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This grim death sets the tone for David Fincher's "Seven," one of the darkest and most merciless films ever made in the Hollywood mainstream. It will rain day after day. They will investigate death after death. There are words scrawled at the crime scenes; the fat man's word is on the wall behind his refrigerator: Gluttony. After two of these killings Mills realizes they are dealing with a serial killer, who intends every murder to punish one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

This is as formulaic as an Agatha Christie whodunit. But "Seven" takes place not in the genteel world of country house murders, but in the lives of two cops, one who thinks he has seen it all and the other who has no idea what he is about to see. Nor is the film about detection; the killer turns himself in when the film still has half an hour to go. It's more of a character study, in which the older man becomes a scholar of depravity and the younger experiences it in an pitiable and personal way. A hopeful quote by Hemingway was added as a voice-over after preview audiences found the original ending too horrifying. But the original ending is still there, and the quote plays more like a bleak joke. The film should end with Freeman's "see you around." After the devastating conclusion, the Hemingway line is small consolation.

The enigma of Somerset's character is at the heart of the film, and this is one of Morgan Freeman's best performances. He embodies authority naturally; I can't recall him ever playing a weak man. Here he knows all the lessons a cop might internalize during years spent in what we learn is one of the worst districts of the city. He lives alone, in what looks like a rented apartment, bookshelves on the walls. He puts himself to sleep with a metronome. He never married, although he came close once. He is a lonely man who confronts life with resigned detachment.

When he realizes he's dealing with the Seven Deadly Sins, he does what few people would do, and goes to the library. There he looks into Dante's Inferno , Milton's Paradise Lost and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It's not that he reads them so much as that he references them for viewers; it is often effective in a horror film to introduce disturbing elements from literature as atmosphere, and Fincher provides glimpses of Gustav Dore's illustrations for Dante, including the famous depiction of a woman with spider legs. Somerset sounds erudite as he names the deadly sins to Mills, who seems to be hearing of them for the first time.

What's being used here is the same sort of approach William Friedkin employed in " The Exorcist " and Jonathan Demme in " The Silence of the Lambs ." What could become a routine cop movie is elevated by the evocation of dread mythology and symbolism. "Seven" is not really a very deep or profound film, but it provides the convincing illusion of one. Almost all mainstream thrillers seek first to provide entertainment; this one intends to fascinate and appall. By giving the impression of scholarship, Detective Somerset lends a depth and significance to what the killer apparently considers moral statements. To be sure, Somerset lucks out in finding that the killer has a library card, although with this killer, thinking back, you figure he didn't get his ideas in the library, and checked out those books to lure the police.

The five murders investigated by the partners provide variety. The killer has obviously gone to elaborate pains in planning and carrying them out -- in one case, at least a year in advance. His agenda in the film's climactic scene, however, must have been improvised recently. "Seven" draws us relentlessly into its horrors, some of which are all the more effective for being glimpsed in brief shots. We can only be sure of the killing methods after the cops discuss them--although a shot of the contents of a plastic bag after an autopsy hardly requires more explanation. Fincher shows us enough to disgust us, and cuts away.

The killer obviously intends his elaborate murders as moral statement. He suggests as much after we meet him. When he's told his crimes will soon be forgotten in the daily rush of cruelty, he insists they will be remembered forever. They are his masterpiece. What goes unexplained is how, exactly, he is making a statement. His victims, presumably guilty of their sins, have been convicted and executed by his actions. What's the lesson? Let that be a warning to us?

Somerset and Mills represent established fiction formulas. Mills is the fish out of water, they're an Odd Couple, and together they're the old hand and the greenhorn. The actors and the dialogue by Andrew Kevin Walker enrich the formulas with specific details and Freeman's precise, laconic speech. Brad Pitt seems more one-dimensional, or perhaps guarded; he's a hothead, quick to dismiss Freeman's caution and experience. It is his wife Tracy ( Gwyneth Paltrow ) who brings a note of humanity into the picture; we never find out very much about her, but we know she loves her husband and worries about him, and she has good instincts when she invites the never-married Somerset over for dinner. Best to make an ally of the man who her husband needs and can learn from. Watching the film, we assume the Tracy character is simply a place-holder, labeled Protagonist's Wife and denied much dimension. But she is saving her impact until later. Thinking back through the film, our appreciation for its construction grows.

