Few stars working today enjoy the same degree of near-universal adulation as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, now nine years out after ending his acting hiatus and all grown up from his stint on TV sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. His latest film, Don Jon, a modern riff on the licentious legend of classic literary anti-hero Don Juan, may best evince how far he’s come from his Tommy Solomon salad days; here, he not only serves as leading man, but as writer and director, tasks he’s previously taken on with short films (produced by and distributed through hitRECord, the studio he and his brother founded in 2004) but never with a feature-length effort.…
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G-S-T TV: Low Winter Sun (S1, Ep 7: There Was A Girl)
AMC’s Low Winter Sun is rounding third and hoping for a win. In this episode Frank and Joe look to get a break in the McCann case. Frank confronts Damon and Maya at their house with a warrant charging him with Billy’s murder. They bring Damon and his crew in as a suspects and try to fully alleviate themselves of all suspicion. However Joe and Frank are reaching their breaking point and are driven further apart by their attempts at covering up McCann’s death. At the station Frank gives Damon a very hard edged interrogation but when Damon won’t back down Frank and Joe take things too near extremes. Joe and…
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G-S-T TV: Low Winter Sun (S1, Ep 6: The Way Things Are)
Like that old expression “slow and steady wins the race” AMC’s Low Winter Sun is getting better and in Episode 6 all the horses are getting up to speed, staring with its slowest. Following the shootout at the Blind Pig and the subsequent death of one of his friends, Damon (James Ransone) is running out of options. He is forced to turn to an enemy for help in a time of desperation but his edgy right-hand man Nick tries to prove himself but maybe going too far to do so. Damon’s shady agreement with Isaiah allowed him to sell Skelos’ drugs in the area, mostly at The Blind Pig, but…
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G-S-T Review…The Family
The Family is a lot of things; a deliriously violent black comedy, the first real Luc Besson film Luc Besson has made since 2011’s The Lady (which was itself preceded by a string of children’s movies and fantasy fare), the latest entry in his filmography well beyond his retirement date, and further proof to fuel suspicions that the ever-lovely Michelle Pfeiffer keeps a magical painting hidden somewhere in her attic, to name a few. But it’s primarily a film that’s about Robert De Niro, not just in his capacity as its leading man but as a fixture in mob cinema iconography, so much so that The Family wouldn’t make a lick…
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G-S-T Review…Populaire
French writer/director Régis Roinsard makes his feature length debut with Populaire, the story of a young girl searching for her identity and purpose in the world during the late 1950s, and the man who pushes her toward stardom. Rose Pamphyle (Déborah François) is a naïve girl living in Normandy, the town where she grew up. Raised by her widower father, a stubborn and conservative man set in his ways, Rose looks to start a new life in Paris. Her rapid typing skills – using only two fingers no less – land her a job with Louis Échard (Romain Duris), a handsome but smug insurance agent. It’s her quick hands that…
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G-S-T TV: Low Winter Sun (S1, Ep 5: Cake On the Way)
In the previous episodes of AMC’s Low Winter Sun, things have been quasi-interesting. Frank (Mark Strong) and Joe (Lennie James) have been trying to cover up the fact that they killed a corrupt cop who allegedly killed Frank’s hooker girlfriend Katia. On the other, darker side of the Motor City, Damon shot Billy, a low-level dealer, took his plentiful supply of narcotics and gave his up-and-coming crew an anonymous spring board into the local drug game. But the drugs in question are somewhat linked to the late corrupt cop Brendan McCann and Frank and Joe are using that key detail to its fullest potential. They think they can take this…
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G-S-T Review…Short Term 12
Winner of the Audience and Grand Jury Awards at SXSW in March, writer/director Destin Cretton’s Short Term 12 is a rare and beautiful film containing moments that will make you laugh, cry, render you speechless, take your breath away, and then leave you with a smile. The film’s title comes from the name of the group home that serves as the story’s central setting. The facility known as Short Term 12 serves as a foster home to troubled youth, victims of abuse, kids who have been forgotten, abandoned or otherwise left behind by their parents. On top of this many of the foster kids suffer from mental illness, making their behavior that more…
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G-S-T Review…Hell Baby
Dubbing Hell Baby as a funnier version of A Haunted House or any entry in the reprehensible (and apparently endless) Scary Movie franchise feels like a serious kick in the pants to The State and Reno 911! veterans Robert Ben Garant’s and Thomas Lennon’s dryly funny exorcism farce. That’s sour news for the film, especially since many critics might end up making the exact same comparison, but on the bright side of things, Hell Baby happens to be a legit comedy; it’s funny on its own terms, and not just as a superior – if slightly uneven – alternative to the recklessly terrible and laughter-challenged garbage that passes as parody in the mainstream.…
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G-S-T Review…Drinking Buddies
Drinking Buddies offers a refreshingly candid look at relationships from the perspective of the romantic comedy genre. While the film explores similar themes and questions around relationships and monogamy that we’ve seen from director Joe Swanberg’s films in the past, Drinking Buddies is something special. Arguably his best film yet, he accomplishes something rarely found in feature films today, that perfect mix of indie Art House feel and mass appeal. It’s not so obscure that it alienates the general audience, but it also avoids being formulaic. It’s the culmination of Swanberg’s mumblecore roots combined with a narrative structure (or lack there of) that works to create a story utterly authentic…
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G-S-T Review…Riddick
Vin Diesel has never seemed more comfortable in a role than he is playing the intergalactic space criminal known as Riddick. His latest in the trilogy, simply titled Riddick, is an effectively dumb and fun film that plays to its strengths and doesn’t get lost in chasing rabbits. There are the familiar tropes throughout, but rarely can I remember three films that feel so different yet similar. I know that last sentence doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but neither does the way the films flow into each other. Pitch Black was effectively a fantasy thriller that put Vin Diesel on the cinematic map before he exploded in The…