This is Not a Film Rebels Through the Core Tenets of Filmmaking

Rebellion comes in many forms.

Sometimes, a person's very existence is a form of rebellion. As I mentioned in my review of BPM (Beats per Minute), when a person is born as queer/a person of color/a woman, they're inherently viewed by larger society as inferior. Embracing the very traits that don't adhere to cishet white male norms while doing something as simple as walking down the street, that's rebellion. You're telling the world you will not be stopping. You will not cease being you even in the face of oppression. This is Not a Film is another vivid example of how subtle insurgency. In this case, the very artform of cinema as another form of quiet rebellion.

The Dark Knight Rises Shows Why Christopher Nolan's Batman Movies Are So Beloved

I wouldn't say The Dark Knight Rises needs an apology for its general pop culture perception. Such a sentiment should be saved for a movie like Jennifer's Body that was hit by misogynistic reviews and toxic backlashes against its primary creative participants. Using that word for a movie like The Dark Knight Rises that got uniformly positive reviews from critics and made over $1 billion at the worldwide box office is ridiculous. That having been said, the films general reputation among the interwebs has been immensely negative, partially because the release of the movie coincided with a new rise in nitpicky YouTube channels like CinemaSins and Honest Trailers that ensured The Dark Knight Rises would be more known for background stuntmen gone awry than anything related to its storytelling or filmmaking.

Boy is Taika Waitit's Best And Most Emotionally Resonant Feature

Back in the 1984, a child known only as Boy (James Rolleston), who is the figure this 2010 feature is named after, lives out a pretty normal life for an adolescent on the cusp of being a teenager. He loves Michael Jackson, has a small but close group of friends and also yearns for his father to come back into his life. For years, Boy has been telling anyone who would listen these tales about his father's great deeds from the past and that's helped build up his father to be some kind of mythic figure in the mind of Boy. So when his dad, Alamein (Taika Waititi) shows up again out of the blue, well, Boy is as happy as can be, he's just so excited to have his father back into his life and it seems like his dad is happy to see him too.

Somewheeere....Beyond The Sea.....Is The Seafaring Movie Kon-Tiki!!

Directing duo Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg have been tasked with this weekend's new blockbuster Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. At this point, the concept of lesser-known directors previously in charge of projects that ranged from small-scale to micro-budget projects endeavors being tasked with American blockbusters is far from a novel concept. What's interesting is that Rønning and Sandberg have actually done multiple movies (three in fact) prior to being tasked with something as massive as a Pirates Of The Caribbean movie, a sharp contrast to the likes of Collin Trevorrow or Jordan Vogt-Roberts who each did one movie before going off into blockbuster territory.

True Detective Season One Review

Early on in the first season of True Detective, Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson) tells his homicide detective partner Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) to be way of applying too much of a story to a crime scene early on in the investigation since you could begin to warp the crime scene to fit your narrative. Turns out, though, Rust's early intuition was a solid indicator for what kind of narrative was behind a vile murder that left a naked women tied up with antlers surrounded by various tiny wooden objects said to ward off the devil. Of course, it takes Rust a while to figure out that he's onto something, with the narrative that unfolds from the investigation he and Martin undergo managing to impact both men's lives in profound ways.

That Popular Wicked Musical Is Finally Getting A Movie Adaptation And Even Has A Far Off Release Date

We as human beings always grapple with the future. It comes toward us like a ceaseless thundercloud full of worries. Will our future be full of medical problems we cannot escape? Can we grapple with the time when our loved ones begin to vanish from this Earth at a substantially increased pace? And now a new query about our uncertain future can hover all of our collective heads for a good four years; will that Wicked movie be good or even end up getting made?

San Andreas Review

The Fault In Our City

Allow me to declare myself as a disaster movie aficionado, which, as you can likely surmise, means I know my way around a Roland Emmerich feature. It's neat to see a new entry added to this subegenre, courtesy of Brad Peyton, whose experience with disaster movies mainly extends to his 2010 film Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore, which was certainly a box office disaster. Now, he's unleashing an earthquake on San Francisco, one which offers untold opportunities for cataclysmic mayhem.

The Newest Song From Carly Rae Jespen Brings The Fun, Energy And Tom Hanks

I've never been fond of referring to a piece of pop culture I enjoy as a "guilty pleasure". If I enjoy something, chances are I want to express that enjoyment, not be plagued by guilt over it. So while many will only sheepishly admit to enjoying Carly Rae Jespen's 2012 smash hit Call Me Maybe, I'll be glad to speak about my love for that song, a tune that uses simplicity and catchy lyrics to gigantic success.

