While the debate goes on about female roles in mainstream movies, women continue to kill it – literally and figuratively – in genre films. On the second day of the 2014 Berlin Fantasy Filmfest, audiences were treated to consecutive screenings of a trio of strong flicks with an actress in the lead role, two of which also have a female director/screenwriter behind the projects. Honeymoon stars Rose Leslie, and Starry Eyes features Alex Essoe, but it is Essie Davis in The Babadook who turns in the most remarkable performance. Working in her feature film debut, director/writer Jennifer Kant unleashes childhood horrors on a defenseless widow (Davis) and her maladjusted son (Noah Wiseman) in a movie that works the nerves of the audience by manifesting familial dysfunction and behavioral disorders into the ultimate boogeyman in the closet.
Archive for the ‘Drama’ Category
The Babadook Review
Posted: September 1, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Drama, Horror, ReviewsTags: Bedtime Story, Boogeyman, Essie Davis, Jennifer Kant, Movies, Noah Wiseman
Hector and the Search for Happiness Review
Posted: August 18, 2014 in Action, Comedy, Drama, ReviewsTags: Bad Movies, Christopher Plummer, Jean Reno, Ming Zhao, Movies, Rosemund Pike, Simon Pegg, Stellan Skarsgård, Toni Collette
Hector and the Search for Happiness fancies itself a comedy, a drama, an action movie, and a travelogue, but the film fails in each of the genres, revealing itself to be nothing more than an awful little film about one uninteresting man’s mid-life crisis. Wrapped in pretension with a bow of psuedo-self help nonsense and delivered by a squandered all-star cast, Hector is a two-hour illustration of vapidness without even a hint of a redeeming satirical sense. It is a cyncical, clumsy, excruciating exercise in failed manipulation without a single genuine moment.
The critique of Hector as comedy is simple: it is not funny. As a drama, it lacks characters that we care about or a situation that we wish to see resolved. The action/adventure component is ludicrous, while the travelogue is very definitely offensive. (more…)
Frontera Review
Posted: August 3, 2014 in Action, Drama, ReviewsTags: Amy Madigan, Ed Harris, Eva Longoria, Immigration, Michael Berry, Michael Peña, Movies, Western
Those with strong views on the issue of immigration may find Frontera maddening. The film assiduously avoids coming down on either side of this polarizing issue. There is no macro examination here of the situation on the border between Mexico and the United States. Instead, Frontera offers a micro look at the devastating effects of the forces at play on the families on either side of the divide. Currently, a wrenching, confusing scene is playing out in the southwestern United States with unaccompanied and undocumented minors flooding across the porous border. Local authorities are overwhelmed; the federal government feeble so far in its response. The film offers no insight or answers, glib or otherwise, to what should, must, or even can be done. Frontera takes an almost old-fashioned view of the situation on the border, presenting the problem as one of young Mexican men crossing over illegally in search of employment to provide for their families.
The Calling Review
Posted: August 2, 2014 in Drama, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Donald Sutherland, Ellen Burstyn, Inger Ash Wolfe, Movies, Susan Sarandon, Thriller, Topher Grace
Susan Sarandon is a wonderful, accomplished actress, capable of a broad range of roles, but the one thing she cannot do at this stage of her career is convincingly play the part of a small-time cop investigating a series of gruesome murders. The Calling does not fail because of the casting of Sarandon as the tin badge in a one-horse, two-detective town in eastern Canada, who steals prescription pills from crime scenes and washes them down with Jim Beam, but the glacial pace of the story gives ample time to dwell on the mistake.
Sarandon plays Detective Hazel Micallef, a back surgery survivor who lives with her mom in Port Dundas – 82-year old Ellen Burstyn, who, like the 68-year old Sarandon, is an Oscar winner. The Calling stockpiles so much underused talent that it resembles the Los Angeles Dodgers outfield. Burstyn’s big scene in the film is when she falls asleep in the living room chair, leaving Sarandon and the audience to believe for a moment that she’s fallen victim to the film’s serial killer. (more…)
Delicious Review
Posted: July 16, 2014 in Drama, ReviewsTags: Bad Movies, Eating Disorder, Louise Brealey, Movies, Nicholas Rowe, Romantic, Tammy Riley-Smith
A film with the premise of a romantic relationship between an aspiring French chef and a British woman with a eating disorder sounds absurd enough to be the next Farrelly Brothers project. The pitch practically writes itself: he prepares haute cuisine, she vomits. If only he can find the right recipe, they might just cook up a little magic together. Meanwhile, the kooky elderly neighbor dispenses love and life advice while entertaining a string of gentleman callers as the would-be chef steals the ingredients for his elaborate meals from the restaurant owned by the man he suspects is his real father.
