S.W.’s Scores
Continuity
+6
Entertainment
+3
Rewatchability
+2
CastOrson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Everett Sloane
StreamingMax, Criterion Channel
S.W.’s Verdict
The film that taught everyone else how to point a camera. Welles built something structurally perfect at 25 and spent the rest of his career trying to explain why that wasn't enough. The non-linear narrative still works. The entertainment value has aged — it demands patience modern audiences aren't trained to give, and the pacing rewards study more than surrender. You admire it more than you crave it.