Movie Crush Monday: CT & The Brothers Bloom

Happy Holidays, readers! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday week. We took the week off to spend time with our family and eat approximately aaaalll the cookies, but I've roused myself from my sugar coma long enough to do my Movie Crush post on.....

I couldn't really let the opportunity to talk about The Brothers Bloom go by without me mentioning it. And, with Rian Johnson being one of our heroes and all, it's a nice chance to talk about his other big film to date. I think it's super weird that lots of people didn't really care for The Brothers Bloom. Personally, I think it's one of the most unique heist stories I've ever seen. 

The writing here is nothing short of superb. The dialogue is tight, and the narrative winds you around in twists and turns without you ever feeling lost. Like all heist movies (the good ones at least) there's a portion of the story that the audience is kept out of until the very end. Sometimes that twist feels suuuuuuper forced, but here is just hits you right in the sternum. 

The cast is also outstanding. From Rachel Weisz learning how to juggle and ride a skateboard to Rinko Kikuchi saying almost nothing, these are some of my favorite performances to date. There's a scene late in the film with Adrien Brody and Maximilian Schell that I've watched probably hundreds of times. Without giving any spoilers, Brody and Schell give you the entire backstory between these characters without saying a word of it out loud. It's an acting masterclass. 

But the really, really cool part of this movie is the first ten minutes. Rian Johnson crafts this beautiful backstory for the brothers using couplets, and it perfectly sets up the tone for the rest of the film. From there, the audience is off on a ride with Johnson at the helm. And it's a hell of a lot of fun. 

Happy Watching!

CT 

PS- A good portion of the movie is set in Prague, one of my favorite places in the entire world. And it's used perfectly. Of course.