For better or worse, that’s a microcosm of the entirety of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. As helpful as Robertson’s plucked metronome is to fill voids and create a foreboding cinematic heartbeat, your own pulse rate ends up matching that placidness. No matter what heinous deception, jarring murder, or well-appointed finery appears on screen, very little in the film intensifies or accelerates beyond that methodical drowning dirge.
Read MoreThree critics of Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, including your truly, answer the bell to share their punches and counter-punches on the Roberto Duran biopic "Hands of Stone." Enjoy the hot takes of Emmanuel Noisette, Jim Alexander, and myself!
Read MoreTo use a boxing term favored by commentators, “Hands of Stone” has a “big fight feel.” The ferocious energy and volatile personality of Edgar Ramirez’s Roberto Duran emits enough heat to liquefy lead. Add in the smooth and suave Sugar Ray Leonard, played by a game Usher Raymond IV, as the titan to topple and the effect is multiplied. “Hands of Stone” doesn’t break any new ground, but it operates with low mistakes to be a step above competent and solid within the sports film genre.
Read MoreThe problematic factor for this David O. Russell and his acting muses is the diminishing returns of their final products. Showing a case of beginner's luck, "Silver Linings Playbook" was a crowd-pleasing quirky romance that netted Lawrence an Oscar. Full of promise, "American Hustle" was an overrated and misguided attempt at Scorsese Lite. "Joy" now arrives with a random mix of events that may begin insinuate the 14th century expression of "going to the well once too often" for this group. Like the idiom's definition, Russell and company have taken repeated risks and have now pushed their luck too far.
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