tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42411262709783184782024-02-14T15:54:21.369-05:00CinepinionMovie Reviews & Film Criticism of Classic & Contemporary CinemaCinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.comBlogger662125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-357477983569821152016-07-27T12:01:00.001-05:002016-07-27T12:01:32.150-05:00A Babadook-Shaped Shadow of Mental Illness: Lights Out
Directed by David Sandberg
Written by Eric Heisserer
Full cast and crew at IMDb
Darkness is a primal human fear that horror movies have long exploited; the structure of so many recent genre entries is: daytime exposition, nighttime scare, repeat ad infinitum. This movie strips that formula down. The malevolent force here is allergic to illumination, a Babadook-shaped shadow that Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-27207383380244461492016-07-05T09:02:00.004-05:002016-07-05T09:02:46.620-05:00As Stupid As It Is Amazing: The Conjuring 2
Directed by James Wan
Full cast and crew at IMDb
I'm still surprised that the director of the campy Saw and the unwatchable Dead Silence matured into the most respectable horror helmer in Hollywood. The Conjuring 2 kept me with my heart in my throat, asking myself scene after scene why I'd bought a ticket to put myself through the relentless build-up of anticipation and terror—it’s Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-51278984479452336502016-01-15T16:38:00.001-05:002016-01-15T16:38:13.915-05:00Beasts of No Nation Doesn't Do Its Subject JusticeWritten and directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Full cast and crew at IMDb
This movie is too stylish for its subject. Fukunaga might be one of the best visual storytellers working; he was singlehandedly responsible for the eerie, briefly culture-conquering appeal of the first season of True Detective. His facility with camera movements and his misty, washed-out bayouscapes elevated Nic Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-54166444702095976322016-01-15T11:13:00.000-05:002016-01-15T11:25:50.412-05:00The Visit is Not a Return to Form for M. Night ShyamalanWritten and directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Full cast and credits at IMDb
What’s most surprising about The Visit is how derivative it is. M. Night Syamalan has always been more impressive as a director than a writer, a stylish and distinctive visual storyteller whose complexly lit, elegantly framed and provocatively prolonged shots were always more compelling than his twist-endings, even at Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-1288242388528496362015-11-09T16:57:00.002-05:002016-01-15T11:26:14.380-05:00What Makes Bone Tomahawk So Unsettling?: Review
Written and directed by S. Craig Zahler
Full cast and crew at IMDb
This solid little Western–horror hybrid is practically science-fiction, turning the wild American west into alien terrain populated by inconceivable monsters. The plot is simple: two men and a woman are taken from a peaceful town by a mysterious native, and a quartet of white men take after him. As such, the movie resurrectsCinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-6186379185959727962015-09-03T16:40:00.002-05:002015-09-03T17:06:38.524-05:00Queen of Earth, A Hipster MovieQueen of Earth
Written and directed by Alex Ross Perry
Full credits at IMDb
The defining aesthetic of the hipster is the cooption of what’s come before, whether it’s their parents' suburban kitsch or fringed leather, Ray-bans, whatever. They have no culture of their own, which is why they can be vegans or barbecue fanatics, long-haired or short-, hip-hop or classic rock, a mashup of everythingCinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-81755858513949995932015-08-27T10:28:00.001-05:002015-08-27T10:28:45.875-05:00The Phony Social Relevance of Straight Outta ComptonStraight Outta ComptonDirected by F. Gary Gray
Full cast and crew at IMDb
You can live your life, make your art, in two ways: in service to yourself, or in service to something larger than you, like a community. For the first half of Straight Outta Compton, a feature-length advertisement masquerading as American political history, the boys who form NWA choose the latter; the screenplay, by Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-42353550906830172222012-07-11T10:00:00.000-05:002012-12-16T18:38:01.355-05:00Red LightsWritten & Directed by: Rodrigo CortésFull credits at IMDb
