Yesterday I was commissioned to write a “drunk” review about The Asylum flick Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies, which posed two problems for me: 1) I got so drunk I passed out before the movie ended (I finished it the next day) and, 2) I hate writing reviews.
It’s buzzing hot electric at Jack Dempsey’s in the middle of a freak Wednesday rainstorm. The jukebox is plugging away, house remixes of old pop chestnuts I’m too preoccupied to recognize. Sitting down to drinks and burgers with my boy Tony Vitamins after the show, rapping heavy about movie screenings and payroll taxes like a bunch of old misers. The kids at the bar drunkenly sway to the music as we pontificate on the unheralded brilliance of The Last American Virgin and try to keep our thoughts off the film we just saw.
Finally, the question hits – “What did you think of the movie, David?”
Film School. Over the past few decades it’s been increasing in its popularity. You can find film programs at most colleges and universities nowadays, highly enrolled with fully functional equipment rooms. Many are drawn to film classes, whether or not they are in the major. Yet, many of the most basic classes induce eye-rolls in students. The Simpsons taught us the 180 rule, and modern editing is intrinsic in our movie-watching minds. It seems redundant to spell it out. But is it? Is it really?
(This is the third part in a series about films from American Pop Classics. For part one, click here, and for part two, click here. )
When I first I heard about The Creeper back in summer 2010, it immediately reminded me of Southern Comfort (1981). Back then, Code Red DVD had just released The Creeper under its original title, Rituals, but I never picked it up. So when I saw American Pop had a version of it under an alternate title, I decided to acquire it and see if it was any good.
Snowtown is based on the true story of Australia’s bodies in barrels murders, and the man who committed them to become the nation’s most infamous serial killer. This is the first feature film from director Justin Kurzel, whose short film Blue Tongue screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. Snowtown follows Jamie, a 16 year old who has been living with his three brothers and single mother in a depraved world of abuse and molestation. When his mother introduces John Bunting into their lives, life appears to be turning around for Jamie, but things are not what they seem. Soon he becomes wrapped up in Bunting’s twisted reality, assisting him in atrocious crimes. I’m going to warn you right now, you will not smile once during this film, but if you take the time to view it, you will be rewarded with an unusual and captivating work of cinematic art.
Haywire is a twitchy, grungy spy thriller directed by the sometimes indie, sometimes mainstream, always bogglingly prolific, Stephen Soderbergh. He seems to have borrowed from The Girlfriend Experience and Contagion this time around, casting female mixed martial arts star Gina Carano, who previously did not have movie star on her resume, in the lead of a modestly budgeted genre ensemble film. Carano plays Mallory, a highly-skilled contract black ops agent, who is on the run after something goes wrong with an international assignment she had been involved in. Mallory must fight for her life while piecing together who has betrayed her, how, and why.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is the new film by Irish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay based on the novel of the same name by Lionel Shriver. The story follows Eva, a mother whose son has committed a horrible atrocity, and how she is coping with her feelings of grief and guilt, and at the same time, put her life back together. Dual plot-lines of Eva’s past and present weave together into a truly frightening psychological thriller that’s also an intense emotional drama.