The Process of Cristian Mungiu's Graduation Is Not Without Dire Consequences

How far would you go to help your child? It's a moral quandary that comes up a lot in movies, but typically such movies face that question in the form of a thriller or an action movie (the latter type of presentation typically stars Liam Neeson). For Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's newest movie Graduation, he decides to explore this question in the confines of a grim drama, one that's heavy on realistic conversations and bleak storytelling. Graduation follows the lengths a father will go to in order to help his child not by showing the father fighting off an army of kidnappers but rather by trying to get his child into a good college so that she can have a better future.

A Fun Horror Movie Homage Awaits In The Void

It's good for an artist to know where the strengths in their work are. You need to be cognizant of the flaws too, obviously, but once you recognize what traits you're really excelling at, you can polish those specific traits into tip-top shape and try to orient yourself in the direction of those areas where you manage to work so well in. For The Void, a Canadian indie horror film financed through an IndieGoGo page, it knows right off the bat that it's greatest strengths lie in it's macabre creature designs and the practical effects used to bring those designs to life. Thus, those are the two facets of it's production that receive the greatest emphasis and the feature is all the better for it.

A Quiet Passion Certainly Makes Its Voice Heard By Way of Being Emotionally Engaging

Though I'd heard some positive buzz floating around for it over the last year, A Quiet Passion had flown right under my radar during its theatrical release. Luckily, I managed to catch up on it a few days back and very early on in this movie's runtime, a sequence occurs that managed to convince me that I was about to watch something special. The scene in question depicts Edward Dickinson (Keith Carradine) and his three children, one of whom was famous poet Emily Dickinson, pose for a photograph. The camera positions each of these four people in the middle of the shot and stands back a ways before slowly pulling in. As the camera gets closer and closer to Edward and his siblings, their faces begin to morph into older versions of themselves, with the offspring of Edward Dickinson gradually transforming from children to adults, all of it occurring in a single uninterrupted shot.

Spirited Endurance Makes Up The Backbone Of The Enjoyable Their Finest

I'm sure you, whilst walking out of Dunkirk two months back,  thought to yourself "Wow, a whole movie about the Dunkirk evacuation! I wonder, are there any other recent movies covering that subject matter?" Turns out, there was another motion picture this year all about the Dunkirk evacuations, albeit Their Finest covers what happened after that massive evacuation effort. Specifically, it's about some British film executives wanting to create a film based on events from the Dunkirk evacuation that can help inspire the war-weary masses both in England and in countries abroad, specifically America.

The Best Parts Of The Promise Frustratingly Tussle With Its Lack Of Substance

In 1914, young Armenian man Mikael (Oscar Isaac) has traveled to Constantinople, a city located in the Ottoman Empire, in order to further his education that he can pursue his career as a doctor. Being a medical student in this prestigious city is not cheap and his family can afford to send him here by way of a donation from a man in Mikael's village who wishes for Mikael to be arranged to marry his daughter. With both an arranged marriage and prospective years of education lying in front of him, the future seems rife with potential for Mikael, though a wrench is thrown into his marriage-related plans when he begins to fall for the already married Ana (Charlotte Le Bon).

Smurfs: The Lost Village Gets, Well, Lost Trying To Tackle An Interesting Idea

The old axiom "third time's the charm" has been run into the ground as an axiom used in movie reviews to signify that the third entry in a certain movie franchise is the best movie in said movie franchise, but for Smurfs: The Lost Village it's kind of true, though it's more like "Fourth time's the charm" since the Smurfs did have that one animated movie back in the 80's, The Smurfs and The Magic Flute (which I have not seen). Having seen the 2011 Smurfs movie but not its 2013 sequel, I can say that Smurfs: The Lost Village is an improvement over that Raja Gosnell directed motion picture, though it's still got some seriously Smurfed up qualities to it as well.

We Built The Lost City Of Z On Rock And Roll

In his 1995 review of Congo, Roger Ebert mentioned how the jungle adventure movie had "fallen out of fashion", which is true, we didn't really see a whole bunch of such movies in the years leading up to 1995. While last year brought the new Jungle Book remake from Disney and The Legend Of Tarzan, jungle adventure movies have otherwise been mostly scarce in 2010's cinema as well, a sign that that particular subgenre may really have just fallen by the wayside for a variety of reason. But just because it's scarce doesn't mean it's gone extinct. Case in point, last month brought a brand spanking new jungle adventure movie in the form of James Gray's newest directorial effort, The Lost City Of Z.

