indie
Every year when Oscar season rolls around I become an increasingly cynical person. I stop enjoying the movies I’m watching and instead start to tick off the list of tropes I see in a game I like to call “Oscar-bait Bingo.” In the coming months, cinema screens worldwide will be treated to my two least favorite Oscar-baiting sub-genres:
“These men who bust their asses work like dogs. And I believe in them, but every day they hurt. They get old, they peel back…
Nightcrawler, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, balances the crime thriller, dark comedy, and character study genres with ease. The film focuses on Louis Bloom, a mysterious young insomniac who takes to the nighttime streets of Los Angeles in an attempt to capture the most shocking breaking news. Armed with his video camera and sidekick, Rick, Louis turns real life car crashes and murders into exciting film clips to headline the morning stories.
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.
An independent filmmaker wears many different hats: director, writer, producer, investor, et cetera. Now add to this list social media manager.
What do Fleetwood Mac, surgical mutilation and a delightfully chubby Haley Joel Osment have in common? Along with a recurring erotic nightmare of mine, Kevin Smith’s new film Tusk. Based on an episode of Smith’s long-running “SModcast,” Tusk tells the story of podcaster Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) who embarks into Manitoba on a quest for new material.
According to my personal checklist, the extent to which a film can affect a viewer is a mark of its quality. Pioneer must have done something right, because it absolutely wrecked my sense of calm. A full 24 hours after watching director Erik Skjoldbjærg’s thriller for the first time, I still find myself feeling strangely uneasy – stealing glances over my shoulder, eyeing my friends and family with icy distrust…I even threw out a plate of unattended food on the off chance it had been poisoned by the shady agents of a deep-sea drilling conglomerate.
Escape From Tomorrow is a nightmare in black and white. From the opening moments to the final scene, the story unfolds in the most mind-bending ways. I grew up with very little black and white film.
Fading Gigolo is the comedy written and directed by John Turturro, who also plays the lead role of gigolo Fioravante. Woody Allen plays Fioravante’s pimp, Murray. Both men are in need of cash as their flower and book stores aren’t doing so well.
Last weekend I attended a screening of Jim Jarmusch’s latest production, Only Lovers Left Alive, at the Luna Leederville Cinema here in Perth (which, by the way, is a beautiful original 20’s art deco cinema). While I’ve only seen two of Jim Jarmusch’s movies (Coffee and Cigarettes and Dead Man), Only Lovers Left Alive has Jarmusch’s distinctly recognizable style: it’s dark, pretty, it’s gritty, and very witty (how’s that for rhyming?
Kristin Bell is back as Veronica Mars! Kimberly Gamble, a “Mashmallow” herself, reviews the movie.
Dallas Buyers Club isn’t just a story about a dude in the 1980’s that got AIDS and built a drugs emporium – it’s much more than that.
Anyone who enjoys a complex character should see Filth. We discuss the movie’s representation of corruption and explanations for criminal behavior.