Thoughts on Things Seen

  We saw The Killer's Game yesterday, and I truly enjoyed it. Yes, it's (very) violent. Yes, it's loud. But: 1. Wrestler turned actor Dave Bautista gets better and better. He's made it clear in interviews, including here in GQ , that he wants to be a really good actor. He's worked at it and it shows. He can be funny and touching as well as tough. 2. Bautista looks great. Seriously. This article in Variety discusses his weight loss from 315 pounds for Knock at the Cabin to his current 240 pounds. He's still a BIG guy (6'4" tall) but doesn't dominate his co-stars quite as much. 3. Love interest Maize, a ballet dancer who Bautista's Joe Flood meets during a hit, is played by Algeria-born Sofia Boutella . She's a dancer by training and is delightful in the role. I LOVE that the movie avoids the damsel-in-distress set up, with Maize as tough as Joe. The red dress that she wears in her opening performance put me in mind of the classic The Red S...

  I watched Kevin Costner 's Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 this week. It was OK: no more or less than that. I'll certainly watch Chapter 2 but can't promise that I'll make it through all 4 parts. My initial concern wast that it would feel drawn-out, with the kind of lugubrious pacing that makes me want to tear my hair out.  But it was the opposite: it races from one set of interesting events and characters to another, never letting you digest what just happened before we're off to something (and somewhere) else.  It feels like it should have either been (1) a ten episode mini-series or (2) edited WAY down. The characters and stories are interesting enough, the acting is solid (I'm a big fan of Sienna Miller and of course the scenery is spectacular, although it all looks a bit alike after awhile. But here's my real "what the heck was that?" which isn't a spoiler. As the Chapter 1 story wraps up, we leap into an un-introduced montage of s...

  I am, admittedly, behind schedule in watching the final season of Billions , the Showtime series that wrapped up its decades-long battle between a NY state attorney general (played by Paul Giamatti ) and his various opponents at a hedge fund earlier this year. Season 7 opens with billionaire Michael Prince ( Corey Stoll ) telling his right hand woman, psychiatrist & performance coach Wendy Rhoades ( Maggie Siff ), that he's running for President.  She concludes that not only would Prince make a frighteningly awful president, he's a threat to American democracy (sound like anyone you know?). And she has to keep this from happening. The entire episode sets out the goals of this final season. But THE scene - one of the best written, directed, and edited scenes I've watched in a long time - starts at the 18:40 mark.  Wendy emerges from her black chauffeur-driven SUV in front of Wo Hop, a hole in the wall Chinatown mainstay familiar to millions of New Yorkers (it's at ...