to the rush. To quote Stephen
Stills’ ode to drug-smuggling
pilots, Treetop Flyer, Seal “don’t
do business that don’t make him
smile.” It gets to the point where
Seal amasses literally more
money than he can handle, with
a local bank devoting an entire
vault to his endless stream of
cash, and banknotes floating like
confetti in his back garden. It all
seems too much like work if you
ask me.
Liman avoids the sub-Scorsese
stylings we’ve become accus-
NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 9
tomed to from true-life crime
dramas, and instead delivers
his own unshowy yet energetic
take on this story. He’s one of
the best filmmakers working in
mainstream Hollywood today,
but he rarely gets his due be-
cause he makes it all look so
easy. His filmmaking is never vis-
ible, but always effective; he’s
the very definition of a steady
hand. 1980s period detail is kept
to a minimum here, which helps
add an air of immediacy to the
story, and the needle drops are
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