Affluenza Review
Posted: July 11, 2014 in Drama, ReviewsTags: Affluenza, Carla Quevedo, Daisy Buchanan, Drama, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Movies, Nick Carraway, The Great Gatsby
Very early on, Affluenza seems to be a pretty little movie about pretty little people doing pretty much nothing. As the film continues, a sense of nagging familiarity comes over the viewer. Finally, the answer to the question, “Where have I seen this before?” becomes apparent – and the answer hits with the same force as guessing the killer in a whodunnit.
Affluenza is a uncredited remake of The Great Gatsby with teenagers assuming the leads and the end of the era of irrational exuberance standing in for pre-depression America. Long Island is, of course, the setting, but the real town of Great Neck replaces the fictional West Egg.
Road to Paloma Review
Posted: July 4, 2014 in Action, Drama, ReviewsTags: Action, Fort Mojave Tribe, Jason Momoa, Movies, Native American
Road to Paloma contains two shots of exquisite beauty. The framing and composition of these moments that last no more than a few seconds are perfect. One comes at the beginning of the film and shows the protagonist Robert Wolf (Jason Momoa) sitting under a tree, taking a break from repairing a barbed wire fence. The second occurs midway through and is simply an establishing shot of a gas station/cafe at night, but the contrast of the fluorescent lights against the desert darkness is as striking as an Edward Hopper painting. Those two shots, created by Momoa, who also directed the movie and had a hand in the screenplay, and the cinematographer, Brian Mendoza, are the best parts of Road to Paloma.
4 Minute Mile Review
Posted: July 2, 2014 in Drama, ReviewsTags: Analeigh Tipton, Four Minute Mile, Kelly Blatz, Kim Basinger, Movies, Richard Jenkins, Sports Movie, The Jericho Mile, Track
4 Minute Mile is a professional and perfunctory sports movie, devoid of passion or purpose. It’s as if director Charles-Olivier Michaud and screenwriters Josh Campbell and Jeff Van Wie received a homework assignment to deliver a Disneyesque movie along the lines of The Rookie or Invincible, but with enough of an Indy feel and gritty storyline to merit a PG-13 rating and banishment from the Magic Kingdom. We’re left with a Disney After Dark production, if a such a film company existed, and a Debbie Downer experience. Michaud and his writers merit no more than a C on this assignment.
Interestingly, 4 Minute Mile does not have the tag line, “Inspired By True Events.” One would think that the immersion into complete fiction would be liberating, but the narrative too often reverts back to cliche. (more…)
Drones Review
Posted: June 29, 2014 in Action, Drama, ReviewsTags: Action, Drones, Eloise Mumford, Matt O'Leary, Movies, Rick Rosenthal, War Films, War Games
The poster art for Drones features a 21st-century soldier deep in The Suck, a M16 rifle with grenade launcher at the ready and a Batman utility belt strapped around his mid-section. A female soldier with a daintier weapon and a few packs less ammo follows him. The sky is filled with unmanned aerial vehicles and tracer fire. “THE WAR OF THE FUTURE IS UP IN THE AIR,” we’re told.
Ridiculous.
Anyone purchasing a cinema ticket, DVD, or on-demand rental based on that nonsensical graphic, which is nothing more than video game cover art, should be entitled to a full refund plus compensation. (more…)
A Fighting Man Review
Posted: June 20, 2014 in Drama, ReviewsTags: Boxing, Dominic Purcell, Famke Janssen, James Caan, Louis Gossett Jr., Michael Ironside, Movies
An air of melancholy pervades A Fighting Man, a boxing movie that may do more to kill the sport than mixed martial arts fighting. The sadness does not come so much from the plot as from the cast. The irony of bringing once-great actors into a third-rate feature about a washed-up fighter seems lost on director/screenwriter Damian Lee. And while the parallels between how boxing and Hollywood both exploit stars well past their primes in order to squeeze out a few extra dollars is lost in the production, they are painfully obvious to those who watch this film.
Meet Mr. Karma 