The Meryl Streep musical number that opens the film had me confounded by the audience leaving and complaining about it. I was thinking to myself this is amazing and then a mustached Bruce Willis's first line in the movie is "she's incredible." I had to pause the opening credits because I was laughing so hard. He's like me fr. (This happened a number of times in the first act.)

Some story choices (Meryl Streep "turning" her successful plastic surgeon husband…

Cronenberg saying he made THE SHROUDS to explore his own singular grief after losing his wife of 43 years by saying he couldn’t relate to those who said they’d recently lost a parent because “you don’t make love to your dad” is a #TIFF24 highlight for me. Grief is universal in that we all experience it at some point, but it’s also a personal, lonely experience because we all have a different relationship to whoever it is we are grieving.…

After the critical and commercial failure of the now-celebrated VIDEODROME, David Cronenberg abandoned directing his original screenplays in favor of incorporating his ideas into a series of adaptations, beginning with Stephen King's THE DEAD ZONE in 1983. While Cronenberg's short films are another story, his sole original feature films since then have been eXistenZ and CRIMES OF THE FUTURE, films that seemed to me like siblings of VIDEODROME.

As much as I enjoy them, both felt the work of a…

33 Films x 6 Decades: 1960s

The second entry in John Frankenheimer’s paranoia trilogy, Seven Days in May is a gripping political thriller detailing the attempt to stage a military coup of the government in the United States. Focusing on General James Scott (Burt Lancaster) and his group of co-conspirators, the film shows Scott’s popularity amongst the American populace, largely stemming from his firm opposition to a nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union out of the fear that the…

During the press conference scene I was like 'Wow, these reporters are so tame, they're calmly waiting for their turn to ask and don't even try to win the "loudest in the room" award, shattering their vocal chords by crying "MR. PRESIDENT! MR. PRESIDEENT!" in quick succession at full volume.

Jokes aside, Seven Days in May is the epitome of a perfectly paced movie. The razor-sharp dialogue, wrapped in a frame of a credible script and an authentic setting, dictated…

“Forget it Jake, it’s the Pentagon.”

“Seven Days in May” is an espionage conspiracy thriller set inside a noir film. It’s full of serious men in suits spouting off non sequiturs and twisted plots inside dark offices. Although instead of pistols stashed in trenchcoats, the weapon of choice is a nuclear arsenal. 

The film is a deliberately-paced character study of loyalty to individuals or a system (and by extension, a country). Unfortunately, it veers unnecessarily into “Mr. Smith Goes to…

Even if it’s not as strong as Seconds and The Manchurian Candidate, John Frankenheimer’s brand of conspiracy and paranoia is also so engrossing. Seven Days in May takes the viewer on a journey of an attempted military coup, which involves differing perspectives on the nature of peace and national security. I’m surprised that for a film with performances by Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and good ones at that, the highlight was the one by Frederic March. James Wong Howe’s experimental cinematography…

What stands out most about **Seven Days in May**, in addition to being an exceptionally well-made political thriller, is how much it gets right about the way presidential decision-making happens, and the extent to which the public would never actually know about a plot like the one in the movie, assuming it failed. 

I’m not sure if I’ve logged **Seven Days in May** before, but if I haven’t, let me give a shoutout to Burt Lancaster for his truly terrific…