Paul Thompson

6 days ago | pitchfork.com | Paul Thompson

There’s never been any danger that Christopher McQuarrie would trip, fall, and accidentally make Barry Lyndon. Some directors are described as painterly; McQuarrie, who won an Oscar for writing The Usual Suspects before a career spent mostly directing Tom Cruise action vehicles, is the opposite. He’s a competent, judicious, visual filmmaker who knows when he should simply get out of the way because his star wants to actively court death.

6 days ago | yahoo.com | Paul Thompson

Graphic by Chris Panicker, photos courtesy of ParamountThere’s never been any danger that Christopher McQuarrie would trip, fall, and accidentally make Barry Lyndon. Some directors are described as painterly; McQuarrie, who won an Oscar for writing The Usual Suspects before a career spent mostly directing Tom Cruise action vehicles, is the opposite. He’s a competent, judicious, visual filmmaker who knows when he should simply get out of the way because his star wants to actively court death.

2 weeks ago | pitchfork.com | Paul Thompson

Across genres, films about suburban life present it as an apparatus that saps its adult inhabitants of agency, and therefore happiness. It demands money, it demands conformity. But the people who choose to stay in or move to these enclaves have done just that—chosen. While it’s comforting to imagine that the things we believe make us unhappy on an existential level are beyond our control, it’s seldom true.

2 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Paul Thompson

7 hours agoThe reviews are trickling in and it appears Netflix has another star-studded hit on its hands. It was only a matter of time before other streamers tried to tap into the magic of HBO’s The White Lotus, and it appears Netflix has made a pretty solid effort in that direction with Sirens. The new …

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Paul Thompson

Graphic by Chris Panicker, photos courtesy of A24Across genres, films about suburban life present it as an apparatus that saps its adult inhabitants of agency, and therefore happiness. It demands money, it demands conformity. But the people who choose to stay in or move to these enclaves have done just that—chosen. While it’s comforting to imagine that the things we believe make us unhappy on an existential level are beyond our control, it’s seldom true.