Review: "Widows" is the Best Kind of Heist Film Imaginable

Scene from Widows

In 2013, director Steve McQueen released 12 Years a Slave. It was a film so vital and important that it could be considered one of the rare essential American films of the 21st century so far. With stark honesty, he captured an uncomfortable piece of U.S. history and helped to reshape the history, and all with lingering shots of brutality that forces the viewer to soak in the discomfort. So, how does McQueen follow up the film? Fives years later he has returned with Widows, which in the first 30 seconds features a brash edit so explosive that it rattles the audience in a new way. This is McQueen not as the methodical filmmaker he has been known as, but as someone who places urgency in every frame, artistry in every angle, and enough memorable bits to make this one of the best films of 2018. It's a heist movie with one of the year's greatest ensembles and an even more electric script by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl). It's a film that will grab you in your seat and not let go for the entire two hours. It's perfect evidence that McQueen doesn't only make good art films, but just good films in geneal.

Theory Thursday (TV Edition): "The Leftovers" is One of HBO's Greatest Series

Scene from The Leftovers

Welcome to a weekly column called Theory Thursdays, which will be released every Thursday and discuss my "controversial opinion" related to something relative to the week of release. Sometimes it will be birthdays while others is current events or a new film release. Whatever the case may be, this is a personal defense for why I disagree with the general opinion and hope to convince you of the same. While I don't expect you to be on my side, I do hope for a rational argument. After all, film is a subjective medium and this is merely just a theory that can be proven either way. 

Review: "Gone Girl" is Fincher's Excellently Twisted Take on Morality and Media

Director David Fincher may be the greatest filmmaker of the contemporary American mainstream crime drama. From Se7en to Zodiac and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, he has added a violent joy to tragedy. It is voyeuristic and, as he progressed, more artistic. He is a filmmaker of uncompromising talent by turning crime scenes into allegorical theories on human existence. In the case of Gone Girl, he explores the sick fascination with mental illness and essentially lying to the camera. It is a film that seems straightforward at first, but by the closing credits, the unnerving sense of happiness only makes things creepier. What Fincher has done was created probably his most twisted, unexpected, pulpy film to date, and it works more often than not.