By: Addison Wylie When a genre film is released that has been deemed as “bad” or “underwhelming”, I’ll usually stick with my go-to rule of thumb. That rule is that if the director’s heart and passion is in the right place and an audience can see that integrity on the big screen, the film can be redeemed in some areas. Skyline, a sci-fi film directed by the Brothers Strause, seems to fall into this category…
By: Addison Wylie Mark Romanek’s last feature film was 2002’s One Hour Photo; a film that many stated was “hitchcockian” in it’s way to set up an eerie mood and in its method to study a sympathetic yet disturbing character suffering from both physical and emotional abuse. Now, almost a decade later, Romanek returns with Never Let Me Go where he continues to play with emotions but strays away from that uncomfortable tone One Hour…
By: Addison Wylie Despicable Me left a bad taste in my mouth. There was nothing more disappointing than being subjected to an animated film that missed every mark even though it had a very interesting, original plot. Megamind, the latest animated movie to dabble in the supervillian-with-a-heart territory, has cheered me up. What Despicable Me failed to do, DreamWorks Animation picked up the fumble and has presented us a a fun and lively time at…
By: Addison Wylie Quirk McGurks. That’s my new label for elements found in independent cinema that are quirky for quirky sakes. It all started in 2008’s Sunshine Cleaning where Amy Adams’ character’s son Oscar liked to lick things because he liked to lick. Thinking longer about Quirk McGurks, I realized that in Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, a Quirk McGurk appears when the youngest son in the family starts masturbating in a library…
By: Addison Wylie A strange occurrence happens every so often where films dealing with similar subject matter will be released in the same year. This year, those films are Buried and 127 Hours. The subject matter at hand? Both films feature our lead protagonist trapped in a small space and we follow them as they fight for survival. Although the sticky situation is similar, the two films shouldn’t be compared. 127 Hours, the latest film…
By: Addison Wylie Due Date’s set-up is one we’ve all seen before. Take an uptight person and pair him up with a complete opposite for a long duration. Put both parties in madcap situations where their relationship will be tested. They may be upset at one another after their lifestyles clash but they may also endear each others own ways by the end. I’m not saying that this particularly happens in Due Date. In fact,…
By: Addison Wylie “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.” -Mugatu (Will Ferrell) in Zoolander Despicable Me is one of those movies where the glowing feedback is flabbergasting. What is it about this film that clicked with so many audiences? It helps that the film is geared towards families with younger children but still, what are families finding so charming about this film in particular? The writing is below pedestrian and the animation is as…
By: Addison Wylie Being a big fan of directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck as well as being a huge fan of Zach Galifianakis, I was greatly interested in It’s Kind of a Funny Story from the get-go. The two directors were the driving force behind a festival favorite in 2006 named Half Nelson, with Fleck directing, and Galifianakis has been a standout act with his film roles and with his comedy. It’s Kind of…
By: Addison Wylie Previously in the review for Aaron Green’s Frozen, I wrote about the concept of a bottle film; a film that takes place in one location. After viewing Frozen, I thought I was never going to view something that claustrophobic ever again. How exactly do you top being stuck on a chair lift in mid-rotation with no one around you? Easy. One makes a movie which takes place in a coffin buried underground….