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
Backcountry is a well-acted film with a familiar premise that pits the ignorance of man and woman against nature. This time around, couple-seemingly-on-the-verge-of-implosion, Jenn (Missy Peregrym) and Alex (Jeff Roop) leave their urban comforts to explore the never-seen-on-screen Blackfoot trail, secluded somewhere in the Canadian wilderness. Inevitably, the couple becomes lost and begins a longer-than-intended trip back […]
Foxcatcher chronicles the tragic partnership of multi-millionaire John Du Pont (Steve Carell) and brothers Dave (Mark Ruffalo) and Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), Olympic medalist in wrestling from the 1980 and 1984 games. Recently, the real Mark Schultz has gone to Twitter and Facebook to condemn director Bennett Miller’s depiction of suggested homoeroticism between Mark and John. I’m […]
Hell hath no fury like a fairy whose wings have been forcibly amputated. Veering from the well-known Disney interpretation of the Sleeping Beauty tale, Maleficent offers a justification for the titular character’s animosity toward Aurora (Elle Fanning) – and it’s not unjustified. In the beginning of the film, we meet a young Maleficent, whose horns are only […]
From director Ana Lily Amirpour comes A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, perhaps the first Spaghetti Western meets vampire movie mashup. Filmed in black and white and completely in Farsi, Girl takes us around Bad City, a realm of dead citizens left in ditches that are barely noticed by passersby. Those that survive are perpetually preyed […]
As The Babadook begins, we are caught in Amelia’s (Essie Davis) nightmare, tossed about helpless, surrounded by shattered glass, and the inevitable impact that’s coming. As she wakes from her tumultuous sleep, the bags under her eyes bespeak many nights of the same terror. Soon, we learn from her precocious, verbally diuretic son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman) that […]
Alejandro G. Inarritu’s new film, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Innocence) is unrestricted, taking aim at the rash of superhero films that have been progenated by whoresome producers in the past 10 years. As the former on-screen superhero Birdman, Riggan (Michael Keaton) hears a series of names that have joined the superhero cadre and wonders, “they […]
Darkly comical and sardonic, The Skeleton Twins is a poignant study in loneliness. A warning to those about to watch the film: there is no resolution. Much like the Milo and Maggie (Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig), the melancholic, estranged siblings suggested by the title, we are left hanging – not in such a way that we have […]
Orgasm-tinged breathing opens the film, as the camera sets our gaze from a mountaintop over an open valley. This devolves to a visceral scene that reminds us the importance of wearing appropriately-sized boots while hiking. Based on Cheryl Strayed’s book, Wild: Lost and Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, the new briefer titled film, Wild, recounts Strayed’s […]
Anyone who watched the then-WWF’s professional wrestling as a child in the 80’s and 70’s will undoubtedly be familiar with the camel clutch, the pre-Hogan all-American Bob Backlund, and of course, Hulk Hogan himself. Most likely one would also recognize Khosrow Vaziri’s, or as he’s better known, the Iron Sheik. Igal Hecht’s documentary, The Sheik, chronicles Vaziri’s […]
Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones’s powerfully understated performances drive James Marsh’s new film, The Theory of Everything, a film based on the relationship between world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and his wife, Jane (Felicity Jones). As Marsh did with the documentary Man on Wire, he plays this film slowly. There are few montages throughout, which seem […]
