Category Archives: Genres

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

Dark Night (2017) Movie Review

February 3, 2017 Alex Brannan

The opening shot of Tim Sutton’s Dark Night, coming after almost a minute of music playing over a black screen, is a beautiful yet unceremoniously conventional shot. It is the reflexive kino eye shot, showing the awareness of artifice and mediation within a filmic representation.

Gorgeous red and blue neon washes over the eye of an onlooker. We can see the approaching police car in her pupil. It is tragedy in a snapshot; fundamentally artistic even if the eyeball shot has appeared everywhere from Un Chien Andalou to LOST.

Dark Night chronicles the lives of those affected by the 2012 Aurora shooting that took place in a Colorado screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises. The film is proposed as a Continue reading Dark Night (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Horror, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Rings (2017) Movie Review

February 2, 2017 Alex Brannan

The premise of The Ring has always seemed silly. “You ever hear about the videotape that kills people in seven days?” This is one of the first lines of Rings, this third English-language installment of the franchise, itself a remake of the J-Horror sensation Ringu.

On a plane, two people who watched the tape are killed by Samara, the pallid, greasy black-haired monster of the film, as she climbs out of a monitor in the cockpit. This essentially unrelated cold open is the shoddiest scene in the entire film; a strange way to Continue reading Rings (2017) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Drama, Love It

The Handmaiden (2016) Movie Review

January 29, 2017 Alex Brannan

Director Chan-wook Park is not afraid to push buttons. He’s not afraid to be different. Not afraid to indulge.

The Handmaiden may be Chan-wook Park’s most button-pushing, different, indulgent film to date.

In 1930s Korea, a woman named Sook-hee (Tae-ri Kim) is hired to be the handmaiden of a wealthy Japanese heiress Lady Hideko (Min-hee Kim). But nothing is what meets the eye. Nothing. Sook-hee is Continue reading The Handmaiden (2016) Movie Review →

A Movies, All Movie Reviews, Documentary, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

Life, Animated (2016) Movie Review

January 26, 2017 Alex Brannan

At the age of three, Owen Suskind “disappears.” He changes: awake all night, speaking in gibberish, a loss of motor function, an inability to understand what people are saying. Diagnosed with autism, Owen’s life changes forever.

But a love for animated movies, particularly those of the Disney Corporation, allows Owen an outlet from which he can Continue reading Life, Animated (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It

Deepwater Horizon (2016) Movie Review

January 26, 2017 Alex Brannan

The story of the people on board the Deepwater Horizon during the BP oil spill are the subjects of the Peter Berg feature Deepwater Horizon. As with other Berg films, it is a cinema verite style affair, with plenty of handheld shots following right over the shoulder of our heroes. That is, when indulgent crane shots aren’t taking snapshots of the glorious landscapes.

These aforementioned heroes, namely Mike Williams (Mark Wahlberg), are quippy, fast-talking working folk who feel something is up as soon as Continue reading Deepwater Horizon (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Drama, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Coin Heist (2017) Movie Review

January 22, 2017 Alex Brannan

Son of the headmaster of his prep school, Jason Hodges (Alex Saxon) gets more than he bargains for during a mundane field trip to the U.S. Mint. While Jason attempts to get the school “hacker” to change his bio grade, his father is arrested for embezzling.

In the fallout of this, the school is forced to enact cuts to all extracurricular activities. And this is an adequate amount of parts for a Continue reading Coin Heist (2017) Movie Review →

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

Split (2017) Movie Review

January 20, 2017 Alex Brannan

The cold open to M. Night Shyamalan’s new venture, Split, features an intriguing mix of directorial choices. There is a Hitchcockian motivated mobile POV, one that starts as an innocent track. There are motivated pans and tilts that follow our protagonist Casey’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) increasingly cautious gazes. There is a sense of impending dread with each edit.

This opening kidnapping was shown in almost its entirety in Split‘s trailer, which presents the premise of a man with multiple personalities (James McAvoy) who steals away three teenage girls (Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, and Taylor-Joy). Ignore the ridiculous notion that Continue reading Split (2017) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

The Founder (2016) Movie Review

January 19, 2017 Alex Brannan

Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) travels from food joint to food joint trying to sell a five-spindle milkshake mixer. No one bites, but as he sits defeated at these drive-in restaurants, he notices a trend. A trend of slowness, inaccuracy.

When a small, bustling outfit out of San Bernadino named McDonald’s orders an inexplicable eight mixers for one location, Kroc is Continue reading The Founder (2016) Movie Review →

A Movies, All Movie Reviews, Drama, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

Silence (2016) Movie Review

January 15, 2017 Alex Brannan

Jesuit priest Cristovao Ferreira (Liam Neeson), amid a 17th century Japanese mission environment of torture and persecution, reportedly apostatizes the Christian faith to prevent more Japanese converts from being harmed.

Two young priests who were raised into the faith under the tutelage of Ferreira, Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Garupe (Adam Driver), decide to venture to Japan to find Ferreira and an explanation.

When Rodrigues and Garupe land on the Japanese shore, it becomes clear that their resolve may not be enough for what they are up against. In a delightfully simple move, Scorsese shows the two Portuguese priests with Continue reading Silence (2016) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Patriots Day (2016) Movie Review

January 13, 2017 Alex Brannan

Patriots Day, the other 2016 film from director Peter Berg that stars Mark Wahlberg, is a big question mark of a film. It is not a question mark in terms of why it was made or how it was put together, but in how to approach it from a viewer’s perspective.

The film is a dramatic depiction of the Continue reading Patriots Day (2016) Movie Review →

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