Tainted Love – “Sightseers” Review

Tina (Alice Lowe), looking like a young Mary McDonnell, is a sheltered mama’s girl. She’s well past the acceptable age to still be living at home. Her mother is cruel. She casually refers to Tina as an accident. But Tina is about to go on holiday with her understanding new boyfriend Chris (Steve Oram). Chris and Tina set off on the world’s most mundane vacation imaginable. They’re taking a camper around to places like a pencil museum. It’s all so very dull until Chris begins murdering complete strangers.

Seeds of Dissent – “At Any Price” Review

If you like NASCAR and corn than boy do I have a film for you. Writer/Director Ramin Bahrani’s latest finds him moving away from small stories and non-actors to see what he can accomplish with big names like Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron and a bigger canvas.

Artful Dodger – “Trance” Review

The latest film from Danny Boyle is slick, but it never completely makes up its mind as to whether or not it wants to be sensational fun or aim for higher art. It’s like someone squished together Headhunters, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Inception but left out the shocks, the heart, and a sensible third act. It’s not a total waste. I don’t think any Boyle film is ever without some merit. It’s a disjointed film, which is appropriate considering the hypnosis plot device, but it never commits.

Enter the Void – “Spring Breakers” Review

You know how in Gladiator Russell Crowe is always having visions of his home? He’s wading through wheat and sees his wife and child. Or maybe you remember The Thin Red Line and the soldier dreaming of the love he left? She’s lit like an angel, a perfect vision. In both films, these are the characters’ idyllic ideas of paradise. Well in writer/director Harmony Korine’s new film Spring Breakers the main characters’ idea of heaven is a hedonistic spring break that never ends. The film is an exploration of this thesis writ large in a burst of neon day-glo, breasts, booze, and guns. It’s a movie that can be approached a number of ways, and is sure to be misappropriated left and right, and I think this only makes it more brilliant.

Hail Mary – “Beyond The Hills” Review

This is the second time now writer/director Cristian Mungiu has taken material that sounded dreadful on paper and fashioned it into a near masterpiece. The first time was in the blistering 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 days which was shorthandedly referred to as the Romanian abortion movie. It’s an accurate label that does the film no justice. And now Mungiu has made the Romanian Orthodox nuns movie. I know a 150 minute foreign film on this subject sounds deathly dull like being forced to eat your vegetables (and I hate vegetables). I honestly didn’t really want to watch it, but I’m more than happy I did.

Whiz of a Wiz – “Oz the Great and Powerful” Review

It might seem counterintuitive, but comparing Oz the Great and Powerful to the classic The Wizard of Oz is a waste of time. It’s not that one has nothing to do with the other because they do. In fact, a lot of care has gone into respecting the roots. The problem is nothing will ever compete with that film, not only because of its status in history but also because it’s not 1939 anymore. As they say, they don’t make them like they used to.

Weird Beauty – “Holy Motors” Review

It’s okay. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Holy Motors is going to be a movie you might not completely understand, I mean, I barely think I do. It’s a movie that opens with the writer/director (Leos Carax) opening a hidden door with his finger, which is a key, to a dreamlike cinema, and it only gets stranger from there. This is a film with the best no-sex sex scene, the best no-action action scene, Kylie Minogue, at least two minutes of an erect penis, and a conversation between limos. The film is most impressive not just because of how crazy and inventive it is but because it manages to be emotional too. There’s a thick layer of romanticism on top of all the insanity.

2013 Oscar Checklist – Animated Shorts

I’m doing my reviews of Oscar films a little differently this year. I’m just going to unload all the reviews of the films I haven’t yet. Then, when I’m done, I will have a post with links to everything. Around that time I hope to have my completed top ten and any other 2012 leftovers. Let the madness commence!

Crimes of Time – “Tabu” Review

There are two types of shots that show up in Tabu with some regularity. The static shot with the main subject virtually immobile while activity bustles around them, and the tracking shot moving along with a character, almost struggling to keep pace. For a film split into two parts this dichotomy couldn’t be more apt. It seems to be the best representation of the themes as well as the films two halves. Time lived and time lost. Passion and the passionless. This unique and stylish film is difficult to categorize, but this is its essence.

Pomp and Romance – “Anna Karenina” Review

After stepping into modern times with Hanna and The Soloist, director Joe Wright returns to the past with a distinctive adaptation of Anna Karenina. The film opens with Anna’s brother (Matthew Macfadyen) caught having an affair. While trying to help save her brother’s marriage, Anna (Keira Knightley) inadvertently heads down the path that will destroy her own. She catches the eye of Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and after playing hard to get for the first half of the movie, the two begin a passionate romance.

MoviePass Review: “The Collection”

Writer/director Marcus Dunstan and co-writer Patrick Melton stick to familiar horror sequel territory with The Collection. And while it’s bigger and bloodier than 2009’s The Collector, in the realm of the horror sequel, wherein the survivor of the first film is somehow coerced into revisiting the source of their trauma, The Collection is a middling addition, not quite as disappointing as The Descent: Part 2, but still a far cry from the adrenaline-amplifying Aliens. If its muddled plot and flat characters were half as interesting as the the elaborate death scenes, then The Collection might be a bit more than mildly entertaining and bit less of a bloody mess. Continue reading at blog.moviepass.com →

The Trouble with Quibbles: Life of Pi

The Oscar-winning director of such films as Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon returns with his adaptation of Yann Martel‘s Life of Pi. It’s the simple enough tale of a boy lost at sea with a Bengal tiger, and some other stuff happens too.

Best Birthday Party Ever – “Skyfall” Review

You’re late, 007, but maybe that’s a good thing. After 2008′s Quantum of Solace, a scatter-brained and unworthy follow-up to Daniel Craig‘s first outing as James Bond in Casino Royale, Bond producers knew they’d done wrong, as filmmakers and as torch-bearers of the longest running franchise in movie history, which has now hit its golden 50th anniversary. Four years later, they’re backto prove themselves and Britain’s top spy once again, with Skyfall.

Bonus Level – “Wreck-It Ralph” Review

You don’t need to be a die-hard gamer to appreciate the many charms of Wreck-It Ralph. Sure, there are references to things like Frogger, Street Fighter, Halo, and beyond, but the film wisely underplays them. If you’re looking for a nostalgia trip, it’s here, but the movie is far more interested in Ralph’s journey from video game villain to medal-wielding champion.

The Trouble with Quibbles: Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas is inescapably epic. The nearly three-hour-long film has three directors–Lana Wachowski, Tom Tywker, and Andy Wachowski–includes 6 different stories spanning over a thousand years, chronicling the karmic ripple effect as the ramifications of several characters’ actions “echo through eternity.” The cast includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, Hugo Weaving, Keith David, Hugh Grant, and Susan Sarandon, all of whom play multiple characters. There’s no arguing whether or not the film is epic. And the only thing that surpasses the filmmakers’ ambition is their zeal. Bryan drank the Kool-Aid. Having little interest in its saccharine mix of schmaltzy spiritualism, morality tale clichés, and overblown take on the Golden Rule, I did not.