Film Reviews, Interviews and Articles
Like any year, 2015 was a hotbed for steamy cinematic turds – and I don’t even watch Adam Sandler movies or Friedberg-Seltzer spoofs. Because let’s be honest, neither of the above have been good since I was in diapers. So for all the A+’s of 2015, there were accompanying F’s. For all the sweet, sweet victories, there were pussing, gaping canker sores. For every Leonardo DiCaprio, there is a Ryan Guzman. And a Ryan Guzman always brings the party down. Read More
Well well well. 2015 has finally reached its end. After 201 films, 25 interviews (including Robert Duvall, Kevin Bacon, Jason Segel, Jason Schwartzman, Greta Gerwig, Jemaine Clement, Alex Garland, and Nick Kroll to name just a few), three massive international film festivals and countless hours spend idly engaged in film banter with my always entertaining gang of colleagues and peers at various Seattle screening rooms, I can finally come to the conclusion that, for what it’s worth, 2015 was an odd duck for film. Read More
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
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
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
Previously titled That’s What I’m Talking About, Richard Linklater‘s 80s college baseball comedy-drama Everybody Wants Some saw its first trailer hit the internet tonight. The film, opening in theaters on April 15, 2016 but premiering a month before at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival, stars Blake Jenner, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Wyatt Russell and Zoey Deutch. Linklater has called the film a “spiritual sequel” to his 1993 cult classic Dazed and Confused and a natural follow-up to Boyhood which followed the story of Mason from age six up until his first days at college. Read More
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
There has been an awakening. With a $238 million opening weekend, the box office roared to live, stoked by the Mustafar-sized conflagration of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, quickly making this seventh Star Wars film the biggest opening of all time and putting it on track to dethrone the highest grossing films ever. But all money aside, the real question on everyone’s lips were, is it good? Thankfully, the answer was a resounding yes. With a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, critics and fans alike have rallied around the J.J. Abrams product like Ewoks on a post-Empire Endor. But that doesn’t mean that the film didn’t have its share of lows amongst the highs. Read More
Paolo Sorrentino‘s Youth is a picturesque bore. A wandering meditation on the lives of those who’ve already lived it, Youth begs questions about family and legacy and the ugliness involved with both. Not unlike Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty, Youth features handsome camerawork and lively, thoughtful performances but is ultimately unable to plant much reason for remembering it once it’s past or passing a recommendation along. Read More
Telling the rousing story of Lili Elbe, a landscape artist who was the first to undergo gender correction surgery, Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper enlists a talented crew lead by last year’s Oscar-winner Eddie Redmaye and illustrious hot ticket item Alicia Vikander. Both show off their acting chops like wolves gnashing at lambs but there’s an uncomfortable air of assumed prestige to Redmayne’s whisper-heavy performance and Tom Hooper’s mawkish tendencies on full display. Redmayne’s clearly a phenomenal talent but, in a role that requires so much externalization of ticking internal clockwork, his turn as Lili risks being too showy, much like the film itself. On the surface, The Danish Girl is among the most “progressive” movies of the year and yet it can never stay the feeling of being tame, almost safe. Read More