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Archive | 2016

Vinyl “Pilot” Review (1×01)

“You can’t always get what you want.”

Richie Finestra’s story is one we’ve seen before. In this age of antiheroes, the stories about people like Don Draper and Tony Soprano–and their worlds–have already hit many of the beats Vinyl does: the conflict between personal and professional, the intersection between class, race, and sex, the malaise that arises over time, et cetera. However, the pilot still manages to feel fresh and intriguing, utilizing Scorsese’s kinetic filmmaking to deliver a mini-movie in and of itself. Like the scenes the show depicts, the episode pulsates with energy throughout, musical interludes seemingly dropping every few minutes as music and television are fused.

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Categories Television, Vinyl

Deadpool Review

13 Feb

I’m positive I laughed at something in this movie, but I can’t quite place it because it’s buried under a pile of juvenile, unbearable crap that attempts to skate by on faux cleverness. No, Deadpool, pointing out that Morena Baccarin’s character is a “hot girl” does not mean that your treatment of her as a generic love interest is good in any way. No, Deadpool, pointing out that your villain is a typical “British villain” does not make him anything more than a one-dimensional and forgettable British villain. It’s like the filmmakers thought that their work was done after coming up with the opening credits, that they would then be excused for all the problems that followed. From then on, it was probably a race to see who could come up with the most obnoxious line or scene in the movie.

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Categories Television

My Top 20 Films of 2015

9 Feb

Haven’t Seen: The Lobster, Knight of Cups, Legend, Crimson Peak, Grandma, I’ll See You In My Dreams, Trumbo, Heaven Knows What, James White, Taxi, Arabian Nights, Spy, Breathe, Experimenter, The Forbidden Room, Heart of a Dog, Mustang, The Walk, The Assassin, Chi-raq, Victoria, Li’l Quinquin, Blackhat, Hard to Be a God, Magic Mike XXL, Mr. Holmes, Amy, Bone Tomahawk, Dope, Girlhood, Shaun the Sheep Movie, Youth

HONORABLE MENTIONS: What We Do In the Shadows (this would likely be #21), 45 Years, Creed, Son of Saul, Brooklyn, Bridge of Spies, Beasts of No Nation, The Look of Silence, Diary of a Teenage Girl, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Timbuktu, Queen of Earth, While We’re Young, Clouds of Sils Maria, Suffragette, Furious 7, Trainwreck, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Black Mass, 99 Homes, Spectre, The Good Dinosaur, Straight Outta Compton, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Truth, Macbeth, The Martian, Love and Mercy, Joy, Mistress America, The Duke of Burgundy, Slow West

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Categories Best of 2015, Film

The X-Files “Home Again” Review (10×04)

8 Feb

“I don’t care about the big questions anymore, Mulder.”

I’m of two minds about this episode: I feel like each storyline is compelling on its own, but there are some clear problems that arise when they occupy the same hour. I understand the time constraints with a 6-episode miniseries, but fully committing to the emotional William story or to the monster of the week would serve “Home Again” well. “Founder’s Mutation” pulled off a dual role nicely, but this week’s episode is clunky at times.

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Categories Television, X-Files, The

Hail, Caesar! Review

3 Feb

A big focus of a Hail, Caesar! synopsis might be the kidnapping of George Clooney’s Baird Whitlock, a movie star taken and held for ransom by a group known as The Future. However, as much as that might seem like a central storyline, it’s really just a jumping off point for the Coens. It’s important, but a typical kidnapping plot is not what they’re going for here. Primarily, they’re exploring the intersections between faith, ideology, politics, and the movie industry as they dive into the old, studio-driven days of Hollywood, and they convey these ideas through scenes of films being filmed in this very film. From a hilarious interaction between Ralph Fiennes’s Laurence Laurentz and Alden Ehrenreich’s Hobie Doyle to a wildly entertaining Channing Tatum the Tap Dancer musical sequence, Hail, Caesar! spends quite a bit of time jumping from movie set to movie set. Roger Deakins does a great job with the artificial nature of it all, the scenes on the sets coming out crisp and vivid and the wide shots outdoors establishing Hollywood as a larger-than-life world.

