The Neon Demon (R)
"..treats objects like women, man."
It's a story as old as Los Angeles itself, a young girl looking for fame and fortune, innocent to the world, runs into the dark belly of the entertainment industry (LITERALLY!) in Director Nicholas Winding Refn's (Drive) gorgeously weird film, The Neon Demon.
Stunning cinematography, beautifully dangerous hellcat women, electro-smoky pulsing soundtrack, stilted Kubrick-like dialog, strange symbols and visions, and that one scene: Oh, that show stopping Scene! They all make up the brunt of Refn's attack on the fashion industry, that it exists and how it cannibalizes (heh) the female form. Early on, Elle Fanning's Jesse, the young lovely but impressionable youth who is the star of the film, is told "to always say she is 19. 18 is too on the nose." This is shorthand for her situation, shorthand for the entire enterprise of film and subject. She is quickly embraced by the industry's entrepreneurs, drunk in by the male gaze, and vilified by it's older, less natural looking models. Even her new friend Ruby (Jena Malone) seems to have a strange fascination with Jesse, who soon gets caught up in her own hype and gets led down a dark walkway of doom.
Special attention must be made to the soundtrack by Cliff Martinez, once again joining Refn after scoring Drive. Easily half of this film's enjoyment can be derived from the musical landscape of electronic moods, from 80s synth to edgy Pop Diva. It matches all the gore and glitter perfectly and the film uses it extremely effectively. Many will rewatch the film just as a means to experience the sweet dark marriage of visuals and sound. The use of light, the shadowy early hours, the flash bulbs and mirrors, the cinematography is just as nuanced and beautiful as the audio and constructs a nightmare world of gloss and reflection for us to watch Jesse lose herself in.
ND will be too slow for many, too little viscera for others, the third act too toe-curling intense for anyone sane. But for some the experience of wallowing through this blood bath will be sublime. Slow, brooding and methodical, The Neon Demon mystifies for a long period and then suddenly drives it's point home with a pair scissors. It's almost a twisted giallo mashup, like Diana Ross' Mahogany remixed by Dario Argento. This is Refn at his most feminist, the men in the film treat women as mere meat puppets for their cameras, and the ones that don't the women themselves push away (Keanu Reeves himself has a small yet significant part). The expected fashion cat fights, the women infighting by snidely brutalizing each other, these eye rolling cliches all happen. But there is a deeper layer to it, and once that layer gets scratched and bleeds all hell breaks loose. It's Refn's interest in not exploiting the women on screen who are being exploited that makes his intentions very clear, so beautifully on the nose it cuts it off to spite it face artistically.
8.5 You'll Never Look at Funeral Homes the Same Way Again out of 10 (GREAT)
Showing posts with label GREAT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GREAT. Show all posts
The Lobster (2016)
The Lobster (R)
"Love is Blind"
A man, recently divorced, and his dog, recently his brother, are sent to a coastal hideaway resort where the inmates must find love or be themselves turned into animals in director Giorgos Lanthimos' (Dog Tooth) newest oddity, The Lobster.
Colin Ferrell (In Bruges) plays the saggy down trodden man forced to look for love (in all the wrong places), and does it without his normal bravado and grimace to his character. He meets all kinds of interesting fellow love seekers (the most likeable being A-list character actor John C. Reilly as a lisping animal bound hopeless case), for it is the Universe, and not just the people inhabiting it, that makes this film so fascinating.
Whether to take it literally or figuratively, a world that not only looks down socially upon a single uncoupled person but oppresses them and forces them into relationships (via a Nazi-like Police force asking for papers) or be animialified is fantastically unique! Then to expound on that Universe, show quick insights into how this system works (the singles who rebel are hunted, but are themselves revolutionaries who reject all human copulation and actively attempt to break up the couplehoods) is rich and fulfilling. Then add friendships, children and society to that mix and you have something to talk about.
Go into this movie knowing as little as you can, let it tell it's story organically (it is all there if you let it talk and you listen), enjoy the harrowing little moments of terror and pain, embrace the surrealist reality, the absurdist gravitas and the moral ambiguity. After all, all's fair in war and love, especially if love can turn you into a shellfish.
8 Dead Rabbits of Love out of 10 (GREAT)
"Love is Blind"
A man, recently divorced, and his dog, recently his brother, are sent to a coastal hideaway resort where the inmates must find love or be themselves turned into animals in director Giorgos Lanthimos' (Dog Tooth) newest oddity, The Lobster.
Colin Ferrell (In Bruges) plays the saggy down trodden man forced to look for love (in all the wrong places), and does it without his normal bravado and grimace to his character. He meets all kinds of interesting fellow love seekers (the most likeable being A-list character actor John C. Reilly as a lisping animal bound hopeless case), for it is the Universe, and not just the people inhabiting it, that makes this film so fascinating.
Whether to take it literally or figuratively, a world that not only looks down socially upon a single uncoupled person but oppresses them and forces them into relationships (via a Nazi-like Police force asking for papers) or be animialified is fantastically unique! Then to expound on that Universe, show quick insights into how this system works (the singles who rebel are hunted, but are themselves revolutionaries who reject all human copulation and actively attempt to break up the couplehoods) is rich and fulfilling. Then add friendships, children and society to that mix and you have something to talk about.
Go into this movie knowing as little as you can, let it tell it's story organically (it is all there if you let it talk and you listen), enjoy the harrowing little moments of terror and pain, embrace the surrealist reality, the absurdist gravitas and the moral ambiguity. After all, all's fair in war and love, especially if love can turn you into a shellfish.
8 Dead Rabbits of Love out of 10 (GREAT)
The Nice Guys (2016)
The Nice Guys (R)
"Nice Guys don't always finish last"
A Private detective who is an alcoholic single father gets hired by a muscle-for-hire goon, the same one who broke his arm the night before, to help find a mysterious woman and the mysterious LA underworld circumstances under which she vanished in Shane Black's entertaining NeoNoir flick, The Nice Guys.
Shane has long been the good manly man movie writer working in Hollywood, what with Predator, Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and Iron Man 3 under his belt. His current high water mark was the similarly themed (and funny) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. This Nice Guys dips back into his well as once again a detective buddy picture about two disparate men with gore and sex and all that good stuff we liked in manly movies from the 80s, which clearly bucks the trends of socially friendlier adult fare on the big screen.
This time it stars Ryan Gosling (Drive) and Russel Crowe (Gladiator) as at-odds partners stepping from trail to trail to find even greater mysteries to solve. The key to the film is that these two have great chemistry, have lots of funny lines to spout and lots of guns to shoot. The rest of the cast are mere filler (though Black's trend of having a kid sidekick can be a little grating to the audience and the plot). The underlying mystery, traveling from the porn friendly Los Angeles hills to the streets of urban life, lays out an exaggerated 1970s retro lifestyle that matches the decor and costumes and music. The story is often slumming through post-counter culture sex and mores, and the ambiguous mix of testosterone in Gosling and Crowe go great with it. But not everything is cool like a 7&7 here.
While the underlying message of the struggle of fatherhood can be seen in most of Black's work, here it has a creepy underpinning of underage sexual proclivities, rubbing up as it does with the 70s porn scene. This may not sit right with some modern viewers, even though its cringe-impact is obviously intentional. Also, the gun fights and action aren't as well paced or blocked as other director's have done with his scripts. Shane has a proven track record of outstanding punchy dialog but his direction of action scenes is stodgy to say the least, as is some of the digital compositing. Sadly, Kim Basinger is in the cast to relive her LA Confidential comeback but she appears completely uncomfortable as a shady LA DA and doesn't add much credence to the sometimes murky plot. However if you can kick your feet up and go with the flow it all shouldn't stress you out too too much.
In action/comedy however he excels, and he and his leads nail it to the wall with an original, witty, decadent twist on a genre forgotten by most Studios, to which which we ask for more.
"More? Me too, mine's as big as a house!"
8 ...and Stuff out of 10 (GREAT)
"Nice Guys don't always finish last"
A Private detective who is an alcoholic single father gets hired by a muscle-for-hire goon, the same one who broke his arm the night before, to help find a mysterious woman and the mysterious LA underworld circumstances under which she vanished in Shane Black's entertaining NeoNoir flick, The Nice Guys.
Shane has long been the good manly man movie writer working in Hollywood, what with Predator, Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and Iron Man 3 under his belt. His current high water mark was the similarly themed (and funny) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. This Nice Guys dips back into his well as once again a detective buddy picture about two disparate men with gore and sex and all that good stuff we liked in manly movies from the 80s, which clearly bucks the trends of socially friendlier adult fare on the big screen.
This time it stars Ryan Gosling (Drive) and Russel Crowe (Gladiator) as at-odds partners stepping from trail to trail to find even greater mysteries to solve. The key to the film is that these two have great chemistry, have lots of funny lines to spout and lots of guns to shoot. The rest of the cast are mere filler (though Black's trend of having a kid sidekick can be a little grating to the audience and the plot). The underlying mystery, traveling from the porn friendly Los Angeles hills to the streets of urban life, lays out an exaggerated 1970s retro lifestyle that matches the decor and costumes and music. The story is often slumming through post-counter culture sex and mores, and the ambiguous mix of testosterone in Gosling and Crowe go great with it. But not everything is cool like a 7&7 here.
While the underlying message of the struggle of fatherhood can be seen in most of Black's work, here it has a creepy underpinning of underage sexual proclivities, rubbing up as it does with the 70s porn scene. This may not sit right with some modern viewers, even though its cringe-impact is obviously intentional. Also, the gun fights and action aren't as well paced or blocked as other director's have done with his scripts. Shane has a proven track record of outstanding punchy dialog but his direction of action scenes is stodgy to say the least, as is some of the digital compositing. Sadly, Kim Basinger is in the cast to relive her LA Confidential comeback but she appears completely uncomfortable as a shady LA DA and doesn't add much credence to the sometimes murky plot. However if you can kick your feet up and go with the flow it all shouldn't stress you out too too much.
In action/comedy however he excels, and he and his leads nail it to the wall with an original, witty, decadent twist on a genre forgotten by most Studios, to which which we ask for more.
"More? Me too, mine's as big as a house!"
8 ...and Stuff out of 10 (GREAT)
The Hateful Eight (2015)
The Hateful Eight (R)
"Reservoir CowDogs"
A pair of bounty hunters cross paths on the way to a snowed in Wyoming outpost, only to meet a slew of strangers holed up in a blizzard. One is hauling a live prisoner worth a $10,000 reward, and suspects everyone else of collusion, theft or chicanery. Some may live or die, but none will escape unbloodied in Quentin Tarantino's 8th film, the red-soaked return to form The Hateful 8.
First, it must be said that Hateful Eight is less of a genre-ape than his previous few films, if anything TH8 is in the genre of his own first film Reservior Dogs (stick with your own genres QT), but by moving the narrative to the post-Civil War era has allowed him to toy with the idea that sometimes in our past even the good guys were pretty bad. It turns into a slight whos-gonna-doit/who-dunnit but since every one is a racist/misogynistic pig of varying likeability the answer could be anyone and we'd be happy. The cast who plays these 8 are as much a who's who of past QT films as it's own plot points, and the story is framed like a stage-play, built from acts, using many of QT's previous trademarks that have come and gone through the years (the chapter marks from Kill Bill, the blood and crime drama of Res Dogs, the western-as-a-setting-to-provides-discussion-of-modern-race-relations of Django, the time distortion from most his films, the sudden out of place narrator and hidden-just-beyond-sight danger of Inglorious Basterds, and of course the director's cameo (though admittedly one of his least obtrusive)). All of these make H8 more of a classic QT film (unlike Django Unchained, which we may have been too-hard on but we hold QT to a higher level and expect something beyond just a genre-rehash for modern wish fulfillment). Hateful Eight is bolder than anything he's done in awhile, with a full commitment to his play-like setting with a large cast of regulars to mix it up in his bloody evil sandbox.
