Category: Film Review

“Lucky Them” aspires to make a profound statement on self-medication, with the main character dabbling in sex and drinking to motivate her daily existence. However, any hope to inspect the reality of such a corrosive mental block is dashed early on in the film, with director Megan Griffiths unable to portray an honest sense of hopelessness, always returning to a semi-sitcom atmosphere of misunderstandings and broken promises. “Lucky Them” is trite instead of deep, while star Toni Collette is stuck in neutral, forced to make funny faces when the screenplay is unable to provide dramatic guidance, which is a frequent event in this ineffective picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Yes, “Edge of Tomorrow” plays like a ‘roided up “Groundhog Day,” yet beyond the similar daily reset concept, the latest film from director Doug Liman heads in an entirely different direction. The story doesn’t concern the warming of a heart, but the fate of the planet and a study of courage, loaded into a summer blockbuster that values quick pace and big action, keeping star Tom Cruise a very busy man during the mayhem. Inventive and irresistible at times, “Edge of Tomorrow” is more of a carnival ride than offering of drama, whipping back and forth as an alien invasion picture while guns roar, ships crash, and death is merely the first step to a uniquely fulfilling life. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Hollywood has attempted to make terrifying home invasion pictures, often employing imagery involving masked intruders as a means of horror. The Dutch chiller “Borgman” basically follows the same routine of domestic violation, only the results are far more insidious and wholly effective as a screen nightmare. “Borgman” is a fantastic example of how a slow-burn effort gradually reaches for the throat, using mysterious events and puzzling characters to vaguely define ghastly acts of intrusion, helping to secure an unsettling mood that’s marvelously maintained by writer/director Alex van Warmerdam. It’s a disturbing feature, flirting with incomprehensibility at times, but its way with mounting unpleasantness is frequently masterful, tilted with moments of dark comedy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There are tearjerkers that carefully extract emotion from the audience through precise screenwriting, editorial timing, and tasteful performances. “The Fault in Our Stars” practically has interns stationed underneath theater seats peeling onions. It’s an aggressive picture, one that’s not content to let anyone leave the multiplex unless they’re a blubbering mess. Thankfully, there’s a little more soulful substance to the movie than cheap manipulations, and while “The Fault in Our Stars” is grabby, it’s also quite human, with genuine feelings accompanying troubling situations concerning death and grief. Fully aware of its power and pre-loaded following (those previously lassoed into fandom through John Green’s 2012 book), the feature adaptation has its problems, but it also retains refreshing dignity, never dipping into hysterics to extract feelings it hasn’t earned. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In the acting business for 25 years, I trust writer/director/star Clark Gregg’s perspective on the film business. His second moviemaking endeavor, “Trust Me” (following 2008’s “Choke”), has an amazing lived-in feel as we watch a desperate agent work the angles around power players in Hollywood. It has the lingo and speed, and the story lends itself to a type of insider perspective that’s riveting, getting to understand the often sneaky machinations of casting deals. Clark isolates all the desperation and surges of confidence required to complete a contract, but dramatically, “Trust Me” goes from stability to seppuku. It’s the kind of picture that could be shut off at the hour mark and nothing would be missed. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been quite a year for filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. After the U.S. release of “Jodorowsky’s Dune,” an exquisite documentary about failed plans to mount a most ambitious sci-fi epic during the 1970s, the helmer steps back behind the camera with “The Dance of Reality,” his first feature since 1990’s “The Rainbow Thief.” The mastermind of “El Topo” and “The Holy Mountain” returns to his brain-bleeding roots with his latest effort, a wonderfully surreal journey into memory and misery, jam-packed with all the oddity and incongruity Jodorowsky is known for, still kicking with mischief after all this time away from moviemaking. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The mysteries of the mind receive a tepid investigation in the thriller, “Anna.” Playing fast and loose with a borderline sci-fi concept, the picture offers a talented cast but doesn’t have a watertight script, fumbling through scenes instead of confidently mounting a series of nail-biting moments and mysterious events. “Anna” hints early on that sinister business is on its way, but the promise isn’t kept, finding director Jorge Dorado struggling to maintain excitement while the movie itself keeps laying down to take a nap, bored of its dispiriting imagination for brain invasion and the unsettling power of a teenage girl. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Seth MacFarlane generally does one thing, and he does with occasional inspiration. After years building his animation empire with “Family Guy” and “American Dad,” MacFarlane tried out live-action filmmaking with 2012’s “Ted,” a lewd, crude comedy with pleasingly bizarre acts of mischief wedged between the helmer’s obsessive need to shock and awe with his juvenile sense of humor. After experiencing a global box office smash, MacFarlane quickly returns to screens with “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” a western parody that makes “Blazing Saddles” look like a Noel Coward play. Limited in scope and silly business, the feature plays directly to MacFarlane’s fascination with poo-poo, pee-pee humor, without ever moving beyond the basics of sophomoric gags to transform into the raging farce it sporadically hints at becoming. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2010’s billion-dollar blockbuster “Alice in Wonderland” is the reason why we’re being inundated with fairy tale and fantasy revivals. 2012’s “Snow White and the Huntsman” continued the trend, last year’s “Oz the Great and Powerful” sustained it, and now there’s “Maleficent,” which returns to Disney’s animated classic, 1959’s “Sleeping Beauty,” for inspiration (a live-action “Cinderella” is due for release in 2015). However, this is no remake or reboot, but a reheating of known elements, with a few changes in motivation and an extension of backstory working to turn all attention to the villain of the tale. Only now, she’s no villain at all. Draining wickedness out of Maleficent, the production has defanged the character, and in their quest to recycle a brand name in the pursuit of big money, they’ve sucked the joy and danger out of the material, though, ever the plucky studio, Disney flails desperately to keep the feature candied and approachable. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Cold in July” isn’t a typical revenge story, even while it retains pronounced elements of sin, murder, and paranoia. It’s an adaptation of a Joe R. Lansdale’s 1989 novel, yet it takes on a special screen magic in the care of co-writer/director Jim Mickle, who knows exactly what buttons to push when it comes to the saga of an innocent man pulled into a scheme of murder and survival. Thickly Texan, richly performed, and teeming with nail-biting sequences built around a riveting pulp story, “Cold in July” is aggressive and precisely crafted, playing with grim genre highlights in an excited manner that suggests Mickle was smiling throughout the entire production. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As a vessel of drama, the Polish production “Ida” doesn’t swing wildly. In fact, conflicts are minimal and passions are largely tempered or worn down by life, giving a simplistic story of awakening room to breathe as it carries out its observational approach. What’s impressive here is director Pawel Pawlikowski’s cinematic form, creating a black and white world for “Ida” that carries harsh and seductive qualities while wisely remaining invested in the power of reaction, as internalization plays a critical role in the effort. It’s beautifully crafted all around, keeping “Ida” engrossing as it explores screen stillness, putting its faith in the power of subtle revelations as a means of suspense. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Big Ask” isn’t exactly emotionally authentic, but it makes a concerted effort to represent the scattered mindset of grief and depression. To help plumb the depths of woe, it employs a slightly comical premise to ease viewers into murky psychology, teasing a randy farce when all the film would like to do is sit down and cry. It’s an interesting misdirect for a largely successful exploration of human connection, with all its insecurities and temptations, featuring a sharp ensemble of talented actors able to extract pure feeling out of a potentially hackneyed script. Director Thomas Beatty and Rebecca Fishman botch their third act payoff, but “The Big Ask” remains a compellingly exploratory odyssey into desperate acts of communication, with a side of sexual awkwardness. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When the source material for a movie emerges from the mind of novelist Irving Welsh, certain expectations for European hellraising are set. “Filth,” an adaptation of Welsh’s 1998 book, follows the writer’s routine, summoning a carnival of chemical excess and bad behavior that’s tied to past trauma, playing both the impish qualities of troublemaking and its deep-seated shame. After “Trainspotting,” “The Acid House,” and “Ecstasy,” perhaps everything about Welsh’s work has been sufficiently exploited by now. “Filth” proves there’s a little more gas in the tank than originally thought, and while the feature isn’t as cohesively anarchic as it imagines itself to be, it works in fits, boosted by a triumphantly face-rubbing lead performance from James McAvoy. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A French-German production, the heroically titled “Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas” will most likely be identified as a historical adventure in the vein of Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart,” and the pictures share a few similarities in vast European locales and brutality of justice. However, “Age of Uprising” is a far more subtle creation, less about the roar of inhumanity and more about the cold stare of fairness. Led by exceptionally internalized work from star Mads Mikkelsen, the feature doesn’t reach out to the mass audience, instead embarking in a specialized direction of medieval disruption that often plays stoically and silently. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

