If you are under the impression that you will be seeing something revelatory, fresh or insightful in this teen oriented weepy about cancer, you may need to reconsider your film going choice. It joins the ranks of cute, emotionally manipulative, surface level explorations of dealing with disease, first loves, intense teenage …
It is certainly an interesting time for independent cinema. With the advances in technology, more people are able to produce content that possesses a crispness that their older brethren could only dream of. Additionally, the wonder that is the internet opens these Davids to a wide range of different distribution …
We live in a cinematic world awash with sequels, prequels, reboots, and reimaginings. Every summer, the original feature dwindles like an endangered species, with a bastion of based-ons eroding their stake of screen time with a growing frequency. This is not to fully denigrate the concept of a sequel, but rather to call into question the …
Director/producer Malachi Leopold follows his uncle Alex in a journey to reunite with his long lost Iranian lover, Ali, after thirty-three years of being apart. That statement alone would be sure enough to bring on the waterworks. Since the revolution, it has been almost impossible for Iranians to immigrate freely to the U.S. or anywhere else for that…
New York, present time(ish) is my next stop for my journey through the Criterion catalog. I decided I wanted something immensely upbeat this time, and just like the run time of my newest title Frances Ha (85 minutes), my visit was brief, but rewarding. The newest film from writer/director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale…
In many respects, this is the X-Men film I’ve been waiting 14 years for. I’ve been an X-Men fan for nearly 25 years, read the comics in their 2nd or 3rd renaissance in the early 90s and watched the cartoon that was on at the same time. I will not, however, go on to document the many divergences from the Chris Clairmont original story because …
Mankind plays by a different set of rules at night. For most of us, the daylight hours are defined by work, routine, and the pursuit of a paycheck. The nighttime offers something far more alluring: the chance to pursue our own, more radical ideas. In Night Moves, characters toil on an organic farm and collect towels at a health spa during …
Expanding on a short film, Masculinity & Me, in which James Franco is asked a series of outmoded questions about the nature of his masculinity from a men’s magazine, Russel Sheaffer expands upon this initial idea to explore the perpetually shifting subjective notions and assumptions about genre roles and societal norms that …
Cold in July opens in East Texas, 1989 as we see Ann Dane (Vinessa Shaw) suddenly wake up late at night, bathed in foggy blue light. She says, “I think I heard something.” Her husband Richard (Michael C. Hall) nervously finds their gun. He walks into the living room with a humorously silly looking mustache/mullet combination, still bathed…
When a filmmaker’s stumbles—as inevitable as the seasons turning and spectacle-filled summers—he (it’s usually a he) will often return to the genre or franchise where he saw his greatest commercial and critical success. For Bryan Singer, two expensive and underwhelming…