2021: The Movies We're Watching

Started the new year with Errol Morris' documentary "Vernon, Florida".

Morris has an uncanny knack of finding the right individuals and letting them talk. The people in this movie are quirky, weird and wise.

A little over an hour long and delightful all the way through.

Tonight, Michael Haneke's "Code Unknown".

Episodic, fragmentary, brilliant.

This one will end up on my "Best of..." list for certain.

Great film-making.

Coen Bros. remake of "True Grit".

Far superior to original, in every way. The cast nails it, every single scene.

Highly recommended.

Three months of MUBI for $1.

Why not?

https://mubi.com/promos/3months_jan2021?lt=91ide5iv1i3fsf4q3oltwunr6p7pcuez3o78z...

Watched three short films on MUBI tonight, including offerings from Yorgos Lanthimos ("Nimic"), Peter Strickland ("Cold Meridian") and a neat little Belgian flick called "Death of a Shadow".

Tonight, "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga", a movie that is a collaboration between Dmitry Vasyukov and Werner Herzog.

The taiga stretches through the Russian steppes, encompassing a landmass that is 1 1/2 times that of the United States.

The film details the lives of the people who continue to eke out an existence in this severe environment, sometimes employing knowledge and practices dating back to prehistory.

Recommended.

Saw David Fincher's "Mank" tonight.

Superb cinema and accurate history (rare combination).

Don't miss it, now playing on Netflix.

How many of these "cult" movies have you seen?

https://www.theringer.com/movies/2021/1/25/22244344/cult-movies-ranking-top-50

>8 CliffBurns: Only twelve, oddly enough.

My score is around 90%. But...is that good or bad?

Only 39. Another one of those lists that seems to think only the US makes movies.

I am about 50%. But...But.. what percentage of that is rubbish? and what is treasure?

Some obvious titles missing, like anything by Jodorowski and, yeah, pretty U.S.-centric.

Stream an excellent version of a Bunuel film, "Phantom of Liberty", free:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxiqL6AaWdM

Excellent article on the making of "Mank":

https://www.manktheunmaking.com/the-unmaking

Last night watched Riz Ahmed in The Sound of Metal. Excellent!

We watched The Dig starring Ralph Fiennes and Carrie Mulligan. Also excellent!

Tonight, "The German Sisters" (from 1981), directed by Margarethe von Trotta.

A fictionalized take on one of the central characters from Germany's notorious Baader-Meinhof gang.

Effective and believable, very chilling.

Recommended.

A strange one last night, David Wain's summer camp spoof "Wet Hot American Summer".

A fine cast, bizarre flick that has now earned cult status.

Not great all the way through but some truly silly bits tickled our funny bones.

Oddball animated feature, "Bird Boy: The Forgotten Children", a grim Spanish movie set on a post-apocalyptic island.

A bit perplexing at times, consistently dark. Have to say, we approved.

Available for streaming on Kanopy.

Saw "Hud" again tonight, first time in 30 years.

Still a magnificent adaptation of Larry McMurtry's book. Martin Ritt an expert director and cinematography by the inimitable James Wong Howe.

Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas & Patricia Neal stunning.

>18 CliffBurns: I had a friend, who while in the USA army, was stationed in Germany during the time Baader-Meinhof was active there. He gave me the impression that they were no joke.

I saw Cool Hand Luke is now on Netflix. Hope the film quality is good, I really enjoyed the flick the first time around. It made quite the splash. Favorite quote “who put all that dirt in boss kings ditch?”

I had a German friend in Munich (he worked for a publisher) and we were having a long distance phone call one day and the Baader-Meinhof gang came up.

He excused himself for a moment so he could shut his office door.

That particular topic was still a touchy issue in Germany (this was around 2010). Many Germans believe that the pair were murdered in their cells by German authorities to prevent terrorist acts carried out in their name or to force their release.

>23 CliffBurns: Wow, didn't know they were active that late (2010) although I never made a point to research them. My buddy was there during their hey day I guess (just looked at Baader-Meinhof/ Red Army Faction on wiki) He was there late 1970's early 1980's, as I remember, and his purposely vague (I believe) and short tales told of kilos of hash, Baader-Meinhof, and women.

:: once again editing some horrid grammar ::

They weren't active, the cell had been eradicated, but the mere mention of their names was toxic.

