Category: Film Review

Alex Garland is an accomplished screenwriter, creating such works as “Dredd” and “Never Let Me Go.” He makes his directorial debut with “Ex Machina,” and the premise continues his fascination with isolation and doomsday events, only here the threat, or perhaps the cure-all, emerges in the form of artificial intelligence. A.I. is certainly familiar terrain for cinematic exploration, but Garland constructs something fascinating and unnerving with “Ex Machina,” feeling out numerous acts of manipulation with full attention to mood. While slowly paced, the feature isn’t dull, emerging as a potent study of power and corruption, setting a sinister, tech-heavy atmosphere that almost seems achievable in our day and age. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“After the Ball” is constantly threatening to be undone by a case of the cutes. A blend of “Twelfth Night,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” and “Cinderella,” there’s no shortage of preciousness about the work. Mercifully, there’s a significant amount of charm too, helping the movie dilute its sitcom tendencies and come together a perfectly pleasant play on fashion world insecurities. Retaining a handful of laughs and guiding a winning lead performance from Portia Doubleday, director Sean Garrity (“My Awkward Sexual Adventure”) keeps “After the Ball” on target, preserving mischief and romance, providing a charming viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A basic cable stalwart and occasional supporting player in studio comedies, Nick Kroll aims for the big leagues with “Adult Beginners,” cooking up starring role for himself that demands a full display of his dramatic range. It’s a test Kroll doesn’t necessarily pass, but he’s smart enough to surround himself with more capable actors who can transform the screenplay’s addiction to cliché into convincing emotion. “Adult Beginners” has a lot of laughs and sharp understanding of the demands of parenthood, but every time it steps outside of its comfort zone to address more sophisticated feelings concerning maturation and grief, it loses its personality, resembling any other effort that takes on the pressures of man-child development. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Forger” has every invitation to become a run-of-the-mill heist picture. It’s set in Boston, features a cast of tough guys and interested cops, and details the art of duplicating art, and necessitates a museum break-in to secure the con. Giving these hoary elements a spin is screenwriter Richard D’Ovidio (“Thirteen Ghosts,” “The Call”), who delves more into shattered lives than double crosses, trying to keep the effort grounded, even while it indulges a few bloody-knuckled pursuits. While it doesn’t register as a remarkable example of writing, “The Forger” is mostly successful when it comes to articulating character pain and pressure, finding ways to sneak away from outright cliché and discover human needs and curiosities. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“5 to 7” seems perfectly comfortable as a light romantic comedy. Toying with culture clash particulars and age differences, the feature maintains a relaxed air of dating anxiety and individual awakening, delivering passable character beats as it explores an unusual situation of infidelity. Writer/director Victor Levin openly flashes his influences throughout the effort, but true balance between the light and dark side of the affair presented here is elusive. Opening with a case of the cutes and concluding with unnervingly oppressive obsession, “5 to 7” is all over the map in terms of tonality and screenwriting, with Levin trying to stuff his favorite elements from French cinema into a movie that can’t handle the weight. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Russell Crowe has enjoyed an acting career filled with varied dramatic demands, yet “The Water Diviner” marks the first time the star has stepped behind the camera. While retaining leading actor duties, Crowe finds the inspiration to create a heartfelt historical drama that investigates a crisis of anonymity when it comes to the slain soldiers of World War I. It’s powerful work when locked in investigative mode, showcasing Crowe’s strengths as a performer and helmer, selecting an unusual but evocative mystery of fatherly desperation, and one that’s especially aware of the sensitivity surrounding its subject matter. “The Water Diviner” can’t help itself with unnecessarily romantic pursuits, but fringe interests fail to implode this sturdily constructed film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Noah Baumbach is known for making polarizing films, but his last effort, 2013’s “Frances Ha” offered the writer/director a chance to play it safe, eschewing combative moviemaking to focus on pure neuroses. Baumbach has frequently been compared to Woody Allen, but never has the accusation fit as snugly as now, with his latest, “While We’re Young” a Allen-esque riff on the challenges of aging and the perfume of youth, captured with all forms of fussy behavior and unspoken resentments. And much like Baumbauch’s