the summer dearth is officially over
I'm glad I didn't know that the French film Tell No One (recommended by Andy) was based on the novel by Harlan Coben. I'll be honest, I have an unfair prejudice against the Harlan Cobens and the James Pattersons of the world, and I know it would have tainted my opinion and affected by ability to suspend disbelief. But I didn't, and so I was reasonably objective and open and this Neo-Hitchcockian thriller was really fun and exciting to watch. Go see it if you like that kind of thing. It's smarter than average and there's something refreshing about the lack of obvious CG in its moments of action. Tell No One's strength is its reliance on camera and character to tell the story, and a story intricate and twisty but never confusing or frustrating at that.
There's a whole ten-plus minute exposition end scene that smacked a little too much of the Villain Revealing His Master Plan for me, but it's a mystery story and at some point someone HAS to tell us what the hell the last ninety minutes of clues and misdirections was really all about. Considering that, it's pretty satisfying.
It's nice that good movies are coming back to theaters. Posters and trailers are finally showing stuff I'm excited for. The Summer Blockbuster season is closing up, which means all the Big Dumb Expensive movies (and the gems like The Dark Knight and... I don't know, Iron Man?) are done, and the season of intelligent quality cinema can carry us into Christmas. Happens every year.