Tag Archives: drama

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

Starred Up (2013) Movie Review

September 11, 2015 Alex Brannan

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 →

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

Cop Car (2015) Movie Review

September 2, 2015 Alex Brannan

Director Jon Watt’s Cop Car opens on two boys (Hays Wellford and James Freedson-Jackson) walking through a field carrying walking sticks as big as their bodies. They alternate reciting swear words; one gleefully energetic and the other dourly reluctant. Both are confident in their juvenile assumptions.

The pair come across a police squad car parked in the woods with no one attending to it. They cautiously approach it as if it is some wild beast, throwing rocks at it and fearfully running up to touch it. Then, they realize that Continue reading Cop Car (2015) Movie Review →

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

Phoenix (2014) Movie Review

September 1, 2015 Alex Brannan

In the World War II drama Phoenix, Nelly (Nina Hoss) is liberated from the concentration camp Auschwitz, but she has been wounded to the point of facial disfigurement. Following reconstructive surgery that leaves her appearance slightly altered, Nelly spends her nights searching for her husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) at the night club Phoenix.

The street outside of Phoenix is a wash of red light that gives the bar a foreboding aura. Nelly, her face masked in a black veil that further conceals her identity, looks on in almost a surprised horror as she Continue reading Phoenix (2014) Movie Review →

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

White God (2014) Movie Review

August 28, 2015 Alex Brannan

In the Hungarian film White God, young Lili’s (Zsofia Psotta) mixed-breed dog Hagen (Body and Luke) is abandoned by her overbearing father (Sandor Zsoter) and left for dead. Now a stray, Hagen wanders the streets fruitlessly searching for his owner, only to find himself among a group of other strays who run about the city avoiding the human world that has rejected them.

Large swathes of the first half of this film show Hagen walking through heavy-trafficked streets, moving in and out of the hands of various dog-hating lowlifes. At times, minutes go by without Continue reading White God (2014) Movie Review →

All Movie Reviews, Drama, Love It

Straight Outta Compton (2015) Movie Review

August 16, 2015 Alex Brannan

Straight Outta Compton is a biopic centering around legendary rap group N.W.A. The film chronicles the rise of artists Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), and Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) from the unforgiving streets of Compton, California to super stardom as hip-hop pioneers. All the while, bitter racial tensions flood the streets and the nation as the characters encounter multiple run-ins with police and follow the Rodney King trial on television.

Director F. Gary Gray and writers Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff use this biopic as a platform to engage in topical social commentary. The tension in the film between police and African Americans takes Continue reading Straight Outta Compton (2015) Movie Review →

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

The Gift (2015) Movie Review

August 8, 2015 Alex Brannan

In The Gift, married couple Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) move back into Simon’s California hometown after the unexpected loss of their unborn child. The first snaking shots of their new house are an immediate sign of their status. Simon is successful at a well-paying job and is on the verge of a promotion. Robyn is happy doing freelance work from home. Seemingly, life in the pair’s little world is picturesque.

Then there’s Gordo (Joel Edgerton). At first, we only see him from a distance, curiously looking in on the couple as they are shopping, just behind Simon’s shoulder. Eventually he approaches Simon, saying that Continue reading The Gift (2015) Movie Review →

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

Southpaw (2015) Movie Review

July 25, 2015 Alex Brannan

Billy “The Great” Hope (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a mumbling undefeated light heavyweight boxing champion. Adopted into the world of boxing from a life of juvenile delinquency and living in an orphanage, fighting is his sole catharsis for his aggression. He hits hard and moves recklessly in the ring, refusing even to block a punch. He lumbers around, spitting blood and screaming intimidating exclamations. His career is one of pride and success, and he is well on the way to becoming one of the best in the sport.

Then, everything goes south. You can sense it in the Continue reading Southpaw (2015) Movie Review →

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

Faults (2014) Movie Review

July 23, 2015 Alex Brannan

Faults begins with a cold open in a diner, where Ansel Roth (Leland Orser), a washed up expert on de-programming former cult members, is furiously eating a meal that he is unable to pay for. After a sparsely attended seminar in a hotel, a couple approaches Ansel about their daughter Claire’s (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) involvement in a cult called Faults. Ansel, struggling with financial problems, agrees to kidnap Claire in order to counteract the brainwashing Faults has placed on her.

Claire responds to her kidnapping in a partly normal, partly eccentric way. She doesn’t sleep, opting instead to stare at a television set of static through the first night of her capture. She holds back threats of Continue reading Faults (2014) Movie Review →

Action/Thriller, All Movie Reviews, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Horror, Lists, Romance

The Best of 2015 in Movies (So Far)

July 11, 2015 Alex Brannan

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).

Continue reading The Best of 2015 in Movies (So Far) →

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

Irreversible (2002) Movie Review

April 26, 2015 Alex Brannan

Caution: Minor Plot Spoilers Ahead.

Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible is not easy to watch. Midway through the film, the camera remains a static, unflinching observer to Monica Bellucci’s Alex as she is violently raped in a stark blood-red tunnel by a stranger (Jo Prestia). The camera, and thus the viewer by proxy, is a voyeur, a peeping tom viewing the proceedings of the night with cold nihilism.