The most startling thing about Silver Linings Playbook is its complete embrace of being unhinged. A film that revolves around mental health issues should feel unpredictable, even if people stubbornly want to shoehorn the film into the romantic comedy genre. Let me be clear here, then, that I never felt Silver Linings fell into that genre. In fact, it doesn’t play fair. This isn’t a neat film. When Jennifer Lawrence’s Tiffany is introduced to Bradley Cooper’s Pat, we see his gaze drift to her breasts ever so casually. When he looks up, we see recognition in her eyes. She doesn’t admonish him there, but later we understand this attention isn’t uncommon for her nor unwanted. Which is…
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G-S-T Review…Anna Karenina
Director Joe Wright is a strong visual storyteller with a talent for period pieces. Having won lots of fans with his adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, he again takes on another famed literary work; Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Wright blankets the heartbreaking tale with lavish visuals attempting to soften the blow of the tortured romance. In doing so he also infuses this complicated story line with an amusing sense of theatrics you just don’t get to see outside of an old-fashioned stage performance. The result is an impressive film that, despite the off-putting and self-destructive lifestyle of the ill-fated Anna Karenina, still manages remain vibrant and beautiful amid all the tears and heart-break. It’s…
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G-S-T Review…Skyfall
Even after 4 years, Quantum of Solace still leaves a rather bland taste in mouths of Bond fans (though much of the flat reception the film was met with can be chalked up to the writer’s strike). As such, Bond would have a lot of making up to do in his next outing. But thanks to another solid turn from Daniel Craig, a fantastic cast to play opposite, great story, music and all of this under the artistic eye of Sam Mendes, Skyfall is not only one the franchises’ best installments but easily sits among the likes of the most beloved Connery films. Sounds like lofty praise but really it earns and…
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G-S-T Review…Holy Motors
There’s no easy way to evaluate a film like Holy Motors after a single viewing. That’s why I watched my screener copy twice. Of course, I still feel somewhat behind the eight ball as I try in earnest to write my review, but in my own defense it’s worth noting that I’ve never seen anything like Holy Motors before in my life. (Continuing in that vein: I’d wager that there are more critics who share my position than not.) In fact, the film is so unique, original, and rampantly weird that calling it a new entry in surreal cinema feels like an observation of family resemblance and nothing more. How…
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G-S-T Review…Wreck-It Ralph
Should you manage to see Wreck-It Ralph blind and with no knowledge of its source of origination, you might be inclined to credit the film to Pixar. And while that wouldn’t be an unreasonable guess, you’d be wrong. Ralph has all the bearings of Pixar at its finest, yet Rich Moore’s first feature length effort comes to us from none other than the Mouse House itself. Arriving six months after the release of Brave, Ralph gives weight to the theory that both animation studios are just blurring together more and more in the wake of Pixar’s acquisition by Disney in 2006. If that strikes anyone as a bad sign for creativity, then the news that Wreck-It Ralph happens to…
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G-S-T Review…A Late Quartet
If A Late Quartet, the second feature by Yaron Zilberman and his first film since his 2004 documentary Watermarks, proves anything, it’s that good performances can elevate average movies. To say that Zilberman’s cast saves his picture would be somewhat generous, though. They only distract us from its inadequacies, which are numerous, though perhaps this is a harsher judgment than the film really deserves. A Late Quartet is harmless, airy fluff, small-scale prestige cinema that smartly gathers together a group of very gifted actors in the service of exploring life lessons filtered through the overarching motif of Beethoven’s Opus 131 String Quartet (in C-sharp minor); it’s also painfully undercooked to…
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G-S-T Review…The Sessions
Life deals many of us some pretty crappy hands. The trick to dealing with much of it, as they say, is to have a good attitude. In the case of journalist Mark O’Brien, life handed him a spectacularly bum hand in the form of childhood polio. But you wouldn’t know it to talk to him as his positive outlook far outweighs both the iron lung he sleeps in and the paralyzing affect the disease had on him physically. After an 18 year absence from feature films director Ben Lewin takes the helm for The Sessions; a tender story that retells the time in O’Brien’s life when he researched/wrote one of his most provocative stories. The film doesn’t dance around sensitive…
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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 Review…The Intouchables
Without a doubt, The Intouchables proves that humor can be found even in unfortunate situations with the right mindset. A film about a quadriplegic and his caretaker shouldn’t be this fun, yet writer/directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano pull it off with the perfect amount of heart, humor, and adventure. Based on a true story, the film follows a wealthy quadriplegic that hires a young man from the projects to take care of him. Despite everything saying that this is a bad idea, Philippe (François Cluzet) thinks Driss (Omar Sy) holds the key to genuine sympathy and a say-anything attitude that is sorely missing in his life. Throughout their journey they grow…
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G-S-T Review…The Innkeepers
Editor’s Note: Go,See,Talk presents this review of The Innkeepers from our staff writer Andrew Crump (of A Constant Visual Feast.) Have a look at what he had to say about Ti West’s sophomore effort and offer your thoughts below. Categorizing Ti West’s The Innkeepers accurately seems tricky at a glance; is it a horror film with comedy elements, or the other way around? Invariably, the film falls under the horror umbrella without much debate but its blend of scares, charm and laughter makes it a genre standout among more recent haunted house fare. Dread builds over the course of The Innkeepers, and inevitably that leads us to a suspenseful, frightening climax in which our worst fears…