By: Addison Wylie Spike Lee took to Kickstarter to fund his latest joint Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. It was a bold move that opened up the floodgates for skeptics to start criticizing the filmmaker. Zach Braff endured the same with his campaign to make Wish I Was Here. Lee brings more of an argumentative crowd compared to Braff’s followers and naysayers. Some see Spike Lee as a self-serving loudmouth, but loyal fans believe he has…
By: Addison Wylie Serial (Bad) Weddings is a funny flick before it gets cold feet. Christian Clavier is the deadpan Claude Verneuil, a father who is constantly faced with cultural differences. Three daughters all marry over the course of three years, and all fall in love with men of different cultural backgrounds. The Verneuil’s welcome Chinese, Muslim, and Jewish ethnicities. The men are all standoffish with each other, the women are defensive, and the parents…
By: Addison Wylie Some will say I’m stubborn, but I can’t bring myself to watch any Bond movies starring Daniel Craig. I’m open to change and I like to be pleasantly surprised, but these new Bond movies simply don’t pique my interest. Craig is a fine actor, and the films bring extraordinary talent behind the camera. But, to me, Bond films should be flashy and grand. They should be implausible and crazy. I appreciate the…
By: Mark Barber David Gelb’s The Lazarus Effect offers an intriguing concept, but gets bogged down by convention. Despite its compelling concept, the premise is familiar: a group of researchers led by Frank (Mark Duplass) and his fiancée Zoe (Olivia Wilde) create the “Lazarus” serum, a formula that brings the recently deceased back to life. This God-like power to cheat death causes things to go awry very quickly. Zoe is killed in a laboratory accident…
By: Gesilayefa Azorbo Ballet 422, the much-anticipated new film from Jody Lee Lipes (NY Export: Opus Jazz), opens with a couple of facts. 91 – the number of full-time dancers at the prestigious New York City Ballet. 1948 – the year the ballet company was formed. The film then opens with a shot of these elite dancers walking down a darkened hallway to a mirrored practice studio. Then, shots of them stretching, warming up, wrapping their…
By: Addison Wylie I wouldn’t call Concerning Violence a movie or a documentary. It’s only being considered the latter because filmmaker Göran Olsson uses real footage – from the 60s and 70s – of African liberation in a perpetual clash. It’s more of a collection of footage being blown up on a screen to prove a point. Concerning Violence contains interviews, still images, and raw film that all flesh out these “nine scenes from the…
By: Addison Wylie Big News from Grand Rock is a petite Canadian comedy with petite laughs about a petite town where nothing really happens. Grand Rock’s friendly and carefree community is always seen smiling and wishing healthy salutations to each other. While this may be nice for people living here, it’s dull for those who work for the local newspaper. They have nothing significant to report on. Leonard Crane, a local try-hard journalist, tries to…
By: Addison Wylie Playing It Cool has its cake and eats it too, and knows damn well what it’s doing. However, director Justin Reardon is no David Wain or Charlie Kaufman, and Playing It Cool is nowhere near as clever as They Came Together or Adaptation. Reardon ventures into feature films with this smug rom-com send-up involving a bitter screenwriter (played by Chris Evans) who is given the task of writing a romantic comedy. He…
By: Mark Barber Like its source material, the film adaptation of E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey has taken quite a bit of flak for its tantalizing portrayal of abusive relationships. The film reeks of misogyny, but that’s only half the problem. While Sam Taylor-Johnson’s film resists some of the moral haziness of the book’s gender politics, it does so half-heartedly. Given the book’s start as Twilight fan-fiction, it’s not surprising how the film’s narrative…
By: Addison Wylie In Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine, filmmaker Michele Josue states she’s not exactly looking for closure, but for more of an understanding of Shepard’s life and unfair demise. However, as we watch her trace through Shepard’s life and interview those who were brightened by Matt’s personality, it’s fairly clear that in order for her to comprehend the tragedy, she feels the need to provide a final word. Maybe not from…