"Transit" tonight, a German-French co-production, directed by Christian Petzold.

A little bit disorienting at first, since it's about the German occupation of France, yet is set during our era. The novel it's based on was written in 1944 but Petzold has adapted it to incorporate our times (and the very contemporary plight of desperate refugees).

Once you get your mind around that, it's an affecting, well-made film about displacement and autocracy.

Recommended.

Marty Scorsese opines about living in an era where film is treated as "content":

https://harpers.org/archive/2021/03/il-maestro-federico-fellini-martin-scorsese

>26 CliffBurns: i saw this a couple of months ago and thought it was well done.

For some reason it now reminds me of "Cold War" directed by Pawel Pawlikowski which was hauntingly beautiful and tragic.

Have the DVD for "Cold War" on the way (library order).

Tarkovsky:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/15/the-drenching-richness-of-andrei-t...

A charming German movie from a few years back, "In the Aisles".

Christian gets a job at a giant food emporium, stocking shelves at night. There's a small community of misfits who share his workplace, sometime bitching at each other, but also supportive.

Strong performances from the three leads, good ensemble...kind of takes a strange jog about 2/3 of the way through, a plot complication that wasn't needed and eventually peters out.

But a well-made, well-acted movie. Recommended.

Red Istanbul on Netflix. Interesting piece on the writing process.

AKA
Istanbul Kirmizisi

I'm adding that one to my "Watch List".

My wife and I are crazy about all things Istanbul-related.

"Dreams With Sharp Teeth", a documentary on Harlan Ellison.

The irascible writer was well-served by the production team who did an excellent job (no doubt under difficult circumstances).

You really see how Ellison's entire persona was shaped by the loss of his father and the constant bullying he endured as a child.

Recommended.

>33 CliffBurns: you’ll doubly enjoy it then. Netflix has a Turkish series ETHOS a that is also quite interesting.

The enigmatic Dirk Bogarde:

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210322-why-dirk-bogarde-was-a-truly-danger...

>8 CliffBurns: Seven, which I suppose is quite a lot for someone who watches as few movies as I do. Don't remember much about the ones listed that I did see except that movie American Psycho made it clearer than book American Psycho did that whole thing might be a fantasy. UHF makes me think of Canadian Bacon; suppose it's because I'd never heard of either, still haven't ever seen either mentioned until now, and found them fetching enough--at the time, at least--to want to see again.

Now & then re-watching recorded old sci-fi movies hoping to find delete-worthy ones so as to increase storage space on Sky box--most recently Journey to the Far Side of the Sun/Doppelganger: not deleted. (In fact I preferred supposedly psychedelic portion of it to that in 2001: less in-your-face, less random in relation to events it bridged). Strange World of Planet X; deleted but not yet permanently so-- very slightly fetching & nice to have at hand for rainy, flu-ish Sunday afternoon. The Day the Earth Caught Fire: deleted, gone, téigh amach--how did I ever watch all the way through before? Endless scenes in newspaper office & truly tedious subplot re hero's failed marriage ah jayz just make the world end already. Includes Terrifying Invasion By Band of Maurading Beatniks!! iirc though I didn't watch long enough to see it 2nd time around.

>38 bluepiano: My review of Journey/Doppelganger: https://deepwatersreading.wordpress.com/2018/08/01/doppelganger-vt-journey-to-th...

The Day the Earth caught Fire is notable nowadays for the depiction of Fleet Street in the early 1960s, a world now utterly vanished; the editor in the film really was the editor of the Daily Express, Arthur Christiansen, then recently retired. Leo McKern plays himself, pretty much. And the scenes in the "Met Office" were actually filmed in the Whitehall HQ of the Ministry of Defence. Restricted access? Not then. Oh, and the policeman on the road block at the end of Beatnik Street was Michael Caine, in his first (uncredited) film role.

Good review--thanks.. You're spot on about the score; in fact, that abstract sequence when space ship passed the sun was memorable for me in part because of the music.

