Blade Runner 2049
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
USA, 2017
HOME, 1 November 2017
The messiah is my sister / Ain’t no king man she’s my queen…
For all Denis Villeneuve’s grand visuals – and it should be acknowledged that the desert-like, corrugated dystopia is strikingly rendered – that Stone Roses line is what his film amounts to. No bad thing, actually. Yet with the application of a little more craft, this film could have been much more suspenseful, since the storyline is set up as in The Big Clock: Ryan Gosling’s LAPD detective is essentially hunting himself (or so he thinks). But it is apparent that Villeneuve was clearly more focused on the brutalist look of the film. One must note as well that a luminous performance comes from Sylvia Hoeks, wonderful as Luv, a high- kicking villainess in jodhpurs and leather boots.
A feast for the eyes all-around but more attention to the story would have given the film a stronger emotional pull.
Jildy Sauce 