Out in Theaters: ‘FINDING DORY’

June 16, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Albert Brooks, Andrew Stanton, Angus MacLane, Diane Keaton, Dominic West, Ed O’Neill, Ellen DeGeneres, Eugene Levy, Finding Dory, Finding Nemo 2, Idris Elba, Kaitlin Olson, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Sigourney Weaver, Ty Burrell 1 Comment

Once upon a time, Pixar was infallible. Of their first 11 films, only one (Cars) was a dud (or at least a letdown) and even then it was one of the studio’s most bankable flicks. Now, take a peek at Pixar’s business model going forward. The animation studio, now infamously paired up with Disney, have pledged to produce an original film every year coupled with a sequel to an existing property that’ll see release every other year. This means Cars 3, The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4 have already begun development. Respectively finishing off a trilogy that adults have responded to with almost as much non-enthusiasm as toy sales the property has generated. Perhaps the most in-demand and long-awaited Pixar sequel to-be. And another capstone to Pixar’s gold standard franchise, which many believe to have already been concluded to near-perfection in 2010. Read More

SIFF ’16 Capsule Review: ‘DON’T THINK TWICE’

June 10, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Don’t Think Twice, Gillian Jacobs, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Birbiglia, Reviews, Seattle International Film Festival 2016, SIFF 2016 Leave a comment

Improv is about following the germ of an idea until it’s reach its most preposterous conclusion and with emotionally honest and rib-tickling seriocomedy Don’t Think Twice, Mike Birbiglia has, like a great improv thread taken to its most radical extreme, tangentially bloomed into himself as a director. His comedy manifesto has always tilted at harvesting truth over triviality and his framing of lifelong relationships splintering and fraternal bonds fracturing creates a heartrending account of the invoice of self-interest as a group of comic friends/collegaues infight to land a gig on an intellectually-bankrupt SNL-type sketch show. Watching Birbiglia drive a wedge between this collection of funny people who feed off each other’s energy for a living makes for powerful, character-driven work and the cast, including a standout Keegan-Michael Key and Gillian Jacobs, is more than game bringing dramatic gravitas, in addition to comedic jabs aplenty, to the table. (B+)

Out in Theaters: ‘THE CONJURING 2’

June 9, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Benjamin Haigh, Frances O’Connor, Horror, James Wan, Joseph Bishara, Lauren Esposito, Madison Wolfe, Out in Theaters, Patrick McAuley, Patrick Wilson, Reviews, Simon McBurney, The Conjuring 2, Vera Farmiga 1 Comment

Horror sequels have an unfortunate tendency to exude contempt for their audience. More often than not, the same formula is conscripted, wrangling selfsame plot lines (often in a new location or with new characters) that encompass similar beats and familiar frights. 9 Nightmare on Elm Street movies, 10 Halloween films and 12 Friday the 13th flicks can speak to the process. Rinse, repeat, rank in the cash. And while there’s nothing distinctively different to James Wan’s approach this second time around the Conjuring fairgrounds (save for a somewhat unnecessary additional 20 minutes pumped into the runtime), The Conjuring 2 remains a massively effective instrument for scaring the living shit out of oneself. Read More

Out in Theaters: ‘WARCRAFT’

June 8, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Ben Foster, Ben Schnetzer, Charles Leavitt, Chris Metzen, Daniel Wu, Dominic Cooper, Duncan Jones, Out in Theaters, Paula Patton, Ramin Djawadi, Reviews, Toby Kebbell, Travis Fimmel, Warcraft, Worst of 2016 4 Comments

Warcraft, the uber-geeky, crazy-spendy passion project/live-action shart from director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) attempts to capitalize on a prodigious worldwide fandom by kowtowing to the nerdy needs of message board trolls and Mountain Dew guzzlers. In bending the knee, the once-great auteur has log-jammed his feature with a waterfall of meaningless (at least to non-World-of-Warcraft-gamers) exposition, allowing for a marble-mouthed plot that’s so dense, so busy and so blundering, one can only shudder at the thought of the echo chamber of dorks responsible for letting this 160-million dollar turkey come to fruition. But their foul cinematic foal has come home to roost in all its Avian-diseased glory and the symphony of ill-timed laughs and exasperated sighs shall serve as unbiased representation of what is in store for Warcraft viewers. Reckless fan servicing, harebrained plot devices and dramatically empty characterization all mash their meaty skulls to render a film that’s entirely inaccessible and subsequently snoozy as all hell for anyone without extreme existing affinity for the source material, making Warcraft, in effect, the world’s most expensive sleep aid. Read More

SIFF ’16 Capsule Review: ‘THE LURE’

June 4, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Poland, Reviews, Seattle International Film Festival 2016, SIFF 2016, The Lure Leave a comment