How DreamWorks Animation Lost Its Way

Last night, I gave one of 2014's most delightful films, Big Hero 6, a rewatch, and found it be such a glorious experience, especially since I watched it with two viewers who hadn't seen the film in theaters. That rewatch got me thinking about the American animation landscape, and my mind eventually turn it's attention to one particular studio that's been facing some "troubles", to put it lightly, lately: DreamWorks Animation.

Snow White & The Huntsman Prequel Adds Emily Blunt & Jessica Chastain, Toys With My Emotions

I've always found the 2016 feature The Huntsman, a prequel to 2012's Snow White & The Huntsman, to be a peculiar project. I didn't hate the aforementioned fantasy film from three years back, and it did make almost $400 million worldwide, but I didn't feel like it had that much of a fanbase to warrant a continuation. Apparently, it has, with the project being developed for several years now and finally being released next year, specifically on April 22, 2016.

Dwayne Johnson Watches As The Sky, Er, California, Falls In San Andreas Trailer

Man, do I love disaster movies. Loved 'em when I was 12, still do now. The likes of Armageddon, 2012 and Independence Day entranced me with their spectacle and depictions of people doing courageous things under tremendous circumstances. Now, Dwayne Johnson gets to star in one of these kinds of features in San Andreas, a Summer 2015 movie that just got it's first trailer, which you can watch below.

Editorial: The Non-Marvel Shared Universe Movies Need To Stop

(Or: What Hath The Avengers Wrought)

After Marvel's extremely risk plan for combining stand-alone movies into one massive feature film called The Avengers paid off big time, studios began to scramble to join in on the newest cinematic craze; shared universes. The first franchise not from Marvel Studios to test this out was The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which took it's 2012 Andrew Garfield reboot and tired to stretch it to include hints at future spin-offs and sequels. The film was a calamity quality-wise and disappointing financially, which you'd think studios would take as a sign that not all movies need a shared universe.

Nope.

Classic Write-Up: Django Unchained Review

Movies always have a natural disconnect between the viewers and what's happening on screen. However, several movies have this selfish attitude in them where it seems like the filmmakers behind the endeavor are having tons of fun with the plot, but refuse to allow the viewer to connect or engage with what's happening onscreen. In Django Unchained, it's pretty freaking apparent Quentin Tarantino is having an absolute blast with the cinematic adventure he's concocted thanks to how great it is. Plus, he eagerly allows anyone and everyone to join him in having fun with the venture. 

Franchise Frenzy: Ice Age

Welcome to Franchise Frenzy! Every other week I post a column analyzing the quality and pop culture impact of a certain Hollywood franchise. This week, I put on a winter coat in July in order to make my way through the Ice Age franchise.

In 2002, CGI animated films were scarce, with DreamWorks only having released two of them at that point, Disney Animation doing only one and even PIXAR only having four of them under their belt at that point. Aside from the occasional Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the landscape for CGI animated features was vacant. Enter Blue Sky Studios, whose first feature Ice Age became the cornerstone of the company. They've very rarely stepped outside of that franchise comfort zone (pity too, as aside from Rio, their other non-Ice Age movies range from diverting to endlessly charming), but if every single entry in this series was as strong as the original, I doubt any of us would complain. 

So, I Was On Netflix: The Frozen Ground

There's few other actors that I pity more than Nicolas Cage. I really wish he could make a comeback from the rut he's been stuck in since 2010, when The Sorcerers Apprentice signaled the start of a dark period for the actor that's been chock full of box office and critical flops. Which is a shame, because the dudes actually a really talented actor. His devotion to any role is to be admired, as even in abysmal movies like Ghost Rider 2, Nicolas Cage just commits. Sometimes that delivers good acting, sometimes acting that's lacking, but most of his work displays some noticeable level of craftsmanship that is to be admired.

Country Music Spotlight: Lady Antebellum

In recent years, country music has really begun to break out into mainstream music in ways previously unheard of (unless you were named Garth Brooks of course) Namely, artists like Taylor Swift and Rascal Flatts really managed to break through onto light rock and pop music stations retaining their lyrics, but making some minor adjustments. You see, on non-Country stations, instruments that I suppose have more of a "Country" sound to them (which I notice is usually guitars) is usually dropped in order to appeal to the masses.

Oh What Could Have Been! John Carter Sequel Titles Revealed

I love John Carter. People look at me like I just said I have a really contagious flu whenever I say I do, but it's truly one of my favorite sci-fi films in recent years. It's refreshing optimism, the amazing effects, plus Taylor Kitsch is an awesome action hero (if only Battleship used him half this effectively!) I really wish a sequel could have come from it, but alas, all we have are these titles director Andrew Stanton tweeted this weekend.