Movie Review: Inherent Vice (2014)- Auteur Paul Thomas Anderson’s Latest is a Satirical Embodiment of the Post-Noir 70s that is Humorously Absurd, Allegorically Resonant, and A Product of Nostalgia Filmmaking
Anyone who has ever read a Thomas Pynchon novel knows that it’s quite the daunting task as his ambitious storytelling is guided by an articulate yet passive prose that randomly maneuvers through an ethereal haze of eccentric characters, a detailed tapestry of literary influences, and a blend of varying expressionistic tones. These qualities sound vaguely … Continue reading
Movie Review: Foxcatcher (2014)- Bennett Miller’s Atmospheric and Understated Thriller Showcases Refined Performances but Misses the Mark in Thematic Relevance
The elusive concept of the American Dream has become a sort of repetitive target for the realm of cinema mostly because, like all ideals, there are cracks to be exposed and tragedies that showcase its failures either in focusing on the inability to achieve its benefits or focusing on those who abuse its possibilities. Ever … Continue reading
Movie Review: The Theory of Everything (2014)- A Formulaic Biopic Structure is Fortunately Lifted by Immaculate Performance, Confident Direction, and its Reflection on an Unequal Marriage
It’s quite a coincidental occurrence of random Universal existence that Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, a space epic that confidentially explores theoretical physics postured in part by cosmologist Stephen Hawking, is released the same weekend as James Marsh’s Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything. Really the two films couldn’t be any different from the other as … Continue reading
Movie Review: Interstellar (2014)- Christopher Nolan’s Self-Indulgent Visual Extravagance Can’t Save an Interminable and Familiar Narrative
It seems fitting that director Christopher Nolan, a filmmaker obsessed with the more cerebral slanting elements of film, would ambitiously attempt to tackle the vastness of our Universe and its infinitely changing properties because in most of his original pieces of film he has already bent time (Memento), manipulated space (The Prestige), and created new … Continue reading
Movie Review: Nightcrawler (2014)- Dan Gilroy’s Directorial Debut is an Entertaining and Unsettling Look into Exploitative Journalism
It takes a special kind of cynic to practice the modern news slant towards local violence because in a world where crime is going down and the reporting of it is going drastically up one can only see the tactic as the packaging of fear as a product to be consumed. And what is Fear? … Continue reading
Movie Review: Fury (2014)- An Unrelenting Barrage of War Brutality That Misses the Mark Due to Self-Important Ethics and a Collision of Thematic Intent
“Ideals are peaceful, history is violent,” states the disillusioned yet stubbornly principled Sergeant Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt) somewhere in the drawn out middle of writer/director David Ayer’s new film Fury, a sentiment that carries with it a promise that what follows in this casually brutal and slightly trite World War II epic is violence … Continue reading
Movie Review: Birdman, Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (2014)- Alejandro Gonzalaz Iñárritu Creates an Impeccably Crafted and Humorously Insightful Criticism of Existentialist Malaise
There are few myths as empty in reality as the promise of continuous fame and importance that Hollywood seems to perpetuate to the masses on a grand scale for Hollywood as an entity is on par with an unforgiving deity that can giveth as easily as it can taketh away. In the grand scheme of … Continue reading
Movie Review: Whiplash (2014)- A Stylish and Gripping Dark Metaphor for the Extremes of Artistic Ambition
A quote often attributed to Voltaire in loose translation is “the perfect is the enemy of the good,” which in its easily understood intention means that sometimes seeking out perfection can blind our own sensible selves to recognizing the feats of accomplishment that have already been made instead of on the shimmering myth of flawlessness. … Continue reading
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