Sometimes Dead Is Better And Maybe That's The Place The Pet Sematary Series Should Have Been Left In

The Creed family (unfortunately, not the Creech family) needs a change of pace. Boston is just too busy, so they've decided to move to an isolated house in Ludlow, Maine. There, Louis Creed (Jason Clarke), Rachel Creed (Amy Seimetz) and their two children, Ellie (Jete Laurence) and Gage (Hugo Lavoie & Lucas Lovie), plus their cat Church, can slow down and take some time to smell the roses. But the discovery of a local pet cemetery in the vast forest on their property puts the family on edge, as does the death of Church. If only there was some way to bring their cat back from the dead. If only neighbor Jud Crandell (John Lithgow) knew of some spot where dead things could be buried and then come back to life. If only that spot could bring Church back to life and start a series of tragic events for the family surrounding an inability to cope with death. Oh if only...

Come Grab A Bite With Beatriz At Dinner

Big social dinners have a tendency to always dive into awkwardness, especially when you don't know the people involved. Luckily, the presence of free food (one of the best things to ever exist on planet Earth) can help make any sort of dinnertime awkwardness more bearable but sometimes ya get caught up in conversations or social interactions so thorny to navigate even free food can't mitigate the suffocating amount of awkwardness. That's the kind of social situation the titular lead character of Beatriz At Dinner finds herself in, one which leads to plenty of drama for herself and the other members of the dinner she finds herself attending but, on the bright side, it does result in loads of riveting drama for the viewer.

Miss Sloane Is All About Immoral Means For Moral Ends

The world of politics is a slimy place, as this most recent presidential election has most certainly shown. It's a realm that earns scorn and disgust from many and it's a place where Miss Sloane decides to tell its story to quite entertaining results. This John Madden film does not sugar-coat ts depiction of the turncoat nature of this aspect of American society, instead plopping viewers right into the middle of morally dubious politicians and even have our protagonist be a human being whose got no qualms with doing things that redefine unethical in order to score another victory. That human being in question is the titular Miss Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain).

Blow Out Review (Classic Write-Up)

Sound is a key component for any non-silent movie. The tiniest creak of a door opening or a car starting up can add multitudes of personality to the world of any given individual motion picture. Of course, the best sound work can be best summed up by an old axiom (which I’m paraphrasing) referring to the equally important world of visual effects; your work is truly successful when nobody even notices it. In other words, the phrase refers to how the best visual effects seamlessly incorporate themselves into the story and don’t call attention to their own virtues. The same can be said for exceptional sound work, which can be easy for even a cinema devotee like myself to take for granted.

Shrek Review (Classic Write-Up)

A week ago today, Shrek turned fifteen years old. One of the biggest animated movies of all-time that shifted the entire zeitgeist of animated filmmaking officially turned fifteen..and no one seemed to care. Buzzfeed didn't write up a thousand articles about "21 Gifs That Make Shrek Totes Relatable", there was no release of the feature on Blu-Ray to commemorate the occasion. Hell, even the official Facebook page for the film made absolutely no mention of the anniversary. Granted, turning 15 isn't typically as big of a deal in the world of marketing as a movie celebrating its tenth or twenty-fifth anniversary of existence, but still, the absolute radio silence on the occasion struck me as shocking.

Film On The Television (4/29/2016): Love Is Strange On Starz Cinema

I've written extensively in the past about how badly Sony Pictures Classics has botched the releases of numerous noteworthy dramas in recent years and few films suffered as badly at the hands of the studios incompetence as the fantastic 2014 drama Love Is Strange. Starring John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a couple going through financial struggles, it's a smartly written film with two incredible lead performances that should have been treated better, nay, far better, in its theatrical release.

Luckily, you have the chance to watch it tonight on Starz Cinema and I strongly urge you to do so. Perhaps the most extraordinary part of Love Is Strange is how it refuses to toss in contrived dramatic scenarios just for the sake of creating "high-stakes". No one gets an all of a sudden illness, no one is caught in an affair, Love Is Strange realizes that far more compelling drama can be found in the everyday interactions with the people around us. It's a smartly written movie and Lithgow and Molina are absolutely incredible in the lead roles. Love Is Strange may not have gotten poorly treated in its theatrical release, but I strongly urge you to check it out now.

Love Is Strange airs on Starz Cinema tonight at 8:20 PM Eastern time.

Love Is Strange Review

Come And Get Your Love

What a true title. Love is, indeed, strange. It's a concept that's inspired all forms of media ranging from poems to paintings to web shorts. In the realm of cinema, the best movie of 2013, Her, showcased love's strangeness in a beautiful manner, and now another very high quality feature has come around to prove such a point. Love Is Strange centers around the romance between Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina), two men who have been together for multiple decades.