REVIEW: Brooklyn [2015]

“I’m not sure I have a home anymore” I believe a very crucial distinction should be made before going into director John Crowley and writer Nick Hornby‘s adaptation of Colm Tóibín‘s Brooklyn for those unfamiliar with the book. When I watched the trailer it appeared very much like an Oscar-bait romance with a firecracker love triangle between young Eilis Lacey (Saoirse Ronan) and two men in Tony Fiorello (Emory Cohen) and Jim Farrell (Domhnall Gleeson). To a certain extent it is, but don’t get fooled into expecting swooning melodrama to…

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REVIEW: Mistress America [2015]

“Five feet to the left and unhappy” I’ve considered myself a sociopath for a while now, but Noah Baumbach‘s Mistress America has confirmed it. Maybe this is why I have such a love hate relationship with the writer/director’s work—it’s full of them. I guess it’s the light in which the one I align myself with most is shone that determines my reaction. Or maybe it’s whether or not he makes a concerted effort to portray the film in which they’re depicted as purposefully satirical or authentic. But even then it’s…

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REVIEW: James White [2015]

“It’s okay to be sad” It begins and ends with a face of pain—the titular James White‘s (Christopher Abbott). We see that something is eating away at him, trapping him inside himself so imbibing drugs, alcohol, and sex is his only reprieve. We also know he’ll eventually recover even before family friend Ben (Ron Livingston) says so aloud. James isn’t okay now and won’t be by the conclusion of Josh Mond‘s semi-autobiographical work, but he’ll at least be in a better position to begin the healing process. It’s ultimately something…

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REVIEW: Mustang [2015]

“At least something will happen” While intriguing for France to select a film in Arabic as their sole Foreign Language Oscar hopeful, you cannot deny Mustang‘s quality. Academy rules center around financial stake rather than mother tongue, the stipulation being that dialogue only needs a non-English majority. A tale of five sisters conservatively raised in a small northern Turkish village definitely fits that bill as religion and culture gradually imprisons them onto a path none have willfully chosen. For an American to witness their struggle after a seemingly harmless romp…

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REVIEW: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse [The Gleaners and I] [2000]

“There’s no shame, just worries” What makes Agnès Varda such an integral voice in cinema is her colloquial way of engaging subjects. Everything appears as though unplanned when she visits locales believed to align with her current topic so as to capture unknown truths and adventure. None of her work does this better than Les glaneurs et la glaneuse [The Gleaners and I]: a French road-trip in honor of Jean-François Millet‘s 1857 painting The Gleaners at the Musée d’Orsay. In it she travels with a hand-held camcorder to unearth the…

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REVIEW: Meet the Patels [2015]

“If you wanted to get married you’d be married” The title Meet the Patels seemed strange for a movie about an almost-thirty year old Indian-American (Ravi Patel) allowing his parents to commence the process of an arranged marriage for him over the course of a year. I knew we’d obviously meet his family since Dad (Vasant K. Patel) and Mom (Champa V. Patel) were playing matchmaker, but it seemed weird since everyone he’d date would have a different name. Well, as Ravi explains very early on, the first “by-law” of…

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REVIEW: The Peanuts Movie [2015]

“Good grief” It’s been at least a decade since I saw anything Peanuts related so saying that Steve Martino‘s The Peanuts Movie felt like old times has to be the best compliment I can bestow. The story itself doesn’t have the type of classic longevity of its predecessors—A Charlie Brown Christmas or It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown—but it does possess the heart necessary to imprint on a new generation of children so parents can retrieve those past adventures as fresh lessons in being kind, generous, and an all-around friend.…

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REVIEW: Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe [2015]

“Make a wish” It’s amazing that the Ice Age series is still going on let alone the solitary adventures of little Scrat and his acorn. The studio may be just as surprised too since they’ve had to relegate their latest short to UFO conspiracies. Yes, Mike Thurmeier’s Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe sees everyone’s favorite pre-historic squirrel shoving his delicious prize into the yolk of an alien spacecraft frozen within an iceberg. Attempts to free it allow the entire vehicle to escape through our atmosphere and ultimately form our solar system by happenstance.…

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REVIEW: Dope [2015]

“Congratulations. You have found your iPhone.” Malcolm Adekanbi (Shameik Moore) is a geek. You don’t even need the opening line of Rick Famuyiwa‘s Inglewood-set high school adventure Dope to state as much once we meet him. A self-proclaimed “oreo” with straight-As, constant beat-downs by Bloods-member Bug (Keith Stanfield), and Harvard aspirations his guidance counselor (Bruce Beatty) even scoffs at, the time to finally escape and be what his neighborhood loves to mock him for has arrived. SATs are around the corner, an interview with an Ivy League-alum in the position…

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REVIEW: She’s Lost Control [2015]

“Yes, you pay me for my time. But you can’t control how I feel.” Ronah (Brooke Bloom) may be working as a sexual surrogate to help people and complete her masters in behavioral psychology, but it isn’t long into She’s Lost Control to realize the title’s sentiments. It’s as though she has decided to retreat into these strange men—vessels to supply her intimacy both physically and mentally—rather than move forward with her own life into a healthy relationship. We can infer this stems from her childhood, one where her estrangement…

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REVIEW: Listen to Me Marlon [2015]

“Get people to stop chewing” The above line pertaining to audiences and their popcorn is but one gem of many spoken by acting legend Marlon Brando into a tape recorder. Others—original or quoted—like, “Life’s but a walking shadow,” “You are the memories,” or “Acting is surviving,” each provide a glimpse into his introspection and warring mind between celebrity and humanity. They are what make Listen to Me Marlon as close to an autobiographical documentary as you can get without the subject simply sitting in front of the camera partaking in…

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