The killer, as I said, turns himself in with 30 minutes to go, and dominates the film from that point forward. When "Seven" was released in 1995 the ads, posters and opening credits didn't mention the name of the actor, and although you may well know it, I don't think I will either. This actor has a big assignment. He embodies Evil. Like Hannibal Lecter, his character must be played by a strong actor who projects not merely villainy but twisted psychological complexities. Observe his face. Smug. Self-satisfied. Listen to his voice. Intelligent. Analytical. Mark his composure and apparent fearlessness. The film essentially depends on him, and would go astray if the actor faltered. He doesn't.

"Seven" (1995) was David Fincher's second feature, after "Alien 3" (1992), filmed when he was only 29. Still to come were such as " Zodiac " (2007) and " The Social Network " (2010). In his work he likes a saturated palate and gravitates toward sombre colors and underlighted interiors. None of his films is darker than this one. Like Spielberg, he infuses the air in his interiors with a fine unseen powder that makes the beams of flashlights visible, emphasizing the surrounding darkness. I don't know why the interior lights in "Seven" so often seem weak or absent, but I'm not complaining. I remember a shot in Murnau's " Faust " (1926) in which Satan wore a black cloak that enveloped a tiny village below. That is the sensation Fincher creates here.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

Seven (1995)

127 minutes

Brad Pitt as Mills

Morgan Freeman as Somerset

Gwyneth Paltrow as Tracy

Richard Roundtree as Talbot

Directed by

• David Fincher
• Andrew Kevin Walker

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Review: 'A Haunting in Venice' is elevated mix of mystery, murder and horror

NEW YORK -- It's a mix of mystery, murder, and horror.

"A Haunting in Venice " arrives Friday, and you'll have to go to a theater and see it. This marks the third time Kenneth Branagh has played the famous, fictional detective Hercule Poirot, and it's third time he has directed himself in the role.

Discovering whodunit, that is finding out who committed murder in this story, is only part of the fun, which mostly takes place in a Venetian palazzo where voices of the dead are heard along with whispers and sobbing.

The film is spooky enough to be a good fit for the Halloween season, said one young viewer.

Entertainment reporter Sandy Kenyon asked her to go and see the movie because the picture was inspired by a book written more than half a century ago, and he wondered how it would play for a younger generation.

Detective Poirot, who's been lured out of retirement by a world-famous writer, Tina Fey, doesn't believe in ghosts and the supernatural. He is especially suspicious of a psychic played by Michelle Yeoh.

"I must tell you, Madame, I have been all my life un-charmed by your kind," Poirot tells her in the film.

"My kind," she asks innocently.

"Opportunists who prey on the vulnerable," he then replies.

The seance conducted by the medium leaves Poirot unsure about what's real and what isn't.

"And that's kinda how you feel in the audience," 17-year-old Mireille Lee observed about the film. "You're kind of wondering whether this could be possible."

Mireille and her sister Elodie have 282,000+ followers on TikTok, where they review books under the bale, "A Life of Literature." Mireille knows the book that inspired this movie and went to an early screening in London.

"Considering the time of year and the fact that we're going into Halloween season, it's the perfect film to watch with your friends," she said.

Perfect because the director and star has "elevated" the murder mystery, made it quite different than the source material, and given it a "modern twist."

When asked if Branagh had succeeded in making the picture relevant for her generation, Lee said, "he certainly has. By using these otherworldly forces, it makes the audience genuinely on the edge of the seats for the whole time."

The whodunit is a genre born in Britain, but our teen critic from Brighton confesses it's not her favorite genre. Nevertheless, Mireille praises "A Haunting in Venice" for mixing the mystery with supernatural elements, and the result kept her engaged. She also appreciated the star power on screen.

The movie, which is in theaters now, is distributed by Walt Disney Studios.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of 20th Century Fox and this ABC Station

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Review: In ‘Wildcat,’ director Ethan Hawke — and daughter Maya — bring a literary life to screen

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Flannery O’Connor’s thrillingly hard-edged tales about the unreconstructed South and its redemption-deficient malcontents will never lose their power to scratch us awake with their violence, humor and ugly truth.

