SIFF ’16 Capsule Review: ‘TAG’

Sion Sono’s Tag is a maelstrom of WTF; an absolutely bonkers satire of feudal sexual tensions in his home nation of Japan, characterized by an absolutely unpredictable, heady plot wormhole that snakes from killer wind to murderous schoolteachers, wedding assassins to a simple foot marathon. Accomplished with keen wit, unnerving cinematic bravado and a healthy obsession with the eccentric, Tag is Lynchian surrealism imported from Japan; ironic, macabre, risky, weird and powerful. Just when you think you know where it’s going next, it completes a pirouette to spin you entirely off base to leave your mind somersaulting. Those expecting a B-movie splatterfest will instead find their heads pried apart by Sono’s unrelenting and challenging exploration of basic human decency in a male-dominated world. (B+) Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE LOBSTER’

May 26, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Angeliki Papoulia, Ben Whishaw, Colin Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Out in Theaters, Rachel Weisz, Reviews, The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos Leave a comment

Being single is illegal. Those unfortunate enough to remain unspoken for are forced into unbecoming ponchos to hide out in perpetually drizzly U.K. forests, dodging trigger happy hunters locked, stocked and loaded with tranquiler guns, motivated to track them down and capture them. The remaining option for singletons comes in the form of a one-way ticket to a matchmaker hotel where they’ll endure 45 days of punishing “romance” seminars in hopes of finding a mate. Those who “don’t make it” are turned into an animal of their choosing. David’s (Colin Ferrell) desired animal is a lobster. And such is Yorgos Lanthimos’ demented lifecycle in his fifth feature film The Lobster. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘LOVE & FRIENDSHIP’

May 25, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chloë Sevigny, Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh, Emma Greenwell, Jane Austen, Kate Beckinsale, Love & Friendship, Morfydd Clark, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Stephen Fry, Tom Bennett, Whit Stillman, Xavier Samuel 1 Comment

In Whit Stillman’s sprightly and effervescently comical Love & Friendship, the Victorian era gets an uproarious facelift. Based on Jane Austen’s novella ‘Lady Susan’ (but going by the moniker of yet another Austen title), Love & Friendship is a frilly costume drama plump with acidic joviality and atypically boiling over with meaty guffaws. For those who typically avoid hifalutin, period piece fare, which Stillman’s picture appears to be from an arm’s length, expect to rather entreat with a tongue-in-cheek send up; a welcome vacation from formality and frivolity. His one-of-kind character piece is injected with barbed zingers, sharp witticisms and a tangy, irreverent touch, like a creampuff fluffed full with key lime paste but still absolutely delicious. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘THE NICE GUYS’

May 18, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Most Popular, Out in Theaters Tagged David Buckley, John Ottman, Kym Barrett, Margaret Qualley, Out in Theaters, Philippe Rousselot, Reviews, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Shane Black, The Nice Guys, Yaya DaCosta 5 Comments

Shane Black has been defining and redefining the buddy cop movie since 1987, a year that saw his script for Lethal Weapon green lit under the tutelage of director Richard Donner. It took Black almost 20 years to step behind the directorial chair himself, debuting Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005 and bringing along with him the rebirth of the buddy cop flick and the resurgence of Robert Downey Jr’s career. Now another decade on, Black has returned to the sub-genre that he – like some primordial catalyzing agent – helped evolve throughout the years to present The Nice Guys, 2016’s fly-in-the-face-of-tradition response to the 21st century buddy cop crisis. Read More

Talking with Robert Eggers of ‘THE WITCH’

May 17, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews Tagged Horror, Interviews, Robert Eggers, Talking With Series, The Witch 3 Comments

Robert Eggers‘ first trip to Sundance was rewarded with a little thing called the Best Director award. Since then, he’s seen his New England-based independent horror film soar, earning a fervent critical backing and loads of support. But not everything has been roses. I chatted with the first-time director to discuss the years-long journey of making and releasing The Witch, the current state of horror movies, religious zealotry and the history of American witchcraft, the modern equivalent of witches, working with children actors to elicit believable performances, and how to deal with negative reactions to the film. Read More

‘THE WITCH’ Blu-Ray Review

May 17, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Blu-Ray/DVD Reviews Tagged Anya Taylor-Joy, DVD/Blu-Ray Review, Ellie Grainger, Kate Dickie, Lucas Dawson, Ralph Ineson, The Witch Leave a comment

