Sundance ’16 Review: ‘THE FREE WORLD’

January 22, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Boyd Halbrook, Elisabeth Moss, Half of a Yellow Sun, Jason Lew, Octavia Spencer, Reviews, Sundance 2016 Leave a comment

Jason Lew presents a bleak world of second chances and doomed romance in impact drama The Free World. Lew’s feature gives a Bonnie and Clyde twist to the “Romeo and Juliet” story and those willing to overlook some obvious symbolism will find a feature rich in subtext and striking performances. Featuring the always phenomenal Elisabeth Moss and a breakout performance from Boyd Halbrook as a pair of social outcasts who’ve found each other (and themselves) on the wrong side of the law – one an ex-con, the other the (ex-)wife of a violent cop – The Free World explores the spiritual poetry of redemption and religion through the lens of besting your former shadow. To quote Hemingway, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility to being superior to your former self.” Again, this idea of self-transcendence isn’t necessarily broached with a fistful of subtlety but the thematic elements are bolstered by the two convincing, whirlwind performances at its center. Read More

Sundance ’16 Review: ‘OTHER PEOPLE’

January 22, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Bradley Whitford, Chris Kelly, Jesse Plemons, Molly Shannon, Other People, Reviews, Sundance 2016, Sundance Reviews Leave a comment

Other People sets expectations firmly in place early on for its uneven mix of tragedy and comedy. A family huddles in a dark bedroom, some whimpering, some crying out, others silent, all grasping hands, all seeking tendrils of connection, all weeping over a recently departed body. In the midst of this disruptively bleak opening, the landline erupts, echoing through the empty halls. It rings a number of times, awkwardly interrupting the mourning at hand, before clipping to voicemail. Broadcast through the house, a perky female says something to the effect of, “I heard you’re, like, really sick,” and then goes on to sloppily order tacos and Coke at a drive through. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘ANOMALISA’

January 15, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman, David Thewlis, Duke Johnson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Tom Noonan Leave a comment

In Alex Garland’s riveting metaphysical exploration of man’s relationship to machinery Ex Machina, Oscar Isaac’s character Caleb states of his A.I. Ava, “The real test is to show you she is a robot. Then see if you still feel she has consciousness.” A similar theme blooms in Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa, a stop-motion animated drama that explores a day in the midst of a customer service man’s midlife crisis. Read More

Out in Theaters: ’13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI’

January 14, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, David Denman, Dominic Fumusa, James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Max Martini, Michael Bay, Pablo Scheriber Leave a comment

Michael Bay’s Benghazi movie is predictably terrible; tin-eared, hyper-masculine, loud as can be, excessively brutal, slyly jingoistic and politically tone-deaf. A protracted action film if there ever was one, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi exploits Bay’s worst sensibilities as a director; it showcases his exploitative side, one not in control of tone or mood, blind to any sense of urgency, bombastically working the audience’s patriotic bone until it’s liable to snap. A more preening, hyper-masculine war movie, there may not have been in the 21st century. We’ve seen war as hell a million times. This is war as hoorah and pantie raids. Read More

Out in Theaters: LAMB

January 11, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Bonnie Nadzam, Lamb, Oona Lawrence, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Ross Partridge, SXSW Leave a comment

Director, screenwriter and star Ross Partridge unearths a ripe splintering of soul in the fragile, complex love story that is Lamb. Adapted from Bonnie Nadzam‘s sage but harrowing novel of redemption and temptation, Patridge repurposes the byzantine dynamic of Nadzam’s words to co-exist in the cinematic crossroads of nail-ruining suspense and earnest, didactic sentiments of humanity, all the while subtly wedging in thematic elements of Vladimir Nabokov’s will-they-or-won’t-they statutory misgivings. Read More

Out in Theaters: THE FOREST

January 7, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ben Ketai, Jason Zada, Natalie Dormer, Nick Antosca, Out in Theaters, Sarah Cornwell, Taylor Kinney, The Forest 3 Comments

The Aokigahara forest is a place of living nightmares. The Forest is its own kind of living nightmare. Long known to be unholy grounds for those at the end of their proverbial rope come to see themselves off, the mere existence of Japan’s inland Suicide Forest, a densely populated Sea of Trees at the northwestern base of Mount Fuji, is a haunting reminder of human desperation come home to roost. For decades, Japan’s denizens have chartered a grim pilgrimage to Aokigahara to commit suicide, leaving the forest littered with human remains. The annual amount of pseudo-seppuku that occurs here is so staggering that the park rangers have taken measures to curb the corpses piling up, including affixing the park with suicide prevention information and installing security cameras to monitor for suspected attemptees. Still yet, at least a hundred people will die here every year. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘POINT BREAK’

December 25, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Édgar Ramírez, Ericson Core, Kathryn Bigelow, Kurt Wimmer, Luke Bracey, Out in Theaters, Point Break, Point Break 2015, Ray Winstone, Reviews 2 Comments

It’s no wonder that Warner Brothers canned the remaining press screenings of Point Break and moved the embargo break date to Christmas Day. They want to bury the reviews for this remake-gone-amok in a festive avalanche of holiday cheer. So long as word doesn’t get out that Ericson Core‘s completely unwarranted remake of Kathryn Bigelow‘s action-packed breakout hit is indeed a completely unwarranted remake, they might still stand a chance of picking some unsuspecting pockets. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘DADDY’S HOME’

December 24, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters, Uncategorized Tagged Bobby Cannavale, Daddy's Home, Hannibal Buress, John Cena, Linda Cardellini, Mark Wahlberg, Out in Theaters, Owen Vaccaro, Reviews, Scarlett Estevez, Thomas Haden Church, Will Ferrell Leave a comment

There was an age of Will Ferrell where just about anything the slapstick buffoon did would conjure a hearty laugh from me. His performances in Anchorman, as the verbose, showboating newsman Ron Burgundy, and Step Brothers, as perma-man-child Brendan Huff, send me into a goofy rage of hacking cough fits to this day. But it’s been a hot minute since Ferrell has been able to lock himself and his signature non-sequitors into a winning project and Daddy’s Home continues that losing streak. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘MUSTANG’

December 23, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alice Winocour, Ayberk Pekcan, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Doga Doguslu, Elit Iscan, Gunes Sensoy, Ilayda Akdogan, Mustang, Nihal G. Koldas, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Tugba Sunguroglu, Warren Ellis Leave a comment

Some might find it odd that France’s submission to the 2016 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film is indeed a film that takes place in Northern Turkey with a Turkish cast that deals chiefly with Turkish issues. After watching it though, they will be no doubts to its quality as Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s smartly-named Mustang is a sharp, important piece of international cinema that pushes key issues of marginalized women’s rights to the forefront in a tactful but natural manner. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE BIG SHORT’

December 22, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Adam McKay, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Marisa Tomei, Melissa Leo, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, The Big Short 1 Comment

Adam McKay capped off his 2010 absurdist comedy starring Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell with an out-of-field infographic featuring the numerics on Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme, bailout statistics and insulting ratios between executive and average employee compensation. A strangely politicized move at the time, especially considering chasing the heels of a movie where ho bos band together to have coitus in a Prius, but one that makes sense in the context of McKay’s star-studded passion project The Big Short. Read More