Spring Breakers‘ audience will be divided into two groups of people: those who get the joke, and those who don’t. Of course, Harmony Korine’s new film operates on such blatant, overt levels of exploitative debauchery that it’s difficult to imagine how anyone could miss the point (subtlety isn’t his forte). If some still see 1999’s Fight Club as an endorsement of its ideas and behaviors rather than a rejection, though, then anything is possible. But Spring Breakers practically invites mainstream viewers to fumble with its meaning while Korine sits on the other side of the camera smirking; he’s almost daring his patrons to take up his film’s central mantra and leave…
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G-S-T Review…The Croods
It’s not odd or unusual that to find timeless advice which benefits our future we should look to the past. However it is odd that we should find sage-like advice and a timeless tale about family values in an animated film about cave men. Yet here we are getting a “Father Knows Best”, rather thinks he knows best life-lesson in the form of this charmingly witty and heart-warming tale from DreamWorks Animation. The plot of The Croods is standard familial fare; a young girl Eep (Emma Stone) yearns for the freedom beyond the confines of her house (in this story, a cave) and the conservative restraints put upon her by her over-protective father Grug (Nic Cage).…
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G-S-T Review…Olympus Has Fallen
Time has not been kind to Antoine Fuqua. Over a decade ago, he became an Oscar-caliber filmmaker (for whatever that label is worth) after Training Day vaulted him into mainstream prominence on the back of its gritty violence, no-nonsense artistry, and mesmerizing performances; in between then and now he’s output nothing but a handful of mild hits (Brooklyn’s Finest) and flops both small (Shooter) and large (King Arthur). Is his fall from grace an example of success eating a director alive? Was Training Day just an anomaly in an otherwise middling filmography? Giving credit where it’s due, Fuqua’s descent isn’t really due to lack of trying, but the trajectory of his career…
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G-S-T Review…Ginger & Rosa
Ginger & Rosa, the latest and possibly most accessible picture to come from British filmmaker Sally Potter, represents a coming of age for Elle Fanning as much as it does for the character she plays. Structurally, the film is pretty standard stuff; as the Ginger of the title, Fanning confronts or falls into situations beyond her age bracket and goes through the painful emotional transformation from child to woman in a scant eighty four minutes of narrative. But Potter has never been a standard director, nor should Fanning be seen any longer as a standard actress. Amazingly, Ginger & Rosa proves an astronomical leap forward for the latter and a…
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G-S-T Review…Admission
There’s a temptation in writing about Admission to make it all about Tina Fey. This is a mistake on several levels; she’s only contributing to the film in an acting capacity, for one, and for another she’s watchable even though she’s essentially playing the exact same role she’s predicated her entire career on. Admission itself is the product of Karen Croner’s script, adapting Jean Hanff Korelitz’s 2009 novel of the same name, and Paul Weitz’s direction, which can be described as “incongruous” at best. That’s where the real conversation lies, but if you find yourself winding around back to Fey, there’s a good reason for that. She’s one half of the likability equation that…