‘Exploring’ features the filmographies of filmmakers that I’ve largely completed and celebrates them on the week of their birthdays.
Exploring #13: Denis Villeneuve
Tag / Denis Villeneuve
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Occasionally too plotty and maximalist in style for its own good, but it is no doubt a stunning sequel with loads of sci-fi spectacle and intrigue.
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Maelstrom (2000)
A talking fish on the chopping board partly narrates this interesting if weird non-linearly-structured sophomore feature by Villeneuve that is tonally all over the place, as it explores how cosmic connections mediate between actions and consequences.
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Dune (2021)
A master of the deliberately-paced blockbuster, Villeneuve’s attempt at adapting Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel is admirable in its storytelling clarity and stunning world-building.
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Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
It doesn’t quite top the religious experience that is the 1982 film, but Denis Villeneuve and DP Roger Deakins have created a visually and thematically expansive arthouse blockbuster that deepens the mythology of its universe.
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August 32nd on Earth (1998)
Chanelling the free spirit of the French New Wave, Villeneuve’s first feature is stylistically bold but falls short as a narrative about two ex-lovers who cannot be together.
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Arrival (2016)
You are in the hands of a consummate filmmaker bringing both science-fiction and humanistic elements seamlessly together in a film that is one of 2016’s finest.
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Sicario (2015)
Villeneuve’s film builds suspense like a worker laying bricks – slowly but surely, giving us a largely solid Mexican cartel infiltration thriller that packs a strong punch.
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Enemy (2013)
A strong mood exercise that brings to the fore a tense psychological mystery that is both twisting and twisted.
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Prisoners (2013)
Denis Villeneuve’s assured direction and Roger Deakins’ evocative cinematography elevates this seemingly generic suburban mystery-thriller into something that will shock and haunt you.
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Eternality Tan 