We’ve trekked up to the great white North for the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, a celebration of all things genre, gore and horror with entire nights wholly dedicated to fulfilling your zombie or werewolf lust depending on which way you swing (we don’t judge). Things haven’t even started yet and we’ve already got our […]
Land of Confusion: The Congress Provokes a lot of Questions, but Not Much Else
How do you write about a movie when you barely understand it? Do you just not? Do you wait for the smarter folks to swoop in and explain everything that you weren’t smart enough to glean? If you’re me, you give yourself a lengthy pep talk to remind you that your own opinions are valuable, […]
In the Still of the Night: Love Hotel Gives Viewers a Raw Glimpse Behind Closed Doors
Never trust anyone who says that documentaries are easy. These people have likely never made a documentary, or at least not a good one. It might seem like a luxury, not having to worry about writing a script, casting talented actors, or even coming up with set decoration and costumes. Just walk around with a […]
Starmen Waiting in the Skies: Guardians of the Galaxy and the Return of the Space Opera
The weekend is over, which means box office reports are in. It’s probably not a surprise to hear that Marvel’s new franchise entry Guardians of the Galaxy has taken the top spot, but what is surprising to many is just how successful the film was, as James Gunn’s loving ode to swashbuckling space epics is […]
Nostalgia Road Trip: Boyhood is a Masterpiece of Cinematic History
There has never been and will never be another film quite like Boyhood. That much is certain. Shot over a period of twelve years with the same cast, at any moment such a bold project could have turned disastrous. Central star Ellar Coltrane could have grown from precocious young boy to hideous hoodlum, funding for […]
Absence of Self: Test is a Powerful Exploration of the Dawn of the AIDS Crisis
There is a moment in the opening scenes of Test where the protagonist Frankie, played by professional dancer Scott Marlowe, warns a fellow dancer against eating cheddar cheese that contains artificial coloring. Todd, played with seductive intensity by Matthew Risch of HBO’s Looking, pointedly taunts him: “[you] shouldn’t be afraid of a little dye. Won’t […]
Feels Like Home: Homemakers is a Sometimes-Beautiful Mess
Homemakers, an independent film making its New York City premiere this week at Brooklyn’s Northside festival, introduces audiences to protagonist Irene, played by Rachel McKeon, as a somewhat overwhelming fun-house mirror version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She chews with unsettling, openmouthed vigor, bursts into inappropriate tantrums, and generally marches around flirting aggressively with […]
Girls On Stage: Obvious Child Gives Female Comics Their Due on the Big Screen
The very first moments of Obvious Child, directed by Gillian Robespierre, make it clear that this is a film with a solid understanding of its own identity. We are introduced to Jenny Slate’s character, Donna Stern, during a several-minute, uninterrupted stand-up set where she lays bare the dirty not-so-secret secret of vaginal discharge and waxes […]
An Experiment in Expansion: Before I Disappear Overcomes Flaws to Showcase Talents
Adaptations are a hot commodity. It’s rare these days for any film to get made that isn’t a sequel, prequel, threequel, spinoff, book or dreaded video game adaptation. This has brought us the rise and box office domination of such entities as the Marvel universe, but also created a vacuum of original creative ideas. Two […]
Faithful to a Fault: Where Amazing Spider-Man 2 Went Wrong with Gwen Stacy
Warning: Some spoilers are contained in this editorial The new Spider-Man films have had their issues, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find even the harshest critic not give credit to the casting choices. Although much of the development of characters and relationships seems to occur off-screen, the strongest traits of characters like Gwen, Peter, and […]