Uncut Gems (2019)

The Safdie brothers take these seemingly uninteresting stories and film them “guerilla style” on the streets of New York, giving them an atmosphere of heightened intensity. What is happening through most of the film, when broken down, wouldn’t even be worthy of the exposition heavy dialogue scenes of an action movie. But the way they are filmed and edited with the heavy booming drone of the electronic sound track creates a sense of urgency that makes the audience feel like they are witnessing this action-packed chase be unveiled right before their eyes.

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Skin (2018)

Where the film triumphs is where any good film should. It has great performances, most notably by Bell and Camp, and beautiful cinematography by Arnaud Potier. But I struggle to think of anything that would make this film memorable, or at the very least, stick out from similar films (American History X, Imperium, The Believer). It is certainly a good movie, but for me, it does not have that one thing that pushes it over the edge. There is nothing that will stick with me.

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