Hot Tin Roof Review

Brilliant, shocking, gripping, mind-blowing, freaky, nerve-wracking, intense, and redemptive are all excellent reasons why you should see this movie. At a whopping two hours and fifteen minute run time, I was completely entranced in the story from start to finish, never actually realizing how long I had been sitting there. From the opening scene, I knew I was in for a treat as the screen faded from black into a shot of the open woods, all while Hugh Jackman (playing overly protective father, Keller Dover) recites delicate scripture into the air. This was merely a small taste of the spine-chilling twists and turns that the film forces you to ride out until the bitter end.

At first, I was afraid that the dry sound of the movie and the early set up of the almost identical Breaking Bad RV meth lab would make the movie draggy and predictable. I could not have been more wrong. The payoff was unlike anything I have seen in the past almost ten years: since The Secret Window in 2004. I started talking aloud to myself in the theater, trying to solve the mystery as it went. Needless to say, that is my definition of a great movie.

The only thing that left me wanting was the detail put into Jake Gyllenhaal’s cop character, Detective Loki. I spent an embarrassingly amount of time trying to analyze the significance of his name and was thrown off even further when obvious shots of his Greek alphabet tattoos and Mason ring were included on multiple occasions. Lots of questions and no answers. Although fantastic character traits, I would have actually liked to have them explained. But like the film itself, there is much to be wanting with the insane and it addictively made my brain scream for more. Ladies and gentlemen, five out five for Denis Villeneuve. Take it and rule the pre-Oscar 2013 season. By the way, do you know how many inches is a movie theater screen? If you want more insight about this, read this article for more.

A poem of the heart and landscape of the Texas Hill Country, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints is every bit as beautiful as its title implies. Playing off the natural sounds of the winds through the prairies, the film takes a simplistic look at outlaw Bob Muldoon (played brilliantly by Casey Affleck) and his sacrificial love for his wife Ruth Guthrie (played by Rooney Mara). After a deadly shootout in a robbery gone wrong, Bob spends the next four years of his life in prison, atoning for the one time mistake his pregnant wife made in an attempt to protect her meager homestead.

The sparse dialogue might make some people nervous but when it comes down to it, what they have to say makes them poignantly human and beautifully tragic. Spurned by their need to make a better life, love is something that exists without question and the spotted music of rhythmic clapping frames the timelessness of a 1970’s small town, USA. There is no such thing as a happy ending and director David Lowery places the consequences of romance and reality against each other in a desperate battle of needs and desires. Completely encapsulated by the tragedy of their situation, you can’t help but see yourself at different stages of your own love life and the tribulations that accompany moving on. At four out of five stars, this film will bring you cinematic nostalgia against a back splash of modernity.

As an almost perfectly true story of Oscar Grant III (Michael B. Jordan),  Fruitvale Station follows him in a short review of his recent past with the law, his future goals as a new family man, and the devastating tragedy of the last day of his life. Surrounding the celebration of New Year’s Eve of 2008, this gritty 2013 Sundance Film Festival winner of the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film, explicitly opens the wound of injustice that occurs between Oscar’s death and the BART (Fruitvale Bay Area Rapid Transit Station in Oakland, California) police officer who shot him. To say that it exposes lines of racial incongruity would be an understatement. It is nothing short of a breathtaking reminder that life is short and inharmonious.

Defined by an all-star cast including Octavia Spencer, Michael B. Jordan has once again proven himself to be a powerful force on the screen and an equally inspiring voice of his generation. Sadly, the only relationship I was able to truly buy into was between Oscar and his daughter, played by the charming Ariana Neal. I desperately yearned for a genuineness that never came between Spencer and her on-screen son. Rather I felt a forced-smile disconnect between the two that so often is the result of these pithy independent films.

Nevertheless, as a first time feature film director, Ryan Coogler masters a fresh ingenuity that mimics the current generation and culture that surrounds us. By using extra digital effects, the audience is able to see Oscar’s phone screen as he dials numbers and sends text messages, allowing an inside look on his thoughts and actions before they are portrayed on the screen. A movie of pure cause and effect, I give it three out of five stars. It was a well-done homage to a beautiful soul and a distressingly brilliant reminder of current social standings.

