Twitch: Reviews

Cannes 2013 Review: Takashi Miike's SHIELD OF STRAW Gets Middling Results From High Concept

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:30:00 -0500

There are so many ways in which Takashi Miike's Shield of Straw falls short of being the knockout that it could have been, it's hard to know where to start. The script alone could easily inspire a novella detailing all of the plot holes, gaps in logic and insanely repetitive exposition. Miike seems, as usual, indifferent to these types of elements, but the real shame is that the man responsible for some of the smartest, most insane, exuberant, boundary-pushing Japanese movies of the past decade has brought the story to life with such flat, joyless direction. And yet, it really could have been a knockout. Not only does the concept have potential to yield a truly awesome action/thriller, but a number of ideas that the...

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Review: GAME OF THRONES S3E08, SECOND SONS (Or, Sam Gets To Be A Hero But Mostly By Accident And Only For A Couple Seconds)

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:30:57 -0500

A question for those who - like me - have been watching Game Of Thrones very closely. Who does Season Three belong to? Whose story is driving the narrative? Because, frankly, I don't know and not being able to answer such a fundamental question is becoming an issue as we draw nearer to the end of the season. Series one clearly belonged to Ned Stark. Series two? That belonged to Tyrion Lannister. But series three? Well, the Stark children have all become completely passive. Tyrion's back on his heels. I honestly have no idea why we've given as much time to Theon as we have. The sweeping, epic final shot of Season Two has not been addressed AT ALL - That army of undead just...

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Review: KIDS ON THE SLOPE is a Jazzy Coming-of-age Tale from COWBOY BEBOP'S Director

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:24 -0500

Watching Watanabe Shinichiro's Kids on the Slope having already seen his previous works Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo feels very much like watching Hosoda Mamoru's Wolf Children after seeing The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars. It feels less exhilarating, but is equally as enjoyable and more emotionally powerful.Watanabe is well known in both Japan and the rest of the world as the man who created the space bounty hunter anime series Cowboy Bebop. He has built the reputation of having the skills to work outside some well-established boundaries and conventions of anime and the ability to bend genres in ways that most directors would find hard to pull off. Kids on the Slope, however, is different. Neither revolutionary nor groundbreaking, it is...

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Cannes 2013 Review: BLOOD TIES Knots Up 1970s New York

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:00:09 -0500

To call Guillaume Canet's Blood Ties a love letter to the 1970s is a bit of an understatement. The Clive Owen, Billy Crudup brothers-on-opposite-sides-of-the-law drama absolutely oozes with 1970s nostalgia from its impeccable costume and production design to its almost fetishistic use of 1970s music. Even the story is a throwback to the some of the great crime films of the era (not to mention the choice to cast James Caan). While it doesn't quite get every beat right, strong performances and a satisfying plot make it a memory trip worth taking. Frank (Crudup) has always had a contentious relationship with his older brother Chris (Owen), though as much as he hates to admit it, his decision to become a cop wasn't enough to stop...

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Cannes 2013 Review: BORGMAN Fiendishly Recounts The Time The Devil Went Up To Holland

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

The titular character of Alex van Warmerdam's Borgman does not have horns, nor does he command grotesque demons spawned from hellfire. Emaciated, clothed in rags with long hair and a beard, he actually looks a lot like Jesus at first. But since he's being hunted by a priest with a rifle when we first meet him, it seems pretty safe to assume that he's more likely the exact opposite of the son of God. The gun doesn't do much good, and while some of the priest's posse has a bit more luck with a spear, Borgman's underground clubhouse type lair, complete with a periscope and escape tunnel, gives him the upper hand from square one. Off he flees through the woods, and eventually, to the...

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Review: DOCTOR WHO S7E14, THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR (Or, Things Get Dark And Interesting In An Excellent Finale)

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:00:09 -0500

Steven Moffat has made a great number of promises throughout the seventh series of Doctor Who. I was unsure whether he'd really be able to write a satisfying answer to the mystery of Clara but "The Name of the Doctor" delivers answers to the most pressing questions while it establishes tantalising new mysteries for the upcoming 50th anniversary special and the next series. It's one of the most assured finales yet, an episode that looks back to the show's past as it prepares to step into a much more unpredictable future.Let's talk about Clara first. Improbable as it seems, the revelations about who she is feel like they make perfect sense. I'm sure people will be around to analyse it and rip apart these scenes...

