2 oeuvres.

"Over the past decade, the endings of Spielberg's movies have become, in the public eye, the most prominent dimension of his auteurship, and not in a good way," writes Sean Weitner at Flak. "The pragmatic comment would be that if crowd-pleasing was the aim, wouldn't he notice the displeased crowds? The real answer is that so many people have misapprehended what he's up to for so long that when he deviates from the formulas that Hollywood has derived from his successes, he's considered to have lost his touch."

Weitner then revisits the endings of Spielberg's five most recent films (up to and not including War of the Worlds), knocking down the most common misapprehensions about each one with a very deft hand indeed.

All well and good, but what he's done for us lately is what we want to hear about in a season of immediate gratification. Michael Atkinson seems rather rattled, remarking in the Village Voice that WotW is "a rare thing - a summer movie that demands to be taken as a serious emotional experience," before he practically segues right into Jessica Winter's piece explaining how Wells's original novel and L Ron Hubbard's Dianetics (reviewed just yesterday in Salon by Laura Miller) make for some pretty uncomfortably snug bedfellows.

AO Scott's review in the New York Times has an indecisive air about it that suggests he'd have liked a few more hours to mull the movie over before turning in his copy, best summarized in his last sentence, "It's not much to think about, but it's certainly something to see." Spielberg possesses an "unparalleled skill as a visual storyteller" and this film is "a primer on how to mix computer-generated imagery with the techniques of classic, large-scale cinema," but this one is, nonetheless, "a lesser Spielberg movie"? Tom Cruise "remains adept at playing - either with or against type, depending on how you look at it - a jerk brought low by circumstances beyond his control"? Well, depending. With, one'd imagine. That's his schtick, isn't it. See also: Risky Business, The Color of Money, Rain Man, Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia and Collateral, for starters.

Meantime, at Cinematical, Karina Longworth is gathering first reviews and wonders out loud, "Finally, a summer blockbuster that's also a serious piece of filmmaking?"

Posted by dwhudson at June 28, 2005 4:28 PM