S.W.’s Scores
Continuity
+7
Entertainment
+5
Rewatchability
+4
CastJack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
StreamingParamount+, Prime Video (rent)
S.W.’s Verdict
Jake Gittes follows the water and finds something much worse. Polanski built a mystery that tightens like a noose — every answer creates a worse question. Jack Nicholson plays a man who thinks he's smarter than the system and discovers the system doesn't care. Faye Dunaway carries an entire tragedy in her face. The ending is one of the coldest in American cinema. The screenplay is taught in film schools for a reason.