Category: Film Review

With “Noah,” writer/director Darren Aronofsky endeavors to create a biblical story that’s never been seen before. Forget “The Ten Commandments” and “The Passion of the Christ,” this tale of godly might is more in the vein of J.R.R. Tolkien, complete with epic battles featuring faceless hordes, windy dialogue, and towering creatures that move with a distinct stop-motion animated lurch. The element of surprise works well for the filmmaker, but he can’t sustain the initial burst of invention, with “Noah” slowly grinding to a halt as it develops bland characters and protracted dramatic confrontations. Aronofsky is used to taking risks with his work, but this one slips out of his control, obsessed with overwhelming the audience instead of inspiring them with a depiction of spiritual courage. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2010, director Daniel Stamm invaded the horror scene with “The Last Exorcism,” a found footage-style chiller that cleaned up at the box office, allowing the filmmaker a chance to play in the Hollywood big leagues. His follow-up is “13 Sins,” a remake of a 2006 Thai production, and a picture that’s just twisted enough to make a successful leap to America. Although a consistent tone is elusive, Stamm proves himself up for the challenge with this uneasy morality tale, creating an enjoyable amount of tension and shock value to carry the effort through a few rough transitions. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Drake Doremus made a critical splash with 2011’s “Like Crazy,” a movie about young love experienced in a full-body manner, clouding judgment and derailing lives. “Breathe In” covers some of the same dramatic terrain, only here the fixation remains on seduction and the gradual developmental process of chemistry. Where “Like Crazy” celebrated impulses, “Breathe In” highlights restraint, slowly building a feel for personal connection in a disrupted domestic situation, trusting in the power of longing and reflection. Doremus wears filmmaking maturity well, achieving a palpable sense of attraction between the lead characters, making their journey into indecent behavior seem perfectly logical, despite the cold realities that surround them. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Two Lives” is a film one has to remain attentive to at all times. Answers aren’t immediately offered during the course of the picture, which uses flashbacks and unidentified character interactions to paint a portrait of a stained life that’s finally being revealed. It takes time to get moving, but the reward is a captivating drama that presents a few effective surprises and a standout lead performance from Juliane Kohler, who communicates a pitch-perfect blend of emotions that allows the effort to cut deep. Satisfactorily tragic and pained, “Two Lives” is sharp work that develops spellbinding turns of plot as it unfolds. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

With “Boys of Abu Ghraib,” Luke Moran attempts to become a triple threat in the industry. Serving as writer/director/star of the picture, Moran picks an incendiary topic for exposure, creating a drama based on situations found in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal from 2004, endeavoring to master a corruption of innocence arc found in multiple war features. While it’s certainly a provocative subject, and early moments suggest the helmer is on the right track when it comes to the depiction of military desperation, “Boys of Abu Ghraib” eventually loses itself to a syrupy flow of sensitivity while presenting one of the worst endings I’ve seen in quite some time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been a triumphant year for Steve Coogan. Last holiday season, “Philomena,” a film he co-write and co-starred in, picked up a few trophies and managed to find an audience despite an oppressive subject matter, while showing a pleasingly dramatic side to the performer few pictures have dared to explore. And now “Alan Partridge” makes its way to America, finally giving Coogan’s most famous character a shot at a global audience. Considering how hilarious the feature is, with a terrific wit, interest in silliness, and laudable speed, it’s a crime that it took this long for Partridge and his narcissistic antics to invade the states. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The marketing for “Nymphomaniac” has been a cheeky onslaught of provocative imagery, some tied to shots of orgasmic bliss interpreted by the stars of the film. It’s been amusing, yet the reality of the endeavor (an epic study broken down into two parts) is decidedly grim, possibly confusing those on the prowl for an offering of adult cinema as interpreted by director Lars Von Trier. “Nymphomaniac: Volume I” is the first half of the journey, and it’s filled with dire situations of compulsion and punishment. Even when the helmer makes minor attempts to pull the premise out of a coffin, the general tone of the work remains in a state of emergency. Demanding a less lustful mindset from the viewer, the effort emerges as an artfully designed exploration of grief and gullibility, pockmarked with Von Trier fetishes and wild metaphors. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