output, it’s frustratingly uneven, razor sharp at times, but mostly scattered and unclear, out to comment on a generational divide without much of a game plan to guide the feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Kamal Ahmed is best known to the public as one half of The Jerky Boys, a telephone prank comedy team that achieved fame in the early 1990s, even taking their act to Hollywood in a 1995 feature film. After leaving the brand name, Ahmed graduated to making movies, crafting horror pictures and gangster sagas, with “Laugh Killer Laugh” perhaps his most personal project. An uneasy mix of childhood trauma, creative expression, and mob enforcer clichés, “Laugh Killer Laugh” wins points for ambition, but doesn’t survive Ahmed’s stiff execution. It’s dark but never profound, while the rest of the effort struggles to achieve consistency, leaving laughs and emotion in short supply. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To enjoy the new comedy “Helicopter Mom,” one must get used to its broadness. It’s not an easy task, with star Nia Vardalos attempting to power the picture’s funny business all by herself, delivering intensely obvious work in the lead role. Her goofiness quickly overwhelms the feature, which fights to introduce its theme of sexual identity and land a few Vardalos-less laughs. Director Salome Breziner (“Fast Sofa,” “The Secret Lives of Dorks”) is too permissive with her star, but “Helicopter Mom” retains some heart and meaning as it struggles to breathe. Perhaps it’s not the most cohesive statement on manipulative parenting, but select moments do shine. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To sit through “Child 44” takes special moviegoing patience. It’s not an especially bad film, but the subject matter concerns a serial killer targeting little boys, murdering them in an especially gruesome manner. The story also takes place in the Soviet Union during the 1950s, creating a sense of gloom and doom with everyday life, finding happiness forbidden and paranoia the national sport. It’s grim work, and taking in the world director Daniel Espinosa is aiming to create requires the ability to withstand the picture’s dedication to punishment. What began as a novel by Tom Rob Smith probably should’ve stayed there, but for those with especially iron-like constitutions, “Child 44” does provide some terrific performances and a full sense of Soviet immersion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2009, I gave “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” a mildly positive review. I feel like I’m confessing a crime here, and perhaps to some cinephiles, I am. Yet, beyond the stupidity, there were a few appealing elements to the slapstick comedy that allowed it some sense of life and action other knucklehead endeavors never even bother to achieve. Hitting it big at the box office, the continuing adventures of Paul Blart were put on hold for reasons unknown, with the security stooge waiting six years to return to screens. For an of-the-moment success, that’s an unwise delay. Time also isn’t a friend to the screenplay, which doesn’t even bother with jokes for this unnecessary continuation, finding “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” simply a vehicle for star Kevin James to showcase his ability to wheeze, flop, and mug. No actual punchlines are included. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Traditionally, fright pictures that utilize the computer tend to fail miserably, often inventing technology or online rules to fit the situation. Last year’s “Open Windows” is a prime example of a browser-based horror effort that went off the deep end just to keep the audience guessing. “Unfriended” is refreshingly minimal with its tech, allowing just everyday tools such as Skype and Facebook to set the scene for its nightmare. A stripped down ghost story that’s more about intimidation than overt violence, “Unfriended” actually works, delivering a reasonable amount of chills, most guided with imagination by director Leo Gabriadze. At the very least, the feature retains a real-world feel as it zips through heated searches, accusatory conversations, and poor internet speeds. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been fascinating to watch the team behind Disneynature adapt to the demands of their audience. With every new release, the original concept of capturing nature as it stands is stripped away, with the features now resembling Disney’s old “True-Life Adventures,” electing to shape a story with footage instead of relying strictly on animal behaviors. “Monkey Kingdom” is their eighth production, arriving a year after “Bears” stomped through theaters, returning to more fleet-footed creatures to study with a smile: the toque macaque. Moving farther away from observation to organize staged scenes of mischief, “Monkey Kingdom” remains a total charmer, only missing a sense of life in motion that’s often the best part of nature documentaries. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With starring roles handled by Jonah Hill and James Franco, “True Story” could be mistaken for the next big Hollywood comedy. Instead of laughs, the picture asks these funnymen to sober up for a grim true crime drama, with Hill and Franco downshifting into sullen behavior to best capture the gray skies of the material, which is based on experiences explored by disgraced journalist Michael Finkel. Indeed, “True Story” is based on a true story, which permits the production a sense of gravity as it analyzes the concept of truth and its relationship with emotion. Pieces are missing, yet the feature remains compelling thanks to fine performances and an icy sense of detachment, finding David Kajganich’s screenplay interested in a moral gray area instead of big thrills. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Gordon Gekko heads into the west in “Beyond the Reach,” which isn’t a sequel to “Wall Street,” but feels like a natural extension of the series. Michael Douglas returns to villainy in the picture, transforming a financial wizard into a hunter of men, and he’s immense fun to watch, managing chewy lines and offering the camera variations on intimidating looks. The rest of “Beyond the Reach” doesn’t live up to his performance, but as survival stories go, it offers a decent amount of thrills and sun-caked frustrations. Get up and leave before the final ten minutes, and the movie provides a compelling ride into disaster. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Chris Messina is currently found on the hit television comedy, “The Mindy Project,” but he’s been a working actor for quite some time. Routinely cast in helpless or handsome boyfriend roles, Messina finally takes command of his career with the dramedy, “Alex of Venice.” Making his directorial debut, Messina manages a startlingly human look at maturity and separation, making specific choices to understand behavior at a primal level while still tending bits of comedy and tragedy that remain dramatically familiar. “Alex of Venice” is straightforward and heartfelt, always more interested in personalities than formula, trying to fight off cliché with nuance. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Joining a growing list identifying the longest gaps between film sequels, “Queen and Country” is a follow-up to the 1987 feature, “Hope and Glory.” Clearly, there was something about the original picture that felt unfinished to writer/director John Boorman, who returns to duty after 2006’s “A Tiger’s Tail” to helm the continuation of his personal war story, leaping ahead nine years to study the next generation of global conflict. While “Hope and Glory” was accomplished work, meaningful and confessional, “Queen and Country” is more of a sitcom than a study of uncertainty in shadow of duty. It’s not hopeless, but it’s surprisingly slack, unfocused work from Boorman, who aims for a scattered tonality that reflects the madness of the moment, but mostly loses his way. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Gren Wells is best known for writing the 2011 picture, “A Little Bit of Heaven.” It was a spectacularly wrongheaded script that attempted to turn a cancer diagnosis into a foundation for a romantic comedy. The Kate Hudson-starrer predictably died at the box office, but its failure hasn’t deterred Wells, who makes her directorial debut with “The Road Within,” another effort that strives to marry Hollywood convention with sobering human realities. Admittedly, “The Road Within” is a tremendous improvement over “A Little Bit of Heaven,” allowing realism a little more breathing room. However, these moments are fleeting in a chaotic feature, which often turns to cliché too quickly. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Squeeze” is a gambling movie that uses golf as its game of choice. Transferring slick gangsters and quivering marks to the local country club is an interesting idea, and one the promise a unique sets of goals to disturb the routine of the subgenre. Sadly, writer/director Terry Jastrow does next to nothing with potential of the premise, skipping on intensity to satisfy his cast of overactors, while the script doesn’t supply a single fresh idea to match the tension on the links. Perhaps golf fanatics won’t pay close attention to dramatic particulars, but for those hungering for something substantial from “The Squeeze,” disappointment is all but certain. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Perhaps feeling inspired by recent acting choices, Ryan Gosling makes a leap to the director’s chair for “Lost River.” A mix of Harmony Korine and Dario Argento, the movie sets out to create a loosely defined screen nightmare, armed with abstract imagery and free-range performances. Definitely not a picture for the impatient, “Lost River” is distinct in its cinematic appetites, finding Gosling having a ball staging exotic horrors and surveying decayed small-town Michigan remains. Of lesser importance is storytelling, as the feature often eschews narrative drive entirely to fixate on wily behavior and stark punishment. It can be infuriating, but it’s also intriguingly surreal, launching Gosling’s helming career with a confident blast of mischief. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com