And those Hateful Eight are Kurt Russell (Death Proof) as John "Hangman" Ruth, brutally leading his prisoner Daisy Domergue (an almost unrecognizable Jennifer Jason Leigh) to the noose, the irreplaceable Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) as his fellow bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren who must justify his own existence constantly due to the color of his skin, Walton Goggins and Bruce Dern (both from Django) as Southern Rebels still nursing their loss in the War of Oppression, and Tim Roth and Michael Madsen (both from Resevoir Dogs) dressed up as two dangerous dandies out of place on the Western frontier. There are other new faces and old, but they are all wrapped singularly into the fate of Daisy and her appointment with the hangman and those who would stand in the way. Madsen's bizarre toughguy routine is blunted by his equally bizarre Will Rogers wardrobe (sticking out like a saddle sore thumb). Yet Jennifer's deliciously evil spitting crone has some viewers screaming "anti-woman" for the violence she is subjected to and lack of white-knighting onscreen. However, what QT is going for, and has successfully captured, is the harsh world of crime and punishment on the outlying segments of civilized society, a place where a gun and a fist are daily occurrences, where death is just outside your door if you aren't huddled by a fire and keep your horses fed, a world with a deadly lack of information and shifting trusts, of self reliance and uneasy pacts, the non-idealized old west where lynching and Injun wars and getting shot in the back were the realities, and women really were second class citizens trying to make a life amongst these brutes. You can hate the player a bit, but you should really be hating the game more, and QT is shining the light on our forefathers.
Now it ain't all comin' up roses. The movie is lengthy, and although it pays off in spades for it's long run it is also very wordy (luckily no "in the middle of everything Superman speeches" here however). In that weighty runtime there aren't enough amazing moments to quite sustain; no Jew Hunter at the table, no ear severance dance, no showdown at House of Blue Leaves, no Bags on Heads, no high octane car crash leg ejection. There is however enough tension and blood to maintain entertainment. And with a delightfully bombastic score by Spaghetti Western master-composer Ennio Morricone (with some leftover bits from his score from Carpenter's The Thing), it marks the first film Tarantino has used an original score and it comes off perfectly (he still sneaks in some choice cuts from modern sources). The cast at large does a terrific job (love ya Bob!), with Roth and Leigh and Russell and Goggins in particular enjoying their dialogue time on screen as much as we enjoy witnessing it.
So what is the point of all this, the 70mm wide angles, the straight foray into the American west of an admitted genre-muckraker, the encapsulating music, the buckets and buckets of gore, the fur coats and facial hair, the disparity of North vs South, Black vs White, Man vs Woman, Everyone vs Mexican? Why Channing Tatum, why a Roadshow release, why yet another good excuse for QT to use the N-Word? For the best reasons of all. To tell a story that you can feel and see and hear and think about, and that is why Quentin wrote it and the actors enjoyed playing it and why it can be watched by us. All 8+ characters are to be reviled and cheered as they suffer loudly, it is shades of grey for who justly lives and dies and ultimately who is the least hateful and who triumphs despite being hateful themselves. It is almost a polar opposite of this year's other big (biggest ever) release, Disney's Star Wars The Force Awakens. TH8 is Non-PC, non-regurgitated, non-self referencing, non-market tested consumer approved popart, and it was all made on non-digital cellulose film for and by cinephiles. This is cinema as high-art succumbing to it's basest desires, the spoken word from the typed page, the cold puffs of breath from a boiling actor lost in their role, the mountain vistas splashed with golden sunlight and the grungy floorboards soaked in crimson lifeblood.
See y'all down the trail.
8 Well-Loved Lincoln Letters and Pots of Coffee out of 10 (GREAT)
"Reservoir CowDogs"
A pair of bounty hunters cross paths on the way to a snowed in Wyoming outpost, only to meet a slew of strangers holed up in a blizzard. One is hauling a live prisoner worth a $10,000 reward, and suspects everyone else of collusion, theft or chicanery. Some may live or die, but none will escape unbloodied in Quentin Tarantino's 8th film, the red-soaked return to form The Hateful 8.
First, it must be said that Hateful Eight is less of a genre-ape than his previous few films, if anything TH8 is in the genre of his own first film Reservior Dogs (stick with your own genres QT), but by moving the narrative to the post-Civil War era has allowed him to toy with the idea that sometimes in our past even the good guys were pretty bad. It turns into a slight whos-gonna-doit/who-dunnit but since every one is a racist/misogynistic pig of varying likeability the answer could be anyone and we'd be happy. The cast who plays these 8 are as much a who's who of past QT films as it's own plot points, and the story is framed like a stage-play, built from acts, using many of QT's previous trademarks that have come and gone through the years (the chapter marks from Kill Bill, the blood and crime drama of Res Dogs, the western-as-a-setting-to-provides-discussion-of-modern-race-relations of Django, the time distortion from most his films, the sudden out of place narrator and hidden-just-beyond-sight danger of Inglorious Basterds, and of course the director's cameo (though admittedly one of his least obtrusive)). All of these make H8 more of a classic QT film (unlike Django Unchained, which we may have been too-hard on but we hold QT to a higher level and expect something beyond just a genre-rehash for modern wish fulfillment). Hateful Eight is bolder than anything he's done in awhile, with a full commitment to his play-like setting with a large cast of regulars to mix it up in his bloody evil sandbox.
And those Hateful Eight are Kurt Russell (Death Proof) as John "Hangman" Ruth, brutally leading his prisoner Daisy Domergue (an almost unrecognizable Jennifer Jason Leigh) to the noose, the irreplaceable Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) as his fellow bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren who must justify his own existence constantly due to the color of his skin, Walton Goggins and Bruce Dern (both from Django) as Southern Rebels still nursing their loss in the War of Oppression, and Tim Roth and Michael Madsen (both from Resevoir Dogs) dressed up as two dangerous dandies out of place on the Western frontier. There are other new faces and old, but they are all wrapped singularly into the fate of Daisy and her appointment with the hangman and those who would stand in the way. Madsen's bizarre toughguy routine is blunted by his equally bizarre Will Rogers wardrobe (sticking out like a saddle sore thumb). Yet Jennifer's deliciously evil spitting crone has some viewers screaming "anti-woman" for the violence she is subjected to and lack of white-knighting onscreen. However, what QT is going for, and has successfully captured, is the harsh world of crime and punishment on the outlying segments of civilized society, a place where a gun and a fist are daily occurrences, where death is just outside your door if you aren't huddled by a fire and keep your horses fed, a world with a deadly lack of information and shifting trusts, of self reliance and uneasy pacts, the non-idealized old west where lynching and Injun wars and getting shot in the back were the realities, and women really were second class citizens trying to make a life amongst these brutes. You can hate the player a bit, but you should really be hating the game more, and QT is shining the light on our forefathers.
Now it ain't all comin' up roses. The movie is lengthy, and although it pays off in spades for it's long run it is also very wordy (luckily no "in the middle of everything Superman speeches" here however). In that weighty runtime there aren't enough amazing moments to quite sustain; no Jew Hunter at the table, no ear severance dance, no showdown at House of Blue Leaves, no Bags on Heads, no high octane car crash leg ejection. There is however enough tension and blood to maintain entertainment. And with a delightfully bombastic score by Spaghetti Western master-composer Ennio Morricone (with some leftover bits from his score from Carpenter's The Thing), it marks the first film Tarantino has used an original score and it comes off perfectly (he still sneaks in some choice cuts from modern sources). The cast at large does a terrific job (love ya Bob!), with Roth and Leigh and Russell and Goggins in particular enjoying their dialogue time on screen as much as we enjoy witnessing it.
So what is the point of all this, the 70mm wide angles, the straight foray into the American west of an admitted genre-muckraker, the encapsulating music, the buckets and buckets of gore, the fur coats and facial hair, the disparity of North vs South, Black vs White, Man vs Woman, Everyone vs Mexican? Why Channing Tatum, why a Roadshow release, why yet another good excuse for QT to use the N-Word? For the best reasons of all. To tell a story that you can feel and see and hear and think about, and that is why Quentin wrote it and the actors enjoyed playing it and why it can be watched by us. All 8+ characters are to be reviled and cheered as they suffer loudly, it is shades of grey for who justly lives and dies and ultimately who is the least hateful and who triumphs despite being hateful themselves. It is almost a polar opposite of this year's other big (biggest ever) release, Disney's Star Wars The Force Awakens. TH8 is Non-PC, non-regurgitated, non-self referencing, non-market tested consumer approved popart, and it was all made on non-digital cellulose film for and by cinephiles. This is cinema as high-art succumbing to it's basest desires, the spoken word from the typed page, the cold puffs of breath from a boiling actor lost in their role, the mountain vistas splashed with golden sunlight and the grungy floorboards soaked in crimson lifeblood.
See y'all down the trail.
8 Well-Loved Lincoln Letters and Pots of Coffee out of 10 (GREAT)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Mad Max: Fury Road (R)
"What a Lovely Day!"
In the bombed out dusty future of our world, the remnants of society are banded together in savage attempts to survive the wasteland. Those, like Max, who cling to the past and refuse to submit to the new world are seen as mere untapped resources, lone wolves. And those that revolt against this insane patriarchy are pursued with chrome and bloody exhaust in Post-Apocalyptic godfather George Miller's 30 years in the making follow up to the Mad Max series, Fury Road.
With a character design dregged from the weird fantasies of Brom, vehicle designs that Ratfink would salivate over, a brutal world finally fully realized and minutia-ized, and stunts and action that are in-camera and astonishing to behold, Mad Max returns full throttle and on the red line. This is the kind of film either you know the genre and enjoy immersion or the over-the-top-ness will turn you off and you'll avoid. There are quite a few surprising twists thrown into the mix however, completely shattering the mold that Miller himself invented. CGI is prominent and a bit unwelcome (mostly it looks like for 3D showings and sometimes cheaply). Females now have a more prominent role, lead by Imperator Furiosa (the incomparable Charlize Theron who is well cast as the co-lead of the film). This may in fact turn off some of the muscle car and gear head beer swillers who traditionally enjoy Max films, as Furiosa commands much of the bad-assery on screen, what with the Evil-Dead arm and newly styled savage fem-action hero who somehow retains her femaleness (a woman Max she's not). Grrl Power is the name of the game in Fury Road, and many fans will astound at the backseat driving Max does for most of the film. Now played by Tom Hardy (Mel Gibson is retired in all but name due to his shenanigans), Max almost barely deserves to be in the title. And, unfortunately, Hardy is either not up to filling Gibson's Mad shoes or Miller unwilling to completely allow him to. The character is missing the insane drive and masculinity that Gibson brought the role, and combined with sharing the screen with Theron and having his character's madness upped to actual insanity really hampers one of the great action roles of all time. Perhaps a return of the character to full glory first without all the femme-fatals (sic) would have lessened the sting, but Max almost seems like just another of the interesting side-characters that colorize Miller's Apoc films.
