What’s better than one GST staff writer’s perspective on a film? How about two? For this round of Double-Take reviews, Bill and Andrew crack their knuckles and dig into David Ayer’s latest street cop drama, End of Watch: By Andrew Crump: If insanity can truly be defined as doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results, then Einstein would’ve immediately pegged David Ayer as a bona fide lunatic. Since his runaway success with Training Day in 2001, Ayer has done nothing but write and, more recently, direct crime films set in Los Angeles at large or South Central in the specific, crafting narratives that are embedded either…
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G-S-T Review…The Master
Sitting down to write about Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest cinematic marvel can make you feel inadequate. There’s so many things going on in this 138-minute film that it stays with you hours, if not days, after walking out of the auditorium of your choice. Putting that kind of experience into words can be disorientating. Yet, the film begs to be expounded upon and dissected. If you’re familiar with Anderson’s films, you’ll know the familiar themes here. The film may receive a lot of press and talk because the setting is based in and around “The Cause,” which seems to bear striking similarities to Scientology, but the film is not about that as much as it is about…
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G-S-T Review…Finding Nemo 3D
Andrew Stanton’s colorful and delightful film literally bursts off the screen in its 3D re-release. A massive hit for Stanton and the animation powerhouse, Finding Nemo significantly raised the bar not only for the studio but for computer animation in general. Impressive world building, Shakespearean like story and characters, the film is endlessly endearing and layered ever so subtly for the kid and adult audiences . Really it was Pixar finding their groove. It showcased hundreds if not thousands of dynamic digital elements, was the biggest jump in story and quality for the studio at the time and would further propel their meteoric success. It also made Ellen DeGeneres a household name (well that…
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G-S-T Double Take Review…The Words
Editor’s note: The Double Take series has been on hold for a while now, but today marks the return of this two-sided format of perspectives. Here, Bill Graham and Andrew Crump both offer their two cents on the freshly released literary drama, The Words. By Bill Graham: The lesson in The Words isn’t that first-time writer/directors can get in over their heads but that a solid editor might make the difference between a film that gets sidetracked in its own convolution and something worthwhile. The bulk of the narrative plays out with struggling writer Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) trying to make ends meet with his wife Dora (Zoë Saldana) rooting him…
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G-S-T Review…The Possession
Good news, horror fans: The Possession contains fifteen minutes of a solid Sam Raimi flick. There’s bad news, of course, and that’s that those minutes find their home in the climax, which is preceded by a mixed bag of demonic possession tropes brought to us by Danish filmmaker Ole Bornedal. The Possession finds itself in an uncomfortable place where it reminds us why Raimi is such a treasure to the horror genre, but for reasons that aren’t necessarily good; when the heavily Raimi-influenced climax outshines the entirety of the rest of Bornedal’s film, it’s something of a disservice to the rest of the picture, a possess-by-numbers yarn inspired by a very real and allegedly…
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G-S-T Review…For a Good Time, Call…
For those of you who grew up in the 1980’s, or were old enough to experience that period of filmmaking, it was a great era for the movie industry. There were so many movies that made us laugh, cry and feel a myriad of other emotions. One genre really stands out during that period; comedy. Not just comedy, but female driven comedies. Goldie Hawn was the queen of comedy films in the 1980’s. Movies like Private Benjamin, Protocol and Overboard were among the many great successes of that period. Post-1980’s we saw a sharp decline as female comedies seemingly faded into the sunset. Three decades later Bridesmaids comes out swinging…
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G-S-T Review…Cosmopolis
In a day and age where comic book flicks are hitting the big screen every summer and reboot films are a dime a dozen, it’s nice to see a different type of film. Cosmopolis certainly qualifies as different and then some. Will this movie become a mainstream hit…no. Will people go see the movie just because Robert Pattinson is in it…yes. Regardless of the box office numbers this film achieves, it truly is unique, albeit strange and quirky. Cosmopolis is based upon Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name, marking his thirteenth career novel; published in 2003. It was adapted for the screen by David Cronenberg and directed by David Cronenberg. If…
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G-S-T Review…Oslo, August 31st
For most of us, a day out in the cities we live in doesn’t represent a strictly dangerous prospect. From street to street, familiarity engulfs us and fosters in us a sense of mundane security; the haunts and locales we visit and patronize become so commonplace that we could never construe them as harmful to our well-being. For Anders, the principal character of Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s sophomore effort, Oslo, August 31st, a single twenty four hour span of time is fraught with the perils of temptation, populated with ghosts from his past, and resonant with the echoes of his guilt and shame. Such are the circumstances of a recovering…
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G-S-T Review…Lawless
In his latest film John Hillcoat delivers a fantastic period-piece film based on the book “The Wettest County in the World” (an account of the true-life tales of author Matt Bondurant’s family). Titled simply Lawless this adaptation chronicles the events around the Bondurant family at the pinnacle of their prohibition-era moonshine business and how three Virginia brothers became legends unto themselves. Historically party to and at the center of the infamous “Franklin county moonshine conspiracy” the trio faced opposition on many fronts not just from the authorities but also bigger and similarly illegal outfits. A wild ride for any film fan the events depicted become even more engaging as it’s revealed that their story…
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G-S-T Review…Hit & Run
So, shocking news: Hit & Run is kind of a blast…go figure. Dax Shepard has, in fairness, made a movie before (2010’s Brother’s Justice, which sounds delightfully, suspiciously odd), so the man isn’t totally green in the realms of screenwriting and directing. All the same, permit me my surprised reaction. It’s late August, the film co-stars Tom Arnold, and Shepard remains best-known for his role in the MTV series Punk’d and Without a Paddle. Those aren’t exactly the kinds of credentials that inspire confidence in the jaded, but Shepard and co-director David Palmer use the aces hidden in their sleeves to great effect. Color me tasteless– Hit & Run works.…