I’m playing catch-up here in an attempt to quickly review all of the movies I watched in January 2020 from memory, so please bear with me as some of these earlier reviews may be brief and in much less detail in comparison to freshly watched films.
Why did I make this my first movie of the year? For no particular reason, actually.
I’ve been a fan of Christian Bale since Batman Begins and The Prestige, and this movie had limited time left on Sky Cinema, so why not?
I had little knowledge of this film’s main plot beforehand, other than that it was about a dude who couldn’t sleep… and it turned out to be an okay first movie of 2020.
Thoughts?
The most obvious thing anyone could ever say about The Machinist is that Christian Bale’s transformation from his toned, muscular self in Equilibrium and American Psycho to this is both insane and also incredible. How he forced himself to lose so much weight (his diet being some crazy apples and cigarettes combination) is absolutely nuts. I applaud him for having the balls and the willpower, but also… I am concerned for your well-being, Christian. Calm the fuck down.
There’s an impressive soundtrack at work here. I remember finding it very Hitchcockian in the way it builds suspense, and I had a sudden déjà vu moment that took me back to Psycho (1960). However, the style and cinematography harks back to the far more recent Memento (2000). While we’re on that point, this movie could have probably done with a complete Christopher Nolan overhaul. The chronology ends up taking a turn in a similar Nolan-style direction towards the end, but I feel that Nolan could have made this movie more interesting as a whole and it would really benefit from some more timey-wimey blocking throughout.
There was a miiiiildly impressive plot twist in The Machinist, which is kind of annoying as I saw the majority of the other twists coming, hence my very average rating. Sorry ’bout it.
TQR Category Ratings:
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The Quayside Review 