Good Time. Hoo boy I loved it. An urban chase film where our protagonist keeps digging himself in bigger holes. The music is key – similar to how Thief and The Guest get so much grimy energy from their own moody, heavily electronic scores. Interesting choices to light scenes using only televisions, and in the roles that phones play in plot and theme.
Captain Phillips. I really dug it. Hanks is great, so is Abdi. And what makes this worthwhile is that both of them get fair treatment in how the story is structured (despite the one-sided title). Pretty strong similarities to Zero Dark Thirty in tone and tension, and how they’re not quite really about the obvious thematic baggage they might have easily tended toward. The scale of the stuff – real gigantic boats and aircraft – made me think of 80s/90s action movies. Very refreshing. Also, having captain on the bridge talking to engineering down with the engines reminded me of Star Trek. I really liked Noah Millman’s write-up.
Mark Larson 