Such great, complicated artists don’t deserve the shallow cradle-to-grave treatment common to so many biopics, and thankfully, Ethan Hawke’s new film “Wildcat” isn’t that. Rather, it’s a soulful, pointed and unconventional grappling with the mysteries of the deeply Catholic, norm-shattering Georgia native’s life and work. Concentrated on a pivotal time of promise and disappointment during O’Connor’s 20s, when her writing was getting noticed (as was the lupus that would eventually consume her), it’s anchored with aching intelligence by Hawke’s daughter Maya (“Stranger Things”), unrecognizably severe in cat’s-eye glasses and a frail countenance.

The Hawkes deliver a portrait of O’Connor in all her fiercely self-aware outsiderdom, whether standing firm against a patronizing New York editor ( Alessandro Nivola ) who believes she wants to “pick a fight” with her readers, or sternly defending her faith against glib comments at an Iowa Writers’ Workshop party. But we also see this O’Connor in weaker moments, shrinking in the presence of her protective mother, Regina ( Laura Linney ), when forced back home because of her illness, and almost crumbling in the presence of a priest (a wonderful Liam Neeson). Ethan Hawke’s screenplay, co-written with Shelby Gaines, was inspired by the letters to God that O’Connor wrote at the time, published posthumously as “A Prayer Journal” in 2013.

This stretch of ambition and setback from an all-too-short life is not all that’s served up in “Wildcat.” Maya Hawke’s acting duties also involve playing an assortment of O’Connor’s characters in abridged dramatizations of short stories — “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” “Parker’s Back,” and a few other classic pieces. In the ones where bold, brash men bring thunder and change to unsuspecting young women (all Maya), scene partners Steve Zahn, Rafael Casal and Cooper Hoffman do memorable work.

Ethan and Maya Hawke and Laura Linney on their maverick Flannery O’Connor biopic ‘Wildcat’

Telluride: Ethan and Maya Hawke and Laura Linney chat about their new Flannery O’Connor biopic ‘Wildcat’ and the complexities of the author’s life.

Sept. 3, 2023

These segments diverge in tone, color and movement from the muted palette and fixed compositions with which cinematographer Steve Cosens girds the biographical narrative. But they’re expertly threaded in, suggesting how a creative loner can experience flare-ups of imagination when the world reveals itself. Movies often struggle with conveying writerly inspiration, but these swatches earnestly make good on a potent quote of O’Connor’s that Hawke opens with: “I’m always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality and it’s very shocking to the system.”

Linney, meanwhile, at the top of her game, is another constant in multiple roles, vividly rendering a handful of O’Connor’s fictional mothers (including the self-righteous women from “Revelation” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge”). Before she even shows up as poised, old-fashioned Regina, picking up her suffering daughter at the train station, we’ve seen her in a couple of these adaptation bursts (including a clever rendering of “The Comforts of Home” as a trailer for a lurid ’60s B movie).

And yet, surprisingly, Linney’s and Hawke’s doubling duty never comes off as cheap psychologizing of the writer’s relationship with a parent who didn’t get her. It feels broader than that. (At the same time, O’Connor’s own views on race, the source of much reputational reassessment, aren’t exactly laid bare here, but neither are they ignored.) The symbolic payoff in Ethan Hawke’s brilliant use of his daughter and Linney is that we grasp both the intense narrowness of O’Connor’s subject matter as well as the rich versatility within her gothic archetypes.

Coming on the heels of director Ethan Hawke’s excellent docuseries “The Last Movie Stars,” about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, “Wildcat” shows that his gifts in front of the camera are being complemented behind it, too, especially when the subject is a life woven through with art, passion and pain.

'Wildcat'

Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes Playing: AMC Century City

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'Unfrosted': Jerry Seinfeld's movie about the fictional history of Pop-Tarts

NPR's A Martinez talks to comedian Jerry Seinfeld about his new Netflix film, Unfrosted . It's a made-up history of Pop-Tarts, and the cereal rivalry between Post and Kellogg's.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

‘Silent Trees’ Review: A Kurdish Refugee Comes of Age in a Harrowing Documentary

Agnieszka Zwiefka captures the daily indignities of modern migrants.

By Siddhant Adlakha

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A documentary about harrowing loss and fleeting joy, Agnieszka Zwiefka ‘s “ Silent Trees ” follows a grieving family of Kurdish refugees escaping legal limbo. With animated interludes that function as flashbacks, it captures the world through the bespectacled eyes of a soft-spoken 16-year-old, Runa, a girl forced to grow up far too quickly in a Polish refugee camp.

