Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Short Take: Truthful or not, it's an interesting and compelling portraiture

Director: Clint Eastwood

Screenwriter: Dustin Lance Black

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench, Josh Lucas

Length: 2h 17m

Synopsis: In 1919, as an eager young twenty-something looking to make an impression on the world, John Edgar Hoover tried ardently to devise and synergize crime-fighting tactics so as to better repress the presence of radicals in the United States via his newly appointed position as the head of the yet to be federalized Bureau of Investigation. A stickler for professionalism, Hoover built the Bureau into an entity to be reckoned with by criminals of all sorts, which even included politicians. But along the way Hoover faced struggles with his superiors, the public, and a personal life that could be described as emotionally acidic. His driving force was his dedication to his work, which through all of its practicable advancements actually did as much harm as good. His reputation became controversial and his love life suffered, but the Bureau always remained his top priority. Though never one to suffer a fool, we find that some of Hoover’s flaws and decisions made him every bit the fool himself, in more ways than one. Eventually leaving behind a reputation that continues to be judged in the court of public opinion, J. Edgar contributes to the discussion by providing a portrayal of the infamous dignitary that contests a number of well-established perceptions.

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Short Take: Visually impressive, with enough story to keep you interested

Director: Tarsem Singh

Screenwriter: Charley and Vlas Parlapanides

Cast: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Freida Pinto, Luke Evans, John Hurt, Stephen Dorff

Length: 1h 50m

Synopsis: A brave peasant named Theseus (Cavill) is chosen by Zeus (Evans), the ruler of all, to lead humanity against the evil King Hyperion (Rourke), whose unyielding desire is to smite the Olympians and rule all of creation with fear and turpitude. With his vast and ruthless army, Hyperion searches mercilessly for a mystical weapon known as the Epirus Bow, which he aims to use to unleash the imprisoned Titans in order to kill the Gods and command all power in the heavens. Aided by a clairvoyant priestess named Phaedra (Pinto) and an accompanying band of renegades, Theseus must find the bow before Hyperion and defeat him without any interference from the Gods, despite their partiality. An epic adventure ensues that will decide the fortunes of not just mankind’s mortality, but also its ties to divinity.

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Short Take: Amusing and apropos, but lacking in substance

Director: Bruce Robinson

Screenwriter: Bruce Robinson; Hunter S. Thompson (novel)

Cast: Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, Giovanni Ribisi, Amber Heard, Michael Rispoli, Richard Jenkins

Length: 2h

Synopsis: American journalist/aspiring novelist Paul Kemp (Depp) is desperate for a job, so he takes one at a small fledgling newspaper in Puerto Rico as an odd job reporter and amateur horoscopes writer. The decade is the 1950s and the island of Puerto Rico is in political flux, with locals constantly protesting about one issue or another and big wigs working to capitalize on hotel properties and U.S. government contracts. One such big wig, named Sanderson (Eckhart), stumbles upon Kemp and decides he’s the man with the suitably buttery words needed for a PR campaign needed to sell the proposition of building several new island resorts. Kemp accepts the offer, but a complication arises by the name of Chenault (Heard), Sanderson’s mistress. Meanwhile, Kemp struggles to focus on assignments for the bogus paper, seemingly incapable of averting his attention from booze, his roommate Sala’s (Rispoli) insanitary nightlife, or Chenault’s under-table flirtations. Such distractions consequently lead to problems with Sanderson, but more importantly they serve to actually awaken Kemp to bigger problems within and about his surroundings, as well as his own life.

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Short Take: An incredibly authentic romance with both highs and lows. It weaves the veil and then strips it away.

Director: Drake Doremus

Screenwriters: Drake Doremus and Ben York James

Cast: Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley

Length: 1 hr 30 min

Synopsis: Soon after Anna (Jones) and Jacob (Yelchin) meet in college they develop an infatuation, which quickly turns into a deeper love. Though Anna is set to return to England after graduation to avoid overstaying her visa, she can’t bear to leave Jacob for the summer and decides to stay. However, when she tries to return to the States after a brief visit to the U.K., she is denied and cannot enter until the visa violation is resolved. Because of this, Anna and Jacob must endure a years-long struggle to keep their love alive even when space and change threaten to break them apart.

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Short Take: It feels incomplete, but there's a cyclicality you can't ignore

Director: Kelly Reichardt

Screenwriters: Jonathan Raymond

Cast: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Paul Dano

Length: 1h 44m

Synopsis: In 1845 three families are attempting to travel west along the Oregon Trail, searching for the American Dream. Emily (Williams) and William Tetherow (Patton) have commissioned a guide for their group named Stephen Meek (Greenwood), who along the way suggests taking a short cut across an uncharted plain desert to save time. Eager to make their trip as short as possible, the men decide to take the small caravan along the supposed cutoff. Over the coming days it becomes clear the cutoff was false, and the group becomes increasingly discouraged about its dwindling supplies. Serious doubt sets in about Meek’s competency, and with their survival in his hands the group’s anxiety and frustrations steadily approach the boiling point. Unexpectedly, a wandering Native American crosses the travelers’ path, and despite their harsh prejudices they force a bargain with him to lead them to water. Because of this deal a rift forms within the group over trusting the appointed guide or a man they consider to be just as much an enemy as a savior.

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Short Take: Not without intrigue, but flawed in its invention

Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.

