The Hateful Eight
The Hateful Eight is, fittingly, Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film, and by far his weakest.
Drama
The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun
In Joann Sfar’s triply thriller, Dany (an insecure secretary played by Freya Mavor) decides to throw caution to the wind soon after her boss (Benjamin Biolay) and his wife (Nymphomaniac’s Stacy Martin) arrive at an airport.
Cold Deck
By: Shannon Page For anyone who isn’t up on their poker terms, a “cold deck” refers to a deck of cards that has been prearranged in an order that is meant to result in a specific outcome when dealt. In other words, a cold deck has been fixed for the benefit of the player that switches it with the original deck. Unlike a deck that is used for a full game, a fixed deck is…
Do You Believe?
By: Addison Wylie I believe the saying goes: everybody gets one. Screenwriters Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon got theirs last year with the highly successful faith-based picture God’s Not Dead. I was indifferent towards the film featuring an Atheist professor and his devout student debating God’s existence because I genuinely felt the screenwriters didn’t know any better. I even shrugged off the tasteless ending where the film flips the ultimate bird towards non-believers. A year later, I’m…
Truth
By: Trevor Jeffery Truth is a factually interesting docudrama, with the unfortunate side effect of also being a huge downer – how can you chippily walk away from a film if its thesis is essentially “modern journalism is dead”? It’s 2004, just months before the American Presidential election, and Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) has got a story. And as a producer for CBS’s documentary/news series 60 Minutes, she’s got a platform. She’s uncovered that there…
Burnt
By: Trevor Jeffery Burnt is a dash of unabashed wet dream of a 40-something’s longing for the bohemian days of his twenties, with a hint of a decently entertaining film about a world-class chef and the intra-kitchen dynamics of a quality start-up restaurant in London. Sauté in quality performances for 100 minutes. In John Wells’ Burnt, Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) is a former hot-shot chef who fell into the hard life, got clean, and wants…
People Hold On (plus a One-On-One with Director Michael Seater)
By: Addison Wylie Life With Derek’s Michael Seater gets his directorial feet wet with the ensemble dramedy People Hold On. It’s a good place for the budding filmmaker to start. The film itself is contained within few environments and doesn’t call for visual tricks, which leaves Seater a lot of time to draw characters and connect with his tight-knit cast. The filmmaker must’ve also felt another level of comfort and confidence knowing co-star Paula Brancati – whom…
The Stanford Prison Experiment
By: Addison Wylie The Stanford Prison Experiment is fascinating as it is disturbing. It’s too bad such an inhumane procedure had to take place in real life in order for us to receive this excellent and provocative dramatization. Stanford’s Dr. Philip Zimbardo took a leap of faith when designing an experiment which positioned 18 young men as guards and prisoners in a makeshift jail located in the basement of the university’s Jordan Hall. The two-week long…
Wildlike
By: Addison Wylie Veteran actor Bruce Greenwood and budding actress Ella Purnell are two performers who benefit the most from Frank Hall Green’s weak drama Wildlike. Purnell plays fragile teenager Mackenzie who has been taken advantage of, and in turn can’t trust anyone. Greenwood plays heartbroken wanderer Rene who hopes for a future of clarity and eventual happiness. When Purnell and Greenwood are together, their chemistry is suitably akin to oil and water, but they’re both convincing in their own right. Unfortunately, despite reccomending Wildlike’s…