What’s Aged the Best?
John Doe performance; credits; seven-sins structure; unnamed rainy city; music; unseen box contents; Mills’s reading frustration; sound; Somerset
In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:45:55Read transcript
- Spacey’s performance is praised; earlier De Niro, Will Patton, Tim Blake Nelson and Billy Bob Thornton are considered possible alternatives, and the dead-dog denial is admired.
- The serial-killer-style credits immediately establish a grimy, modern world.
- The seven-sins structure and intersecting final sins are praised, with literary influences and clue-solving conventions discussed.
- The unnamed city and relentless rain create an authentic, oppressive setting.
- Love Plus One at the pizza place and the decision not to show the head in the box are praised.
- Mills’s reading frustration, city noises and Somerset’s lonely, cynical research-driven existence are admired.
- The industrial rock music, Nine Inch Nails and the later scoring partnership are praised.
- Somerset is imagined as a difficult social companion, with speculative sports allegiances.