Film
Lace Crater is the debut feature film by Harrison Atkins. Produced (and co-starring) Joe Swanberg, the film has all traits of the mumblecore genre that Swanberg helped popularize a decade ago. Atkins cleverly plays on those conventions with the influence of body horror traditions, using them to bolster the film’s mumblecore framework.
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You’d think being taken hostage during a bank robbery gone awry would the worst thing to happen to Vivian (Ashley Bell) on a sweltering day in the California desert in 1978. In a race to get away from the police, her captors inadvertently drive onto the property of Wyatt Moss (Pat Healy), a crazed former military sniper with a deadly pastime. Until now Wyatt’s brother, the local sheriff (Alan Ruck), has turned a blind eye to his sibling’s activities. But, with the missing Vivian, the Sheriff might have to intervene. Whether Vivian survives long enough to be found is a whole another story.
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The first live-action team-up of DC Comics icons Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman should have been a game-changer in the comic book movie genre. Instead, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (BvS), both a sequel to 2013’s Man of Steeland the stepping stone to ambitious slate of upcoming films from Warner Bros., was met with savage reviews (27% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and underwhelming box office numbers. $872 million worldwide is hardly a failure but given the production and marketing costs, anything less than a billion dollars would be seen as a disappointment. In the United States alone, it couldn’t outperform Fox’s Deadpool, which was an R-rated superhero equivalent of an episode of Family Guy. What went wrong?
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Actor Anton Yelchin died unexpected this weekend in what’s been called a freak accident. He was only 27 years old. Shock and sadness often comes along with the news of the death of a young and beloved public figure. Given the bizarre circumstances of Yelchin’s death, the news stings a bit more than usual. The actor emigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union with his parents—both star figure skaters—when he was only 6 months old. He began acting professionally when he was 9. During his 16 years working, he amassed an impressive 65 film and TV credits, but it’s hard not to think he was just getting started.
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Miles (Shane Callahan) finds himself on the losing end of a coin toss to determine whether he gets promoted or fired, and is subsequently dumped by his high-strung and materialistic girlfriend. But just as he’s at his lowest, he comes up with a genius but crazy scheme to amass a fortune by collecting the coins in wishing fountains. When the endeavor grows bigger than he originally planned, he recruits his best friend Jack (Cullen Moss) and a friendly local homeless man Durwood (Don Henderson Baker) to help. With the team in place, Miles travels around North Carolina gathering coins. In one park, he has a fateful encounter with Penelope (Anna Stromberg), a woman running from her troubles and eager to join Miles on his trek.
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After suffering her fourth miscarriage, American obstetrician Dr. Tora Hamilton (Radha Mitchell) moves with her husband Duncan Guthrie (Rupert Graves) to his hometown on one of the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland, where they plan to adopt a child. On her new property, she soon discovers the body of a young woman. The corpse has been mutilated with strange symbols and its heart has been removed. The police believe the corpse to be centuries old, but Dr. Hamilton soon deduces the woman’s body is only a few years old and she had given birth shortly before being killed. The island’s Detective Inspector McKie (Ian McElhinney) considers the case closed, so Dr. Hamilton takes it upon herself to uncover the truth of what happened. Aided only by the skeptical Sgt. Dana Tulloch (Joanne Crawford), Dr. Hamilton begins to uncover the island’s sinister secrets involving an ancient religious sect, and even those closest to her.
Read MoreBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opened strong at the box office despite mostly negative reviews. After watching the film, it’s safe to say the reviewers might have been kind. The film is such a shallow mess, devoid of charms, character development, and a basic level of coherency that it doesn’t warrant an in-depth discussion (Madeline Kahn in Clue: The Movie sums up my feelings perfectly). My expectations were low from the start. Its predecessor, Man of Steel, was a flawed film, though I didn’t have many of the issues others did. The film’s execution aside (not necessarily a pun), it offered the promise of something greater. I’ll paraphrase Grant Morrison’s excellent All-Star Superman, when his father Jor-El says, “You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun, Kal.” At the time, I hoped Man of Steel was just a rough first step toward a stronger series of films with a much more inspirational Superman. Now, with Batman v Superman released, it’s clear this series is not striving toward anything close to Jor-El’s words. The franchise is has its feet firmly planted in mediocrity.
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Sometimes when I’m bored, I browse upcoming DVD releases. Often I come across something incredibly strange and debate whether I need to watch it. Typically I move on to the next release. But, now and then, the impulse to buy the DVD is overwhelming and my wallet suffers from the likes of Dickshark
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After watching the insane promotional music video for Excess Flesh last fall, the film immediately jumped to the top of my “must watch” list. Blood, sex, psychosis, and all the other things that make a genre film exciting were there, all infused with a song.
This debut feature film, directed by Patrick Kennelly–co-written by Kennelly and Sigrid Gilmer–centers on Jill (Bethany Orr), a young woman who has struggled to find her footing in Los Angeles. She’s become a shut-in, much to the frustration of her beautiful and outgoing roommate Jennifer (Mary Loveless). Jennifer is highly critical of Jill and her inertia, and often targets her with abusive comments. Jennifer rationalizes her cruelty as being direct and no nonsense, but it chips away at Jill until she snaps one day and chains Jennifer to a wall. While Jill descends into madness, Jennifer’s chances of surviving the ordeal grows increasingly unlikely.
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Rocky Balboa is up there with Superman as one of the greatest fictional characters of the 20th century, the original Rocky is generally considered one of the greatest American movies ever made. It spawned a franchise with an inspiring but uneven legacy. Watching Rocky IV, the character, though still written and portrayed by Sylvester Stallone, is unrecognizable compared to who he was in the first couple of films. Rocky V was an attempt to correct that, but was deeply flawed and very poorly received. To this day, when most people think of Rocky, they think of the utter ridiculous that was Rocky IV. Even if Rocky V was a much better film, I still do not believe it would have been embraced at the time of its release due to audience expectations of what a Rocky film should be. The franchise was all but dead (as the character would have been if Stallone went with his initial idea to have Rocky die at the end of the fifth film). Fortunately the failure of Rocky V paved the way for the sublime Rocky Balboa in 2006. No one, myself included, expected the film to be much of anything. Stallone wisely used that perception to his advantage, crafting the most fitting companion piece to the original film and giving the character a most deserved and well-earned send-off. But just as Rocky’s story comes full circle, the story of Adonis Creed begins.