On a bright Sunday afternoon, a couple on the closer side of seventy walked into the cozy little neighborhood theater that I too had chosen to watch my film of choice for the day. Surprisingly enough, the couple continued their merry way into the same theater as I with the full intention of watching the sixth installment of the Fast & Furious series. It always fascinates me to watch what kind of people come to see certain movies and this certainly peaked my interest. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had to know and before I could stop myself, I went up and asked them why they were coming to see this movie. “We just love them,” the husband said turning to his wife. “Oh you know how it goes,” she chimed in “with all the other garbage that’s out there, we want to watch somethin’ fun. This we can agree on.”

In honesty, they stole the words straight from my mouth. Although I had a hard time restraining my laughter thinking about my respectively elderly friends when Vin Diesel took off his shirt to reveal his gloriously manufactured abs, I had to completely agree that the series’ success was mostly based on the tight character development that drives the somewhat repetitive plot line. It reminds you of the stunts you wish you could do and initiates you straight into the badass family code. What a gorgeous family to be a part of, right? But the familial ties go much deeper than sharing a street number. The writers have made it very clear that while the jobs have become increasingly illegal and now involving the blurred lines of the FBI, honor comes before money and protecting your own is more than just being good or evil.

And the hairpin turns are not just for the cars. I always seem to find myself on the edge of my seat wondering if someone will die, resurface, or even both. As for what should have been the mantra of the entire series, “Some things you just have to take on faith.” While this movie is a guilty pleasure as the day is long, there is no denying that it deserves a four out of five stars. As a hardly relatable white girl, there is still no doubt that I will shell out time and money to jam uncoordinatedly to the “get rich or die tryin’” rap theme song and see just who will leave an impressive car track in my mind.

Certainly not one of the summer’s “greats” but still appealing to the entertained eye, Iron Man 3 flew into the opening box office weekend with almost $200,000,000.00 in sales. Not a fabulous start but not mediocre either. Director Shane Black certainly knows that provided enough flashy gizmos with action-packed scenes and a nice flip of Tony Stark’s hair, the audience will pay again and again to support the cultism these superhero movies have spurned.

However, unlike the director of the first two films, Jon Favreau, Black used his opportunity to focus new character development on that of the ever-so-sleek and cocky Tony Stark. Abandoning the confidence that Iron Man is classically defined as, we are given a harsh look at the impact that having a superhero stardom life can have. Are these players perhaps normal after all? Their emotions certainly suggest so. With Tony being introduced to the reality of anxiety attacks and his inability to decipher who should be saved first (himself or his beloved Pepper), there is a major play between the reflexes of the heart and mind. Even as a co-writer along with Drew Pearce (who not so shabbily obtained the credits for the third Sherlock Holmes film), Black sneakily parallels these struggles with the ever-so-popular British television series, Downton Abbey. As an obvious foreshadowing of the politics of relationships within the corporate superhero world, it is these few surprises that provide menial gratification and ultimately slow the overall development of the story.

Of course, the plot took some intriguing twists at the end that even had me impressed but quickly digressed with an extremely old school Hawaii 5-0, comic book cheese that resulted in an eye-roll when the villain concludes with a “I will be back or this is not over” mentality. I give this movie two out of five stars because it wasn’t a complete bust but at the same time, its potential was not even close to being met. But this is a significant downside to switching directors, mid-series. We just can’t all be Harry Potters.

As the highly anticipated coming of age story for the 2013 summer, The Kings of Summer was woefully underwhelming.  Leaving me craving for more than mediocre acting and any definite direction, this film presented itself as a failure to mix the grit of  October Boys with laughable quirkiness of Moonrise Kingdom.  While it certainly does capture several aspects of the struggles that teens experience on a daily basis, including best friends, girls, sexual orientation, and the difficult task of proving oneself, the momentum of the film almost dully rested on the catchy tunes and the exuberant hilarity of one minor character, Biaggio.

