Tag Archives: Movie Review

Movie Review: The Imitation Game

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“You’re too much of a genius, Alan Turing! We have to throw you in jail!” Logical. Image via Zap2it

As part of Oscar season, it is customary that at least one film is made that is set in or around World War II, and filled with British accents. So if you are going to be the one to make this film, you might as well try to make it good. While The Imitation Game isn’t transcendent, it succeeds at eloquently telling an engrossing life story into under two hours.

On the surface, Alan Turing, played with perfect robotic expression by Benedict Cumberbatch, doesn’t seem like a hero. While he didn’t invent the computer, and his story ends tragically, his life and his story are important, and The Imitation Game does everything it can to highlight that.

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Movie Review: Foxcatcher

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Put me in, coach. Image via New York Times

You would have to be either really talented, or a really big troll, in order to take a story this insane and make it kind of boring. Sure, Foxcatcher is not a bad film, but it has the look of sad puppy dog eyes begging a little too hard for some Oscar love.

Here is a true crime story that seems too strange to be true. Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is a gold medal winning Olympic wrestler who now lives more like a bum than a world class athlete. If he’s lucky, the tiny paychecks he receives will get him a sandwich at Arby’s. He constantly stands in the shadow of his older brother David (Mark Ruffalo), who is also a gold medal winning wrestler. David is a tough act to follow: he is a happily married family man with more talent and charisma than Mark has.

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Movie Review: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

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A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

“And that’s when my dentist told me to floss daily.” Image via The Dissolve

When watching a feature directorial debut, look not just at how good the movie is, but how much promise it shows. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the feature directorial debut of Ana Lily Amirpour, is not perfect, but the amount of promise it shows is hard to describe.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night wears its genre influences on its sleeves. If you can catch even half the references, then you will walk out with just a few more cool points added to your credibility. This is genre mashup that is sometimes incoherent, yet always riveting to watch.

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Movie Review: Selma

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Image via LA Times

In the opening minutes of Selma, Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo) is struggling with a big question: what message will he be sending if he wears an ascot to accept his Nobel Prize? It is a relatively small problem that means the world to Dr. King in the kind of film where we learn so much about a man we all thought we knew so well.

Most historical films would end when somebody receives such a big honor. However, Selma is partially a film about cementing your legacy, whether you are civil rights leader or the governor of Alabama, and Selma is smart enough to know that picking one defining moment of King’s life is no easy task.

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Movie Review: Blue Ruin

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It takes a rare kind of film to be devoid of both action and dialogue for its first twenty minutes and still keep the excitement flowing.

Blue Ruin tells a revenge story in a topsy-turvy sort of way. One murder happens very early in the film that would normally happen much later, while a major truth is withheld until the film is nearly over.  It is an unexpected way to tell a predictable sort of story.

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Movie Review: Force Majeure

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Image via Variety

In most comedies, there are two types of characters that need to exist in order for the humor to work: the laugh-getter and the straight man. The laugh-getter is the one who causes the chaos, while the straight man is the one who reacts to it, often making the situation even funnier. Force Majeure is a comedy of sorts that is filled with characters who solely react to the world around them as they all reach the verge of total meltdown.

Force MaJeure is a constant battle between pleasantry and misery. A Swedish family goes on vacation in the French Alps. Their dynamic is flawlessly set up in the first scene, when a photographer really has to force them all to smile. This is a family that looks normal, but has no idea how to behave normally.

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Movie Review: The Interview

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James Franco;Seth Rogen

Image via New York Post

So, where do you even start a review of a movie that stopped world news and got the attention of the President of the United States? Just focus on the movie, that’s the mantra. Just focus on the movie. Let’s see how far that gets us.

The Interview, the second film directed by writing duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, has caused a huge a stir (Damn! Broke it already!). When you see what all the fuss is about, you might realize that people are really good at getting offended before getting the full story. Political satire has been around since humans were grunting at each other in caves, so making a movie poking fun at Kim Jong-Un shouldn’t feel that radical. 

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Movie Review: Inherent Vice

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inherent vice

“The doctor is busy.” “He didn’t look busy.” “…he’s thinking.” Image via YouTube

After watching Inherent Vice, I asked myself two very different questions:

1) Why would I watch this?

2) Why wouldn’t I watch this?

Sometimes, I found myself asking both questions at the exact same time.

With Inherent Vice, Paul Thomas Anderson uses his well-earned creative freedom to go down some very strange paths. But with the overlapping stories, Los Angeles setting, and 1970s fashion, Paul Thomas Anderson has never been more at home than he is in Inherent Vice.

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Movie Review: Wild

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Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we Image via Yahoo

There is a very specific type of story, which entails somebody trading civilization for some time in the woods, that has become something of its own sub-genre. And with that comes the burden of tropes and cliches. There is the flashback structure, the stubbornness, and the regret. I’m referring specifically to Into the Wild and 127 Hours. Wild also finds itself in this category, but it deviates when it comes to its main character, who seems at least a bit more willing to bend to the way of nature.

Like the aforementioned films, Wild is based on a true story. In 1994, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) left Minneapolis to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. It is a bit of an odd trail that never goes right along the coast but rather through scorching deserts and rigorous mountain passes. It is beautiful, yet unforgiving. By the way, I have not hiked this trail at all. The closest I have gotten to it was a hummer ride through Joshua Tree National Park. Wild just happens to portray it so well that you feel like you are there. Another good name for this film could be America You’re Beautiful, But You’re Bringing Me Down.

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Movie Review: The Babadook

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Babadook

Dog in a horror movie? Never a good idea. Image via IGN

Unlike any other genre, except maybe for the romantic comedy, horror seems the most tied to its formula. I don’t mean that as an insult. There is a very particular way to be scared, and horror movies need to follow the formula to get the screams out. Then again, some of the best genre entries completely defied expectations.

This is partially what is so special about The Babadook: it is both completely new and very familiar. What makes The Babadook unique is that instead of stealing from the classics, it builds on them.

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