And what colorful characters there are! The ultra-males, the seed saving grandmothers, the War Boys and concubines and Bullet Farmers, all tumor laced and disgusting. One is a stand out, young Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy in X-Men First Class) is a stand out as Nux the sickly War Boy. He has a manic energy and fanaticism that drives the first half and mellows the second, and is a stand out performance. All of the Max films have benefited from villains that you enjoy spending time with and seeing defeated, but Fury Road has so many of these characters whose insane lifestyle you just can't help but admire, who ride into battle like Valkyries with a Rock'N'Roll opera being performed live as they drive (like Wagner gene-spliced with GWAR) with flame throwers spitting and exhaust pipes flaming, that unlike much of the genre of post-apocalypse, Fury Road is a dangerous outback that seems fun to visit (even if no one would want to live there). The first break in the action left the audience winded, and then continued for another hour and a half. Fantastic stuff.
9 Don't Look Thumbs Up out of 10 (GREAT)
Bone-us Haiku
Shotgun eyes at dusk
Lizard skulls and blood bag dust
Chrome fenders eat well.
(Humongus Approved)
"What a Lovely Day!"
In the bombed out dusty future of our world, the remnants of society are banded together in savage attempts to survive the wasteland. Those, like Max, who cling to the past and refuse to submit to the new world are seen as mere untapped resources, lone wolves. And those that revolt against this insane patriarchy are pursued with chrome and bloody exhaust in Post-Apocalyptic godfather George Miller's 30 years in the making follow up to the Mad Max series, Fury Road.
With a character design dregged from the weird fantasies of Brom, vehicle designs that Ratfink would salivate over, a brutal world finally fully realized and minutia-ized, and stunts and action that are in-camera and astonishing to behold, Mad Max returns full throttle and on the red line. This is the kind of film either you know the genre and enjoy immersion or the over-the-top-ness will turn you off and you'll avoid. There are quite a few surprising twists thrown into the mix however, completely shattering the mold that Miller himself invented. CGI is prominent and a bit unwelcome (mostly it looks like for 3D showings and sometimes cheaply). Females now have a more prominent role, lead by Imperator Furiosa (the incomparable Charlize Theron who is well cast as the co-lead of the film). This may in fact turn off some of the muscle car and gear head beer swillers who traditionally enjoy Max films, as Furiosa commands much of the bad-assery on screen, what with the Evil-Dead arm and newly styled savage fem-action hero who somehow retains her femaleness (a woman Max she's not). Grrl Power is the name of the game in Fury Road, and many fans will astound at the backseat driving Max does for most of the film. Now played by Tom Hardy (Mel Gibson is retired in all but name due to his shenanigans), Max almost barely deserves to be in the title. And, unfortunately, Hardy is either not up to filling Gibson's Mad shoes or Miller unwilling to completely allow him to. The character is missing the insane drive and masculinity that Gibson brought the role, and combined with sharing the screen with Theron and having his character's madness upped to actual insanity really hampers one of the great action roles of all time. Perhaps a return of the character to full glory first without all the femme-fatals (sic) would have lessened the sting, but Max almost seems like just another of the interesting side-characters that colorize Miller's Apoc films.
And what colorful characters there are! The ultra-males, the seed saving grandmothers, the War Boys and concubines and Bullet Farmers, all tumor laced and disgusting. One is a stand out, young Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy in X-Men First Class) is a stand out as Nux the sickly War Boy. He has a manic energy and fanaticism that drives the first half and mellows the second, and is a stand out performance. All of the Max films have benefited from villains that you enjoy spending time with and seeing defeated, but Fury Road has so many of these characters whose insane lifestyle you just can't help but admire, who ride into battle like Valkyries with a Rock'N'Roll opera being performed live as they drive (like Wagner gene-spliced with GWAR) with flame throwers spitting and exhaust pipes flaming, that unlike much of the genre of post-apocalypse, Fury Road is a dangerous outback that seems fun to visit (even if no one would want to live there). The first break in the action left the audience winded, and then continued for another hour and a half. Fantastic stuff.
9 Don't Look Thumbs Up out of 10 (GREAT)
Bone-us Haiku
Shotgun eyes at dusk
Lizard skulls and blood bag dust
Chrome fenders eat well.
(Humongus Approved)
What We Do In The Shadows (2015)
What We Do In The Shadows (R)
"BAT FIGHT!"
Four Vampire roommates in New Zealand allow a camera crew into their den, a flat in Wellington that is soaked in blood and laughter in the new mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows.
Ridiculous and raucous, the flatmates interpersonal relationships drive the film as we discover the weird and zany lives of bloodsuckers. Co-written, starring and co-directed by Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement (of HBOs Flight of the Conchords), the film offers a peek into the underbelly world of the undead as they deal with finding victims, taunting (s)werewolves and doing the (literally) bloody dishes. Flatmates include Viago as a vampiric neat freak with a hole in his dead heart, Vladislav the Prodder has serious issues with his Ex leading to a lack of self confidence, Deacon is the brash newcomer at only 183 years old, and their terrifying master 8000 year old vampire Petyr sleeps in a sarcophagus in a basement covered with gore and bones. When Petyr converts a new kid named Nick to his brood, tensions arise in the house as rules are broken and fashion is stolen, leading to brushes with vampire hunters and irritable lycanthropes, culminating at the annual Undead masquerade ball where a human friend and the camera crew itself is in mortal danger from the attendees.
The film is often hilarious, the premise of mixing vampire jokes with bad roommate jokes is fantastic and rife with humor. The NZ cast is funny, the mockumentary angle, while trite, is effective, and it hits all the right veins of humor and horror. The camera work and editing can be a bit rough at times, but the special effects work in its favor and the characters will win over your black heart as they charm your neck out of hemoglobin and laughter. Perhaps a bit of a trifle, and it's low budget nature does rear it's shaggy head now and again, but in general you will be too distracted by the humor and good intentions of the filmmakers to mind being hypnotized into liking this silly goof-off
8 Vampires Vacuuming Vehemently out of 10 (GREAT)
"BAT FIGHT!"
Four Vampire roommates in New Zealand allow a camera crew into their den, a flat in Wellington that is soaked in blood and laughter in the new mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows.
Ridiculous and raucous, the flatmates interpersonal relationships drive the film as we discover the weird and zany lives of bloodsuckers. Co-written, starring and co-directed by Taika Waititi and Jermaine Clement (of HBOs Flight of the Conchords), the film offers a peek into the underbelly world of the undead as they deal with finding victims, taunting (s)werewolves and doing the (literally) bloody dishes. Flatmates include Viago as a vampiric neat freak with a hole in his dead heart, Vladislav the Prodder has serious issues with his Ex leading to a lack of self confidence, Deacon is the brash newcomer at only 183 years old, and their terrifying master 8000 year old vampire Petyr sleeps in a sarcophagus in a basement covered with gore and bones. When Petyr converts a new kid named Nick to his brood, tensions arise in the house as rules are broken and fashion is stolen, leading to brushes with vampire hunters and irritable lycanthropes, culminating at the annual Undead masquerade ball where a human friend and the camera crew itself is in mortal danger from the attendees.
The film is often hilarious, the premise of mixing vampire jokes with bad roommate jokes is fantastic and rife with humor. The NZ cast is funny, the mockumentary angle, while trite, is effective, and it hits all the right veins of humor and horror. The camera work and editing can be a bit rough at times, but the special effects work in its favor and the characters will win over your black heart as they charm your neck out of hemoglobin and laughter. Perhaps a bit of a trifle, and it's low budget nature does rear it's shaggy head now and again, but in general you will be too distracted by the humor and good intentions of the filmmakers to mind being hypnotized into liking this silly goof-off
8 Vampires Vacuuming Vehemently out of 10 (GREAT)
Foxcatcher (2015)
Foxcatcher (R)
"I love wrestling. I love lamp."
A gloomy, true-life account of the wrestling Shultz brothers who get entangled into the strange lifestyle and obsessions of rich philanthropist John L. Du Pont, who has obsessive ambitions about family, Olympic gold medals and the brothers own attentions. Written and directed by Bennett Miller (Capote, Moneyball), Foxcatcher is an understated nightmare of atmosphere and obsession, all the more startling considering it's true nature.
Beyond the fantastic cinematography and production design, Foxcatcher is first and foremost a transformation of it's actors. Gone is Channing Tatum's usual bro-riffic humor and charm and in its stead is a brooding dullard, hidden is Mark Ruffalo's easygoing style and grace which is covered with caveman lumber and brutality, and funny man Steve Carell's lycanthropic transformation is a combination of stiff prosthetic noses and open mouth acting that leaves you expecting a DailyShow break of character that will never come. What is left on the camera is a humorless gloom that settles on these unfortunate men that rivets you to your seat in anticipation for some kind of event, which when it comes (and being unaware of the actual events depicted) still leaves you slack jawed and unprepared. A great piece of cinema, almost a perfect combination of Bennett's previous strengths, and a great opportunity for a few perhaps type-cast actors to break out of their usual roles.
8 Wrestling is such an easy target for Homoerotic Subtext out of 10 (GREAT)
"I love wrestling. I love lamp."
A gloomy, true-life account of the wrestling Shultz brothers who get entangled into the strange lifestyle and obsessions of rich philanthropist John L. Du Pont, who has obsessive ambitions about family, Olympic gold medals and the brothers own attentions. Written and directed by Bennett Miller (Capote, Moneyball), Foxcatcher is an understated nightmare of atmosphere and obsession, all the more startling considering it's true nature.
Beyond the fantastic cinematography and production design, Foxcatcher is first and foremost a transformation of it's actors. Gone is Channing Tatum's usual bro-riffic humor and charm and in its stead is a brooding dullard, hidden is Mark Ruffalo's easygoing style and grace which is covered with caveman lumber and brutality, and funny man Steve Carell's lycanthropic transformation is a combination of stiff prosthetic noses and open mouth acting that leaves you expecting a DailyShow break of character that will never come. What is left on the camera is a humorless gloom that settles on these unfortunate men that rivets you to your seat in anticipation for some kind of event, which when it comes (and being unaware of the actual events depicted) still leaves you slack jawed and unprepared. A great piece of cinema, almost a perfect combination of Bennett's previous strengths, and a great opportunity for a few perhaps type-cast actors to break out of their usual roles.
8 Wrestling is such an easy target for Homoerotic Subtext out of 10 (GREAT)
Godzilla (2014)
Godzilla (PG-13) - Review
"You have a right to know!"
When Giant Radioactive Monsters devastate the East and West Pacific Rim, where does humanity turn to rescue it from the threat? Why none other than the King of Monsters, Godzilla, a prehistoric mutant of enormous proportions whose only rhyme or reason is wrestling with other nuclear fueled tyrants.
Finally washing away the stink of Emmerich's unwise 1998 version, Godzilla 2014 stays almost too true to the Japanese Kaiju mythos as it combines an authentic Godzilla movie elevated above the man-in-rubber-suit constraints of the Toho regime thanks to Hollywood blockbuster status. While it doesn't all add up to perfection and may not please everyone, long term Godzilla fans can breath a collective radioactive sigh of relief at this solidly entertaining outing.
The beginning of the film is almost a retcon of 1999s version, finding a scientific team headed by Ken Watanabe in the Philippines discovering ancient enormous fossils (the bones of a Godzilla relative and a pair of it's parasites). A short time later, the family of Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) faces tragedy when the Japanese Nuclear Power Plant he works for melts down under mysterious circumstances. 15 years later and his son (Aaron Taylor Johnson from Kick Ass) must plunge back into the monstrous mystery as he plays a crucial role in the epic events unfolding, this time on US soil. His family and country try to survive the epic clash as Monsters once again roam the Earth.
