Don’t Go in the Woods: And, the streak of January horror movies continues this weekend as Gomer Pyle makes his feature-length directorial debut in this film about a band that head to the woods looking for new inspiration. Initially, this film strikes me as a departure from numerous wilderness-horror films, ones that treat the foresty refuge […]
Driven by Adepero Oduye’s emotionally powerful performance, Pariah tells the story of Alike (Oduye), a seventeen-year-old high school student trying to navigate her surroundings as a lesbian. However, this is less a film for lesbians as much as it is a film with lesbians in it. What I mean to suggest is that Alike’s struggles with […]
Warner Herzog’s newest documentary Into the Abyss is less about whether capital punishment should exist and more about why it does. Herzog’s opinion on lethal injection is no mystery. Within the first ten minutes of the film, he denounces the practice, but doesn’t stoop to demagoguery. Rather, Into the Abyss is a resonating documentary seems to focus […]
Despite the fifty-four-degree temperature outside, January has descended upon us, something most evidenced by the deluge of highly mediocre movies that are about to be released. Granted, Contraband could be fun and an uberintoxicating drinking game could be played each time Mark Wahlberg flares his nostrils, but, for the most part, movies released between January and March […]
From its opening shot of a pastoral landscape in England, War Horse is a beautifully depicted tale of competition, determination, regret, and class –but it’s mostly a story of a boy and his horse. Or, more appropriately, a fairy tale about a boy and his horse, something that the film does not try to hide with […]
Ostensibly, Young Adult is a story of arrested development and perpetual adolescence; however, it’s not the comedy that the previews portend it to be. There are funny moments, but they are, intentionally, uncomfortable, leaving you unsure if the laughter is from circumstance or to cover its depressing reality; in a way, you indulge in the catharsis that […]
2011 came to and end, and now it’s time to recap those things we saw, those things we enjoyed, and those things we abhorred. In the next few weeks, there will plenty of dicussions and conjecture about what will win, who will win what, and who should have been given a chance to win something, but before […]
On her way to Alaska, “where they need people,” Wendy’s (Michelle Williams) journey gets derailed: her car breaks down, she gets busted for shoplifting, and her dog disappears. However, Wendy and Lucy is less a tale of sentimental friendship between a journeywoman and her faithful dog and more a melancholic story about social and personal mobility. A […]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science has geared up for February by unveiling the annual poster for its Oscar ceremony (see above). And, judging by the poster, it looks as if the theme of the broadcast will be to appeal to a broad range of viewers, whether they go for romance (Gone With the Wind […]
It’s difficult to know where to begin a discussion about Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, so it might be best to say that it’s utterly beautiful in its composition. The muted tones of the 1950’s juxtaposed with the radiant color palate of the evolution of existence is stunningly moving and superbly paired with a soundtrack by […]