Category Archives: Long Reviews (>400 Words)

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Indie Films, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It

Brigsby Bear (2017) Movie Review

August 22, 2017 Alex Brannan

For the sake of maintaining the integrity of the Brigsby Bear story (penned by Kevin Costello and star Kyle Mooney) it is difficult to go into a review without a spoiler alert. This is namely because there is a story twist inherent in the premise of the film.

Given that marketing of the movie has not been too widespread, I think it is best to throw out a spoiler warning just to be safe, even though this review will only get into a basic summary of the film’s premise.

James Pope (Mooney) is obsessed with Continue reading Brigsby Bear (2017) Movie Review →

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

Lemon (2017) Movie Review

August 21, 2017 Alex Brannan

Isaac is a 40-year-old out of work actor who pays his bills teaching acting classes. His girlfriend of 10 years (Judy Greer) is cheating on him. His cynical siblings (Siri Appleby and Martin Starr) see past him. His high maintenance parents (Rhea Pearlman and Fred Melamad) don’t listen to him.

One of our first exposures to Isaac is in his element as an acting teacher. On stage, Alex (Michael Cera) and Tracy (Gillian Jacobs) play out a scene until Isaac steps in. Isaac idolizes Alex, whose approach to acting is rife with farcical nonsense about colors and animals, and demeans Tracy.

This routine is a snapshot of Isaac: deep-seated anger and regret suppressed and projected onto younger talent. The manner by which he Continue reading Lemon (2017) Movie Review →

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

Logan Lucky (2017) Movie Review

August 19, 2017 Alex Brannan

Steven Soderbergh marks his return to feature filmmaking after his reported retirement with Logan Lucky, a heist film in the same stylistic vein as his Oceans films. Instead of the lavish cityscape and bright lights of Las Vegas, however, in Logan Lucky we are treated with rural North Carolina. The high security casino: replaced by a low security NASCAR race track.

The lead figure in this heist is Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum), who sees a crack in the system of pressure tubes that carry money from the race track to a nearby bank vault and decides to Continue reading Logan Lucky (2017) Movie Review →

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

The Glass Castle (2017) Movie Review

August 13, 2017 Alex Brannan

Based on the memoir by Jeannette Wells, The Glass Castle tells the story of four children raised in an inconstant, emotionally troubling household. The family, led by an alcohol abusing patriarch (Woody Harrelson), moves from squat house to squat house to avoid paying taxes. The children do not go to school. The family, at one point, resorts to showering at the public pool.

The films feels most readily akin to last year’s Captain Fantastic. Only, it lacks the Continue reading The Glass Castle (2017) Movie Review →

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

Girls Trip (2017) Movie Review

August 10, 2017 Alex Brannan

Four college friends reunite to party for a weekend, and there are unexpected consequences. It is a premise not unlike another Summer 2017 film: Rough Night. Only, in Girls Trip there is no dead body, and there is a much more conventional narrative.

Ryan Pierce (Regina Hall) and her husband (Mike Colter) have made a brand name out of their marriage. They are traveling to the Essence Festival in New Orleans in order to Continue reading Girls Trip (2017) Movie Review →

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

Detroit (2017) Movie Review

August 6, 2017 Alex Brannan

Kathryn Bigelow, known most recently as the director of war films The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, depicts a different sort of war in Detroit.

Told in three acts, Detroit covers the 1967 rebellion of Detroit citizens against a racist police force. Following the raid of an illegal club, riots against the Detroit police begin, escalating to the point where Continue reading Detroit (2017) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Western

The Dark Tower (2017) Movie Review

August 3, 2017 Alex Brannan

Over the course of his prolific pop-literary career, Stephen King has published eight novels under the heading of The Dark Tower series. The series is a dense genre-bending tale of The Gunslinger, brimming with a desolate Western vibe and fantasy tropes.

The Dark Tower, the long-awaited film adaptation being helmed here by Nikolaj Arcel, is 95 minutes long. It merely skims over that Western vibe to focus on the six shooters and the giant lasers.

You might already see Continue reading The Dark Tower (2017) Movie Review →

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

Atomic Blonde (2017) Movie Review

July 29, 2017 Alex Brannan

Armed with a constant blue-gray aesthetic, Atomic Blonde lacks the adrenaline energy of a John Wick despite sharing a director, so much so that the intricately staged hand-to-hand combat sequences can sometimes come off as dreary and mechanical.

This said, select sequences from this batch are the Continue reading Atomic Blonde (2017) Movie Review →

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

Dunkirk (2017) Movie Review

July 23, 2017 Alex Brannan

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk is by no means quiet, but it is noticeably mute. In its introduction, Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), a young English soldier caught in the city of Dunkirk surrounded by the fast-burning German army, meanders the abandoned streets with other emaciated young soldiers. No one speaks. Sullenly they walk about, only to be gunned down by unseen Germans.

The first line of dialogue we hear is more of a yelp, as Tommy exclaims his allied status to a blockade of troops, scrambling to make it to Continue reading Dunkirk (2017) Movie Review →

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

Kuso (2017) Movie Review

July 21, 2017 Alex Brannan

“No one will ever save you,” begins the man (Regan Farquhar aka Busdriver) who hijacks a newscast at the beginning of Steve Ellison’s (aka Flying Lotus) cinematic debut Kuso. “Once you’re dead / you’re dead / There’s no coming back.”

Thus is a fitting prologue into the world of Kuso, the warped, hallucinogenic vision of its musical creator. No one can save you from Continue reading Kuso (2017) Movie Review →

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