Joe Swanberg‘s got a Joe Swanberg way of making movies. Working with a cast of hot shot, big name, creme da la creme names though means Swanberg being, well, a little less Swanberg-y. Instead of just “going for it” with Digging for Fire, Swanberg penned his most complete script yet. About ten pages worth of...
Still recovering from Sundance meant a week spent out of the theater…for the most part. I did attend a screening of Jupiter Ascending (to disappointing result) and decided to skip Spongebob: Sponge Out of Water and Seventh Son because they were Spongebob: Sponge Out of Water and Seventh Son. Instead, I took it upon myself...
What is truly visionary in terms of set production, lavish costumery and creature design results in something totally and tonally defunct in the story department. As Eddie Redmayne greedily dismantles…
Andrew Bujalski earned an earnest little following out of Austin, Texas from his efforts in building up the mumblecore scene but his star has never shined brighter than it did two festival seasons ago with the debut of his offbeat docu-comedy Computer Chess. Expanding on that last project – which used a blend of professionals...
Every once in a while an independent film comes along and rocks the film world to its core. People, Places, Things is not that film. It is however a richly charming film full of love and life lessons. James Strouse‘s latest was an affable dramedy about the woes and joys of marriage, divorce and parenthood in...
It’s 2015 and there are no less than 20 apps that serve to guide desperate, lonely people towards other desperate, horny people. And yet, solitude and loneliness is an issue people face more and more. The growing divide between sexual satisfaction and emotional closeness is one that interests director Leslye Headland of Bachelorette and now...
Having retired from his role as the Hiphopopotamus, Jemaine Clement frequents our living rooms and theaters all too infrequently. His 2014 cameo in Muppets Most Wanted didn’t nearly suffice to fill our favorite Kiwi quotient and we’ve yet to take in his lauded vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows (though we eagerly anticipated...
Noah Baumbach again arrives in auspicious fashion, delivering a fast-talking farcical bumblebee of a film whose honey is sweet and sting is bruising. It’s as much a diatribe about the fickle nature of youth as it is a pure slapstick comedy, featuring a humdinger of a hipster prophet in the form of a footloose Greta...
Director Rodrigo García claimed two themes interested him most in his articulation of Jesus’ untold 40 day fast in the desert. The first: the primordial idea of how a boy becomes a man, a step that Garcia contents happens “with or without his father’s help of permission.” The second theme surrounds the notion of creationism,...
(Note: this was written before Sundance coverage but I’ve waiting on posting it because we’ve had more than enough material than needed. Return to normal post.) 2014 is over. It’s done. In the rearview. We’ve officially put the cap on it with our 100 Best Films of 2014 so that means it’s 1000% kaput. That...