Author Eliza Griffin

I fell in love with the beauty and power of cinema at a young age. In between reading about films, analyzing films, and pretending my life is a cinematic masterpiece, I can be found peppering conversations with film quotes, and making short comedy videos.

Reviews Screen Shot 2016-04-17 at 2.17.48 PM
5.0
0

The premise for Criminal is simple: When CIA agent Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) dies in the middle of a mission, a team of doctors and scientists led by the meek Dr. Franks (Tommy Lee Jones) “transfer” Pope’s memories to the brain of gravel-voiced sociopathic jailed criminal Jericho Stewart (Kevin Cotsner). This will allow the CIA to use Jericho to draw …

Reviews Legend
7.0
8

Tom Hardy’s dual performance in Legend as real-life identical twin gangster brothers Ronald and Reginald Kray is a remarkable one. The film itself, unfortunately, does not live up to its title. Narrated by Reggie’s wife Francis (Emily Browning), we watch as the Kray brothers rule…

Special Feature Krampus
41

I first heard of Krampus when I lived in Vienna, Austria a few years ago. As the cheery Christmas season approached, and as I happily visited Christmas markets and wondered about Viennese traditions, the family I lived with told me with great seriousness of a demonic horned figure who terrified children into being “good”…

Reviews Screen Shot 2015-11-09 at 5.21.11 PM
6.5
14

Danger. Explosions. Helicopters and airplanes. Beautiful women, beautiful cars, beautiful locations and Bond vs. villain showdowns: Spectre serves up all of these traits we have come to expect and grown to love in the timeless James Bond film series. Unfortunately, Spectre is spoiled by being drawn out and messy, attempting to …

Reviews 05eb8e8b4b21b8eabe7c144207ea2289
8.0
6

Maurice Pialat’s 1991 Van Gogh is a steady, non-grandiose look at the famous painter’s final 67 days in the beautiful Auvers-sur-Oise, France. The opening shot follows the painter’s hand as he gently runs a paintbrush across a blue canvas; it is a peaceful start to a film which avoids high drama and concludes with similar …

Reviews The Intern
7.2
0

The trailer for Nancy Meyers’ The Intern seems to present the film as solely a comedy, suggesting two hours filled with gaffes and jokes regarding the older generation struggling to fit in with today’s technology-obsessed, socially inept twenty- and thirty-somethings…

Reviews Screen Shot 2015-09-28 at 10.09.14 AM
8.0
330

Writer and director Leah Yanaton’s Surviving Me: The Nine Circles of Sophie is one of the more realistic cinematic representations of college students’ struggles. It unapologetically, through refreshingly relatable dialogue, costuming and events, examines the difficulties so familiar to undergraduates students …

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