Hunt's Film Reviews, Should You Choose to Accept Them

Greyhound is a film that wastes no time. Not a second. It's a World War II epic that makes the audience feel like they're in the war. I watched Greyhound for the second time recently, the first viewing occurred during the blur that was 2020, and I was astounded at how tense the movie is on a repeat viewing. It's impressive how you still feel the tension on a repeat viewing. I appreciate how Tom Hanks and the rest of the filmmaking team made a film that shows a different side of World War II. Hanks, good as always and who can give subtle expressions that convey so much about the character, plays Captain Ernie Krause, a U.S. Navy officer charged with leading an Allied convoy across the Atlantic Ocean in early 1942. Krause, his crew, and the entire convoy are under constant attack from German U-boats. The music that plays whenever the U-boats surface is so effective in representing them as serious threats (you'll see what I mean). I've talked about how Greyhound exce...

Roger Ebert once said that "the movies are like a machine that generates empathy." This quote completely applies to The Holdovers . It's rare that a film has you totally interested in the characters and their journeys in the narrative. The main trio of Paul (Paul Giamatti), Angus (Dominic Sessa), and Mary (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) craft believable characters. It's strange for me to call them characters because they feel like people you'd encounter in real life. Giamatti is excellent as always, but Randolph is even better. The conversations among the characters reveal so much about their lives and don't come across as trite at any point. I could speak much longer to the brilliance of the actors in this film, but I want to highlight other ways the filmmaking how The Holdovers is an excellent cinematic achievement. The cinematography in The Holdovers makes the film look as if it actually was a movie from the 1970s (the story itself takes place in December 1970)...

Have you ever had a movie experience where you are thinking of ways the movie could be improved throughout watching it? The Boys in the Boat was that experience for me. To be clear, it isn't a bad film per se. The Boys in the Boat hits the needed beats for an underdog sports movie, has a production design that makes the setting feel like the 1930s era it is set in, and has you rooting for the USA rowing team. I don't get into spoilers with my reviews, so I'll be vague about what frustrated me with the film. In fact, I'll dedicate a whole paragraph to questions that went through my mind in the theater. What do we know about the personalities/characteristics of the rowing team members? Why didn't the filmmakers give a certain romantic relationship a solid conclusion? Shouldn't we know more about the motivations of the coaching staff? Why aren't we being shown more of the protagonist's backstory (we're told a lot of it, but showing is more effective tha...