When I went to see this, there were six trailers that played beforehand, but I left the theater having seen another five or so during the actual movie itself. What this bloated, 150 minute slugfest seems to want to communicate is that other DC characters exist and that many movies can be constructed for them from the colossal burning carcass of a project that was Man of Steel. Get excited, because we have a big Marvel universe competitor on the market, led by the venerable Zack Snyder and his subtle hand. This is a man unscathed by his own dumpster fire of 2013, the rusty keys to the DC Universe in his hands as desperate studios throw money at his feet. This is a man unafraid to take the perfection that is Amy Adams and proceed to shit stupidity all over her storyline. This is a man who will doggedly pursue the best end product possible, even if it means sacrificing a coherent story and interesting characters and a competent editing job…you know, fluff like that.
10 Cloverfield Lane Review
12 MarMidway through 10 Cloverfield Lane, John Goodman’s Howard starts dancing along to music blaring from a jukebox, breaking the tension just enough to entertain you but not enough to take you out of the moment; in fact, it further envelops you in its grasp. Every humorous moment in this movie works in a similar manner, drawing on comedy to reveal even more sinister layers underneath. Throughout, the writers and actors have a rock solid handle on these shifts in tone, mood, character, and genre, and what results are genuinely unnerving and unexpected moments that add beautifully to the overall experience. Plot twists weave in and out of motivations and backstories with remarkably few hiccups, and the writers–featuring new Tension Master Damien Chazelle–demonstrate a knack for building a very specific atmosphere.
My Top 20 Films of 2015
9 FebHaven’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
Hail, Caesar! Review
3 FebA 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.
Mojave Review
30 JanWritten 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.










