Bruce Willis Archives - Parallax View

2000 Eyes: Unbreakable

Written by Sean Axmaker September 16, 2020September 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

[Written for Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

What if superheroes were real, not some four-color pulp fantasy or Spandex-and-mask-clad movie daredevil, but a part of the fabric of the world? That’s the core of Unbreakable, a potentially interesting idea deflated by the absurd proclamations of an arch screenplay and smothered under the ponderous gravity of M. Night Shyamalan’s dreary direction.

His much anticipated follow-up to The Sixth Sense draws heavily from that hit; the somber colors and hushed soundtrack create a similar mood of unease and otherworldliness, and Bruce Willis again plays a man disconnected from his life who must discover the secret that leaves him “unfulfilled” with the help of a young boy, in this case his son.

Review: Rock the Kasbah

Written by Robert Horton October 22, 2015

As much as I appreciate the love Bill Murray gets from arthouse auteurs like Wes Anderson and Jim Jarmusch, there are times when the great man should cut loose in a big, broad comedy. Rock the Kasbah aims for that spirit, but—nope, no cigar. Murray plays an L.A. talent manager, Richie Lanz, who never made the big time but has a bushel of anecdotes about hanging out with Madonna and Jimi Hendrix. Given a shot to take his latest protégé (Zooey Deschanel, amusing before she exits the film) on a USO tour in Afghanistan, Richie comes a cropper when things fall apart in Kabul. His trust in a pair of weapons dealers (Danny McBride and Scott Caan) is ill-judged; his liaison with a gold-plated hooker (Kate Hudson) is expensive; and there’s this mercenary (Bruce Willis, grim throughout) who keeps turning up at key moments.

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Blu-ray: Criterion’s ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ and ‘Honeymoon Killers’ and ‘A Dog Day’ anniversary

Written by Sean Axmaker October 11, 2015

Moonrise Kingdom (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD) – Wes Anderson has made a career exploring the childhood neuroses that keep adult characters in an arrested state of adolescence and stasis. It’s been a lively career with creatively energetic high points like Rushmore and The Royal Tennenbaums but an approach with diminishing returns. Until Fantastic Mr. Fox, a film that refracted his portraits of dysfunctional families and modern anxieties through a storybook world.

In Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Anderson finally builds a film around the troubled kids themselves. Kara Hayward’s Suzy, a book-loving loner with anger issues, and Jared Gilman’s Sam, an eccentric orphan out of step with his fellow Khaki Scouts, are two misfit adolescents who instantly recognize the other as a kindred soul and run away together into the wilds of a small New England island. Which, admittedly, makes escape a little difficult, what with a small army of Khaki scout trackers and a storm on the way.

It’s funny, it’s playful, it’s full of nostalgic blasts and period trappings, but most of all it is loving: accepting of the headstrong kids determined to find their place in the world, forgiving of the oblivious adults around them, affectionate in its storybook imagery and narrative playfulness.