From Jaume Balagueró, director of [REC] and [REC] 2, comes one of the best and most suspenseful films I’ve seen in at least a decade. It’s a taut, complex and magnificently dark thriller that doesn’t let up until the credits roll. Sleep Tight (or Mientras Duermes) follows a tortured soul named Caesar (Luis Tosar) who by some weird personal quirk is unable to be happy. Nothing will brighten his sour mood…except seeing others more upset, displeased or depressed than him. Yet before you think this sounds like some hokey story or an odd iteration of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, this really is something special. The visuals are wonderfully intricate for such simple surroundings and the…
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Off the Shelf…’The Muppet Christmas Carol’
Who doesn’t just love the Muppets? With delivery and material geared for kids and adults they have such universal appeal exemplified by they fact that they’re so honest direct and friendly. The Muppet movies are known for their original humor and lovable characters but The Muppet Christmas Carol treads new ground though a lot of the tones and structure here just seem an odd fit. The film is an important distinctive film in the Henson legacy for reasons outside of the on-screen antics. First off, it is the company’s first outright adaptation. Second, and more importantly, it’s the first Muppet film following the passing if the legendary Muppet founder Jim Henson. As such this adaptation, very…
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Off the Shelf…Drafthouse Films’ ‘Trailer War’
From the deepest darkest pit of forgotten film reels comes Drafthouse Films’ latest time capsule feature. Trailer War is simply a collection of off-beat, hokey and trailers for some of the film world’s oddest flicks. Although cast off, they are not trash. After all, films like these are what have influenced scores of filmmakers, most notably Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, for decades. War is a patchwork of advertisements for films the likes of which have seen by only a handful of modern day film audiences or people from the time of the film’s release. But this presentation isn’t just a brainless compilation of trailers lined up end to end for 110 minutes. No, there’s a little more to…
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Off the Shelf…Drafthouse Films’ ‘Miami Connection’
Story has it that one afternoon in 2009, a curator from Austin, TX’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema stumbled across an eBay listing for a 35mm print of something called “Miami Connection.” The Alamo bought Connection unseen and just as blindly added the print to their film archive. Like opening a time capsule that no one (including the people involved with the film) hoped would ever be found came a film that most likely would be a dud. Well luck favored the Alamo that day as Miami Connection was not a bad investment. Quite the opposite in fact as this deliciously wretched B-Movie has been wonderfully accepted at off-beat festivals and movie houses across…
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Off the Shelf…’Finding Nemo 3D’
Finding Nemo is essentially a family drama combined with a new spin on an Abbott & Costello road movie. It’s also deep, affecting and a story about a father getting to know his son, and vice versa (even though they are apart for the whole movie). As Pixar religiously puts story ahead of the effects, what’s on display here is a very touching family element that proves more impacting with each viewing. Sure everyone gets emotionally invested in these characters but it’s chalked up to three factors; lovable design, top notch voice acting and finally Thomas Newman’s brilliant score. Newman (who would work together with Stanton again on WALL-E) creates a theme that is so finely tailored and…
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Off the Shelf…’The Odd Life of Timothy Green’
If you stop and think about the impact that Disney has had on all of our lives, it’s simply staggering. It would be almost impossible to find someone you know who has never seen a Disney film or TV show. Disney’s formula for success is often imitated, but there is only one Disney. With The Odd Life of Timothy Green, you have a Mary Poppins tale of sorts. You understand it’s a Disney family film and you suspend disbelief, just long enough to allow yourself to get sucked into the movie. You put the Disney name on a film and it’s almost guaranteed to make a profit. But, does Odd Life this compare to the…
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Off the Shelf…'Brave'
Brave, the latest offering from animation giant Pixar, comes to home video following its successful theatrical run. And just as it was a sight to behold in the cinema, the Blu-Ray transfer is even more mystical and enchanting. Now Brave, either on paper or as a finished product, could be defined very quickly by an odd tension struck between two different bodies: its studio and its pedigree. The very idea of Pixar, long-established as a font of creativity and raw talent put forth in service to compelling and original storytelling, tackling princess films and fairy tales is admittedly weird on its face; at a distance that move seems like a step back.…
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Off the Shelf…Drafthouse Films’ ‘The Ambassador’
A surreal and yet gravely realistic fish out of water documentary, The Ambassador offers a look into a part of the world that only a rare but unsavory few can know or comprehend. Posing as a businessman, Brügger attempts to become a foreign diplomat in hopes of exposing the corrupt diamond smuggling and those who live free of moral boundaries in a lawless African state. Yet one thing that needs to be known up front, since it is not explained in the film, is that Mads Brügger is a Danish comedian as well as a filmmaker. That tiny tidbit goes a long way in understanding that there is a hidden hidden agenda behind this entire…
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Off the Netflix Queue…'Jiro Dreams of Sushi'
If Jiro Ono, the subject of David Gelb’s documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, hadn’t found his passion in making sushi more than seventy years ago, he very well could have found a lucrative, successful career in life coaching. In his 80s and still working more steadfastly and efficiently than most young men in their 20s, Ono professes early on in the film his belief that one must fall in love with their profession and that hard work is “the key to being regarded honorably”, a sentiment which he expresses directly into the camera. He speaks with a firm but quiet earnestness that nonetheless bears a timbre of erudite command; you…
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Off the Shelf…'John Carter'
Watching Andrew Stanton’s adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ seminal science fiction pulp novel, A Princess of Mars– here blandly labeled John Carter– is equivalent to a genre-fueled out of body experience. You’ve seen this film before. You’ve seen it in Star Wars (both the original trilogy and the prequel films), you’ve seen it in Avatar, you’ve seen it in Superman. John Carter‘s influences read so blatantly that watching the film feels akin to playing a movie association game in which elements from its plot and narrative are connected to those of other essential sci-fi blockbusters. What we’re really watching, of course, is the big-screen arrival of the story that informed each of those aforementioned properties and more;…
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Off the Shelf…’Saints and Soldiers’
It’s probably safe to assume that everyone in some way is fond of stories of WWII, and has at least one great film in their video library. Patton and Saving Private Ryan are usual suspects but once in a while there comes a lesser known story of war-time heroism that few know exist. Saints and Soldiers probably doesn’t ring any bells for a good number of film fans, but really it deserves more attention that it gets. A very underrated but stellar WWII movie it was made with very little money but looks as if it had a huge budget. It’s not quite Saving Private Ryan in terms of scale, but has moments of…
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Off the Shelf…’The Secret World of Arrietty’
From the world-renowned Studio Ghibli comes this entirely delightful and fascinating feature based on Mary Norton’s novel The Borrowers. Ghibli films are a wonderful mix of immensely detailed worlds and great storytelling and in this adaptation, director Hiromasa Yonebayashi shows us that we don’t have to go very far from our own bedroom to find an imaginative and rousing tale. Sure there is a small touch of special Ghibli magic and otherworldly themes to The Secret World of Arrietty but it’s easy to believe in a story like this when it comes across so realistic and grounded…like right under your floor boards grounded. Arrietty is a real treat that simply shines on this stunningly beautiful Blu-Ray transfer. Right…
