What have you watched recently? 3D!

Yeah, every performance was near flawless and as subsequently problematic as the character of Bill might be to some, the performance itself was remarkably nuanced given how easily "gimmick serial killer" tends to be played in Hollywood. As I said only Dr. Chilton came close to something like a caricature - but even that ultimately worked within the framework of the subtext and Starling's perspective.

It's a quality movie and one of those ones people know through cultural osmosis and mimicry - but it absolutely stood up to that weight and subsequent stereotype. Even the style of the cinematography felt unique: it's one thing to push a camera wayyyyyy into the actors' faces, but to make it work and not look amateur takes talent.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)

A conflicting watch, given I've lately slumped to a resignation the alt-right, conspiratorially minded and those riven by denial have, ultimately, won and our path towards climate collapse is now irrevocable. What lasting value has an indie film that might present a group of desperate people's act of "self defence" as something necessary and sacrificial - when we have past the point of no return, all the while those with the most power (and greatest ability to weather the changes) are doing the least amount to curtail our slide towards an inhospitable planet?

Ughhh... so, movies!

Anyway, divorcing my creeping fatalism, this turned out to be a really taut procedural of all things: one where there was an exacting, methodical tone & structure rather than an over-cranked reach for melodrama or lofty pretension towards a lecture on environmental morality; instead an approach that never robbed the tension from a balanced escalation as events began to swirl towards their conclusion. Indeed, the (very textual) morality was presented with a shrug of the shoulder and resolute mentality that what was about to happen was unavoidable - and had to happen. No equivocation, no "both sides" cake-eating ... the pipeline had to go.

A pulsing, swirling soundtrack (one that perhaps aped Tenet's a little too closely) worked in tandem with really canny, propulsive editing; only broken by choice moments to snap away from a moment of shock & suddenness - but in a manner that teased more than it frustrated. This all creating a sense of being at once an exciting ticking-clock thriller and quasi-documentary at the same time; the conspiracy presented with a methodical energy & execution. The actors all played their roles with understated determination, it was all very naturalistic and unfussy.

Really, the story structure operated like some inverted Ocean's Eleven: these people weren't "The Best of the Best"; some dazzling array of disparate talents all coalescing into something slick & effortless. No, instead this was a collective of messy, ordinary people fumbling towards their goal. Never presented as incompetent or idiotic however, but shown to possess that kind of determined, trial-and-error amateurism someone at our level might bring - if, ya' know, we decided that we might die waiting for the Corporate Class to save us, if we didn't take action ourselves.

I'm not sure the whole thing was quite as incendiary as the film thought it was; but then again, that might just be the aforementioned fatalism speaking for me. It certainly had a relatively radical notion within the topic of discussion that is Climate Change: that these people were acting out of self-defence, the first shots fired by those who would willingly poison the air and water while others shrugged concerns off as "woke, lefty liberals".

I think it's just that given the state of blockbusters these days, anything remotely competent from the last Ideas Driven era - the 1990s - suddenly seems retroactively amazing. I wouldn't call that 1999 film boring as such myself but definitely a smidge overrated, being a simple Indiana Jones knock off from noted Nostalgist Stephen Sommers. But again, compared with what studios churn out now it positively ranks alongside Spielberg's films in comparison.