Screenwriter: Eric Heisserer; John W. Campbell Jr. (Who Goes There? novella)

Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Eric Christian Olseen, Ulrich Thomsen

Length: 1h 43m

Synopsis: The following story takes place shortly before the events of John Carpenter’s 1982 film of the same title. A great scientific discovery has just been made in the wastelands of Antarctica, and top experts of various kinds are being assembled to research and document it. Paleontologists Kate (Winstead) and Adam (Olseen) are recruited by the venture’s director Dr. Halvorson (Thomsen), but exactly what their tasks will be remains a mystery to them until they’re shown what their dealing with. What the inexplicably curious discovery turns out to be is the remains of a giant alien spacecraft and a frozen specimen suspended in ancient ice. That specimen, they regret to find, is not as inanimate as one would assume. Incredibly, there is still cellular activity, and each cell is capable of imitating any foreign cell it comes into contact with. Before long the abstraction is able to, after killing them, perfectly impersonate whole people. Kate, Adam, and the rest must determine which of their fellow researchers are things, and fight to make sure they don’t reach civilization to infect the rest of the world. With so dangerous and cunning a species, this is far easier said than done.

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Short Take: Deftly written and directed for those who have forfeited all optimism for American politics - or are prepared to

Director: George Clooney

Screenwriters: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon; based on Farragut North by Beau Willimon

Cast: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright

Length: 1h 41m

Synopsis: Nearing the turning point to a highly contested Democratic Primary election, Pennsylvania Governor Mike Morris (Clooney) and his chief campaign managers Paul (Hoffman) and Stephen (Gosling) are trying desperately to win out against the competing Senator and his crafty press secretary Tom Duffy (Giamatti) for the pivotal state of Ohio. Soon before full support is set to swing in either candidate’s favor, dependent upon the backing of the powerful Senator Thompson (Wright), Stephen, a genuinely fervent devotee of Morris’ politics, accidentally gets entangled in a small scandal when Duffy decides to bid for his defection. Word of the two’s meeting creates friction at the top of the Morris campaign, and from there on the dominos fall in the direction of defeat. Forced to test his loyalties by defending his personal ambitions, Stephen finds a way to play himself back into good professional standing using questionable influences and political chicanery. Although he may have started out rather green, Stephen discovers just how dirty the art of politics can really be.

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Short Take: Rock'em Sock'em Robots meets 'Rocky'

Director: Shawn Levy

Screenwriters: John Gatins, Dan Gilroy

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Hope Davis

Length: 2h 7m

Synopsis: Charlie (Jackman) is an ex-boxer who, since an evolution into robot battles, has been unfortunate enough to see the sport nearly pass him by. Down on his luck, stuck in the past, and in deep debt to all kinds of scum, Charlie is doing anything he can to just keep fighting. One random day he’s told he has full custody of an 11 year old son named Max (Goyo) he’s never met, but if he wants to he can grant custody to the boy’s wealthy aunt (Davis). Taking advantage of the situation Charlie sells his custody rights, but cannot complete the transaction until he and the boy spend some quality time together. Over the next several months the boy tags along as his father tries to regain relevancy in the ring. While initially seeming like a burden, Max discovers ways of helping Charlie exceed both his and others’ expectations. Together they work their way up the ladder of popularity by winning fights with a scrappy sparring robot named Atom, eventually earning the right to challenge the reigning champion bot named Zeus. Along the way they make up for lost time by bonding over their venture, and come to realize that they’re fighting for more than just money or pride. Side by side, the duo become a one-two punch that demonstrates some real steel.

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Short Take: The kind of intimate experience that doesn't come around all that often

Director: Jonathan Levine

Screenwriter: Will Reiser

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston, Philip Baker Hall

Length: 1h 39m

Synopsis: Adam (Gordon-Levitt) and his best mate Kyle (Rogen) are two late twenty-somethings just living their lives and trying to get by. Adam and his longtime girlfriend Rachael (Howard) are beginning to hit a rough patch in their relationship, but for Adam the real bad news comes soon after getting a pain in his back checked out by a doctor. He’s hit with the big “C” word that none of us are ever prepared for. The size of the growth and its proximity to his spine gives him about a 50/50 chance of survival, and as it turns out that even split comes to define his world over the months to come. Part of his treatment, aside from torturous chemo therapy, is to see a psychiatrist named Katherine (Kendrick), whom he unintentionally begins to grow close to. With such people around him, in addition to a rather worrisome mother (Huston), Adam tries to do what he can to deal with the confusing and unexpected circumstances. While doing so, he discovers a lot about himself, as well as the close relationships he thought he understood.

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Short Take: Underwritten and poorly acted. What has happened to John Singleton?

Director: John Singleton

Screenwriter: Shawn Christensen

Cast: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, Sigourney Weaver

Length: 1h 46m

Synopsis: Nathan (Lautner) is a teenage boy who after finding his photo on a missing persons website has begun to suspect that his parents Kevin (Isaacs) and Mara (Bello) aren’t who they claim to be. The night they come clean is when strange men break into their house and try to kidnap Nathan, however he and his friend Karen (Collins), who just happened to be visiting, are able to escape. The strange men work for a Russian mercenary group and believe Nathan holds something of value to them. Because of their involvement Nathan and Karen are also being chased by the CIA, who claim to want to help. Not knowing who to trust the teenaged duo decide to do what they can to stay alive on their own and discover the truth for themselves. Unfortunately, they aren’t bound to like what they find.

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