The film is at its heart an epic-level human disaster movie and derives its terror from references to both the 2011 Fukushima reactor explosion and the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami tragedy. Human life is a frail thing compared to these ancient primordial life forms who can swat us aside like gnats, feed off our worst radioactive bi-products and wrestle 50 stories above us. When the final confrontation occurs (and be patient it does occur), a San Francisco leveling brawl takes place with us tiny humans scrambling to save as many of ourselves as possible. Director Gareth Edwards excels, previously made the full-of-potential low budget indie film "Monsters", and here he is liberated from his penny pinching but not from the groundings of simple entertainment desires.
The American touches are mostly complementary. The film's audio design is outstanding and yet referential to the originals, the score is perfectly dark and smokey (so happy to have a touch of Requiem from 2001 ASO in there), the monsters look and feel very traditional to the old Toho design and yet without its cartoonishness or lack of mass. There is a moment in the film where pudgy CGI Godzilla looks into the camera and lets out one long continuous roar that goes on for much longer than is comfortable, announcing his intentions to finally kick monster ass. It is a delightfully self aware touch to a movie that for most people just needs to be about giant rubber monsters flailing about, and that is perhaps where it falls shortest. There are many instances of teasing the audience ala Cloverfield, cutting away from Monster action in an effort to prolong tension (something the Japanese could never be accused of). It delays and delays until it can't delay any further and must allow the beasts full screen mayhem. While moderately successful at creating anticipation, the technique may leave some audiences feeling slighted leaving as it does most of the action in the hands of its human actors. However, the humans having a larger role than anticipated is a staple of most Japanese Godzilla films and can be forgiven, and if only the filmmakers had found some wonderful middle ground between featuring humans/monsters then this could have been the perfect Godzilla. In fact the entire film reads like a Godzilla fans almost wet dream, with all the military "toys" and their dumb as a rock military plans, all the small children in peril, without the need to get gory or talk down to its audience. It all adds up to a Godzilla that we have never seen before, with an Indy sensibility behind the camera and an efficient intelligence behind its script, leaving us with an experience that is an uninterrupted echo of monsters through a darkened theater, reverberating off the ruined skyscrapers and felt curtains as they grind civilization to dust in their lumbering awake.
8 Godjira's out of 10 (GREAT)
"You have a right to know!"
When Giant Radioactive Monsters devastate the East and West Pacific Rim, where does humanity turn to rescue it from the threat? Why none other than the King of Monsters, Godzilla, a prehistoric mutant of enormous proportions whose only rhyme or reason is wrestling with other nuclear fueled tyrants.
Finally washing away the stink of Emmerich's unwise 1998 version, Godzilla 2014 stays almost too true to the Japanese Kaiju mythos as it combines an authentic Godzilla movie elevated above the man-in-rubber-suit constraints of the Toho regime thanks to Hollywood blockbuster status. While it doesn't all add up to perfection and may not please everyone, long term Godzilla fans can breath a collective radioactive sigh of relief at this solidly entertaining outing.
The beginning of the film is almost a retcon of 1999s version, finding a scientific team headed by Ken Watanabe in the Philippines discovering ancient enormous fossils (the bones of a Godzilla relative and a pair of it's parasites). A short time later, the family of Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) faces tragedy when the Japanese Nuclear Power Plant he works for melts down under mysterious circumstances. 15 years later and his son (Aaron Taylor Johnson from Kick Ass) must plunge back into the monstrous mystery as he plays a crucial role in the epic events unfolding, this time on US soil. His family and country try to survive the epic clash as Monsters once again roam the Earth.
The film is at its heart an epic-level human disaster movie and derives its terror from references to both the 2011 Fukushima reactor explosion and the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami tragedy. Human life is a frail thing compared to these ancient primordial life forms who can swat us aside like gnats, feed off our worst radioactive bi-products and wrestle 50 stories above us. When the final confrontation occurs (and be patient it does occur), a San Francisco leveling brawl takes place with us tiny humans scrambling to save as many of ourselves as possible. Director Gareth Edwards excels, previously made the full-of-potential low budget indie film "Monsters", and here he is liberated from his penny pinching but not from the groundings of simple entertainment desires.
The American touches are mostly complementary. The film's audio design is outstanding and yet referential to the originals, the score is perfectly dark and smokey (so happy to have a touch of Requiem from 2001 ASO in there), the monsters look and feel very traditional to the old Toho design and yet without its cartoonishness or lack of mass. There is a moment in the film where pudgy CGI Godzilla looks into the camera and lets out one long continuous roar that goes on for much longer than is comfortable, announcing his intentions to finally kick monster ass. It is a delightfully self aware touch to a movie that for most people just needs to be about giant rubber monsters flailing about, and that is perhaps where it falls shortest. There are many instances of teasing the audience ala Cloverfield, cutting away from Monster action in an effort to prolong tension (something the Japanese could never be accused of). It delays and delays until it can't delay any further and must allow the beasts full screen mayhem. While moderately successful at creating anticipation, the technique may leave some audiences feeling slighted leaving as it does most of the action in the hands of its human actors. However, the humans having a larger role than anticipated is a staple of most Japanese Godzilla films and can be forgiven, and if only the filmmakers had found some wonderful middle ground between featuring humans/monsters then this could have been the perfect Godzilla. In fact the entire film reads like a Godzilla fans almost wet dream, with all the military "toys" and their dumb as a rock military plans, all the small children in peril, without the need to get gory or talk down to its audience. It all adds up to a Godzilla that we have never seen before, with an Indy sensibility behind the camera and an efficient intelligence behind its script, leaving us with an experience that is an uninterrupted echo of monsters through a darkened theater, reverberating off the ruined skyscrapers and felt curtains as they grind civilization to dust in their lumbering awake.
8 Godjira's out of 10 (GREAT)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (PG-13) Review
"A-Head of the Class"
The Marvel Studios again outshine their Comic Book film brethren by churning out an astonishingly entertaining and action packed movie starring one of its squarest Super Heroes, Captain America. Not only must Cap and his SHIELD cohorts once again battle the corruptive forces of Hydra but also their own shadowy pasts in this much improved sequel.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is already overflowing with success, an achievement all the more impressive in that it is still arguably without its most famous licenses (rival Studios all hold the reigns for Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the X-Men). Yet, here is Captain America, well-known and respected Nazi-Smasher from the 40's succeeding beyond all reasonable expectations in our here and now (both on and off the screen). A man who wears a big capital "A" in the middle of his forehead as a fashion statement has no business being accepted in today's fickle pop culture. But here is the Big Blue Bomber, with his creaky old stoicism and unfashionable patriotism, embraced as a genuine Box Office Blockbuster and the true American hero he's always been. Epic explosions, spy movie tropes, hand to hand combat combine with non-stereotypical Ethnic characters and a compassionate touch on PTSD and the brotherhood of soldiers, this is one amazingly accessible, yet progressive American film.
Disappointing as it is to lose the original source's Cold War era Russia origins or to saddle Cap with an overpowered Black Widow (who is apparently the only female willing to cross franchise lines to add unnecessary sex appeal to any Male driven MarvelU film), if the constant fighting and shield flinging all kind of look the same by the end of its 2+ hours, if the politics are very conveniently pro-Snowden/post-Anon when the past entries were all pro-PatriotAct/post-911, well we can still all sigh a big sigh of relief that Disney hasn't muddled the waters and have let Marvel do what Marvel does best. Envelop into their stories a tapestry of current events while a multitude of different writers preserve its diverse history and mythology. Oh, and give Stan Lee a line or two in every film. Excelsior!
8 Unexplained Big Red Stars out of 10 (GREAT)
"A-Head of the Class"
The Marvel Studios again outshine their Comic Book film brethren by churning out an astonishingly entertaining and action packed movie starring one of its squarest Super Heroes, Captain America. Not only must Cap and his SHIELD cohorts once again battle the corruptive forces of Hydra but also their own shadowy pasts in this much improved sequel.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is already overflowing with success, an achievement all the more impressive in that it is still arguably without its most famous licenses (rival Studios all hold the reigns for Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the X-Men). Yet, here is Captain America, well-known and respected Nazi-Smasher from the 40's succeeding beyond all reasonable expectations in our here and now (both on and off the screen). A man who wears a big capital "A" in the middle of his forehead as a fashion statement has no business being accepted in today's fickle pop culture. But here is the Big Blue Bomber, with his creaky old stoicism and unfashionable patriotism, embraced as a genuine Box Office Blockbuster and the true American hero he's always been. Epic explosions, spy movie tropes, hand to hand combat combine with non-stereotypical Ethnic characters and a compassionate touch on PTSD and the brotherhood of soldiers, this is one amazingly accessible, yet progressive American film.
Disappointing as it is to lose the original source's Cold War era Russia origins or to saddle Cap with an overpowered Black Widow (who is apparently the only female willing to cross franchise lines to add unnecessary sex appeal to any Male driven MarvelU film), if the constant fighting and shield flinging all kind of look the same by the end of its 2+ hours, if the politics are very conveniently pro-Snowden/post-Anon when the past entries were all pro-PatriotAct/post-911, well we can still all sigh a big sigh of relief that Disney hasn't muddled the waters and have let Marvel do what Marvel does best. Envelop into their stories a tapestry of current events while a multitude of different writers preserve its diverse history and mythology. Oh, and give Stan Lee a line or two in every film. Excelsior!
8 Unexplained Big Red Stars out of 10 (GREAT)
Whiplash (2014)
Whiplash (R)
"Not my TEMPO! &$#!"
A young man enrolled in one of the most prestigious New York music Conservatories gets a chance to play in the advanced Jazz Studio Band where he runs afoul of the classes passionate yet profane director whose manic drive for perfection leads his students towards obsession and revenge in Director Damien Chazelle's semi-autobiographical account of competitive musicianship on the edge.
J.K Simmons of Spider-Man fame bellows through the film as Fletcher, the driven teacher who uses intimidation and physical abuse to find the next Buddy Riches. His student is the lead, Miles Teller as the drummer who is so intent on hitting it big on the drums that he breaks up with his new girlfriend and alienates his family for more blistering practice time. The staccato editing compliments the beautifully dark photography, the music is complimented by a fantastic live sound to the audio that moves about the room. The story is as straight as a drum stick, but it keeps your palms sweaty with an incredible sense of anxiety and dread that Simmon's Fletcher emanates past the screen into your psyche. Tension mounts and mounts, releases then mounts again as the ebb and flow of their mutual percussive obsession rattles on, leading to one of the best endings to a film in years. Revenge and rimshots, passions and profanity, Whiplash lives up to it's name and reputation with gonzo repetition making it one of 2014's best films. It's all the more delightful for it's low budget brilliance, like a genius drum solo on a street corner with a plastic bucket.
8.5 Don't Forget your Sticks out of 10 (GREAT)
"Not my TEMPO! &$#!"
A young man enrolled in one of the most prestigious New York music Conservatories gets a chance to play in the advanced Jazz Studio Band where he runs afoul of the classes passionate yet profane director whose manic drive for perfection leads his students towards obsession and revenge in Director Damien Chazelle's semi-autobiographical account of competitive musicianship on the edge.
