finally got to catch two flicks that I've been meaning to see for some time now this past week. The first one, Breach, is about Robert Hanssen. He's widely considered to be the most treacherous agent in the intelligence community. The cost of the information that he leaked out is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions and he was directly linked with compromising the identities of more than 50 undercover agents, leading to the demise of three of 'em.
Anyway. It was a very solid movie. The pace, dialogue and cast selections were all excellent. Christopher Cooper as Hanssen put in what I consider to be a criminally overlooked performance in '07 that was more than award deserving. Ryan Phillippe, who in my opinion, has rounded himself out into a talented and capable actor with savvy selections in the people/scripts he chooses to associate himself with, was also praise worthy. Laura Linney, as usual, was more than competent in her role as a supporting actor aswell, man. I seem to take her for granted far too often, but she's a phenomenal broad.....great actress.
The second one was a little flick called This is England. I recall hearing about it quite a while ago. Actually, it might've even been as far back as around the time of the Toronto International Film fest. I was really intrigued by it from reading a short synopsis of it, but not enough to follow through on that piqued interest, I suppose. Anyway, I was slightly familiar with the works of Shane Meadows through his shamefully underrated flick A Room for Romeo Brass, but I'd seen that movie so long ago that I'd pretty much forgotten about 'em.
What can I say about the movie other than that it was surprisingly flawless and brilliant in every facet. It was effortlessly gloomy and chilly from the first scene on. The leading actor, who's just this preteenish kid is immensely gifted. The kid just has it in my opinion, man. And the supporting cast, but especially the dude who played Combo was remarkably outstanding as the highly frightening and complex Skinhead.
Going into it, I was expecting something a la American History X or Romper Stomper, but this movie might've been more mesmerizing and emotionally gripping than those two flicks. Again, I cannot stress to you guys enough how sublime and tremendously advanced the kid's acting in this flick was, man.
I highly recommend 'em both.
btw, I'm just looking over Shane Meadow's filmography, and this dude has some impressively rated films to his name, man. I mean, I realize that it's not wise to jump to conclusions about someone's material by how the IMDBers have chosen to vote on it, but if the rest of his **** is anywhere as good as This is England or A Room for Romeo Brass, then this dude is shamefully overlooked as one of the best young writer/director combos out there today, man.
