I recently reviewed (favourably) Scorsese's The Irishman. That movie sprawls - knowingly. One can sometimes take that sprawl as an automatic signifier of depth. In the case of The Irishman, the sprawl is part of the brilliance. In other films the sprawl confirms nothing so much as pretentiousness - consider for example the sprawliest picture of all time (one I like despite its manifest faults), Heaven's Gate.
Well today I will talk of the anti-sprawl. This phenomenon favours the concise as its plot rattles along. What put all of this in my mind was the ninety-minute gem that is
Dead Shot. Because it was set in the Troubles I came to the film with a fear that it was going to get all Ken Loach on me. Don't worry, it laments the cruelty and obduracy on both sides of the conflict. It is over almost as soon as it starts but don't underestimate it. 70/100.
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