“Life has a gap in it,” says Sarah Silverman, as Gerdaline, a recovering alcoholic. “You don’t go crazy trying to fill it, like some lunatic.” This is the conflict Sarah Polley’s poignant and sobering film, Take This Waltz, wrestles with, as it takes a look at the human fear of the in between places in time. Michelle Williams is pitch-perfect as Margot, a young freelance writer, who the effortlessly seductive Daniel (Luke Kirby) describes as, “restless in a kind of permanent way.” Margot is married to Lou (Seth Rogan), a cookbook author whose specialty is chicken. There is nothing terribly wrong with Margot and Lou’s (Seth Rogan) relationship. In fact,…
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G-S-T Review…The Dark Knight Rises
A third film seems to be the biggest pitfall in nearly every trilogy. Some see it as a challenge, and that’s likely what propelled director Christopher Nolan to return to the helm of the franchise he rebooted in 2005 with Batman Begins and hit out of the park in 2008 with The Dark Knight. Nolan has been trending steadily upward and seemed to be making strides to not only top his second Batman film, but also send him off with the knowledge that he created one of the greatest trilogies of the modern age and avoided the common trappings of the blockbuster films in the post-Avatar 3D era. Perhaps that was simply too much…
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G-S-T Review…Ice Age: Continental Drift
Over the past couple of decades studios besides Disney have started taking an interest in animated films. While Disney undoubtedly paved the way for this medium, thankfully other large studios began generating high quality animated entertainment as well. Pixar forever changed the landscape of animated films and cemented their legacy in the history books. While other studios may never achieve Disney/Pixar success, they are certainly doing their part to entertain us as well. With that being said, 20th Century Fox delivers Ice Age: Continental Drift, which is the fourth feature length film in this series. After a successful string of previous box office hits, some may wonder if this movie…
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G-S-T Review…To Rome With Love
To Rome With Love is a light, heartwarming film made for dreamers and lovers that moves between several story lines with witty dialogue and lots of laughs. The film reintroduces us to many of the devices seen in the most traditional of Woody Allen films, including an appearance by Allen himself. The film is constructed of four diverging stories about love, fame and longing. In the first sequence the audience is introduced to Italian newlyweds who’ve come to Rome to meet with the husband’s high-society family. Next we encounter an average, middle-class Roman (Roberto Benigni) and his wife and family whose lives are turned upside down by the media. In another story, Jesse Eisenberg plays a young architect…
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G-S-T Review…Savages
In one of the most memorable and quotable lines from South Park, Mr. Mackey tells the class that “drugs are bad, mkay“. But that’s an understatement because in the drug world, whether you’re the dealer or the user, illegal dealings always seem to end in tears. In Savages, Oliver Stone brings to the table one highly combustible cast to deliver his adaptation of Don Winslow’s novel of the same name. A story that’s as complicated as the actual war on drugs it’s a sordid tale, one more colorful and breezier than Steven Soderbergh’s similarly themed film Traffic, but delivered with Stone’s unflinching style that’s become his trademark. Marijuana growers Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon…
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G-S-T Review…The Amazing Spider-Man
In an ever improving and expanding world of comic book super hero films, Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) give us a new Spider-Man, one that is in many cases, an improvement over what Sony was so desperate to reboot. There’s lots of changes but where to begin? Well everything we’ve previously seen or knew, as to be expected in a “reboot”, has been scrapped. But while this is an almost unnecessary “here’s how we got here” story, meaning that there are marginally few people who don’t know how Peter Parker became Spider-Man, it’s good to see the new blood earn the suit…and earn it he did. A decade ago, we got the the best screen version of…
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G-S-T Review…People Like Us
People Like Us is a very compelling story of two strangers drawn together by a mutual secret. While both of these strangers are on the brink of an emotional meltdown it seems finding one another might be the key to finding themselves. The film takes us through an emotional journey of loss, deep-rooted pain and then a powerful sense of redemption. People Like Us is a dramedy which leans a little more toward drama than comedy. It’s hard not feel a deep emotional connection to the characters in this film. Sam (Chris Pine – Star Trek, Unstoppable) is a salesman on the proverbial ropes who begrudgingly returns to Los Angeles when…
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G-S-T Review…Ted
Ted, the first feature length enterprise by Family Guy brainchild Seth MacFarlane, very blatantly wears its creator’s proclivities on its sleeve. That alone should provide anybody with all the information needed to decide if the film is worth their time or not. Do you enjoy having relentless pop culture references and recreations fed to you intravenously and without context? Are you a fan of clumsy, insecure, and hopelessly lame attempts at shock humor and over-played novelty gags? Do you mind that the Connecticut-born MacFarlane apparently can’t produce locational New England accents that differ from one another whatsoever? Then you’re in luck; Ted may be your Citizen Kane. For everybody else,…
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G-S-T Review…Seeking A Friend for the End of the World
End of the world stories, like Penny (Keira Knightley) said in her monologue about vinyl records, aren’t for everyone. Barring the humor and near outlandish situations, disheartening stories like this always end in tears. But even though the audience and the characters know their unavoidable fate, does it have to be the case? In this dramedy from Lorene Scafaria we see how hopeless characters attempt to control the downward spiral, look on the brighter side of life and find a final purpose for their lives. From the opening scene to the final moments we watch two people try to make the most of their time in ways that are awkward, absurd, comical and…
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G-S-T Review…Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
There shouldn’t be any surprises within ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER. The film is either won or lost largely based on its name. So as an audience member, you can quickly judge whether you will balk at the idea of a young Abraham Lincoln fighting vampires with a silver-edged axe. The real grey area is how much of that time spent will live up to what you have in mind. Director Timur Bekmambetov is known for striking visuals and pushing the limits of what you can comprehend. He certainly does both in this film, with quick cuts around blurred action sequences and a set piece that follows Abraham and his vampire…