8
What’s in a name? A lot, if referencing the hype machine that was fired up when the 10 Cloverfield Lane teaser hit theaters out of the blue just a couple of short months ago. Is this a direct sequel to the 2008 found footage monster movie? Are those people in the bunker taking refuge from the beast? Once again, producer J.J. Abrams’ mystery-box method of promotion piqued interest.
7
In many ways, when you look at modern society and its marriage with technology, it truly feels like we’re living in a science fiction film. As our dependence on tech grows, so does the rift between ourselves and others around us in the physical world.
Though we’re more connected now than ever before, many rely on using a screen to communicate rather than face-to-face human interaction. We’ve seen these topics explored many times over in cinema, from Spike Jonze’s magnificent Her to more obscure and darker films like David Cronenberg’s Existenz.
9
The films of Jacques Rivette have long been a proverbial white whale for many a cinephile, that is up until recently when the majority of his oeuvre finally made their way to physical media formats with Out 1 recently released as a box set through Kino Lorber as well as a collection of his work presented in an 8 disc set by Arrow Films. Now, the starting point of his career, his debut Paris Belongs To Us, has found a home on the shelf of the Criterion Collection.
9.5
Miroslav Slaboshpitsky’s The Tribe was one of my absolute favorite films of last year and one that stuck with me long after I left the theater, so naturally I was excited when one of my favorite distributors, Drafthouse Films, picked it up for release, knowing that they would do right by this unique emotional experience.
If you’re unfamiliar with the film, the narrative in The Tribe is told entirely through sign language, with no translations or subtitles. It relies purely on the actions and emotions of the actors to accurately convey what’s happening in the story and it does so to great effect.
7
I feel like recently we’ve been entering somewhat of a renaissance in indie horror, with new and unique films popping up all over the place that defiantly rebel against the formulaic banality to which the genre so often falls victim. Michael Thelin’s feature debut, Emelie, is a film that fits the bill, delivering a tense, unnerving thriller that takes a fresh look at the babysitter horror story.
3
It’s hard to decide which of the Gerard Butler films released in the last couple of weeks is more rooted in reality. In Gods of Egypt, the actor plays a towering Egyptian god who bleeds liquid gold (and has a bit of a Scottish accent). In London Has Fallen, he plays a U.S. Secret Service superhero (with a bit of a Scottish accent) operating inside an action movie that’s completely tone deaf, laughably sophomoric, and crafted with a complete lack of finesse. It tries to be escapist bombast and relevant drama simultaneously and fails miserably at both. In my estimation, the battle for authenticity is a dead heat.
7.5
Angelo Pietrangeli’s name is not one that comes up all too often in discussions pertaining to important filmmakers throughout history to cinema; it’s barely one that barely even surfaces when those discussions limit themselves to Italian filmmakers, a name apparently lost through the decades buried underneath the constant praise of the works of Antonioni, Rossellini, Fellini, Pasolini and more.
5.5
Mark Craig’s The Last Man on the Moon is the story of Eugene “Gene” Cernan, an American astronaut, who, among other things, reached the fastest speed ever attained in a manned vehicle (24,791 MPH) with two of his fellow astronauts, and he was the last person to walk on the surface of the moon.
9
In each of the last few years an indie horror movie has emerged as one of the best films of its release year. On the heels of The Babadook and It Follows, The Witch is poised to be 2016’s breakout. All of these are great for different reasons, though collectively they signal an exciting shift in the thinking on how to unsettle. They all tap into more primitive, raw emotions, using classic tropes and monsters as manifestations of our hang-ups with grief, sex, and, in this case, devout code in the face of evil. It’s not a deconstruction, but an absorption and repurposing of genre that’s worked to great effect.
7.5
The undercurrent of that romantic relationship percolates throughout the grainy 16mm frames, absence or reluctance of dialogue suggest a force of repression present, lighting and music also hinting towards untold emotional malaise. Deragh Campbell’s posture and movements speak a mixed language of downtrodden and longing, seemingly on the cusp of a timid revival with her significant other, Sam (Kentucker Audley), and on the verge of total collapse at the same time.
5
In what Morton himself describes as a “labor of laziness”, New Cops definitely has the look and feel of a half-hearted project come to that’ll-do fruition. However, the film does retain a certain amount of charm given the production model, a series of tangent strains weaved together haphazardly soaking in low-key humor. Never taking itself seriously, Morton’s film also benefits from a short run-time (clocking in at 52 minutes), staying ahead of the curve and exiting before the routine grows tiresome.
9
The release of Oshima’s Death by Hanging (1968) - on Blu-ray/DVD and Hulu Plus - marks the fourth installment of Oshima’s oeuvre to the Criterion Collection, the first of his work from the sixties (excluding the Eclipse Series 21: Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties box-set, which includes five films from that time period). In the chronology of his filmography Death by Hanging slots in between Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967) and Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968), while also being his second feature-length to focus and explore the tenuous relations between the Japanese and the Koreans. That’s a total of 9 feature films that have been released under the Criterion umbrella, not to mention the seven other films available by Criterion on Hulu Plus.
5
Deadpool announces itself as a different breed of comic book movie from the opening credits, which forego actor names for monikers like “A British Villain” and “A Hot Chick.” The irreverence overload is completed with still frames and slow motion of a graphic action sequence as “Angel of the Morning” blares on the soundtrack. The jarring introduction is good for a chuckle, but the R-rated, one-joke irony, all with the same tone, is annoyingly stretched throughout the entire film. The writers (Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick) are credited as “The Real Heroes Here,” which may be the ultimate absurdity.
8
There’s something for every brand of Coen brothers fan in Hail, Caesar! Whether you prefer the zany kidnapping antics in Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski, the Hollywood-centric satire of Barton Fink, or the religious themes of A Serious Man, it’s all here. If, like me, you’ve enjoyed nearly every Coen creation, Hail, Caesar! will be a real hoot from beginning to end.
8.5
The story about a put-upon princess who befriends and is later cared for by seven dwarfs after her evil royal stepmother attempts to kill her has captivated audiences around the world. Arguably Disney’s most important animated feature, its 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is one of the latest classics to get the Blu-ray treatment for modern audiences. For those who don’t know, Snow White more or less launched the Disney empire and is credited for making Disney what it is today.
6
The notion of a dystopian future is nothing new in cinema; its existence has been around for quite some time given that concept lends itself well as a fertile playground for both writers and directors in the realms of creativity with a vast expanse of narrative canvas brimming with potential, ample space equipped to house an abundance of imaginative furnishings as artistic latitude is awarded amongst the various departments. Anything and everything is available for construct with the ability of restructuring and/or inventing new operational outlines for a yet-to-be determined world.
