Portraying the struggles of a foreign nation during a time of war has become a common trend in North American cinema. War being the most favored subject matter of filmmakers, it is also the most controversial one. Countless war movies are released each year with an apparent agenda of exposing “the truth” rather than entertaining […]
I’m a big fan of the 90’s. The music, the pop culture, the plaid; I like it all. One of my favourite things about that decade was the proliferation of films that could best be described as “Die Hard in _____”. For a while it seems like every action movie would fall into the template […]
In the Louisiana bayou, cut off from the rest of the world, a small free-spirited community has settled down. In this water-sunken place (or, as the locals refer to it, “the bathtub”) the poverty is surreal, yet no one seems to mind. Seen through the eyes of 6-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) it is “The most […]
Who knew Greeks can make great cinema? A country famous for its extra virgin olive oil export and hardly any traditions or structure for filmmaking, stunned audiences around the globe with the art-house sensation Dogtooth. Giorgos (Yorgos) Lanthimos’ equally disturbing and comical crafty feature swept the Prix Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes in […]
Based off of a 2008 Spanish short (titled ‘Mama’ of course), Mama, directed by Andres Muschietti, tells the tale of two mentally damaged girls that were found mysteriously in the woods being taken in by a new family, yet the two girls are not the only beings that were brought into the home as a […]
I wasn’t sure what to expect walking into Side Effects, Steven Soderbergh’s supposed last feature film. I went due to a never-ending love of Soderbergh, and a desire to see Rooney Mara outside of her mostly-naked, seriously angry Girl With a Dragon Tattoo context. Until the clearly marked SPOILER WARNING, I will try to avoid […]
Warm Bodies is a movie simultaneously blessed and cursed by Twilight. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that the widescreen release of the Nicholas Hoult-starring zombie-romantic-comedy owes its budget, profile, and probably its very existence to the success of a certain sparkly set of vampires with romantic problems. But given the number of times […]
If you haven’t read Part I of this over-written countdown, you should go do that now (I worked hard on these!). I’ll wait…. … … … … … Are you back? Okay, here’s Part II. It’s got two relatively small films, two massive world-wide blockbusters, and one new release featuring the breakout star of the […]