by Mattie Lucas
Cinema from a Decidedly Queer Perspective
Flight Risk | 2025
As a child of the 90s, I have a certain soft spot for 90s-style action thrillers. These things were a dime-a-dozen back then, and while many haven't aged well, something about them often feels more tangible than the flat-looking high-gloss sludge we so often get today. They were heightened, sometimes silly, and less concerned with what passes for realism in a way that makes them feel more authentic. Mel Gibson's latest film, Flight Risk, feels like a throwback to a certain kind of 90s thriller - unfortunately, it's not the good kind.
In her 2008 essay "Chungking Express: Electric Youth" (included as an extra in the booklet of the Criterion Blu-Ray), critic Amy Taubin compares Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express to Jean-Luc Godard's seminal 1966 film, Masculin Feminin. It's a perceptive parallel, acknowledging both films as quintessential products of their time in depicting youthful romance and disaffection.