As dark and psychosexual a rock opera about mermaids that could be imagined, Poland’s The Lure is a melodramatic fairytale plumped with melodic house music, chilling surrealism and dripping monster fangs. Two all-singing, all-stripping sea-born sisters populate seedy dance-halls and sudsy clubs with their the croon of their siren lullabies, flirting with the idea of first love and eating the clientele. Big, bold and weird, The Lure is a Freudian nightmare of BDSM Grimm Brother woes that engagingly pairs its wacky siren songs to the fairly basic narrative arc at play. This technically impressive 80s-Tim-Burton-creation-that-never-was is a grungy, grimy, punky protest maritime song splattered with boobs, blood and peculiarly catchy ballads. (B-)

SIFF ’16 Capsule Review: ‘CARNAGE PARK’

June 3, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Ashley Bell, Carnage Park, Horror, Mickey Keating, Pat Healy, Reviews, Seattle International Film Festival 2016, SIFF 2016 1 Comment

Mickey Keating‘s Carnage Park starts in admirably economic fashion, rending down its slim cast to even slimmer form with a dead-eyed, high-pitched, Bible-thumping Pat Healy tagging human targets with his handy sniper rifle beset with all the rage and judgement of the Old Testament guy upstairs. Ashley Bell plays opposite as the desert-set horror’s shrieky final girl – the victim of a kidnapping who then finds herself in even more hostile territory – and while Keating’s film goes through fits and starts of amassing and losing steam, the final product feels like an over-saturated amalgam of grindhouse slasher flick tropes forked together and raked over a somewhat barren “based on a true story” conceit. Imagine Wolf Creek stripped of its anarchic edge and plunked down in an equally sun-scorched Jesus-lovin’, American nowheresville and you’ll get the picture. (C)
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Out in Theaters: ‘TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS’

June 2, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged André Nemec, Brad Garrett, Brian Tee, Dave Green, Gary Anthony Williams, Josh Appelbaum, Megan Fox, Michael Bay, Noel Fisher, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Stephen Amell, Stephen Farrelly, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows., Tyler Perry 3 Comments

I’ll preface this review with an admission: I am not nor have ever been amongst the Ninja Turtles fandom. If that disqualifies me from passing judgement on this film (fact: it does not) then please, be on your way. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I have however eaten my fare share of Kraft Mac ’n’ Cheese out of a Donatello or Leonardo-fixtured bowl throughout my day – probably more recently than I would care to admit – and that ought to prove credential enough to talk about this mouthful of a dazzlingly busy kiddie sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. Read More

SIFF ’16 Capsule Review: ‘ALONE’

June 2, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Alone, Park Hong-min, Reviews, Seattle International Film Festival 2016, SIFF 2016 Leave a comment

This shantytown import from South Korea sees a voyeur stalked and killed by criminals before seemingly being reincarnated and forced to live out his attack over and over again under different circumstances. Structured a bit like a choose your own adventure book when you keep running into the wrong ending and starting over, Alone covers a lot of narrative ground, forklifting dramatic and romantic plotlines into its dreamlike psycho-thriller framework to mixed effect. The result is kaleidoscopic and disorienting but the individual moments contribute dramatic heft to Park Hong-min’s altered state cinema. When all is said and done, it’s tough to parse fiction from reality and, most frustratingly, if anything ever even happened at all. (C+)

Out in Theaters: ‘POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING’

June 1, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Comedy, Jorma Taccone, Judd Apatow, Justin Timberlake, Mariah Carey, Michael Bolton, Out in Theaters, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Reviews, RZA, Simon Cowell, The Lonely Island, Tim Meadows, Usher, Will Arnett 1 Comment

It was 2003 when I first stumbled across the The Lonely Island. Their rib-tickling send-up of soapy MTV teen dramas ‘The Bu’ played top billing on Channel 101, an off-color, online shorts fest where hungry filmmakers featured their work gratis for weirdos like myself to ingest. Credit Frazzles the Squirrel (and his unfaltering demand for removing and reapplying one’s 3D glasses) for inviting those curious few to investigate these Lonely Island boys down a certifiable rabbit hole of YouTube oddities starring Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer. Preeminently awkward shorts from the Lonely Island trio included such deadpan standouts as ‘Just 2 Guyz” (later adapted into ‘We Like Sports’ for their 2009 album Incredibad), ‘The Backseatsman’ and ‘Ka-Blamo!’. After a momentous run on SNL that saw the three breach viral numbers with just about every digital short they dropped, Sandberg, Taccone and Schaffer have reunited for their second feature film, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and have demonstrated that though their production value may be more refined and expensive than ever and their cameo catalogue infinitely more vast, their comedic stylings have adamantly refused to mature, a tendency which proves to be both a gift and a curse for The Lonely Island and their creative offspring. 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