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Cannes 2013 First Impression: INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Makes the Bad Times Fun

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:28:57 -0500

The Coen Brothers return with the 1960s-set Inside Llewyn Davis, a delightful tragicomedy about a musician just trying to get a break. Oscar Isaac plays the titular Llewyn and this is very much his show from beginning to end. That's a good thing, too, as the very talented Isaac imbues Llewyn with just the right amount of crassness to make him an interesting character without making him unlikeable. It's a virtual cavalcade of talented actors of whose life Llewyn floats in and out. The most notable is Carey Mulligan whose turn as a folk singer with plenty of attitude shows us a side of Mulligan we haven't often seen. Fans of Girls will also love Adam Driver's small but hilarious role. Those expecting a...

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Cannes 2013 Review: BLUE RUIN Or, Revenge Is A Pain In The Ass

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:00:00 -0500

Besides the fact that I doubt we'll see a more deft, thrilling genre film this year, I'm very pleased that Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin addresses a number of issues that revenge films have been overlooking for decades. For example, after you've been irrevocably wronged and made it your mission to set that right, what if you can't afford a gun? Guns are expensive. If you get a gun, which one do you get and how long do you need to spend learning to shoot it? Okay, screw the gun, let's go with a knife... but if you kill one person with a knife, won't there likely be others who want to kill you back? I'd like to go on about the ways that Charles Bronson...

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Cannes 2013 Review: Anurag Kashyap's UGLY Is a Riveting Thriller About Awful Things

Fri, 17 May 2013 22:00:00 -0500

Anurag Kashyap's follow-up to the widely admired Gangs of Wasseypur announces itself with a cacophony of discordant noise screeching over an attempted suicide. It's almost as if Kashyup decided to warn viewers up front, this one won't be easy. And, in many ways, it's not. Here is a thriller about an awful event (a child kidnapping), populated exclusively with awful people, almost all of whom reveal themselves to be more awful than originally thought, which ultimately reaches a conclusion more awful than everything that came before. Sounds like fun, right? Surprisingly though, and to Kashyap's credit, it is. Maybe "fun" is too strong of a word, but this Fargo-meets-Mumbai-police-procedural is compulsively watchable, thrilling, darkly funny and extremely well-directed -- about as close to a good...

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Review: HANNIBAL S1E08, FROMAGE (Or, Everyone's Getting Friend-Zoned And Are None Too Pleased About It)

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:00:02 -0500

This week's gruesome discovery is the body of an orchestra member left at center stage. His throat and neck have been cut open, the neck of a cello has been stuffed into his mouth, and his vocal chords have been treated in a specific traditional way that catgut strings were treated for musical instruments. Treated in such a way that they could be played to create some sort of musical harmony.It is no secret that Franklin's friend Tobias, whom we met last episode, is killing and making strings for musical instruments with his victims intestines. There is a lovely and melodic montage before the title sequence that tells us this; we get to watch Tobias pull the intestines from one of his victims and create...

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Cannes 2013 Review: Ozon's YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL Finds New Problems With Sexual Awakenings

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:00:00 -0500

Just when it seemed that every single movie about teen girls coming to terms with their sexuality had already been made, here comes François Ozon's Young and Beautiful (Jeune et Jolie), a well-observed, often fascinating exploration of a 17-year-old girl's willful entry into the world of prostitution. In some ways, it treads similar territory to Julia Leigh's Sleeping Beauty, but whereas that film maintained a detached, ambiguous tone toward the material, Ozon (Swimming Pool) takes the situation into far more unexpected, emotionally challenging places, thanks in part to a spectacular performance by the, yes, young and beautiful, Marine Vacth.Vacth plays Isabelle, a 17-year-old girl in a well-off family, who, as the film begins is still a virgin. That doesn't last so long though, as she more or...

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Review: SCATTER MY ASHES AT BERGDORF'S Glories In Rare Luxury

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00:04 -0500

If I whisper "Bergdorf's" in your ear and you experience a spontaneous orgasm, have I got a movie for you! Actually, calling Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's a "movie" would be misleading, much less labeling it a "documentary." The title is inspired by a cartoon by Victoria Roberts that appeared in a 1990 issue of The New Yorker, and suggests the reverence felt by grateful designers, satisfied customers, and happy employees toward the luxury department store, considered a Manhattan institution as much for its landmark Fifth Avenue building (next to the Plaza Hotel and near the southeastern edge of Central Park) and intricately-designed window displays as for its high-fashion clothing and rarefied clientele. A parade of designers line up to pay obeisance to the store;...

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Review: 33 POSTCARDS Gently Tugs On Heartstrings

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:00:03 -0500

33 Postcards is a film of special significance, as it marks the first official collaboration between China and New South Wales, Australia. At the 2011 Sydney Film Festival, where it had its world premiere, it won the Community Relations Commission Award. Just a couple of weeks later at the Shanghai International Film Festival, where it had its Chinese premiere, its lead actress Zhu Lin won the New Talent Award. Directed by Pauline Chan and inspired by real life events, 33 Postcards tells the story of a young Chinese orphan Mei Mei (Zhu Lin) who has been dreaming of meeting her Australian sponsor of many years, Mr Randall (Guy Pearce). Her opportunity comes when her orphanage travels to Australia to compete at a music festival. However,...

