Here's my video review of David Michôd's "Animal Kingdom."
It's an unbelievably brilliant crime drama that deservedly won the International Grand Jury at Sundance this Spring.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Animal Kingdom - David Michôd (2010) A Video Review
Here's my video review of David Michôd's "Animal Kingdom."
It's an unbelievably brilliant crime drama that deservedly won the International Grand Jury at Sundance this Spring.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
David Lynch Music Video Contest!
Wow! This is the coolest thing I've seen in my life!
One of my honest to God heroes is holding a contest to write/direct/produce his music videos!
I didn't even know he was making a record!
I just peed my pants!
You can find the details on the contest here!
Now I have to come up with an idea!
You can tell I'm excited because I've ended every single sentence with an exclamation point!!!
Black Swan Trailer - I Hate Darren Aronofsky
I got very excited when I saw the trailer for "Black Swan." Then I saw that it was a film by Darren Aronofsky.
I hated "Requiem for a Dream" with a the wildest kind of vengeance.
I liked "Pi" the first time I saw it, but it does not stand up to repeated viewings.
The rest of his films have just bored me.
In a nutshell, Darren Aronofsky, in this snob's humble opinion, is a flashy, show-off who loves editing montages but can't tell a story or develop a character to save his life.
Just my opinion.
But "Black Swan" looks good. Dare I hope?
Dare I?
I really want to like this movie. I hope it's the exception to the Aronofsky rule.
I hated "Requiem for a Dream" with a the wildest kind of vengeance.
I liked "Pi" the first time I saw it, but it does not stand up to repeated viewings.
The rest of his films have just bored me.
In a nutshell, Darren Aronofsky, in this snob's humble opinion, is a flashy, show-off who loves editing montages but can't tell a story or develop a character to save his life.
Just my opinion.
But "Black Swan" looks good. Dare I hope?
Dare I?
I really want to like this movie. I hope it's the exception to the Aronofsky rule.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Nowhere Boy - Sam Taylor-Wood (2009)
John Lennon wasn’t just one of the most influential musicians of the last 50 years. He wrote words that became synonymous with peace.
His childhood was lonely, so how could a film about his life be so excruciatingly tedious to sit through?
Boring sad childhood.
Boring young lust.
Aaron Johnson, who plays Lennon, sleepwalks through the entire film and he looks like he’s just about as bored as all of us are.
Boring, boring, contrived conflicted repeated in somewhat different settings.
“We’re horrible authority figures.”
“Well, I’m a young, rebellious whippersnapper, so watch it.”
Kirsten Scott Thomas plays John Lennon’s aunt, who raised the lad. His mother doesn’t live far, and John goes over to visit a lot.
Of course, there’s a whole lot of angst going on. Mostly about "Why, oh why did mummy give me up?"
SPOILER: It’s because Lennon’s aunt convinced Social Services that she should have custody because she was a single mother and loose women make bad mothers.
END SPOILER
Lennon’s step-common-law-father is played by David Morrissey. I wondered to myself why they bothered casting someone like David Morrissey in such a throwaway, routine, stock role.
Then, I wondered why they were making this movie in the first place.
“Nowhere Boy” drags on for 45 minutes or so with no mercy killing in sight until finally John’s aunt buys him a guitar.
Never mind that it’s completely out of character for her.
Just thank God for the sake of the movie that she did so we can listen to the Quarrymen, Lennon’s pre-Beatles band, for a bit.
Along the way, on the music front, John meets a very young Paul McCartney, played by Thomas Sangster, best known for his stellar performance as the voice of “Ferb” from Disney’s animated series “Phineas and Ferb.”
Sadly, the music doesn’t last long and we’re back to the sad but monotonous life of the lad who would one day be John Lennon but for now, is just some kid living an angst-ridden life.
The rest of the movie follows the pattern of the first act.
More boring angst, followed by boring tragedy and then, young John is off to start a new band the screenwriters don’t mention the name of.
