Documentary Dossier: MERU

August 14, 2015 by Harrison Foster Posted in Documentaries, Out in Theaters Tagged Conrad Anker, Documentaries, Jimmy Chin, Jon Krakauer, Meru, Out in Theaters, Renan Ozturk, Reviews 2 Comments

“Everest is for f*cking p*ssies, man.” Not an actual quote from the film, but it might be a good one for you to slip in at the next kickback when the conversation inevitably shifts to what documentaries you and your significant other have been watching on Netflix and what you think of the new season of HBO’s (fill in the blank). Meru is about serious climber bros, dudes who casually remark they’ve been to the top of Everest “four or five times” and one of them has even “skied off the top of Everest.” Hell, when you weekend warriors climb Everest “you can hire Sherpas to take most of the risks.” (And those are actual quotes.) Read More

Out in Theaters: FORT TILDEN

August 14, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Brian Lannin, Bridey Elliott, Charles Rogers, Clare McNulty, Fort Tilden, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Sarah Violet Bliss, SXSW Leave a comment

*This is a reprint of our SXSW 2014 review.

Remember when tying your shoes was an impossible chore? When you could only get places at the discretion of your mom’s minivan? When you didn’t know how to cook yourself a meal so you relied on someone else’s feeding hand so that you wouldn’t starve? These, among others, are lessons that Fort Tilden‘s anti-heroines never seemed to learn. Read More

Out in Theaters: STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON

August 13, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Aldis Hodge, Corey Hawkins, Dr. Dre, F. Gary Gray, Ice Cube, Jason Mitchell, N.W.A., Neil Brown Jr., O’Shea Jackson Jr., Out in Theaters, Paul Giammatti, Reviews, Straight Outta Compton 3 Comments

F. Gary Gray’s blimp rose alongside Ice Cube. In 1992, he directed Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” before directing the rapper-turned-actor’s cinematic debut Friday. He went on to carve a real name for himself at a ripe young age directing music videos for other black artists including Ice Cube homeboy and N.W.A. group member Dr. Dre, Tupac, Jay-Z and hip-hop supergroups Cypress Hill, TLC and Outkast. In 2003, Gray blew up the box office with a retelling of The Italian Job while his last film, Law Abiding Citizen, more blew up in his face. 6 years on, Gray has returned to Hollywood to aid in telling the tale of hip-hop superstar group N.W.A. (we’ll go by the innocent ignorance of Jerry Heller and pretend that’s the abbreviation for “No Whites Allowed) with Straight Outta Compton. Read More

Talking With Kevin Bacon of COP CAR

August 13, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Cop Car, Interviews, Kevin Bacon 5 Comments

To promote his new film Cop Car, a thinly plotted but hugely enjoyable genre flick that mixes suspense and high violence with a coming-of-age bent [review here], Kevin Bacon was in town, hitting the Seattle International Film Festival red carpet in style. After talking briefly about who he’d choose to bequeath the honor of Six Degrees of Bacon upon (other Kevin actors: Spacey, Klein, etc.) Kevin and I talked being Kevin Bacon, playing cops, not being pigeon-holed or type-cast, crafting a character from little dialogue, jumping back and forth from movies to television and not watching his old movies.

Out in Theaters: COP CAR

August 13, 2015 by Madelyn Sutton Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Cop Car, Kevin Bacon, Out in Theaters, Review 2 Comments

Succinctness in the contemporary thriller is a rare and precious virtue. In the case of Cop Car, the brute simplicity of the narrative and visuals make for a dread-filled, inexorable ride through an experience of unadulterated suspense and brutal humor.