J.K Simmons of Spider-Man fame bellows through the film as Fletcher, the driven teacher who uses intimidation and physical abuse to find the next Buddy Riches. His student is the lead, Miles Teller as the drummer who is so intent on hitting it big on the drums that he breaks up with his new girlfriend and alienates his family for more blistering practice time. The staccato editing compliments the beautifully dark photography, the music is complimented by a fantastic live sound to the audio that moves about the room. The story is as straight as a drum stick, but it keeps your palms sweaty with an incredible sense of anxiety and dread that Simmon's Fletcher emanates past the screen into your psyche. Tension mounts and mounts, releases then mounts again as the ebb and flow of their mutual percussive obsession rattles on, leading to one of the best endings to a film in years. Revenge and rimshots, passions and profanity, Whiplash lives up to it's name and reputation with gonzo repetition making it one of 2014's best films. It's all the more delightful for it's low budget brilliance, like a genius drum solo on a street corner with a plastic bucket.
8.5 Don't Forget your Sticks out of 10 (GREAT)
The Box Trolls (2014)
The Box Trolls (PG)
"A Box on ye!"
An orphaned boy finds himself and his adopted family of carton dwelling monsters imperiled by a cross-dressing villain who will stop at nothing in exterminating them and obtaining a white hat from the Flemish town's cheese swilling aristocracy in Laika Studio's newest (and most eccentric) stop-motion film entry yet, The Box Trolls.
Firstly it is shocking how underrated this film is. It was truly deserving of it's Oscar nomination and in fact probably deserved to win. The artistry and hard work is apparent in every frame (in fact probably every frame took three times more effort than people suppose). There is some digital manipulation, some compositing and such, but on the whole the entirety of the film was made and moved by hand in the traditional manner. The story is mostly nontraditional unmodern (probably leading to some of the general gripes surrounding the film). There is a touch of Monty Python infused in it's comedic bones (Eric Idle even wrote the title song), with some funny sight gags and charming gross outs the likes of which haven't been seen since Shrek. So what's not to love?
Ok, so the moral of the tale is certainly tried and true drivel, but the design of the characters certainly is not and should be applauded for its originality, darkness and uniqueness. The story crawls from the sewers like a Dickensian treat, and how long has it been since a film rubbed elbows with old Charles? The movie's redhatted exterminator Snatcher and his discontented helpers (played with enormous fun by Sir Ben Kingsley, Nick Frost, Richard Ayode and Tracy Morgan of all people) are nuanced and pithy. The heroes suffer (if anything) from a case of the "dulls in comparison". The orphan kid, the bratty kid, her ignorant father, his mad genius father; on paper they seem ho hum. But in motion (and this motion being 1 frame at a time, arduously moved by hand over and over for days at a time) it all works wonderfully. The voice cast (exceptional), the art (uniquely beautiful), the animation (smooth and obviously masterful), the sets (huge and varied); this movie's charm doesn't rely on cute and snuggly critters with big eyes. Here the world's dark and scary underbelly is wonderfully exposed and yet palatable to children and adults (much like the twisted fairy tales that Tim Burton once was interested in making).
Unique almost to a fault (at least to the mainstream), the Box Trolls and it's studio Laika is like one of those fancy, expensive and disgusting cheeses. It may be an acquired taste, but the pleasure when you obtain the ability to savor it's unique bouquet is worth the effort (yours and theirs).
8.5 Barbershop Mustaches out of 10 (GREAT)
"A Box on ye!"
An orphaned boy finds himself and his adopted family of carton dwelling monsters imperiled by a cross-dressing villain who will stop at nothing in exterminating them and obtaining a white hat from the Flemish town's cheese swilling aristocracy in Laika Studio's newest (and most eccentric) stop-motion film entry yet, The Box Trolls.
Firstly it is shocking how underrated this film is. It was truly deserving of it's Oscar nomination and in fact probably deserved to win. The artistry and hard work is apparent in every frame (in fact probably every frame took three times more effort than people suppose). There is some digital manipulation, some compositing and such, but on the whole the entirety of the film was made and moved by hand in the traditional manner. The story is mostly nontraditional unmodern (probably leading to some of the general gripes surrounding the film). There is a touch of Monty Python infused in it's comedic bones (Eric Idle even wrote the title song), with some funny sight gags and charming gross outs the likes of which haven't been seen since Shrek. So what's not to love?
Ok, so the moral of the tale is certainly tried and true drivel, but the design of the characters certainly is not and should be applauded for its originality, darkness and uniqueness. The story crawls from the sewers like a Dickensian treat, and how long has it been since a film rubbed elbows with old Charles? The movie's redhatted exterminator Snatcher and his discontented helpers (played with enormous fun by Sir Ben Kingsley, Nick Frost, Richard Ayode and Tracy Morgan of all people) are nuanced and pithy. The heroes suffer (if anything) from a case of the "dulls in comparison". The orphan kid, the bratty kid, her ignorant father, his mad genius father; on paper they seem ho hum. But in motion (and this motion being 1 frame at a time, arduously moved by hand over and over for days at a time) it all works wonderfully. The voice cast (exceptional), the art (uniquely beautiful), the animation (smooth and obviously masterful), the sets (huge and varied); this movie's charm doesn't rely on cute and snuggly critters with big eyes. Here the world's dark and scary underbelly is wonderfully exposed and yet palatable to children and adults (much like the twisted fairy tales that Tim Burton once was interested in making).
Unique almost to a fault (at least to the mainstream), the Box Trolls and it's studio Laika is like one of those fancy, expensive and disgusting cheeses. It may be an acquired taste, but the pleasure when you obtain the ability to savor it's unique bouquet is worth the effort (yours and theirs).
8.5 Barbershop Mustaches out of 10 (GREAT)
Nebraska (2013)
Nebraska (R) - Review
"Drive, He Said"
An elderly father by the name of Woody Grant, who is either on the verge of absolute dementia or just plain rotten stubbornness, receives a letter in the mail that he has won a million dollars and becomes enamored of the idea. Despite his family's warnings and condemnations about the fraudulent letter he is resolute to get to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim his prize, even if he has to walk the whole way from Montana. Only his youngest son David is willing to give in and drive him, and thus begins a long overdue bonding over the road and a couple of beers. But when his old home town and extended family hear of his new found fortune, old friends and foes have a thing or two to say to the Grant family.
Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Sideways) makes another bid for Oscar gold with this fabulously small yet heartfelt Midwestern comedy that, like it's protagonist Woody, doesn't have a mean bone in it's body. Bruce Dern plays the old codger Woody with mesmerizing genuineness. The veteran actor's face is a mask of disheveled hair and confused expression, but whether its senility or just old plain orneriness is one of the many things to be discovered here in Dern's Oscar Oscar caliber portrayal. Woody's opinion about Mount Rushmore? "Just a bunch of unfinished rocks. Only one that has any clothes is Warsh-ington," This type of humor works in mysterious ways, is family friendly (except for one needed F-bomb that probably earned Nebraska it's R), and is very welcome. David, his son, is nicely downplayed by SNL alumni Will Forte (thankfully without all his usually stuttering or gaffing). David wishes to spend more time with his father, and along the way he really gets to know the man his father is, where he came from and who he wants to be.
That is Nebraska's true joy, that of organic discovery of a person, the shifting of opinion over time. This is most noticeable in the script with Woody's wife, at first shes seen as an abrasive shrew that he constantly complains about (with apparent due cause), and yet as the film goes on we get to know her as truly caring for and protecting Woody (she's just believes in tough love). It shows a grand mastery of screen time and it wraps itself around nearly all the characters, even those redneck yokels that must surely appear in any small town America film. It is a pure delight to have it come off so natural and unforced and still maintain reality (which is almost solely due to Dern's amazing performance) something I could not say for The Descendants.
Filmed in a delicious black and white, the film is an old family photo album filled with images and stories that no one ever bothered to explain. Now opened it's bursting with photos of half remembered faces and names just on the tip of your tongue (better ask Mom), but when it all comes rushing back there is that priceless warm feeling of remembrance, of family.
8.5 Lincoln's Ears out of 10 (GREAT)
"Drive, He Said"
An elderly father by the name of Woody Grant, who is either on the verge of absolute dementia or just plain rotten stubbornness, receives a letter in the mail that he has won a million dollars and becomes enamored of the idea. Despite his family's warnings and condemnations about the fraudulent letter he is resolute to get to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim his prize, even if he has to walk the whole way from Montana. Only his youngest son David is willing to give in and drive him, and thus begins a long overdue bonding over the road and a couple of beers. But when his old home town and extended family hear of his new found fortune, old friends and foes have a thing or two to say to the Grant family.
Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Sideways) makes another bid for Oscar gold with this fabulously small yet heartfelt Midwestern comedy that, like it's protagonist Woody, doesn't have a mean bone in it's body. Bruce Dern plays the old codger Woody with mesmerizing genuineness. The veteran actor's face is a mask of disheveled hair and confused expression, but whether its senility or just old plain orneriness is one of the many things to be discovered here in Dern's Oscar Oscar caliber portrayal. Woody's opinion about Mount Rushmore? "Just a bunch of unfinished rocks. Only one that has any clothes is Warsh-ington," This type of humor works in mysterious ways, is family friendly (except for one needed F-bomb that probably earned Nebraska it's R), and is very welcome. David, his son, is nicely downplayed by SNL alumni Will Forte (thankfully without all his usually stuttering or gaffing). David wishes to spend more time with his father, and along the way he really gets to know the man his father is, where he came from and who he wants to be.
That is Nebraska's true joy, that of organic discovery of a person, the shifting of opinion over time. This is most noticeable in the script with Woody's wife, at first shes seen as an abrasive shrew that he constantly complains about (with apparent due cause), and yet as the film goes on we get to know her as truly caring for and protecting Woody (she's just believes in tough love). It shows a grand mastery of screen time and it wraps itself around nearly all the characters, even those redneck yokels that must surely appear in any small town America film. It is a pure delight to have it come off so natural and unforced and still maintain reality (which is almost solely due to Dern's amazing performance) something I could not say for The Descendants.
Filmed in a delicious black and white, the film is an old family photo album filled with images and stories that no one ever bothered to explain. Now opened it's bursting with photos of half remembered faces and names just on the tip of your tongue (better ask Mom), but when it all comes rushing back there is that priceless warm feeling of remembrance, of family.
8.5 Lincoln's Ears out of 10 (GREAT)
Gravity (2013)
Gravity (PG-13) - Review
"In Space no one can hear you squeam"
On a mission to repair the Hubble Space telescope, dashing veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and civilian medical engineer Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) must overcome the dangers of the laws of physics in the vaccum of space as they try to survive a collision with space debris and must cling to each other for support as they freefall hundreds of miles above the planet.
Director Alfonso Cuaron (who also directed the superbly crafted Children of Men) revels in the 3D medium, producing his trademarked lengthy shots that zoom in and out of the scenes as the characters attempt to cling to their lives high above mother Earth. The acting is obviously upper echelon, though this is a role that Clooney can and does float through without batting a baby blue. Bullock's Ryan is the vulnerable one here, she is barely trained and has emotional baggage stemming from the death of her only child. However, in a nod to a genuine staple of Sci-Fi heroinism, she takes little time in stripping to her underwear and bettering her male peers as she returns to the womb of weightlessness. This is her story, a fantastic yet mostly realistic horror-in-space tale that will leave you reeling again and again as she spins, drops, floats, flails and burns her way forward in an attempt to escape. Hopefully your sense of vertigo is up to the task of watching.
