items tagged with Catherine Keener

SIMONE

Andrew Niccol appears to be obsessed with a theme that, in all likelihood, he can spend his entire filmmaking career exploring: What is the nature of reality? In 1997’s vastly underrated Gattaca, which Niccol wrote and directed, he investigated the perils of genetic engineering, as his biologically “natural” protagonist Vincent assumed the identity of the genetically “perfect” Jerome to further his space-exploration career; the film, which on paper might seem a cerebral sci-fi comedy of mistaken identity, dramatized what it meant to be “real” in an unreal world, and was a heady, thrilling experience.

PANIC ROOM

David Fincher can pull off some amazing tricks. Early on in Panic Room, the director’s latest thriller, the camera, initially located in an upstairs bedroom where newly single mom Meg (Jodie Foster) rests, glides away from the bed, through the banister of the staircase, and down the flight of stairs, and then scoots through the kitchen – and, it must be added, over countertops and appliances – until it finally lands on the kitchen doorway, where a shady character is waiting to break in.