Sight Unseen
Sight Unseen is a Reverse Shot column for which writers must view and write an essay on a movie playing theatrically for which they have no prior knowledge whatsoever—only a title and, if necessary, a running time. With Sight Unseen, we hope to cast away the usual presumptions and prior knowledge we have about a film before seeing it.
Not knowing the film’s importance affected my viewing of Autumn Execution, which came across as a smoothly crass entertainment. It’s a prison drama, romance, and occasional fighting flick—and it would perhaps come across as wild if it didn’t feel so sedentary.
Surely the appeal of entering a theater completely blind to what is about to appear on the screen is one other cinephiles share with me—but it’s also one that is difficult to realize.