Zero Dark Thirty

I’m always fascinated how storytellers generate suspense despite the ultimate spoiler alert – a story based on actual events. You do realize Osama bin Laden is dead, right? Anyway, “United 93” might have done the best job I have ever seen with this challenge, but “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012) comes close. And it’s just a straight up, chronological retelling of the years upon years it took CIA operatives to hunt down bin Laden. You really feel the pressure of the interrogations, the surveillance, the danger. Tiny flaw: SEAL Team 6 comes off a little cowboyish (but maybe they’re really like that).

Red Sparrow

I’m so glad “Red Sparrow” (2018) didn’t suck. Because somebody told me it sucked. I shouldn’t have believed them. Maybe it was a double cross. Maybe they actually liked it but they wanted me to not like it so that I would be surprised it didn’t suck because they wanted me to trust them but then not trust them. Oooooh, so crafty. The movie’s like that, too. Jennifer Lawrence is performing at another level right now. It’s her, Jessica Chastain, and, um, right. Also, best three-way knife fight in movie history. And definitely the Oscar frontrunner for best one-piece swimsuit.

Gringo

There have been a lot of these movies. You know, pick from the following create-a-story list: the hapless protagonist, the crime, the double-cross, the mistaken identity, the triple-cross, the bigger crime, the mobsters/cartel, the feds, the plot twist, etc. It becomes a comedy of errors, on one level or another. You know. There have been a lot of them. But the films that can spin enough of those a la carte plates to keep things interesting without making a mess are really good. Like “Gringo” (2018). David Oyelowo is the perfect hapless protagonist. Please ignore the violations of car-wreck physics.