I don't know how many friends have come to know HBO, a powerful TV station, through the American drama "Game of Thrones".
From 2011 to 2017, HBO aired "Game of Thrones" to its seventh season at a rate of one season per year. Since the eighth season is the final season, it is said that it is the most powerful season in terms of production volume and gorgeousness. This has also led to the "bounced ticket" of Game of Thrones this year, and will need to meet you in the spring of next year.
So this year, HBO, which lacks Game of Thrones, will bring us a "magical drama" after the second season of "Westworld" ends? This "Sharp Tool" starring Amy Adams as the heroine is the answer.
I believe everyone is so handsome by Henry Cavill in "Mission Impossible 6", so is anyone wondering what the super girlfriend Amy Adams is doing at this time?
Although the show "Sharp Tool" has nothing to do with the DC universe, Amy Adams in the show continues to do her old job as a reporter and works hard with the "Pulitzer Prize for Journalism" as her life goal.
Camille (Amy Adams), a reporter for a St. Louis newspaper, leads her dispatched to Wind Gap to investigate a murder that took place there last year.
Fengkou Town is located in the southeastern corner of Missouri. It is a small town with a population of about 2,000 people. The only industry pillar is the slaughtering industry. Camille's hometown is Fengkou Town. She knows more about this place than other colleagues, so the leader sent her to Fengkou Town to write the investigation draft of the murder case.
The murder happened in August last year. Two underage girls ( Ann Nash, Natalie Keene ) first disappeared, and then Ann Nash's body was found in Falls Creek, strangled on a clothesline. And Natalie Keane's body was dumped in an alley in the town with all her teeth pulled out.
Detective Wells is an out-of-towner from Kansas City who was dispatched to Windy after the murder. Wells believed that nine out of ten such cases were committed by acquaintances, so he locked the suspects on Ann Nash's father and Natalie Keane's brother .
Ann Nash's father acts his own way and behaves strangely for the people in the small town, so it is suspected of being a criminal suspect.
And Natalie Keane's brother was too sad because of the death of his sister. As a man, he still cried all day long, which made people suspect that his relationship with his sister was too close, and there might be incoherent feelings between brothers and sisters. So he is also suspect.
The police have never been able to find evidence to prove that they are criminals, and there is no way to convict them.
With his knowledge of the town , Vickery , the police chief of Fengkou Town , believed that the crime should be done by outsiders, and he set his eyes on the Mexican workers working in the slaughterhouse with suspicion.
With the in-depth investigation of Camille, the case became more complicated and confusing. At this time, Camille gradually found that he had a lot in common with the victim, and as the plot developed, more and more about Camille himself and the town. The secrets are gradually being unraveled...
Although the suspense line about the little girl's case is part of the main line, the show actually has an auxiliary line, and the theme and core of the show are hidden in this auxiliary line. In fact, this auxiliary line has long been shown clearly in the poster of this play:
In addition to the heroine Camille, the other two female characters in the poster are Camille's mother , Odora , and Camille's half-sister, Emma . There are cracks on each character's face and hands, which also hint at possible problems in the mother-daughter relationship in the family.
There are a lot of flashback scenes about Camille's childhood in this play . From these flashbacks, we can know that Camille once had a biological sister, but because the sister was frail and sick, she died of illness when she was very young. And Camille has been unable to get out of the shadow of her sister's death, resulting in mental problems.
The most obvious manifestation of Camille's mental problems is the existence of self-mutilation. She will use all kinds of sharp things to engrave on her body, making her body dripping with blood. Even now, Camille can only refrain from self-harm through heavy drinking.
Why did Camille choose to leave Fengkou Town when he grew up? These puzzles are all questions thrown by the screenwriter in the play, waiting for the audience to slowly find the answer from various details in the play.
The play is adapted from the debut novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn, the author of "Gone Love". The director is Jean-Marc Valet . The film that the director is best known for should be "Dallas Buyers Club" in 2013. Although the director's work this time is no longer a movie but a TV series, the director's performance is still stable, and it is one of the few TV drama works with a very cinematic quality.
The quality of the film is concentrated in the cinematography, editing and sound treatment of the play.
In many indoor quarrel scenes, the constant small-scale shaking of the camera makes the audience feel more impetuous and restless emotionally.
And most of the heroine's flashback scenes (the memory part) do not directly recall the past, but the director uses montage editing to make the camera make beautiful transitions in the same space at different times, switching back and forth between the past and the present. It adds to the suspense brought by the picture.
For example, when Camille came home and entered his sister's room for the first time, the picture showed the camera of Camille entering the door. At this time, the camera switched to the other side of the door and when the door was opened, it was transformed into a young card. The indoor picture that Mir and Camille saw, when the door was fully opened, cut back to the current Camille.
Transitions like this abound in the show, and the transition props are varied, it can be the door of the room, the ceiling, the bathtub in the bathroom or even just a needle.
When watching this show, it is easy to think of the American drama "Twin Peaks" directed by David Lynch in 1990. The same little girl was murdered, the same almost isolated town, the same by a family. The company maintains the town's economy, and the title screen has the same effect, and there are even police detectives from other places to investigate the case.
The most similar thing to "Twin Peaks" is the TV show's presentation of the group portraits of people living in the town, the living conditions of the people here, the mentality and status quo of the people here, and so on. Although many characters are only supporting roles, everyone in the town is actually inextricably linked.
The show has eight episodes in total, and the final episode ended last week. And the last scene of the final episode was a big reversal. After watching the last scene of the final episode, I gasped and my scalp felt numb. At the same time, I have to admire the power of the director and screenwriter in the play. Who can imagine that the final reversal starts from the first episode, and hints through different dialogues and shots in the middle, but in the end it can still be achieved. A terrifying twist.
In fact, in terms of suspenseful effect, the last scene is somewhat similar to the last glimpse of the little girl Zhang Zifeng in "Detective Chinatown 1", which overturns all the previous conclusions and makes the audience feel reasonable. At the same time, the sense of horror is MAX. However, in terms of directing techniques and audio-visual language, the last scene of "Sharp Tool" is obviously much more advanced.
So to sum up, if you like American crime suspense dramas like "Twin Peaks", "Small Town Doubt" and "Black Eater", this "Sharp Tool" is definitely for you!
It was first published on the Wechat public account of the film, please do not reprint without authorization.
By: The Horse That Eats Wheat
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