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jpmayberry
Reviews
Knox Goes Away (2023)
Excellent movie which avoids all the tropes.
Beautifully written, artfully acted, hit-man movie which avoids tropes.
Which ones? Husbands and wives still have tender feelings for one another -- long after they are divorced -- especially if they share a child. They just can't stay married.
A professional thief steals from strangers, not old friends.
We never meet "Jericho." It's not important.
His "muscle-memory" kicks into full gear when it needs to, which is just like real life.
I defy people to predict the ending; it is fairly unpredictable. There is redemption, more so than there is a character arc. He always loved his son. Now he has a way to show it.
Miss Sloane (2016)
(Circumspect) Spoiler Alert: This Movie is About the Long Con.
One of my favorite genres of movie is the Long Con, in the vein of The Sting and Matchstick Men.
That's what this movie is about, and I love it for it. I won't tell you the details, but it (deliberately) leaves two HUGE unanswered questions:
#1.She's willing to go to prison to achieve her goal, but would she really engage in murder-for-hire to get what she wants? #2.What was her motivation for doing everything that she did?
Her motivation is left completely in the dark, but alluded to, as the-woman-with-no-ties (vaguely) smiles at whoever is picking her up in the last scene.
Like Memento, you either have to recreate it backwards in your head or see it again with those questions in mind.