REVIEW: Raising Victor Vargas [2002]

“I guess you wouldn’t know how it feels to get nervous around certain people” I really enjoyed Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, but seeing it at the Toronto Film Festival with director Peter Sollett in attendance only made me want to see his debut, the acclaimed Raising Victor Vargas, more. This fact slipped my mind for the next couple years, though, until HBO came out with a new show called “How to Make It in America” starring that film’s leading newcomer Victor Rasuk. The itch to check it out came…

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REVIEW: Teeth [2007]

“Now show me yours” What’s the best way to get out from underneath your famous father’s shadow? How about write and direct a film about a teenager afflicted with vagina dentata? Yeah, that should do the trick. Mitchell Lichtenstein, son of famed Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, deciding to delve into feature film with the horror/comedy Teeth certainly thought so. It is definitely unlike anything I’ve ever seen and uniquely original, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Besides the premise being inventive and the second half of the film eliciting…

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REVIEW: Last Minutes with ODEN [2009]

“Love’s ultimate meaning” There isn’t really much to say about Eliot Rausch’s depiction of Jason Wood’s final moments with his cancer-stricken dog ODEN. Spanning a short six minutes, the tale shares an emotional voiceover about the owner’s eventual acceptance to end his friend and companion’s suffering. Limping on only three legs, but still as loyal as ever to Wood and his friends, ODEN’s time had come; his job of serving unconditionally was completed. The film may be emotional and unforgiving in its depiction of the grief death inflicts, even if…

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REVIEW: Art & Copy [2009]

“Advertising should be like poison gas” George Lois is my new hero. The guy has confidence and pride to spare, exuding a self-image of Hercules, able to sell anything with a couple hours and a decent budget. While he may rub you the wrong way—full of himself to the point you may rather punch him in the face than want to do anything he asks in fear of inflating his ego more—the man is a genius and understands what it means to sell. You must go for broke, reach for…

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REVIEW: Brødre [Brothers] [2004]

“He had a little boy” I really don’t mind Hollywood remaking films, honestly. If a filmmaker really enjoyed something made overseas, I can’t blame him for wanting to expose America to what resonated so well personally to him. However, shouldn’t he then go the route of Tarantino or Scorsese and bring the actual movie over, helping audiences experience the original? Or have we become so self-righteous and elitist that subtitles cannot be bothered with? Are we really that lazy? To be fair, I haven’t seen the new remake Brothers, so…

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REVIEW: Let It Ride [1989]

“This is just taking advantage of an extraordinary business opportunity” I sometimes forget how blatant music was used in films of the 1980s. Let It Ride may have been made in 1989, but it did not leave that trend behind quite yet. Not only do the cheesy rock ballads come through at the start, the montage shots behind the credits are graced with one that has the title in the lyrics. That’s just how Hollywood rolled in the 80s, and the process recalled those films of John Hughes, a man…

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REVIEW: Something’s Gotta Give [2003]

“Sorry, you’re granddad will be okay” Being given Something’s Gotta Give because of what my friend said were major similarities to Nancy Meyers’s latest film It’s Complicated, I wasn’t prepared for Crazy Town’s ‘Butterfly’ to be blaring amongst a collage of beautiful women using their wiles to gain access to nightclubs and turn heads on the streets at the start. But then Jack Nicholson’s voiceover enters the fray and it starts to make sense being he is a hip hop mogul with a penchant for women under 30—as in he’s…

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REVIEW: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief [2010]

“It’s like High School, but without the Musical” Who else could have the catchy pop beats to lull a trio of mythologically inclined heroes into a trance, keeping them from their task at hand, than Lady Gaga? Director Chris Columbus made the right call on that one as he takes the plunge into yet another popular fantasy series, hoping to achieve the success he had in starting the Harry Potter saga. My main gripe with the first two films there was that he stayed too true to the source material,…

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REVIEW: Shutter Island [2010]

“Retreat isn’t something you consider an option” Very rarely does a film meet, let alone exceed, the expectations of the piece of literature it is based upon. With a director like Martin Scorsese, however, you do hold out hope that it will at least come close. But with postponements from the Oscar wheelhouse of a fall release and the move to a dump month such as February, concern weighed very heavy. Maybe the departure in subject matter caused the venerable auteur to falter a bit, unsure of how to handle…

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REVIEW: Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty [2009]

“With the help of God” Ever wonder what might happen to your beloved childhood bedtime stories if they were told to you by your bitter, disgruntled grandmother? Wonder no more because director Nicky Phelan has brought the world the experience with her animated version of writer Kathleen O’Rourke’s character in Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty. There is nothing like a theatrical old woman telling a story, doing her best to draw out strong emotions while her own get the better of her. The short film’s granddaughter just wants to go to…

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REVIEW: Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death [2009]

“Curse that prevailing southwesterly” Even though it debuted on British television in 2008, Nick Park’s newest installment in the (mis)adventures of his claymation pals Wallace and Gromit finally hit the States last year, just in time to be nominated for an Animated Short Oscar. I never had any interest in checking the work out, no matter how fun it appeared, but relented when Curse of the Were-Rabbit was released as a feature length film. Suffice it to say, my first foray into the world was not very good as the…

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