Noah Taylor

Free Fire - 2/5

This move is just a long shootout, with enough setup to know the characters and what’s going on. It keeps you guessing initially about when the fight will start, and for the most part the action is pretty cool. It sticks to a more gritty realism tone than many other movies of this genre, but that only makes the more unbelievable aspects jarring when they come up. And instead of weaving the narrative into a cohesive surprise turn or diatribe against gun running, it basically just ends.

Closest comparison: It’s like the shootouts from The Salton Sea without the context of story or a satisfying ending.

Setting: Crime
Plot: Action
Tone: Action

Predestination - 4/5

This is the weird sci-fi time travel movie to beat all others. Its intriguing beginning keeps the audience interested through the slow build-up, and once it takes off we’re all along for the ride. It doesn’t go the action route that Minority Report and Total Recall do, but the cerebral sci-fi pays off in a mind-bending short-story kind of way.

Closest comparison: It’s like Primer by way of Mr. Nobody (2009).

Setting: Time Travel
Plot: Weird Sci-Fi
Tone: Thriller