News of the World (Paul Greengrass)

[Philip J. Fry]

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/st-static-stage/universalstudios/news-of-the-world/images/regions/us/200x200.png

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTZDb_iKooI

IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6878306/) / wiki (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_of_the_World_(film)) / RT (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/news_of_the_world) / Metacritic (https://www.metacritic.com/movie/news-of-the-world)

Official website (https://www.newsoftheworldfilm.com/)

[Peng]

I skip his 22 July, but as someone who had enjoyed Greengrass' divisive visceral style up until Captain Phillips, it's rather dispiriting to see him be anonymous like this. Only the stellar mid-film shootout exhibits something of his old distinctive self's pulse, while the rest, though sturdy in story enough, feels like a sanded, "respectful" directorial job that verges on bland often. At least Hanks and Zengel are good together, with the latter impressively always resisting any sign of cute-kid tropes often inherent in an adult-kid roadtrip story like this. 6.5/10

[Philip J. Fry]

Yeah, it feels like the sort of old-fashioned Western that while it's a perfectly fine watch, it's sort of forgettable afterwards and not even the mid-film shootout feels like something Greengrass unmistakably would've done.

It's a perfectly safe, watchable movie that might even sway a few Oscar voters, but will be forgotten in a few years.

[Grouchy]

I happen to disagree. Greengrass has managed to do what basically amounts to 'woke The Seachers' and get away with it, which means it's an excellent, vibrating western and not a pandering work. The editing style actually reminded me of the best Philip Kaufman.

[Irish]

Nay.

Mediocre because it never decides what it wants to be, panders to audience expectations, mindlessly regurgitates 70 year old western movie tropes, and condescends to the audience in dialogue that is mostly expository.

OTOH the two leads make it a watchable and an almost pleasant experience, even though the intended emotional beats never land.

[Ezee E]

Hanks/Zengel's chemistry together makes it work for me. I like how it takes a classical approach, and still finds something interesting to utilize in a genre that's almost touched it all. The approach to shotgun shells was especially clever to me.