The latest from the director of Buried wants to be an amazing, far-out horror-mystery like Angel Heart—right down to its small-but-crucial part for Robert DeNiro—but it's campy bananas instead. Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver star as paranormal investigators who expose frauds and debunk tech-savvy charlatans when not teaching their Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-30183811705135433962012-07-06T10:00:00.000-05:002012-12-16T18:29:53.582-05:00The PactWritten & Directed by Nicholas McCarthy
Full credits at IMDb
The first scene boasts one of the best-conceived scares I've seen in years: a woman, home alone, wanders her house, holding a laptop, trying to get an Internet connection so she can video-chat with her young daughter. Finally, she gets a clear signal. "Mommy," the kid asks, "who's that behind you?" And the connection cuts out. It's aCinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-75657083628594958812012-06-20T12:15:00.000-05:002012-07-06T12:16:40.270-05:00To Rome with LoveWritten & Directed by: Woody AllenFull credits at IMDbWhether it was deliberate, it makes sense that Woody Allen would follow his greatest commercial success since 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters with something similar. Like the $56 million-grossing Midnight in Paris, his latest, To Rome with Love, is a romantic portrait of a great old European capital that acknowledges both its yesterdays and Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-43480375695265694902012-06-13T12:02:00.000-05:002012-07-06T12:03:59.335-05:00The TorturedDirected by: Robert LiebermanWritten by: Marek PosivalFull credits at IMDb
There are two major arguments against the death penalty: that it's inherently wrong for the state to kill its own people, and that it's possible to kill an innocent man. The former is philosophical; the latter, scientific, a matter of evidence. As such, I think the latter makes for duller, more superficial art. Others Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-79244118360560505202012-06-06T11:56:00.000-05:002012-07-06T11:56:51.383-05:00Dark HorseWritten & Directed by: Todd SolondzFull credits at IMDbAmerica loves a winner, but Todd Solondz loves a loser. His films—from Welcome to the Dollhouse to Life During Wartime—have been dedicated to the country's creeps and weirdoes, perhaps none more so than his latest, which even takes its name from that most idealized hero—the long shot, the nobody. The essential question here is to whom the Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-68023685470837683382012-05-29T12:00:00.000-05:002012-07-06T11:47:51.881-05:00Chernobyl DiariesDirected by: Bradley ParkerWritten by: Oren Peli, Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van DykeFull credits at IMDb
The most serious threats are invisible in the nuclear nightmare Chernobyl Diaries. Sure, there's a bear, wild dogs, and eerie architecture, but the most dangerous hide either in shadows or in plain sight, given away by a glimpse from the camera or a bleeping Geiger counter—they're radiation Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-26410002194410626962012-05-25T12:00:00.000-05:002012-07-06T11:35:42.517-05:00Event: Alex Ross Perry Q&A on The Color Wheel
Fresh off a weeklong engagement at BAM, The Color Wheel opened for a week at Cinema Village. "This is very exciting," director Alex Ross Perry wrote on his Facebook wall. "I saw The Brown Bunny for the second time at Cinema Village." At a Q&A with The New Yorker's Richard Brody on Wednesday, the second-to-last day of the BAM run, Perry talked about Vincent Gallo, Philip Roth, incest, and the Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-62113896367330167262012-05-17T15:40:00.001-05:002012-05-17T15:40:52.162-05:00The Woman in BlackDirected by: James Watkins
Written by: Jane Goldman
Full credits at IMDb
Hammer Films announces that it's back in business with The Woman in Black, which employs some of the renowned horror studio's flagship cliches: misty marshes, Victorian/Edwardian mores, and gloomy Brits. As directed by James Watkins, whose previous feature Eden Lake was efficient but bland, it's a masterpiece of atmosphereCinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-83984097272639551512012-05-17T15:01:00.000-05:002012-05-17T15:40:44.173-05:00The Devil InsideDirected by: William Brent Bell
Written by: William Brent Bell and Matthew Peterman
Full credits at IMDb
The central tension in exorcism movies is that between religion and psychology: is she—it's always a she—possessed, or just crazy? But that's not really an issue in The Devil Inside. "How do you know when [a case of possession] is real?" one character asks an exorcist. "You know," he Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-32757949768971933482012-05-17T13:10:00.002-05:002012-05-17T15:40:32.905-05:00Silent HouseDirected by: Chris Kentis and Laura Lau
Written by: Laura Lau
Full credits at IMDb
