It is very tempting to begin this review with a food pun: to speak about how tastefully done or how flavorful the film is. But while certain elements of the film were certainly tasteful, the film as a whole was just bland. And despite its name, Chef is less about the experience of being a chef and more about two very broad groundbreaking themes: “Be the person who you want to be” and “Family is always important.”
Continue reading Chef: A Dish Served from the Heart but Without Much Art
I must confess up front that I seldom get much enjoyment out of horror movies. I decided to watch Ouija on a whim and my opinion hasn’t changed. Teenagers find and play with a Ouija board, evil spirits get involved, hapless teens suffer the consequences—riveting, huh? Continue reading Ouija Bored
You have watched all these scenes before, but they have never been so funny. David Wain’s They Came Together is a parody of the romantic comedy genre, a distillation of every hackneyed trope into eighty minutes of absurdity.
If you liked the premise of Lord of the Flies but thought it was too disheartening and complex, perhaps The Maze Runner will be more palatable. Based on the first book of James Dashner’s science fiction trilogy of the same title, The Maze Runner opens with protagonist Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) in utter confusion, having had his memory wiped clean. He wakes up in a settlement called “the Glade,” where he finds that everyone is male and has had the exact same experience, namely suffering from severe amnesia and unable to provide any context to what’s happening. Unfortunately, we share in the exact same experience for the rest of the film, trapped within walls of confusion and asking ourselves “why am I here?”
My 7-year relationship with True Blood lasted longer than any relationship I’ve been in, and yet still managed to end the same – with a boot print on its butt and a firm “Good riddance!” on its way out the door. The title of the finale was “Thank You,” though I think an apology would have been more fitting. Continue reading True Blood’s Demise: The Final Nail in the Coffin
Violence is difficult to treat honestly. Many directors are guilty of either shying away from gory scenes entirely or using them to make the audience uneasy. Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin, new on Netflix, takes a different tact by insisting that violence does not come out of a vacuum but from human emotions.
As the movie begins Dwight (Macon Blair) discovers that the man who killed his parents has been released from prison. Dwight is a broken man, devastated by the murders, and like a cornered animal he feels he has no option but to lash out. Inexperienced in the act of killing and delirious with adrenaline, Dwight runs scared from the bloody scene he has created, and scrambles to escape in his victim’s car.
An enthusiastic young man beams at his potential employer. “What I believe, sir,” he nods, “is that good things come to those who work their asses off.” His pitch is self-assured and friendly. A watch, expensive and stylish, jingles on his wrist as he physically punctuates his points with zeal. The watch belongs to the man he beat to death less than an hour ago.
Continue reading Déjà Vu All Over Again: Nightcrawler is Fun but Done
That The Hollywood Reporter calls Kenya Barris’s new fall comedy Black-Ish “one of fall’s strongest comedies” of the season is a telltale sign that networks need to produce stronger comedies. Set around the daily routine of an upper-middle-class African American family, Black-ish introduces audiences to a quaint, and at times even funny, family of six who just want to navigate this brave new world of living large in a predominantly white environment.
At its best, Black-ish could facilitate a much-needed alternative to the current landscape of primetime comedy, which often scurries over more serious issues of socioeconomic status, race, and gender. Ironically, in its painfully overt desire to address these issues from a new perspective, Black-ish fails to broaden the representation of minority characters and instead perpetuates the flat, uninspired stereotypes that drove demand for something different. Enough with the ‘ish’ – it’s time to just be black. Continue reading Black-Ish: If You Insist
If you overheard a conversation in my family, you might think that we hate each other. Teasing, mockery, and insults abound when we reunite. We rehash embarrassing old stories, deriving pleasure from one another’s mistakes. But we don’t hate each other, I swear—we’re drawn together by this shared sense of humor. It defines us not individually, but together. Comedy makes my family mine, and that sense of humor I bring with me everywhere always ties me back to the home I grew up in. Unlike many comedies, whose only purpose seems to be making the audience laugh, The Skeleton Twins taps into the complex, human side of comedy. Continue reading The Skeleton Twins: A Comedy of Purpose
“You don’t wanna be in love. You wanna be in love in a movie.” Nora Ephron wrote that line. And put it in a movie. The fact that Rosie O’Donnell—as confidante and close friend Becky in 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle, released this month on Netflix—can bark that line at a misty-eyed Meg Ryan without setting off alarm bells of scriptwriting self-consciousness is, perhaps, impressive. In the world of Sleepless there’s a lot of talk (period) and a lot of talk of romance in particular: degrees, gradations, how do you know, and how do you know you know. This chattiness is largely due to the film’s central plot conceit: it’s a love story where boy doesn’t meet girl until the final frames. Time that would be filled by first dates and lovers’ quarrels is, in Sleepless, mainly devoted to wondering. Continue reading Sleepless in Seattle: Boy Meets Skeptic
It’s a bit ironic that Divergent tries to emphasize the importance of nonconformity while doing so little to set itself apart from the flood of dystopian films hitting theaters recently. Continue reading Distracted from Distraction by Divergent
When I use the word “superhero,” certain images may spring to mind: the outrageously defined muscles and superfluously nippled armor of Batman; the solid jaw and immovable hair curl of Superman; or even the smooth, pendulum swooping of your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. What isn’t expected from the primary-colored plethora of superheroes is a tubby, overeager goofball of a kid who can only use his powers after he eats novelty cat-shaped ice cream sandwiches. Nevertheless, Steven Universe, the title character of Cartoon Network’s new cartoon, fits that description and he has quickly become my new favorite superhero.
Continue reading Steven Universe and the Art of Heartfelt Heroism
