MORE ELECTION 2 REVIEWS

A sharp-eyed reader passes along two more ELECTION 2 reviews, one in Variety and one in Screendaily. I'm not sure what to say about them except "here they are". Variety generally assesses movies more than it reviews them, and Screendaily seemed to like the film but felt it dragged at the start. I'm never sure about that kind of comment, though. I've said it a few times in reviews myself and it is one of those weird things: if it drags at the start but you still like the movie doesn't that render the dragging comment irrelevant as a criticism?

I guess for me Johnnie To has hit that level as a director where thinking about whether I like his movies or not is sort of beside the point. Like Tsui Hark, until recently, the guy can obviously make a movie and their quality is irrefutable. The more interesting issue is trying to figure out why he's making a particular movie, how he's doing it, and what he's trying to say with it. To me, thumbs up/thumbs down reviews are irrelevant. Of course, that's what I said about Tsui Hark until he made SEVEN SWORDS, so what do I know?