If Terrence Malick is the master of the unnecessary voiceover, and Ang Lee is the master of the unnecessary split screen, then surely Baz Luhrmann is the unequaled master of the unnecessary — and over-the-top — mix of garish glitz, flash and explosive cinematechnics. His latest, The Great Gatsby, an ambitious tackling of the 1925…
In this world of commercialistic glitz and glamor, it’s hard to come across a truly riveting story these days. But in Disconnect, viewers get just that, and it happens (surprisingly) to revolve around a social criticism of the crazily convoluted, always plugged-in world we live in. The film begins with a glimpse into the life…
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) can’t sleep in Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 and that should tell you plenty about where we’re headed as Marvel rounds the home plate in its triumphant wrap-up to Phase 1 of its universe. The self-described “genius billionaire playboy philanthropist” is beset by anxiety attacks and bad dreams, attempting to…
Pain & Gain, the true life story of three bumbling bodybuilding losers in Miami, may just be director Michael Bay’s best film. However, considering that he brought movies like “Pearl Harbor,” “Bad Boys II” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” (the worse of all the poor Transformers flicks) to the big screen, that’s not saying…
The Iceman tells the story of Richard Kuklinski, a real-life Polish hit man who is believed to have killed over 100 people. He earned his nomenclature for the notoriously cold-blooded manner in which he exacted his murders, as well as his clever way of concealing the bodies by freezing them. When he was finally caught…
Permeated by a sense of the sacred, Terrence Malick’s latest film points us to the transience of all things. Appropriately titled To the Wonder, the film has Malick’s stamp written all over it: Philosophical voice-overs uttered in hushed tones to a haunting orchestral soundtrack, panoramic displays of the physical beauty of nature, a story that…
Set on a mighty river in rural Arkansas, Mud tells the story of teenage boys Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) forming an unlikely bond with a mysterious fugitive called, Mud (Matthew McConaughey). Exploring the forest to see if the recent flood really did leave a boat up in a tree, they find not…