Synopsis: “In 1630 New England, panic and despair envelops a farmer (Ralph Ineson), his wife (Kate Dickie) and four of their children when youngest son Samuel suddenly vanishes. The family blames Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), the oldest daughter who was watching the boy at the time of his disappearance. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, twin siblings Mercy (Ellie Grainger) and Jonas (Lucas Dawson) suspect Thomasin of witchcraft, testing the clan’s faith, loyalty and love to one another.” Read More

Electrifying Horror Film ‘DON’T BREATHE’ Drops First Trailer

May 13, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Trailers Tagged Don’t Breathe, Dylan Minnette, Fede Alvarez, Horror, Jane Levy, Stephen Lang, Trailers Leave a comment

My favorite film out of SXSW 2016 was Fede Alvarez‘s unceasingly tense Don’t Breathe. I was so frequently startled, so genuinely unnerved that it physically hurt. And my god do I love that kind of pain. Call it what you will (masochism?) but horror films have the ability to engage sections of the brain that no other film can and Don’t Breathe is expert at doing just that. Part of my experience may have been going in with no expectations, knowing not a lick of info on what the film was about (or even called for that matter) but the fact remains that Alvarez has crafted a masterstroke of American horror cinema with his follow up to Evil Dead. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘MONEY MONSTER’

May 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alan DiFiore, George Clooney, Jack O'Connell, Jamie Linden, Jim Kouf, Jodie Foster, Julia Roberts, Money Monster, Out in Theaters, Reviews Leave a comment

From breaking out as a teenage prostitute in Martin Scorsese’s seminal Taxi Driver to becoming a household name to snatching a pair of Academy Awards to her semi-retirement from acting to focus on directing, Jodie Foster’s career has seen many evolutions. As a director, The Silence of the Lambs actress has sharpened her craft exponentially over the years, veering from such trite family-friendly material as Little Man Tate and Home for the Holidays to more adult-oriented material such as Mel Gibson-starring drama The Beaver, itself a horrendous victim of terrible timing. Her latest feature is another confident step forward, its incisive themes and hard-R sensibilities informed by her tenure as a guest director for Netflix’s two biggest and most mature hits: House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. With Money Monster, Foster finally sheds the skin of an actress experimenting with the format and actualizes as an genuine director of note. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘LAST DAYS IN THE DESERT’

May 11, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ciarán Hinds, Emmanuel Lubezki, Ewan McGregor, Last Days in the Desert, Out in Theaters Rodrigo García, Reviews Sundance 2015, Tye Sheridan Leave a comment

Director Rodrigo García claimed two themes interested him most in his articulation of Jesus’ untold 40 day fast in the desert. The first: the primordial idea of how a boy becomes a man, a step that Garcia contents happens “with or without his father’s help of permission.” The second theme surrounds the notion of creationism, both in a spiritual and storyteller’s sense. García himself underwent a creation process in the construction of Last Days in the Desert, weaving a fictitious narrative out of a notable absence in Jesus’ origin story – only mentioned in passing in the Gospels but entirely bereft of detail. This absence of a story drew García to the project, offering him an entrance into a narrative that felt to him inspired, fresh and wildly important. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘X-MEN: APOCALYPSE’

May 9, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Alexandra Shipp, Bryan Singer, Evan Peters, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Lana Condor, Lucas Till, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Simon Kinberg, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, X-Men: Apocalypse 7 Comments

“Everyone knows the third one is always the worst,” a young Jean Grey (Game of Throne’s Sophie Turner) ironically reports, exiting a 1983 screening of Return of the Jedi. She’s right of course: Jedi is the lesser of the original Star Wars trilogy. But to her larger point: the culmination of trilogies often results in some degree of disappointment, sometimes even sullying the good name of that whence came before it. Take Godfather: Part III, The Dark Knight Rises, The Matrix Revolutions, Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, ALIEN3, Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome, Terminator: Rise of the Machines and of course, Brett Ratner’s quite bad X-Men: The Last Stand. Jean’s remark, planted as it is in what is the third film of this newfangled X-Men trilogy, is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, perhaps both a potshot at Ratner’s derided 2006 entry to the franchise and a preemptive snarky parlay to the film’s inevitable detractors, because believe me when I say, X-Men: Apocalypse proves Jean Grey’s point. Read More