Tag Archives: 2013

The Friedberg-Seltzer Massacre: Best Night Ever (2013) and Superfast! (2015)

This is the sixth and final installment in “The Friedberg-Seltzer Massacre: How Two Men Single Handedly Destroyed the Parody Genre.”

In pursuing this project, I did not set out to unilaterally pan the Friedberg and Seltzer oeuvre (as much as the hack, clickbait adjacent title might suggest). Sure, I find almost all of their work indefensible. But I endeavored to get closer to the heart of who these two writers are and what they wanted to get out of their filmmaking. Unfortunately, this is difficult knowledge to gain, considering they are on the record as being almost entirely off the record. The duo almost never give interviews, and, aside from a great Matt Patches piece at Grantland, I could not find a source where they were seriously interviewed.

All the same, I wanted to move beyond the easy insults that have been hurled their way. I wanted to move beyond the perception of them as Continue reading The Friedberg-Seltzer Massacre: Best Night Ever (2013) and Superfast! (2015)

The Friedberg-Seltzer Massacre: Vampires Suck (2010), The Starving Games (2013)

This is the fifth installment in “The Friedberg-Seltzer Massacre: How Two Men Single-Handedly Destroyed the Parody Genre.”

In this penultimate installment, we will examine two of the late career parodies of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer: Vampires Suck and The Starving Games. As I see it, Friedberg and Seltzer’s career can be separated into two distinct phases. There are two reasons why I think about it this way.

For one, there is an easy delineation one could make between the writers’ 2000s output and their 2010s output. As I outlined in previous articles, the 2000s saw a healthy resurgence of the spoof movie, but by the end of the decade it was starting to become clear that the poor quality of these films were catching up with them. Through the 2010s, parody films grew increasingly less popular at the box office.

As such, Vampires Suck serves as a crucial turning point in Friedberg and Seltzer’s career. It was the last of their films to Continue reading The Friedberg-Seltzer Massacre: Vampires Suck (2010), The Starving Games (2013)

Furious 6 (2013) Movie Review

The later three The Fast and Furious films, excluding the upcoming The Fate of the Furious, are heralded as the rare occasion in which the later installments of a franchise are better than their predecessors. This trilogy has been hugely successful from all sides. Fans like them. Critics tolerate them, at the very least. And the box office loves them.

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Furious Six is where all pretense of the franchise’s premise fall away. The film is barely about Continue reading Furious 6 (2013) Movie Review

Contracted (2013) Movie Review

STDs are inherently scary. But there are STDs, and then there are…stranger STDs. Sam (Najarra Townsend) attends the party of an old friend, reluctantly drinking as she waits for her girlfriend Nikki (Katie Stegeman) to arrive. When she doesn’t, she is instead coaxed into the car of a creepy, standoffish man. From the next morning forward, nothing is quite the same for Sam.

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Contracted takes an interesting perspective on sexuality in light of Continue reading Contracted (2013) Movie Review

Willow Creek (2014) Movie Review

 

Caution: minor plot spoilers ahead

 

Indie found footage horror flick Willow Creek cold opens on nothing. Darkness all around as the camera sits idle in a patch of grass blowing lazily in the breeze. We sit in this moment for a tad too long, then the sound crescendos into the title card.

 

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Next, we are in a car with a couple. Jim (Bryce Johnson) is testing out the sound equipment, goading his girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) to speak into the microphone while she drives. She recites lines from a feminine hygiene product commercial that she failed to book. They joke about the Continue reading Willow Creek (2014) Movie Review

Starred Up (2013) Movie Review

 

Young violent offender Eric Love (Jack O’Connell) is “starred up,” which is to say that he is transferred to adult prison from juvenile detention. After several violent altercations between Eric and both inmates and prison guards, he is put into rehabilitative treatment with volunteer psychologist Oliver Baumer (Rupert Friend). Serving a life sentence in the same prison is Love’s father Neville (Ben Mendelsohn), who does his best to protect the kid from Continue reading Starred Up (2013) Movie Review

Scary Movie 5 (2013) Movie Review

Scary Movie 5: A Scene-by-Scene Analysis (sort of) and Movie Review

Caution: Spoilers ahead

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From the opening scene, it is clear that the Scary Movie franchise lost its comedic value at least two installments ago. In the cold open, Continue reading Scary Movie 5 (2013) Movie Review

Is the Man Who is Tall Happy? (2013) Movie Review

Is the Man Who is Tall Happy? is a film by Michel Gondry (writer, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) in which he interviews famed linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky. During the interview, hand drawn animations created by Gondry depict Chomsky’s answers. Every so often, a small frame, inset in the animation, will show Chomsky as he is speaking. Their conversation delves into various alleyways, namely his philosophy on language and how we understand the concepts of the world through words and symbols.

Continue reading Is the Man Who is Tall Happy? (2013) Movie Review