Film Review: The Grey
Neeson, a thin line of darkness against the white wasteland he’s lost in, has a lot to contend with.
Film Review: Haywire
For 90 minutes, Haywire towers above similar stories because of Soderbergh’s carefully framed images, every shot packed with information, every punch landing with a wince.
Film Review: A Dangerous Method
In A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg delves into the themes that he is accustomed to, yet he still discovers something new. He keeps the camera glued to Michael Fassbender as they both uncover Jung’s secrets which can be shocking but after examining current lifestyles, not unusual.
Film Review: The Trip
The Trip is a film that explores the intricacies of life through a melodious mixture of laughter and drama.
The Cascade’s Movies of the Year (2011)
The Cascade’s picks for the best movies released in the past year
Film Reviews: December catch-up
Reviews of the latest releases from Brad Bird, Steven Spielberg, and Cameron Crowe
Film Review: My Week With Marilyn
One might wonder what My Week With Marilyn brings to the table, and all in all, it does not show a different perspective of Monroe that any other film has not already shown.
Film Review: The Descendants
Part of the criticism of Payne’s previous characterizations is how they were often perfect amalgamations of everything facile and detestable in other people. No need to criticize or grandstand when the stupidity of characters comes through in every contrived line. With The Descendants, Payne adopts a different stance. Words still fail, connection is still near impossible, and some people act in ways that might be called dumb, but this is not the defining takeaway from the people in King’s family and life.
Film Review: Hugo
Martin Scorsese has never lost touch or his love for the movies of his youth. His bottomless support for their restoration and preservation is not so publicly prominent unless TCM is your television station of choice, but it is on full display in Hugo.
The Muppets: Heartfelt revival or nostalgic fan-fiction?
Amy Van Veen and Nick Ubels take a look at what works, what doesn’t, what’s true to Henson’s vision, what’s plastered on by Segal’s, and everything else that in and about The Muppets
Film Review: Immortals
After the commercial failure of his passion project The Fall, a movie that was both visually astounding and narratively stultifying, Tarsem Singh has returned to the studio system with Immortals. While Immortals could be said to have its feet planted in Greek mythology, the story’s ancient qualities speak more to its pilfering of standard revenge and rise of the hero tales than its close relations to Plutarch
Film Review: J. Edgar
Clint Eastwood has shown he can direct movies that grab the attention of audiences and make them care about historical events and characters on the screen. Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers are just two examples of his directorial abilities. His new movie J. Edgar stars Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover, the man who ran the FBI for 48 years. The movie follows Hoover, from his early days at the then Bureau of Investigation through to his death in 1972, as one of the most powerful men in the United States.
Film Review: Johnny English Reborn
Johnny English Reborn is the sequel to 2003’s Johnny English. It is not clear why it took eight years to make the sequel; perhaps the filmmakers were waiting for people to forget the original. The sequel is far superior to the original in pretty much every way, although that’s not really a very high hurdle to clear.
Film Review: In Time
In his more lauded films, the beautiful cinematography of Kieslowski director of photography Slawomir Idziak, the haunting melodies of composer Michael Nyman and the composed, fiery performance of Jude Law in Gattaca, as well as similarly effective turns of Amir M. Mokri, Antonio Pinto, and Nicholas Cage in Lord of War were all able to render the problems of Andrew Niccol’s scripts as a more minor issue. But in his latest feature In Time, there is no outside talent to save Niccol.
Everybody cut, everybody cut Feetloose
Remakes, adaptations and based-on films are nothing new to our generation. They may feel a bit like a violation – specifically when they take a classic we know and love and try to make it “new” or “fresh” or whatever other adjective that makes movie producers swoon. But the fact of the matter is there are only a few stories out there and sometimes it is better if a movie just admits upfront that it’s the same instead of trying to make something new and cheating audiences out of feigned originality.
Film Review: The Three Musketeers
Paul W.S. Anderson’s The Three Musketeers is founded on a remarkably terrible script, and yet that hardly seems to matter here. The world of Dumas is a set of toys for Anderson, where the rules and lines of the original work mean little, and the potential of bringing along his own creations and filmmaking tendencies means a great deal more.
Film Review: The Thing
This remake takes away any individuality that the film might have had by turning it into an average scary movie. Shock value is overused and replaces the feeling of stone cold terror with numerous shrieks and cries. This Thing does not match up to its predecessor, or even manage to truly distinguish itself from the original.
Vancouver International Film Festival: Week 2
Our second week of coverage from the Vancouver International Film Festival: reviews of Giorgos Lanthimos’s follow-up to Dogtooth, impressive debuts from Lisa Langseth and Emmanuel Laborie, the black and white, silent The Artist, and This Is Not a Film, the best and most important movie of the festival.
VIFF: more than just movies
Our first week of coverage from the Vancouver International Film Festival: reviews of documentary How to Die in Oregon, debut features from Clay Jeter and Michael Roskam, and the latest from Hirokazu Kore-eda and Chantal Akerman
Film Review: The Ides of March
Clooney presents a smart drama that will evoke in audiences a sense of questioning of the heated, widespread support of a candidate that has been so evident in recent presidential campaigns.
VIFF brings best of world cinema to BC
Award winners like Bullhead, Elena, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, A Separation, and A Simple Life and the latest offerings from Kore-eda Hirokazu (Still Walking), Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth), Takashi Miike (13 Assassins), Sarah Polley (Away From Her), and Béla Tarr (Werckmeister Harmonies) will all be at VIFF, but the great thing about any film festival, and is certainly true of Vancouver, is that you can miss out on all of the above named, and still find a great movie to see. So much of movie-going today is based on advertising and knowing what you’re getting going in, but film festivals represent a yearly offering of great movies where you can genuinely be surprised every day, for two weeks.
Film Review: 50/50
50/50 uses the inciting attack of cancer as a genesis of plot, revealing what is beneath the calm and agitated exteriors of Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Kyle (Seth Rogen). And what is underneath? Unfortunately nothing but a series of contrivances and shallow behavior that is less a tragicomic exploration of what happens to people in moments of accelerated mortality than an excuse for sexual antics with the seriousness of a cancer patient as its protagonist to fall back on, with the assumption that it validates the sophomoric ineptitude that pervades the movie.
Film Review: What’s Your Number?
Although Ally is meant to be the awkward, blundering-yet-endearing Bridget Jonesian heroine of this story, there is undeniably something lacking with her character: she is not that funny. Farris’ comedic timing and facial expressions fail to translate on screen, resulting with the impression that she is trying to be funny rather than just being funny. Although this may be due to a combination with the screenwriters’ lacklustre writing and Farris’ ineptitude; either way, Ally’s character fails to charm us with her so-called pathetic life.
