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Imagine the worst possible cab ride of your life and then take it to the next level by going weird with it. That’s what Fare is. This nifty 75-minute thriller from writer/director/star Thomas Torrey takes a single-location concept and allows for unexpected turns that build into a radical third act that pushes the nature of relationships to a true zenith of filmmaking imagination.
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Here’s an innocent enough romantic comedy that plays up a culture clash angle and mostly comes out on top. UNindian follows many of the tropes you’d expect, but brings in a Bollywood element that certainly helps to establish an identity for it. Familiar or not, the film is effective enough given the cast chemistry and features a display of Indian culture in Australia that I was unfamiliar with.
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It is fun to see a connection that ties together actors from all over the world. For the case of Being George Clooney, the connection is international voice dubbing. The process may be understood at surface level, but there are a lot of interesting things that go into being the voice of another actor. This documentary has fun checking in on the actors who have established themselves as the voice of the movie star, among other things, as well as taking a look at this little-talked about profession in Hollywood.
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A film like Remember Me makes me wonder why EGOT-winner Rita Moreno is not appearing more frequently in feature films. The veteran actor may be in the role of wise-cracking grandmother, but she plays it quite well and many should know she is capable of more. For now though, here’s an enjoyable film that gets a little too caught up in some raunchier humor at times, despite working well enough as a fun road trip movie with some emotional pull.
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Continue reading ‘NBFF 2016 Review: Remember Me’
If you are going to pay homage to Woody Allen, you better be sure everyone is on board to do the same thing. Writer/director/composer/star Alexander Tovar wears many hats for his film Show Business, but it felt as if he had a little bit of a tough time managing all of them to completely nail what he was going for in this Hollywood farce about a writer getting his shot. That does not mean the film was unenjoyable, but the light-heartedness of the film did seem to extend a bit far with some of the cast.
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This year After the Reality opened the 17th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival. Since Jewtopia served as the opening night feature a few years back, I have been doing my best to manage my excitement level for these premieres, but the film was certainly no dud. While a bit familiar, the comedy-drama took on some subject matter in an interestingly enough way to hold onto my attention and make good use of its key performers.
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Here we are with another year for NBFF. The 17th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival is arriving this week (April 21-28th) and they have hundreds of films to present. This year, NBFF is proud to announce its Opening Night Film, the world- premiere of After The Reality starring Matthew Morrison and Sarah Chalke and Closing Night Film, The Fixer starring Dominic Rains and James Franco. I will be in attendance to cover as many films at the festival as I can and post my thoughts here. Continue on to learn more about the Opening and Closing Night films along with more about the festival.
Continue reading ’17th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival Announcement’
Good news! There is a very good chance Ratchet & Clank could turn out to be the very best video game adaptation ever. It’s not a high bar to clear, but there does seem to be a lot here that shows a fun movie that easily captures the spirit of the game. A lot of that comes from having the original writers and voice actors all involved, along with a great supporting cast of big stars. Whatever the case may be, the film looks fun and you can check out a few clips and some photos from the WonderCon panel that took place this past weekend. Enjoy!
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Like it or not, another Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is on its way. Fortunately, TMNT: Out of the Shadows appears to be delivering a lot of fan-favorite characters that largely stem from the original cartoon series. Yes, Beebop and Rocksteady are among the many new additions to this upcoming sequel. Additionally, this year’s WonderCon introduce a new look at the film, which included an introduction to Stephen Amell‘s Casey Jones. The panel featured Amell, Megan Fox and producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, who were on hand to answer a few questions. In this post you will find a few new looks at Beebop and Rockstead, a new TV spot and a very cool limited edition poster from Gallery1988 by artist David Quiggle.
