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Jonathan Empson writes ‘mercifully short reviews’, the best of which we republish here on The Story Department.
Elles Mercifully Short Review by Jonathan Empson Anne (Juliette Binoche) is a writing a magazine feature on two young women who are paying their way through college by working as prostitutes. It seems they see more positives than negatives, and Anne starts to consider the emotional price tag of her own life as a middle-class … Read more
Zero Dark Thirty Mercifully Short Review by Jonathan Empson This is not an action film. At least, not until late in the piece. The story of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden is based on painstaking research by writer Mark Boal, and the story covers the ten years of grinding intelligence work (and grinding of … Read more
Django Unchained Mercifully Short Review by Jonathan Empson It’s two years before the American Civil War, and a liberal and articulate bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) frees slave Django (Jamie Foxx) to help him identify three sadistic brothers who were once Django’s overseers. Django gets a taste for the work and they partner up, but Django’s … Read more
“A Tour-de-force,” “Fiercely realised,” “Pure cinematic power,” “Remarkable, Visionary,” “Re-imagines cinematic boundaries,” – and these are quotes from people you care about – the Sundance institute, Hugo Weaving, The Age – couple these quotes with the power-house that is the trailer to this cinematic gem and you’ll understand why I was excited to see this … Read more
Killing Them Softly: How A Screenwriter Murdered His Own Protagonist Character Analysis by Jamie Wynen Andrew Dominik’s (The Assassination of Jesse James, Chopper) latest film is an adaptation of the novel 1973 crime novel Cogan’s Trade, starring Brad Pitt as the excitingly dangerous Jackie Cogan, Animal Kingdom veteran Ben Mendelsohn, and the implausibly named Scoot McNairy. … Read more