Ta as well for the film buffery v. interesting tidbits. Really it was the failed marriage/blossoming new romance aspect more than Fleet st one that bored me--just as attempts to round out characters in fiction with over-long descriptions of perfectly ordinary personal matters do,

The Giant Claw last night. I know the giant alien bird is derided (https://godzilla.fandom.com/wiki/The_Giant_Claw?file=The_Giant_Claw.jpg so as one can see there's reason for derision) but it's goofily endearing & less implausible than protag's interchanges with a general. Particularly interesting was lack of contrast between main character, an engineer, and co-starring mathematican. Both experts in their fields, both well-spoken, both with good ideas about dealing with the big buzzard. One hides their face when witnessing avian-wrought carnage; the other admits to being frightened. One is a man the other a woman. I've watched enough schlock to know this egalitarianism is unheard of in movies of this or, most any, sort from 1950's. And later.

Robert:

I love "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun". Sadly under-appreciated, like "Robinson Crusoe on Mars". I also liked "The Day the Earth Caught Fire"--but, hey, I'm a contrarian.

#40 I think I have "Giant Claw" as a double bill with one of my all-time faves, "It! The Terror From Beyond Space".

Wouldn't you love to have a sit-down with some of the makers and actors of these old, Grade Z movies?

Last night, Mathieu Kassovitz's "La Haine".

Portrait of race relations in contemporary France, particularly its poorest precincts. The police are mistrusted, if not loathed, the residents desperate, living a hand-to-mouth existence. Three friends move through the city, encountering friends and foes, tragedy barking at their heels.

Very good film, but grim and pessimistic.

Peter Strickland's "Katalin Varga" last night.

The man has never made a bad movie or exposed a single boring frame.

Remarkable.

I love the space paintings of Chesley Bonestell, they feed the romantic in my soul.

Tonight finished watching "Chesley Bonestell: A Brush With The Future". Lots of examples of Bonestell's work but pretty pedestrian documentary, talking heads and fawning acolytes.

For fans only.

>44 CliffBurns: I recently read and reviewed Ron Miller and Frederick Durant's The Art of Chesley Bonestell. I was fascinated to find that if he hadn't gone into astronomical art, he would almost certainly have made a name for himself in architecture. As it was, he was responsible for some iconic pieces of work; the styling on the Golden Gate bridge was down to him, as were the famous eagle gargoyles on the Chrysler Building in New York.

BTW, Cliff: my copy of Electric Castles arrived this morning!

All of Bonestell's art books are ridiculously priced or out of print. I'd kill to lay my hands on one (for a price that wouldn't bankrupt Casa Burns).

Aw, thanks so much for supporting a crazed cult, indie author. Much obliged. I love that fucking book and it's done far better than most of my other collections, happy to say. If you wanna drop a critique on Goodreads or Amazon, I'd be grateful.

Over the past 4 nights watched 8 hours (+) of Shakespeare-related movies.

"The Hollow Crown"--a BBC series that included adaptations of "Richard II", "Henry IV Pt. I", "Henry IV Part II" and "Henry V"

Fantastic cast with Tom Hiddleston excelling himself as Prince Hal, a ne'er do well who morphs into a warrior king (only to die at 35 of dysentery).

Not a false note--Jeremy Irons stellar as Henry IV.

Folks, this is a must see.

Sherron and I finally got around to viewing "Tenet".

What a dud.

Incomprehensible--often due to the fact that the actors are trying to make themselves heard over the thunderous, repetitive soundtrack music, or jet engines or while the wind is rushing past their racing sloops...

Tons of exposition, a plot that meanders more than an ancient river bed. An ending that just leaves you going "Huh".

Sorry, just don't get the appeal. I liked Nolan's first two films--"Memento" and "Following"--but nothing he's done since has really rang my bell.

I saw “To Have and Have Not” the 1944 Bogart & Bacall film based on the Hemingway novel. Great flick even while being viewed on a “noir” side band air broadcast channel with commercials. A review of the background of the, made in Martinique, movie makes it even more impressive.

From wiki : “ Hawks's other good friend, William Faulkner, was the main contributor to the screenplay, including and following the revisions. Because of the contributions from both Hemingway and Faulkner, the film represents the only film story on which two winners of the Nobel Prize of Literature worked”

3 minute iconic clip from the movie (“you do know how to whistle”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Ay727EYzw

Tonight watched an early film by Taika Waitibi, "Boy".

Coming of age in New Zealand--bittersweet, but not cringeworthy, the child actors particularly strong.