Cop Car begins innocently (though worryingly) enough: two pre-teens cross an empty expanse somewhere flat, sun-drenched and dry; one is reciting increasingly bad swear words, which the other repeats, laying out the dynamic of their relationship that will lead, inevitably, to what comes next. They spot an apparently abandoned cop car in a lonely copse and dare each other to get closer, until they are not only sitting in the front seats but driving it – slowly at first, then egging each other on to hit the 100mph mark. The film cuts to moments before: Kevin Bacon, who we learn is the sheriff, parks the same car where they will find it, and begins a bit of “cleanup” work just outside of hearing range; when he returns, the car is gone, and so the chase begins. Read More

Out in Theaters: THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

August 12, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alicia Vikander, Armie Hammer, Elizabeth Debicki, Guy Ritchie, Henry Cavill, Hugh Grant, Out in Theaters, Reviews, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Leave a comment

Guy Ritchie is the Rembrandt of slick action capers. His signature twisty-turny plotting suggests a much more reined-in Shyamalan while his carefully syncopated, pop-art action beats share a locker with contemporaries Zack Snyder and Matthew Vaughn. From Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Ritchie has operated within a comparable sandbox, utilizing a very similar set of stock tools within shifting budgetary constraints. With The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Ritchie has set aside his signature accoutrements for something with an embarrassment of cinematic fervor. His latest creation is chic and classic, timely yet timeless, shiny on the surface with rich characters driving the engine underneath. This much fun is rare at the theaters. Read More

The Deepest Cuts: MYSTICS IN BALI (1981)

August 12, 2015 by Madelyn Sutton Posted in Retrospectives Tagged Horror, Mystics in Bali, The Deepest Cuts 1 Comment

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.

Witchcraft, voodoo, black magic: spiritual practices which harness otherworldly powers are inherently fascinating to the outsider and have provided research material and fodder for wild and often dangerously prejudicial imaginings for centuries. Take a classic dramatic work like The Crucible or Dreyer’s Day of Wrath, in which witchcraft serves as the metaphorical fulcrum for political or moral lessons, where the existence of the supernatural is either completely discounted or irrelevant. These are important, valuable contributions to art, society, and so on. In stark contrast are just the kind of films we’re interested in, wherein the dark forces are definitely real and the only moral lesson is simple: don’t fuck with the occult. Mystics in Bali is a totally one-of-a-kind example of the latter.

Talking With Jemaine Clement of PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS

August 12, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Flight of the Conchords, Interviews, James Strouse, Jemaine Clement, People Places Things, The Big Friendly Giant, What We Do in the Shadows 1 Comment

Jemaine Clement, introverted funnyman that he is, has an awkward charm to him that escapes most of his Hollywood peers. He’s coy with his comedy, firing off in quiet bursts rather than erupting like an attention-whoring lime light volcano. In short, his timidness is his strongest weapon. Read More

Out in Theaters: PEOPLE, PLACES, THINGS

August 12, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Jemaine Clement, Jessica Williams, Jim Strouse, Michael Chernus, Out in Theaters, People Places Things, Regina Hall, Reviews 1 Comment

*This is a reprint of our 2015 Sundance review.

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 [Editor’s note: we’ve now seen Shadows. We loved it.] Nor can we really kid ourselves into believing that Clement’s existence beyond Flight of the Concords has been far-reaching – though his role as Boris the Animal was an easy highlight of Men in Black 3 and tapped into his unrealized Hollywood potential. So it’s with a heaving sigh of relief that we can announce that Clement has finally been given a role worthy of his gawky stature in the delightful, funny and tender People, Places, Things. Read More

Out in Theaters: THE BOY

August 12, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Craig William Macneill, David Morse, Horror, Jared Breeze, Out in Theaters, Rainn Wilson, Reviews, The Boy Leave a comment

*This is a reprint of our SXSW 2015 review.

Ted (Jared Breeze) is a serial killer in the making. He’s only nine years old but all the warning signs are there in Craig William Macneill’s slow burning but explosively rewarding motion picture. Like the great unmade redneck prequel to The Good Son, The Boy shows the quiet transformation of ennui to psychosis as an immeasurably bored towhead graduates from coaxing animals to their death to killing them outright before finally setting his sights on his own genus and gene pool. Read More