For an ostensible, totally loose biopic about Dave Van Ronk, Inside Llewyn Davis leans rather heavily on an incredibly serendipitous allusion to The Odyssey, and more than a decade after releasing O Brother, Where Art Thou?, to boot. A story about one man’s navigations through the choppy waters of New York’s 1960’s folk music scene might be the last place anybody would expect to find references to Homer’s ancient epic; leave it to Joel and Ethan Coen to subvert expectations, then, because their film practically hinges on a synchronized collision between hoary fiction and the more recent, very real history of Van Ronk and the folk revival movement he contributed to – at least as far…
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G-S-T Review…Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
For the bulk of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues‘ running time, Adam McKay will offer little argument to convince you of the film’s necessity. Of all the many, many sequels on 2013’s release slate, this one may be the most needless; 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy remains a classic of slapstick inanity, an ode to the gut-busting power of random punchlines supported by nothing short of pure, unadulterated absurdity. It’s also remarkably self-contained, leaving room to go forward but little reason for anyone to do so, unless of course the question of money is brought up, in which case fie upon artistic integrity. Everybody needs a payday, after all, McKay,…
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G-S-T Review…The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Good news for fans of Peter Jackson’s visual tour guide through Middle-earth: the dividing line that split critics over last year’s first entry in the lord of the ring’s adaptation of The Hobbit (subtitled An Unexpected Journey) has shrunk in the second episode, The Desolation of Smaug. That’s to say that a year after the starting point for the new franchise met with mixed reception, Jackson seems to have gotten back on his feet somewhat, proving that all of the groundwork laid in An Unexpected Journey was indeed worth his audience’s while; the new film plays like a roller coaster, punctuated by dips, twists, loop-the-loops, and every other sort of…
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Catching Up 2013: Crump's Mini-Review Extravaganza
If you’ve ever talked to me about the weather, you probably know that I’m a big fan of cold and snow. Not to the point where I prefer the bitter months of the year to the fruitful days of summer; in point of fact, every season, be it warm or chilly, has its merits in my book, and one of the best parts of living in New England lies in getting the full spectrum of changing climates for every annual quarter. That means there’s always something to look forward to, unless you’re one of those who prefers to hibernate in the winter rather than strap yourself to a snowboard and…
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Sweet Trailer…Gareth Edwards' 'Godzilla'
After the chilly to flat-out disdainful reception Guillermo del Toro’s tribute to giant monsters (and the giant robots who fight them), Pacific Rim, saw this past July, one might question the wisdom of bringing the most iconic movie behemoth of all time, Godzilla, back into the fold via mainstream blockbusting. Yet that’s exactly what Gareth Edwards, the man behind the 2010 cult monster flick Monsters, plans on doing with the backing of Legendary pictures; in point of fact, we’ve been hearing a great deal about his film since the San Diego Comic-Con this past summer, so, obviously, del Toro’s success or failure could never have had a motivating factor in getting the movie made…
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G-S-T Review…The Punk Singer
Sini Anderson’s The Punk Singer is a double-sided coin, with one face that’s somber and another that’s uplifting. Watching the film’s subject, feminist activist and musician Kathleen Hanna, as she takes center stage in archive footage, it’s impossible not to feel inspired by her energy and indomitability; for most of the film, Hanna gives the impression of being an unstoppable force, though anyone familiar with her life and times already knows this to be untrue without having to watch the entire picture. And so The Punk Singer exists as a work that’s simultaneously joyful and tragic, though that contradiction only makes Anderson’s film feel even more transparent and honest. For…
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G-S-T Review…Out of the Furnace
You can take the Oscar bait out of the gritty revenge thriller, but you can’t take the gritty revenge thriller out of the Oscar bait. So goes Out of the Furnace, Scott Cooper’s latest film since 2009’s deplorably hackneyed Crazy Heart; in just under two hours of running time, Cooper never makes the effort to determine whether he’s making a sweeping, important piece of arthouse cinema, or a good old fashioned genre picture. Truthfully, that’s by design – he’s very clearly bent on mashing these two pursuits together from the very start, hoping that by adding two and two he’ll come out the other side with a handsome bit of…
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G-S-T Review…The Great Beauty
Maybe the most impressive feat Paulo Sorrentino pulls off with The Great Beauty is one of restraint; in two hours and twenty minutes, not a single reference is made to the man whose actions most strongly inform the backdrop of the Italian filmmaker’s latest picture. That would be Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s erstwhile prime minister and unapologetic career scoundrel, whose bunga bunga stink wafts through every orgiastic party Sorrentino stages throughout his exquisitely crafted film. But that just speaks to the lasting impact Berlusconi’s negligence and corruption have had on Italian society since his resignation in 2011; no one need mention his name to invoke his presence. He’s a specter looming…
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G-S-T Review…Black Nativity
There’s nothing worse than reviewing a mediocre film made up of a trio of elements I actually like. In that respect, Black Nativity is a compressed version of my personal hell; it’s helmed by Kasi Lemmons, the gifted director behind such treasures as Talk to Me and Eve’s Bayou, it boasts a phenomenal cast that begins with Forest Whitaker (nearly ubiquitous in 2013) and ends with Angela Bassett, and it calls on the works of the great Langston Hughes to serve as its foundation. But none of that winds up mattering much, because ultimately Black Nativity winds up doing little more than just existing; it’s there, but it’s not especially good. If you’re a glass half-full type, that suggests the…
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G-S-T Review…Alexander Payne's Nebraska
Nebraska could well just be subtitled as The Importance of Being Monotint. In a year where everyone and their cool grandma has gone back to black and white, Alexander Payne uses the absence of chroma better than most, or at least in a way that’s more viscerally effective. In two hours, Payne cobbles together a shockingly accurate portrait of the US’s flyover states, at least as envisioned by those of us living on the East and West coasts; they’re desolate, barren, cultural wastelands, places that time has forgotten, populated by people modernity has passed by. Seems like the perfect starting point for an acerbically funny critique of the world Payne himself…
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Off the Shelf…’Frances Ha’
Culturally, Frances Ha almost feels like Noah Baumbach issuing a challenge to all listless twenty-somethings stubbornly fixated on spending their time finding themselves: get found already, dammit. Throughout his career, Baumbach has showcased a knack for capturing the unbearable sensation of being emotionally unmoored, and across his entire filmography, Frances Ha – lyrical, succinct, rapturously authentic – may display that talent better than the rest. Think of it as a quartet of Girls episodes mashed together into an eighty minute bonanza of comic incident, if you must; the film is set in New York, and focuses on the travails of a young, white, up and coming female struggling to make her dreams come…
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G-S-T Review…Narco Cultura
Mexico’s longstanding drug war has made for some stellar visual media in the last few years, influencing aspects of shows like Breaking Bad and providing a blueprint for films like 2012’s Savages or, much more recently, The Counselor; sitting pretty from afar, the ultra-violence that punctuates the wheeling and dealings of this outrageously lucrative business makes for a viscerally captivating narrative, allowing us to portray the realities of cartel brutality while skirting around genuinely confronting them. It’s human tragedy made into slick entertainment, not necessarily ignorant of the legitimate suffering they’re cashing in on but almost always woefully reluctant to fully confront it. Shaul Schwarz, however, isn’t satisfied with addressing…
