Interview. Scott Frank, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Goode.

"As all screenwriters eventually must, the talented Scott Frank makes his directorial debut with the dramatic thriller The Lookout," writes Jeffrey M Anderson, who has plenty of questions at the main site for Frank and two of his stars, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Goode.

"With the crime genre still struggling to work through its post-Tarantino hangover, The Lookout is maybe more notable for what it isn't: namely, bloated, flashy, or dependent on pop-culture riffs as a life-support system," writes Andrew Wright in the Stranger. "[T]his is a lean, to-the-bone, expertly acted small-town noir that takes unusual care to cast the moral compass of its characters in various shades of gray. There's just no fat on it." Also: An interview with Frank.

Updated through 4/5.

"For a movie about the effects of profound brain damage on a young man with a whole life still to be lived, The Lookout is funny, tender and littered with elegantly written characters played by actors cast for goodness of fit rather than star wattage," writes Ella Taylor in the LA Weekly. Noting that the project bounced around for 10 years before Frank took the helm himself, she adds, "In Sam Mendes's hands, the movie would have been too clever and referential by half, while David Fincher would have sucked the warmth out of it. Either of those directors would have made shorter, snappier work of the heist than does Frank, who does a perfectly competent, if unremarkable, job. Still, The Lookout is inescapably a screenwriter's movie and, for those of us who can't stomach poorly written dialogue even in an action picture, none the worse for it."

"Scott Frank's The Lookout is so refreshingly straightforward that at first you may not know what to make of it," suggests Salon's Stephanie Zacharek. "The Lookout is like a well-made garment turned inside-out: The structure, the dialogue, the characters - these aren't just part of the movie. They are the movie."

It's a "writer's thriller," agrees Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. "True, it's cleanly and efficiently directed, and it showcases some crackerjack acting, but the reason it's a real pleasure to watch is that a writer's sensibility is the foundation everything is built on."

"Mr Frank's screenplay for The Lookout was long considered one of Hollywood's great unproduced scripts," writes Matt Zoller Seitz in the New York Times. "The end product doesn't justify that buildup.... Still, there's a lot to like here, and the film's bleak setting and empathetic tone add interest to what could have been a by-the-numbers affair."

"Gordon-Levitt is a major tabula rasa actor," writes New York's David Edelstein. "It's simpler to say what he doesn't do wrong—anything—than what he does right. As in Mysterious Skin and Brick, he's a minimalist: no fuss, no placards, no Method sense-memory exercises.... As a fan of sharp razors and clean whistles, I enjoyed The Lookout - yet I did feel let down by the climax, which ought to have been blunter and messier and crazier and more cathartic."

"[I]t has a few plot holes," admits Robert Wilonsky in the Voice, "but when considered as a whole, when appreciated and absorbed from hypnotic start to thrilling finish, The Lookout works. It takes its time, saves its breath, lets us know these people before putting guns in their hands and tossing them in a tiny bank vault on a winter's night. Frank likes his story, but he loves his characters."

It's "a film that's enervating in the way that only top-to-bottom mediocrity can be," writes Nick Pinkerton at indieWIRE. "Veteran screenwriter Scott Frank's directorial coming-out is a bricolage of screen-tested 'indie' junk - a 'smart, complex' performance from Gordon-Levitt, a beardy Jeff Daniels, exhaustingly competent filmmaking suffused with low-key melancholy - which is to say it risks absolutely nothing, and never threatens to be unexpected."

Michelle Orange for the Reeler: "The Lookout taps into that familiar vein of backwater desolation and the gnarled up, snowed-in, small-time plans of smaller-time crooks, but with Gordon-Levitt's eerily self-possessed, pitiful but never bathetic dupe as our conduit, the heist tropes take over without letting you to slip into plot auto-pilot."

"This is a character study that focuses on what happens when someone gets tired of his life," writes J Robert Parks. "That distinction is why The Lookout is being distributed by a small studio with little fanfare.... I'm not arguing The Lookout is some kind of masterpiece. The bank robbery is fairly paint-by-numbers, and the blind character is one we've seen many times before, despite Daniels's charisma. But this is the sort of movie Hollywood should be making - and getting behind. Movies that don't insult your intelligence or make you feel dirty for watching. But because The Lookout has a small marketing budget, this is a movie where it's up to the critics to let you know what you shouldn't miss."

Annie Frisbie, writing at Zoom In Online, calls it "a rare bird: a perfectly structured film that exudes spontaneity and risk.... It must have been a delight to read on the page - and how wonderful to report that it's also a delight to watch."

"You could easily have the Hollywood meal ticket if you wanted it. What makes you choose smaller and independent projects instead?" Aaron Hillis asks Gordon-Levitt for IFC News, where Matt Singer writes, "Never terribly outstanding (except when Daniels is on screen), The Lookout is nonetheless a solid genre picture, carefully plotted and acted, with a nice balance of style and substance. Unlike most modern day stabs at noir, it's more reserved than flashy." Scott Tobias talks with Gordon-Levitt, too - for the AV Club.

"Except for its lead performance," writes Robert Cashill, "the film is unexciting - a little too respectable - and as flat as its Midwestern landscapes."

For the New York Press's Armond White, this is just "another of those indies that mistake 'dumb' for 'edgy.'"

Jonathan Busch in the Vue Weekly: "Somehow it stays afloat, while staying remarkably unambiguous about its lesson."

"[U]ntil the story gives way completely, into bloody retribution set against a snowy vista (something like Fargo meets Reservoir Dogs meets Brick), [Gordon-Levitt] makes his erratic efforts to read himself appear engaged and engaging," writes Cindy Fuchs in the Philadelphia City Paper.

"Call it townie noir," suggests Jesse Hassenger in the L Magazine.

Darcie Stevens interviews Frank for the Austin Chronicle; Nick Dawson for Filmmaker; Leonard Klady profiles him for Movie City News.

Ellen McCarthy profiles Goode for the Washington Post.

Online listening tip. Salon's Andrew O'Hehir talks with Gordon-Levitt.

Updates, 4/4: "It's impossible to watch The Lookout without thinking of Memento," writes Scott Tobias for the AV Club. "In fact, there's nothing terribly original about The Lookout at all, especially once it breaks down into a rote but efficient heist picture with gears that click a little too smoothly into place. Yet writer-director Scott Frank - who scripted Malice, Out of Sight and Minority Report, among other solidly crafted Hollywood thrillers - has cleverly cross-pollinated the genre with a rich character study, raising the stakes considerably."

Canfield talks with Goode for Twitch.

Update, 4/5: Kim Voynar talks with Gordon-Levitt and Goode for Cinematical.

Posted by dwhudson at March 31, 2007 3:49 AM