SXSW ’16 Review: ‘KEANU’

March 13, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Jordan Peele, Keanu, Keegan-Michael Key, Method Man, Peter Atencio, Reviews, SXSW 2016, Will Forte 1 Comment

When Key & Peele premiered in 2012 on Comedy Central, it was as close to an overnight success as any sober TV producer could hope for. The sketch comedy show that covered anything from pop-culture fandom to racial relationships, all with unprecedentedly competent production value, found even more love on YouTube where many of their brief sketches ratcheted up views in the millions. From their jocular takedown of the Obama administration to nonsensical athlete names to 80s aerobic videos, there were few rocks left unturned and a remarkable percentage of hits to misses. When the show took its bow in September of 2015, fans were predictably heartbroken to see the righteous comic duo come to an end. If Keanu is proof of one thing and one thing only, it’s at the very essence of Key & Peele will live on so long as Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele continue to collaborate in any way shape or form. And that my friends is a fact worth celebrating. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘MIDNIGHT SPECIAL’

March 13, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Adam Driver, Bill Camp, Jaeden Liebeher, Jeff Nichols, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Michael Shannon, Midnight Special, Reviews, Sam Shepard 3 Comments

Jeff Nichols is very quickly solidifying himself as a distinct and essential American voice. The 37-year old Arkansas native blends the mystic nostalgia of Steven Spielberg’s great wonders with the romanticized bayou lyricism of a Mark Twain novel. The result is often staggering, the heavy, heady crossroads of lock stock ultra violence and meaningfully sentimental morality plays. In 2012, Nichols’ snaggle-toothed fable Mud sounded the starting gun for the McConaissance, just as he basically introduced the world to Michael Shannon as a leading man in 2011’s Take Shelter. More than just a emcee for introducing (or reintroducing) us to new or reinvigorated talent, Nichols has emerged as a bold writer/director willing to take big risks and reap big rewards and Midnight Special, a work of great wonder and beauty, is blinding evidence of this fact. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘ANOTHER EVIL’

March 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Another Evil, Carson D. Mell, Dan Bakkedahl, Dax Flame, Jennifer Irwin, Mark Proksch, Reviews, Steve Missis, SXSW, SXSW 2016 Leave a comment

Anyone who ever found themselves wishing for a cross section between The Cable Guy and The Exorcism, rejoice in thy ancient cursed tongues. Carson D. Mell’s supernaturally awkward brom-dram is a conjoined twin of ghost tale hula-hoops and male acquaintanceship hoopla. A batty genre-defying lark to its close, Another Evil deals with the clumsy delicacies of fledgling friendships weighed against the silly absurdities of cloven hoofs and blessed needles. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘DEMOLITION’

March 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Out in Theaters Tagged Bryan Sipe, Chris Cooper, Demolition, Heather Hind, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jay M. Glen, Jean-Marc Vallee, Naomi Watts, Out in Theaters, Reviews 2 Comments

Life has a tendency to zip forward on a single, amusement ride track until something or someone comes barreling out of the shadows of entropy to buck your stated momentum and set you serendipitously down a new path. 17th century physicist Isaac Newton described the phenomenon in which colliding forces impress upon one another an equal and opposite reaction in his famous Third Law, which describes both why someone struck by a moving vehicle would find their chest caved in and someone catching a bad edge going a cool 30 mph on decade old skis would find their wrist contorted in all kinds of wrong directions. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘DON’T BREATHE’

March 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Most Popular Tagged Daniel Zovatto, Don’t Breathe, Dylan Minnette, Fede Alvarez, Horror, Jane Levy, Reviews, Stephen Lang, SXSW 2016 3 Comments

