Category Archives: Long Reviews (>400 Words)

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

The Witch (2016) Movie Review

February 18, 2016 Alex Brannan

The Witch follows the trials of a 17th century New England family banished from society to a home on the outskirts of a threatening woods. They struggle to survive: the crops die, the hunting traps bear no food, the chicken’s eggs bear stillborn chicks. But what is to blame for the family’s misfortune? For the Puritanical family, their misfortune becomes a hysteria over religious heathenism.

The film is marked by quiet. At the film’s outset, we get a flurry of Continue reading The Witch (2016) Movie Review →

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

Zoolander 2 (2016) Movie Review

February 12, 2016 Alex Brannan

Sequels can be many things. They can be good…sometimes. Or they can be superficial rehashes. Or they can be pure nostalgia pieces. Or they can be re-imaginings with topical insertions to try and bring an old property into the present day, where these insertions take the place of original comedy.

Zoolander 2 falls mostly into the latter category. Justin Beiber, Uber, and Susan Boyle are featured in early gags, in moments meant to hook the viewer in. These “topical” moments (Susan Boyle = topical?) feel Continue reading Zoolander 2 (2016) Movie Review →

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

Hail Caesar! (2016) Movie Review

February 5, 2016 Alex Brannan

In Hail Caesar!, the latest from the Coen Brothers, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) is an actor during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He is introduced on-screen in a meta framing—a screening within a screening—portraying a Roman leader in a historical epic a la Spartacus. During filming of this movie, Whitlock is drugged and kidnapped.

Hail Caesar! is the Coen Brothers’ love letter to classical Hollywood cinema. The standard genres of the period are represented: Westerns, historical epics, Broadway musical adaptations, bourgeois romance, etc.

The structural issue of this love letter is that Continue reading Hail Caesar! (2016) Movie Review →

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

Anomalisa (2015) Movie Review

January 23, 2016 Alex Brannan

Anomalisa begins on chatter over a black screen. This chatter is clearly multiple people, but the voices are distinctly similar to each other. This fades in on a lush cloudscape with an airplane emerging out of the grey. Inside the plane is Michael Stone (David Thewlis), a man famous for writing a book about good customer service.

Michael lives in a world of isolation. On a trip to give a self-help speech, he is completely Continue reading Anomalisa (2015) Movie Review →

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

The Revenant (2015) Movie Review

January 12, 2016 Alex Brannan

The Revenant has the viscera of a Braveheart or a Gangs of New York, with the now familiar touch of director Alejandro G. Inarritu. His style shows through with an even stronger flourish than that of his previous film Birdman, as it links itself more naturally with the thematic elements that are in play in the film.

The film centers on Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), a hunter on a fur trading expedition who seeks vengeance after becoming severely wounded and left for dead in the 19th century wilderness.

The only true way to describe this film is to call it Continue reading The Revenant (2015) Movie Review →

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

Your Sister’s Sister (2011) Movie Review

January 11, 2016 Alex Brannan

As far as mumblecore goes–a genre defined by its hyper-naturalism–Your Sister’s Sister comes off as one of the most natural.

Unmotivated and perhaps alcohol dependent Jack (Mark Duplass) has just spent a year without his late brother Tom. He has no Continue reading Your Sister’s Sister (2011) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, F Movies, Loath It, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

The Loft (2015) Movie Review

January 2, 2016 Alex Brannan

The Loft begins with distracting shots: intentional blurring and tightly framed, hyper-wide angles. These grotesque wide angles return frequently throughout the length of the film.

A groveling Karl Urban tepidly growls his lines as Vincent Stevens, a man being interrogated by police after a woman is found dead Continue reading The Loft (2015) Movie Review →

2016 Academy Awards, All Movie Reviews, Indie Films, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It, Romance, Short Films

Stutterer (2015) Short Film Review

December 31, 2015 Alex Brannan

The Oscar shortlisted short film Stutterer begins with a tight extreme close up of a man’s mouth as he attempts to speak on the phone about an issue with a bill. The man’s speech impediment is insufferable, but his thoughts are lush and elegant.

The man, Greenwood (Matthew Needham), works–understandably–best with the written word. He has a flourishing Continue reading Stutterer (2015) Short Film Review →

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

The Hateful Eight (2015) Movie Review

December 31, 2015 Alex Brannan

The “Roadshow” 70mm exhibition of Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film, The Hateful Eight, begins with a three minute overture. It is a haunting piano, string, and xylophone melody that plays over a red splash screen. This overture, and the films full score, are handled by master film composer Ennio Morricone.

Morricone’s career spans decades, and his work has included iconic scores in Sergio Leone Westerns. It is thus apropos that he tackles this films soundtrack, which is at times the dominant attraction, crescendoing into Hellish tremolos from thunderous strings. It is a brilliant score that mixes Western and Gothic motifs.

Tarantino begins The Hateful Eight by Continue reading The Hateful Eight (2015) Movie Review →

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

Sisters (2015) Movie Review

December 21, 2015 Alex Brannan

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 →

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