Out in Theaters: ‘A WRINKLE IN TIME’

March 7, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ava DuVernay, Chris Pine, Deric McCabe, Jeff Stockwell, Jennifer Lee, Levi Miller, Mindy Kaling, Oprah Winfrey, Out in Theaters, Reese Witherspoon, Reviews Leave a comment

Ava DuVernay’s well-intentioned adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s popular children’s book of the same name is a tenaciously tedious, psychedelically sloppy slog. Championing a well-meaning message of the bonds of family and acceptance of oneself, the actual movie is a mind-numbing flurry of exposition vomit, hurried character development and drag-show pizzaz. DuVernay’s tale of a brother and sister hunting their lost father (Chris Pine) throughout the galaxy is constantly on the go, relying on bright pops of color and shimmery CGI to cover up the gaping plot holes developed courtesy of its neck-break pace. Characters explain the plot ad nauseum, using in-house lingo sure to leave many skeptical eyes a’rollin’, as the story whirls from one underdeveloped thread to another at light-speed pace. At once too dark for the younger crowd and too childish for true blue teenagers, A Wrinkle in Time really only appeals to the tween ADHD crowd who likes their stories delivered fast and loose and colorful beyond belief.
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Out in Theaters: ‘DEATH WISH’

March 1, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters, Uncategorized Tagged Bruce Willis, Camila Morrone, Dean Norris, Death Wise, Death Wish, Elisabeth Shue, Vincent D'Onofrio Leave a comment

In all of the nightmare scenarios that Eli Roth has cooked up in the past, he probably couldn’t have written a more unwelcoming and hostile zeitgeist to deliver his latest film, Death Wish, into. Just two weeks after an assailant took the lives of 17 victims at the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the Bruce Willis-starring, gun-toting revenge fantasy – a remake of the 1974 Charles Bronson film of the same name – champions vigilante justice and romanticizes gun violence in gleefully tone-deaf manner, one that only works in a deluded Trumpian analysis of America and opportunist justice. Worse still, with no style or swagger of its own to speak of, Death Wish has little flair to hang upon its misguided and decidedly uncritical core, making it one big, stinking waste of time and not much fun to boot. Read More

Official 2018 Academy Awards Prediction

February 28, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Awards Tagged Academy Awards, Oscars Leave a comment

Each and every year, us film bloggers fold ourselves into a pretzel trying to prognosticate the winners of these awards downwind a country mile with nothing but the occasional whiff of “Actual Oscar Ballot”. Personally, I’ve kind of fallen out of the habit of tracking these things – but have relished the opportunity to be a voting member of our local Seattle Film Critics Society Awards – as they “sprint” (read: crawl) down the five-plus month track to the end all be all of awards’ ceremonies – The Oscars. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘ANNIHILATION’

February 22, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged Alex Garland, Annihilation, Gina Rodriguez, Jeff VanderMeer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny 2 Comments

Alex Garland, the visionary writer-director behind Ex Machina, obsesses over ideas of what it means to be human. With Ex Machina, he explored the inception of A.I. and how true artificial intelligence blurs the line between human and “other” to dizzying, disorienting and apocalyptic result. In his writing effort Never Let Me Go, Garland posed similar – if less refined – questions, posing an analogous emotional experiment with clones as the test subject, begging his audience to work out what separates “us” from “them”. “If they feel, are they not too human?” was the central thrust and this idea has continue to haunt Garland’s films. Never Let Me Go was a lesser effort but came from a place of ripe ideology and artistic thoughtfulness, traits which Garland has never lacked and has gone on to define to great effect. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘BLACK PANTHER’

February 14, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Andy Serkis, Angela Basset, Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Forest Whitaker, Kendrick Lamar, Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Marvel, MCU, Michael B. Jordan, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Ryan Coogler 3 Comments

Heavy hangs the crown in Black Panther, a Marvel movie whose real-life cultural and societal implications overshadow its storytelling prowess. The import and impact of Black Panther as a chapter in film history cannot be overstated. Although this isn’t Hollywood’s first attempt to turn a historically black superhero into the main event, headlining their own tentpole film – consider Wesley Snipes run as the vampire-hunter Blade, Halle Berry’s turn as Catwoman, Will Smith’s alcoholic anti-hero Hancock or even Shaquille O’Neal’s turn as Steel – this feels like a first in part because of how much effort has been poured into its making and, more importantly, how readily it embraces its fundamental blackness, from its colorful African settings to its tribally-influenced makeup, hairstyle, and costumes to its predominately black cast and crew, a verifiable assemblage of talent that’ll turn even the most skeptical of heads. Read More

