Think of Polisse as a towering and worthy successor to television shows like The Shield and, far more accurately, The Wire. Dedicated to portraying its events and characters by way of a realistic mien, the film revolves around the lives of the Paris CPU (Child Protection Unit) both on the job and at home; the focus isn’t on a single narrative through-line carrying the picture from start to finish but rather on the people behind the armbands and badges and what motivates them and what haunts them. Polisse‘s stylistic bent lends itself to a sense of disarray, but while the movie may read as somewhat helter-skelter as it leaps from…
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G-S-T Review…The Pirates! Band of Misfits
From Aardman and Sony Pictures Animation comes this delightful tale about the Pirate Captain and his rag tag bunch of buccaneers. Based on The Pirates! book series by Gideon Defoe, Band of Misfits is a clever, charming and hysterical adventure, very much in the spirit of Wallace and Grommit and Chicken Run and is directed by pioneer of the animation world and Aardman co-founder Peter Lord. Lord, takes his first directing job since his smash hit Chicken Run in 2000. Among the high caliber voice talent aboard are Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, David Tenant and more and add layers of depth to Lord’s latest stop-motion animated film. A wonderful blend of signature Aardman animation, wit and charm this is a return to…
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G-S-T Review…The Five-Year Engagement
By now a Judd Apatow comedy comes with a certain condemnation: they are far too long. That isn’t to say that his films, and the numerous ones he produces, aren’t funny. That’s a knock on the narrative and how it can get long in the tooth, especially in the middle as an important storyline transition is made. I prefaced this review to note that because it applies far too easily to The Five-Year Engagement. This is the second feature film to be directed by Nicholas Stoller and star Jason Segel, who both broke onto the film scene with their hit Forgetting Sarah Marshall, another Apatow production that suffered none of…