I assume they thought they were being clever.
If you're really bent on watching something about John Lennon or his music or anything related to the Beatles, watch "Hard Day's Night," "Yellow Submarine" or even Iain Softley's "Backbeat."
Better yet, just go and listen to "Imagine" or "Double Fantasy."
Or watch an episode of "Phineas and Ferb." It doesn't have anything to do with John Lennon, but it's not nearly the waste of your time "Nowhere Boy" is.
His childhood was lonely, so how could a film about his life be so excruciatingly tedious to sit through?Boring sad childhood.
Boring young lust.
Aaron Johnson, who plays Lennon, sleepwalks through the entire film and he looks like he’s just about as bored as all of us are.Boring, boring, contrived conflicted repeated in somewhat different settings.
“We’re horrible authority figures.”
“Well, I’m a young, rebellious whippersnapper, so watch it.”
Kirsten Scott Thomas plays John Lennon’s aunt, who raised the lad. His mother doesn’t live far, and John goes over to visit a lot.
Of course, there’s a whole lot of angst going on. Mostly about "Why, oh why did mummy give me up?"
SPOILER: It’s because Lennon’s aunt convinced Social Services that she should have custody because she was a single mother and loose women make bad mothers.
END SPOILER
Lennon’s step-common-law-father is played by David Morrissey. I wondered to myself why they bothered casting someone like David Morrissey in such a throwaway, routine, stock role.
Then, I wondered why they were making this movie in the first place.
“Nowhere Boy” drags on for 45 minutes or so with no mercy killing in sight until finally John’s aunt buys him a guitar.Never mind that it’s completely out of character for her.
Just thank God for the sake of the movie that she did so we can listen to the Quarrymen, Lennon’s pre-Beatles band, for a bit.
Along the way, on the music front, John meets a very young Paul McCartney, played by Thomas Sangster, best known for his stellar performance as the voice of “Ferb” from Disney’s animated series “Phineas and Ferb.”
Sadly, the music doesn’t last long and we’re back to the sad but monotonous life of the lad who would one day be John Lennon but for now, is just some kid living an angst-ridden life.
The rest of the movie follows the pattern of the first act.
More boring angst, followed by boring tragedy and then, young John is off to start a new band the screenwriters don’t mention the name of.
I assume they thought they were being clever.
If you're really bent on watching something about John Lennon or his music or anything related to the Beatles, watch "Hard Day's Night," "Yellow Submarine" or even Iain Softley's "Backbeat."
Better yet, just go and listen to "Imagine" or "Double Fantasy."Or watch an episode of "Phineas and Ferb." It doesn't have anything to do with John Lennon, but it's not nearly the waste of your time "Nowhere Boy" is.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Grace – Paul Solet (2009)
Dear God, thank you for treating us to movies every once in a while that are just wrong in every way.
“Grace” is Paul Solet’s feature film debut. Solet, isn’t someone you’ve heard of iunless you’re just the most obsessive horror movie fan in the universe, or maybe one of his friends or something.
He won “Fangoria Magazine’s” Best Short Horror Film of the Year Award in 2005 for his film, “Means to an End.”
It was amusing, but nothing earth-shattering. There was nothing in the film that would indicate he would go on to make such a wonderfully obscene and original first feature.
In a nutshell, “Grace” is about a cannibal baby.That’s right, this movie is about a baby that drinks blood. And of course, animal blood just won’t do. That would just turn into a short, boring movie really fast.
But “Grace” is wonderful and it is revolting. You have not seen breast feeding like this before.
But that’s not even the best part. Neither the blood-sucking baby nor the mother who supplies the infant with God’s yummy, red innards-nectar is the creepiest character in the movie.
The baby has a grandma who’s almost demonically insane. I mean, she is just a treat to watch. When she finds out she’s going to be a grandmother, she does some research and discovers that women can lactate past menopause if their nipples get sufficient stimulation.