Saw it on MUBI--there were 4 pauses as the film "buffered", a problem I've had previously with the streaming service. So far no remedy seems to work.

>41 CliffBurns: 'Wouldn't you love to have a sit-down with some of the makers and actors of these old, Grade Z movies?'

I look at the credits & wonder, Did the scriptwriter think that this would be widely noticed & thought good writing that would lead to better things? Did the beachwear babe hope that beneath her screams her acting talent would lead to serious roles? etc. Watched The Terror couple weeks ago--awful acting by female lead chosen for the role because, I suspect, she'd won Miss Alfalfa Crop Beauty in Terre Haute and idiotically wooden acting by male lead. I didn't recognise the latter though his voice when he spoke quietly seemed distantly familiar. One would never ever *ever* have suspected that Jack Nicholson would be hired to be in more movies.

So far, Astronaut: The Final Push is probably 2nd favourite amongst horror/space stuff I've been watching. PHASE IV is unquestionably my 1st.

Loved "Phase IV". Have you seen "Bug", directed by Jeannot Szwarc? Fascinating little film from 1975. And, of course, "Silent Running" has long been a personal fave.

Ooh thanks--Bug sounds wonderful. (Silent Running probably not so much to my taste, but thanks for mentioning it.) Do you or RobertDay remember recommending another space or horror movie some time ago? if so, what was it? It too sounded great fun but wiki page about it that I opened lost in the fog of digital purgatory.

Watched All About Eve recently, Its flaw for me was Eve herself; a great character but one that wasn't conveyed as (I suspect) intended by the writer. Googled to find that Roger Ebert I believe wrote that 'Baxter has no presence' & yes. Nail, head.

Came across movie I was asking about--Dark City, (Constantly dark city sounds wonderful, thriller element sounds off-putting.)

"Dark City" is pretty decent--good production values but the story gets a little silly and the ending contrived.

Agreed. The premise is fascinating, the look and feel of the film is as noir as you could ask for, but the happy ending feels rather tacked on.

Watched Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy in the adaptation of Penelope Fitzgerald's THE BOOKSHOP.

Some good performances but very predictable and overly sentimental.

NOT recommended.

Watched Miranda July's "Kajillionaire" last night.

Both Sherron and I were blown away.

YOU MUST SEE THIS FILM.

Richard Brody (NEW YORKER) picked it as the best film of last year. Buy, borrow or pirate a copy.

You'll thank me.

Miranda July's "The Future" tonight.

Not quite in the league as "Kajillionaire", but how many movies do you know narrated by a pound cat?

I thought so.

Recommended, but not for all tastes.

One film to definitely avoid - Infinite. Adapted by Hollywood from a self-published novel. And it shows - derivative and incoherent. And Wahlberg does even bother to act.

I ran across this film-maker on Twitter and he steered me to his adaptation of a Robert Sheckley story. "The Escape" is only 16 minutes long but it packs a real wallop:

https://vimeo.com/223579794

Right now nothing exists for me* but my TV and a Flemish/Belgian (subtitled) series, "Professor 'T.'" Original. Imaginative. Intelligent. Funny. Actual character development. Maybe a little too much crying. Can't take my eyes off it.

*Not even books.

"The Whistlers" last night.

A heist film involving a secret code based on bird calls in the Canary Islands.

A Romanian movie, not as clever or fast-moving as it was purported to be. Only mildly entertaining.

"Kill Me Again", an exceedingly conventional and formulaic noir knockoff.

Disappointing, especially as it's directed by John Dahl, who gave us "The Last Seduction".

"November", written and directed by Rainer Sarnet (an adaptation of an obscure Estonian novel that apparently has never been translated into English).

Mysterious, original, jaw-droppingly weird in places. Wait until you you see the "Kratts".

Highly recommended, this one destined for my year end "Best of..." list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2YZ1X1OhD4

"The Good Liar" last night (now on Netflix).

Who can resist the combination of Ian McKellan and Helen Mirren?

They're both very good but the movie itself is "meh". The long, drawn-out explanation at the end threw off the narrative tension that had been building.

Still worth a peek, just because of the star power.

Enjoyed immensely poignant and insightful examination of the immigrant exile experience within a school setting where students are over protected from their former teacher's suicide in the classroom. Big societal issues addressed in a sensitive way. Monsieur Lazhar. In French. 2011 Canadian film. Based on Bashir Lazhar, a one-character play by Évelyne de la Chenelière. Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards and also won six Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture.

