Dunkaccino

Settlers mark the border of the town Horizon as Native Americans watch. This town would exist for several years before being raided and destroyed by the Natives. Among the pillage is a family: The mother and daughter barely survive underground, while the father and son, whom we were introduced to earlier as admirably heroic despite his young age, go to fight. Sacrifices are made, and Horizon's tale comes to an end.

To know how bold a game Kevin Costner is playing, know that the arc above occurs before he even appears on screen. But his presence is deeply felt behind the camera, operating on cinematography strikingly rich with detail, motivated lighting, sound design that makes you hear every footstep, realistically loud gunshots. The film has a transition shot from the chaos inside Horizon to a journey in front of the sunrise. Combined with the lush, propulsing score, it moved me. Not only because of the beautiful details on screen, but also because it is deeply felt that the American west was made from the blood and journeys of countless men. There are no lands that Western Americans live in that weren't stepped upon by the ones before them.

Costner himself channels a hero in the fashion of Clint Eastwood. A man with both tough muscles and a heart for love and mercy. He doesn't get to do much in the film, but as the ending montage suggests, plots will intertwine and he will eventually lead the saga.

There are a lot of meanwhiles. This is not the film's weakness, but a proof of its ambitions. If there are complaints made about its lack of resolution, empty build-ups, it should be noted as its artistic intent. What matters is how Costner treats every side of the story with equal worth and sympathy. Despite their reservations or prejudice, he keeps an open mind. It brings me great faith to witness that there is still one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend his own hard-earned money to produce a magnificent project. The result is one of the best westerns I've seen, and since it is only the first of four chapters, I am sure the best of the series has yet to come.

It has been 34 years since Dances With Wolves. Times have changed, people are more educated than ever about Indigenous tribes. It only makes sense for Costner to aim higher, with greater confidence and clarity. And it will always be a pleasure to see him deliver.

Furiosa is an engine that starts slow but strong, until it accelerates to one of the most muscular movies I've seen. The difference between this movie and an engine is that an engine runs out of gas. By the time Furiosa ended I could've gone for another hour.

The opening 40 minutes (or was it an hour; I lost track of time) concerns Furiousa's childhood, establishing the backbone of a more complex entry than Fury Road. While the 2015 film is a giant chase of alliances and enemies, Furiosa is a more ambitious piece of work, even if that means less audacious action scenes. (But comparing the action of Furiosa to that of Fury Road is like comparing Central Park Tower to the Burj Khalifa; they both stand tall is what matters) It touches on the subtext of generational trauma that merges into pure feminine rage from Furiosa's adolescence to maturity. It also serves as an alternate coming-of-age movie; at the start Furiosa sees a brutal murder of a loved one, and at the end it pays off beautifully. Meanwhile we watch Chris Hemsworth, who seemed to collect all the resentment he got from playing a hero into one maniacal performance.

Strufturally Furiosa is similar to the 1979 original: More deep dives into the villains, more leather jackets, more empty roads. There's a long shot of Furiosa alone in the middle of nowhere after a long battle. She looks around, she breathes, she limps. Miller expands a badass heroine into someone we identify with.

Cars crash into and out of gates, into motobikes and eventually crashed by them. Far beyond the layers of rubble and explosions, it is the close-ups of Anya-Taylor Joy that is the most breathtaking. History will mention her in the same sentence as the greatest of action heroines. Behind the camera is the true auteur who embraces digital photography to create a product so uniquely dazzling. George Miller is a mad man, and action cinema is all the better for it.

Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan returning to the absolute peak of his craft. You can say the same about Cillian Murphy, who delivers a performance that will hopefully be discussed or even studied in the years to come.

The success of this film mostly lies on him, and what helps the star shine is the ensemble supporting cast. Nolan, with his tight screenplay and intimate direction, is able to get career-best performances out of Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Josh Harnett, with an understated David Krumholtz and the limited screen precense of Kenneth Branagh.

Editor Jennifer Lane's work allows Oppenheimer to jump from scene to scene, time to time, actor to actor ever so seamlessly. Nolan's one of two expertises displayed here is his significant use of time jumps. Sometimes the jump cuts in this film are excessively overwhelming. This might be an unconventional comment, but I enjoyed Oppenheimer best when it slows down to present a long conversation. Some scenes of the trial and testimony is tense because it allows the rapid-fire dialogue to flow naturally.

And then the shattering sequence of bomb detonation arrives. It is a breathless few minutes. The audience were staring at the gigantic IMAX 70mm screen with culminating intensity. The other expertise of Nolan's is how he handles sound design. Sure, sometimes the audio is so bombastic that we feel the explosion in our core, but it is sometimes the alternative scenes with absolute silence that we feel the most effect of.

As far as the plot goes, those who are invested in it might figure out some historical details that are missing, or that the subplot about the character Oppenheimer's personal life (with Blunt and Florence Pugh) feels half-baked. But as viewers, it won't take long until one realizes that Oppenheimer isn't simply a movie about making the atomic bomb. This character film is fundamentally about a man coming to terms with being the person solely giving people the power to destroy the world. Cinema is a powerful medium, and Oppenheimer uses it to its full extent to deliver a harrowing story that leaves us stunned.