Mark AschReviews

1 month ago | bfi.org.uk | Mark AschReviews |Mark Asch |Arjun Sajip |Anton Bitel

“One of the greatest compliments I ever got (well, it seemed like a compliment to me, anyway) was when Mr. Spielberg told me I’d missed my era as a screenwriter – that I would have had a ball in the 40s,” David Koepp once told the film scholar David Bordwell. He’s found the next best thing writing scripts directed by modern workflow gurus like David Fincher, and now the one-man studio Steven Soderbergh.

Jul 9, 2024 | bfi.org.uk | Mark Asch |David Wilson |Anton Bitel |Mark AschReviews

In his trademark hat and facial hair, our wordless hero moves mischievously through a Sisyphean loop of absurd obstacles, sidestepping pitfalls and performing feats of kinetic ingenuity – he is the Little Tramp, he is Super Mario, he is the fur trapper Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews), protagonist of the spirited and inventive Hundreds of Beavers, which updates silent slapstick for a video-game age.