I left my recollection of David Chase’s Not Fade Away in the theater shortly after walking out during the credits. Maybe that sounds like bad news, and maybe I’m putting myself in a hole by starting off my review on that note, but truthfully, memorability happens to be Not Fade Away‘s biggest Achilles’ heel. Chase hasn’t made a bad film, not by any stretch of the means, but he’s made one that suffers from diminishing returns, one which our connection to slackens and grows hazier the longer that the picture runs. He’s also made a picture about listless, directionless youth; appropriately, Not Fade Away meanders and lazes as much as its…
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G-S-T Review…Django Unchained
If there’s one filmmaker who marches to the beat of his own drum, it’s Quentin Tarantino. Raised on a healthy cinematic diet of spaghetti westerns, gritty 60’s/70’s cult classics, not to mention pretty much everything in the Australian documentary Not Quite Hollywood and more, he has become one of the film world’s most talented and widely accepted acquired tastes. From Pulp Fiction to Jackie Brown to Kill Bill to his 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, QT has learned so much about how to make film that Django Unchained might just be the pinnacle of his efforts. So how does Tarantino weave that special kind of magic? Simple, outright theft. Now that’s not…
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G-S-T Review…Parental Guidance
As we turn the page from one year to another and one decade to the next, new and different styles of film making trends emerge. The 80’s are forever cemented in history with blockbuster hits from Steven Spielberg and a plethora of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone action flicks. In the 90’s we transitioned to Die Hard and more empathetic characters. As we rolled into the new millennium technology began growing exponentially and so did the use of CG. Another trend that has emerged over the past decade is over-the-top comedy. With every movie it seems the bar is set even higher for shock factor. Movies have gotten to the…
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G-S-T Review…This Is 40
Judd Apatow’s This Is 40 puts a hysterical spin on the fact that everyone gets old. In fact, the comedy is so refreshing that it must have taken a lesson or two from his 2009 film Funny People; if you’re gonna make a movie with somewhat depressing subject matter, put some humor in it (especially if the word funny is in the title!). Just because you’re dealing with some very heavy emotions and situations doesn’t mean the audience doesn’t need to laugh. You may know this by now but Apatow doesn’t make rom-com fluff. Instead he gets to the heart of the matter and focuses on relatively down-to-earth people (foul-mouthed though they…
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G-S-T Review…Les Misérables
There’s little use in trying to disguise my frustration with Tom Hooper’s sluggish interpretation of Les Misérables, though in the interest of full disclosure I should acknowledge immediately that I have never seen the musical on which it is based. (And it’s been years since I read Victor Hugo’s original novel.) Put another way, I have no personal ideal of what Les Mis should be, so as far as it concerned me, Hooper– who successfully directed a strong cast of performers to Oscar gold two years ago with The King’s Speech— had the floor here. A shame, then, that he squanders the opportunity by muting his strengths as a filmmaker…
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On Second Thought, Bill's Take: G-S-T Review…The Hobbit
Bagginsis? What is… Bagginsis? Is it chewy? Is it crunchy? There’s a sense of familiarity throughout The Hobbit that never quite plays in its favor. Whether it is the musical cues we are so familiar with after his first three Lord of the Rings films, the insertion of characters that never appeared in the source material to help us remember the other films, or the painfully similar arc The Fellowship of the Ring has to The Hobbit, director Peter Jackson is giving us exactly what we expect. Which is precisely why I’m so disappointed with his latest journey into Middle Earth. While it never rings of phoning it in because of the production values and the…
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G-S-T Review…The Hobbit
Nine years, eleven Academy Awards, and two massive cinematic disappointments. Since wowing the world in 2001 with The Fellowship of the Ring, the first entry in his adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy series The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson has amassed an impressive tally of goodwill and squandered the lion’s share; as a consequence, his return to Middle Earth, a similar treatment of Rings precursor The Hobbit, has been speculated over with alternating degrees of trepidation, iconoclasm, anticipation, and blatant excitement. Given Jackson’s previous artistic and commercial success playing in this particular fantasy sandbox, as well as his subsequent failures (2005’s King Kong, 2009’s The Lovely Bones), it’s difficult to imagine a scenario where…
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G-S-T Review…Playing for Keeps
Technology is evolving at such an exponential rate that movies are now made in a matter of weeks, rather than months. Obviously there are some exceptions like Avatar and other heavy CG films. Technology hasn’t just shortened the time it takes to produce movies, it has increased the sheer volume of movies exponentially. In 2011 there were over 200 movies released to the theaters. That doesn’t count straight to video movies. In 2001 there were only 150 movies released to theaters. Keep in mind, these stats are only for the United States. The point is…with so many movies being released each week how do the studios keep coming up with…
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G-S-T Review…Hyde Park On Hudson
Hyde Park on Hudson recounts the royal visit of King George VI (who you may remember from Colin Firth’s portrayal in The Kings Speech, depicted here by actor Samuel West), and Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) to Hyde Park from the perspective of Daisy Suckley (Laura Linney), who at this time has recently become FDR’s (Bill Murry) mistress. Unbeknownst to Daisy, she’s not the only secret Roosevelt is keeping. The screenplay is based on actual events discussed in diary entries and letters that belonged to Daisy. The correspondence was found after her death, and the affair she had kept a secret for most of her life was finally revealed. The royal visit begins with…
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G-S-T Review…Killing Them Softly
Not every crime film has to appear the same. There can be grace and beauty, even in death, and time and time again, director Andrew Dominik proves this in Killing Them Softly. Raw, thought-provoking in unexpected ways, and supremely well acted, this is a crime film that stands out from the crowd for good and bad reasons. There’s a filthiness to one character in particular who you actually root to get knocked off. In fact, he gives such a disgusting and down-and-out performance you are left with a bad taste in your mouth. The amount of perspiration he seems to conjure up compared to everyone else is mesmerizing and loathsome…