The first time Daniel Craig is handed a gun in “Layer Cake” (2005), he briefly prances around like he’s 007 or something. That would still be a year or so away. We get to see him command a stage while on the wrong side of the law in this classic British gangster flick. There’s a much-coveted shipment of drugs and lots of double-crossing, just like in most gangster flicks, including the bad ones. The good ones let you follow along just closely enough to think you know what’s going on, when you really, really, don’t. This is a good one.
Archives for posts with tag: Sienna Miller
(Note: There were two films named “American Woman” released to U.S. audiences in close proximity)
If you took every one of the sad Sheryl Crow songs and tried to turn them into a movie, you’d end up with “American Woman” (2019). Haunted by the bad decisions of herself and others, slowly being grinded down by working-class life, Sienna Miller’s protagonist is a tragic figure except when she’s her own worst enemy. (Heck, Miller even looks like Crow.) There’s a missing-persons subplot that you keep thinking is going to spark into a full-fledged, true-crime story every time a new character is introduced, but alas, it’s simply a movie about perseverance, though a well-made one at that.
Ever heard the story about the bisexual baseball player and World War II spy who either bravely confirmed that the Nazis weren’t building an atom bomb or recklessly allowed the Nazis to continue to try to build an atom bomb? Yeah, well, there’s a 2018 movie called “The Catcher Was a Spy” which is “based on a true story,” meaning that only part of that first sentence is true and I don’t know which part. It’s interesting, yet unsatisfying. Honestly, I preferred a New York Times article that I read years ago about the subject of the film, Moe Berg.
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