When it comes to year-end Oscar bait, err, high quality entertainment, you can hardly do better than a film from The Weinstein Company. Granted that’s a playful way of saying they sweep up award season nods this time of year, but The Imitation Game, is a solid and alluring story, and as fine a picture as you’d expect to see. However, its theatrical release has been, like Kobe beef, bred for just one purpose. Consumption by a very select audience – in this case, academy voters. Now there is nothing at all wrong with the picture. In fact, it would be harder to knock it than to find unique ways of…
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G-S-T Review…Unbroken
Angelina Jolie is no stranger to films depicting harsh realities, dour drama, and world issues. She also likes to throw a huge slice of bittersweet human interest pie into the mix. But more importantly, she tries to offer examples of perseverance and fortitude in the very darkest of situations. With Unbroken, like her last film which found sparks of humanity burning against the cruelty of war, the director wants us to feel something. It’s not pleasant, but pain is definitely something we feel. Jolie holds very little back as a story like this doesn’t quite have the impact if you, picking up on a key scene in the film, pull your…
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Christmas Pops with The Dallas Symphony Orchestra Couldn’t Be Jollier
Life is all about experiences, and there are very few things that can rival the thrill of live music. For 25 years, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra has been putting on incredible shows and performances. This time of year, their Christmas Pops series can put even the most grumpy cat in the mood for jingle jangle holiday festivities. The world-renowned Meyerson Symphony Center, replete with its one-of-a-kind of acoustics, and incredible light display, offer patrons a visual journey as fascinating and vibrant as the auditory one. The playlist for this event (click here to view the full set list) has a plethora of old time Christmas favorites, and a good number of modern musical…
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G-S-T Review…Exodus: Gods and Kings
If you’re heading to see Exodus: Gods and Kings, you’d do well to remember one thing. Just because this is from the man behind Gladiator, does not mean this is going to be like Gladiator. That’s a misconception. After all, this is one of the most famous stories from the Bible, so you have to know what you’re getting into. It’s not a sword and sandal pic. In fact, it’s mostly just sandals with the distinction that it’s Ridley Scott behind the camera of this religious epic. This review is not an argument for or against the film. There really is nothing wrong with Scott’s picture except for the expectations the…
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G-S-T Review…The Babadook
Editor’s Note: This review has been republished. It originally posted with the rest of our reviews and coverage at Fantastic Fest this past September. Back in 2012, director Scott Derrickson and writer C. Robert Cargill screened Sinister (click to read our review). Critic Brian Salisbury introduced the film to the eager Fantastic Fest crowd, and, very fittingly, called it “nightmare fuel“. Well, in the same vein as that film (and other modern horror game changers like Insidious, and The Conjuring), Australia’s own The Babadook shows that there are still untapped areas in the human psyche that, when tapped just right, are plenty capable of scaring even hardened horror fans. The Babadook is written…
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G-S-T Review…Birdman
Sometimes, the line between fiction and reality can be blurry; other times however, it is altogether indistinguishable. Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s Birdman is about a former A-list actor now seeking a final shot at fame and, more importantly, relevance through a play he’s adapted, directed and starring in. Only it hasn’t opened yet. Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) has three preview nights to work the kinks out and get a handle on all the things misfiring in his life – from his broken family to his prima donna actors. It’s a story about being behind the scenes of a play, but, more importantly, it’s very self-referential. An exaggerated reflection of all the issues, it’s…
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G-S-T Review…Fury
Even in the short time he’s been directing films, David Ayer has shown he has a no frills approach to storytelling. Just a quick glance at films like Training Day, Harsh Times, and End of Watch, will reveal, consistently, very specific types of characters – ones so gritty, visceral and real that they seem to come through the screen. Now no one ever proclaimed that war is glamorous, but Ayer seems to go to great pains to make sure no one would ever imagine war as anything other than a living hell. Further, it’s hard to call any soldier a “hero” once you learn the lengths some may go to…
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G-S-T Review…Young Ones
Bold and ambitious, yet simple and economic, Jake Paltrow’s neo-Western, Young Ones, should be remembered for two things. First, it paints an amazing portrait of a near-future that is so plausible, it’s nearly on our doorstep. Second, while the characters lead bleak lives, this sci-fi picture never lets the science fiction get in the way of the story. Although somewhat exaggerated, and detestable at times, the human element really shines in this dismal but slightly hopeful narrative. At first, Young Ones comes across like a post-apocalyptic vision of the future. Paltrow imagines what life beyond the skylines of a Blade Runner type universe might be like. Yet, while set in a harsh, desert-like…
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2014 Fantastic Fest Recap: The Best and the Rest of the Best Damn Fest There Is
Any film festival that you are lucky enough to attend as Press will find you struggling with, among other things, 1. seeing as much as you can, 2. writing about as much as you can, and 3. somehow finding time for sleep so you can keep doing both. Ah, tis a wonderfully viscous circle if ever there was one. Well, as with the best of intentions, sometimes your review aspirations have to yield to personal health (and sanity). You’re there to enjoy the fest after all, so the main thing is that you don’t get burned out. Pace yourselves dear friends, pace yourselves. In 2012 I learned that sometimes a festival…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…V/H/S: Viral
Horror anthologies don’t come along all that often. But thanks to Brad Miska, fans of Creepshow, and similar short-form storytelling would no longer lament the lack of fantastic but short glimpses into strange horror themed universes. V/H/S, and its sequel, went all out and brought the idea of “found footage” horror to new levels. Depending on who you talk to, you’ll likely find people praising one film over the other, but each has its fair share of exceptional segments that stay with you long after lights come up. So here we are with an equally enjoyable and effective third outing which shows strong signs that this series has found its…
