Return of the giant face

There have been a lot of words about how the success of the Barbie/Oppenheimer thing is showing that cinema is back (which is very fucking premature, especially with the righteous strike action going on), and all I know is that I've seen the appeal of going to the movie theatre on the giant faces, emoting on a screen bigger than my house.

There's been two giant faces in two films particular recently, which have both smashed the lure of cinema right over my thick skull.

One of them was Casey Affleck, who barely gets more than a single scene in Oppenheimer, and somehow standing out in a massive film jammed with outrageous acting talent.

His small scene is so full of quiet menace and unease, and it's all there, in Imaxified glory. When he appears with that slightly quavering voice, and the dubious execution of the classic Affleck shit-eating grin, it's all in service of the absolute fucking murder in his eyes.

The nuclear explosions and sub-atomic blasts were great, but Affleck's preference on the fucking big screen down the road was the real spectacle.

The other one was in the most unlikely of places - because while Mission Impossible also delivered on the thrills, Hayley Atwell was fucking great, and turned out to be more than just a long line of striking brunettes to fall into the orbit of the IMF.

There's a scene towards the end, during the train drama, where she's absolutely 100% about to get killed, and then Ethan solves in the most, well, impossible manner. Which is all fun and games, but the part where Ethan finally gets to her and asks if she's okay is just brilliant. 

Because for a jet-setting master thief, she reacts like an actual human being, and it's all there on her face - the fear, the relief, the humour, the tension, all right there.

I don't care how big your television is, the full immersion of the cinema can bring the slightest moments home, just as they can bring the bombast. That'll get me in the theatre seat, every time.