Richard Shepard
13 connections found
Filmography
View:
Connections, in both directions
While this notion is commonly utilized for obsessions of physical form revolving around beauty and youth, Shepard approaches perfection in a way that is reminiscent of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan.
The menacing artsiness and female trauma that inform the movie’s tone put it in the same small folder as Suspiria (either version) and Black Swan.
In one moment, you're watching a bad Black Swan spin-off.
He’s clearly relishing the more ridiculous aspects of the story here, especially when a big revelation drops and the third act goes from Black Swan to batshit crazy.
It starts as a seeming erotic thriller before pivoting into a nightmarish plague story, a Black Swan -esque psychodrama, and a ferociously Jacobean revenge flick.
Set in the pressure-filled world of classical music performance, it plays out in four titled movements that, among other influences, mash up Whiplash, Black Swan, Suspiria (circa 2018) and Cronenbergian venereal horrors.
Any movie that opens with a scene reminiscent of Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria and ends with one that’s reminiscent of Tod Browning’s Freaks is a movie that takes its viewers on a ride .
And in a nice sly twist, it's Grant—who made his name as a bounder in "Withnail & I"—playing the straight man here, and while he also gets some nice lines in, it's actually his face that gets some the biggest laughs in the picture, as he reacts to Dom's latest overreaction.
The Withnail & I star has become a symbol of comic debauchery, and he brings all that into this role along with a sly performance that underlines the implications of Dom's recklessness at every turn.
Not that such a character needs a story to shine (may I point you to Mike Leigh’s indie masterpiece Naked, and David Thewlis’ amazing misanthrope therein?), but it would be nice to have such a full-formed screen presence be pointed in a certain direction.
He was up and coming, appearing in excellent fare like Gattaca, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Stephen Spielberg’s Kubrick salvage job, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, David Cronenberg’s ahead of its time eXistenZ, and David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees.
Prior to this, his greatest performance was his supporting part in Gattaca, where he played a rich jerk in a wheelchair.
Though Jude Law’s star was already on the rise before 1999’s The Talented Mr. Ripley—he had played Oscar Wilde’s lover to acclaim in the 1997 biopic Wilde, and had significant roles in Gattaca and Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil—his performance as Ripley’s Dickie Greenleaf, a lithe and charming playboy cavorting through Italy, defined his image going forward.
It’s a typically reliable sub-genre with some real standouts in the likes of Grosse Point Blank (1997), In Bruges (2008), and The Matador (2005), but even lesser entries can make for passable entertainment with the right balance of laughs and carnage.
Having nabbed an Oscar himself (for Six Shooter, 2006’s Best Live Action Short) writer-director Martin McDonagh sticks to black comedy for his debut feature, mixing the pathos and un-PC laughs of similarly-toned capers The Matador and You Kill Me.
The great ones ( “The Matador,” “Panic” ) cut to the core of chaos and crisis in a bad profession for conscience to come calling.
After that, you're reliving a scene from 127 Hours, a couple of scenes from Boxing Helena, and every last one of the Allison Williams-starring Get Out moments we've come to know and love.
What you think you’re about to watch is a typical story of a demanding music instructor and an obsessive student who goes crazy, like 2014’s Whiplash.
I never watched the trailer and blocked out all reviews – in fact, I barely knew what it was about beyond the superficial comparisons to Damien Chazelle‘s Whiplash .
Richard Shepard’s The Perfection is the sexiest, trashiest erotic thriller since Rob Cohen’s embarrassingly underrated The Boy Next Door.
Think Whiplash, Black Swan, or The Perfection, but with much heavier symbolism.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Directed by Guy Ritchie
influenced Dom Hemingway (2013)
Themes
It's Sexy Beast meets Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels meets triumph of the criminal spirit.
The stage is immediately set as Giles Nuttgens's ("Dom Hemingway") camera follows a woman (Dale Dickey, "Winter's Bone") on her way to work.