Black Book (2006)

[K1stpierre]

Discuss

[JohnnyGossamer]

The great Verhoeven flick. Thoroughly engaging in all his usual cartoonish, brutal, oddly romantic ways. One of my favorites of 2006. A.

[Jake Gittes]

Gloriously entertaining. TIGHTLY plotted (I was shocked to find out this was an original screenplay and not an adaptation of some novel that they had to trim down) and emotionally complex. Verhoeven takes the aesthetics of your typical prestige WW2 melodrama and injects them with actual energy and character, playing around with the comfortable archetypes of both sides of the conflict (three years before Tarantino did the same thing in Inglourious Basterds) and pointing out all the bullshit it sees while treating every serious moment with the gravity it deserves. Very involving without being the least bit sentimental, and, in the end, a real kick in the balls to all the "respectable" airless European movies of the same vein. Don't understand how this isn't widely considered a bonafide modern classic. 

Edited February 15, 2017 by Jake Gittes