The MacGuffin Men

The role of public transit, reflections, Steve McQueen and Viola Davis making a film they’re overqualified for, and manipulating genre conventions.

Making something simultaneously naturalistic and highly stylized, Nicolas Cage’s performance, overexposed light, and the importance of sleep.

Billy Wilder meets Agatha Christie, old technology vs. new technology, and the element of performance in getting away with murder.

Pablo Larrain’s newest abstract celebrity profile, Kristen Stewart, putting cameras extremely close to faces, and fried chicken.

Tim Burton getting everything he wanted, Christmas, a movie about society’s power to corrupt an individual, and how Batman is barely in this Batman movie.

Laura Linney, early 2000s indie cinema, and Kenneth Lonergan’s approach to tragedy.

The changing character of James Bond, manipulating expectations, the importance of attachment in an action film, film grammar in a big budget Bond adventure, and all that rad stuff in Cuba.

The uncommon structure for a war film, Kubrick becoming Kubrick, and Kirk Douglas’ star power getting movies made.

Gael Garcia Bernal, Pablo Larrain, skateboarding and authenticity, questioning reality, and mimes.

M Night Shymalan’s blank cheque, Bruce Willis’ stillness, the subtle and not-so-subtle craft in the film, and Samuel L Jackson selling the hell out of some of the silliest lines you have ever heard.