Following Cloud Atlas, viewers will invariably find themselves armed with a variety of useful adjectives to describe the film in a single word: grand, towering, epic, inspiring, heartbreaking, heartwarming, hodgepodge. But in adapting David Mitchell’s 2004 novel of the same name, siblings Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer have created a singular, unique work that majestically shrugs off attempts at quick, careless classification. Cloud Atlas is a cinematic medley of narratives connected together through time and space, driven by a sense of enterprise and purpose, and defined by its advocacy of basic, simple morality and human compassion; fitting the film into traditional categories would not be unlike forcing a square…
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G-S-T Review…Pusher
After seeing Pusher, the British remake of G-S-T favorite Nicholas Winding Refn’s 1996 debut feature of the same name, I’m still struggling with questions about the cinematic space it ultimately occupies. None of them, mind you, are germane to discussions of the film’s quality which is respectable, so in the end I’m probably just navel gazing. But the concept of remaking a movie remains contentious even though filmmakers have been remaking movies for decades, so Pusher will inevitably be subjected to value tests based on its recycled nature, which leads me to the good news: Luis Prieto has made a strong, vibrant crime film. The bad news, though, is that…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Tai Chi Zero
Editor’s Note: To coincide with its limited release staring on October 19th, we’re republishing our Fantastic Fest review of Tai Chi Zero. Have you ever found yourself wondering “what would a film look like if you threw Street Fighter II Turbo, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Shaolin Soccer and Red Cliff in a blender?” Well if so then you’re in luck because Stephen Fung has just that hybrid combination to offer us at the 2012 Fantastic Fest. A highly stylized period piece it shows its fondness for manga and video games that at times overshadows the story since the gimmick gets old. Still it’s really fun at times and the pick me…
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G-S-T Review…Argo
Mark Twain once opined that truth is stranger than fiction, and if we accept his sentiment then Argo could be considered one of the most bizarre slices of reality ever portrayed on film. Did you ever hear the one about how the CIA enlisted the likes of John Chambers and Jack Kirby to whisk stranded Americans out of hostile territory at the height of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis? On paper, Argo‘s plot reads like something cooked up by the Coen brothers and Armando Iannuci, an episodic farce about the irreverent ludicrousness of government and the ignorant cruelty of humanity on an international stage; of course, the helmsman here is none…
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G-S-T Review…Taken 2
Going into a Luc Besson film (whether he produced it, directed it, or in this case penned it) you’ll likely find two distinct elements: kick ass action and memorable/likable characters. It’s easily evidenced looking back at his earlier works like The Fifth Element, Leon, Wasabi, The Transporter and Taken. But after a surprise hit actioner like Pierre Morel’s Taken, to try and top that, even with Besson on board, Olivier Megaton has a tough act to follow. Yet all the hope in the world couldn’t make this anticipated follow up/supposedly white hot revenge thriller more than a hollow luke warm sequel. It’s like Bryan Mills or rather Liam Neeson is there in spirit but the flesh is weak…and so’s…
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G-S-T Review…Butter
You can’t go anywhere today without being inundated with technology. Children today have greater technological advancements at their fingertips than NASA had when it launched its first rocket. Every facet of our lives has been influenced by technology and movies are no exception. Movies now benefit from realistic CG and incredible graphics. The time it takes for a movie to go from script to screen is now measured in a matter of weeks rather than months. All that being said, it’s nice to take a step back occasionally and watch a film that does not rely heavily upon computer-generated material. Butter is just such a film. In a small town…
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G-S-T Review…Solomon Kane
I don’t know if I’m doing Solomon Kane any favors by discussing its common ancestry; connecting the film to a gene pool that contains Van Helsing and Season of the Witch brands it with a very specific set of very low expectations. In fact, I may be damning Solomon Kane with faint praise when I say that it happens to be several cuts above both of those disasters. Thus, I have to rely on my readers’ trust in me as a critic when I say that Michael J. Bassett’s cinematic rendition of Robert E. Howard’s Puritanical anti-hero really is an earnest and pretty damn entertaining vision of Gothic pulp heroics. It…
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G-S-T Review…Looper
At a glance, Looper almost feels like an outlier in Rian Johnson’s minute body of work. Unlike Johnson’s flawless debut, Brick, or his disappointing sophomore effort, The Brothers Bloom, Looper operates within a grand, wide-spanning scope that reaches across time; the central story here is intimate, just as in his other films, but it’s set against a backdrop of classical science fiction world-building and the machinations of time travel. We’re not in high school, Montenegro, or Prague anymore, but rather a dystopic vision of the future which we experience at two very different points in history, both populated with hover bikes, mafia button men, rampant poverty, and telekinetic mutations. Robbed…
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G-S-T Review…Side By Side
For over 100 years photo chemical film has been the gold standard in the film industry. But in the last two decades the advent and advances in digital technology have offered filmmakers a cheaper, easier and sometimes better alternative as a means to capture images and tell stories. In Side by Side, Keanu Reeves and writer/director Chris Kenneally put their finger on the pulse film world and explore the levels to which digital capture technology has created a paradigm shift across the world. From directors, to colorists, to editors etc, no trade is unaffected by this change in the medium. Is this the end of film? Well, it’s not a clear cut answer…
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G-S-T Review…Hotel Transylvania
These days all major studios have an animation department that competes in the realm of animated films. While Disney/Pixar dominates the animated film scene, what about the other studios that are bringing different types of animated films to the table? Not everyone wants to see the same Disney boilerplate template over and over again; they want some variety. Some studios have made it a point to push the boundaries of a PG rated animated film, poking fun at Disney classics and children’s tales. Sony Pictures Animation does not go that far, but they certainly have taken their films in another direction. Hotel Transylvania is a film that may have the…