Of course, the crazy grandma gets excited about this and starts letting grandpa into her sweater full of goodies for the first time in God knows how long, just in the hopes of being able to breastfeed her grand-baby. Which of course, is more unsettling than the baby who drinks blood.
Now that’s a level of insanity you have to work at. God doesn’t just give that kind of crazy away.
So what we have here is Solet weaving together a tapestry of people behaving in just the most unimaginable ways.
First, we have the baby who has to have breast blood instead of breast milk.
Then there’s the mother.
Let’s just say if you really like a sick thrill, like I do, it’s better for you go ahead and watch “Grace” then to have me explain how it all works here.
If you are the kind of person who’s just dying to have me describe how the mother gets Grace her blood, you’re probably the kind of person who's out there killing small animals, not the kind sitting at a computer, reading movie reviews.
Then you have the just unbelievably insane grandmother who’s determined to make herself start lactating again so she can feed her grand-baby, but oh my God, she has no idea what she’s getting into.
Add it all up and Solet serves up a recipe for a truly delightful 84-minute ick-fest.
If you like gross and you like “what is wrong with you lady” filmmaking, you really aren’t going to do a whole lot better than “Grace.”
Solet doesn’t come near the level of Cronenberg when it comes to examining just what our relationships to these bizarre things we call bodies are. But that is a high watermark.
Cronenberg will always be the master of this kind of film, but “Grace” is more than worth a look, nevertheless.
“Grace” is Paul Solet’s feature film debut. Solet, isn’t someone you’ve heard of iunless you’re just the most obsessive horror movie fan in the universe, or maybe one of his friends or something.He won “Fangoria Magazine’s” Best Short Horror Film of the Year Award in 2005 for his film, “Means to an End.”
It was amusing, but nothing earth-shattering. There was nothing in the film that would indicate he would go on to make such a wonderfully obscene and original first feature.
In a nutshell, “Grace” is about a cannibal baby.That’s right, this movie is about a baby that drinks blood. And of course, animal blood just won’t do. That would just turn into a short, boring movie really fast.
But “Grace” is wonderful and it is revolting. You have not seen breast feeding like this before.
But that’s not even the best part. Neither the blood-sucking baby nor the mother who supplies the infant with God’s yummy, red innards-nectar is the creepiest character in the movie.
The baby has a grandma who’s almost demonically insane. I mean, she is just a treat to watch. When she finds out she’s going to be a grandmother, she does some research and discovers that women can lactate past menopause if their nipples get sufficient stimulation.
Of course, the crazy grandma gets excited about this and starts letting grandpa into her sweater full of goodies for the first time in God knows how long, just in the hopes of being able to breastfeed her grand-baby. Which of course, is more unsettling than the baby who drinks blood.
Now that’s a level of insanity you have to work at. God doesn’t just give that kind of crazy away.
So what we have here is Solet weaving together a tapestry of people behaving in just the most unimaginable ways.
First, we have the baby who has to have breast blood instead of breast milk.
Then there’s the mother. Let’s just say if you really like a sick thrill, like I do, it’s better for you go ahead and watch “Grace” then to have me explain how it all works here.
If you are the kind of person who’s just dying to have me describe how the mother gets Grace her blood, you’re probably the kind of person who's out there killing small animals, not the kind sitting at a computer, reading movie reviews.
Then you have the just unbelievably insane grandmother who’s determined to make herself start lactating again so she can feed her grand-baby, but oh my God, she has no idea what she’s getting into.Add it all up and Solet serves up a recipe for a truly delightful 84-minute ick-fest.
If you like gross and you like “what is wrong with you lady” filmmaking, you really aren’t going to do a whole lot better than “Grace.”
Solet doesn’t come near the level of Cronenberg when it comes to examining just what our relationships to these bizarre things we call bodies are. But that is a high watermark.Cronenberg will always be the master of this kind of film, but “Grace” is more than worth a look, nevertheless.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
