Friday, December 21, 2012

Zero Dark Thirty (Dir. Kathryn Bigelow)

I went to see the hunt for Bin Laden to take my mind off a woman.
The need of cinema for total immersion. To get out of your own head. And in that theater, it delivered. You don't need popcorn. You don't need soda. You'll just sit there riveted. Frozen. Without blinking. Sustained tension from minute one to the final moment. When it ended I could have continued to sit there for another hour. Finally, a real movie.

And it seems to usher in a new genre of cinema. Something I'll label for right now 'new journalism.' A sprawling narrative tale that jumps years and time, yet effortlessly so, without becoming disjointed. Fabric and small details throughout. Kind of three films in one -- a political thriller,  a procedural, and the final one being an exhilarating men on a mission. A huge New Yorker piece adapted for the screen. I put this film alongside Zodiac.

Jason Clarke and Edgar Ramirez have worked themselves to become my favorite actors. 

(A couple brief notes: Camp Chapman sequence -- I knew what was going to happen from hearing about it on Fresh Air a year ago and was still tense/and then angry for the security breach to be allowed, and the tracking of Bin Laden's courier in the market place should be remembered. A question: If they're able to track his phone, can't they listen in on the info he's providing and know if UBL is giving orders for Abbottabad?)

Two words: Fucking Awesome.

A great,  grand American film.

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