In Sisters, the eponymous sisters Maura (Amy Poehler) and Kate (Tina Fey) are misguided and somewhat juvenile. The two travel to their parent’s house in Orlando, which they find sold and emptied. They protest the loss of their childhood home, and ultimately decide to throw one last party in the house in an attempt to return to their glory days.
The film totes the expected cavalcade of SNL alum. At the head are Fey and Poehler, both of whom Continue reading Sisters (2015) Movie Review
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is adapted from the book of the same name, and it is exactly what you think. Jane Austen’s famous characters return to the big screen, only now they aren’t combating class and gender barriers, they are samurai fighting zombies.
The film, understanding that the audience is likely already familiar with the Austen classic, begins with some heavy handed exposition revolving around the nature of the narrative’s zombie outbreak. This opening scene involves an interesting point of view shot that comes from a unique perspective, to say the least. Unfortunately, Continue reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) Movie Review
Brooklyn is a film starring Saoirse Ronan as a young Irish emigre, Eilis, who moves to New York in the early 1950s to find work, leaving behind a mother and sister as a result. In Brooklyn, she stays at a boarding house with four other women of differing personality, works at a department store (but takes night classes to become a bookkeeper), and falls for a young Italian man named Tony (Emory Cohen).
The film makes a marked transition from Eilis’s process of immigration and settling into her new world to her Continue reading Brooklyn (2015) Movie Review
People, Places, Things opens on a birthday party for two twin girls. The father, Will (Jemaine Clement), searches for his wife Charlie (Stephanie Allynne), only to find her cheating on him with another man. After an awkwardly comical exchange, their relationship ends. A year later, the pair have split custody over the children.
Will is a graphic novelist, an occupation which is revealed through a wonderful panning shot over a series of comics frames depicting a man in Continue reading People, Places, Things (2015) Movie Review
Gaspar Noe’s Love opens on an intimate sex scene. The couple is splayed on a bed, engaged in fervent foreplay. It is a single, long take of the two. They do not move. They do not speak. They just do. All the while, orchestral music rises and falls to the tempo of their rhythm.
We cut to the man, Murphy (Karl Glusman), waking, the soundtrack a voiceover narration lamenting his current life and the choices that got him there. He was high the night before. He is worried that Continue reading Love (2015) Movie Review
Caution: Major Spoilers for Let the Right One In ahead!
The Swedish horror film Let the Right One In is a multi-faceted vampire story that revolves around romance, bullying, and growing. It is a beautiful film. It is beautifully shot, wonderfully acted, and brilliantly paced.
But I take issue with the ending.
Continue reading The Dark Truth Behind The “Let the Right One In” Ending
The Summer movie season is over. As such, the obligatory Summer wrap-up list must come out. A lot of movies graced moviegoers’ popcorn-greased faces this Summer, making it hard to whittle a list down to an even and psychologically-pleasing 10.
So, let’s start with some honorable mentions.
“I want to be sex-in-the-bathroom people,” could be the working thesis of Slow Learners, the comedy from Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce. Platonic friends Anne (Sarah Burns) and Jeff (Adam Pally) aren’t successful in their personal lives. After many failed attempts at relationships, they decide to wholly change their image.
Sound conventional? Don’t worry, it is.
Continue reading [Quickie]: Slow Learners (2015) Movie Review
Trainwreck is written by comedian Amy Schumer and directed by comedy melodrama behemoth Judd Apatow. In it, Schumer plays Amy Townsend, a promiscuous journalist who has adopted a lifestyle similar to her alcoholic father (Colin Quinn). When she is assigned to write a piece on Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), a surgeon for athletes, they become romantically involved, but Amy’s lack of faith in monogamy threatens to ruin their potential future together.
The film brings Schumer’s familiar raunchy brand of comedy to the big screen. It is a sexually charged style of humor that could Continue reading Trainwreck (2015) Movie Review
We’re about half-way through 2015 and, as such, have been presented with plenty of films. Early-year diamonds in the rough and breakout summer blockbusters have surfaced. Here are my favorite movies of 2015 as of June 21 (in order of their respective release dates).
CineFiles Movie Reviews 