THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY or THE QUIET MAN and THE WILD ONE: Movie reviews of The Drop and Starred Up by Howard Casner
Posted: September 23, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ben Mendolsohn, David Mackenzie, Dennis Lehane, Jack O’Connell, James Gandolfini, Jonathan Asser, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michaȅl R. Roskam, Noomi Rapace, Starred Up, The Drop, Tom Hardy | 3,553 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
The film noir genre is a particularly American institution, one that took hold of the local populace during World War II and stayed strong until the 1960’s.
It had a great influence on movie making all over the world. Perhaps there was just something so satisfying to other countries about the U.S.’s finally washing its dirty laundry in public and exploring the amoral, immoral and sociopathic underpinnings of its society, bringing itself down off the pedestal it had so self-righteously put itself up on.
(An interesting irony here is that the movie world of the 1930’s, during the height of the depression, was one of optimism and a focus on people having frothy fun, while after taking down Hitler, and America entering one of its most prosperous periods in history, the movies are far more cynical and willing to explore the more unsavory underbelly of our world.)
YOUNG GIRLS IN LOVE: Movie Reviews of God Help the Girl and The Last of Robin Hood by Howard Casner
Posted: September 21, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bryan Bratt, Dakota Fanning, Emily Browning, God Help the Girl, Hannah Murray, Kevin Kline, Matt Kane, Max Casella, Olly Alexander, Pierre Boulanger, Richard Glatzer, Sean Flynn, Stuart Murdoch, Susan Sarandon, The Last of Robin Hood, Wash Westmoreland | 2,276 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
The new movie God Help the Girl, writer/director Stuart Murdoch’s maiden voyage of a film, has, at its core, a group of young people who must be the best dressed teens on the face of the planet.
Now, I don’t know whether to call their style hipster, retro, throwback or ironic (or, as one of my college professors once had included on his multiple choice tests, e. all of the above, f. none of the above, or g. some of the above, please specify), but I do know that everyone on screen is dressed within an inch of their lives in outfits that made me think they did nothing all day but stand in front of a mirror, mixing and matching, matching and mixing. Read the rest of this entry »
HEAD CASES: Movie Reviews of Life of Crime and Frank by Howard Casner
Posted: September 7, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Carla Azar, Chris Sievey, Daniel Schechter, Domhnall Gleeson, Elmore Leonard, Francois Civil, Frank, Isla Fisher, Jennifer Anniston, John Hawkes, Jon Ronson, Leonard Abrahamson, Life of Crime, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mark Boone Junior, Michael Fassbender, Ordell (Yassin Bey, Peter Straughan, Scoot McNairy, Tim Robbins, Will Forte | 8 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
If it is true, as people say, that films influence how we act, then I’m not sure why people are still in the kidnapping biz. I mean, if there is one thing movies have taught us, from Fargo to High and Low to Taken to Misery, that kidnapping thingy just never works out well for those who take to it.
And now we have Life of Crime, written and directed by Daniel Schechter (based on a novel by the immensely popular as well as well respected author Elmore Leonard titled The Switch), the latest variation on the O’Henry short story, The Ransom of Red Chief, in which someone is kidnapped whom the one being extorted the ransom would be just as happy if they were never returned. Read the rest of this entry »
LOVE AND DEATH AND ALL POINTS IN BETWEEN: Movie reviews of To Be Takei, Jealousy and Love is Strange by Howard Casner
Posted: September 2, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alfred Molena, Anna Mouglalis, Arlette Langman, Brad Takei, Caroline Deraus-Garrel, George Takei, Ira Sachs, Jealousy, John Cullum, John Lithgow, Leonard Nimoy, Louis Garrel, Love is Strange, Make Way for Tomorrow, Marc Cholodonko, Marisa Tomei, Marucio Zacharias, Nichelle Nichols, Philippe Garrel, Walter Koenig, Wil Wheaton, William Shatner | 3 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
Oh, My!
George Takei
I once worked at a movie theater that was frequented by celebrities of every make and model. For some reason, the bigger the name (Queen Latifah, Colin Farrel) the less the effect they had on me. I’d do my job and they’d go on their way with nary an increase in my pulse or heart rate.
