Tag Archives: Guy Pearce

THE DOG STARS (Ridley Scott, 2026)

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Reviews of THE DOG STARS were so muted that I was surprised I liked it as much as I did and now suspect it will be one of those Ridley Scott films (like, recently, THE COUNSELOR and THE LAST DUEL) that will be re-evaluated upwards in years to come. I liked the depiction of nature, which remains beautiful, whilst all humans have built is ugly and deteriorating. This is a world almost eradicated by a virus and now dog-eat-dog survivalist. The film is about overcoming the sadness that overhangs everything and finding love (romantic as well as communal) and hope. The pace feels slow (though is that just because of our current doom scrolling from ten sec clip to ten sec clip?). There are some fantastical moments – gothic meets the surreal – with Allison Janney ruling an airport outpost and I loved the John Fordish prelude to the film’s end. The cast is starry indeed, Jacob Elordi and Margaret Qualley lovely together; Josh Brolin at his most appealing; Guy Pearce brilliant at playing someone almost ordinary. I liked the film’s valuing of skills and knowledge and really loved the combination of apocalyptic circumstances not without nature and beauty, overhanging sadness, and a finding of more than a glimmer of love and hope as those circumstances unfold. I was very glad to see it.

 

José Arroyo

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 453 – The Shrouds

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A psychosexual thriller that’s neither psychosexual nor thrilling enough, The Shrouds is a disappointment. There’s great promise to businessman Vincent Cassel’s invention of a technologically advanced shroud that creates a 3D model of the decaying body it houses, when we’re shown the lust with which he observes his deceased wife’s corpse. The film is peppered with recurrent imagery of her disfigured body, and its importance to Cassel’s character is constantly reinforced, but the film is too talky, its imagery too bland, and its plot too convoluted to make the most of it. A shame.

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Spotify, or YouTube Music.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

 

Eavesdropping at the Movies: 439 – The Brutalist

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We visit BFI Southbank for a 70mm screening of The Brutalist, Brady Corbet’s epic period drama. It’s a super-sized film – 215 minutes, not including the intermission – and it deserves a super-sized podcast, for which we’re joined, as we occasionally are, by Mike’s brother, Stephen, who’s already seen the film once. It’s an extraordinarily complex, subtle and absorbing film that draws on countless themes and parts of history in telling its story of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor and architect who escapes to America and finds a wealthy client enamoured with him.

We dig in to the film’s themes with breathless enthusiasm, and talk sex, racism, the immigrant experience, long takes, rape, capitalism, doing things for effect, art, aspiration, jealousy, the value of 70mm, and much more. José describes The Brutalist as his film of the year; Mike ponders whether he likes it more than the Robbie Williams monkey movie.

Listen on the players below, Apple Podcasts, Audible, Spotify, or YouTube Music.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

Eavesdropping at the Movies254 – L.A. Confidential

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Listen on the players above, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.

A corrupt police force intersects with the glamour of Hollywood in L.A. Confidential, the tightly-plotted neo-noir that won the Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress in a year dominated by Titanic, and established the status and careers of Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey. Over twenty years since its enormously successful release, does it hold up? We discuss its basis in the real history of L.A. and its sense of place, whether the screenplay deserves its plaudits, how it functions as a noir and more.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.