My neighbor is a borderline Christian extremist. When she’s not bashing homosexuality or quoting the Bible, she particularly enjoys listening to gospel music and watching Tyler Perry movies. Once, being the self-appointed film snob I am, I asked about her obsession with the Madea series. She applauded the franchise’s family-friendly and pro-God morals — completely…
Most of us are extremely under-informed on the details of the Bosnian War thanks to the cursory western media coverage, and the mostly hands-off approach the United Nations took in responding to it. In the Land of Blood and Honey, Angelina Jolie’s writing/directorial debut, works to rectify that. And while it doesn’t shy away from…
I have a friend who once wrote a novel about an entire minor league stadium (players and fans alike) which is suddenly transported through a wormhole to third century Palestine. There, the modern-day folks meet Barabbas (who was freed in Jesus’s stead) roaming about the desert. The players and fans change Barabbas’ name to Barry…
I always enjoy reviewing the first film of the year because, as many of you know, January is largely reserved for contractual releases and studio throwaways. Alas, it’s 2012 and we’ve only 11 months before utter chaos, so I’m savoring the opportunity to rip apart William Brent Bell’s The Devil Inside. A faux-documentary, it examines…
Be careful if you prefer your movies wrapped up in a pleasant little bow with an obvious beginning, middle, end, and with all questions and conflicts answered and sorted out. Certified Copy raises hundreds of absorbing and metaphysical questions, none of which will be answered for you at the end. In fact, the audience is…
Ong Bak 3 picks up exactly where its immediate predecessor ended. But can anyone actually recall the events of 2008’s disappointing Ong Bak 2: The Beginning? It was a dour mess; a confused jumble of leaden action scenes, montages and flashbacks without a modicum of comprehensible storytelling. Ong Bak 3 continues the decline in quality…
British film director Steve McQueen’s 2008 debut film, Hunger, is notable for many reasons: It is a great film, a great debut film, uses an innovative narrative structure, uses interesting cinematography in concert with its soundtrack, makes the best use of ambient sound to have the best non-musical soundtrack I’ve heard in a long time…
