— by SHERICE ANTOINETTE — Rarely do I fall in love with a film, but “Silver Linings Playbook” had me at “Excelsior,” a word Bradley Cooper’s character, Pat, chants as his mantra. We first meet Pat right as his apprehensive mother, Dolores (Jacki Weaver), picks him up from a psy[...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Lincoln
— by ADAM DALE — It is apparent by the number of films being made about the man that the legend and the lore of our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, is as strong and powerful as ever. We have already seen the man fight the undead in the ridiculous but fun “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunt[...]
Review: White Tiger (aka Belyy tigr)
— by BEV QUESTAD — The official Russian entry for the 85th Academy Award competition for best foreign language film is not quite what you’d expect – yet then again, in the country producing Dostoevsky’s anguished “Crime and Punishment,” Chekov’s depressing “Ward Number 6”[...]
Review: Field Work: A Family Farm
— by BEV QUESTAD — With rustling corn tassels, warbling bird songs, skies rippled with pinks and iridescent blues, and sometimes just the calm silence of a meandering light breeze, John Helde has interspersed this look at the family farm life with tender respect. Set to the folksy fiddle[...]
Review: The Invisible War
— by BEV QUESTAD — The invisible war in our Armed Forces is the one few know about, talk about, acknowledge or do anything about. This important film exposes the military’s silent response to violent, heartbreaking sexual assaults in the US Military perpetrated by US soldiers against U[...]
Review: The Girl
— by FIANNA MacGREGOR — They say you should never meet your heroes. After having been a teaching assistant in a couple of Hitchcock classes, I feel like he was a hero of sorts. The Birds was one of the scariest films I had seen as a child but I admit that I was more […][...]
Review: Escape Fire
— by BEV QUESTAD — There’s a burning inferno spreading quickly across forest land. Firefighters are dashing in desperation. One of the firefighters, Wag Dodge, thinks the only way out is to stop and set a fire where he stands. The others are sure he’s nuts and rush on. When the fire [...]
Review: The Flat
— by FIANNA MacGREGOR — I watch a lot of genocide films since they are a large part of what I’m studying. This, of course, means watching more than my fair share of Holocaust films. Although not directly about the Holocaust, The Flat is a strange and unexpected story about the disc[...]
Review: Flight
— by ADAM DALE — While Robert Zemeckis’ last two films – “A Christmas Carol” and “Beowolf” — didn’t garner much praise from critics, there is no denying he has a unique style of storytelling utilizing a very specific visual language that plays very well in his new fil[...]
Review: Cloud Atlas
— by ADAM DALE — “Cloud Atlas” takes the writing/directing team of the Wachowski siblings (“The Matrix” trilogy) and pairs them with “Run Lola Run” Tom Tykwer to bring to life the novel by David Mitchell and turn it into a major blockbuster film. “Cloud Atlas” takes multi[...]
Review: The World Before Her
— by BEV QUESTAD — “A lot of people think if you allow women to be liberated and get educated, you lose your culture,” says a Miss India contestant. The follow-up questions should be about what constitutes a culture and how the oppression of one group of people is ultimately benefici[...]
Review: Taken 2
— by JOSUE SANCHEZ — How can you repay your parents for all they have done for you? Well … you can’t, but you can definitely try. Can Kim Mills (Maggie Grace) ever repay her father for everything he did for her in the events that took place in the[...]
Review: Bidder 70
— by BEV QUESTAD — “Bidder 70” is the true story of the frustrating, discouraging irony that sometimes befalls the good guy who stands up for the right side. I call it the Christ Phenomenon. America was built on the rebel, the protestor – those demanding religious freedom, those pr[...]