Backcountry is a well-acted film with a familiar premis
Foxcatcher chronicles the tragic partnership of multi-m
Hell hath no fury like a fairy whose wings have been
Hotels are a fascinating dichotomy. In their erection, they symbolize a cohesive permanence, while each of their subdivided quarters represents separation and temporality – momentary domiciles with perfunctory furnishings and individual use accoutrements like soaps, shampoos, and mouthwashes. Used once these items are thrown away. Used for a day, each room is inhabited and abandoned, like a […]
In 2012, MTV’s Buckwild founded a genre that could one day be referred to as “degenerate porn,” wherein an isolated group of nine teenagers from West Virginia act crazy on a regular basis, refute the role of adulthood and avoid responsibility at all costs. As per usual, this MTV-produced show was 98% scripted, thus – much like […]
Adore is, at its core, inconceivably silly. Despite characteristically strong performances by Naomi Watts and Robin Wright, the film is on the border of pushing the envelope and devolving to ludicrousness. As life-long friends, Lil (Watts) and Roz (Wright) are inseparable. Their childhoods spent together floating on a raft in the water is only a testament to […]
Despite the change in directors, Hunger Games: Catching Fire maintains a similar coolness and eeriness imparted by the first. While the first installment created a Nazi-driven subtext, the second emphasizes President Snow’s (Donald Sutherland) and Plutarch Heavensby’s (Philip Seymour Hoffman) darkness. The suffocating imageries of both jungle and ocean add to the feelings of isolation and apprehension […]
Based on the Neil Gaiman’s novel, the film Coraline is a cynical look at the desires of children stifled by external constraints placed on parents. The titular little girl is recently transplanted to the gray often-misty Oregon landscape. She and her parents, regardless of where they were before, inhabit the first and second floor of a house […]
In recent days, I have found nothing more frightening than the eerie uncanniness and timelessness of Clueless. The Amy Heckerling film from 1995 that stars Alicia Silverstone in a parody of Jane Austen’s Emma introduced a number of regrettable phrases into our lexicon, but also foreshadowed the dilapidating education system throughout the country, limning it as one […]
To anyone coming of age in the 1990s, Alicia Silverstone will always be best remembered for her turn as Cher is Amy Heckerling’s eerily timeless Clueless. However, Silverstone’s role as Tammy in William Robert Carey’s new film Angels in Stardust will give pause to those of us with nostalgic inclinations toward Cher as we first witness Silverstone’s […]
Nebraska Booze-addled father Determined to keep walking Follows many people. Gravity White-knuckle journey. Catapulted forever Home so far removed. 12 Years a Slave Spotlight cast under The floorboards of history. Our culture of trade. American Hustle Post-Watergate years Shape American culture, Breed paranoia. The Wolf of Wall Street Scarface meets Wall Street; Spring […]
Surely, there are moments in Airplane! (1980) that would confuse anyone not alive in the 1980’s. Today of course, smoking is prohibited on planes – and most everywhere else – the lax, simple security screeners went away thirteen years ago, food without an extortionate price tag is no longer served on flights. Most noticeably, the films form […]
The Croods explores the impeding power of fear and the darkest parts of evolution.