"The Underneath", an early Steven Soderbergh film.

"Neo-noir" and not very interesting at that. Oddly paced and ineffective.

NOT recommended.

Saw "Citizen Kane" on the big screen in Saskatoon yesterday evening.

What an amazing experience. Cross that one off my bucket list. With food, travel and movie tickets (+ popcorn), it was an expensive junket, but worth every dime.

>69 CliffBurns: I last watched CK last November. The scene where Kane is running for Congress and has the two front pages ready to roll depending on whether it was victory or defeat struck me as exceptionally prescient given the protests of the Orange One.

Arra this thread is getting too high-minded for the likes of me.--Behemoth the Sea Monstter & It Came From Beneath the Sea were on telly in the same week. Former was entertaining--not least because of the radioactive monster being shown in a pitiable police murder-victime chalk outline when underwater. Latter was off-puttingly sexist, had jingoistic undertones, & was at times damned stupid.

Highlight of it was being told that North Pacific was now empty of sea traffic because US had in short order unilaterally placed a blockade around it (though an explanation of how that was done *would* have been entertaining). It was, that is, until the press conference held by a naval officer. After he says, At this very moment we have helicopters patrolling the coastal waters, he radio's to one asking, State your position. The reply is, Our reading is xxx, Sir.

No, I lied. He radios, and then; Navy guy: Where are you? Reply: Patrolling the coastal waters.

Sherron and I watched "Saint Maud" last night, a film about religious fanaticism that leads to mental disintegration and madness.

The last ten minutes of this film really put the whammy into Sher and I.

Watch at your own risk (but it is a thoroughly believable, well-crafted work of psychological suspense).

Very Polanski-esque in spots, the extreme isolation of the central character.

"Two Jacks", directed by Bernard Rose.

An adaptation (and updating) of the tale "Two Hussars" by Leo Tolstoy.

Disappointing and contrived. Even at 90 minutes it seemed wayyyy overlong.

Avoid.

A lovely Japanese flick on MUBI tonight, "Shoplifters".

It won the Palme D'Or in 2018 and Sherron and I loved it. Heartfelt, without lurching into sentiment, minimal music score, great acting and cinematography.

Really wonderful, highly recommended.

>74 CliffBurns: I absolutely agree. I loved it and from then on was a Koreeda fan. He has just released his first non-japanese film (The Truth) with Catherine Deneuve and Juliet Binoche and that will make an interesting comparison with his other work.

He has real insight into character. Another that I enjoyed was 'I wish' in which two brothers are separated by family strife. Koreeda directs these child actors with great subtlety and with no hint of Hollywood style sentimentality.

I watched Aleksei Balabanov's "Brother" tonight.

Enthralling, in places, and a fascinating look at post-Soviet Russia, gangsters vying for a piece of the pie, ruthless in their pursuit of money and power.

Not great but certainly worth a look.

"Roadrunner", the documentary of the life and death Anthony Bourdain tonight.

Sherron and I are big fans, so we had high hopes for the movie and found it very, very good (though, of course, increasingly sad and dark as it got closer to the end).

Believable, warts-and-all portrait of a man who seemed to have it all but could not translate fame and success into happiness.

An obvious lesson there for every one of us.

"The Green Knight", directed by David Lowery.

Adaptation of the famous Arthurian story, very atmospheric and, for the most part, quite faithful to the original.

Dev Patel is excellent and the cinematography glorious.

Not to be missed.

Tonight we FINALLY watched Chloe Zhao's "Nomadland".

Absolutely wonderful: great Frances McDormand performance, breathtaking cinematography...and the movie is so meditative and uncontrived, moving at its own pace, eschewing high drama, the classic (formulaic) story arc.

Highly recommended.

"Pig", starring Nicholas Cage.

Highly touted by some, but we found it ponderous, predictable and sloppily sentimental.

Sherron and I aren't Nic Cage fans--this movie is yet another reason to wonder what the hell people see in the guy.

"Shirley" tonight and we weren't impressed.

For the first time, Elizabeth Moss seemed like she was acting, her technique too obvious. The film was forced, contrived and, from what we know of Shirley Jackson's life, none too accurate.

