Rating of
4/4
The candid thriller the world is missing.
memento_mori - wrote on 07/26/13
After viewing it one more time, I've grown to love Paul Thomas Anderson's film debut 'Hard Eight'.
Anderson had the correct piece of work in mind when he made this film. It is as flawless as a first-time project can get, and this movie shows it through all the strong points of drama, that outweigh the lower ones such as action significantly.
Hard Eight has a sense of style that is both simple and complicated. PTA's use of Steadicam and focus were fantastic, used often to focus on plot elements, such as cigarettes and coffee.
As always, his use of focus is great.
The screenplay is filled with excellent ambiguity and characters. Sydney seems to be the title character, because he is the most mysterious.
I will go as far as saying these characters are written near perfectly. Every word of dialogue somehow connects to how a person feels physically or mentally. Their intentions are never made clear, but that's a good thing, considering they never intended to get involved in the situations they get into. The people feel like people again, and not just characters.
You never know what is going to happen to them and where the story will take them. That's why it becomes all the more entertaining when they get in or out of trouble, because it's so realistic.
It's one of the few times where I can speak so highly of a cinematic debut.
Glowing with intelligence and talent, Hard Eight succeeds admirably in the areas of neo-noir and crime, offering a broad viewing experience for viewers who can be patient with a movie of a more minor stature.
Analyzed review coming soon.
