The Dancer Upstairs
(2002)
The Dancer Upstairs (2002) Directed by John Malkovich, book and screenplay by Shakespeare. No, not Will. Nicolas Shakespeare.
The story is based on the Shining Path anarchist/communist/guerillas who terrorized Peru for many years, as depraved and murderous a group as anyone since Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Malkovich has a good directorial eye and he avoids a lot of plot clichés, but he needs to learn a thing or two about pacing. It dragged at times, and was at least 20 minutes too long. And in the end it didn’t amount to much.