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Review: Eco-Doc ELEMENTAL Brings Global Catastrophe Down To A Personal Level

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:01:01 -0500

Fresh from garnering two Social Impact Media Awards (Special Jury Prize, Best Editing), Gayatri Roshan and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee's Elemental opens May 17 in New York City with subsequent rollout to San Francisco, San Rafael, Washington D.C., Austin, Portland, Bellingham, and more to follow.The documentary profiles three environmental activists in different parts of the world: Rajendra Singh in India, trying to rehabilitate the Ganges river, Eriel Deranger, an indigenous activist to stop the tar sand pipeline project in her home province of Alberta, and Jay Harman, an inventor and naturalist trying to eradicate air pollution and reduce the energy consumption. Skillfully interweaving three timelines of these David vs. Goliath battles -- be them against pollution itself, non-responsive government, public perception, or lack of funding -- Elemental rises...

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Review: PIETA, Searching For Humanity In An Unspeakable Monster

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:01:12 -0500

Throughout his career, Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk has been a director known to explore the extreme poles of human experience. The divide in his work, in the style and content of one film to the next, is often so sharp that it is hard to believe that they are the works of the same man. At one extreme there are films marked by a harsh nihilism, pictures driven by anger and degradation. And at the other end there are contemplative, peaceful works -- films that, while they acknowledge that the world is a dark place, find beauty and hope in human fragility. With his 18th film, Pieta, Kim attempts something new. He fuses the poles together. But make no mistake: there is no middle ground...

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Review: FRANCES HA, Adrift In The Big City, Colorful Self-Deception Intact

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 -0500

Noah Baumbach has been a polarizing filmmaker since he burst onto the scene with his first high-profile feature, 2005's The Squid and the Whale. Aside from launching Jesse Eisenberg's career, that effort also familiarized the film world with Baumbach's quirky indie voice. While like nails on a chalkboard to some -- see critical reaction to Margot at the Wedding and Greenberg -- Baumbach's minimalist, self-deprecating style has been emulated by many in the years that have followed. His latest, Frances Ha, is every bit as Baumbachian as his previous work, yet feels somehow more accessible as well, aside, perhaps, from the black-and-white photography, which, at times, evokes early Woody Allen or the French New Wave. It is up for debate whether this is because of...

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Review: BLACK ROCK, A Survival Thriller With Too Few Thrills

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:00 -0500

In her first directorial turn, actress Katie Aselton impressed indie audiences with her relationship comedy The Freebie. Looking to go in a completely different direction with her sophomore effort, Aselton and husband Mark Duplass worked up the outline for a survival thriller. Duplass wrote a screenplay and the indie finance engine that the Duplass Bros. have nurtured kicked into high gear. Less than one year later, we have Black Rock. While this deserted island chiller has some good moments, it's hard to walk away without thinking that just a bit more time in development could have made this a much better movie. Things begin when Sarah (Kate Bosworth) goes to great trouble to assemble her two best friends Abby (Aselton) and Lou (Lake Bell) for...

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Cannes 2013 Review: THE BLING RING Pawns Character for Coolness

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:30:47 -0500

It's difficult to talk much about Sofia Coppola's latest The Bling Ring without addressing this year's other cute-teens-as-criminals film Spring Breakers -- so let's just get the comparisons out of the way right off the bat. While both films can be accused of glorifying crime by taking voyeuristic trips into the lives of good kids gone bad, Harmony Korines's film does it with scathing sensationalist satire that simultaneously disarms the audience and inserts a distance from the acts portrayed. By contrast, Coppola's take on her true-story subject matter is a totally straightforward telling that goes so far to include documentary elements. The result is a glorification of the kids' lifestyle that relies on the true conclusion's punishment to deliver her message. It's the opposite...

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Jeonju 2013 Review: Lee Sang-woo's Thrilling EMERGENCY EXIT is a Poetic Gutpunch

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:30:03 -0500

Every year, the Jeonju International Film Festival commissions a pair of omnibus features. The longest-running and most famous of these is the Jeonju Digital Project, which has featured a number of star Asian directors over the years. The other is the Short! Short! Short! series, which focuses on young Korean directors helming experimental works. This year's edition of the latter featured three shorts and four directors tasked with adapting the works of popular local writer Kim Young-ha. Based on Kim's idiosyncratic stories, the works, each original in their own right, all featured a strong sense of style. Of course, as with many omnibuses, they didn't all hit the mark. Lee Sang-woo's opening segment Emergency Exit was my favorite of the bunch and also the best thing...

