Posterized Propaganda June 2012: Blockbusters Arrive, Creativity Stays Home

“Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” is a proverb whose simple existence proves the fact impressionable souls will do so without fail. This monthly column focuses on the film industry’s willingness to capitalize on this truth, releasing one-sheets to serve as not representations of what audiences are to expect, but as propaganda to fill seats. Oftentimes they fail miserably. Summer is here and the marketing materials look as vapid as the films. Not to say there isn’t a couple gems coming to multiplexes with blockbuster budgets; there simply aren’t…

Read More

REVIEW: My Sister’s Keeper [2009]

“I’m sorry I let them hurt you” I have not read the Judi Picoult novel for which the new film My Sister’s Keeper is based, and I think that is a good thing. Whether I would have thought the movie did or didn’t live up is beside the point as, from the scuttlebutt at the completion of the screening around me stated, the endings are completely different. Truthfully, I think I like the cinematic conclusion much better than the literary one, if these audience members are to be believed. What…

Read More

REVIEW: Alpha Dog [2007]

“No more music videos, that’s what I think” Alpha Dog is based on the real life incident perpetrated by Jesse James Hollywood, (surprisingly his actual given name), and his band of 20-something friends getting over their heads when their drug business hits a snag. Hollywood had a debt owed by another young adult and when a riff begins between them, he took the debtor’s brother hostage until the money was paid in full. Hollywood stands trial right now for the planning the murder of Nick Markowitz, a kid who was…

Read More

REVIEW: House of D [2004]

“I need the Dad face one more time” David Duchovny has crafted a beautifully touching film with House of D. It is a coming-of-age story of sorts as his character narrates what happened to him around his thirteenth birthday. Being that his own son, in France, is now turning into a teenager, he feels that the time is finally right to tell his wife the reality of his past. Much happened to the young Tom Warshaw in the days leading to what should have been a joyous date. He was…

Read More