Entrapment (1999)

The Long Connery

Despite its use of the impending millennium as a plot point, Entrapment’s filmmaking sensibility feels much older.  The foundations on which it is built – the chemistry of its stars, the emphasis on glamor, its escapist sense of adventure – all feel sadly old-fashioned in the current filmmaking landscape.  Though it certainly brings specific movies to mind, Mission: Impossible and the Pierce Brosnan James Bond entries among them, what Entrapment really echoes is more ineffable: an old-Hollywood mood of light entertainment.

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American Animals

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Were it not for the real-life event upon which American Animals is based, it could have easily been a typical college comedy.  Its deceptively simple setup – four in-over-their-heads students plan to rob their school – sounds more like a 2000s frat movie than the unique blend of genres it turns out to be.  I stress the word “blend,” because the movie is simultaneously a breezy college comedy, a heist movie, and a stranger-than-fiction docudrama. Continue reading