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Blu-ray Review: TOKYO MAGNITUDE 8.0 Is Tragedy Animated

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:00:35 -0500

Japan's psyche was deeply affected after the Fukushima catastrophe and the effects of this have been increasingly felt in a lot of post-trauma works of fiction since. However there's one work of fiction that aired only 18 months before the disaster and which was very prescient, and this is the brilliant anime series Tokyo Magnitude 8.0.Imagine if an earthquake as powerful as magnitude 8.0 struck Tokyo today; who would we think about and what would we do at that moment? Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is a tremendous human drama that portrays the connections and human bonds in extreme events as it follows protagonist Mirai, her eight year old brother and stranger Mari as they navigate the devastated Tokyo in an attempt to find Mirai's parents, from whom...

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DVD Review: HAIL Experiments, Causes Headaches

Mon, 13 May 2013 20:00:52 -0500

Hail is not a pleasant film - it is in fact alienating and dismisses the concept of an audience as the film is clearly not made for them. It immerses you into a mire of ugly imagery aided by scattershot and headache-inducing cinematography.An ex-con by the name of Dan (Daniel Jones) is reunited with the love of his life, Leanne (Leanne Campbell). It is quickly evident the film is based on the experiences of these not-really-actors and it feels real which is not a detriment to the film, however it did impact my enjoyment of it and I was unable to find it accessible in any way. Dan wants to go straight; he gets a simple job, screws that up and is lured back into the...

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Review: GAME OF THRONES S3E07, THE BEAR AND THE MAIDEN FAIR (Or, Stumpy Grows A Conscience And Does Something Entertainingly Stupid)

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:30:59 -0500

A note to whoever wrote Sansa's dialogue in this week's episode of Game Of Thrones: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Listening to Sansa describe herself as a stupid little girl - arguably the biggest moment of insight she has had throughout the duration of the series - was a lovely little payoff to all the time spent watching her behave like a stupid little girl. A hearty "YES," may have been shouted at the screen at that point. "YES YOU ARE!"And as much as that particular moment was more or less a throw-away it does provide a handy entry point into the sexual politics - particularly the politics around breeding, by which I mean making children and not learning your manners -...

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Tribeca 2013 Review: Does MR. JONES Take Found Footage Horror To A New Dimension?

Sun, 12 May 2013 14:00:02 -0500

"Scott is a filmmaker in need of inspiration..." in a film whose very genre is in need of inspiration: found footage horror. The TFF festival guide bills Mr. Jones' writer/director, Karl Mueller, as someone who has "taken the found footage fright film to a new dimension, introducing a completely unique labyrinth of terrors." It's a bold statement, but one I took with a grain of salt. So many horror films have made similar claims, and those films have been liars. When you're sprinting through a herd of cattle, it's hard not to step in the bullshit. And speaking of shit, at first it seemed like we could be in for some of the "same old" variety. The trick to any found footage film is coming...

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Review: GO GOA GONE Goes Great Guns, Gets Gasps And Giggles

Sat, 11 May 2013 22:07:10 -0500

Color me genuinely shocked. I went to to Bollywood's first zombie comedy with very low expectations and came out completely enthused about the finished product. Directorial team Raj & DK took a lot of very broad references and influences and melded them into something not exactly new, but certainly very entertaining. I've seen a lot of Bollywood horror films, but this is the first one that I feel I can recommend to general audiences without reservation or qualification. Go Goa Gone is a top notch bit of fun.Bunny, Luv, and Hardik are roommates. While Bunny works his little ass off trying to move up in the world, Luv and Hardik spend most of their energy either getting high or trying to get laid. Through a...

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Review: DOCTOR WHO S7E13, NIGHTMARE IN SILVER (Or, An Underwhelming Episode Sees The Doctor Battle Cybermen While Irritating Kids Tag Along)

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:00:07 -0500

Neil Gaiman's previous scripting effort, "The Doctor's Wife," is acknowledged as one of the strongest episodes of recent Doctor Who, effortlessly feeling like something that fits very naturally into the show's past while giving us a fresh spin on something familiar. Understandably, expectations were high for "Nightmare in Silver," an episode that seeks to accomplish the same feat. This time, it's a reestablishment of the threat posed by the Cybermen, an attempt to make them both more scary and more interesting.Unfortunately, very little in the episode works as well as it should. I'm prepared to entertain the possibility that much of Gaiman's script just doesn't translate but there are numerous flaws throughout this mess and many of them can be attributed to the writing. The...

