So the curating begins for 2014. Strong, razor-sharp horror film that relies heavily on long takes, wide-screen compositions, and off-screen sound. Children as zombies is an incredibly effective moral conundrum, even though this particular situation should have been pretty easily sorted about mid-way through. And we thought the Narco's were Mexico's most dangerous menace.
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It's Such a Beautiful Day 2012
About everything and always. What a film. Little White Lies review to come.
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Jack the Giant Slayer 2013
A thunder fart of a movie. Loud, full of hot air, and instantly evaporates from memory.
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Olympus Has Fallen 2013
Presidential iconography sentimentalized, blown apart, and finally weaponized as a blunt object primed for pummeling the skulls of North Korean baddies (a mold of Abe Lincoln's head comes in mighty handy). Dialogue sequences play like a parody, a dramatic lame-duck cousin to MARS ATTACKS. But those action scenes kill it. The White House siege is certainly the most ambitious/swift/lethal/expansive/successful terrorist attack in recent cinema history, and it's paced perfectly. Too bad the oh so familiar DIE HARD tendencies sink in soon after and never stop recycling. Props to Gerard Butler for not sucking.
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Spring Breakers 2012
In this postmodern acid wash nightmare called 21st century America, some of us no longer have the ability to register rock bottom. We just spiral deeper into the neon abyss, documenting our own demise by way of pop culture and ego and delusion. Complex emotion is meaningless. The momentum of deceit is unstoppable. Those contemplating the limits of excess are either delusional or weak, unnecessary, disposable. As a result, the Culture teaches us to be cold, unfeeling, and obsessive to the pursuit of nothing else but those boobies y'all. We are what we lust after, and we are lusting after self-destruction. Mission Accomplished.
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A Good Day to Die Hard 2013
Plot? Who needs a fucking plot? I'm a McClane and "I'm on vacation." Permanently it seems.
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The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh 2012
Memories flood through space with the ease of a tracking shot, or like hushed words whispered from an adjacent room. The horror comes from not understanding the symbols, not recognizing their depth and complexity, not contemplating their fragility. Quiet reflection is to be deceived by your own misbegotten expectations, not necessarily a plight for just the living, but also those damned narrators reconstructing their own ghost story from beyond the grave. The camera always lies, whether we want it to or not.
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The Towrope 2012
A house/country engulfed by fog and water and tall grass, swaying in the wind, creaking with every step, stained by the blood of the past, present, and future. The image of a rain boot consumed by rotten wood then vigilantly breaking free. Her youthful eyes have seen too much, yet her small body won't settle for stagnation. Creating something beautiful from the skeletons of architecture, only to have it abandoned and whither all over again. But the process is freedom.
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The ABCs of Death 2012
Two amazing ringers: Nacho Vigalondo's "A is for Apocalypse" and Jake West's "S is for Speed", both fascinating and strange riffs on classic death scenarios. Otherwise, not really my scene.
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Sleep Dealer 2008
A film of great ideas and ambitions, inadequate acting and melodramatic mush; bits of edgy science fiction drowning under an ocean of unearned optimism. Late night Showtime color schemes strain the eyes, wonky special effects born from Compositing 101.
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Expiration Date 2012
Rot and entitlement and death, all expected and underplayed, woven into the fabric of modern Mexico with seamless, unassuming ease. Seeds of emotion and loyalty are crushed under the weight of bad expectations, devious motivations, and vengeful assumptions. Did I mention this is a fantastic black comedy? A subdued, but no less acidic compliment to EL INFIERNO's brilliant satirical firestorm. Damián Alcázar was born to be in a Coen brothers film.
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War of the Worlds 2005
Bursting bubbles and smoked out lives, buildings and streets erased in waves of sheer force, immense terror in wide angle, mise-en-scene as expansive catastrophe and intimate panic. The wake-up call from hell, and the slow realization of poor leadership/fatherhood/life planning. Thank god the other side was even more arrogant. Occupations always fail.