Film Reviews - Ongoing

Happened upon this last night whilst trying to find out how to spell the word Collateral! Lucy Mangan calls it  "lucid meditation on contemporary Britain", and bemoaned the fact that it started out as CSI. For my part, I kind of like the fact that it started out as CSI and then drifted into a political drama, which gradually became less and less interesting.  You start with a nice twisty mystery with a strong desire line, "will they catch the killer?", only for that to dissolve quite quickly once the killer is revealed; then we're left with why they were killed and then after that's explained, and all the players are revealed at the beginning of episode 3, I really don't care anymore.  Carey Mulligan isn't in the middle of episode 3, presumably because she has very little to do. Her character is also perhaps not knotty enough to be a decent detective.  The narrative drive drops so quickly that Gentiana started to bemoan how complicated it was and fou...

Heat is a really interesting example to look at how subplots and so-called 'side-bar' characters drive forward the plot and shape the moral argument.  Around half of the film is made up of scenes about the character's personal lives. Why are they necessary?  Could you have a scenario where the plot was streamlined to merely Vincent chasing Neil, and what would you lose if you did? Moral Argument:  It's difficult to pinpoint the moral argument, commonly referred to as the theme, of any story (if there is one), mainly because it's deliberately hidden, so as not to be naff. But it's crying out beneath the surface in almost every scene here.  What question would unite all of the woes of these characters, whose personal lives are all a mess? It's probably something about sacrifice and excellence: What are you prepared to sacrifice in the pursuit of excellence?/ Can you have a successful personal life and an successful career? Then the answer could be: If you want...