Lilly Wachowski writes best when desire drives a crime or an idea changes how a fight works. Her work with Lana can be thrilling and funny, but the dialogue too often explains what we have already grasped.
Fi1m perspective
In Bound (1996), two women plotting against a mobster have to hold our interest before the plotting grows complicated. Lilly and Lana Wachowski, writing and directing their debut feature, understand that the attraction between Corky and Violet gives each risk a reason. We cared about them because Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly made the romance matter as much as getting away with the scheme. The script also understands how easily a carefully planned crime can become farce. Some complications feel inserted to advertise the writers' ingenuity, but the film gives us people worth following through the muddle.
The Matrix (1999) makes the sisters' taste for elaborate invention work on a larger scale. They again write and direct, combining martial arts and computer effects so that questions about reality change what bodies can do. Their work with cinematographer Bill Pope draws on comic-book influences, and the action gives those ideas a satisfying physical force. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss make the people worth attending to amid all that invention. It is an excellent action film, even when the dialogue makes us wish the next fight would start.
V for Vendetta (2006), directed by James McTeigue from the sisters' screenplay, makes that weakness harder to overlook. They want an action audience to think about power and personal responsibility, and Hugo Weaving makes the masked revolutionary persuasive enough to trouble us. We welcome the ambition, but the script has a habit of explaining a point after it has landed. It remains a good thriller; a little more faith in the audience would have made it a better one.
The career then expands through Cloud Atlas (2012), Jupiter Ascending (2015) and the interconnected lives of Sense8 (2015–2018). Lilly later pursued separate projects, including Work in Progress (2019–2021). The long collaboration with Lana matters to any assessment: we would not pretend to know which sister wrote which line. What we value most in the shared scripts is the attention to what people want, especially when the complications threaten to take over. For an introduction, start with Bound, and give the women your attention before trying to second-guess the scheme.
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.
