Movie Review: The Journey
Nick Hamm’s The Journey is not a typical biopic or historical drama. Many of these films fail with the viewer immediately questioning the movie’s verisimilitude and taking to the internet, The Journey makes it clear in the prologue that it is not concerned with the truth, so much as it is setting out to tell a good story. The Journey takes place during the St. Andrews Peace Talks, which were held ...[Read More]
Movie Review: The Lobster
Having not seen Greek writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos’ critically lauded 2009 film Dogtooth, I legitimately had no expectations going into his latest film. Upon leaving the theater I was glad I knew nothing, because it only enhanced the strange and hypnotic, fever-dream-like viewing experience that was The Lobster. The film is set not so far in the future, where everyone without a partner is forc...[Read More]
Movie Review: Ratchet and Clank
I would feel dishonest writing this review if I didn’t mention my attachment to the game series on which this film is based: I am a massive fan and have been playing them since Ratchet and Clank was first released in 2002. I have played every single entry in the franchise and have almost always been completely satisfied with my experience. Naturally, when I heard my beloved duo was making the tran...[Read More]
Movie Review: Eddie the Eagle
With live action family films essentially dying out as a genre – unless you count Marvel movies or straight-to-DVD Sandlot sequels – it is sort of refreshing when a movie comes out that is so clearly earmarked for pretty much everyone. And, barring one head-scratchingly out of place sex talk, Dexter Fletcher’s Eddie the Eagle is a terrific family film. Growing up with bad knees, resilient dreamer ...[Read More]
Movie Review: Son of Saul
There are two types of films that allow or force the viewer to be entirely consumed by what they are watching and simply experience what is happening on screen. The first, and most obvious, type is the formulaic action film or comedy; the types of films that require very little, if any, effort to watch. The second type, however, is so immersive that you simply cannot think, despite the plethora of...[Read More]
Movie Review: Mustang
Turkish-born French filmmaker Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s feature film debut Mustang is extremely impressive in its ability to portray, in extreme beauty, the allegorical atrociousness of life for five young sisters in rural Turkey. Lale (Güneş Şensoy), Nur (Doğa Doğuşlu), Ece (Elit İşcan), Selma (Tuğba Sunguroğlu), and Sonay (İlayda Akdoğan) are five sisters who, as the film opens, are perfectly conten...[Read More]
Movie Review: Anomalisa
For a film that, in many ways, embraces its own imperfections, Anomalisa (which enjoys a wide release this week) is nearly flawless in what it sets out to achieve: Using the under-utilized medium of stop-motion animation to tell a story more human than most live action films. The film follows middle-aged customer service expert Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) who, after arriving in Cincinn...[Read More]