Knight of Cups is a puzzling, not unwatchable, but deeply unsatisfying film. Ultimately, the movie is worth neither the time nor the attention demanded by its 118-minute runtime and its vague narrative structure. Director Terrence Malick’s previous work, The Tree of Life, divided audiences and critics. Viewers of Knight of Cups will likely have an easier time reaching a consensus that this, the seventh feature film from Malick, is a failure. There will be some voices of dissent who continue to claim that the reclusive filmmaker is a unique visionary who uses a distinctive cinematographic approach and fluid, repetitive, dreamlike imagery to weave a tale from memories of the collective subconscious. A few may even believe that, while others will simply be driven by the fear of “not getting it,” much like those who pretend to have read a certain book when the conversation at a cocktail party turns in that direction. Read the rest of this entry »
Knight of Cups Review
Posted: February 19, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Drama, ReviewsTags: Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
Taxi Review
Posted: February 16, 2015 in 2015 Berlinale, Drama, Foreign, ReviewsTags: Golden Bear, Hanna Saeidi, Iran, Jafar Panahi, Taxi
The inevitable question that arose immediately after the announcement of Jafar Panahi’s film Taxi as the winner of the Golden Bear for Best Picture at the 65th Berlinale was whether the movie deserved the honor or was the prize intended as a message of support from the international community for the persecuted Iranian director.
The answer was yes.
Taxi was at the top of a weak field in this year’s Competition program. On paper, the entries in the premium category looked formidable with heavyweight directors like Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog, and Peter Greenaway Read the rest of this entry »
Berlinale 2015: Assessing the Competition
Posted: January 31, 2015 in 2015 BerlinaleTags: Christian Bale, Golden Bear for Best Film, Jafar Panahi, James Franco, Kenneth Branagh, Nicole Kidman, Peter Greenaway, Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders
Guessing the award winners of the annual Berlinale Film Festival is a prognosticator’s dream – but not because the selections are obvious or easy. No, quite the opposite. The announcements that come at a grand ceremony on the penultimate evening of the event can be so random that no one – critic or casual observer – can be faulted for failing to see it coming. “Example?” you might ask, channeling your inner Samuel L. Jackson. Well, just like John Travolta replied, in Europe, it’s the little differences. Last year, the International Jury could have chosen between two eventual Academy Award nominees: The Grand Budapest Hotel and Boyhood for the Golden Bear for Best Film. Instead, the nod went to a rather average Hitchcock wannabe film noir from China, Bai Ri Yan Huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice). Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to New York Review
Posted: January 13, 2015 in Drama, ReviewsTags: Abel Ferrara, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Gérard Depardieu, Jacqueline Bisset, Pasolini, Willem Dafoe
Abel Ferrara’s long, idiosyncratic career as a director has taken an interesting turn of late as the cult favorite who made his initial mark with two legendary exploitations films in the late 1970’s, The Driller Killer and Ms. 45, and who also brought us a landmark in crime movies with the 1990 King of New York, now seems bent on inventing a new genre. Call it the psychosexual micro-biopic for lack of a better expression. In last year’s Pasolini and in his most recent effort, Welcome to New York, Ferrara elevates a particularly virulent form of carnality to the level of Shakespearean tragic flaw by showing contemporary great men undone by their physical appetites. Toward achieving that goal, he is far more effective in the former film than the latter. Read the rest of this entry »
The Loft Review
Posted: December 19, 2014 in Reviews, ThrillerTags: Eric Stonestreet, Erik Van Looy, James Marsden, Karl Urban, Rachel Taylor, Remake, Wentworth Miller
The Loft is a serviceable thriller with a cast culled largely from American television and enough twists for the audience to overlook its uneven pace and its tenuous logic.