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Categories Film

The X-Files “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” Review (10×03)

2 Feb

“If there’s nothing more to life than what we already know, there’s nothing but worries, self doubt, regret, loneliness.”

“Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” takes the paranormal and turns its lens back on us, back on the “monsters within us” as it explores what it really means to live life. It deals in the idea of absurdity, and Darin Morgan uses his setup to deftly comment on both the characters in the series and the series as a whole. Over a decade after the series finale, how do we make sense of this revival? How do we make sense of the ludicrous happenings in the world? How do we make sense of this X-Files universe?

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Categories Television, X-Files, The

Mojave Review

30 Jan

Written By: Maria Leia

There have been a lot of actors that have floundered despite showing early promise, never achieving the full range of their talent despite a number of quietly stellar performances. Oscar Isaac, after Star Wars: The Force Awakens, seems to have broken out of that bubble and might have moved from being a familiar face into true movie star material. Which is why his next released film, Mojave, is so important and hopefully won’t derail a career that is primed to take off.

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Categories Film

The X-Files “Founder’s Mutation” Review (10×02)

25 Jan

“I think that one day, you’ll probably have your own ideas about it.”

“Founder’s Mutation” is undoubtedly a step up from the premiere, effectively utilizing the “monster of the week” setup that it perfected way back in the ’90s. Old X-Files scribe James Wong imbues the episode with a continuous undercurrent of tension, kicking off the episode with a creepy opening and including quite a bit of unsettling imagery throughout the remainder of the hour. Even if the episode has its problems, it at least has some momentum going for it; also, it has a story structure that doesn’t attempt to do too much, that doesn’t try to be anything other than the entertaining sci-fi show it is.

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Categories Television, X-Files, The

The X-Files “My Struggle” Review (10×01)

24 Jan

“The truth is out there/you want to believe/trust no one/insert catchphrase here/etc. etc. etc.”

Pure nostalgia alone makes “My Struggle” worth watching. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are two characters who never fail to make me smile, and seeing the original opening credits play out on a large screen is undoubtedly an exciting experience. This is a show that had its ups and downs–and it certainly explored both ends of that quality spectrum in depth–but in the end, it was a classic, setting the foundation for much of the television landscape afterward. And here, thirteen and a half years later, it’s making a return to TV in this age of reboots, remakes, and sequels.

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Categories Television, X-Files, The

My Top 15 Film Scenes of 2015

19 Jan

Haven’t Seen: Legend, Crimson Peak, Grandma, I’ll See You In My Dreams, Trumbo, Heaven Knows What, James White, Taxi, Arabian Nights, Spy, Breathe, Experimenter, The Forbidden Room, Heart of a Dog, Mustang, The Walk, The Assassin, Chi-raq, Victoria, Li’l Quinquin, Blackhat, Hard to Be a God, Magic Mike XXL, Mr. Holmes, Amy, Bone Tomahawk, Dope, Girlhood, Shaun the Sheep Movie, Youth

HONORABLE MENTIONS: The opening (It Follows), The hospital scene (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Long take boxing match (Creed), Rey gets the lightsaber (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), The ending (End of the Tour), Connecticut (Mistress America), Catherine’s monologue (Queen of Earth), Dirty Talk (The Duke of Burgundy), Shootout (Slow West), Selling the Mop (Joy), Eilis gives advice (Brooklyn), Celebrity cameos (The Big Short), Boyz-N-The-Hood recording (Straight Outta Compton), Opening chase (Bridge of Spies), Agu’s final monologue (Beasts of No Nation), Church fight (Kingsman: The Secret Service), Opening sequence (Steve Jobs)

Awesome moment: The Rock flexes off his cast in Furious 7

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Categories Best of 2015, Film

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Polar Bears Watch TV

Vinyl “Pilot” Review (1×01)

Deadpool Review

My Top 20 Films of 2015

The X-Files “Home Again” Review (10×04)

Hail, Caesar! Review

The X-Files “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” Review (10×03)

Mojave Review

The X-Files “Founder’s Mutation” Review (10×02)

The X-Files “My Struggle” Review (10×01)

My Top 15 Film Scenes of 2015

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