“You’re not a visionary, you’re a vendor” 😱

Although quite a bit of the writing is clunky and expositional I really liked what this film was ultimately saying. We get commentary on the hollowing out of print journalism, the emptiness and absurdity of tech bro culture and a fairly nuanced acknowledgement of the motherhood question all in a film that could have quite easily been an IP cash grab. And it was fun and everyone was beautiful!

For a film trying very hard to provoke, this was unforgivably boring.

I am truly humbled because for two decades I thought this was a boy film for boys and it turns out Heat is actually high art. Sorry to Mr Michael Mann because I was NOT familiar with your game. An absolute masterclass of cinematic storytelling!

Mindblowing craft here shows us how tell a story about historical violence without exploiting trauma in service of “entertainment”. Yes the first person POV but also the use of archive, pacing, sound… this is a film that requires and demands your full attention. 

Makes total sense that RaMell Ross comes from the documentary sphere, this is a true expression of non-hierarchical / ethical cinematic storytelling