Between Two Ferns: Sean Penn?
Posted by Matthew Starr
Wow. Me and Ryan were just talking about the series of interviews Zach Galifianakis does for Funny or Die the other night and how he gets top guests. I was telling him how his guests have not been that surprising or high profile. Of course the next day my argument gets completely destroyed with the appearance of Sean Penn. How in the blue blazes did Zach get him on this?
Miral
Posted by Matthew Starr
Before I even begin sharing my thoughts on Miral let me say that I am writing this review in mid July after having attended a test screening with Harvey Weinstein and Julian Schnabel in attendance. If anything their presence should prove that they are taking audience reactions seriously and changes to the film will be made. I am writing this now to be posted down the line when Miral screens at its first film festival. I will surely watch the film a second time and come back to this review to compare and contrast edits.
With that out of the way let me say right off the bat that I am quite disappointed with Schnabel’s latest effort. Miral simply does not have the same magic as Before Night Falls or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the latter of which I consider one of the great films of the last decade.
The Last Lions: Impressions
Posted by Ryan Sarver
Disclaimer: The following article concerns an in-progress documentary. These are impressions of an early print of a work still in post-production.
This past Wednesday I had a chance to catch an advance screening of The Last Lions, the new National Geographic film from the team who brought us 2005’sMarch of the Penguins. Having never seen March and not fancying myself a lion fanatic, I wasn’t too pumped about the experience. Add in the film’s “unfinished” status—meaning anything from soundtrack and narration changes to severe editing before wide release—and I could barely drag myself to the theater.
What a fool I was.
This in-progress doc following a mother lioness’s struggles to keep her cubs alive in the face of thousands of hostile buffalo and the rival pride who killed her husband turned out to be one of the best film-going experiences I’ve had this dismal Summer. If you grew up loving The Lion King or nature docs, you’re going to eat this movie up with delight; it provides an in-depth understanding of the life of a mother lioness, informing audiences of an animal lifestyle both extremely interesting and compelling.
The American
Posted by Patrick Hodges
George Clooney has turned in some dazzling dramatic performances over the years - Michael Clayton and Syriana immediately spring to mind - and the reason that he has left his mark on those roles was because of his ability to don the garb of whatever role he's in, making us forget for a short time that's he's one of the most famous thespians on the planet. His characters are invariably multi-faceted, deeply layered, and easily relatable. So the idea of him playing an assassin was a tantalizing thought, and I thought that The American would be yet another in long string of triumphs.
Sadly, this was not the case.
Machete
Posted by Ryan Sarver
Back when Grindhouse was released in 2007, both Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino found themselves at ends when their faux Machete trailer garnered more applause than most of their double feature; in a move more Tarantino than himself, Rodriguez announced plans for a feature-length straight-to-DVD Machete film—something fans presumed would never see the light of day thanks to Sin City 2. Well the fans were wrong; the Mexican Federale is back, and he’s pissed. This movie is everything Piranha 3-D and Snakes on a Plane should have been—is armed to the teeth with blood, sex, and honest-to-god Mexploitation. If the trailer caused you to doubt Rodriguez’s commitment to over-the-top gory action, let your fears be assuaged—you’ll see everything from decapitations to skull-crushing low-riders, pools of blood to intestine-wrangling. After a Summer mostly filled with shitty knockoffs and uninspired throwbacks like The Expendables, Machete’s blood-stained blades feel like a breath of fresh air.
Catfish
Posted by Ryan Sarver
Billed as “The Best Hitchcock Film Hitchcock Never Directed”, Catfish has a lot to live up to. Based on its trailer, you would think directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman crafted a gutwrenching work of suspenseful horror—a film that took an unexpected turn midway through from which it could never turn back, driving both characters and audience to an inevitably bloody fate. The obsessive, stalker-esque nature of the protagonist’s internet relationship with a girl living several hundred miles away, his unannounced midnight appearance at their woodland barn, and the ominous quote about the “emotional rollercoaster” of the film’s final forty minutes all suggest a rockin’ psych thriller that would make old Alfie proud. Unfortunately you’ll be a lot more entertained by the vagueness of the trailer than anything in the film itself; after it became blatantly apparent that Catfish’s “big secret” was exactly what you would think it is, I spent the rest of the film imagining what Hitchcock would’ve actually done with this perfect storm of unfamiliarity, lies, and orchestrated identity. It’s a shame too, because underneath all its misguided marketing there’s a legitimately great film about the dangers of online social networking to be appreciated.
The End is Nigh
Posted by Matthew Starr
The L.A Times reported this past week that Blockbuster is planning on filing for bankruptcy in September. The writing has been on the wall for some time now with the success of Netflix rentals delivered to your home and of course their instant streaming service. Add to this the Red Box in various supermarkets and outlets and it is the end of an era. I only used blockbuster for a span of a few years before I joined netflix for good. During my grade school years I had always used to local video store, literally right on my street, to look for the latest VHS releases. They went out of business eventually and then I switched to Blockbuster and DVD's. Instant streaming is the wave of the future as the less people have to get up and go out to get what they want the happier they will be.
Centurion
Posted by Patrick Hodges
Review submitted by David Tredler
Film projects often come by pairs. When a producer or a director starts working on a movie, it is not that rare that another producer or director starts working on a feature sharing a similar subject. It often happens in Hollywood (Deep Impact and Armageddon), it happens in the indie world (Capote and Infamous), and sometimes it happens in Europe too.
The Last Exorcism
Posted by Patrick Hodges
There's probably no cinematic experience more frustrating than when you go to see a movie, and it turns out to be much more than you expect - against all odds, it's an engaging, well-directed, well-acted, well-written story - only to have it all fall apart in the last few minutes. If I put my mind to it, I could probably come up with dozens of titles over the years that have fit this description (many of them horror films, a genre notorious for awful endings), and it actually pains me deeply to have to add The Last Exorcism to that list: a movie that turns out to be merely good when it could have been great.