Girlfight (2000)

I've heard of Karyn Kusama before. But it's puzzling why I haven't heard of her as often as I should, Girlfight's luminous helmer and storyteller. A quick glance at her directorial credits at Wikipedia offers hints about this mystery.  Kusama has only directed three feature films since her debut in this film, the biggest of which is Aeon Flux (2005), with a budget of $62 million from Paramount, but only grossed an estimated $52 million worldwide.

On the other hand, Michelle Rodriguez, the girl in the title, has become a box-office name - in fast and furious mode, no doubt - since her promising appearance as Diana Guzman whose passion to be a boxer glows in her scowl, braids, and courage to beat up her own father for making comments about that desire. But then Kusama handles different genres. This interest should work on her favor.
   

Skyfall (2012)

Since Daniel Craig played James Bond, the secret service agent hasn't been what he used to be, even though Craig certainly has all the qualities of his predecessors: handsome, debonair, sexy, and witty. But Craig's Bond, here, is darker, edgier, as though his brooding glances hides a past, even amidst death-defying, action sequences. That past shows up in Skyfall. We discover his roots, where he grew up. Thus, the story shows a more serious aspect of the agent that, at times, denies any intervention of wit and humor. This bond film seems to be preoccupied with shadows, which brilliantly merges the idea of shadows, in the context of terrorism and its politics, with the shadows of Bond's past, especially how that past surges back into the present and terrorizes it.