On paper, a career in the movie trailer voiceover business doesn’t suggest much by way of glamor, and in truth, In a World…, the feature directing, writing, and producing debut of the multifaceted Lake Bell, doesn’t little to shake that perception. Instead, Bell’s film builds a lived-in and authentic world where people ruthlessly vie for coveted gigs which appear so minor from a distance that their ability to inspire cutthroat competition is almost puzzling; it also happens to absurdly engaging and very, very funny, but the punchlines feel natural, unfussy, and not at all dependent on getting the audience to laugh at the misery and humiliation of the characters on…
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G-S-T Review…jOBS
Joshua Michael Stern’s Jobs has one question to answer, and one question only: can the towering genius of the late Steve Jobs be adequately embodied by Michael Kelso on the big screen? Every critic reviewing the film will inevitably struggle to utter, “yes”, if only because no one wants to risk their credibility by going to bat for an Ashton Kutcher performance. But, miracle of miracles, he’s actually pretty good, good enough at least to warrant real praise instead of yawning skepticism or begrudging acceptance, but not necessarily good enough to raise Jobs above the sub-standard, thoroughly muddled biopic Stern crafts around his lead’s portrayal of Apple’s driven, visionary, and utterly ruthless…
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G-S-T Review…The Attack
Connecting with The Attack presents a challenge: do we dare compare the handful of terrorist attacks on American soil to the pervasive, daily threat of death that’s part of living in the Middle East? Following the horrific suicide bombing that drives his film’s momentum, Ziad Doueiri, formerly one of Quentin Tarantino’s camera assistant and director of the 1998 Cannes winner West Beirut, we may tentatively respond in the negative. If the violent explosion – which Doueiri chooses not to show – echoes with personal familiarity, its context remains wholly foreign to us no matter how much we see reflections of our own homes and lives in the streets of Tel…
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G-S-T TV: Low Winter Sun (S1, Pilot)
Continuing with a hit streak that is very near white-hot, on Sunday AMC debuted the pilot for their new crime drama Low Winter Sun. Starring Mark Strong and Lennie James, two big league players in the British film community, this story of detectives walking a line between shady and legit is gritty, concentrated, and very much in line with the likes of Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. Similar to Netflix’s House of Cards, this is a remake/extrapolation of a previously released series. In this case Low Winter Sun was a TV movie released in 2006 and this AMC revival finds Strong reprising the role of Frank. We at GoSeeTalk are huge fans of Mark…
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G-S-T Review…Elysium
A visual feast for the eyes, Elysium manages to keep its head above water despite a sparse story. I think it’s fair to say that writer/director Neill Blomkamp’s first feature, District 9, gave a lot of filmmakers pause. Here was a fresh story by a new filmmaker told brilliantly. This was blockbuster science fiction on a dime’s budget that wowed audiences and critics alike. So I was eagerly awaiting his sophomore effort, Elysium, and went in expecting anything and everything. I had avoided most of the trailers and details about the film. I wanted a fresh experience, just like District 9, and I’m glad I did. Blomkamp wants to break the…
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G-S-T Review…Planes
There’s no doubt that Disney is a marketing juggernaut. It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without Mickey Mouse and his friends. That being said, not every Disney movie is a huge box office hit. Disney capitalizes on successful films by making follow-on films as direct-to-disc movies. It’s hard to know the criteria that is used to determine if a film should be direct-to-disc, but you typically know one when you see one. Whatever the case may be, Disney has all corners of the market covered. The latest entry in the Disney collection, Planes, almost went direct-to-disc as well. With that in mind, how will Planes fair with moviegoers? Keep…
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G-S-T Review…Drafthouse Films’ The Act of Killing
Describing The Act of Killing as a film unlike any made in the medium’s short lifetime almost feels like the definition of hubris, or at least hyperbole. But Joshua Oppenheimer’s wholly unique exploration of the genocidal horrors lurking in Indonesia’s recent history earns every bit of the praise accorded it since making festival rounds this Spring (notably IFFBoston) and beginning its limited theatrical run in July; if critics describe it as a masterpiece, that’s because it is a masterpiece, an exceptional display of daring that will secure Oppenheimer’s name in the annals of cinema. That The Act of Killing also happens to be one of 2013’s most unsettling and insightful releases should…
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G-S-T Review…Crystal Fairy
If you hate being the one guy at a party who doesn’t dig recreational drug use, you’re probably going to have a rough time with Crystal Fairy. Oscillating between road trip shenanigans and drug-induced catharsis, Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Silva has the makings of a good film lying right out in the open, but the film’s better elements -an absolutely fearless performance by former child actress Gabby Hoffman chief among them – never gel cohesively with the areas where Crystal Fairy ends up failing. For a story that hinges entirely on a journey of personal realization and cactus-derived hallucinogens, the film exhibits a shocking lack of profundity and doesn’t end up…
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G-S-T Review…The Wolverine
The latest Wolverine adventure, if nothing else, is a return to form. Instead of holding the clawed mutant back, director James Mangold truly unleashes the beast within. We find Logan beaten and withered from his travels and in hiding from his snarling ways. When he finds something to fight for, though, he truly lets it out unlike we’ve seen before. The other nice thing in this adventure is that a change of setting is fully embraced. Fans of the character from the comics will know Frank Miller’s influential comic storyline of Logan’s travels to Japan. The film plays to a lot of the same beats, though it has some clever…
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G-S-T Review…Fruitvale Station
How can anyone review, much less watch, Fruitvale Station without bringing up the 18th Florida circuit court’s verdict in the George Zimmerman trial? The film, which comes courtesy of newcomer Ryan Coogler and marks one of 2013’s most noteworthy debuts, doesn’t reignite national discourse on social justice, race, and the second amendment in the US so much as it reinforces it; to call Fruitvale Station “timely” would be an understatement, though that’s not at all to imply shrewd, heartless planning on Coogler’s or the studio’s behalf. Chalk the picture’s release up to a happy (or unhappy, depending on how you look at it) coincidence, and then gird yourself for a…