I was a great admirer of 2011’s “The Muppets,” which had the unenviable task of trying to make the Jim Henson legacy relevant to a younger generation while still tickling the old guard. Mixing slapstick with song and dance, the picture returned verve to the puppet community, even with a few missteps in pacing and character focus. Applying what they learned from the experience, director James Bobin and co-writer Nicholas Stoller return to the brand name with “Muppets Most Wanted,” a zippy, hilarious caper that ditches the endearing sensitivity of the reawakening to charge ahead as a traditional Muppet show of silliness, punctuated with a set list of fantastic songs by Bret McKenzie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Le Week-End” is no dewy romance about the reawakening of feeling shared between a couple who’s been married for decades. Director Roger Michell and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi have little interest in soft-pedaling contentious interactions between the main characters, electing irony as the twosome embarks on a soul-cleansing journey of bitter communication in the most romantic city on Earth. Consistently surprising and bravely raw, “Le Week-End” cuts right to the bone, and does so in such an intimate manner, it feels splendidly authentic, permitting access to the deepest, darkest desires of the duo as they battle to express themselves and define their marriage. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

After 2011’s “The Big Year” turned out to be a colossal dud at the box office, I’m surprised any production would want to make another film about the birding hobby. Taking a slightly less madcap course when it comes to the act of spotting winged creatures, “A Birder’s Guide to Everything” locates a more fertile dramatic perch with its inspection of a teenager’s wounded heart and his attempt to lose himself in a chase, excusing him from real world concerns. Nicely acted and emotionally genuine, the picture doesn’t necessarily demand attention, but it earns appreciation through its delicate, nicely observed handling of sensitive issues. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

First time directors usually select material that’s comfortable, providing a familiarity that eases the pressure of such a herculean professional task. For Jason Bateman’s feature-length helming debut, he’s selected “Bad Words,” a cynical, sarcastic, profane picture that’s cut from the same cloth as “Bad Santa” and “Bad Teacher,” celebrating the juvenile antics of an unstable human being, providing a wide berth for improvisation. It’s Bateman’s wheelhouse, though it’s surprising to find “Bad Words” rather pedestrian as it peruses its corroded imagination, relying on cheap jokes and predictable situations to carry the movie, while Bateman the actor coasts through the effort half-asleep, playing aloof with material that demands more pronounced representation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Just a Sigh” seems to understand that it’s working with a flawed premise, which concerns the passionate interests of two strangers who meet on a train and engage in a heated affair, satisfying needs beyond primal sexual desires. To combat the familiar, writer/director Jerome Bonnell attempts to transform his picture into an immersive event, following the lead character as she feels everything, hoping to communicate decisions through physical movement and the odd shot of cheeky scripting. “Just a Sigh” doesn’t capture the senses in a compelling manner, but its elusiveness is actually effective, requiring an audience willing to give up on reason to take on the mysteries of attraction. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Particle Fever” brings physics to the big screen. Not the high school stuff, but hardcore science from brilliant minds excited to share experiments and findings with the world. The worst possible outcome with the picture is a feeling of homework, putting intense, specialized concepts into the minds of viewers, expecting them to piece together a sophisticated understanding of the work and the culture. “Particle Fever” has moments like this, but impenetrability isn’t a common occurrence, with the majority of the documentary user friendly as it details the highs and lows of the Large Hadron Collider and the team of physicists devoted to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Enemy” is fashioned in the tradition of brain-bleeder cinema, putting the weight of interpretation on the audience as it deliberately reaches into abstraction to keep the average moviegoer off its scent. Think the work of David Lynch or Lars Von Trier, with a distinct fingerprint of Stanley Kubrick thrown in for fun. A picture like this is overflowing with oddity and most vague of clues, only in need of a filmmaker capable of turning question marks into a riveting mission of big screen puzzling. Denis Villeneuve, hot off his success with last autumn’s “Prisoners,” doesn’t work “Enemy” into a lather, instead deliberately keeping his distance in a manner that doesn’t encourage deeper inspection. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

