Movie Review - Crime 101

Director: Bart Layton
Genre: Crime/ Drama/ Thriller
Runtime: 140 minutes
Year: 2026
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, Nick Nolte, Tate Donovan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Monica Barbaro
 
Description: An elusive thief (Chris Hemsworth), eyeing his final score, encounters a disillusioned insurance broker (Halle Berry) at her own crossroads. As their paths intertwine, a relentless detective (Mark Ruffalo) trails them hoping to thwart the multi-million dollar heist they are planning.
 
Review: “Crime 101” is a breath of fresh air for fans of the classic noir genre. Based on the novella by Don Winslow, the film offers an intelligent and atmospheric cat-and-mouse game reminiscent of classics like Michael Mann’s “Heat”, yet retains its own distinct identity.

Chris Hemsworth plays a thief. Moving away from his typical high-action superhero persona, Hemsworth portrays a character defined by meticulousness and social complexity. He is a very disciplined jewel thief, who swears by a strict code of honor. Opposite him is detective Lou Lubesnick, played by Mark Ruffalo, whose obsession with the case is palpable. Halle Berry, as Sharon, somehow comes on the path of both. Barry Keoghan, as the unpredictable and violent rival, brings a much-needed dose of danger and tension to the story. The chemistry between the cast is one of the film’s greatest assets.

Director Bart Layon transforms Los Angeles into a characters in its own right. The cinematography captures the city as a place of dark magic and sprawling highways, which amplifies the sultry atmosphere.

The film excels in atmosphere, rather than over-the-top CGI spectacle. It focuses on the characters, their development, over unrealistic action. It’s not even an action movie, the main character doesn’t use any violence. It’s a crime drama, with thriller elements.

“Crime 101” is tightly directed, beautifully acted and with a focus on character development over cheap action. Despite the pacing be rather slow (which I actually liked), the film might be one of the most satisfying films of the year.

Rating: 4/ 5

Movie Review - Saltburn

Director: Emerald Fennell
Genre: Drama/ Comedy/ Thriller
Runtime: 131 minutes
Year: 2023
Starring: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Carey Mulligan, Alison Oliver
 
Description: A student (Barry Keoghan) at Oxford University finds himself drawn into the world of a charming and aristocratic classmate (Jacob Elordi), who invites him to his eccentric family’s sprawling estate for a summer never to be forgotten.

Review: Director Emerald Fennell impressed a few years ago, with the film “Promising Young Woman”. I won several awards. Her new movie “Saltburn” is not for the faint of heart, let me say it’s not for everyone.

While struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick is drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton. He invites Oliver to Saltburn, the massive beautiful estate of his eccentric family, for a summer to remember.

The film has an unusual style, especially when Oliver is invited along to the Catton family’s eccentric palace. The actor of the two leading men, played by Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi, feels mysterious enough to keep it interesting throughout the film, and at times you’re maddingly unsure where to look. The film has some very edgy scenes that make you feel vicariously embarrassed or uncomfortable. It's provocative, raunchy, raw and anything but subtle. That scene in the bathtub will stay with me forever.

I can’t believe how good Keoghan is in this movie. What a daring, challenging role for him. So well done. “Saltburn” gets a pretty high rating on IMDb, but overall I’ve read a lot of negative reviews. I get why people would not like it, see all of the above. I always love it when a director does something daring, and Fennell succeeded in doing so. Again, praising her for doing something no-standard. “Saltburn” is a really good movie, but not easy to watch and definitely not for everyone.

Rating: 4/ 5

Movie Review - The Banshees of Inisherin

Director: Martin McDonagh
Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Runtime: 114 minutes
Year: 2022
Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan
 
Description: Two lifelong friends (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson) find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them.

Review: If there is one movie you need to put on you viewing list this year, let it be “The Banshees of Inisherin”. For me, the pairing of director Martin McDonagh and his two leads Colin Farrel and Brendan Gleeson, was enough reason for me to check it out. This trio teams up a second time after “In Bruges”, which is one of my all-time favorite movies. Although they once again provide a top shelf film, “The Banshees of Inisherin” has become a very different movie.

The story is set in 1923 during the Irish Civil War. most Irish people wonder with great anxiety what the future will rbing them, except for Pádriac who lives on the fictional island Inisherin. Like his sister Siobhan who is known in the village as an old spinster, he is content with what he has. Pádriac spends almost all his time with his animals and his best friend Colm, with whom he spends numerous hours in the local pub. It is a friendship that the Irishman suspects will never end, until one day Colm announces that from now on he want to devote his life to more meaningful conversations and composing music. In that new life, there is no place for Pádriac.

A parable about friendship that shows above all its fragility. It’s a very special kind of film you rarely see. McDonagh returns to his British-Irish roots after the downright fantastic “Thee Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri” (also a favorite of mine), and tells an intriguing, deeply human story about mortals for whom the world is no bigger than their village.

“The Banshees of Inisherin” is a cinematic gem not to be missed. The wonderfully beautiful film is touchingly funny, the cast is outstanding. Colin Farrell gets better with age and the role of Colm is right up Brendan Gleeson’s alley. Although the year has only just begun, it seems that with this title, I already have a candidate for my favorite film of 2023.

Rating: 5/ 5

20s Movie Review - Eternals

Director: Chloé Zhao
Genre: Adventure/ Action/ Science Fiction/ Fantasy
Runtime: 156 minutes
Year: 2021
Starring: Gemma Chen, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harrington, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Ma Dong-Seok, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Bill Skarsgård

Description: The saga of the Eternals, a race of immortal beings who lived on Earth and shaped its history and civilizations.

