REVIEW: The Maze Runner [2014]

“Wicked is good” There’s really no better way to start The Maze Runner than Wes Ball‘s opening. I’ve not read James Dashner‘s novels and probably knew less than the trailer foretold since it’s been so long since I last saw it. So watching the pitch-black screen stare at me while scrapping metal creaked until a scared boy as disoriented as I gets illuminated was brilliant. He and we enter this crazy situation together—running for our lives, being introduced to our new family, and realizing everything that came before this moment…

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REVIEW: I Declare War [2013]

“It’s too hot for rules” While containing the inherent inexperience that comes with an entire cast of twelve-year olds, Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson’s I Declare War proves potent from the simple fact these minors portray soldiers without censor. Hollywood is chock full of war movies these days focusing on the strategic wizardry of officers barking orders from HQ, spies sent to manipulate the enemy, and grunts made to willfully sacrifice themselves on the frontlines amidst a fire fight. But what is the measure of their impact on the young…

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SXSW13 REVIEW: Coldwater [2013]

“Make no mistake—we will readjust you” Whether true or not, hearing writer/director Vincent Grashaw wrote the first draft of his debut feature Coldwater right after graduating high school in 1999 was an intriguing tidbit for my preconceptions to process. A producer on hipster darling Bellflower—a movie I didn’t warm towards—its success may have been the sole push needed to greenlight this more than a decade-long journey from script to screen. Snap judgments started manifesting in my mind to dismiss it as a juvenile work only made possible due to a…

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TIFF09 REVIEW: Cracks [2009]

“The most important thing in life is desire” It is time to welcome a new member into the Scott family of filmmakers. Ridley’s daughter Jordan Scott has arrived with Cracks, a story about a British boarding school and the activities that occur within, based on a novel by Sheila Kohler. Scott spoke of how growing up in a similar type setting is what led her to want to bring the tale to the big screen; the traditional atmosphere where the establishment itself becomes every student’s world. The girls in the…

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TIFF08 REVIEW: Vinyan [2008]

“His spirit becomes angry; his spirit becomes” Right from the opening credits, Vinyan leaves you uncomfortable and excited for more. When the titles are completed, the screen continues to show a close-up of bubbling/choppy water, the tint changing as time goes, a collection of what appears to be human hair floating by. The soundtrack swells from ambient noise, a wall of sound, to including the screams of people drowning, suffering, and in pain. Whether you realize that what you just watched was a representation of the carnage of the 2004…

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