I could add that there were obvious correlations between nature and its battle against civilization (which I must say that nature won out in this one), it would be a stretch to add it to the film’s positive ratio.  This being said, the major note of the story was that despite the nature of a teenager to rebel against all adult authority and social construct and the adult resenting them every step of the way in order to mask their own past, the two were paralleled in order to demonstrate the elements of similarity and trust within each age.  “We’re all just hungry,” the main teenage character, Joe would say, and the sly slip of similarity was certainly a heavy truth.

I gave The Kings of Summer only two out of five stars as an overall expression of my disappointment.  I had been built up to an ideal of how great this movie was going to be and the struggle of such a letdown has only previously been rivaled to that of the original Hangover.  Well-constructed as a professional piece, the lack of vision and therefore execution makes me question just who is watching where their money and time are going.

In all honesty, I measured the success of this movie by the fact that I completely lost myself in it.  I had so much fun with it that I felt I was an interactive player and I completely forgot to take notes!

So what does that say about this movie? Well, as part of the New Director’s Competition, John Burgess took home first prize in my book.  Saying the movie was cute and catchy are true but easy descriptors that fleshed themselves out into a deeper comedic genius, displaying an unfeigned witty banter of charm and intelligence.

While it is easier and easier to assume the predictability of most rom coms (romantic comedies) nowadays, people still flock to the theaters to see them because they anticipate that it will romance them into a version of reality that they long to be true but have no real expectation of achieving as a status in their own lives.  In One Small Hitch, it felt like something that could really and truly happen, and not just to the pretty and lucky in the world.  With Shane McRae as studly lead, Josh Shiffman, and Aubrey Dollar as his petite partner, Molly Mahoney, it is no wonder that the characters were adorably sexy and supported the sassy wit of the script into a work of brilliance.

To say the movie was Indie through and through would still be an understatement but Burgess wanted to make sure that everything about the film exuded the vulnerability of something new and inexperienced.  This included the music which was an open mix of techno-dance and acoustically hipster.  The whole package solidified the deal, causing me to give a rousing five out of five stars.  I enjoyed it more than a corporate rom com on the mainstream silver screen and would gladly have paid the 10 plus dollars at a theater to see it.  In one phrase: Well done, John Burgess! Well done!

One of the special things about the NaFF this year was the introduction and blending of the Kurdish film industry with Hollywood.  For several years now, the Academy has used its powerful resources to spread the knowledge and culture that comes with the personal creativity of film with others around the world.  It is no surprise then that Nashville is the perfect place to cultivate such talent within the Kurdish community, since Nashville is a first stop destination city for various immigrants and is also the home to the largest Kurdish population in North America.

As a result, I made it my personal mission to attend at least one of the films that would showcase some of the raw talent that this country possesses.  I can successfully admit that I was not disappointed.  In the Lion’s Den was a gritty exposure to the inner (and outer) turmoil that forms when a generation of people are thrown into the pits of a war they don’t understand but are forced to choose a side and ultimately believe in what they are fighting for.

Hinged on the Biblical semblance of relying on faith to continue living and fighting for a moral stance, Director Fekri Baroshi, uses the deconstruction of basic binaries to complicate what we as humans try to simplify on a daily basis.  He poses the idea of right and wrong against each other and creates the question of what actually exists within ourselves when we are thrown into uncertain circumstances that depend on one moral versus another.  When these lines are blinded within a war, Baroshi looks at who the real enemy is and whether or not freedom is a mere euphemism for the justification of our actions.

Despite the underwhelming acting and the over-staged violence, this was most certainly a noteworthy solid film.  I also gave In the Lion’s Den three out of five stars because it was overall well-done.  Given the appropriate tools, outlets, and opportunities, I truly believe that the Kurdish film industry will knock us out of the water with what they will be able to create.  I am honored to have been a part of its initial construct.

As another one of my personal favorites of the festival, In the Fog moved me from the moment I took a glimpse at the initial trailer.  While many view silence as an awkward void that must be filled in order to reach a level of stable comfort, this particular film thrived on the essence of a breathless echo.  As a part of the World Cinema category, the name is the obvious base for the center focus of the storyline.