The pace is one of the best to be seen on the silver screen, the swelling of soundtrack music often standing in for the lack of sound effects that are the mark of the attempt of true science fiction. However, it must be said that Gravity features as much (if not more) CGI than Life of Pi, and like that film about a character surviving in an inhospitable environment with only themselves to depend on, it fills the frame with the uncanny valley, that sensation that nothing you are seeing is quite real. The astronauts look to be mere floating faces on computer generated bodies, going about their tasks while the materials and animations of their suits never look quite solidified and real. The telescopic 3D use is excellent, but also highlights the overall fad of the medium. Cuaron has fashioned a wonderfully crowd pleasing treat and the 3D is so well used it mostly fades into the background and brings you, in a darkened theater where it is most effective, closer to the danger. Yet how many great artists have been able to do that, and how many have the talent or the ability to make the next (or have made one that compares to) Gravity? In the many years of 3D film making there have not been any, and doubtless few more as home/mobile media continues to overtake the theatrical market.
The plot sometimes careens into the obvious, but that's ok as snappy references to Dark Star twang by and Sandra scrambles on another space platform fraught with peril. Its the best constantly on the edge of your seat SciFi film since The Abyss and the best film about space survival since Apollo 13 or 2001 A Space Odyssey. There no overt political agendas or themes to be had here, just pure high altitude entertainment with a pleasantly adroit message of "it's not enough just to survive, you have to live". That's something us Terrans can always hear more of.
8.5 Dreamy Clooneys out of 10 (GREAT)
"In Space no one can hear you squeam"
On a mission to repair the Hubble Space telescope, dashing veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and civilian medical engineer Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) must overcome the dangers of the laws of physics in the vaccum of space as they try to survive a collision with space debris and must cling to each other for support as they freefall hundreds of miles above the planet.
Director Alfonso Cuaron (who also directed the superbly crafted Children of Men) revels in the 3D medium, producing his trademarked lengthy shots that zoom in and out of the scenes as the characters attempt to cling to their lives high above mother Earth. The acting is obviously upper echelon, though this is a role that Clooney can and does float through without batting a baby blue. Bullock's Ryan is the vulnerable one here, she is barely trained and has emotional baggage stemming from the death of her only child. However, in a nod to a genuine staple of Sci-Fi heroinism, she takes little time in stripping to her underwear and bettering her male peers as she returns to the womb of weightlessness. This is her story, a fantastic yet mostly realistic horror-in-space tale that will leave you reeling again and again as she spins, drops, floats, flails and burns her way forward in an attempt to escape. Hopefully your sense of vertigo is up to the task of watching.
The pace is one of the best to be seen on the silver screen, the swelling of soundtrack music often standing in for the lack of sound effects that are the mark of the attempt of true science fiction. However, it must be said that Gravity features as much (if not more) CGI than Life of Pi, and like that film about a character surviving in an inhospitable environment with only themselves to depend on, it fills the frame with the uncanny valley, that sensation that nothing you are seeing is quite real. The astronauts look to be mere floating faces on computer generated bodies, going about their tasks while the materials and animations of their suits never look quite solidified and real. The telescopic 3D use is excellent, but also highlights the overall fad of the medium. Cuaron has fashioned a wonderfully crowd pleasing treat and the 3D is so well used it mostly fades into the background and brings you, in a darkened theater where it is most effective, closer to the danger. Yet how many great artists have been able to do that, and how many have the talent or the ability to make the next (or have made one that compares to) Gravity? In the many years of 3D film making there have not been any, and doubtless few more as home/mobile media continues to overtake the theatrical market.
The plot sometimes careens into the obvious, but that's ok as snappy references to Dark Star twang by and Sandra scrambles on another space platform fraught with peril. Its the best constantly on the edge of your seat SciFi film since The Abyss and the best film about space survival since Apollo 13 or 2001 A Space Odyssey. There no overt political agendas or themes to be had here, just pure high altitude entertainment with a pleasantly adroit message of "it's not enough just to survive, you have to live". That's something us Terrans can always hear more of.
8.5 Dreamy Clooneys out of 10 (GREAT)
Behind the Candelabra (2013)
Behind the Candelabra (UR)
"Such a Nice Boy"
Telling the unique story of Scott Thorson, Liberache's secret live-in lover and adopted son, Behind the Candelbra takes us past the sequins and gold plating to the gay men who dominated Las Vegas entertainment while suing anyone who tried to out them as they gallivanted through the American pop culture subconscious.
Played with amazing versatility by Michael Douglas (The Game), Liberace struts and croons and tickles the ivories without distracting or disparaging the king of bling. Matt Damon is the new man in his life Scott, an adopted son with a shaky orphan upbringing who is brought into the glitz and glamour and storm that is living with Liberace. The film is based on Thorson's autobiography, apparently with enough details to make the Marquis de Sade blush. Nothing is out of bounds for the two actors as they explore their onscreen tumultuous affair, further fueled by unlimited wealth, all brought together by the "retiring" director Steven Soderberg (Ocean's Eleven) who brings his cool technical head to bear with delicious exactitude. Apparently too hot for cineplexes, HBO picked it up to much acclaim, and the rich, textured lives of a closeted homosexual virtuoso and his exploited/exploitative ex-son/ex-chauffeur/ex-lover is handled with class while still retaining reality. The three of them (Damon, Douglas and Soderberg) each make up a glittering candlestick of the Candelabra, illuminating the dark of unknown lives forced to live in the shadows despite their world-wide fame.
8 How many Man Butts to get an R out of 10 (GREAT)
"Such a Nice Boy"
Telling the unique story of Scott Thorson, Liberache's secret live-in lover and adopted son, Behind the Candelbra takes us past the sequins and gold plating to the gay men who dominated Las Vegas entertainment while suing anyone who tried to out them as they gallivanted through the American pop culture subconscious.
Played with amazing versatility by Michael Douglas (The Game), Liberace struts and croons and tickles the ivories without distracting or disparaging the king of bling. Matt Damon is the new man in his life Scott, an adopted son with a shaky orphan upbringing who is brought into the glitz and glamour and storm that is living with Liberace. The film is based on Thorson's autobiography, apparently with enough details to make the Marquis de Sade blush. Nothing is out of bounds for the two actors as they explore their onscreen tumultuous affair, further fueled by unlimited wealth, all brought together by the "retiring" director Steven Soderberg (Ocean's Eleven) who brings his cool technical head to bear with delicious exactitude. Apparently too hot for cineplexes, HBO picked it up to much acclaim, and the rich, textured lives of a closeted homosexual virtuoso and his exploited/exploitative ex-son/ex-chauffeur/ex-lover is handled with class while still retaining reality. The three of them (Damon, Douglas and Soderberg) each make up a glittering candlestick of the Candelabra, illuminating the dark of unknown lives forced to live in the shadows despite their world-wide fame.
8 How many Man Butts to get an R out of 10 (GREAT)
Her (2013)
Her (R) - Review
"Would you like to play a game?"
A man in the near-future who is still in the depths of despair over his divorce receives a new lease on life when he upgrades the OS of his software to an sentient AI program that quickly wins him over and they begin to date. This glimpse into the madness of up and coming technology and dating is brought by master unique story teller Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) with a wit and wisdom and nary a finger wagging to be found.
He (Ted) is played nervously by Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), and his sad puppy dog eyes and back in fashion mustache drip with heart ache and confusion. Her (Samantha's) voice is provided by Scarlett Johansson (Ghost World), and provides a breathy sexiness to the disembodied character. While being a cleverly designed sci-fi utopia with a just-changed-enough fashion sense and beautiful lighting schemes, the actual content is that of a dystopian nightmare of emotions, running the gamut through the male mind of rebound sex to unwise romantic choices. The Science Fiction is in truth Science fact and an analog for the world we already live in, where people marry Video Game characters and sext complete strangers and flame war anonymously on the internet. It is a subtle knife lof experience that is wielded here by Jonze, and the keen edge of satire bites true as he commits a beautiful ritual of onscreen emotional hari-kari for our own amusement and haunting dread.
To nitpick such a genuine film would be like picking apart the looks of a ravishing natural beauty, but some may have qualms with its male-centric dating perspective (though it should be seen as refreshing among the standard brain-dead female romcoms), and the future has the rosiest of glasses fixed firmly upon its face (there is nary a scent of terrorism or natural disasters whiffed in the background). Like the classic Hollywood romantic stories of the 30s and 40s, Her is also just about characters their relationships (digitally updated) and you will excuse a little virtual cheesecloth on the lens during the closeups, its all apart of the style you see. Everything in the future is coming up aces, except for actual human interactions and relations, as technology evolves faster than we can.
In Her's world, people pay companies to write their very personal hand written correspondence for them, for it is men like Ted, experts at emotional connection and wordsmithing, who do it better anyway. This too-much intimacy with technology and efficiency is the movie's real true target, it aches with the love of tech and is full of dread of its resulting inhumanity and anti-social behavior. The ending is perfect yet inevitable, for the poets and prose throughout the centuries tell of men like Ted and women like Samantha. Except here it is romantically lit by the screens of smartphones instead of the classic table side candelabra. And instead of looking into each others eyes, our couple stare into the glowing abyss of their news feeds, their food growing stale and cold as the twinkling of their smartphone's camera lens becomes the only evidence of their love in the darkening gloom.
8 Tailored High Pants out of 10 (GREAT)
"Would you like to play a game?"
A man in the near-future who is still in the depths of despair over his divorce receives a new lease on life when he upgrades the OS of his software to an sentient AI program that quickly wins him over and they begin to date. This glimpse into the madness of up and coming technology and dating is brought by master unique story teller Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) with a wit and wisdom and nary a finger wagging to be found.
He (Ted) is played nervously by Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), and his sad puppy dog eyes and back in fashion mustache drip with heart ache and confusion. Her (Samantha's) voice is provided by Scarlett Johansson (Ghost World), and provides a breathy sexiness to the disembodied character. While being a cleverly designed sci-fi utopia with a just-changed-enough fashion sense and beautiful lighting schemes, the actual content is that of a dystopian nightmare of emotions, running the gamut through the male mind of rebound sex to unwise romantic choices. The Science Fiction is in truth Science fact and an analog for the world we already live in, where people marry Video Game characters and sext complete strangers and flame war anonymously on the internet. It is a subtle knife lof experience that is wielded here by Jonze, and the keen edge of satire bites true as he commits a beautiful ritual of onscreen emotional hari-kari for our own amusement and haunting dread.
To nitpick such a genuine film would be like picking apart the looks of a ravishing natural beauty, but some may have qualms with its male-centric dating perspective (though it should be seen as refreshing among the standard brain-dead female romcoms), and the future has the rosiest of glasses fixed firmly upon its face (there is nary a scent of terrorism or natural disasters whiffed in the background). Like the classic Hollywood romantic stories of the 30s and 40s, Her is also just about characters their relationships (digitally updated) and you will excuse a little virtual cheesecloth on the lens during the closeups, its all apart of the style you see. Everything in the future is coming up aces, except for actual human interactions and relations, as technology evolves faster than we can.
In Her's world, people pay companies to write their very personal hand written correspondence for them, for it is men like Ted, experts at emotional connection and wordsmithing, who do it better anyway. This too-much intimacy with technology and efficiency is the movie's real true target, it aches with the love of tech and is full of dread of its resulting inhumanity and anti-social behavior. The ending is perfect yet inevitable, for the poets and prose throughout the centuries tell of men like Ted and women like Samantha. Except here it is romantically lit by the screens of smartphones instead of the classic table side candelabra. And instead of looking into each others eyes, our couple stare into the glowing abyss of their news feeds, their food growing stale and cold as the twinkling of their smartphone's camera lens becomes the only evidence of their love in the darkening gloom.
