Rating-*****
Brilliant. That's the only way I can describe Kathryn Bigelow's masterpiece "The Hurt Locker." Technically, there are no flaws. The fx, while a little artsy, are great. The lack of music and artificial lighting create an inescapable tension that really makes you wonder whether or not the characters will make it. Bigelow's use of budget for the movie is incredible. She wastes absolutely nothing and tells her story of a Iraq war bomb squad perfectly.
The performances are fantastic and completely believable. Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and even Guy Pearce and Ralph Fiennes are nearly unrecognizable as actors playing characters instead of just characters. The handheld camerawork and Bigelow's direction are so immersive that I occaisionaly thought I was watching a documentary.
Even though the movie is basically one incredibley tense disarming scene after another, the atmosphere is so well set up that you really realize how this is real life for thousands of Americans. Also, The Hurt Locker finally shows something I thought I might never see again: character development!!
What else can I praise...? Oh yes: the superb way that Bigelow uses the intensity of the war to develop character studies for each person, and the way the movie shows that everyone fighting in Iraq is crazy and fighting an unwinnable war. And, (listen Michael Moore) for once it doesn't portray the insurgents as misunderstood freedom fighters. Overall, for the first time in a huge while, (seriously, I don't remember the last time I said this) I can't find anything wrong with this movie. I'd say it's pretty damn perfect. See it!!
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