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
Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine begins with a young girl alone in a field, calling for her dog. She is alone and unheard. A similar beginning greets the audience in The Place Beyond the Pines. It begins in darkness with deep inhales and exhales and the rhythmic click-shish of a switch blade. The tattooed, shirtless Luke (Ryan Gosling) […]
Gangster Squad isn’t sure if it’s a cartoon, a biopic, docudrama, or noir-style film.
How prophetic are the DGA announcements this year?
Despite its title and premise, Drive is not a film about speed and Bullit-like car chases. Rather, Nicolas Winding Refn’s film is about fragmented identity. The primary example of this is the unnamed Driver (Ryan Gosling), whose occupation overtakes any given name. Throughout the film, we learn little about him, other than he “can do anything in […]
Well, it’s that time of year again. This morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards. In what seems to be a recurring trend, this year, the number of nominees is still more than five — but less than ten. I guess this logic allows them to nominate […]
Back in March, Tim Adkins took a poignant look at the unplanned pregnancy crux of Blue Valentine and transitioned the filmic conflict into a personal one, exploring the ways in which one deals with similar crises. He is not alone. The fork in the relationship road has been stumbled upon by many whether the roads taken and […]
From the moment a soothsayer warns Julius Caeser to “Beware the Ides of March,” the marriage of politics and assassination were forever canonized in eternal lines. And, in what might exemplify the upcoming season of Oscarbation, The Ides of March is star-studded, characteristically well-acted and brims with tension that is slightly reminiscent of scenes from 1998’s Bulworth. At […]
Take a couple that has been married for twenty five years. Add a dash of midlife crisis until it yields infidelity and divorce. Slather the wife with remorse for the disintegration of the marriage and her choice to sleep with David Lindhagen. Provide a young, philandering mentor to the aging, seemingly asexual protégé ex-husband. At first glance, […]
The Liberian Girl and I were running 20 minutes late for a late Sunday Brunch on U Street with our favorite lesbians. After the light at 12th Street turned green, I whipped into a parking spot. We tumbled out of the car and stumbled into Creme. Our favorite bartender had already poured our drinks. The brunch was […]
The first word out of my mouth after seeing a “great” movie is more often than not, an expletive. Followed by an exhale. I would’ve have thought with “The Social Network”, closing with The Beatles classic “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” would have evoked that emotion. It didn’t. It did however after Leo DiCaprio’s final line of […]