Gifted Is Far From Original But It Has Its Moments And Proves (Once Again) That Chris Evans Has Dramatic Acting Chops

Chris Evans is so assured and natural in his multiple performances as Captain America that I think we all take for granted just how good he is as a performer to make that character (which many in the public had dismissed as a jingoistic one-note caricature before the 2011 Captain America film) feel so real and dramatically investable. You can see the guy's talent as an actor in plenty of other works too, including Sunshine (which way more people need to see!), Snowpiercer (ditto) and in his small but hilarious role as Lucas Lee in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Evans gets to flex his dramatic muscles once more in the new Marc Webb drama Gifted.

There's Lots to Unpack And Contemplate Over In The Phenomenal Monster Movie Colossal (SPOILERS!!!!!)

This review contains massive spoilers about Colossal. Seriously, do not read this before seeing the movie. Just know it's an amazing motion picture and you should see it pronto. 

K?

OK, let's get on with the review.... 

Monster movies are usually dismissed as dumb cinematic fodder, stuff reserved for gifs and children only. And, yes, it is hard not to chuckle at the fun gifs emerging from goofy monster movies of yore (King Kong feeding Godzilla a tree will always make me laugh), it's worth noting that many of the biggest monster movies have underlying themes to them that lend weight to the seemingly shallow proceedings. The original Godzilla was all about the nuclear age, the first King Kong movie is all about the dangers of man trying to exploit animals while a more modern day example can be found in Cloverfield was an incredibly prophetic movie about how we react to the unbelievable in the modern day world.

How Did The Circle End Up Being This Poorly-Made?

Every director has their misfires in their filmography, with even one of the all-time greats like Steven Spielberg having films like Hook or The Lost World: Jurassic Park in their filmography. But it's always a disappointment when a director I seriously like manages to craft a dud, kinda like when a parent realizes their kid has committed some kind of crime, y'know? You know they're better than this, how could this have happened? In the case of The Circle, it's director James Ponsoldt, the filmmaker behind The End Of The Tour and the particularly excellent 2013 drama The Spectacular Now, that stumbles here when he tackles the world of cyber-security and internet privacy.

We Don't Have To Go Home, We Can Leave The Sleight On

Depending on your age, you may have heard the Pilot tune Magic for the first time as a pop tune on the radio in the 1970's or, if you're in my generation, maybe you got introduced to it by way of 21st century pop culture entities like Wizards Of Waverly Place or Doogal (the latter movie is where I first heard the song). Regardless of where you first heard it, the song has become a prominent fixture of retro radio stations, background music in stores and iPod playlists everywhere. Why? Hey, people love magic, especially the idea of the fantastical existing in our super mundane and depressing world. It's only natural a song imploring you not give up on your belief of magic would resonate with the populace.

We Didn't Start The (Free) Fire, It Was Always Burning Since The Bullets Were Firing

I've never been much of a gun guy in my everyday life (even as a Texan, a Cabella's store is more puzzling than enticing to me) but I never have an issue with gun-oriented movies, especially when they're top quality like the John Wick films or the first and fourth Die Hard movies (the two best ones in that franchise....come at me internet!). Ben Wheatley's Free Fire doesn't reach those heights of quality but still manages to be some solid grisly fun. It's a shoot-em-up that keeps things simple (maybe a little too simple), confined and directly fixated on two things: over-the-top characters and bullets flying everywhere.

Ugetsu Shows The Price We Pay For Too Much Escapism

Sight & Sound Voyage Entry #26
Placement On Sight & Sound Top 50 Movies List: #50 (tied with City Lights and La Jetee)

Over here in America, we've been taking a fancy to remaking American fairy tale movies (which are typically based on folklore from other countries because what don't we steal from other places and claim as our own?) that have a strong nostalgic connection with general audiences with the likes of Beauty And The Beast and Cinderella. Back in 1953, director Kenji Mizoguchi undertook a similar task of reconfiguring well-known stories into a new cinematic incarnation though, in his case, he was handling two 18th century stories penned by Ueda Akinari that would make up the groundwork for the motion picture known as Ugetsu.

