MIDNIGHT SPECIAL is a film that plays with its audience’s sense of normality. Beginning in the conventional and slowly, almost imperceptibly, moving us from the quotidian drama of a kidnapped child and a father’s unconditional love, into a boldly unconventional consideration of that elusive point where science and spirituality merge. There is nothing predictable here,… Read More »
JANE GOT A GUN
JANE GOT A GUN tries to evoke Leone (check the duster Jane sports) and Ford (check the mesas that surround her), but without the intensity of the former, or the adventure of the latter. What’s left is a stereopticon of a post-modern morality tale that can’t overcome its own inertia.
BLACK MASS
It is only the smallest of exaggerations to say that there are only two types of scenes in BLACK MASS. One is of James “Whitey” Bulger either having someone executed with a vicious precision, or doing the dastardly deed himself. The other is an assemblage of characters having an extended conversation about what has happened… Read More »
ZERO DARK THIRTY
ZERO DARK THIRTY starts, tellingly, with a dark screen and audio clips from 9/11. Air traffic control chatter, 911 calls, and the anguished, astonished voices of people who have no frame of reference for what is happening to and around them. In doing so, the film compels the viewer to relive that day not with… Read More »
EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS and Missing the Mark
Lovely to look at with some fine performances in a muddled execution.
THE SQUARE
Click here to listen to the interview with Joel Edgerton (17:21)THE SQUARE is a film noir in the classic mold but with a distinctly contemporary flavor. A good man, the temptation of a younger woman, and an indistinct dream of a happily ever after far from the monotony of a cushy, if bland, married life.… Read More »
THE THING
THE THING by Matthijs van Heijningen, Jr. is the prequel to John Carpenters re-make of the same name, which was a re-make of Howard Hawks THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD. Its a confusion that would seem to have been easily avoidable, but for some reason wasnt taken care of at any point during pre- or… Read More »
KINKY BOOTS
Some are born great, some become great, and others have greatness thrust upon them. In that last category is Charlie Price (wide-eyed innocent Joel Edgerton), the 4th generation heir-apparent to his family’s footwear factory and hero of KINKY BOOTS. His is not the greatness of leading a nation, or conquering evil, but rather that of… Read More »
WARRIOR
The ultimate test of a films potency comes not when a story with its twists and turns forges new trails into unfamiliar terrain. The ultimate test may very well be if a film can take a familiar tale and make it suspenseful. WARRIOR does just that. The loosely woven story takes on not one, but… Read More »