Noir and dramedy, to be enjoyed

He got hot. cinematic repertoire - for some time now, at least five new titles have been shown in cinemas every week - while on the other hand, the viewing results (with the exception of Wedding and the proverbial animated blockbusters) do not at all indicate the audience's enthusiasm and, one would say, an understandable and instinctive reaction to the abundance of cinema challenges. This time, the spotlight is on two mutually completely different productions, each from their own angle and from the point of view of leading authors, addressing a more adult and, at the same time, "viewed" audience.

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Crime Highway (Crime 101) written and directed by Bart Layton is undeniably and unequivocally neon noir. Although completely launched in today's moment, this work openly relies on the heritage of thrillers from the late eighties and the first half of the nineties, and at the same time it is a film story that fully includes both the technological part of the subplot and the aids used by the actors. The easiest way to describe the film in a dozen words is as a kind of variation on Heat (Heat) by Michael Mann, but that analogy and that comparison do not go hand in hand with Leighton film which, simply, perhaps intentionally, lacks the Mannian momentum that leads to a magnificent and captivating criminal (social) chronicle. Crime 101 however, it is more benevolent and wiser to put it on "tas" opposite Thief (Thief), one of Mann's earlier films, with the caveat that throughout his film career, Bart Leighton sowed thirty easy-to-see clues that lead to those two Mann films.

Layton, therefore, creates a full-blooded and finely balanced crime story with a melancholic undertone, which is made according to the clear matrix of classic noir films, which is not surprising since the official foundation was a novella by the excellent writer of that genre, Don Winslow. Winslow found his unique expression in targeted more camera settings with broader conceptual implications, which is certainly a pelzer taken from the golden age of noir. Layton, among other things, also elaborates the motif of trying to jump over class/caste boundaries and obstacles, which he already inspired in his earlier feature films - in a masterful documentary Impostor (The Imposter, 2012) and a feature film American animals (American animals), in which we also find actors, that is, anti-heroes, who reflexively react even to the very shadow and hint of poverty, which then drives them to dangerous adventures that, in the long run, they are not up to. This time, Layton does it in the form of a polished neon-noir thriller on the sub-theme of the robbery of art and valuables, with initially distant actors who will slowly and convincingly move towards each other and an inexorable head-on collision as the story moves towards a skillfully graded dramatic crescendo. In addition to that lack of momentum, Leighton can be criticized here for the underutilization of the acting sizes, which Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nick Nolte undoubtedly are, who were given too little minutes under the umbrella of a 136-minute film story.

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It is quite satisfying and melodramatically intoned Does this work miracles?? (Is This Thing On?), which, under the guise of a lively two-hour dramedy, brings by far the best and most mature directorial work of the multiple Oscar winner and actor Bradley Cooper. After being called out for no reason and rewarded A Star Is Born (A Star is Born) and a completely failed and extremely boring biopic Teacher, Cooper turned to a matrimonial dramedy that was suitably unusual and strengthened by the introduction of the sub-motif of a sudden passion for stand-up comedy after the breakup of a marriage and the subsequent breakup of a family. On that level, this Cooper film is particularly mature and suggestive, which is enhanced by the exceptionally dynamic cinematography of director of photography Matthew Libatik (a constant collaborator of Darren Aronovsky) and the subtle acting and complementing of Will Arnett and Laura Dern in the roles of spouses who are not easily separated. In this regard, one of the problems of this overall very good and pleasant film (carried by organic and unpretending humor) is a certain shakiness of the narrative focus, because the film occasionally wanders between the decision to see things primarily from the perspective of the main character and the effort to create some kind of gender equality between the male and female spouses. The second flaw (and especially expressed in the final, third act) is a too loose and, therefore, insufficiently convincing link between the main aspect of the story and its branch which concerns the dynamics of the relationship between the spouses and their four insufficiently individualized friends. Bradley Cooper himself proved to be the most questionable item in that dimension, in an unnecessarily irritating interpretation of the rather flat character of the best friend of a newly found stand-up comedian without fear or flaw. Despite that, Does this work miracles?? it is easily and overall harmoniously recommended as a readable and charming film work on topics that gave birth to quite a few more quality and unique films, and which in the last ten years (at least) have simply been banished from the films of the cinema profile.