Continue reading ‘WonderCon 2016: TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: OUT OF THE SHADOWS’
One of two documentaries about mass shootings premiering at SXSW, TOWER pieces together stories from a few survivors and witnesses of the UT Tower shooting that took place in Austin in August of 1966. The film uses roto-scoped animation (think films like Waking Life, or A Scanner Darkly) on top of archive footage, to create a unique storytelling mechanism, which allows for playful recreation of the events without diminishing any impact. TOWER takes its time with the events of that day and provides an avenue for the viewer to empathize with each person’s story as the terrifying and unsettling nature of the shooting and the eventual aftermath become clear. Boxes of tissues should have been handed out to people entering this screening, particularly after we were told that some of the survivors were in attendance. Continue reading ‘SXSW Review: TOWER’
Can we just give Don Cheadle all the awards right now? Miles Ahead, Cheadle’s directorial debut, which also showcases his talents as co-writer and lead actor, is a unique and moving biopic about a unique and moving individual, Miles Davis. Not satisfied to just check off the boxes of events in Davis’ life, Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Boogie Nights) has crafted a masterpiece of cinema, jarringly jumping around in time to show events that help the audience better understand the complexity of a troubled, but genius mind. This is a perfect blend of scenes that fold in on each other with quiet subtlety and simultaneously explode outward with grandiose vigor, mirroring the effect that the music of Miles Davis had a tendency to create. Combining all those elements with a virtuoso acting performance from Cheadle, a soundtrack that spans Davis’ long career as a musician, surprisingly adept comedy beats, tight, gripping editing, and stellar support from Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting, Big Fish) and Emayatzy Corinealdi (“Hand of God”) creates a triumphant, striking work of art. Continue reading ‘SXSW Review: Miles Ahead’
Here at SXSW, I was lucky enough to attend Lucha Underground’s very first live show outside of its home at the temple in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, “Lucha Underground: Austin Warfare.” For those unfamiliar with Lucha Underground, it is a relatively new and very unique wrestling program, produced by Robert Rodriguez for his television network, El Rey. Over the course of its first season last year, Lucha Underground quickly became the most entertaining and anticipated wrestling show each week, making the many other wrestling television options look like tired, boring, old jokes. “Lucha Underground: Austin Warfare” brought the same great-quality, fast-paced, high-flying wrestling action seen on the show to a ravenous Austin crowd and may end up being the most exciting thing I will get to see here at SXSW. Continue reading ‘SXSW Review: Lucha Underground: Austin Warfare’
Sausage Party is the worst, least funny comedy I have ever seen. It is full to the brim with lazily written, stereotyping, racist, sexist, homophobic, reference-heavy, swear-ridden “jokes” that try way too hard to seem either controversial or profound and just end up being nothing. There is nothing to like about this film. I chuckled one time during the merciless, seemingly never-ending 83 minute runtime – even then, it was a Saving Private Ryan reference. Coming off of the delightful surprise that was Preacher from the previous day, it was so disheartening to see Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg sink to this depth, leaving me scratching my head and wondering how movies like this can still be a thing. Continue reading ‘SXSW Review: Sausage Party (Work-in-Progress)’
AMC is bringing an adaptation of the beloved comic book Preacher to television screens later this year and a showing of the pilot at SXSW was a good indicator that the show has a lot of the right elements to be a success. Executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldburg (the team behind Superbad, This is the End, and more) have been wanting to make an adaptation for nearly 10 years, and while the numerous different production starts and stops through which this project has gone might normally spell doom, it was satisfying to see that all that patience and hard work turned into an entertaining, funny, and intriguing pilot episode. Continue reading ‘SXSW Review: AMC’s Preacher’
Hush is 90 minutes of energy, a white-knuckle thriller in every way; Oculus director Mike Flanagan has crafted a lean, brutal, and deceptively simple home invasion thriller. It’s almost a perfect companion piece to Don’t Breathe (Review Here). One has a blind villain; the other, a deaf heroine. Both will have you gasping for air after holding it in during sequence after sequence of blood-boiling anxiety. Continue reading ‘SXSW Review: Hush’
Hardcore Henry is not necessarily a bad film, but it never really makes that leap from being just kind of good. To its credit, it delivers on being a visceral, over-the-top, action-fest shot entirely from the first-person perspective of its main character, Henry. And it should be noted that the action scenes have inventiveness and plenty of gory violence. The filmgoing experience is intense and the audience barely gets many moments to catch its breath before being thrown into the next running, shooting, parkour, fist-fighting, grenade-tossing rush away from or through the endless bad guys. While Hardcore Henry gets a lot right with its action and even its comedy, mostly coming from a perfectly used Sharlto Copley (District 9, Elysium), at some point the initially shocking and immersive first-person camera, the blaring rock/punk soundtrack, and the underwhelming story start to slip into the viewer’s mind and distract somewhat from the ridiculous eye-bath of violence and explosions. Continue reading ‘SXSW Review: Hardcore Henry’
Well, Keanu is hilarious. It was nice to breathe that sigh of relief after watching the working print shown here at SXSW. From the decent, but not-hilarious trailer that was released a few months ago, it seemed like the very talented and funny duo of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele might not quite have transitioned from sketch comedy to feature length comedy with as much solidity as is required. But it turns out, they just wanted to save some of the best stuff for the film itself; a welcome break from something like Zoolander 2, which had a good trailer and turned out to be completely bereft of comedy as a film. Keanu takes that magic Key and Peele brought to their TV show and translates it with tremendous success. Continue reading ‘SXSW Review: Keanu (Working Print)’
Because you don’t know anything about Don’t Breathe, the second film from the Evil Dead remake director Fede Alvarez, I’m hesitant to spoil too much (although I’m sure the trailers will undoubtedly fulfill that role). To say that Don’t Breathe is tense is an understatement; it’s unquestionably one of the most heart-stopping cinematic experiences I’ve had in what seems like an eternity. There were numerous moments where the entire audience went completely still and, as the tension filled the room, it became more and more apparent that Fede Alvarez might just have crafted a new modern classic.
Continue reading ‘SXSW Review: Don’t Breathe’
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