Talking With Jason Schwartzman of 7 CHINESE BROTHERS

August 28, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged 7 Chinese Brothers, Interviews, Jason Schwartzman Leave a comment

I like to consider Jason Schwartzman and I best buddies. Now as to whether he feels the same way, I can only speculate a resounding “Yes.” The following interview took place during the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival, where I first acquainted with the dapper star of Bob Byington‘s secretly hysterical 7 Chinese Brothers and took to asking him soul-searching questions pertaining to his preference for cats or dogs. Join us as we discuss injecting himself into the role, if he’s as snide as the characters he plays, his preference for a lazy day and what it’s like co-starring in a movie with his dog.

Out in Theaters: 7 CHINESE BROTHERS

August 28, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged 7 Chinese Brothers, Bob Byington, Jason Schwartzman, Olympia Dukakis, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Tunde Adebimpe Leave a comment

The old “I could watch so-and-so read a phone book” adage speaks to an ability to turn the banal into something unexpected and has been liberally applied to the works of anyone from Bill Murray to Daniel Day Lewis. In a similar but distinctly different vein, there’s something mundanely alluring about planting Jason Schwartzman in a room and allowing him to made snide riffs on each and every thing. The Rushmore-starrer possesses uncommon command over his ability to make you feel lesser, even if he’s day drunk, mostly unemployed and in the middle of getting punched in the face and Bob Byington capitalizes insanely on his ability to do such. Read More

Out in Theaters: WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS

August 28, 2015 by Chris Bunker Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Emily Ratajkowski, Max Joseph, Out in Theaters, Reviews, We Are Your Friends, Wes Bentley, Zac Efron Leave a comment

I could rant and rave about EDM culture till the MDMAddicts foam at the mouth. What’s supposed to be about music really only appears to focus on grabbing the nearest thing and doing it — be it man, woman or drug. Famous DJs make trash music that sells because it’s what we all want to hear. A new-age art form that’s endemic in my generation, EDM shows more about how we’ve raged than how we’ve changed. I hoped We Are Your Friends might delve into the DJ lifestyle that’s evolved into an addiction. At some points, it blurs the lines and senses and manages to say something poignant. Then it OD’s and it’s a bad trip from there. Read More

Out in Theaters: Z FOR ZACHARIAH

August 27, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chiwetel Ejiofor, Chris Pine, Craig Zobel, Margo Robbie, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Robert C. O'Brien, Z for Zachariah 1 Comment

*This is a reprint of our 2015 Sundance review

There are so many pivot points in Z for Zachariah that it becomes hard to nail down exactly what director Craig Zobel intended for it. At one point, it seems decidedly about gender politics, at another about race relations, and eventually it boiled down to themes of suspicion, greed and jealousy. Spliced with a domineering amount of ambiguity. All this from a cast of three. To call it thematically rich may be overly generous – maybe thematically crowded would hit the nail on the head more – but nonetheless, it strives for something thoughtful and great, even when it comes up just short. Read More

Out in Theaters: DIGGING FOR FIRE

August 27, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Chris Messina, Digging For Fire, Jake Johnson, Joe Swanberg, Orlando Bloom, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Rosemarie DeWitt Leave a comment

*This is a reprint of our 2015 Sundance review.

Displaying the kind of laid back candor that sums up the mumblecore founding member, Joe Swanberg revealed that once you have kids, “life is a clusterfuck.” And so is Digging For Fire. Kinda. A lesser effort in the aftermath of two eruptively sweet victories (Drinking Buddies and Happy Christmas), Digging for Fire takes on the humps and bumps of marriage and the battle of young parenthood with an enviable cast for any director. Read More

The Deepest Cuts: DEMONS (1985)

August 26, 2015 by Madelyn Sutton Posted in Retrospectives Tagged Dario Argento, Demons, Horror, Lamberto Bava, Mario Bava, The Deepest Cuts 2 Comments

The Deepest Cuts is a weekly invitation into some of the sleaziest, goriest, most under-explored corners of horror and cult film online. Every title will be streamable and totally NSFW. Whether it’s a 1960s grindhouse masterpiece, something schlocky from the 90s, or hardcore horror from around the world, these films are guaranteed to shock, disturb, tickle, or generally blow your mind.

