• oversimplification01

    REVIEW: An Oversimplification of Her Beauty [2013]

    “You have an extraordinary amount of faith in the fidelity of your expectations” It’s not hard to view an experimental art film as little more than a pretentious, self-indulgent exercise in futility when you aren’t willing to give it a chance. In a world overpopulated by faux-witty banter between uninteresting caricatures of people engaged in [...]

  • tillman01

    REVIEW: Tillman [2011]

    “Dad, can we talk about Mom?” Some short films suffer due to their brevity and Tillman is one of them. A fifteen-minute piece depicting a sad-sack car dealership owner named Richard Tillman (Wayne Joseph), the film creates a mood very different from what its synopsis hopes to cultivate. Explained as a portrayal of a father-of-three’s [...]

  • startrek201

    REVIEW: Star Trek Into Darkness [2013]

    “Bones, get that thing off my face” Director J.J. Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek four years ago was a refreshing, original take on a world possessed by countless offshoots because screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman used its science fiction genre to both retain and destroy existing mythology. A red matter black hole sending the [...]

  • state194a

    REVIEW: State 194 [2013]

    “Only free people can negotiate” I don’t generally keep up on current affairs because there’s just too much going on outside my comfy little bubble with no immediate concern to me. Yes, I’m one of those Americans. However, even if I were to have grown up under a rock without internet connection I still think [...]

  • 10commandmentsofchloe01

    REVIEW: The 10 Commandments of Chloe [2012]

    “See the transient beauty of the dairy freeze queen” One of the great things about independent cinema is how filmmakers on a small budget can find themselves taking audiences to places studio projects have no interest in visiting. While Nashville, TN isn’t some hole-in-the-wall dump no one knows about—Robert Altman did make a movie there [...]

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film reviews

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REVIEW: Lucy in the Sky with Diamond [2013]

“Are you prepared to spend eternity together?” Written in the hopes iconic actor Lou Diamond Phillips would agree to participate, Joey Boukadakis‘ comedy short Lucy in the Sky with Diamond was born. Blindly sending the script to his muse unsure of what the reaction would be, Boukadakis found his love of the man validated once [...]

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REVIEW: Gut [2012]

“You’re supposed to be my friend” The low budget horror thriller Gut is a surprising work in that it isn’t surprising. Written and directed by New York’s School of Visual Arts graduate Elias, this psychological chiller has been released at a perfect time for diehard genre fans tired of the new torture porn style flooding [...]

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REVIEW: Brooklyn Castle [2012]

“Only the strong make it to Saratoga” With so many documentaries the past few years focusing on adolescent education and the stressful amounts of work our society has deemed appropriate for kids to undertake rather than allowing them to be kids, a film like Katie Dellamaggiore‘s Brooklyn Castle is a welcome—albeit subtle—spin on the concept. [...]

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REVIEW: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters [2013]

“Never enter a house made of candy” The thing that’s so disappointing about Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is the rather ingenious premise at its back. Taking the classic Grimm Brothers tale and expanding on the results of what escaping an evil witch in the woods as children by burning her alive in an oven [...]

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REVIEW: Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey [2013]

“I’m living a fairy tale right now” It was Journey‘s album Trial by Fire from 1996 that opened my eyes to their insane library of hits upon entering high school. Here was their first new music since the year after my birth in 1983—”When You Love a Woman” was constantly on the radio, my father [...]

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REVIEW: More Perfect Union [2010]

“I want extra grits from the kitchen” Sabir (Arish Sahani) says it best towards the end of Matt Porter‘s short film More Perfect Union: “It was just a quarrel.” So often in this day and age we find ourselves reading too much into simple disagreements, unable to look beyond their seemingly trivial catalysts and realize [...]

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REVIEW: Open Heart [2012]

“She won’t make it past this year” Director Kief Davidson‘s Oscar nominated documentary short Open Heart is a complicated film. What on the surface shows the journey of eight Rwandan children to the only free cardiac hospital in Africa ends up transforming into a commercial for the non-governmental organization Emergency at its center. This is [...]

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REVIEW: Beautiful Creatures [2013]

“You can either run or shoot” Just like clockwork the Twilight series has found a successor. Trading vampires and werewolves for witches, authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl‘s Caster Chronicles‘ has hit theatres with much less fanfare but perhaps more intrigue. Gatlin, South Carolina’s secrets are a mixture of Hogwart’s affinity for the Muggle world [...]

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REVIEW: Identity Thief [2013]

“Foxhole! The safe word is Foxhole!” The words “from the director of Horrible Bosses” instilled little hope for me sitting down to Seth Gordon‘s newest work Identity Thief. Screenwriter Craig Mazan‘s name—he of too many asinine spoofs—only made matters worse. No, this road comedy’s saving grace would have to be co-star Melissa McCarthy and the [...]

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REVIEW: Gunderson’s [2011]

“That sounds like a supermarket” A short film inside a short film, Matt Porter‘s Gunderson’s survives as a standalone storyline from the marginally longer work Argyle. Depicting a week in the life of Max (Max Azulay) as he readies to substitute teach a 7th grade health class while the real teacher takes maternity leave, what [...]

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REVIEW: Warm Bodies [2013]

“God, we move slow” Who would have thought even fifteen years ago that 2013′s nerd culture would have at its pinnacle zombies and bacon? Seriously, who? While we have Ron Swanson to thank for helping keep the latter alive recently, Hollywood has been the former’s driving force. What used to be a vehicle to disseminate [...]

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REVIEW: Black Gold [Day of the Falcon] [2011]

“God hates what we do in his name” The “new” film Day of the Falcon has had an odd trajectory to American theatres. Originally titled Black Gold, Jean-Jacques Annaud‘s contemporary epic in sand debuted at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar and released in the director’s homeland of France way back in 2011. Kicked [...]

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REVIEW: No Man’s Land [2010]

“They can wait a little longer” For God and country. Pro aris et focis. It’s a well-known motto of families and military regimens, a toast to the two things to which we must always be loyal. Any soldier of war should know this and any who returns home is as a result deemed heroic. The [...]

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REVIEW: The Teacher’s Lounge [2011]

“Do you like Italian?” As part of the In the Closet Series created by New York City native Yahaira Paulino, the short film The Teacher’s Lounge fits perfectly. Developed as a venue for artists to make films that show “people being people […] when no one is watching them,” the concept allows for an infinite [...]

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REVIEW: Hurry Up and Wait [2012]

“They’ll go on tour for 40 days and end up playing 42 shows” Remember when Atlanta, Georgia based rock band Gringo Star was on everyone’s lips and selling out shows throughout the USA back in 2011? Well, it didn’t quite work out that way. Listening to their albums—Count Yer Lucky Stars and All Yall—right now [...]