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Review: I DECLARE WAR Goes To Battle With Boys And Bullying

Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:01 -0500

One weekend day a number of the nerdier kids from the local middle school gather their sticks and twine and balloons filled with red dye, and head into the local woods to play capture-the-flag. Oh, those tweens today with their Bieber hair-cuts and their war games. While we are never given any visual context of this one-day war, it is implied that these games have been going on for some time and someone is keeping statistics. Jason Lapeyre's odyssey of two groups of children battling in the forest -- no this ain't The Hunger Games, more like a leafy, agora-version The Stanford Prison Experiment -- is a peculiar but totally engrossing combination of make-believe and reality. At that age friendships seem like everything, and everything...

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Review: COMMUNITY S4E13, ADVANCED INTRODUCTION TO FINALITY (Or, Is It?)

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:00:00 -0500

It was in the season 3 episode Documentary Filmmaking: Redux that we saw a hilariously outdated video promoting Greendale Community College. In this video we saw a hopelessly hokey basketball player say "Why Go Greendale? Just because!" That episode, written by Megan Ganz who also penned last night's episode, was one of the wackiest and eccentric the show had put on to date with the Dean pulling a Francis Ford Coppola/Colonial Kurtz level tyrant-style meltdown when he wrangled the entire school into making a new promo video -- and this was in a season full of high-concept, hair brained risks. In looking back on that episode, I feel it worked because it embodied the kind of weirdly bold and passionate "why not?" attitude that a...

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Review: HANNIBAL S1E07, SORBET (Or, Hannibal Prepares Quite The Feast And You're The Main Course!)

Fri, 10 May 2013 02:00:02 -0500

I'm burning the candle at both ends this week, putting in 60+ at the day job and watching my hockey teams of choice get eliminated from the playoffs one by one (I held off watching this week's episode for a night for a wasted overtime effort last night). So I will beg your pardon if this week lacks any clarity or focus. Sharpen your carving knives, here we go... Part of the opening scene finds Hannibal attending a charity event. The great irony is that he is attending a 'Concert for Hunger Relief.' Top that off with dry humor at the end of his exchange with one of his patients, Franklin, and we start to see the foundation get laid down for this episode. Hannibal is...

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Review: Breezy Rom-Com A WEDDING INVITATION Rings A Little Hollow

Fri, 10 May 2013 01:01:01 -0500

In the film business these days, China seems to be the word on everyone's lips, as its market is in the midst of a breathless expansion. However, strict quotas on foreign imports mean that only 35 international films get to share in the spoils every year. To get around this system, a number of foreign companies have begun co-producing films with China, though the results thus far have been mixed. The Korean media giant CJ Entertainment has been investing in the mainland for quite some time, but they have just scored their biggest hit with the romantic comedy A Wedding Invitation, their first fully-produced film for the Chinese market. After five years of dating, QiaoQiao breaks up with LiXing, telling him they need to pursue...

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Review: A WOMAN AND WAR (SENSO NO HITORI NO ONNA) Confronts Wartime Sex Crimes

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:01:12 -0500

A Woman and War is the feature length debut from Inoue Junichi, a screenwriter who started his career as an assistant director at Wakamatsu Productions. The first time director experienced some festival success back in 2009 with his script for Pure Asia, a stylish black and white revenge tale that shone a light on race hate crimes committed by Japanese on North Koreans, and it seems his politically charged debut was not a one-off. Inoue must have something of an affinity for controversial subject matter, as his first feature aims to shine a spotlight on the sex-crimes permitted by the Japanese army during the second world war. Based on a novella by famed post-war writer Sakaguchi Ango, the film follows the lives of three characters...

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Review: WHITE FROG Cries Out For Love, Tolerance, Tenderness

Thu, 09 May 2013 23:00:11 -0500

Everyone grieves in their own way and in their own time. White Frog establishes a happy family before promptly destroying it. Promising and popular high school senior Chaz Young (Harry Shum Jr.) dies unexpectedly. His mother (Joan Chen) goes to pieces, ridding the home of all reminders of him. His father (BD Wong) withdraws, seeking solace in his religious faith. His younger brother Nick (Booboo Stewart), 15, is hit the hardest. He doesn't act like other people -- the explanation is not revealed immediately -- and he has no friends, other than his kind and supportive brother, whose loss he cannot fully comprehend. From that bleak beginning, director Quentin Lee fashions a story of hope and faith, love and tenderness, empathy and tolerance. Screenwriters Ellie...

