Film
N.A.S.A. – Spirit of Apollo
When I volunteered to review this documentary, I assumed based on the title that it was about the origins of the NASA Space Program, which I thought would be interesting, although probably fairly standard. Turns out this documentary is actually about a pair of musicians who call themselves N.A.S.A., which stands for “North America South [...]
Hollow Man Double Feature Blu-Ray
I remember the first time I saw Hollow Man, when it first came out in theaters in 2000. I was about 16 and thought it was really intense, visually awesome, and quite sexy. Apparently it didn’t bother me that most of the sexuality here has a creepy rape factor to it. I’ve seen the film [...]
Easy Money (Snabba Cash)
Imagine if you will, a mixture of the grittiness found in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher trilogy, mixed with the themes of honor amongst thieves in Jules Dassin’s Rififi and you’ll get to the heart of Easy Money. Known as Snabba Cash, in its native Sweden and based off of a 2006 novel, written by Jens [...]
Reality
Matteo Garrone’s Gamorra was an international success – despite the Oscar snub. The dense, stoically paced Italian crime drama was attractively elusive, giving viewers something to mull over on their way out of the theater. Reality, the director’s new film, explores a much different world than Italian mafioso, while keeping his phantom touch. Reality follows Luciano, a fishmonger running a pescetaria in the [...]
Nanook of the North/The Wedding of Palo (and Other Films of Arctic Life)
When Robert J. Flaherty made Nanook of the North, there was no such thing as the documentary. Released in 1922, the film presents elements of the Inuit culture prior to the white man’s intervention. Of course, that intervention had already taken place when Flaherty made the film. What strikes some viewers of Nanook as odd [...]
My Brother the Devil
My Brother The Devil is a story about the relationship between two brothers of Egyptian decent set on the tough and ethnically diverse streets of Hackney in London. Rashid (James Floyd) is the older of the two (probably just out of high school) and runs with a gang dealing drugs and performing other lower level tasks. [...]
This is 40
The fourth feature from Judd Apatow–his mid-life crisis feature (some might say “presumptuously”) titled This is 40–is a bold continuation of the Apatow brand, setting its course in a more mature direction. Granted, Apatow did this with his third feature, 2009′s underappreciated Funny People, but despite the heaviness of that film’s themes and the complexities [...]
Olympus Has Fallen
Olympus Has Fallen, Antoine Fuqua’s latest film can easily be summed up as Die Hard, set in the White House. While this may sound like a perfect reason to go see it, trading the amazing set piece of Nakatomi Plaza and replacing it with an iconic American staple, the film lacks all of the charm, [...]
First Period
It’s been nine years since John Waters’s last film, “A Dirty Shame,” which describes the state of affairs for his fans, for whom roadshow productions of “Hairspray” the musical just aren’t the same. However, if you’d like to make a visit to a perfect facsimile of Watersland, then “First Period” is the movie that Mr. [...]
Willow on Blu-ray
Sometimes nostalgia isn’t enough to get you through a movie. Revisiting a film you had been fond of in your youth after a decade or more can, and quite often does, prove to be a major disappointment. Such was the case for me when I revisited The Last Action Hero a year or two back– [...]
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