When Josh Brolin’s character tells you that, “an army of technicians, actors, and top-notch artistic people are working hard to bring to the screen our biggest release of the year,” you cannot help but think he is not just talking about a fictional movie production. The Coen Brothers’ latest film Hail, Caesar! creates a glamorous world of nostalgia for the Golden Age of Hollywood, but is the film self-deprecating or self-indulgent?
Category Archives: Film
For Sale (Cheap): Lovely Manor with Minor Ghost Problem
As much as Crimson Peak loves to tell us exactly what is happening, there is the one instance where the movie doesn’t describe itself accurately. “Beware of Crimson Peak.” Only a few minor scares dot this movie; most of the work director Guillermo del Toro does focuses on the lighting and set itself, which make the movie look complex and beautiful, but unfortunately not very scary.
Continue reading For Sale (Cheap): Lovely Manor with Minor Ghost Problem
The Big Short: calculated bet or casino gambling?
Hollywood seems to love the financial collapse of 2008 and Princeton alum Michael Lewis. In the last five years, we’ve watched Margin Call, Too Big to Fail, and Inside Job explain the complicated financial meltdown to the average moviegoer. In the last five years, we’ve also watched screenplays adapted from Michael Lewis’ books, including Moneyball and The Blind Side. The Big Short, a movie about the housing bubble collapse adapted from Michael Lewis’ book of the same name, combines both of the industry’s love affairs.
Continue reading The Big Short: calculated bet or casino gambling?
Touched with Fire: The Insanity Behind Art and Love
When you watch the trailer for Touched with Fire, it’s easy to feel lost. It presents parallel mental breakdowns of a young woman and man, who recite pieces of poetry as they frantically write, draw, and stir a sense of confusion and anxiety in those around them. The hollow beat in the background grows louder as the trailer cuts sporadically from one image to the next, creating a crescendo effect that absorbs you into the panic as well. Everything blends into a fast blur of voices and images—and then it all stops. Suddenly, the pace of the trailer slows, and we see the same woman and man in a mental hospital trying to negotiate their way out. Continue reading Touched with Fire: The Insanity Behind Art and Love
Paul McGuigan’s Monster
Since the Edison film short Frankenstein back in 1910, Mary Shelley’s masterpiece has been adapted for the big screen countless times (most recently I, Frankenstein in 2014). Every time, the question is the same: how will this film distinguish itself from the ever-growing plethora of Frankenstein movies? Victor Frankenstein, directed by Paul McGuigan, wisely approaches the story from a fresh angle, presenting the life of Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy) through the eyes of his assistant Igor (Daniel Radcliffe), a character who doesn’t even exist in the original novel. While Victor’s and Igor’s characters are well developed, Radcliffe’s problematic voiceover, McAvoy’s shockingly inconsistent performance, and the film’s genre identity crisis make it unlikely to stand out from the crowd.
The (Pretty) Good Dinosaur
Passing judgment on Pixar movies can be a dangerous task. Almost inevitably, any unforgiving critique will encounter strident challenges from Pixar enthusiasts. I can say quite confidently, however, that The Good Dinosaur may very well be the most under-hyped film Pixar has ever released. This dearth of publicity is the product of several factors, not the least of which is a release in the shadow of the highly-anticipated and much-appreciated Inside Out, also by Pixar, earlier in June. Throw in a rocky production process—with one change of director, a huge story and cast overhaul, and two revised release dates—and you have yourself a box-office flop in the making. Whatever the causes, the general awareness of The Good Dinosaur, directed by Peter Sohn (Partly Cloudy, Ponyo), remains astonishingly low, and its overall reception astoundingly tepid. While some might suggest that Pixar has overreached in its attempt to deliver two big animated films in one year, I beg to differ.
Interview with A. O. Scott: Part 1
Recently the Princeton Buffer editors sat down with A. O. Scott, co-chief film critic (along with Manohla Dargis) at The New York Times. We asked him what it’s like at the Times, what a film critic does for fun, and what the future holds for him. Along the way we also discovered why our favorite movie reviewer prefers Spock to Kirk and why he thinks the job of a film critic is to be wrong.
In Part One of our interview, Scott talks about why he left graduate school, why he became a film critic, and why a new generation of film reviewers has given the profession new life. In Part Two Scott shares his personal likes and dislikes, his appreciation of cinema as a window on the world, and his secret to Better Living Through Criticism—the title of his new book coming out in February 2016.
Interview with A.O. Scott: Part 2
In Part 2 of our interview with The New York Times film critic A. O. Scott, he answers some quick “lightening round” questions on his favorite (and not so favorite) characters and movies, before sharing with us his thoughts on the art of criticism. For more of our conversation, see Interview with A. O. Scott: Part 1.
The Secret Life of Pets—Revealed!
When I was five years old, I always wondered what my dog did when she was alone. Could she talk? Could she read? Could she use the toilet instead of relieving herself right smack in the middle of the living room rug? Oh how I hoped so—and not just because I wouldn’t have to clean up her mess.
Chris Renaud’s The Secret Life of Pets has finally come to answer these burning questions. And from the film’s teaser trailer, the audience gets a sense that pets are secretly rather creative and adorably quirky—not unlike people.
The Spectacular Spectre
It’s Kevin and Lance here, weighing in on Daniel Craig’s fourth, and likely final, stint as 007 in Spectre, Sam Mendes’ recent addition to the Bond franchise. The film centers on Bond’s search for the conspirator behind the murder of the former M (Judi Dench). Bond’s vendetta takes him from London to Rome, Austria, Tangiers, the middle of the Sahara, and into the arms of the lovely Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux). During Bond’s search, C (Andrew Scott), the newly elected and data-crazed director-general of a branch of national security, eliminates the 00 program. Without much help from Q, Moneypenny, or the new M (Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, and Ralph Fiennes), Bond has to take down the mastermind behind the villainous SPECTRE organization (Christoph Waltz) with good aim, debonair looks, and classic Bond ingenuity.
Tarantino is Coming
Tarantino is back, and so is my overzealous fanboyism for the now-infallible auteur. Tarantino’s past few movies haven’t lived up to Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, but who cares? They’re still much better–aesthetically (gotta love 70mm), conceptually, etc.–than 99% of the movies that get put out in any given year. The Hateful Eight’s bottleneck concept is definitely a call back to Tarantino’s first feature, Reservoir Dogs, but I’m pretty sure, just by it’s silliness, The Hateful Eight will not be a return to true greatness. Just a continuation of good, solid filmmaking. It looks like Tarantino just wanted to have fun making a good-looking movie, in which Samuel L. Jackson gets to grow out his beard, dress up as a cowboy, and shoot white people with big fake guns. And that’s more than all right with me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_UI1GzaWv0
The Hateful Eight will be out in select cities on Christmas; everywhere January 8.
A Girl Grows in Brooklyn
Just in time for the holidays, Brooklyn delivers a visually stunning memoir of transition, loneliness, and letting go. Adapted from Colm Tóibín’s novel of the same name, Brooklyn captures the story of Eilis (Ay-lish) Lacey, a young woman who moves from rural Ireland to Brooklyn in the early 1950s in pursuit of a better future. Eilis (a perfectly cast Saoirse Ronan) finds herself torn between her two worlds, each meaningful in different ways, and conversely familiar to her as she matures in love and life. When can she let go of her old life to start anew? Brooklyn beautifully captures the conflict of what happens when there is no right answer to the question.