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Review: AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR Needs A Commercial Break

Thu, 09 May 2013 15:00:02 -0500

Still lean and handsome in his 50s, Bruce Greenwood has proven to be an incredibly versatile actor over a career that stretches back to the late 1970s. In many of his roles, Greenwood has exuded great intelligence, whether he's playing a heroic type or a villain, so casting him in And Now a Word From Our Sponsor as a guileless advertising executive who can only speak in advertising slogans sounds like a canny idea. The execution of that idea falls short, however. In the screenplay written by Michael Hamilton-Wright and directed by Zack Bernbaum, Greenwood embodies Adan Kundle with the requisite blank-eyed expression and stiff body language, and he recites marketing catchphrases with aplomb. After kind-hearted charity fundraiser Karen Hillridge (Parker Posey) agrees to put...

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Review: HE'S WAY MORE FAMOUS THAN YOU Is Excessive, Obnoxious And Hilarious

Thu, 09 May 2013 14:00:02 -0500

He's Way More Famous Than You is a zany bit of fame-whore lambasting, with co-writer and star Halley Feiffer fearlessly taking aim at just about everything under the Hollywood/celebrity sun, most notably herself, and more importantly her appearance in "Noah Baumbach's cinematic masterpiece" The Squid And The Whale. As an alcoholic narcissistic, nightmare inversion (explosion?) of herself, she squeals across the screen like a manic pixie banshee girl, dead set on making her own movie, which will, in her mind, revitalize her in-the-toilet career. To do this, she finagles the help of her brother Ryan (co-writer Ryan Spahn) and eventually, with much begging and whining down the pipeline, his partner Michael Urie, aka the gay guy from Ugly Betty, aka the guy who is gonna...

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Review: NO ONE LIVES Takes On A Certain Kind Of Lunatic Charm

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:01:01 -0500

What new stalk and slash move No One Lives does well: It gives Versus and Midnight Meat Train director Kitamura Ryuhei ample room to stage and execute a series of elaborate and gory kills. What it does poorly: Everything else. Luke Evans -- that's him in the image above, wondering how he ever ended up in this thing -- is relocating. Uprooting and traveling across country to get away from some unnamed trouble. He's got a girl in the seat behind him, another locked in the trunk of his car, and a trailer filled with high tech weaponry and gadgets which he owns and knows how to use for no reason that anyone ever cares to explain. The gang of small time crooks who drive...

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Review: SIGHTSEERS Delivers Black Hearted Laughs

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:01:12 -0500

If there is one thing the English north has a great deal of, it is space. Space and rocks. Both of which are put to extensive use by Tina (Alice Lowe) and Chris (Steve Oram) as the new couple partakes in an 'erotic odyssey' by caravan across the countryside. The rocks are useful for bashing against skulls. And all that space makes for convenient body-dumping grounds. It has taken UK director Ben Wheatley just three short years to make the transition from making a living as a television gun for hire to one of the most acclaimed and intriguing feature directors not only in the UK, but in the entire world. Consider his career trajectory: Down Terrace: Micro budget feature opens to critical acclaim and...

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Review: AFTERSHOCK Shakes Free Of Disaster Movie Expectations

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:00:10 -0500

At the outset, Aftershock appears to be another placid film about how cool it is to go clubbing in Chile. We see wine tours with tourists, eager or not, sipping away at a cabernet, feigning interest in winespeak. We attend throbbing outdoor festivals, with DJs spinning away and drugged out, barely-clothed throngs dancing away to an incessant beat. We're even taken into an exclusive club, where the likes of Selena Gomez shows up, only to smack down the advances of one of our leads, none other than Midnight Madness stalwart Eli Roth. This prelude should be deadly boring past the witching hour, but it proves to be one of the more effective points of the work -- we genuinely get to know these characters, the...

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Hot Docs 2013 Review: 12 O'CLOCK BOYS Is A Hell Of A Ride

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:00:25 -0500

It's no surprise to long term readers of my reviews that I'm kind of enamoured with David Simon's Baltimore. From Homicide: Life On The Streets, through The Corner and of course The Wire (still perhaps the best programme that has ever aired on television), these fictional works exposed a very real, unique culture of inner city Baltimore in a way that remains a touchstone years after their aired.I grant immediately that David Simon had nothing to do with the making of Lotfy Nathan's tremendous film, 12 O'Clock Boys, yet the spirit that drove Simon's shows runs throughout this work. There's something about the row houses, the grass courtyards flanked by brick low rise apartments, the dockyards seen in the distance and thickly accented "ee-you" at...

