Hollywood marketing strikes again with Kevin Costner’s latest “3 Days to Kill.” From the trailers you can see that Costner stars as a CIA agent who must balance his most recent mission and his relationship with his daughter. What you may have been led to believe was that “3 Days to Kill” was some kind
Looking forward into the film year, it’s going to be tough for any film to match the kinetic energy that Rush, the biographical racing drama arriving in theaters nationwide this weekend, manages to conjure up. Moving with purpose but never hesitating to show off stylistic flourishes, Ron Howard’s forray into Formula 1 racing history is anchored by two great performances, a solid script and awesome action.
Review originally published at Awards Circuit during the Sundance Film Festival.
Kill Your Darlings is a perfect example of how one can tell a familiar story in a unique, fascinating way. Many are familiar with the Beats generation, but the way debut director Johnathan Krokidas and co-writer Austin Bunn see it you haven’t seen the definitive version of the tale till you see their film. Kill Your Darlings is a fascinating sojourn into the origin story of the Beats, kind of like The Avengers: Beats Edition set in the backdrop of the suffocating rigidity of 1944 Columbia University with a sharp script filled with an incredible social commentary. In short, it’s one of the best films I’ve seen so far at Sundance.
Review originally published during the SXSW Film Festival at Awards Circuit.
A Teacher, much like other films deal that with taboo subject matter, has the unenviable task of balancing the melodramatic aspects of the story as well as a need to justify every character’s motivations. And try though it may, it never seems to elevate itself from the basics of the story and the script moves from point A to point B without much in the way of shock. However, the tale is elevated by some incredibly nuanced acting from Lindsay Burdge and Will Brittain and just enough visual panache to keep the audience satisfied.
It’s tough when you walk out of a film and aren’t sure whether you enjoyed it or not, but this was the situation I found myself in upon leaving my screening of Elysium. The film, Neil Blomkamp’s first after the superb District 9, isn’t a supremely ambitious film and yet it carries on as if it is, mollywhopping you over the head with big messages and set pieces. Whether that’s for better or for worse, is hard to tell and part of the reason why although this film will entertain you, it fails to really rise to anything more.
Rare is it these days that you get a horror film that manages to elevate itself into being a great film. Sure there are those that are scary, and many are competently made. But every once in a while you get something that is the perfect combination of craft, scares, and spirit that you can’t help but acknowledge its greatness. The Conjuring, the new film by James Wan, is the first horror film in a long time that I’ve been so thoroughly entertained by every aspect that even when I was scared shitless I was in awe of just how well made of a film it was.