8 Tailored High Pants out of 10 (GREAT)
Upstream Color (2013)
Upstream Color (NR) - Review
"Each drink is better than the last"
A woman forced to take a parasitic worm finds herself under the physical and mental control of a robber who takes her for all she is worth. Years later, after surviving the ordeal she still finds her life in pieces, but upon meeting a mutual survivor a relationship is created with him that both contributes to and solves the mystery of what they have lived through in this year's most devestatingly enrapting yet intellectually difficult film.
Written, Directed and Starring Shane Carruth, the creator of the even more challenging and diamond in the rough film "Primer (2004), Upstream Color is engrossing in its sounds, visuals and philosophies. It does not shy from human compassion, human violence, Earthly beauty and natural savageness. There are flavors of Terrance Mallick here, of Croenenberg or Lynch, yet with a scientifically analytical mind so present in his films and yet with a clarity of structure that was lacking in Primer which made that film both more mysterious and harder to follow for lay people.
But make no mistake, Color is also mind dredging, with its musical and sonic landscapes milking your psyche for moods and superbly lowbudget use of a short field of focus cinematography creating a dreamscape and juxtoposition of both our natural lives and proclivities and the ones that society has yoked us with. Luckily the film is highly subjective, and an enriching experience can be had by all viewers. Perhaps the more you think about UC the more you get out of it, much like Primer before it; except without the dry science fiction, but real human (and inter species) relationships.
8.5 Huggable Pigs out of 10 (GREAT)
"Each drink is better than the last"
A woman forced to take a parasitic worm finds herself under the physical and mental control of a robber who takes her for all she is worth. Years later, after surviving the ordeal she still finds her life in pieces, but upon meeting a mutual survivor a relationship is created with him that both contributes to and solves the mystery of what they have lived through in this year's most devestatingly enrapting yet intellectually difficult film.
Written, Directed and Starring Shane Carruth, the creator of the even more challenging and diamond in the rough film "Primer (2004), Upstream Color is engrossing in its sounds, visuals and philosophies. It does not shy from human compassion, human violence, Earthly beauty and natural savageness. There are flavors of Terrance Mallick here, of Croenenberg or Lynch, yet with a scientifically analytical mind so present in his films and yet with a clarity of structure that was lacking in Primer which made that film both more mysterious and harder to follow for lay people.
But make no mistake, Color is also mind dredging, with its musical and sonic landscapes milking your psyche for moods and superbly lowbudget use of a short field of focus cinematography creating a dreamscape and juxtoposition of both our natural lives and proclivities and the ones that society has yoked us with. Luckily the film is highly subjective, and an enriching experience can be had by all viewers. Perhaps the more you think about UC the more you get out of it, much like Primer before it; except without the dry science fiction, but real human (and inter species) relationships.
8.5 Huggable Pigs out of 10 (GREAT)
Side Effects (2013)
Side Effects (R) - Review
"A pharmacological thriller"
When a young married woman whose life has been turned upside down is involved in a possible suicide attempt, her new psychiatrist perscribes the latest anti-depressant on the market, with murderous results.
Director Steve Soderbergh's (Ocean 11) newest and possible final Hollywood film before retirement finds him in rare form. Rooney Mara (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) is the gal, Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street) is her just released from prison for blue collar crime husband. Jude Law (Contagion) is her overworked psychiatrist while Catherine Zeta-Jones (Traffic) is her former doctor and consulting physician. Its a twisted, knotted thriller in a Hitchcockian vein about human nature, capitalism and how we allow the pharmaceutical industry to change it and our bodies.
The film looks great and slick like most of Steven's productions. There are no car chases, no action sequences and unlike his previous effort Contagion (which tried just a bit too much with too little to work on), the simple shooting style and budget won't detract from being immersed in a fantastic script and great acting.
It has you second guessing motivations, seeking the truth along with the good doctor who ends up on the wrong end of a media firestorm after his past, patients, lifestyles and medical advice are put to question. Surprisingly the movie's motives are not an obvious drubbing of the medication age and its practices; instead that is a subtly slow IV drip in the background to feed and intensify the deadly tension (wrung masterfully out of the material by Soderbergh). The modern drug culture is the oily swamp these character's world floats on top of, a vast expanse of frightening consequences that they mire through without thought. Call it "Pill Noir",
(Side Effects may be too slow for some audiences, please consult your inner critic. An increased risk of entertainment and smart writing may lead to confusion or questions about who the viewer should be rooting for. Sudden unexpected loss of a character may occur at any time, if you experience any blurriness in vision you are probably sitting too close to the screen. Use only as recommended (which it is).
8 Black Widows out of 10 (GREAT)
"A pharmacological thriller"
When a young married woman whose life has been turned upside down is involved in a possible suicide attempt, her new psychiatrist perscribes the latest anti-depressant on the market, with murderous results.
Director Steve Soderbergh's (Ocean 11) newest and possible final Hollywood film before retirement finds him in rare form. Rooney Mara (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) is the gal, Channing Tatum (21 Jump Street) is her just released from prison for blue collar crime husband. Jude Law (Contagion) is her overworked psychiatrist while Catherine Zeta-Jones (Traffic) is her former doctor and consulting physician. Its a twisted, knotted thriller in a Hitchcockian vein about human nature, capitalism and how we allow the pharmaceutical industry to change it and our bodies.
The film looks great and slick like most of Steven's productions. There are no car chases, no action sequences and unlike his previous effort Contagion (which tried just a bit too much with too little to work on), the simple shooting style and budget won't detract from being immersed in a fantastic script and great acting.
It has you second guessing motivations, seeking the truth along with the good doctor who ends up on the wrong end of a media firestorm after his past, patients, lifestyles and medical advice are put to question. Surprisingly the movie's motives are not an obvious drubbing of the medication age and its practices; instead that is a subtly slow IV drip in the background to feed and intensify the deadly tension (wrung masterfully out of the material by Soderbergh). The modern drug culture is the oily swamp these character's world floats on top of, a vast expanse of frightening consequences that they mire through without thought. Call it "Pill Noir",
(Side Effects may be too slow for some audiences, please consult your inner critic. An increased risk of entertainment and smart writing may lead to confusion or questions about who the viewer should be rooting for. Sudden unexpected loss of a character may occur at any time, if you experience any blurriness in vision you are probably sitting too close to the screen. Use only as recommended (which it is).
8 Black Widows out of 10 (GREAT)
Spring Breakers (2013)
Spring Breakers (R) - Review
"Girls Gone Riled"
4 college girls are left behind in their dorms as their peers make the yearly exodus to the mythical Florida beaches for Spring Break, The gal pals don't have the funds for the trek despite saving and scrimping all year. 3 of them are particularly ambitious and decide to fund the vacation by robbing a chicken restaurant by watergun point. These girls need their bikini freedom and nothing will stand in their way of being with their This forms the basis for director Harmony Korine's (Gummo, Kids) new movie, Spring Breakers, an exasperatingly beautiful night out in a scary part of town.
In this post-adolescent, pre-adult world, Spring Break is the ultimate release, the golden hued freedom and mystery that normal college life keeps from them. To the Innocent Life is partying, and there's no party like Spring Break. Eventually the girls fall under the influence of a local rapper/drug dealer Alien portrayed elegantly by James Franco (Pineapple Express). Much like the girls, Alien isn't a two dimensional caricature, he believes everything he says and has depth and emotion beyond his gold tooth fronts and dollar bill neck tattoos (Franco is at his absolute best). The gal pals have gotten into trouble, inevitable with their innocent yet out of control attitudes towards booze, drugs and sex. Alien takes them under his protective wing in his blinged out pimp mobile at his scarface like beachouse full of guns, knives and gear. Eventually we discover that he is being truthful, he loves them and cares for them and it is no game to him, they fullfill something in his life that was missing, as he puts it "Y'all are my soulmates," and the line is both funny and insightful, indicative of the entire film's experience.
The constant bikini and flesh, the neon colors and neon lighting all become the norm as the film unrolls. There is a constant repetition here, things said and thought over and over, pictures that return to us again and again with psychotic regularity. Harmony has allowed us into the dim yet lazer straight mindset of the American young adult, focused on freedom of their body while being confused about the skin they now possess. To these girls, for some unknown reason, selfawareness and enlightenment can only be achieved through beach drinking and hotel keg stands and we the viewer must accept that and wonder why, there are no answers in Spring Breakers. Goaded into a reprisal by the remaining girls, his loyalty and man hood questioned, Alien must set out with his posse to "kill my best friend," a former mentor and rival who threatens their new found lives together. He cannot deny them their retribution despite his fear of the outcome.
The power these girls have is frightening, there is something wrong with them, their inability to use their intelligence beyond tying their bikini tops frustrating. What are they escaping from? As they put it, the monotony of life, of class rooms illuminated by simultaneous laptops presentations, of gossiping Christians and slutty professors, of seeing the same streetlights day after day (their adulthood looming). Selena Gomez, fresh off her star making stint as a Disney protege, plays a good girl torn between her faith and her friends, about what she craves and what the outside world gives. The other girls are wilder to varying degrees, but this is what attracts the whitetrash rednecked Alien, he's been living in a world that is Spring Break Forever for his entire life, and is what they have in common.
Definitely one of Korine's more entertaining films, and especially one of his most accessible. A lot of Korine's work require getting the joke, or seeing the black humor and enjoying the twisted centers of humanity and society as he does. Here that is still true and yet parts can still be enjoyed just for what they are, the thrill of shooting a gun, smoking a bong, seeing some young flesh gyrate in slomo to electronica. Of course, you'd have to have a pretty limited scope to not notice that while the movie is fulfilling all those base desires for both the audience and the protagonists (nudity, wantoness, uninhibited hedonism), how it shows it, how it sounds is a deft scalpel dissecting those universal urges without judgement or answers. "Sowing ones oats" has long been seen as healthy part of our short youth, a window of time where Girls can Go Wild with their parents ignorance (if not their approval). It is only later when the regret can set in, where the shirts have to be buttoned and jobs attended or else America will judge you a stranger to societal norms (one of Harmony's preferred motifs). Alien's sociopathic lifestyle of "Spring Break Forever" forces him to live and die on the fringes of society while most Spring Breakers make it back from the brink of their wild times and live among us, their bikinis long forgotten under piles of yearbooks and pledgepins, mementos from their previous younger selves.
8.5 Ocean Side Brittany Spears Recitals out of 10 (GREAT)
"Girls Gone Riled"
4 college girls are left behind in their dorms as their peers make the yearly exodus to the mythical Florida beaches for Spring Break, The gal pals don't have the funds for the trek despite saving and scrimping all year. 3 of them are particularly ambitious and decide to fund the vacation by robbing a chicken restaurant by watergun point. These girls need their bikini freedom and nothing will stand in their way of being with their This forms the basis for director Harmony Korine's (Gummo, Kids) new movie, Spring Breakers, an exasperatingly beautiful night out in a scary part of town.
