A little over fifty years ago, Bonnie and Clyde took on Old Hollywood and won. Arthur Penn’s fizzing, sexy crime biopic made stars of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, hailed a new age for cinema and effectively ended the career of stuffy film critic Bosley Crowther. It’s been a long time coming but the establishment finally have a dull, self righteous response. Occasionally saved by strong leading turns by Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, The Highwaymen is the antithesis of Penn’s groundbreaker, taking great pains to remind youthful viewers that Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were not nice people. At all. This is counter-counterculture in the extreme.
With more biopics to his name than any other artist in history, one would expect Van Gogh’s cultural currency to have been spent up by now. Not so long in the wake of the gorgeous Loving Vincent, however, At Eternity’s Gate sees director Julian Schnabel prove that there is still mileage in this post-Impressionist tank. Dizzying visuals and a show stopping turn by Willem Dafoe – who was presented an Oscar nomination for the part – are the film’s chief pleasures, whilst its support of one controversial theory about the artist’s life does much to stand it apart.
Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder together again? Really? Clearly, Victor Levin hasn’t watched their grandiose Dracula, else he’d know this pair of 90s faves can’t muster the slightest crackle of on-screen chemistry. Admittedly, their pairing in sci-fi head-scratcher A Scanner Darkly wasn’t egregious, but assessing the chemistry between drugged-up animated performers is challenging at best.
The Film Blog 