It was often the second tier celebrities (for lack of a better phrase) that got me tongue tied and turned me into a flibbertigibbet. I’m not sure why.
They may not have been as great an actor as Marlon Brando, but they just always seemed to give me more joy.
Anyway, for what it is, there it is. Read the rest of this entry »
NOTHING UP HIS SLEEVE: Movie review of Woody Allen’s film Magic in the Moonlight by Howard Casner
Posted: August 25, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Colin Firth, Eillen Atkins, Emma Stone, Hamlish Linklater, Howard Burkan, Jackie Weaver, Magic in the Moonlight, Marcia Gay Harden, Ute Lemper, Woody Allen | 3,238 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
Woody Allen, almost a national treasure now as far as I’m concerned, has always been something of a clever parodist.
He can imitate anything, both seriously and satirically, from Bergman (Love & Death, Interiors and Husbands and Wives amongst a ton of others) to Fellini (Stardust Memories) to Kafka and Bertolt Brecht (Shadows and Fog) to documentaries (Take the Money and Run and Zelig) to almost anything else.
Now we have a new set of authors that Allen has mined for a movie. His latest foray into cinematic creativity, Magic in the Moonlight, a story about a magician trying to prove that a psychic is a fraud in the 1920’s south of France, is basically Noel Coward and Somerset Maughm with a lead character that is straight out of Shaw’s Pygmalion as if written by Nietzsche. Read the rest of this entry »
WILD JACKS, DRAMA QUEENS and KING OF KINGS: Movie reviews of Guardians of the Galaxy, The Dog and Calvary by Howard Casner
Posted: August 18, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aidan Gillen, Allison Berg, Benecio Del Toro, Bradley Cooper, Brendan Gleeson, Calvary, Chris O’Dowd, Chris Pratt, David Bautista, Djimon Hounsou, Dylan Moran, E. Emmet Walsh, Frank Keraudren, Glenn Close, Guardians of the Galaxy, Isaach De Bankole, James Gunn, John C. Reilly, John Michael McDonagh, John Wojtowicz, Karen Gillian, Kelly Reilly, Killian Scott, Michael Rooker, Nicole Perlman, Owen Sharpe, The Dog, Vin Diesel, Zoe Saldana | 95 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them
Malvolio in Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare
Well, I’m not sure I want to go over to actor Chris Pratt’s house for the holidays. After starring in both Guardians of the Galaxy and The Lego Movie, I strongly suspect there’s going to be no living with him.
Guardians of the Galaxy is the latest in the summer blockbusters the studios tend to set upon us now that it is, well…summer, I guess. The main difference is that GOT Galaxy (as I call it, or just started calling it cause it sounds kind of neat) has it’s tongue far more firmly planted in its cheek than in most summer blockbusters—and that’s saying a lot if you take Iron Man into consideration.
How good is it? Well, on a scale of one to ten, it’s not as good as The Lego Movie or X-Men: Days of Future Past, but it’s better than Edge of Tomorrow (or Live Die Repeat as the Cruise control movie seems to be called now that it’s being released on home video). Read the rest of this entry »
THEY’RE EITHER TOO YOUNG OR TOO OLD: Movie reviews of Boyhood and Land Ho by Howard Casner
Posted: August 11, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aaron Katz, Boyhood, Earl Lynn Nelson, Ethan Hawke, Land Ho, Lorelei Linklater, Marco Perella, Martha Stephens, Patricia Arquette, Paul Eenhorn, Richard Linklater | 446 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
Two movies have opened recently in which your equal and opposite reaction to them will probably depend on how you feel about the central characters. In both cases, I have to admit that this was the one area where both films came up a bit short for me.
“You gotta have a gimmick/If you want to get ahead”
Stephen Soundheim, Gypsy
In Boyhood, a coming of age drama written and directed by slacker fabulist Richard Linklater, the same cast was filmed over a period of one year minus a baker’s dozen in order to make the movie. By doing so, Linklater created his story in such a way that we see the same actor, Ellar Coltrane, grow and change right before our eyes as he plays the lead Mason.
