Every Monday Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: Ouija, John Wick, White Bird in a Blizzard, Laggies, Citizenfour, Force Majeure and 23 Blast.
It is easy to be a bit cynical about the state of modern commercial filmmaking. So many of today’s wide-released movies are either remakes of a remake of a remake or star a buff white dude fighting crime (usually in a cape or police uniform). With big studios investing so much money in the big movies we see today, they cannot afford to take huge risks.
Dracula Untold tries to be a lot of different things – a PG-13 horror movie, a historical epic, a Gothic romance, a superhero origin story – and it does it all while at the same time trying to kick start an Avengers-style shared movie universe. Whether you call that ambitious or just the obvious product of too many cooks in the kitchen, it doesn’t succeed on every front. But remarkably enough, as a pure popcorn movie, it doesn’t completely fall apart, either.
Every Monday Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: Fury, The Best of Me, The Book of Life, Birdman, Dear White People, Listen Up Philip, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Camp X-Ray, The Tale of Princess Kaguya and Watchers of the Sky.
Let’s be honest, the best reason to see this film is Kate Beckinsale. She is beauty, talent and skill that transcends all barriers of marketing appeal. We can focus this whole article on her but out of duty, I have to talk about this film.
An independent filmmaker wears many different hats: director, writer, producer, investor, et cetera. Now add to this list social media manager.
The word “gritty” is often used by reviewers to describe films which portray graphic physical violence, lone wolf characters, and probably a line of coke or two. While I feel that’s accurate, my own personal definition for a gritty film differs slightly. If I describe a film as gritty, expect it to be both emotionally and physically violent and draining.
Coming to theaters is Into the Woods directed by Rob Marshall. It’s a musical fantasy film starring Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick, and Johnny Depp. Before your brain jumps to conclusions, Tim Burton has nothing to do with this film.
If the media blitz preceding its release is anything to go by, Gone Girl is being pitched as brooding, twisty, and somewhat orthodox whodunnit. If you buy a ticket expecting just that, you won’t be disappointed. David Fincher’s film, based on Gillian Flynn’s novel of the same name, has all the shifty intricacies you’d hope for in a thriller.
Every Monday Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: The Judge, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, Dracula Untold, Addicted, Whiplash, Kill the Messenger, One Chance, Dead Snow 2, The Devil’s Hand, I Am Ali, and The Overnighters.
Jon Lovitz is a name most young folks don’t know or remember. He is an alumni of Saturday Night Live way back from 1985 to 1990. If you don’t know him from there then maybe you remember him as this guy.
Every week Film Inquiry publishes the movies that are opening in cinemas! This week: Gone Girl, The Good Lie, Annabelle, Men, Women & Children, Left Behind and The Blue Room.
If you ask somebody about the war films they’ve seen, the first titles that come to mind are usually large-scale epics that feature scenes of combat and violence. These films effectively depict the horrors of war. However, the level of action in some of these films can be distracting and compromise our emotional involvement with the characters once we see how quickly they can vanish, and the level of violence that can occur.
Now that the summer sun has set and winter is on the way, it’s as good a time as any to reflect on the best that cinemas had to offer for those who wished to hide away from the heat in darkened screening rooms. Without further ado, here are my top five kings of summer blockbusters 2014. 5.
Chilean Filmmaker Pablo Larraín never mentioned the word Trilogy when he embarked on creating Tony Manero (2008), Post Mortem (2010) and No (2012), however, these three films do act as part of a whole: Larraín’s vision regarding Pinochet’s military coup of 1973 and the ensuing dictatorship. Tony Manero and Post Mortem are both grim parables of folks stuck in a moral stupor, wandering the streets of a Chile that no longer knows itself, that silently witnesses the arrest and disappearance of hundreds of people every day, violence and torture a common thing and a convenient shroud for the crimes of civilians.