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Film and the Arts
Film Review: "Wajdja"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 18 October 2013 09:30
- Written by Matt Oakes
Wadjda is first and foremost an important film. More than just the first movie ever filmed in Saudi Arabia - where cinema has been illegal under censorship laws since the 1980s - and the first feature film ever from a female Saudi Arabian director, Wadjda is actually quite a good film. Director Haifaa Al-Mansour braves the rocky shoals of creating a slyly counterculture work in a totalitarian epoch that bans women from driving, voting, and dressing as they like, crossing the finish line with saintly courage. With material on display that, like its central character, is consciously subversively and takes careful aim at the many forms of culturally-approved misogyny, Al-Mansour boldly promulgates material that defiantly flies in the face of the normative Saudi lifestyle and, for it, she deserves celebration.
Film Review: "Escape Plan"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 18 October 2013 06:23
- Written by Evan Pearson
“Escape Plan”
Directed by Mikael Håfström
Starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Faran Tahir, Amy Ryan, Sam Neill, Vincent D’Onofrio and 50 Cent.
Action, Mystery, Thriller
116 Mins
R
There’s a lot to be said for how entertaining a shoot-em up picture can be if handled with tact and the right people. Escape Plan dispenses with tact and focuses entirely on the “right” people, serving as a vehicle for the film’s stars to get into fights and be brooding, tough-guy stereotypes over a page-one rewrite of Escape from Alcatraz. Crass in all the wrong places, Escape Plan is a superficial viewing experience that takes the prison break formula to its extreme, both in plot elements and in believability. Where it should soar in scope, it exploits its star power, avoiding "setting the scene" or providing any action sequences that are even on par with the films that Escape Plan tries to emulate.
Film Review: "All is Lost"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 18 October 2013 00:15
- Written by Matt Oakes
"All is Lost"
Directed by J.C. Chandor
Starring Robert Redford
Action, Drama
108 Mins
PG-13
2013 is the year of the survivor-thriller living on top. In Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón explored themes of isolation amidst the inhospitable vacuum of space, using dazzling special effects to elevate a simple story to a visual masterpiece. Paul Greengrass dove into the true account of Richard Phillips and his struggle to maintain his humanity in a Somali pirate hostage situation in Captain Phillips, an excellent biopic fueled by a knockout performance from Tom Hanks. In All is Lost, J.C. Chandor pits man against entropy, testing the endurance of the human spirit against an onslaught of ill-tempered serendipity at sea. It must be time for a genre victory lap, because once more, survivor-thrillers have just crowned themselves king.
Film Review: "Kill Your Darlings"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 18 October 2013 00:15
- Written by Matt Oakes
"Kill Your Darlings"
Directed by John Krokidas
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Dane DeHaan, Michael C. Hall, Elizabeth Olsen, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Huston, Ben Foster, David Cross
Biography, Drama, Romance
104 Mins
R
Kill Your Darlings provides an origin story for some of the most prolific authors writing this side of the American Renaissance with a bit of a hot-blooded, cold-fingered approach. A burning sense of urgency ignites the passion of the characters onscreen - coiled up and bouncing off the walls, lunatics as they are - but that same urgency is largely absent from the film itself.
Like a budding author who hasn't quite found his style, John Krokidas' film gets too caught up with being a part of the excitement to really invite others to join the fun. There's palpable joy bubbling from the screenwriters' research and the performer's larger-than-life embodiments, but like newcomers to a party in full swing, we're observers, hopelessly trapped outside the true jubilance and forced to watch through a pane of glass.