To embrace the fine qualities of “Stay” requires patience with its incompleteness. Writer/director Wiebke van Carolsfeld has her heart in the right place with this sensitive relationship drama set largely in Ireland, but the connective tissue is missing, often robbing scenes of their true power when backstory is blurred and motivations are lacking urgency. Thankfully, there’s thespian feeling providing by stars Aidan Quinn and Taylor Schilling, who provide a push of emotional understanding when the screenplay fails to connect the dots. Boasting lovely locations and an endearing community spirit, “Stay” seems like such an easy film to love, yet its deficiencies are difficult to manage. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Better Living Through Chemistry” is a jaunty ride around the dismantling of an everyman. The screenplay by Geoff Moore and David Posamentier (who also co-direct the effort) is filled with formula, never disapproving of a cliché we’ve seen in other, better movies, but the energy of the feature is pleasing. It helps to have a cast who’s come to play, with Olivia Wilde, Michelle Monaghan, and star Sam Rockwell contributing lively work to a picture that needs a boost of a personality. Sporadically funny and sharply paced, “Better Living Through Chemistry” manages to achieve most of its goals, just don’t walk in expecting a radical reinvention of the ruined suburbanite routine. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For his latest effort, writer/director/co-star Tyler Perry looks to pander to his female audience in a more welcoming manner than last year’s “Temptation” could provide. Preying on insecurities concerning the challenges of single motherhood, Perry heads into his creative kitchen and whips up the same stale concoction of melodrama, comedy, and hysteria. The wine flows and the punchlines die in “The Single Moms Club,” and Perry can’t seem to fulfill the promise of the title. Instead of breezy jocularity and patient moralizing, the feature is a joyless to-do list of cliches, sold by actresses who appear confused by the material, unsure if they should treat the conflicts with a touch of realism or head off into space, hamming it up while the director takes a nap. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The return of Wes Anderson brings enormous expectations for style, whimsy, and tone. Thankfully, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” lives up to the American Empirical brand name with a tart but soaring display of madcap comedy and lush visual presentation. After the tempered sweetness of “Moonrise Kingdom,” it’s interesting to watch the helmer indulge a peppery sense of mischief, constructing an R-rated misadventure with dubious characters and a valentine to the golden age of hospitality, playing with time, aspect ratios, and an enormous cast of familiar faces to shape a cheeky, occasionally shocking feature that’s thoroughly and blissfully managed by its idiosyncratic creator. Imagine a blend of “The Muppet Movie,” Mel Brooks, and “Where’s Waldo?” and you’re halfway to the carnival ride viewing experience Anderson delivers with this gem. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Need for Speed” is an adaptation of the popular video game series (over 20 installments), finally bringing its mix of velocity and evasion to the big screen. But let’s be honest here, after the billion-dollar grosses associated with “The Fast and the Furious” franchise, a rival studio wanted its own street race film to call its own. Bloated and nonsensical, “Need for Speed” only has a demolition derby to share with the audience, as all attempts to inject human behavior into this joyless endeavor come up painfully short. If the sound of revving engines and exaggerated enunciation for over two hours of screen time is your thing, by all means, dig into the picture with both hands. Everyone else should seek their cheap thrills elsewhere. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Remakes are a common occurrence these days, but the horror genre is practically stuffed with do-overs. Easy to assemble and market, rehashes, or reimaginings, often disappoint, never quite living up to their original inspiration. “Patrick: Evil Awakens” is an update of a 1978 “ozploitation” classic, largely considered to be one of the best chillers to emerge from Australia. Armed with a brand name and movie geek recognition, the producers have elected to mount “Patrick” once again, using contemporary fright film mechanics to sell a familiar tale. Against all odds, they’ve managed to succeed where many efforts fail, returning the tension and peculiarity of the premise for another go-around of telekinetic terror. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com