Obey lays out its elements early on, declaring its setting, its interest and its milieu from the opening shot. Yet, within this shot and throughout the film, writer-director Jamie Jones also defies expectation. In the opening sequence before the titles, a deep focus long take captures six young people work towards the camera, discussing the…
In 1973, if any 16-year-old boy were to be kidnapped on the streets of Rome, it might warrant a brief mention in the papers. If the boys’ last name was Getty, however, it would be a major story followed closely throughout the world. Written by David Scarpa and based on John Pearson’s book “Painfully Rich:…
There isn’t a solitary way to absorb and dissect the various idiosyncrasies and potentials that exist within Netflix’s most expensive feature film, Bright. Director David Ayer has teamed up with screenwriter Max Landis to conjure up a world where “Lord of the Rings” wants to be a gritty police remake of “Harry Potter.” A novel…
Martin McDonagh’s (“Seven Psychopaths”) Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a mix of black (and politically incorrect) comedy and heartfelt drama that takes us on a wild, mostly improbable but highly entertaining ride. Set in the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri, Frances McDormand (“Burn After Reading”), who carries the film in one of her best…
Subjects can be covered extensively from many angles and the character and attitude of a specific time or place can be lost in translation; luckily that this is not the case with 12th and Clairmount. The long hot summer of 1967 would culminate in 159 race riots across the United States, with Detroit, Michigan home…
Whether or not it is designed as an allegory of modern Russia, no film in recent memory has examined the growing emptiness of human relationships with such expressive force as Andrey Zvyagintsev’s (“Leviathan”) Loveless, a heart wrenching drama about a couple on the brink of divorce whose emotional neglect of their son leads to devastating…
Let me be blunt for a second. “Blade Runner” never needed a sequel. Yes, I know. It’s a tired statement, I get sick of hearing it too. You could argue most movies don’t need sequels. But “Blade Runner” really did not need one, more so than others, and there are a number of factors contributing…