Silent House has a silly payoff, but for most of its 85-minute run time, it's as tense as piano wire. Presented deceptively as a single take, it's actually a series of takes edited "invisibly," with the cuts craftily hidden, a la Rope. But whether it's genuine or not has little bearing on its effect: the Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-24442285683730390662012-05-17T12:57:00.000-05:002012-05-17T15:40:22.799-05:00HaywireDirected by: Steven Soderbergh
Written by: Lem DobbsFull credits at IMDb
Steven Soderbergh's fleet, pulpy, gripping, and fun Haywire is artful action par excellence—and a lefty parable about the unreliability of private contractors. It opens, like Martha Marcy May Marlene, in upstate New York: a young woman (Gina Carano) is in a diner, on the run, when one of the men out to find her appears. Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-66859256696910474862012-05-17T11:58:00.002-05:002012-05-17T12:12:11.579-05:00PinaDirected by Wim WendersFull credits at IMDb
Pina's title refers not just to the late choreographer Pina Bausch but also to the institution she founded and the ideal she embodied—that dance is life. Wender's 3D documentary tears the dances off the stage and drops them into the real world, letting Pina's troupe fill the spaces between the major set pieces (like her rivetingly violent "Rite of Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-56245613391148262242012-04-27T09:27:00.003-05:002012-04-27T09:27:43.242-05:00TrishnaWritten & Directed by: Michael WinterbottomFull credits at IMDb
Is modern India as repressive as Victorian England? That's what Michael Winterbottom suggests in his latest, Trishna; how else could he locate Tess of the d'Urbervilles there and make the fit between story and setting seem so natural? Freida Pinto stars as the title character, and she's great, starting off as a bashful and kind Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-86804613250148855802012-04-27T09:19:00.000-05:002012-04-27T09:19:06.049-05:00Death of a SuperheroDirected by: Ian FitzgibbonWritten by: Anthony McCartenFull credits at IMDb
The only thing moodier than a teenager is a dying teenager. "Life is a sexually transmitted disease," says Donald (Thomas Sangster), the cancer-stricken, attitudinizing 15-year-old hero of Death of a Superhero who broods, misbehaves, and expresses himself through the Sin City-like characters that fill his sketchbooks Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-56731141648258761552012-04-27T09:11:00.001-05:002012-04-27T09:11:24.725-05:00Death Row PortraitsWritten & Directed by: Werner Herzog
Full credits at IMDb
Werner Herzog is against the death penalty. He begins every episode of his Death Row Portraits, a four-part miniseries made for Investigation Discovery, by admitting as much; as a German, how could you not be? But his approach is morally demanding. Unlike, say, David Grann's "Trial By Fire," in which the New Yorker reporter uncovers Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-65191906652793065412012-04-27T08:57:00.000-05:002012-04-27T08:58:28.094-05:00RubberneckDirected by: Alex KarpovskyWritten by: Alex Karpovsky and Garth DonovanFull credits at IMDb
Is this a masterwork of emotional suppression, or just emotionless? Alex Karpovsky, best known as a favorite supporting player of popular young indie directors, directs this, his third film, a slow-boil character study that flirts with genre. Is it a psychological thriller? Well, until it finally (Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-37778912760010795202012-04-27T08:48:00.000-05:002012-04-27T08:48:24.559-05:00Sleepless NightDirected by: Frédéric Jardin
Written by: Frédéric Jardin & Olivier Douyère
Full credits at IMDb
Sleepless Night is a French action movie, which means that it follows the formula set by its American counterparts—there are plenty of speeding cars, shootouts, and injured bodies; there's lots of running, shouting, and punching—but also makes the time to let its hero (Tomer Sisley) stop running, sitCinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4241126270978318478.post-86496001312151302172012-04-27T08:38:00.000-05:002012-04-27T08:51:10.021-05:00The Cabin in the WoodsDirected by: Drew Goddard
Written by: Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard
Full credits at IMDb
In The Cabin in the Woods, writer-director Drew Goddard and writer-producer Joss Whedon unpack, then dismantle, and finally unbind the horror movie, liberating all its archetypes from the punishing confines (and confining punishments!) of the genre. It's not unlike Funny Games in that it strips the characters Cinepinionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06751125115213060127noreply@blogger.com0