Beats me why the screenwriter & director chose to exclude Jackson's children from the biopic, especially since she wrote two entire books about their upbringing.

Not recommended.

NEW YORKER reviewer Anthony Lane also took issue with "Shirley":

The title of Josephine Decker’s new film, “Shirley,” refers neither to the novel of that name by Charlotte Brontë nor, in a slightly different vein, to Shirley Temple, whose dimple-powered career now seems beyond belief, but to the author Shirley Jackson. She is indelibly linked to The New Yorker, where her most affronting tale, “The Lottery,” was first published, in 1948, causing thousands of readers to drop the butter knife. She wrote reams of other stories, plus half a dozen novels, such as “Hangsaman” (1951) and “The Haunting of Hill House” (1959). Her dark star has continued to ascend, summoning an invaluable biography by Ruth Franklin, “A Rather Haunted Life,” and a more presumptuous offering, “Shirley,” by Susan Scarf Merrell, who uses scraps of Jackson’s experience, not least her abrasive marriage to the literary critic Stanley Hyman, to beget a work of fiction. And that is the book that Decker has chosen to bring to the screen. Ours not to reason why.

Jackson is played by Elisabeth Moss, who, having reigned over “The Handmaid’s Tale,” on TV, is now the first choice of casting directors when toil and trouble loom. To “Shirley” she lends both heft and bite, as well as a pair of thick spectacles and a thrumming—and draining—unhappiness that rarely lets up. Most of the movie is set in Bennington, Vermont, where Shirley is starting to labor on “Hangsaman” and where Stanley (Michael Stuhlbarg) is teaching at the all-female college. There, if rumor be true, he sports with his charges. He has a dense beard, a wicked smile, and, when we first see him, a festive garland of ivy wreathing his brow. Were the camera to pan down, we would, no doubt, observe his cloven hooves.

The plot, devised by Merrell in her novel, turns on the introduction into the Hyman household of another couple: Fred Nemser (Logan Lerman), a youthful professor, and Rose (Odessa Young), his new bride, who is great with child. “Well, I hope it’s yours,” Shirley remarks to Fred, at the dinner table, unsheathing her claws without ado. Rose is initially, and understandably, dismayed by such an approach; as the months crawl by, however, the two women draw close. “I’m a witch, didn’t anyone tell you?” Shirley says, and Rose soon warms to the role of sorcerer’s apprentice, learning to berate the moral fecklessness of their menfolk, and to chip away at social norms. At a party, hosted by the wife of the dean, Shirley pours red wine on a silken couch and watches—or imagines—her protégée quietly dropping sandwiches on the rug.

Just one question: Where are the kids? In reality, the Hymans had four children, three by the time that “Hangsaman” was published. If they are airbrushed out of “Shirley” (even as the fictional Nemsers are conjured into existence), it must be because they would sorely inconvenience the mood for which Decker strives. Jackson, according to her biographer, “loved rooms that were filled with books and cats and color and sunlight,” but only the books make it into the film, plus one cat—black, of course, to suit the witching hour. Lines are delivered either snappishly or with listless pauses. “They talk. About me. In town,” Shirley says. At one point, Rose finds her sprawled on the floor, with her eyes wide open and her stockings rolled down. Thunder crashes outside. The camera lurches sideways, like a drunk. Help!

No one can question Decker’s creative right to take such liberties with the truth. Movies live and thrive on irresponsibility. How strange it feels, though, when so little seems to be liberated in the process. Jackson’s book of essays on her domestic exploits, “Life Among the Savages” (1953), rich in the comedy of parental mishaps, is a fascinating complement, not an embarrassment, to her graver tales of the stifling and the macabre. “Shirley,” by contrast, coats her in gothic excess as if glazing a ham, and of her humor scarcely a shred remains. As a sworn devotee of “Airplane!,” I found myself praying that once—just once—she would utter the words “And don’t call me Shirley,” thus rending the veil of gloom from top to bottom. Sadly, it was not to be.

There's a top notch cast in George Clooney's "The Ides of March" (including Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ryan Gosling, etc.) but despite the fire power it only manages to be a tepid political thriller. Very little suspense.

Doesn't hold a candle to either "The Parallax View" or "All the President's Men".