Where else should Nostradamus’ predicted “coming of the demons” begin than in a creepy old movie theater full of misogynists, racist stereotypes, a blind man, and a weirdly mysterious redhead wearing a Peter-Pan-esque dress? With this set-up, an amazing soundtrack and loads of fantastic gore, it should be obvious that Demons is a definite must-see.

Out in Theaters: TURBO KID

August 26, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged ABCs of Death, Anouk Whissell, François Simard, Horror, Laurence Laboeuf, Michael Ironside), Munro Chambers, Out in Theaters, Reviews, The RKSS Collective, Turbo Kid, Yoann-Karl Whissell Leave a comment

*This is a reprint of our 2015 SXSW review.

This is the future. Bicycles remain the only mode of transport and they scream down rubble road decorated with human skulls, past junk yards littered with bits and bobs of discarded robots and towards the odd outskirts ripe for plundering. The land is overrun with masked miscreants of a steam-punk Road Warrior meets Jason Voorhees variety picking through the remains of a scrapyard Earth. The leader of the bicycled clan, a nefarious crime boss known as Zeus (Michael Ironside), has concocted a way to transform humans into water – now the world’s most precious resource. This is 1997. Read More

Out in Theaters: THE SUMMER HOUSE

August 26, 2015 by Harrison Foster Posted in Out in Theaters, Uncategorized Tagged Curtis Burz, Out in Theaters, Reviews, The Summer House 1 Comment

The Summer House is one of those “look how f*cked up the rich are so that the rest of us can feel better about not having any money because at least we’re good people” bones we get thrown so often at the cinema these days. This time around, behind the curtain of the “seemingly put-together” family of three stands a father who, while extraordinarily resourceful in business and prudent in financial planning, conceals a nasty predilection for young boys. Oh yeah, it’s a pedophile movie as well. Read More

Out in Theaters: NO ESCAPE

August 25, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged John Erick Dowdle, Lake Bell, No Escape, Out in Theaters, Owen Wilson, Pierce Brosnan, Reviews 1 Comment

Originally packaged with a much more apt title (The Coup), the ambiguously-named No Escape is still the second surprise thriller of the summer (the first being the shockingly excellent The Gift). John Erick Dowdle, who delivered the monstrously underrated As Above/So Below last year, again proves his knack for preeminently nail-biting sequences with a 103-minute zombie feature that replaces said zombies with radicalized “Asians”. Whereas zombies lack motive, the bloodthirsty nature of the enemy in No Escape is their defining feature and makes for antagonists who are thinly drawn but hugely imposing. Moments of cliche are all but drown out by the overwhelming panic at the heart of the film, a film that manages to tap into the epicenter of terror – having your family hacked to pieces in front of your eyes. It is, in three words: intense as f*ck. Read More

FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, Episode 1 ‘Pilot’ Recap/Review

August 24, 2015 by J Simpson Posted in Reviews, Television, TV Reviews Tagged Alycia Debnam-Carey, AMC, Cliff Curtis, Fear The Walking Dead, Frank Dillane, Horror, Kim Dickens, The Walking Dead, TV Recaps, Zombies 5 Comments

“What the hell is going on?” – Madison
“I have no idea.” – Travis
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Imagine waking up in some unfamiliar place, dazed and disoriented. You stumble downstairs to a charnel house of cadavers, finding one of your good friends chewing off another friend’s face. What would you do? This cognitive dissonance, this mammalian panic terror is the core of what makes Fear The Walking Dead so deadly effective, as well as what separates it from its mothership. Read More