the groundhog day project

An odd note up front: 33 years after I first saw Suspect , and maybe a couple decades since I last saw it, I only just noticed that the murder victim, Elizabeth Rose Quinn, is the woman in the opening scene talking to the Supreme Court Justice who kills himself thereafter. I don't think I ever realized that before--mostly because we barely see her face later but also because the film wants us focused on the guy who kills himself. And my inability to notice--or the film not making a point of drawing my attention to--her face might connect in a way with what I wanted to write about the film today. The film paints an interesting picture of Washington DC. In the early establishing shots of the city, we see traffic, we see homeless, and after we are introduced to Kathleen Riley (Cher) in her car, three young men smash her windshield, yank open her doors, steal her necklace, and make a run for it. The film wants us to see DC as an urban environment with too many people and rampant ...

Flash Gordon waits. Today, I saw Roman J. Israel, Esq. and... Well, a quick review of sorts: Denzel Washington and the character of Roman--awesome. The movie--not as awesome. Good, but not great. Like I wish it hadn't tied its own hands in the opening moments by establishing a timeline of just three weeks, because then SPOILERS, we don't get any real moments of realization from George (Colin Farrell) that Roman is at all correct about him wanting to be a more proactive sort of defense attorney. It just happens. Mostly offscreen. There was room for something a little more inspirational, like Denzel's titular bulldog of a lawyer is so committed to the details that he inspires attorneys around him and it all becomes something good. Or, alternatively, he takes that one instance of corruption--seen in the trailer--and just dives into being corrupt, and the film is more of a Faustian piece. Instead of either, the film treads water in the middle. And abruptly, it does a have-it...