Domino (2019)

While often cited as a polarizing and troubled production, *Domino* earns its place on a list of Brian De Palma’s best films as a fascinating, if flawed, masterclass in his signature techniques. The film’s convoluted plot, involving a Danish cop (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) hunting his partner's killer amidst a CIA-ISIS conspiracy, can feel like a faint echo of his tighter thrillers. However, to dismiss it on narrative grounds is to miss the point entirely. *Domino* is essential viewing for any De Palma aficionado because it showcases the director in his purest form, unburdened by commercial expectations and free to indulge in the very visual obsessions that defined his career, making it a crucial late-career entry that distills his auteur essence. The film's value is cemented in its breathtaking set pieces, where De Palma proves he has lost none of his virtuosic command of suspense and cinematic language. A rooftop chase is a masterwork of spatial geography and tension, but the climactic sequence at a Spanish bullfighting arena is the main event. Here, De Palma unleashes his full arsenal: voyeurism via drone cameras and first-person perspectives, a dramatic split-screen that heightens the imminent terror, and an operatic sense of impending doom that is unmistakably his. In these moments, *Domino* transcends its script and becomes a pure, exhilarating exercise in style, demonstrating that even in a lesser work, the master’s hand is capable of crafting sequences that rival the most celebrated in his filmography.