Out in Theaters: ‘THE MARTIAN’

September 30, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chiwetel Ejiofor, Donald Glover, Drew Goddard, Jeff Daniels, Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara, Kristen Wiig, Mackenzie Davis, Matt Damon, Michael Pena, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Ridley Scott, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, The Martian Leave a comment

Ridley Scott’s most mainstream-minded movie in years, The Martian is 80 percent more Apollo 13 than it is Duncan Jones’ similarly themed (but wholly superior) Moon. Like Moon, The Martian involves a Starman (David Bowie’s space anthem of the same name is used tremendously in Scott’s film) contending with crippling solitude and psychological tremors when he’s left for dead on Mars. Unlike Moon, the narrative is a straight-forward locomotive, employing the mantra “I think I can” to such a degree that you can be almost one hundred percent confident that everything is going to work out in the end. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘SICARIO’

September 25, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Benicio Del Toro, Denis Villeneuve, Emily Blunt, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Roger Deakin, Sicario, Taylor Sheridan Leave a comment

Amongst the best in its entire run, episode seven, season two of Breaking Bad, “Negro y Azul” sees decorated DEA agent Hank Schrader’s fated run-in with a Cartel informant known only as Tortuga (a perfect in the role Danny Trejo). The syndicate snitch assembles a wish list of “thank you” gifts from a SkyMall mag – the going rate for Cartel rats. Hank butts in, jeering Tortuga to hurry it along and dispense with the bullshittery, awaiting the familiar nods of approval he’s used to as big dog back in Albuquerque. A tidal wave of censure bears down on him like a face full of hot Champurrado; sodden scorn pours from the eyes of colleagues and the turtle-titled turncoat alike. Taken aback, Hank swallows the salty-but-sure fact that what may soar in the Northern-most stretch of American border comes to die here in the infertile Mexican desert. He’s a bald eagle, snatched up and spanked by the very red, white and blue claws that feeds him. Read More

Documentary Dossier: ‘RACING EXTINCTION’

September 25, 2015 by Madelyn Sutton Posted in Documentaries, Out in Theaters, Reviews Tagged Documentaries, Louie Psihoyos, Out in Theaters, Racing Extinction, Reviews 2 Comments

Racing Extinction, Louie Psihoyos’ second documentary following 2009’s Academy Award winning The Cove, is a call to action regarding humanity’s role in the currently-unfolding extinction event. As various experts explain, we are living in the so-called Anthropocene epoch, named for the measurable effect of human beings’ behavior on the various life forms and habitats on earth.

I hesitated, at first, over whether to include “so-called” or any other indications of controversy surrounding the fact-claims of the film; there is some question, limited mostly to the far right in this country, of whether or not “global warming,” for example, exists, and further whether it is the result of our behavior, or simply a natural development; however, I’d rather not sport with your intelligence, fine readers, and I think we can get to what really matters: the quality of the film itself.
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Out in Theaters: ‘STONEWALL’

September 24, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Jeremy Irvine, Jonny Beauchamp, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Stonewall 1 Comment

Stonewall is the perfect example of a film whose subject I knew very little about going in (I welcome any scorn or derision aroused by this statement and deflect it with my proud shield of historical ignorance). Coming out of the film, I felt like I hadn’t learned much. My minor due diligence (Wikipedia to the rescue) reported that Stonewall was historical hallowed grounds; a staging area for the first major gay rights protests in the late 1960s. Positively glowing with awards potential, the Stonewall plot could have made for one of this year’s celebrated historic biographies. Rather, the film is decidedly more Newsies than Milk. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘TIME OUT OF MIND’

September 24, 2015 by Eric Brown Posted in Out in Theaters, Reviews Tagged Ben Vereen, Jena Malone, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Richard Gere, Steve Buscemi, Time Out of Mind Leave a comment

Time Out of Mind is about a reconciliation between a homeless man and his estranged daughter. The homeless man, George, (Richard Gere) has been a bum loafing around the last ten years absent from his daughter’s life. After a building superintendent (Steve Buscemi) kicks him out of an empty apartment — and later, the same building — where George squatted, he’s left in the cold, so he makes a desperate reach to see his daughter, Maggie (Jena Malone), a young bartender. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘GOODNIGHT MOMMY’

September 21, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Elias and Lucas Schwarz, Goodnight Mommy, Horror, Olga Neuwirth, Reviews, Severin Fiala, Susanne Wuest, Veronika Franz Leave a comment

A midnight masterstroke of paranoia and syngenesophobia, Goodnight Mommy toys with the brittle psyches of a nuclear family like a child toasting ants with his magnifying glass. Tensions reach a fever-pitch as roguish twins, suspecting their mother fresh home from cosmetic surgery is not who she claims to be, decide to launch all-out warfare. The ensuing chronicling of domestic distrust is taken to fiery extremes; the fallout will no doubt prove hard to bear for some viewers – both for its graphic depictions of violence and for the film’s deliberate pacing – but those willing to wait it out are in store for a nasty slice of psychological horror pie.
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September 21, 2015 by Master Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Elias and Lucas Schwarz, Goodnight Mommy, Horror, Olga Neuwirth, Reviews, Severin Fiala, Susanne Wuest, Veronika Franz Leave a comment

Out in Theaters: ‘COOTIES’

September 18, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Cooties, Elijah Wood, Horror, Jack McBrayer, Jorge Garcia, Leigh Whannell, Out in Theaters, Rainn Wilson, Reviews Leave a comment

Cooties is Children of the Corn by way of Daddy Day Care. A tactless, haphazardly unfunny, totally DOA clunker, horror-comedy Cooties is the brainchild of “that guy” Leigh Whannell (of the Insidious and Saw franchises) and a severely handicapped brainchild it is. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘GRANDMA’

September 18, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Grandma, Judy Greer, Julia Garner, Laverne Cox, Lily Tomlin, Marcia Gay Harden, Nat Wolff, Out in Theaters, Paul Weitz, Reviews, Sam Elliot Leave a comment

“Time passes – that’s for sure” – an Eileen Myles quote that opens the film Grandma and could have just as easily come spilling from the churlish mouth of Lily Tomlin’s titular character. After all, Tomlin’s Elle Reid is no stranger to her own passing time. In her words, “I’m rapidly approaching 50” (Elle’s deadpan is matched only by her sense of irony – Tomlin has around rounded her third quarter-century.) Her thick sheen of sarcasm is persistently cutting and deeply riotous and between the sharp writing and Tomlin’s pitch-perfect comic timing, there’s many good reasons to see Grandma. Forget that Tomlin’s name will be thrown all up and down the Oscar buzz aisle because award or no, her presence here is absolutely aces. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘PAWN SACRIFICE’

September 17, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Bobby Fischer, Edward Zwick, Michael Stuhlbarg, Out in Theaters, Pawn Sacrifice, Peter Sarsgaard, Reviews, Steven Knight, Tobey Maguire Leave a comment

Chess players be mad crazy. This is the conceit of Edward Zwick’s latest film, Pawn Sacrifice. Telling the tale of Bobby Fischer‘s rise to the title of Chess World Champion, Zwick washes away the taste of Bobby Fischer the puny, prodigal chessmaster like with a mind-erasing swill of Everclear, replacing it with Bobby Fischer, megalomaniac, paranoid, delusional, dedicated anti-Semite. His competition, Boris Spassky, does not fare much better. These dudes ‘r’ nuts. Read More