Yassineeeeeee

I did not expect to like this as much as I did. It tells a pretty straight-forward revenge story, and it borrows from everything from Bruce Lee to Sergio Leone to Scorsese along the way, but it tells that familiar story with style, confidence and energy.

I am totally impressed with what Patel has done here. The movie-making is pulsating with urgency and sensuality to such an extent that some of the fight scenes almost seem like distractions, if that makes any sense. Don't get me wrong, the movie works amazingly well as a revenge tale and as an action picture, no doubt about it. But the movie works on so many other layers as well. It works as an exercise of style. It works as a character study.

It even works as a social commentary. There's a moment in the movie where the filmmakers insert real-life footage of violence that really packs a punch. It's a movie of our time, with things to say about the world we live in. A world of India's Modi, the MAGA, Netanyahu, ISIS and Europe's far right movements.

It's wonderful filmmaking. Credit to the cast. The movie has a wonderful duo of antagonists. And interesting bad guys are such a big part of what makes action pictures work.

And I haven't watched some of his more recent work.

Written and directed by Allen, it's very much a movie in the French tradition, the tradition of Chabrol and Truffaut: Hitchcock minus the suspense.

That's a real shame because Allen is a great director of suspense, he has proven that with movies like Crimes and Misdemeanor, Manhattan Murder Mystery and Match Point. This does not come near those titles.

Allen is a master filmmaker. I am a big fan of his. Hannah and Her Sisters, Annie Hall, The Purple Rose of Cairo and Crimes & Misdemeanors are all time greats. I just can't understand why he'd want to make something like this. Something this empty and tedious. What's the point?