Five male friends decide to share a condominium for their extracurricular and extramarital activities, and it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. In this genre, it’s invariably a dead naked blonde wrapped in bed sheets who gets the short end. Which of the five is responsible or is someone outside the group trying to set one or more of them up are the questions that drive the action. Read the rest of this entry »
Aux yeux des vivants (Among the Living) Review
Posted: December 6, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Foreign, HorrorTags: Alexandre Bustillo, French movies, Julien Maury, Slasher Film, The Hills Have Eyes
The opening scene of Aux yeux des vivants (Among the Living), the new French horror film from the makers of Inside and Livid and contributors to the anthology The ABCs of Death 2, is intense. Intense in this case translates to shocking, violent, and graphic. How intense? Even hardcore fans of the macabre may fear that they are in over their heads with this one. If the movie starts with this type of shock, you might ask yourself frightfully in the cool black of a darkened movie theater, what lies in store over the remaining 85 minutes?
Miss Meadows Review
Posted: November 14, 2014 in Action, Comedy, ReviewsTags: Callan Mulvey, Death Wish, James Badge Dale, Karen Leigh Hopkins, Katie Holmes, Vigilante
Katie Holmes’ third act in a Hollywood life takes a turn for the delicious with her portrayal of the sweetest little serial killer imaginable in Miss Meadows, a new black comedy actioner from director/screenwriter Karen Leigh Hopkins. Anachronistically albeit perfectly dressed in ankle socks and white gloves, Homes tap dances, sings, strolls, hopscotches, and shoots her way to a memorable and satisfying performance as the elementary school teacher with a heart of gold and a silver-plated .25 in her purse. Read the rest of this entry »
Faults Review
Posted: November 11, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Drama, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Cults, Deprogramming, Lance Reddick, Leland Orser, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Riley Stearns
Faults, an out of the mainstream effort detailing an attempt to rescue a young woman from a cult, appears to have been made in the 1970’s as an ABC Movie of the Week and kept in a time capsule until its release on the festival circuit in 2014. Take the stray cell phone and the recent automobiles out of the picture, and you have a period piece that is better suited for a time and place that no longer exists.
Kids into cults seems a bit passé. The hippie phenomena of the 60’s spilled over into the communes of the 70’s, and parents saw their children play out the ageless act of rebellion first through drugs and then through philosophies; in either case, it meant the young leaving the old behind. While cults remain a phenomenon, they generally break into the mainstream press now only through apocalyptic predictions or tragic acts of self-destruction. Read the rest of this entry »
Interstellar Review
Posted: November 7, 2014 in Action, Reviews, Science FictionTags: Anne Hathaway, Apollo Missions, Christopher Nolan, Dust Bowl, Jessica Chastain, John Lithgow, Matt Damon, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Caine
Through the first half of its 169-minute runtime, Interstellar soars. Christopher Nolan launches this massive undertaking with equal parts skill and guile, and while the early going may be more “aw, shucks” than awesome, the narrative captures the spirit of optimism and possibility that the NASA space program provided in the 1960’s. Every American boy growing up in that decade wanted to become an astronaut, and the laying out of the mission and the launching of the rocket in Interstellar refires those feelings. For one and a half hours, Nolan appears on the brink of completing an even more daunting task than identifying another planet suitable for human inhabitation – making a 21st century blockbuster from original material that qualifies as family entertainment without any of the usual pejorative undertones that accompany that phrase. Read the rest of this entry »
Bad Turn Worse (aka We Gotta Get Out of This Place) Review
Posted: November 4, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Dutch Southern, Jeremy Allen White, Jim Thompson, Logan Huffman, Mackenzie David, Mark Pellegrino, Simon and Zeke Hawkins, Texas
The would-be teen noir thriller Bad Turn Worse was shown under the even more awkward title We Gotta Get Out of This Place at the 2014 Fantasy Filmfest. The new name is an improvement in that it is both more concise and a more accurate summation of the plot trajectory of this underwhelming little movie. For all its faults, Bad Turn Worse can now boast of truth in advertising as this movie starts out bad and, oh yeah, turns worse. A traditional premise that could have made for reasonable entertainment is undone by poor casting and a weak script.
Meet Mr. Karma 