, not unlike a jam session. The result isn’t particularly cutting-edge or fresh, but there’s something to be said for when creatives meet up to bounce ideas around.
Read MoreBut in Hawley’s hands, the proceedings are a little bit too experimental to help us develop compassion for Lucy (Natalie Portman). By the time the movie wraps up, Lucy has fallen incredibly far - blasting her former lover in the eyes with insect spray and fleeing the cops in an airport parking garage - but her story is only unintentionally funny, instead of moving.
Read MoreWhereas American Gods often shows its mythological deities variously murdering or otherwise exploiting humans, Good Omens depicts Heaven and Hell as more of a pair of twin bureaucracies, pushing paperwork around and counting down the days to the end of the world with a cheerful, if grimly cynical attitude.
Read MoreGoddard brings vestiges of this approach to his newest film, Bad Times at the El Royale. He even carries over the theme of the characters being constantly watched by unknown forces. But though Goddard captures some strong performances in the process, Bad Times doesn’t have the subversion, shocks or flat-out hilarity of the filmmaker’s previous film. Instead, we get an overlong exercise in brilliant setup, with no follow-through.
Read MoreThe shortcut to describing Baby Driver is to call it a heist film. But the more you think about it, the less that label applies to the new film from Edgar Wright. Movies that truly belong in the heist genre tend to break down the crime, showing us detail-by-detail how the brilliant thieves got away with it. But there’s something more pressing at the heart of Baby Driver - an old-fashioned love story, where the hero is bent on escaping a criminal life he never wanted. He’s got better places to be, and a hell of a way to get there.
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