Let me be clear, you probably can’t handle Don’t Breathe. Hitchcockian in concept and French New Wave in execution, the batshit bonkers new horror film from Fede Alvarez is a sanguine-stained guillotine of heinous intensity. The Uruguayan director has issued French extremity an American passport, inviting a true-to-form, heart-stopping gang bang of insane tension to inseminate the United States homeland. Consider everyone at last night’s world premiere unmistakably impregnanted by its brutal brilliance. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘TEENAGE COCKTAIL’

March 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged AJ Bowen, Fabienne Therese, John Carchietta, Nichole Bloom, Pat Healy, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2016, Teenage Cocktail 1 Comment

When high school student Annie heads to a new school, she finds herself surrounded by hostile faces. And needle-in-the-haystack Jules. The two attractive outsiders immediately strike up a kinship and a secret flame broils, leading them down forbidden passageways of mutual lust and peddled cajolery. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!’

March 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Austin Amelio, Blake Jenner, Everybody Wants Some, J. Quinton Johnson, Reviews, Richard Linklater, SXSW 2016, Wyatt Russell 1 Comment

There’s a moment in Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some where four collegiate athletes hover around an overstuffed bong, listening to the psychedelic crackle of Led Zeppelin, competing to see who can take the biggest bong rip. It’s an indisputably Linklater moment, one that speaks to the essence of the Austin filmmaker’s disco baseball comedy that forces one to meditate on what friendship and camaraderie meant before the advent of cell phones. There is an enviable sense of authentic connection found in this communal stoned passage, one that finds itself increasingly diluted by distraction in modern day conversation, that’s undercut by an overarching spirit of competition. Community and competition – two forces that rally to make Linklater’s latest film a low key, nostalgiacore home run. Read More

Sundance ’16 Review: ‘THE BIRTH OF A NATION’

January 27, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Aja Naomi King, Armie Hammer, Nate Parker, Reviews, Sundance 2016, Sundance Reviews, The Birth of a Nation 1 Comment

Nate Parker‘s The Birth of a Nation is an urgent primal scream from American history’s darkest hour. Parker produces, writes, directs and stars in this much needed telling of the trials and tribulations of slave-turned-revolutionary Nat Turner. The relatively well-to-do preacher’s eyes are open to a new interpretation of the good book when his master shops out his sermons, profiteering off Turner’s calming demeanor to quell rebellion amongst more brutalized slaves. He’s soon in high demand from the most vicious slave owners across the land, all who want less sass and more backbreaking for their neglected and enslaved laborers. Read More

Sundance ’16 Review: ‘COMPLETE UNKNOWN’

January 26, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Azita Ghanizada, Complete Unknown, Joshua Marston, Kathy Bate, Michael Chernus, Michael Shannon, Rachel Weisz, Reviews, Sundance 2016, Sundance Reviews Leave a comment

An old flame forks her way back into the life of a married man in Joshua Marston‘s mysterious and somewhat satisfying Complete Unknown. Marston struck a chord with debut Maria Full of Grace, which played Sundance 12 years ago, giving a drug mule a face in performer Catalina Sandino Moreno. With Complete Unknown, the Californian director harnesses a selfsame ability to craft complex female leads but allows the narrative to come to tatters as it crests its many tonal shifts. Read More

Sundance ’16 Review: ‘MANCHESTER BY THE SEA’

January 25, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Most Popular Tagged Casey Affleck, Kenneth Lonergan, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea, Reviews, Sundance 2016, Sundance Reviews 3 Comments

After debuting on Saturday night, Manchester by the Sea quickly became the buzziest film at Sundance. When Amazon made an unprecedented $10 million dollar deal to sweep up distributing rights, the echo chamber only got louder. On the one hand, writer/director Kenneth Lonergan must welcome the fat paycheck with open arms. And yet, such a lofty price tag sets a certain sky-high expectation for the film before its even had a chance to digest in anyone’s tummies or see the light of day for most viewers. All finances aside, Manchester by the Sea is a emotionally resonant tearjerker/masterful character study with Casey Affleck stepping up to the plate to claim some majorly overdue attention. Read More