All Good Things

If you need prove that real life is more exciting than fiction, here it is.

This is also the story of Robert Durst. Andrew Jarecki, the documentarian that interviewed Durst for The Jinx, also made this film. Actually, this film is what set everything in motion. Durst was arrogant enough to contact Jarecki and offered to tell his side of the story. As we all know now, this got him in all sorts of trouble. Again.

The film tells a fictionalized account of, mainly but not only, the disappearance of Durst's wife. Here the couple is called David and Katherine Marks and all the other names have been changed, as well. But if you watch The Jinx you can clearly see that this was pretty much all that has been changed.

The film is solid and entertaining, but whereas the incoherent story telling of the latter telling of the events works well enough, here it just feels like it is jerking you in and out of the story. The Galveston events have been thrown in in little chunks, at seemingly random intervals.

Now, I have watched the two versions of events in reversed order and went into viewing All Good Things knowing what happened when and where things headed. This may have helped me with wrapping my head around the narrative. Especially since the murder and subsequent trial in Galveston, TX, were only skimmed over. I feel that this should have gotten more attention, seeing that the trial was what the film was actually anchored in.

The acting, from everyone involved, was very good. I am not usually a fan of Kirsten Dunst, but in here I liked her a lot. Ryan Gosling holds his own in a film that does not rely on his good looks, which is also nice to see (though not as nice as Ryan Gosling at this sexiest *sigh*).

Decent.

6/10

Doomsday Gun

The film is based on the true story of the so-called Project Babylon, which had Dr. Gerald Bull build a "supergun" for the Iraqi government.

It also details the involvement of both, the British and US Government, who aided (directly or indirectly) the building of the gun and another, smaller one, referred to as Baby Babylon.

The give it more validity, the voices of (among others) George Bush, Margaret Thatcher and Al Gore are played over the last few moments. Ultimately, the project was more or less financed by the US tax payers while the Brits looked on, profiting from the export of the components of what they officially referred to as "oil pipes".

The telling is very factual and somewhat sterile, not making any of the characters too sympathetic, which keeps them at an emotional distance. The cast is brilliant and the story itself is stirring, though.

Dr. Bull was assassinated in 1990, practically ending the supergun project. However, his technology was later used by the Iraq in SCUD missiles.

5/10