Tag Archives: drama

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Indie Films, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Cold Deck (2015) Movie Review

December 4, 2015 Alex Brannan

Cold Deck opens with a jazzy soundtrack and a warmly-lit montage of poker tables being played. The film zooms in on one particular table, where the players engage in emasculating ball-busting, each jab met with the same uproarious laughter.

One player, Bobby (Stefano Gallo), loses out to the clubs owner, Chips (Paul Sorvino), who takes sympathy on him and lends him some cash.

Bobby works in a factory, but his conversations are all on gambling. It is his lifestyle. Strapped for cash, barely able to Continue reading Cold Deck (2015) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words), Romance

Brooklyn (2015) Movie Review

November 28, 2015 Alex Brannan

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 →

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

Room (2015) Movie Review

November 24, 2015 Alex Brannan

In Room, a mother (Brie Larson) and son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) are held captive in a tool shed that they call Room. The mother has been there for seven years. Jack is five years old, and he has never set foot outside of Room in his entire life.

Room is a story of resilience and undying familial love. It is about a woman coping with stress under extreme trauma while also having to successfully raise a child. It is also Continue reading Room (2015) Movie Review →

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

Love (2015) Movie Review

November 15, 2015 Alex Brannan

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 →

All Movie Reviews, Comedy, Indie Films, Like It, Quickie Reviews (<400 Words)

Mistress America (2015) Movie Review

November 14, 2015 Alex Brannan

Noah Baumbach’s Mistress America follows alienated college freshman Tracy (Lola Kirke). Tracy is a writer wanting to be part of the Mobius Literary Society, but, when she is rejected, ends up on her own.

Enter Brooke (Greta Gerwig, who also co-wrote the film). Brooke is Tracy’s sister to be, as their parents are scheduled to marry in the near future. Brooke takes Tracy under her wing, taking her around New York City and making her feel welcome.

Brooke is undergoing a major business venture: trying to open a niche restaurant. Tracy initially idolizes Brooke, but soon comes to realize that Continue reading Mistress America (2015) Movie Review →

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

Bridge of Spies (2015) Movie Review

November 3, 2015 Alex Brannan

Bridge of Spies is a Cold War espionage drama from Steven Spielberg. The FBI infiltrates a hotel room held by a man they address as Colonel. Calmly, the man, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), continues about his business as the FBI agents strip his room looking for signs of espionage. All the while, the man destroys the signs of espionage.

James Donovan (Tom Hanks), an insurance lawyer with a history in the Nuremberg Trials, is assigned to defend Continue reading Bridge of Spies (2015) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Halloween Horror, Indie Films, Leave it, Long Reviews (>400 Words)

Circle (2015) Movie Review

October 29, 2015 Alex Brannan

Following an alien invasion, a diverse group of 50 people are sucked up into a black void space that is meant to be a spaceship. Each person is forced to stand on a red circle, or they’ll be struck by a killer lightning bolt. Touch one of the other people. Killer lightning. Do nothing for too long. Killer lightning. Turns out, each person gets a vote as to who gets killed every few minutes. It’s like some perverted democracy.

And that’s where the ethical questioning begins.

As the ensemble tries to logically break down the situation at hand, they bicker about Continue reading Circle (2015) Movie Review →

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

Steve Jobs (2015) Movie Review

October 14, 2015 Alex Brannan

Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs depicts the life of the computer innovator through three separate product launches, all depictions taking place seemingly moments before the show is set to begin.

When we first see Jobs (Michael Fassbender), it is with immediacy. Immediately frustrated. Immediately aggressive. Immediately demanding. All of this surrounding a simple issue: Continue reading Steve Jobs (2015) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Long Reviews (>400 Words), Love It, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

The Martian (2015) Movie Review

October 6, 2015 Alex Brannan

In The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is abandoned and left for dead after a storm hits the surface of Mars, forcing the manned mission he is a part of to be scrubbed. On the way to the rocket, Watney is struck by a satellite dish that was blown off of their equipment, knocking him unconscious. As the rocket fires up into space, dwindling shots linger over Watney’s empty seat as the rest of the crew braces against the force of the ascent.

Then, we get an extended, wordless scene of Watney waking and staggering back to the HAB, the only oxygenated facility on the planet. The scene is entirely carried by Damon’s non-verbal acting. He pulls shrapnel out of a wound in his side, whispering pleas under his breath, just hoping that Continue reading The Martian (2015) Movie Review →

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

Everest (2015) Movie Review

September 25, 2015 Alex Brannan

In 1996, a pair of commercial expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest went terribly wrong. Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) and Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal) both lead competing commercial expedition companies. They decide, due to overcrowding of climbers attempting the voyage up on the same day, decide to work together to reach the summit.