Jeff Bellin

One of the greatest films ever made, and by far, the most expensive silent film comedy ever made, one of epic proportions. The film is structured by essentially two long chases, and bound by great storytelling and gags along the way. The film looks gorgeous. Buster Keaton intentionally wanted to capture the look of the photographs of famed Civil War photographer, Matthew Brady, and he succeeded phenomenally. That this film takes the point of view of a Confederate railroad engineer, as someone pointed out, is due to that Keaton was taken with a novel he had read, written by the actual engineer, who practically single-handedly captured a Union Army regiment. So it's a true story, and regardless of the side, it's quite a story! We should never shy away from captivating stories. The movie, Downfall, depicted Hitler's last days, and it's a fascinating movie. The General doesn't take sides with regard to who was right or wrong, politically speaking. It just tells the story of one railroad engineer whose sole passions in life are that he loves working his railroad engine and loves his girl. The story, itself, is about getting his stolen engine back, inadvertently getting caught up in the battle . That's the arc of the film. It's Keaton's genius as a storyteller, creator and performer of ingenious gags, and sheer cinematic beauty, which take this film to another level. It's a wonderful film.

It's one of Woody Allen's better ones. It starts off a bit slowly, but there are some wonderfully farcical sections, particularly in the middle of the film. The more I see of Timotheé Chalamet, the less I admire his acting skills. I think he is more or less a pretty boy. I'll say that he was okay in this film, but most of the rest of the cast were better. I think a better male lead would have made the film better. In the end, is this major Allen? No. But having read his books of short stories, this is like one of his good farcical shorts. A nice, even fun way to spend 90 minutes, and the 90 minutes went by pretty quickly.