Lilly Wachowski takes love seriously enough to make it central to the suspense. We value that in Bound, co-written and co-directed with Lana, where the women hold our attention even when the filmmaking grows too pleased with itself.
Fi1m perspective
In Bound (1996), Corky and Violet's attraction matters as much as their ability to outwit a mobster. Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly give the familiar crime plot a reason to hold our attention before the complications begin. We cared about the risks these women took because the performances made their desire convincing. Lilly and Lana Wachowski, writing and directing together, let the romance remain funny and sexy rather than insisting on solemnity.
That feature debut is a useful starting point for the larger stories that followed. The Matrix (1999) combined action, philosophy and visual effects; The Matrix Reloaded (2003) expanded its world and mythology. Cloud Atlas (2012) followed several stories across different eras, while the television series Sense8 (2015) put queer and trans characters at the centre of a story connecting people across the world. Through those changes in scale and format, the recurring interests are people trying to escape restrictive lives, and love giving them a reason to do it.
The graphic compositions, moving cameras and stylised action are another familiar feature, with cinematographer Bill Pope and editor Zach Staenberg among her recurring collaborators. We would be guessing if we assigned individual decisions in their shared films to one sister. What we can judge is the result: in Bound, the conspicuous styling occasionally draws attention to a complication that already feels too calculated. The sisters sometimes seem more interested in demonstrating ingenuity than letting a scene get on with its business.
They are better when they allow calculation to become comedy. In Bound, Pantoliano's Caesar gives the women a worthwhile opponent and keeps the gangster scenes lively enough to sit alongside the romance. The script understands how an awkward development can make a carefully planned crime funny without removing the suspense. That humour keeps the film from becoming an exercise in admiring its authors, even when they appear tempted to make it one. Start with Bound for Gershon and Tilly, and forgive the occasional flourish that gets in their way.
Biography
Lilly Wachowski is an American film and television director, writer and producer. She works in collaboration with her sister Lana as the Wachowskis, previously credited under names including The Wachowski Brothers and Andy Wachowski.
The pair made their feature directorial debut with Bound (1996), which they also wrote. They are known for The Matrix (1999) and its sequels The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003), as well as V for Vendetta (2006), Speed Racer (2008), Cloud Atlas (2012) and Jupiter Ascending (2015). Wachowski was born on 29 December 1967 in Chicago, Illinois.
