By: Addison Wylie Jeremy Gardner’s slow burn horror The Battery has earned crowds of cheers reaching back to its early film festival days from genre movie goers. Even though I wasn’t sold on this flabby flick, that’s great news for the filmmaker. It’s a zombie movie that hardly shows you any of the walking dead. That’s a tough sell! You see limited amounts of zombies because Gardner wants to set his sights more on the…
By: Addison Wylie Why is it that Out of the Furnace has so many accomplishments going for it, yet it’s an impossible recommendation? Telling someone to watch Out of the Furnace would be like telling someone to hold a bunch of wild snakes and assuring them they won’t get bit. Scott Cooper’s thriller is one of those movies you appreciate a few hours after having watched it. Viewing Out of the Furnace for the first…
By: Addison Wylie Down River has so much emotion in it, the film is almost bursting at the seams to contain all of it. Actor turned filmmaker Ben Ratner pushes his four lead actresses to the brink of hysteria, but for fathomable reasons. Harper (played by Colleen Rennison) struggles as a lowly musician who’s losing touch of her sexuality, Fawn (played by Corner Gas’ Gabrielle Miller) is an actress who’s feeling a disconnect between her…
By: Addison Wylie A Field in England is a shock to the system. However, the film’s fine print entails a different definition of that phrase to movie goers. I certainly am not using that description to be complimentary. Some are going to find Ben Wheatley’s trippy drama an enigmatic experience that has them coming back for more. It’s a film that seems as if its been tailor-made for the patient arthouse crowd. Others – like…
By: Addison Wylie Now that we’ve recognized the bad movies that were slingshot at audiences last year, it’s time to move on and engulf ourselves in the cream of the crop. 2013 introduced a wide variety of great films to audiences. I feel like I say that every year, but as I scour my selected picks, the only thing these movies share are the odd genre they’re grouped in. Take documentaries, for example. Audiences were…
By: Addison Wylie 3 Days to Kill pairs action veteran Luc Besson with the imperious directing efforts of McG. The two filmmakers have unmistaken love/hate relationships with movie goers, but it’s clear that these men have strengths in specific areas. Besson has shown audiences how action can be exciting with jaw-dropping stunts, and McG knows how to capture an explosion. The latter may sound underwhelming compared to Besson’s clout, but “flash” is McG’s forte. Their…
By: Addison Wylie It was nice to see a young adult book series stick to its gritty tone and not feel the need to make it lighter for a mainstream audience. That’s exactly what The Hunger Games did with its first venture to the big screen. It did, however, succumb to attributes that felt reminiscent to other franchises with a widespread teen audience. One of these beats being complications with affection between two strapping young…
By: Addison Wylie “Bittersweet” is the best word to describe Her. Spike Jonze has taken our bad habits with technology and projected them to frame an original love story with messages of poignancy. It’s a personal film about an impersonal society. The characters on-screen are closed off to everyone around them. Among them is writer Theodore Twombly (played by Joaquin Phoenix who is a spitting image of Napoleon Dynamite’s “womanizing” brother Kip). People are enjoyably…
By: Addison Wylie You have to hand it to Martin Scorsese. At age 71 with dozens of classics under his belt to which he directed, he still has the courage to make a provocative fireball of a movie like The Wolf of Wall Street. The Wolf of Wall Street chronicles the fast track lifestyle of real life wall street broker Jordan Belfort. Belfort is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who soaks in the shadiness with a…
By: Addison Wylie The Selfish Giant gives off an aroma of a film that will be remembered for a very long time. The staying power of its troubled characters as well as the painfully realistic portrayal of a down-and-out community in Northern England are quite remarkable. This directorial feature debut from British director Clio Barnard trails the life of two young troublemakers trying to make sense of their early teens. Both boys always yearn to…