And how could one even begin to disagree with the message of “The Normal Heart.” Larry Kramer brings his 1985 off-Broadway play on the HIV/AIDS crisis to the screen, reviving a period in American history where the great unknown mercilessly tore through the gay community, trigging panic and isolation while the powers that be refused to participate in the fight. It’s a story of courage, anger, and confusion, sold with blistering honesty, realism, and liberal helpings of theatricality, with extensive monologues exploring the bitter feelings of social and medical quarantine as the particulars of the disease were being researched. “The Normal Heart” absolutely retains its significance, it’s the execution from director Ryan Murphy that’s worthy of dismissal, allowing a heavy-handedness to drive the provocative material into frustrating repetition. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Phil Alden Robinson is a talented filmmaker, responsible for gems such as “Sneakers” and “Field of Dreams.” It’s been quite some time since he last helmed a movie, dating back to 2002’s underrated Jack Ryan thriller, “The Sum of All Fears,” making his latest, “The Angriest Man in Brooklyn,” interesting before it even begins, as it represents material that pulled Robinson out of whatever semi-retirement state was in. Once the feature gets going, hope for a wondrous return to form is lost, as Daniel Taplitz’s screenplay is soaked in phoniness, while Robinson can’t get his hands around the premise, swinging wildly from farcical elements to wearisome melodrama, offering a shapeless, tedious pass at a self-improvement picture. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Parts Per Billion” is the type of film that stretches for profundity, but can only reach a punishing ambiance of despondency. Taking on the end of the world, writer/director Brian Horiuchi struggles to create a dynamic doomsday vibe while tending to the intimate details of humanity as it struggles with the inevitable. More dull than devastating, “Parts Per Billion” can’t kickstart a convincing mood of panic, instead resting on tedious existential discussions and relationship woes while stringing together a useless cat’s cradle of character connections, forgoing the larger portrait of desperation to keep everything linked in a contrived manner. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The seventh installment of the “X-Men” series, “X-Men: Days of Future Past” is determined to remind the viewer that there were only two high-quality chapters, 2000’s “X-Men,” and 2003’s “X2: X-Men United.” The rest of the franchise is treated as mere bumps in the road as director Bryan Singer hopes to reclaim what he lost when he walked away from the series after the first sequel. Renewed comic book vigor is front and center here, restoring the grandeur of the mutant superhero saga, taking the characters to a uniquely dark place of possible extinction that transforms the feature into a game of survival, not slick widescreen heroism. Gritty and mindful of character, “Days of Future Past” is a triumphant return to form for the “X-Men” universe, proving there’s still some life kicking around the brand name after last summer’s snoozy “The Wolverine” missed the mark. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s been 13 years since Jon Favreau made a small-scale comedy like “Chef.” In the interim, he’s been busy making blockbusters and helping Marvel get their act together with the eye-opening success of 2008’s “Iron Man” and its sequel. “Chef” returns some much needed spontaneity to the helmer’s filmography, creating a character-based story that trades enormous displays of CGI for the miracle of cooking, using succulent showcases of kitchen creations to lure viewers in while an effectively simple tale of growth and responsibility plays in the background. It’s a lovely picture, brimming with an elastic sense of humor and modest pathos, returning Favreau to a position of behavioral observation, playing around with screen essentials instead of organizing colossal elements of action. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Stand Clear of the Closing Doors” has a story, and it’s a powerful one about the loss of a child, with the searching parent left with limited resources as their worst nightmare is realized. However, director Sam Fleischner doesn’t pay much attention to a narrow dramatic view, electing to create a nervous landscape of sights and sounds to help shape the narrative. “Stand Clear of the Closing Doors” is a wonderfully cinematic effort, brimming with life and tension, while performances from a host of newcomers summon a rich sense of curiosity and despair that instills the picture with a special screen power. Although it never holds much interest in emphasis, it’s a striking, riveting feature that showcases Fleischner as a refreshingly observant talent. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com