A Strong Jessica Chastain Performance, A Quiet Atmosphere And Some Cute Animals Are All Notable Elements Of The Zookeeper's Wife

The opening scene of The Zookeeper's Wife is so awesome and something I would have been more than happy to watch for six or seven hours or even longer. For a few minutes, we get to just see Jessica Chastain romp around the zoo she runs with her husband and it's so cool to see her interact with or feed a large number of wild animals. Seeing a gigantic hippo tranquilly eat some apples or watching a tiny camel run alongside Chastain's character riding on a bicycle is quite the entertaining sight. Bonus points for having a scene not long afterward centered on a super adorable baby elephant, even if it does involve the baby elephant in grave peril!

I Swear To Cod, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen Is An Incredibly Tedious Movie

Like Cameron Crowe's 2011 movie We Bought A Zoo, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen received a lot of online-based rib-poking based on its unorthodox animal-based title. It's a mouthful for sure and I'd imagine they'd have likely just called it Gone Fishin' if that wasn't already the title of a 1997 Joe Pesci/Danny Glover comedy everybody has long forgotten about. But, this is the title it was dealt with and at least it didn't prevent it from getting a Golden Globe Best Picture nod, though unfortunately for this movie in regards to my review, it's lengthy title is at the very bottom of the complaints I have with this overly tedious feature.

Painless But Sorely Lacking In Laughs Is The Best Way To Describe Going In Style

I really wish Morgan Freeman would go back to doing more dramatic acting work. Who can blame the guy for taking easy paychecks in this late stage of his career (dude's more than earned it!) but the novelty of seeing this gravely serious man with a voice like no other human being on the planet goofing it up in more light-hearted fare like Batman Begins, Red and The LEGO Movie was fun for a while for sure, especially in The LEGO Movie where he parodied the exact kind of persona he's always being casted as. But after more than a decade of him lampooning his own image by appearing in genre fare, I dunno, I just wish he'd do more serious films again instead of another Olympus Has Fallen sequel where he just sits in a room for twenty minutes.

Step Brothers Is Another Jewel In Will Ferrel's Early 21st Century Comedy Crown

He's had a recent string of duds thanks to the likes of more middle-of-the-road comedies like The Campaign and Anchorman 2 and outright disasters like Get Hard and Daddy's Home, but Will Ferrell still remains one of my favorite comedians out there. Not even a hundred more movies even worse than Get Hard could erase the value of Elf, Anchorman and The Other Guys, three of my favorite comedies that utilize Ferrell's talents as an actor to phenomenal success. Despite my status as a Ferrell fanboy, I somehow haven't seen Step Brothers in its nearly-decade long existence. That managed to finally change this past weekend when I sat down to view the comedy.

"Take Me Home...T2: Trainspotting....To The Place...I Beloooooong...."

The track record of long-delayed follow-ups to highly beloved pop culture properties isn't exactly littered with tons of success stories. Two notable examples of this trend came in 2013, when Arrested Development came back with a narratively ambitious new season that was OK but not quite as successful as its initial seasons while Anchorman 2 reunited Ron Burgundy with his news team for occasionally humorous but mostly just scattered antics. I'd imagine director Danny Boyle knew about this trend going into the making of T2: Trainspotting, a follow-up to the 1996 film Trainspotting, and if he did, he'd likely be happy to know that T2: Trainspotting is a massive departure from that trend in that it's a worthy follow-up to the original movie.

The Fate Of The Furious Takes The Car-Filled Franchise To So-So Territory

Out of the seven Fast & Furious movies that have come before The Fate Of The Furious, I've seen all but two of them, the sole exceptions being 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift. Otherwise though, I've been able to see the other five entries in this saga and now I've also been privy to The Fate Of The Furious, the eighth installment in the greatest car racing spy heist action franchise in history behind The Apu Trilogy. After three gloriously unhinged action movies in a row, it pains me to say that The Fate Of The Furious goes to more routine and repetitive areas that harken back to the middling first and fourth movies in the series.

The Body-Switching Subgenre Gets Switched Up In The Super Well-Done Your Name.

Note: This review covers the version of Your Name. with Japanese audio and English subtitles.

The body switch subgenre (wherein two individuals switch bodies as shenanigans ensue) feels like it's been dead for a long while now. Chalk it up to there not being too many box office juggernauts in the subgenre unless they come with the Freaky Friday brand name or the fact that it's been parodied to death, but there's no denying the scarcity of this subgenre that was never all that ubiquitous to begin with. Your Name., an international box office juggernaut and particularly successful in its home country of Japan, dives head-first into the world of body switching storytelling and manages to inject some real clever twists into the formula as well as some surprisingly well-done depth that make it a real treat.