Dick Tracy (1990) - 1/5

This movie has an amazing style somewhere between Sin City and Edward Scissorhands, but it’s plot and execution is so wildly ill-advised that it’s surprising it got made. It serves as a warning to anyone attempting to make a film that purports to be for children in its intellectual property, style, and tone, but insists on including mistreatment and exploitation of women in a gritty gangster plot.

Content warning: female nudity

Closest comparison: It’s like The Maltese Falcon by way of Speed Racer (2008).

Setting: Noir
Plot: Detective
Tone: Adventure

Richard Jewell - 4/5

This movie is an intimate character portrait that masterfully juggles story, character, and pacing. It’s slow in places to get the audience into the headspace of the protagonists so that when everything starts happening at once we can follow what’s really going on. Of course Sam Rockwell and the legendary Kathy Bates are fantastic, but the true standout performance is Paul Walter Hauser who disappears into the starring role. The film is appropriately tense and somber but lets out the tension enough to keep from being too depressing. This is the way docudramas should be made.

Closest comparison: It’s like a cross between The Blind Side (2009) and The Fugitive (1993).

Setting: Family Drama
Plot: Biography
Tone: Tragedy

The Highwaymen (Netflix) - 3/5

This movie is a solid entry in the dustbowl crime documentary genre, but nothing more. The central performances from Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson, and the legendary Kathy Bates are wonderful, of course, but the plot is more informative than it is interesting. It has an older style of pacing which works well with the subject matter and setting, and will likely play better with older audiences than the younger, more mentally kinetic crowd. The violence is kept to a minimum, with the act always off-screen or in the distance and the emphasis lingering instead on nearby characters’ reactions. If you like the story, setting, or even just the actors it’s worth a watch, but it’s not likely to be anyone’s favorite movie.

Closest comparison: It’s like a pared-down roadshow Untouchables.

Setting > Mystery > Detective
Plot > Adventure > Buddy Cop
Tone > Drama > Biography