Sundance ’18 Review: ‘TIME SHARE’

January 24, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Cassandra Ciangherotti, Luis Gerardo Mendez, Miguel Rodarte, Montserrat Marañon, Reviews, Sebastián Hofmann, Sundance 2018, Time Share Leave a comment

Hell is a timeshare. A designated parcel of property allocated to your family for one immobile week each year. A curated escape, one characterized by pool floaties, crawfish-colored sunburns and frozen cocktails melting in plastic hurricane cups, that lives in a state of semi-stasis. There’s a kind of “Twilight Zone” quality to the whole notion of the billion dollar industry – this turnstile of the self-safe experience, pocked with undulating regret for much of its clientele. Anyone who’s ever attended one know that the only thing worse than being padlocked to an eternal timeshare is facing a sales rep at a timeshare pitch and Sebastián Hofmann’s film, the aptly named Time Share (Tiempo Compartido), captures the sheer horror of that corporate jockeying for one’s undying commitment. Read More

2017 Silver Screen Riot Awards

January 23, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Awards, Lists Tagged Barry Keoghan, Birdboy, Get Out, Jodran Peele, Michele Pfeiffer, paul thomas anderson, Raw, Robert Pattinson. Frances McDormand, Silver Screen Riot Awards, The Work 3 Comments

With the announcement of the Academy Awards nominees, we’re finally in the race to the finale of this year’s award’s seasons. Seeing that Mr. Oscar tends to get it wrong so much of the time (although this year’s nominees were fairly great across the board), we have an annual tradition of issuing our own awards to recognize the best storytelling and performances throughout the year. Since we’re not tied to any silly number of nominees, we went ahead and listed every one that we thought deserving of a mention, even if the list well exceed more than 5 or 10. You won’t find a Best Picture category here as I think that is properly summarized by our Top Ten Films segment, which I would urge you to visit if you haven’t already. With that out of the way, the SSR Award goes to… Read More

Out in Theaters: ’12 STRONG’

January 18, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chris Hemsworth, Michael Pena, Michael Shannon, Navid Negahban, Nicolai Fuglsig, Out in Theaters, Peter Craig, Reviews, Taylor Sheridan, Ted Tally, Trevante Rhodes Leave a comment

12 Strong calls in the cavalry on Al-Qaeda in Nicolai Fuglsig’s “declassified true story of the horse soldiers”. Spurred by the 9/11 terror attacks, Captain Mitch Nelson (Chris Hemsworth) leaves behind a safe, cushy military desk job to lead a team of special forces to the sandy front lines of the War on Terror. There, he must earn the trust of an Afghan warlord to take down a critical Taliban position. We’re told repeatedly that the fate of the War rests on this mission’s success and, well, we all know how that one turned out. Generic on most accounts, 12 Strong is an inoffensive American war movie relying on offensive war-mongering tactics. The semi-sturdy if mostly unremarkable acting and blasé set pieces lack the praise-worthy or memorable accents to set 12 Strong aside from the harras. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘PHANTOM THREAD’

January 16, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Lesley Manville, Out in Theaters, paul thomas anderson, Phantom Thread, Reviews, Vicky Krieps 1 Comment

Merriam Webster defines sumptuous as something that is “rich, luxurious, or magnificent” and I cannot think of a better application of the word than to describe Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest feature, Phantom Thread. A marvel of filmmaking, Phantom Thread as a piece of modern art is absolutely decadent – from the luscious cinematography to the snide and sneakily funny script, the nerve-racking sound design to the rich, textured performances. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE COMMUTER’

January 10, 2018 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Byron Willinger, Jaume Collet-Serra, Jonathan Banks, Liam Neeson, Philip de Blasi, Ryan Engle., The Commuter, Vera Farmiga Leave a comment

Danny Glover’s Murtaugh famously opined in Richard Donner’s classic American buddy cop flick Lethal Weapon, “I’m too old for this shit.” He was 41 at the time. Liam Neeson, age 65 (full benefit retirement age for US citizens), is way too old for this shit. And in a humdrum action-thriller like The Commuter, it shows. Had this Taken on a Train redux a good shake more intelligence and a portion less generic action hero fisticuffs, casting Neeson as down-on-his-luck ex-cop turned insurance-hawking family man Michael MacCauley would make perfect sense. As it stands, The Commuter is just another forgettable notch in Neeson’s geriatric action movie phase defined by jarring editing and risible action that can’t strike a passable balance between taking itself seriously and being utterly ridiculous. Read More