Review: In the massive, ethnically diverse “Eternals, no less than ten new superheroes are introduces to viewers at once. An extremely ambitious project, bit is this really the promised gamechanger for the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
Ajak, Thena, Ikaris, Kingo, Sersi and the others fight against so-called Devians who have long been a threat to humanity and the Eternals themselves. Not that you’ll notice much of that, as the monsters are defeated without much of a fight by a team of heroes with fairly generic superpowers: one shoots lasers out of his eyes, the other rays of light out of fingertips.
But above all, don’t leave too early. “Eternals” takes a little time to get up to speed, because the pace is a little different than you’re used to from Marvel. The film covers a period of around seven thousand years and happily hops back and forth between different time periods and different locations.
The film opens (like “Star Wars”) with a piece of text that rolls across the screen and so we learn that the Eternals have indeed been roaming the universe since the creation of heaven and earth. Of course, this immediately raises an essential question, for why didn’t these primal superheroes help when Thanos decided to eliminate half the world’s population? The answer is really simple: the Eternals were not allowed to get involved.
Although at first this seems to dismiss the matter a little too easily, along the way “Eternals” unrolls a theological head-scratcher that ties in quite nicely with all that has happened before. Arishem, an entity with a body of cosmic proportions, has his own plan for the universe, but it would be a shame to reveal how the Eternals fit into that picture.
Biblival, Babylonian and Greek myths are mixed up and turned into this entertaining Marvel flick. A lot was changed, there are many differences between the comics and the movie ( I looked it up, didn’t know anything about “Eternals”).
It’s almost a surprise that Chloé Zhao directed it. The woman behind “The Rider”(2017) and “Nomadland” (2020), where she used documentary-like style to highlight marginalized groups in society: men who do not conform to the macho ideal, for example, or poor people who are forced to roam their own country as nomads. Her idiosyncratic way of filming is nowhere to be found this time.
“Eternals” is not a failure, but certainly hasn’t become the gamechanger we were promised. The film has a lot going on, many characters, but only a few get enough attention to understand their motivations or sympathize with them. Many characters you just want to get to know better and with the long runtime you expect there is enough time to do so. But sadly, a lot of the characters are still  underdeveloped.  

Rating: 2,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 133: Dunkirk

Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Drama/ Action
Runtime: 105 minutes
Year: 2017
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Barry Keoghan, James D’Arcy, Harry Styles

Description: Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire and France are surrounded by the German Army, and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.

Review: You would think that we have enough WWII movies in Hollywood. But still movies based on this war are released. And every once in a while you wonder why this wasn’t made earlier. “Dunkirk” is one of those films. Aside from a British film from 1958 and a very impressive shot in the film “Atonement”, the battle for Dunkirk has been overlooked.
The fact that there were no Americans involved might be a reason, because the evens around Dunkirk happened about 18 months before the US got involved.
“Dunkirk” seems like a war epos, which is perfect for a director like Christopher Nolan. But this film is very different from the rest of his films. He never took on a true story and often works with existential themes. But Nolan is obviously very versatile and proofs that he can easily create a war movie with substance and subtlety. You can see it in the first 30 minutes, very timid and hardly any dialogue.
“Dunkirk” opens when the British army has withdrawn to the Dunkirk and is enclosed by the Germans. To draw the situations, newsflashes and flashbacks are left out. That the story starts here is surprising, because most Hollywood movies take their time to introduce. It starts right were the action is. And this is a fresh take on the theme.
For a war movie, Nolan kept it to a minimal and was very modest. The film isn’t over sentimental or dramatic. No extra fuzz. A story from a large scale, told by focusing on the smaller human moments.

Rating: 4/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 130: The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Genre: Drama/ Thriller/ Mystery
Runtime: 121 minutes
Year: 2017
Starring: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Alicia Silverstone, Bill Camp

Description: Steven (Colin Farrell), a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy (Barry Keoghan) he has taken under his wing turns sinister.

Review: Yorgos Lanthimos has an interesting mind. Just look at “The Lobster”. “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” is not any different. It’s a complete mystery what the film really means, but it gives you enough material to think about.
The film also marks the second collaboration between Lanthimos and actor Colin Farrell, who seems right in his place in this absurd world. Farrell plays Steve, a successful heart surgeon with an apparent perfect life: he has a good job where he gets praised for, a huge house, a beautiful and successful wife and two talented kids. Outside work, Steven often talks to teenager Martin. What the connection between the two is, stays a secret for a while, but you know something’s going on. The two meet each other in a café, are very polite to one another and exchange gifts.
When Martin is invited to Steven’s home, the rest of the family really like to have him around. But not for long. Things are going terribly wrong with the family and it feels like somehow Martin’s presence causes this all. From that moment on, the movie becomes darker, more psychological and it leans towards horror. The absurd tone of Lanthmos’ style is still present, but “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” has a lot more scary elements then his previous films. Mostly because of Barry Keoghan’s performance. He manages to portray Martin very well. He is always polite, but there is also a constant threat that is hard to put your finger on.
Not only the cast is doing really well, also Lanthimos as a director. His camera work, the dialogues, the shots, every detail. He knows how to make the audience feel uncomfortable.
I think it’s safe to say, that Yorgos Lanthimos is not a director for the mainstream audience. But once you get used to his style a but, you can clearly see that “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” is one of the best movies of 2017.

Rating: 5/ 5