SXSW ’16 Review: ‘HUSH’

March 15, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Horror, Hush, John Gallagher Jr., Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco, Mike Flanagan, Reviews, Samantha Sloyan 1 Comment

To start with a bit of housekeeping, Hush joined the critically acclaimed Iranian Sundance debut Under the Shadow when it was swept up by preeminent streaming service Netflix before it was ever screened in front of an audience. Adding to their growing stockade of boutique horror films, Netflix has queued up the Mike Flanagan-directed thriller starring John Gallagher Jr. and Kate Siegel for fast turnaround release on April 8th. Meaning that those who want to get pupils on this high intensity home invasion thriller as soon as possible won’t be forced to wait long, however Hush, a film that lives and dies by its supreme sound design, should be experienced in the filmic church that is the theater. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘WAR ON EVERYONE’

March 14, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Alexander Skarsgård, Caleb Landry Jones, John Michael McDonagh, Michael Pena, Reviews, SXSW 2016, Theo James Leave a comment

John Michael McDonagh stepped out from the shadows of filmmaker young brother Martin McDonagh, who’s crafted such cult modern classics as In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, in 2011 when he debuted The Guard. That film went on to mild box office success (overseas) and general critical adoration, though I’ll admit the deadpan acidic humor never quite reached me the way that it had so many others. McDonagh’s latest, and his first film set on American soil, is War On Everyone and represents a clear, though offbeat, progression of the director’s interests. Within, he declares war on traditional narrative constructs of law and lawless, cops and robbers, good and evil, giving a grand total of zero fucks along the way. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘A STRAY’

March 13, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged A Stray, Barkhard Abdirahman, Musa Syeed, Reviews, SXSW 2016 1 Comment

An introspective sociopolitical drama about a discarded Somalian, A Stray stars Captain Phillip’s Barkhard Abdirahman as Adan, a refugee living on the streets of Minneapolis who happens upon a lost dog. Without a home or hearth of his own, Adan is unable to provide for himself much less another helpless lot of God’s creations. Complicating the issue is the fact that Adan is a semi-devout Muslim, a religion that sees dogs – stray or not – as impure beasts, not meant for handling, much less ownership. What plays out is a somber reflection on religion and personal values, experienced through an eye-opening Third World lens. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘KEANU’

March 13, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Jordan Peele, Keanu, Keegan-Michael Key, Method Man, Peter Atencio, Reviews, SXSW 2016, Will Forte 1 Comment

When Key & Peele premiered in 2012 on Comedy Central, it was as close to an overnight success as any sober TV producer could hope for. The sketch comedy show that covered anything from pop-culture fandom to racial relationships, all with unprecedentedly competent production value, found even more love on YouTube where many of their brief sketches ratcheted up views in the millions. From their jocular takedown of the Obama administration to nonsensical athlete names to 80s aerobic videos, there were few rocks left unturned and a remarkable percentage of hits to misses. When the show took its bow in September of 2015, fans were predictably heartbroken to see the righteous comic duo come to an end. If Keanu is proof of one thing and one thing only, it’s at the very essence of Key & Peele will live on so long as Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele continue to collaborate in any way shape or form. And that my friends is a fact worth celebrating. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘MIDNIGHT SPECIAL’

March 13, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Adam Driver, Bill Camp, Jaeden Liebeher, Jeff Nichols, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Michael Shannon, Midnight Special, Reviews, Sam Shepard 3 Comments

Jeff Nichols is very quickly solidifying himself as a distinct and essential American voice. The 37-year old Arkansas native blends the mystic nostalgia of Steven Spielberg’s great wonders with the romanticized bayou lyricism of a Mark Twain novel. The result is often staggering, the heavy, heady crossroads of lock stock ultra violence and meaningfully sentimental morality plays. In 2012, Nichols’ snaggle-toothed fable Mud sounded the starting gun for the McConaissance, just as he basically introduced the world to Michael Shannon as a leading man in 2011’s Take Shelter. More than just a emcee for introducing (or reintroducing) us to new or reinvigorated talent, Nichols has emerged as a bold writer/director willing to take big risks and reap big rewards and Midnight Special, a work of great wonder and beauty, is blinding evidence of this fact. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘ANOTHER EVIL’

March 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Another Evil, Carson D. Mell, Dan Bakkedahl, Dax Flame, Jennifer Irwin, Mark Proksch, Reviews, Steve Missis, SXSW, SXSW 2016 Leave a comment

Anyone who ever found themselves wishing for a cross section between The Cable Guy and The Exorcism, rejoice in thy ancient cursed tongues. Carson D. Mell’s supernaturally awkward brom-dram is a conjoined twin of ghost tale hula-hoops and male acquaintanceship hoopla. A batty genre-defying lark to its close, Another Evil deals with the clumsy delicacies of fledgling friendships weighed against the silly absurdities of cloven hoofs and blessed needles. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘DEMOLITION’

March 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Out in Theaters Tagged Bryan Sipe, Chris Cooper, Demolition, Heather Hind, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jay M. Glen, Jean-Marc Vallee, Naomi Watts, Out in Theaters, Reviews 2 Comments

Life has a tendency to zip forward on a single, amusement ride track until something or someone comes barreling out of the shadows of entropy to buck your stated momentum and set you serendipitously down a new path. 17th century physicist Isaac Newton described the phenomenon in which colliding forces impress upon one another an equal and opposite reaction in his famous Third Law, which describes both why someone struck by a moving vehicle would find their chest caved in and someone catching a bad edge going a cool 30 mph on decade old skis would find their wrist contorted in all kinds of wrong directions. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘DON’T BREATHE’

March 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews, Most Popular Tagged Daniel Zovatto, Don’t Breathe, Dylan Minnette, Fede Alvarez, Horror, Jane Levy, Reviews, Stephen Lang, SXSW 2016 3 Comments

Let me be clear, you probably can’t handle Don’t Breathe. Hitchcockian in concept and French New Wave in execution, the batshit bonkers new horror film from Fede Alvarez is a sanguine-stained guillotine of heinous intensity. The Uruguayan director has issued French extremity an American passport, inviting a true-to-form, heart-stopping gang bang of insane tension to inseminate the United States homeland. Consider everyone at last night’s world premiere unmistakably impregnanted by its brutal brilliance. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘TEENAGE COCKTAIL’

March 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged AJ Bowen, Fabienne Therese, John Carchietta, Nichole Bloom, Pat Healy, Reviews, SXSW, SXSW 2016, Teenage Cocktail 1 Comment

When high school student Annie heads to a new school, she finds herself surrounded by hostile faces. And needle-in-the-haystack Jules. The two attractive outsiders immediately strike up a kinship and a secret flame broils, leading them down forbidden passageways of mutual lust and peddled cajolery. Read More

SXSW ’16 Review: ‘EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!’

March 12, 2016 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Austin Amelio, Blake Jenner, Everybody Wants Some, J. Quinton Johnson, Reviews, Richard Linklater, SXSW 2016, Wyatt Russell 1 Comment

There’s a moment in Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some where four collegiate athletes hover around an overstuffed bong, listening to the psychedelic crackle of Led Zeppelin, competing to see who can take the biggest bong rip. It’s an indisputably Linklater moment, one that speaks to the essence of the Austin filmmaker’s disco baseball comedy that forces one to meditate on what friendship and camaraderie meant before the advent of cell phones. There is an enviable sense of authentic connection found in this communal stoned passage, one that finds itself increasingly diluted by distraction in modern day conversation, that’s undercut by an overarching spirit of competition. Community and competition – two forces that rally to make Linklater’s latest film a low key, nostalgiacore home run. Read More