FANTASTIC FOUR (2015, directed by Josh Trank, 100 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Thirty years ago, the now long-gone Orion Pictures released Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. Right in the title, we were informed that this mediocre action film was born to be a franchise, based on a popular series of pulp paperbacks about a mercenary called “The Destroyer.” Well, the adventure began and ended there because the movie just wasn’t that good and audiences never showed up. Today, the fact that 20th Century Fox is expecting a franchise out of their third go-around for the Marvel super […]
Win Tix To See The Devil’s Backbone Midnight Sat.
In the run up to the August 21st theatrical release of SINISTER 2, the much-anticipated sequel to 2012’s SINISTER, the people that hype these things are holding special “SINISTER SATURDAYS” midnight screenings at the PFS Roxy Theater of the films that inspired SINISTER 2. This weekend’s midnight offering is a special screening of 2001’s THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE directed by the impish master of creepy Guillermo del Toro, and Saturday, 8/15’s feature presentation will be the original SINISTER. Each screening will feature exclusive content from the makers of SINISTER 2. Sounds like a perfect date movie for people who think […]
CINEMA: Irrational Exuberance
IRRATIONAL MAN (2015, directed by Woody Allen, 96 minutes, U.S.< ) EXHUMED FILMS @ THE MAHONING DRIVE-IN THEATER BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC A full 45 features into his directing career, Woody Allen returns with a solid entry in his late-career revival. Irrational Man certainly hits on many of the themes and totems we’ve seen explored in previous Allen films (existential ennui, May-September romance, murder plots et al) yet the film has enough fresh elements and performances to warrant turning yourself over to another of the Wood Man’s late-period dramas. Allen has told crime stories before, this is the first […]
CINEMA: In A White Room
ROOM tells the extraordinary story of Jack (Jacob Tremblay in a breakout performance), a spirited 5 year-old who is looked after by his loving and devoted Ma (Brie Larson, SHORT TERM 12, TRAINWRECK). Like any good mother, Ma dedicates herself to keeping Jack happy and safe, nurturing him with warmth and love and doing typical things like playing games and telling stories. Their life, however, is anything but typical—they are trapped—confined to a windowless, 10-by-10-foot space, which Ma has euphemistically named “Room.” Ma has created a whole universe for Jack within Room, and she will stop at nothing to ensure […]
CINEMA: I Am Chris Farley
DAILY BEAST: He was a very sweet guy before midnight,” says Bob Saget, who directed Farley in Dirty Work just before his death. “He was as open, like a 6-year-old, as he was dark. And the darkness was compelling, but not something you’d want to be around.” Like many of the comics in I Am Chris Farley, Saget gets emotional remembering his late friend. “All that love that came out of the guy was just his nature, that was him apologizing for a lot of stuff I wish he never had to apologize for,” he laments. Odenkirk, whose collaborations […]
CINEMA: Tangerine Dreams
TANGERINE (2015, directed by Sean S. Baker, 88 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Tangerine is a breezy joyride of a summer movie, like American Graffiti if Dreyfuss and Ron Howard were transgender streetwalkers. Or maybe the B-action film from 1982, Vice Squad, which also featured a prostitute on violent journey through the seedy side of L.A. Both these films share a delirious momentum with Tangerine, as their protagonists cruise through the night intersecting with crazy characters and mayhem. Director Sean S. Baker’s new film taps into all that nighttime energy but its most modern edge is the respect […]
Win Tix To See The End Of The Tour @ The Prince
Time is short, so I will cut to the chase: we have a handful of tix to see a special VIP screening of THE END OF THE TOUR, starring Jason Segel as novelist David Foster Wallace and Jesse Eisenberg as the magazine writer guy that followed him around on the book tour for Infinite Jest for an article that never published and then turned it into a book/movie after the author’s suicide in 2008 and thereby incurred the wrath of DFW disciples from here to Pluto. The screening is at 7:30 Wednesday night at The Prince Theater. To qualify […]
CINEMA: Truly, Madly Amy
FRESH AIR Comedian Amy Schumer is — by her own admission — an oversharer. Whether she’s talking about one-night stands or drinking habits, she has a tendency to bare all. In 2011, Schumer’s blend of honesty and humor caught the attention of director Judd Apatow, who heard her being interviewed on the radio by Howard Stern. “She was telling stories about her relationships and also stories about her dad, who has multiple sclerosis … and the stories were very dark and sad, but … they were really funny and warm at the same time,” Apatow tells Fresh Air’s Terry […]
CINEMA: Sonics Doc Makers Launch Indiegogo Fund
Yesterday award-winning director Jordan Albertsen (THE STANDARD) and producer Brian Scott Robinson launched their Indiegogo campaign for their feature documentary BOOM! A Film About The Sonics, which will chronicle this history of the Pacific Northwest proto-punk band’s rise, fall, and unlikely and triumphant return. At once both a completely unknown band and an enduring legendary influence, The Sonics are considered by many to be the Rosetta Stone of punk music. The Sonics were a clear influence on innumerable bands, including The Hives, Nirvana (“They’ve got the most amazing drum sound I’ve ever heard.” – Kurt Cobain), The Kinks (“A […]
Win Tix To A Special VIP Screening Of Trainwreck
If, like Esquire, we had an annual WOMEN WE LOVE issue, Amy Schumer would be at the top, the bottom and everywhere in between. But we don’t. Instead, we just hire women we love — women who rock, women who rant, women who make us wonder, women who make us worry, women who make milk shoot out our nose on a good day — which, to our mind, is progress. Anyway, let us get down off my Alan Alda soapbox and tell you what I came here to tell you: That we have 20 pairs of tickets to a […]
INCOMING: Natural Bourne Killers
Pretty badass movie poster by artist Jim Evans, aka T.A.Z. ( The Beastie Boys, The Wu Tang Clan, Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Saw franchise) was unveiled at Comic Con for American Ultra, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart, which, judging by the trailer, looks like The Manchurian Candidate meets The Big Lebowski. In theaters August 21st.
CONTEST: Win Tix To A Special Advance Screening Of The New Amy Winehouse Documentary
Amy Winehouse was a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. We all know the power and the grace of Back To Black and we all know about her harrowing decline and premature death. The new and rightfully acclaimed documentary Amy, which opens Friday at the Ritz, reveals the back story behind the music and the actual person behind the grotesque, strobe-flashed caricature the media depicted. The film makes the case that the very factors that fueled her bottomless ambition and stratospheric rise — the psychic wounds incurred in adolescence, the debilitating insecurity and self-loathing that triggered her bulimia and a […]
CINEMA: The Stanford Prison Experiment
What happens when a college psych study goes shockingly wrong? In this tense, psychological thriller based on the notorious true story, Billy Crudup stars as Stanford University professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who, in 1971, cast 24 student volunteers as prisoners and guards in a simulated jail to examine the source of abusive behavior in the prison system. The results astonished the world, as participants went from middle-class undergrads to drunk-with-power sadists and submissive victims in just a few days. Winner of two awards at the Sundance Film Festival, including Best Screenplay, and created with the close participation of Dr. Zimbardo […]