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In capturing this arduous emotional journey — during which it feels like the ground beneath Runa’s family could crack open at any second — Zwiefka’s camera remains a gentle observer. It reckons, at times, with the ethics of capturing this story in the first place, and embodies this artistic dilemma by occasionally obscuring the family’s most difficult moments behind doors left slightly ajar. While Runa and her father do their best to keep their feelings in check, their resolve is challenged by each new emotional and legal hurdle, and by ways in which Runa’s brothers deal with the situation: with exasperated, adolescent rage that’s occasionally too gut-churning to watch.

This political backdrop hovers over the story via news broadcasts in the background, but the film never cuts away from its subjects for the sake of exposition. Instead, it captures what they hear and see in real time, with their smartphones as windows to both their remaining family in Iraq, and to the government mouthpieces that dehumanize them with dangerous propaganda. Zwiefka and cinematographer Kacper Czubak also use phone screens to light some of the movie’s most emotionally powerful moments, including and especially Runa’s father receiving bad news in a darkened car, as his device illuminates the tears he tries so hard to withhold.

But the camera also has its limits, and where it cannot go — into the past, and into Runa’s imagination — the animation goes instead. The film, in this way, resembles Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee,” which disguises the identities of its refugee subjects using hand-drawn sequences. However, in this case, the animated scenes by Yellow Tapir Films work as extension of Runa herself. She’s seen occasionally sketching her memories and surroundings in black and white, and the studio’s cartooning matches her style as it depicts, with abstract flourishes, both her dreams and her darkest fears, as the trees of the red zone forest take on disturbingly ghostly qualities.

A film in which daily uncertainties hollow its subjects out from within — but in which even the smallest joys start to feel defiant — “Silent Trees” puts human faces to the statistics and news tickers that have defined modern refugee crises. It’s a family drama first and foremost, embodied by a young girl coming of age and finding her place in a world intent on rejecting her very existence.

Reviewed online, April 30, 2024. In Hot Docs, CPH:DOX film festivals. Running time: 84 MIN.

• Production: (Documentary – Poland-Germany-Denmark) an HBO Max release and presentation of a Chilli Prods., ma.ja.se. Filmproduktion production. Producers: Zofia Kujawska, Agnieszka Zwiefka, Heino Deckert.
• Crew: Director, writer: Agnieszka Zwiefka. Camera: Kacper Czubak. Editor: Michal Buczek. Music: Niklas Paschburg.

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‘Jeanne du Barry’ Review: A Versailles Scandal at Its Snooziest

Maïwenn wrote, directed and stars in the film, playing opposite Johnny Depp, who is Louis XV. Though he declares he loves her, their chemistry is weak.

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By Glenn Kenny

In the wake of a tabloid-friendly divorce featuring multiple allegations of abuse, Johnny Depp’s Hollywood profile rests at a rather low point. The French actress and filmmaker Maïwenn, for her part, has made headlines in her home country — including last year, when she reportedly assaulted a journalist.

One might expect a film pairing these two actors would produce combustible results. But “Jeanne du Barry,” written, directed by and starring Maïwenn, is an ultimately snoozy historical period piece.

Given recent trends, it may go without saying that the picture tries to make something of a “girl boss” out of Jeanne, the most prominent mistress of King Louis XV. She transcends her humble roots, entrances the King and flouts 18th-century Versailles protocol.

But she also has a, um, kind heart. At a royal dinner she is given Zamor, an enslaved person, as a gift. She befriends him. What fun they have running through the halls of Versailles! She also defends his humanity to Louis’s nasty daughters, who make the evil stepsisters in Disney’s “Cinderella” seem understated. Louis-Benoit Zamor, an actual historical figure, played a role in the eventual fate of the real Jeanne du Barry.

Since Maïwenn created Jeanne for herself, it may seem paradoxical to state that she’s all wrong for it. Nevertheless, her broad performance is a consistently unfortunate case study in “whatever she thinks she’s doing, this isn’t it.”

As Louis, Depp takes his role, spoken entirely in French, seriously — no Captain Jack Sparrow-style winks are called for or delivered — but the film doesn’t give him much to work with as a character.

The meticulous and lush production design by Angelo Zamparutti, captured with practically dewy appreciation by the cinematographer Laurent Dailland, makes the movie easy on the eyes, but every so often its prettiness edges over into souvenir-shop kitsch.

Jeanne du Barry Not rated. In French with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. In theaters.

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