In this post-adolescent, pre-adult world, Spring Break is the ultimate release, the golden hued freedom and mystery that normal college life keeps from them. To the Innocent Life is partying, and there's no party like Spring Break. Eventually the girls fall under the influence of a local rapper/drug dealer Alien portrayed elegantly by James Franco (Pineapple Express). Much like the girls, Alien isn't a two dimensional caricature, he believes everything he says and has depth and emotion beyond his gold tooth fronts and dollar bill neck tattoos (Franco is at his absolute best). The gal pals have gotten into trouble, inevitable with their innocent yet out of control attitudes towards booze, drugs and sex. Alien takes them under his protective wing in his blinged out pimp mobile at his scarface like beachouse full of guns, knives and gear. Eventually we discover that he is being truthful, he loves them and cares for them and it is no game to him, they fullfill something in his life that was missing, as he puts it "Y'all are my soulmates," and the line is both funny and insightful, indicative of the entire film's experience.
The constant bikini and flesh, the neon colors and neon lighting all become the norm as the film unrolls. There is a constant repetition here, things said and thought over and over, pictures that return to us again and again with psychotic regularity. Harmony has allowed us into the dim yet lazer straight mindset of the American young adult, focused on freedom of their body while being confused about the skin they now possess. To these girls, for some unknown reason, selfawareness and enlightenment can only be achieved through beach drinking and hotel keg stands and we the viewer must accept that and wonder why, there are no answers in Spring Breakers. Goaded into a reprisal by the remaining girls, his loyalty and man hood questioned, Alien must set out with his posse to "kill my best friend," a former mentor and rival who threatens their new found lives together. He cannot deny them their retribution despite his fear of the outcome.
The power these girls have is frightening, there is something wrong with them, their inability to use their intelligence beyond tying their bikini tops frustrating. What are they escaping from? As they put it, the monotony of life, of class rooms illuminated by simultaneous laptops presentations, of gossiping Christians and slutty professors, of seeing the same streetlights day after day (their adulthood looming). Selena Gomez, fresh off her star making stint as a Disney protege, plays a good girl torn between her faith and her friends, about what she craves and what the outside world gives. The other girls are wilder to varying degrees, but this is what attracts the whitetrash rednecked Alien, he's been living in a world that is Spring Break Forever for his entire life, and is what they have in common.
Definitely one of Korine's more entertaining films, and especially one of his most accessible. A lot of Korine's work require getting the joke, or seeing the black humor and enjoying the twisted centers of humanity and society as he does. Here that is still true and yet parts can still be enjoyed just for what they are, the thrill of shooting a gun, smoking a bong, seeing some young flesh gyrate in slomo to electronica. Of course, you'd have to have a pretty limited scope to not notice that while the movie is fulfilling all those base desires for both the audience and the protagonists (nudity, wantoness, uninhibited hedonism), how it shows it, how it sounds is a deft scalpel dissecting those universal urges without judgement or answers. "Sowing ones oats" has long been seen as healthy part of our short youth, a window of time where Girls can Go Wild with their parents ignorance (if not their approval). It is only later when the regret can set in, where the shirts have to be buttoned and jobs attended or else America will judge you a stranger to societal norms (one of Harmony's preferred motifs). Alien's sociopathic lifestyle of "Spring Break Forever" forces him to live and die on the fringes of society while most Spring Breakers make it back from the brink of their wild times and live among us, their bikinis long forgotten under piles of yearbooks and pledgepins, mementos from their previous younger selves.
8.5 Ocean Side Brittany Spears Recitals out of 10 (GREAT)
The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)
The Tale of Princess Kaguya (PG)
"Bam-BOO-Ya"
In an ancient Japanese folk tale, a simple childless Bamboo cutter is going about his business one day when he finds a tiny princess in a bamboo blossom. He takes her home to his simple wife and adopts her as their child, who is growing at a supernatural rate. She is soon crawling, then walking, then playing with the wild children, all the while her father wishing for her a royal life. When boons are given to him from the bamboo themselves, it puts Kaguya-hime on a path towards lady training, high-borne suitors, and celestial parades in Studio Ghibli's best work since Princess Mononoke.
First, the animation is stunning. Like a story book come to life, moving intricate watercolors on a white board which is reminiscent of Waterson's color work. The characters themselves are solidly designed and move gorgeously; often using the weight or lack of line ala Hokosai all the while keeping on model until there are brief flashses of sketchy scratches that are wonderfully Plimpton-esque. Secondly, the writing is light and unmodern. Gone are the trappings of most of Ghibli's over-worn devices (this applies to the art too!), and while the script may be a bit long and could use some editing for brevity, it reads and looks like a storybook fairy tale that you simply don't want to end anyway. Non-fantastical for the most part, the film makes beauty and wonder from humanity and life, not fairy tale creatures or violence.
A decade-later reply to Ghibli's fantastic Mononoke, Director Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies) proves there is life (and unrepentant beauty) possible after Miyazaki's retirement.
8 Black Teeth out of 10 (GREAT)
"Bam-BOO-Ya"
In an ancient Japanese folk tale, a simple childless Bamboo cutter is going about his business one day when he finds a tiny princess in a bamboo blossom. He takes her home to his simple wife and adopts her as their child, who is growing at a supernatural rate. She is soon crawling, then walking, then playing with the wild children, all the while her father wishing for her a royal life. When boons are given to him from the bamboo themselves, it puts Kaguya-hime on a path towards lady training, high-borne suitors, and celestial parades in Studio Ghibli's best work since Princess Mononoke.
First, the animation is stunning. Like a story book come to life, moving intricate watercolors on a white board which is reminiscent of Waterson's color work. The characters themselves are solidly designed and move gorgeously; often using the weight or lack of line ala Hokosai all the while keeping on model until there are brief flashses of sketchy scratches that are wonderfully Plimpton-esque. Secondly, the writing is light and unmodern. Gone are the trappings of most of Ghibli's over-worn devices (this applies to the art too!), and while the script may be a bit long and could use some editing for brevity, it reads and looks like a storybook fairy tale that you simply don't want to end anyway. Non-fantastical for the most part, the film makes beauty and wonder from humanity and life, not fairy tale creatures or violence.
A decade-later reply to Ghibli's fantastic Mononoke, Director Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies) proves there is life (and unrepentant beauty) possible after Miyazaki's retirement.
8 Black Teeth out of 10 (GREAT)
Lincoln (2012)
Lincoln (PG-13) - Review
"Honest Abe"
It opens on a battlefield, black Union soldiers tussling hand to hand with Southern Rebels, their bayonets stabbing and their boot heels mashing each others faces into the mud. This is the terrible war that contrived a lasting peace and continued freedom for all citizens of the United States of America.
Spielberg's long awaited biopic about Honest Abe comes to us amid a 2012 political climate rife with dogma and unbending ideals. To see what Abraham Lincoln (handsomely portrayed by the master Daniel Day Lewis) had to go through to get the 13th amendment, which barred all slavery in these United States, passed and ratified it gives one renewed hope in the democratic process. How he did it is half the story. Who Lincoln was, or at least an attempt at showing who the true man might have been beyond all the legends and mythos, is the other half.
The Civil war is winding down but losses are still heavy. The President, newly elected to his second term, has made it his first and most solemn duty to outlaw slavery before the Southern states have a chance to dangle the carrot of a misguided peace (one with slavery intact). Meanwhile the dastardly Democrats are trying to defeat the motion, the Left Wing Republicans want the bill to be more radical and the centrists want peace at any price and consider it a hindrance. Lincoln uses any means at his disposal to get the country on the right path; iffy morality, the use of sharp tongued lobbyists, political back scratching, gentle persuasion and powerful compassion for his fellow man.
Tommy Lee Jones is perfectly cast as a powerful Abolitionist caught between his morals and the political machinations of the day, his face and voice and acting are as American as apple pie. The rest of the ensemble cast are in minor roles in a major piece of American history and play their parts admirably. Daniel Lewis is Lincoln with a surprising gait, his voice soft and with a touch of backwoods accent. The obvious charm and Americana that Lincoln must be imbued with is present here, the centerpiece of a broad array of ideas.
The events are procedurally fascinating and it is a open handed attempt at portraying them and the man with truth and vigor. It cannot be escaped that this film is essentially about the process of debate and governance over one of the most important moments in Constitutional law since, well, the Constitution itself was ratified. This lack of action or lasers may be a determent to some viewers. The lighting gets a bit overhanded in places, bringing out that old Spielberg shmaltz that long has stained his films. Luckily that sentimentality also flows through Abe's vein's, and Lewis wields it beautifully as a man with unflinching vision of the ideals of America, past and present and future. That the movie holds together and remains entertaining is a testament to the script and actors and a remarkable achievement for Mr. Spielberg.
Lincoln is a warm hearth, the logs tended and shifted with expert care. The fatherly man tells us a story, his wavering voice comforting as he leads us towards the inevitable conclusion, teaching us his sons wise old lessons as the wood crackles and pops, the cold wind blustering against the windows, seen but not felt.
8 Stovepipe Hats out of 10 (GREAT)
"Honest Abe"
It opens on a battlefield, black Union soldiers tussling hand to hand with Southern Rebels, their bayonets stabbing and their boot heels mashing each others faces into the mud. This is the terrible war that contrived a lasting peace and continued freedom for all citizens of the United States of America.
Spielberg's long awaited biopic about Honest Abe comes to us amid a 2012 political climate rife with dogma and unbending ideals. To see what Abraham Lincoln (handsomely portrayed by the master Daniel Day Lewis) had to go through to get the 13th amendment, which barred all slavery in these United States, passed and ratified it gives one renewed hope in the democratic process. How he did it is half the story. Who Lincoln was, or at least an attempt at showing who the true man might have been beyond all the legends and mythos, is the other half.
The Civil war is winding down but losses are still heavy. The President, newly elected to his second term, has made it his first and most solemn duty to outlaw slavery before the Southern states have a chance to dangle the carrot of a misguided peace (one with slavery intact). Meanwhile the dastardly Democrats are trying to defeat the motion, the Left Wing Republicans want the bill to be more radical and the centrists want peace at any price and consider it a hindrance. Lincoln uses any means at his disposal to get the country on the right path; iffy morality, the use of sharp tongued lobbyists, political back scratching, gentle persuasion and powerful compassion for his fellow man.
Tommy Lee Jones is perfectly cast as a powerful Abolitionist caught between his morals and the political machinations of the day, his face and voice and acting are as American as apple pie. The rest of the ensemble cast are in minor roles in a major piece of American history and play their parts admirably. Daniel Lewis is Lincoln with a surprising gait, his voice soft and with a touch of backwoods accent. The obvious charm and Americana that Lincoln must be imbued with is present here, the centerpiece of a broad array of ideas.
The events are procedurally fascinating and it is a open handed attempt at portraying them and the man with truth and vigor. It cannot be escaped that this film is essentially about the process of debate and governance over one of the most important moments in Constitutional law since, well, the Constitution itself was ratified. This lack of action or lasers may be a determent to some viewers. The lighting gets a bit overhanded in places, bringing out that old Spielberg shmaltz that long has stained his films. Luckily that sentimentality also flows through Abe's vein's, and Lewis wields it beautifully as a man with unflinching vision of the ideals of America, past and present and future. That the movie holds together and remains entertaining is a testament to the script and actors and a remarkable achievement for Mr. Spielberg.
Lincoln is a warm hearth, the logs tended and shifted with expert care. The fatherly man tells us a story, his wavering voice comforting as he leads us towards the inevitable conclusion, teaching us his sons wise old lessons as the wood crackles and pops, the cold wind blustering against the windows, seen but not felt.
8 Stovepipe Hats out of 10 (GREAT)
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- Kevin Gasaway via HardDrawn
- Turlock, California, United States
- Media and Reviews by Kevin Gasaway