Gemini Is Visually Engrossing But Less So On A Narrative Level

Gemini is one of those movies that's really darn good right up until it isn't. Let that not detract from its best qualities and it has quite a few, it's first two-thirds, maybe even first three-fourths, are a slickly produced homage to classic noir movies that has writer/director Aaron Katz putting his own modern spin on this well-worn staple of cinematic storytelling. Gemini is good at drumming up mystery and intrigue that it's a pity it can't stick the landing and manage to deliver a resolution that feels like a satisfying pay-off to all the build-up. But before we get to the finale, let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start, or so I'm told!) and see what kind of story Gemini intends to tell.

Blood Simple Is A Sublime Inaugural Directorial Effort For The Coen Brothers

Though Blood Simple may be the very first feature-film directorial effort from The Coen Brothers (like all their earliest works, only Joel Coen is credited due to DGA regulations), this movies does not come off as some sort of watered-down version of the duo's later filmmaking. There's already a noticeably assured hand behind the camera that brings to life a Texas-set noir with real flourish. To boot, it's interesting to note how Blood Simple feels like a combination of two of the Coen Brothers best works that would arrive more than two decades after Blood Simple arrived into theaters. Specifically, Blood Simple combines the grim Southern crime aesthetic of No Country For Old Men with the inexperienced criminals getting out of their element aspect of Burn After Reading.

Double Indemnity Provides So Many Engrossing Thrills It's Practically A Crime!

I always try to reiterate my feelings that no cliche is inherently bad, it's the way it's presented that makes all the difference in the world. Perhaps no better example of this phenomenon exists than the world of noir thrillers. We all know the trappings of noir cinema, maybe from seeing plenty of noir movies or maybe even just from seeing one of the countless parodies of this subgenre, the omnipresent narration, the black-and-white color scheme, the dames and femme fatales, the steel-jawed detective, all of those are recurring factors in many entries in this subgenre. And let me tell you, I love those recurring traits of noir filmmaking, I really do. When they're done right, they can create a storytelling atmosphere like no other that merges intrigue with a bleak tone.

Classical Noir's Don't Get Much Better Than The Maltese Falcon

One of my favorite parts of the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes (and let me tell you, I have so many favorite parts of that amazing comic strip) were the recurring appearances by Calvin's persona Tracer Bullet, a detective trapped in a black and white noir with omnipresent narration that basically introduced a young Douglas Laman to the trappings of the noir genre. Of course, Tracer Bullet (God, that is such a perfect name for a detective meant to be a pastiche on noir protagonists) was building upon the legacy of many surely detectives before him, including Humphrey Bogart's lead character in the 1941 drama The Maltese Falcon.