Reviews
In Oblivion, Tom Cruise stars as Jack, a veteran stationed on what remains of planet Earth to repair security drones. The planet has become uninhabitable due to ecological disaster and nuclear war. Jack and his mission partner, Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), protect mining installations from Scavs, aliens who seek to destroy all humans and their tech. When Jack finds a human survivor in a crash landed spaceship, he begins to question everything he knows. Not surprisingly, the film is very derivative of the creative team’s previous work, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Wrapping in just enough ideas of persistent...
Molly Maxwell (Lola Tash) is a teen without many boundaries. She goes to an alternative school where kids are allowed to choose their own course of study, her parents (Krista Bridges and Rob Stewart) are artsy, permissive types and her friends are misfits who encourage experimentation in all aspects of life. Molly herself is unsure of what to do with all of her freedom, which manifests itself in her difficulty in deciding which elective she should pursue – even after her loopy principal (Richard Clarkin) lays down the law and tells her to choose or flunk. Enter Ben (Charlie Carrick), a...
Dolph (Jack Plotnick) is a regular guy in an irregular world. When he wakes up one morning at 7:60 am to find his dog, Paul, is missing, Dolph embarks on the strangest journey you’ll ever witness. From a workplace where it rains indoors, trees that can change from palm to pine, and a telekinesis master who helps dog owners communicate with their animals, the world of Wrong is just that, wrong. There is no middle ground when it comes to the films of Quentin Dupieux. Love or hate are the only emotions available here. If you enjoyed his previous work,...
Tracy (Julia Stiles) gets together once a month for a couples’ brunch with her friends. This month, she’s bringing her new boyfriend Glen (David Cross) for their third date. Before the quiche is even served, problems between the couples start to appear, leaving Glen feeling rather awkward. As things start to break down and people are about to leave, the friends find out that a dirty bomb has gone off in the city, forcing them to stay indoors. With the apocalypse on the horizon, the group start to realize that their problems could be worse, but that won’t stop them...
To The Wonder opens with Neil (Ben Affleck) and Marina (Olga Kurylenko) in France, walking the streets of Paris and the low tides of Mont Saint-Michel Island. Marina and her 10-year-old daughter leave France and move with Neil to the flatlands of Oklahoma. While Neil works collecting samples of earth and water in construction zones she spends lonely days dancing in empty rooms and walking through open fields. The couple is struggling with their new domesticity and Marina’s daughter with her new, friendless life in America. Neil rekindles his friendship with a high school friend named Jane (Rachel McAdams), distancing...
Bert Stern: Original Mad Man comes with an almost deceiving title. This documentary follows the career of Bert Stern, a man who took iconic photographs for both art and advertisement, and held the philosophy that he “wasn’t just taking a picture, we has creating an image”. He helped change the image of the advertising world in the early ’60s as it blossomed through its creative revolution. As told by director Shannah Laumeister, who is also his long time partner, the documentary plays out interview-style, with Stern recounting his career and personal life spilling some intimate details but also, it seems,...
Mr. Watanabe, an elderly widowed sociology professor, orders a prostitute. A while later, a beautiful young lady named Akiko shows up at his apartment. Mr. Watanabe fancies himself a gentleman; he has prepared the regional soup of Akiko’s hometown and eagerly offers her a glass of wine. Although Watanabe’s intentions never evolve into anything resembling lechery, Akiko forecloses sexual possibility by abruptly falling asleep in his bedroom. The next day, the always-polite Watanabe offers Akiko a ride to school. After he drops her off, Akiko’s fiancé notices him waiting in his car. Herein comes the big ironic moment: the fiancé...
Ryan Gosling has sacrificed himself to his own heart-throbby blankness. Reprising a doppelganger version of his role in Drive, Gosling opens The Place Beyond the Pines in leather jacket and bleached blonde hair. Luke is his name, and stunt motorcycling is his game. When Luke finds out that he made a baby with local gal Romina (Eva Mendes), he decides to quit his traveling fair gig and settle down. But Romina already has a new man and Luke has no earning power without his wheels. So he starts robbing banks. A dumb idea to begin with, Luke’s crime spree gets...
It’s an iconic photo that we’ve all seen (or seen parodied) at least once in our lives. 11 men, sitting on a girder high above the New York skyline, casually trading barbs, enjoying a smoke and yes, eating their well-deserved lunch. But what’s the story behind the photo? Who are these guys? How can they just sit there without a care in the world, their feet dangling into the abyss? That’s the main question posed by Men at Lunch, an odd little documentary that offers as much cartoonish hyperbole and misplaced importance of its subject matter as it does genuine...
Simon (James McAvoy) is an art auctioneer at a large auction house. To pay off a significant gambling debt, he joins forced with a gang led by Franck (Vincent Cassel) to steal a Goya. During the heist Simon is hit in the head hard enough to cause amnesia and when it is revealed that he has double crossed the gang, a hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) is hired to try to recover his memory of where the painting is. Trance is pretty standard Danny Boyle— bright colours, fast cuts and a great soundtrack – and of course, his cast is excellent. Vincent...
A garbage bag with a paper necklace is thrown out. A blue orchid is scraped of its color. A maggot is distilled into a liquid and imbibed. We’re introduced to Kris (Amy Seimetz) who not long after is abducted at a bar, and fed the worm which leaves her docile and susceptible to a kind of powerful hypnosis. Her kidnapper – simply called Thief – leverages his complete control over her to make her memorize Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, get really fixated on water, and take all her money. She finds herself abandoned as the worm spreads throughout her and...
In case you’re not familiar it, Jurassic Park is the story of archaeologists Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler who are invited to a tropical island to visit a dinosaur theme park created by eccentric billionaire John Hammond. The thing is, it’s not just dinosaur themed, its attractions are actual dinosaurs. While on the island, a greedy employee starts to mess with the security system, unleashing the awesome power of these 65 million year old creatures, while the human guests fight to survive. If you haven’t seen this film, the reason to see it in 3D is that this is probably...
