John Wick Redux
Charles Albert
cfalbert at gmail.com
Sun Dec 15 04:05:49 UTC 2019
42. *John Wick*
<https://www.vulture.com/2014/10/john-wick-movie-review.html>
For the past three decades, Keanu Reeves has prevailed as one of our most
beguiling modern stars*. *With 2014’s *John Wick*, Reeves synthesizes his
greatest strengths: unerring cool, an astute understanding of loneliness,
and a facility with the ways our bodies communicate the stories we tell
ourselves in order to live. The neo-noir-tinged action flick, written by
Derek Kolstad, takes a simple premise — an ex-assassin plagued by grief
returns to his former life when the sniveling son (Alfie Allen) of a
powerful mob boss kills his dog — wringing from it supreme, wholly
cinematic pleasures. Surprising performances by Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane,
Adrianne Palicki, and Michael Nyqvist. Neon-drenched gun battles. A
lightning-bright, fresh mythos. What makes the film rise to the level of
one of the best of the decade is how directors Chad Stahelski and David
Leitch, former stuntmen and coordinators who met Reeves on *The Matrix*,
understand the beauty and mayhem of the human figure, capturing its
contours with an unprecedented clarity. *—A.J.B.*
*Rebuttal: Respectfully, this is as basic as thrillers get: You killed my
dog, prepare to die. I will concede that the sequel, *John Wick: Chapter 2*,
was sensational, its carnage so balletic it was almost abstract. (The third
part, *Parabellum*, had some great stuff amid the bloat.) —D.E.*
https://www.vulture.com/2019/12/every-movie-of-the-2010s-ranked-sort-of.html
love,
cfa
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