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Hot Docs 2013 Review: AFTER TILLER Is Important, Vital Look at Late Term Abortion Doctor in US

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:30:46 -0500

On May 31, 2009, Doctor George Tiller was murdered while attending his regular Sunday church service. The doctor was one of a handful trained and willing to perform what are almost antiseptically referred to as "late term" abortions, the termination of a foetus after around the twentieth week of gestation.While Tiller's work is legal in the state in which he practiced, he nonetheless became a figurehead for the anti-abortion movement. As such, his murder was both celebrated by some and caused shock and horror for others. What it did not do was cause a national rush in the US for other doctors to take up Tiller's mantle.The film After Tiller follows the four known doctors that continue to practice the controversial procedure, despite all the...

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Buster Keaton on Blu-ray: COLLEGE Review

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:30:04 -0500

This is kind of a sad piece to write. For the last two years, I've been following Kino as they released their collection of Buster Keaton classics on Blu-ray, and College marks the end of these wonderful discs. In December 2012, Kino released their Ultimate Buster Keaton Collection on Blu-ray, which compiled all of their Blu-ray releases and added College as an exclusive, but thankfully those of us who'd been collecting all along finally get the chance to complete our own sets with this new ultimate edition of College. Not that this is the end of my Keaton collection by a long shot, but it will probably be a while before any of his other films make it to Blu-ray, so it's still a bit bittersweet.College...

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Hot Docs 2013 Review: MUSCLE SHOALS Is A Stunning, Soulful Achievement

Wed, 08 May 2013 18:00:17 -0500

It's a rare thing, the truly engaging music documentary. You have to have a number of things come together to make it more than just a series of clips from some music you feel palatable. The best films are those that transcend simply a jukebox of tunes or talking heads interviews. These rare docs can connect with a viewer on a multiplicity of levels - through rich musicality, a creative presentation, an aesthetically adventurous visual take, and compelling, revealing anecdotes from the participants.Muscle Shoals is a terrific film, easily sitting along side the greats of this subgenre of music-oriented non-fiction filmmaking. It tackles an enormously important facet of popular music, and does so in both an accessible and yet thorough way. It is robust in...

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Sci-Fi London 2013 Review: MARS ET AVRIL Deserves Greater Attention

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:45:03 -0500

Oh, what a wonderful, rich, glorious treat of a film Mars et Avril is. A sci-fi steam-punk romance with a terrific score, it is a delight to the senses. Visually stunning, melodramatic in its storytelling, and unafraid to delve into deep philosophical musings, apparently it's already been released on DVD, and I don't know if it ever had a theatrical release in Canada (though perhaps in Quebec). This is a film that demands to be seen on the big screen, but is by no means an easy watch, in the sense that it does ponder big questions, and asks the spectator to stretch their imagination more than usual. Written and directed by Martin Villeneuve (adapted from his own graphic novels) and set in futuristic Montreal, it...

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Review: THE GREAT GATSBY Is a Class Assignment You'll Want to Skip

Tue, 07 May 2013 23:59:01 -0500

Baz Luhrmann's half-frenetic, half-subdued version of The Great Gatsby is almost 100 percent faithful to the novel in terms of plot, and almost zero percent faithful in terms of theme, character, and impact. I don't doubt that Luhrmann and his co-writer, Craig Pearce, have read the book, but if what's on the screen is any indication, they didn't understand it. In the movie version, almost-30-year-old Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) is a blank-faced, Midwest-raised stock broker just starting out on Wall Street in the summer of 1922. He has a modest home in a part of Long Island populated by the nouveau riche, including his next-door neighbor, the smugly enigmatic Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), whose opulent mansion is the site of frequent raucous parties attended by...

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Jeonju 2013 Review: The Ethereal DEAR DOLPHIN Explores Grief and Guilt

Tue, 07 May 2013 13:00:22 -0500

The most anticipated film of the Jeonju International Film Festival's Korean Competition this year, Kang Ji-na's feature Dear Dolphin, was also the most polished. With its themes of love, loss and loneliness, as well as its vibrant colors, strong mise-en-scene and well-judged flights of fancy, its appeal is universal. Hyeok-geun's life is thrown into turmoil when his young wife Cha-kyeong dies after being hit by a car. A year later her friend, who is also still devastated by her loss, not to mention guilt-ridden for having lent her the bike that the accident, visits him, asking him to accompany her on a trip to her burial site. As they both seeks to come to terms with the holes in their lives, they become close to...

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NYIFF 2013 Review: OONGA Is A Little Boy's Dream Made Real

Tue, 07 May 2013 12:00:40 -0500

No matter where you come from, children are all the same. Mischief is their main motivator, and it is everything for them to feel a part of something. When a young boy, Oonga, in a remote rural village discovers that he's missed his class's trip to see the Ramayana performed on stage and the other kids tease him, he's not about to take it laying down. So begins an epic unplanned journey, fraught with danger and adventure, across Orissa in the eastern part of India, for this boy to fulfill his destiny alone. All of this youthful adventure plays against the topical backdrop of Naxalite (Socialist) rebels infiltrating small villages and those villages then being destroyed by the fighting between the rebels and government agencies.The...

