All posts by Alex Brannan

The Philosophy of Antichrist: Expulsion from Eden

April 23, 2016 Alex Brannan

Note: This is an in-depth analysis of the 2009 film Antichrist, and, as such, there will be plenty of spoilers for the film. Additionally, the film being discussed here is extremely graphic in nature, and some of these graphic moments are explored in this article. As such, reader discretion is advised.

Note: This is a multi-page article. The links to the subsequent pages often get hidden near the bottom of the page, so just know that the article does not end at the bottom of this page. It is a four-page article.

Lars von Trier’s 2009 film Antichrist might be the single most divisive movie I’ve come across, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given Continue reading The Philosophy of Antichrist: Expulsion from Eden →

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Box Office Predictions

Weekend Box Office Predictions: 4/22/2016

April 21, 2016 Alex Brannan

This weekend sees just one wide domestic release: The Huntsman: Winter’s War, the sequel to the critically middling but financially successful Snow White and the Huntsman. This first installment won its opening weekend bout with a healthy $56.2 million, but I have a feeling this is the sequel no one asked for. With tepid reviews and healthy runs from films already in theaters, I don’t see The Huntsman taking the top spot in its opening weekend.

Instead, we will likely see Continue reading Weekend Box Office Predictions: 4/22/2016 →

All Movie Reviews, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words), Sci-Fi/Fantasy

The Jungle Book (2016) Movie Review

April 16, 2016 Alex Brannan

In The Jungle Book, the live action adaptation of the famous Disney retelling, a boy (Neel Sethi) raised by wolves is put in danger by his own humanity, as the bloodthirsty Bengal tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) vows to kill the child.

CG burdens many films, which become over-dependent on them for spectacle’s sake. In the case of this film, the Continue reading The Jungle Book (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Indie Films, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words), Romance

Wedding Doll (2016) Movie Review

April 16, 2016 Alex Brannan

Hagit (Moran Rosenblatt) works as a packager in a struggling toilet paper factory. Suffering from a cognitive disability, she lives with her mother Sara (Assi Levy), who sacrifices various aspects of her life in order to be there for her daughter.

What is immediately evident with Wedding Doll is the Continue reading Wedding Doll (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Drama, Indie Films, Love It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Age of Cannibals (Zeit der Kannibalen) (2014) Movie Review

April 15, 2016 Alex Brannan

Age of Cannibals follows two German business consultants on a business trip in Lagos, Nigeria. While moving about their hotel, they try to convince a businessman to move his resources from India to Pakistan, deal with a new, young co-worker, and brashly handle cultural differences.

Stylistically, the films is fairly cut and dry. There is little out of the ordinary, save for Continue reading Age of Cannibals (Zeit der Kannibalen) (2014) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Drama, Indie Films, Love It

Cosmos (2015) Movie Review

April 15, 2016 Alex Brannan

In Cosmos, the final film from director Andrzej Zulawski, failing law student Witold (Jonathan Genet) takes a vacation in a renter’s home. Disillusioned, he abandons his studies to pursue writing a novel that mirrors his time at the house. But his time in the house proves to be psychologically taxing.

Strange visual motifs dominate the film. Bugs crawl over food, hanged animals appear intermittently, one character is Continue reading Cosmos (2015) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Indie Films, Love It

The Dark Horse (2016) Movie Review

April 8, 2016 Alex Brannan

Genesis (Cliff Curtis), a severely bipolar man, walks through the rain into a game shop after escaping from an institution. He begins playing a game of chess with himself, mumbling all of the possible moves to himself.

The savant is later released into the care of his brother, who has social troubles of his own that leaves little time to accommodate Genesis. Genesis finds an old friend who runs a chess club, and he strives to Continue reading The Dark Horse (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Demolition (2016) Movie Review

April 8, 2016 Alex Brannan

When his wife dies in a car accident, New York white collar type Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) falls into an erratic depression. At the hospital, after hearing of his wife’s ill fate, Davis uses a vending machine, and gets hung up when the machine disallows him his peanut M&Ms.

After writing the company several lengthy and personal letters, a customer service worker (Naomi Watts) Continue reading Demolition (2016) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Hardcore Henry (2016) Movie Review

April 4, 2016 Alex Brannan

The first person POV film Hardcore Henry follows the eponymous character (here, the camera is a character) after an unexplained accident renders him maimed. Given cybernetic enhancements to essentially his entire body in a series of jump cuts, Henry must fight to save the wife (Haley Bennett) he doesn’t remember from the corporation that provided the parts that built him.

For the most part, it is your basic action movie plot: the untethered yet reluctant hero, the damsel in distress, the rugged in-the-know guru (or about a dozen of them), and the clearly immoral villain.

The gimmick, then, is the cinematographic choices. The real question, then, is: Is this a gimmick film? Continue reading Hardcore Henry (2016) Movie Review →

Film Philosophy / Editorials

The Psychology of The Apple (1998): Abusive Paternalism

April 4, 2016 Alex Brannan

Note: This article goes in-depth into an analysis of The Apple‘s various plot points and subtexts. As a result, it is littered with spoilers. You have been warned.

Additional Note: This is a multi-page article. The links to the succeeding pages can sometimes get buried at the bottom of the page.

The Apple is the feature film debut from then 18-year-old Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf. An influential cog in the machine of Iranian New Wave, as well as part of a family of filmmakers (her father is equally influential director Mohsen Makhmalbaf), Samira Makhmalbaf’s first film delves into the nuanced world of children raised in isolation in a docudrama style. Using a real-life family as both actor and subject, Makhmalbaf captures on film a fictional reality of two children first entering society at the age of 12 at the same time that the real-life children were first engaging with the world outside their home.

I. Fiction as a Means of Conveying Reality

A BFI review of The Apple by John Mount correctly comments that the film focuses “firmly on its subject rather than on its making,” in an industry climate when Continue reading The Psychology of The Apple (1998): Abusive Paternalism →