Following three separate male semi-protagonists, the swirl of fog and silence become the nestling catalyst for the heart breaking back-stories that follow each man from the beginning of the German invasion of Poland in World War II.  Similar to In the Lion’s Den, Director  Sergei Loznitsa builds a casual suspense throughout the whole movie by pitting two morals against one another making it difficult to determine the difference between what is considered right and what is considered wrong.  As a result, the film is riddled with symbolism that is supported by all aspects including lighting, camera position, sound, and pacing.

There was one scene in particular that exemplified this precisely.  Every now and then, I will find a scene in a film that is so beautiful yet somehow tucked away from the average movie-goer.  I feel like I have found a special gem that only the director and I know about, and despite the fact that I am not usually an emotional person at the movie theater, I tend to find myself lost in the sappiness of my own feelings.  This moment arrived for me when one of the main characters, Sushenya, revisits his past that explains his initial state of trouble: The Germans release Sushenya after interrogating him about some wrongdoings of his coworkers, thinking this will shame him greater than actually dying.  The accuracy of this assumption is the cruelest of all.  For his community, there is no honor in living with the stigma of aiding the Germans attached to your soul.  With this final verdict on his head, the camera follows Sushenya out into the sun, nestled directly on his shoulder so that we understand how he sees the weight of the world resting on his shoulders.  In this moment of utter mental despair, he turns around and makes eye contact with his fate, the Nazis.  In this single shot, the binaries of what is considered to be good or evil are broken down and reversed, capturing the two Nazi commanding officers standing genteelly in a bed of subtle yellow flowers surrounded by two sets of white picket fences.  Switching back to Sushenya, a single tear falls down his cheek and this becomes the statement of the whole film.

Due to the deep discussions of morality in films set in war, the pacing is typically slower and ruminates with the dragging of time.  In the Fog was no exception, and while I agreed that it was set at a good pace for the telling of the whole story, it could have easily been reduced by an hour.  There is also some slight predictability in the way it ends, but perhaps the audience knew that from the moment they heard the title of the film.  Similar to Dead Man’s Burden, Loznitsa uses silence as a character and it serves powerfully well as a catalyst for the raw emotion that floats in the air and mingles with the mist of uncertainty.

Once again, I gave this film a solid three out of five stars.  While I did absolutely love the pivotal moments of symbolism scattered throughout, the timing ultimately made me weary and I feel like more could have been accomplished to refine the film to a deeper state of finality.

Listed as a Special Presentation on the official NaFF (Nashville Film Festival) movie categorization, it was a treat to spend my first night of reviews in the packed attendance for upcoming Director, Jared Moshe’s, first anticipated Western.  Released nationwide in select theaters on May 3^rd, Dead Man’s Burden proved to be a solid first shot at making a movie.

With an impressive cast like Barlow Jacobs as Wade McCurry and Claire Bowen as Martha Kirkland, with a special guest appearance by veteran Richard Riehle, it is no wonder that this film was initially set up for success.  However, as time has proved again and again, unoriginality and repetition as a creative force no longer has a place and I have certainly lost the patience.  While there is brilliance to the few key moments of emotional hardship, there is too much lost in the replication of movie ghosts for there to be an overall redeemable quality.

Even at the end of the screening, the director himself admitted to having copied scene for scene with the olden Westerns of the silver vault. Much to his credit, there are a few aspects of Dead Man’s Burden that approved a head nod, such as using silent panorama as an active character within the movie itself.  This allowed for easy fade outs between scenes and gave an obvious breath-taking view of the landscape of New Mexico (where the film was shot) but the lack of music and constant stain of yellow left an aesthetic blindness that should have been balanced by the power of the grain of a 35 mm film.

It is no lie that the story is paced well and that the ending is certainly unpredictable (or at least I am terrible at guessing surprises) but the frame ratio to the actors had me slightly squeamish for the majority of the movie.  Director Moshe admitted that he realized how up close the actors would appear on the screen, making their heads enormously disproportionate.  He also agreed that this was his intention.  Once again, I disagreed because I felt it made things overcrowded and small which also caused multiple sound problems.

Ultimately, I gave the film three out of five stars.  It was a solid first film indeed and I have no doubt that there will be more from him in the future.  Since he clearly has no problem receiving backing and a budget, it will be nice to witness a more creative outlet for the next one.