In other words, Boyhood is a movie with a gimmick. Read the rest of this entry »
A STUDY IN SCARLET and TALES OF HOFFMAN: Movie reviews of Lucy and A Most Wanted Man by Howard Casner
Posted: August 4, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: A Most Wanted Man, Amr Waked, Andrew Bovell, Anton Corbijin, Daniel Bruhl, Homayoun Ershadi, John Le Carre, Luc Besson, Lucy, Min-sik Choi, Morgan Freeman, Nina Hoss, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Willem Dafoe | 2 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
Ricky Ricardo: Lucy’s actin’ crazy. Fred Mertz: Crazy for Lucy, or crazy for ordinary people?
I Love Lucy
First, I must begin by being absolutely clear so that everyone knows where I stand. Lucy, the new sci-fi thriller written and directed by French filmmaker (and some people use that term loosely in this context) Luc Besson is a terrible film.
I mean, c’mon. You know it. I know it. We all know it’s terrible. It’s silly, nonsensical, preposterous, absurd, often makes no sense and is not remotely believable, even for an unrealistic fantasy sci-fi thriller.
Which is also, in m any ways, a redundant way to state it because, well, gees, I mean, c’mon, it’s a Besson film, for Christ’s sake.
But with that being said, it may very well be a…dare I say it…I dare…great terrible movie. Read the rest of this entry »
THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER DID RUN YADDA, YADDA, YADDA: Movie reviews of Begin Again, The Empty Hours and A Summer’s Tale by Howard Casner
Posted: July 30, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: A Summer’s Tale, Aaron Fernandez Lesur, Adam Levine, Adriana Paz, Amanda Langlet, Aurelia Nolin, Begin Again, Blaise Pascal, Catherine Keener, Eric Rohmer, Gwenaelle Simon, Hailee Steinfeld, James Cordon, John Carney, Keira Knightley, Kristyan Ferrer, Marc Ruffalo, Melvil Poupaud, Once, The Empty Hours | 1,151 Comments »
First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
Ah, love. You can’t eat it, but without it, you’ll starve. You can’t drink it, but without it, you’ll never feel quenched. You can’t wear it, but without it, you feel naked. You can’t sleep under its roof, but without it you’ll feel homeless.
And when it comes to love and war, well, let’s face it, love is the more universal language (why else do you think Shakespeare in the Big L won the Oscar over Saving Private Ryan?).
A few films have opened lately that explore the idea of love (and in once case amor and in another case amour), or more accurately, how absolutely awful and moronic we are at it. Perhaps one of the themes that connects all three movies is reflected in Hal David’s lyrics from the musical Promises, Promises, “So for at least until tomorrow/I’ll never fall in love again”.
Whether, then, these stories are comedies or tragedies (or both) is up to you.
Okay, enough of the poetry crap. Or as Ewan McGregor’s character says in I Love You Phillip Morris: Enough romance, let’s fuck. Read the rest of this entry »
APEOCALYPSE, OR OF APES BOTH NAKED AND HAIRY: Movie reviews of Venus in Fur, Life Itself and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Posted: July 18, 2014 | Author: Donald | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Alexandre Desplat, Amanda Silver, Andy Serkis, David Ives, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Emmanuelle Seigner, Gary Oldman, Gene Siskel, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Life Itself, Mark Bomback, Martin Scorcese, Mathieu Almaric, Matt Reeves, Rick Jaffa, Roger Ebert, Roman Polanski, Steve James, Toby Kebbell, Venus in Fur | 6,166 Comments »First, a word from our sponsors. Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r
Warning: SPOILERS
The new movie, Venus in Fur, co-written by bad boy old timer Roman Polanski (who also directed) with relative new comer David Ives, from a play by Ives that was influenced by a book by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (yeah, that Sacher-Masoch—oh, no, don’t even try it, you know very well whom I’m talking about, you can’t fool me), begins during a somewhat impressionistic rain storm on a deserted street in France (so I guess the slight touch of impressionism shouldn’t be a surprise) backed by a music score of sublime slyness.
In fact, the score is so sublime, so sly, so clever, so flippant, so wicked, so…well, just so everything that I found myself being driven crazy because I couldn’t place the composer. And then at the end, during the credits, there it is—the name Alexandre Desplat, and all I could think was, of course, who else could it possibly have been. Read the rest of this entry »
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