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Sci-Fi London 2013 Review: VESSEL Thoughtfully Depicts The Dark Side Of Psychic Powers

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:30:00 -0500

The world premiere screening of Vessel did not begin well. Out-of-synch sound forced the projectionist to stop film about 10 minutes in, and delay for half an hour while a back-up copy was found (I'm used to technical problems, so wasn't too bothered). Then, two patrons, whom I asked to stop their continuous talking through the false start, proceeded to bully me in both subtle and overt ways during the delay in order to get me to leave. Once the film started again, though, they were (mostly) quiet. I think this was due to the intensity and power of the film, which pulled their and my attention.Ash is a kind of psychic, who can communicate with extraterrestrials through visions that come into his mind without...

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Review: STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS Boldly Goes Not Very Far

Tue, 07 May 2013 11:20:15 -0500

Star Trek Into Darkness begins with a thrilling chase sequence on a distant planet; a scene of immediacy and big budget spectacle. The film continues in this manner for most of its run time, punctuated by scenes that are less impressive and dialogue-driven. There is a bad guy (Benedict Cumberbatch) who makes things explode. There is a protagonist (Chris Pine) who tries to stop things from exploding with the help of his loyal crew. There is a bit more to this plot but not a great deal, and without spoilers Into Darkness can best be described as an insulated action adventure yarn that has great direction but a lack of scope. It is simply not epic; betraying the lore of 'Trek' and ultimately barely progressing past...

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Review: ABDUCTEE Sees Yamaguchi Thinking Outside the Box

Tue, 07 May 2013 02:20:28 -0500

Japanese director Yamaguchi Yudai shows signs of creative growth and maturity in this taut, well-directed chamber piece that takes place entirely within the confines of a shipping container. When middle-aged security guard Chiba awakes to find himself bound and gagged inside a large metal box, he immediately assumes the debt collectors have lost their patience with him. But as time goes on, he realises that something else entirely is happening, and that their are other captives in neighbouring containers - all with numbers tattooed on their arms, all heading to the same unknown destination. As the film opens, and we first see Chiba, hands and feet bound, plastic bag over his head, there is an immediate sense of fear, not so much for the character's...

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Tribeca 2013 Review: STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS Proves A Unique And Lyrical Journey On The Autistic Spectrum

Mon, 06 May 2013 21:30:40 -0500

Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors is one of those rare tone poems that successfully straddles the line between an abstract avalanche of emotions and images and true narrative, complete with arcs, climax, and resolution. It's the story of a young autistic boy who struggles to fit in, both at school and inside of his own family. The added element of Hurricane Sandy lends a ticking clock realism to the proceedings that might otherwise had become mired in tedium. As is, Sam Fleischner's feature about a child who loses himself in the labyrinth of the New York City subway system is an engaging and moving drama that utilizes some rather unorthodox techniques to achieve its emotional goals. First and foremost, the film is about disconnection...

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Tribeca 2013 Review: THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI Lacks Novelty And The Figurative Punch, But Provides Plenty of The Literal Kind

Mon, 06 May 2013 20:30:40 -0500

Muhammad Ali, aka Cassius Clay, is one of the most famous boxers in history, and one of the more recognizable names in all of sports. His legendary strength, speed, power, and his incredible brashness and pride set him apart from his peers. He has long since been immortalized in the American (and global) lexicon, but that didn't stop Hollywood from latching onto his story (Michael Mann's Ali hit in 2001). Bill Siegel's The Trials of Muhammad Ali examines a significant, though often uninspected portion of the boxer's career, or lack thereof. As the civil rights movement of the 1960s swelled, the man who was born as Cassius Clay became more and more outspoken and vitriolic in his criticisms of an America torn apart by racial...

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MSPIFF 2013 Review: THE DEEP Is A Modest, Well-Made Adventure

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:00:33 -0500

Baltasar Kormakur's The Deep is one of those rare examples of a fictionalized true story that doesn't ooze with exaggerated melodrama for false effect. Kormakur (101 Reykjavík, the excellent Jar City, and Reykjavík-Rotterdam remake Contraband) crafts a plainspoken tale of survival that walks right past unnecessary hyperbole, instead capturing the true grit of a shipwreck and the heavy heart of a unintentional national hero. The story takes place off the southern coast of Iceland on Westman Island in 1984, where eleven years before a volcanic eruption nearly devastated the community. The disaster itself does not directly play into the story of the film, but the remaining population on the island is defined by the recent event, including the crewmembers of the fishing vessel about to...

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