REVIEW: It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. [2007]

“You might be handicapped, but you’re still a man” The title It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. works as a declarative statement from co-directors Crispin Hellion Glover and David Brothers that what you’re watching is ‘normal’. Written and starring Steven C. Stewart, the film depicts a fantasized world of sex and violence—physical manifestations of the inner psyche of a man afflicted by Cerebral Palsy. Glover and Brothers want to make us aware that Stewart was not exploited; their film is not a gratuitous exercise in insensitivity or art house pornography.…

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REVIEW: Yogi Bear [2010]

“The microphone is on” I’m pretty sure I watched the old “Yogi Bear Show” cartoon from Hanna Barbera growing up, but I can’t recollect anything besides the titular character’s goofy voice and the park ranger constantly screaming his name in defeated angst. What I want to remember, however, is that it was good. Granted, I was young and not much was probably needed to keep me entertained and interested, but if the new live action/animated hybrid from visual effects superstar Eric Brevig gives any indication through ‘precise mirroring’ of its…

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REVIEW: Knight and Day [2010]

“Your timing to open that door was sublime” Maybe Tom Cruise has the right idea changing gears into comedic fare. Ever since the brilliant cameo in Tropic Thunder, his want to branch out has been obvious—although the Les Grossman film is a scary thought in my mind—but until seeing Knight and Day, I had my doubts he could pull it off. Cruise has always had the capacity to deliver lines with humor, but here he does so without fail from start to finish. I think the fact it’s an action/comedy…

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REVIEW: Restrepo [2010]

“You look up, you say your prayers, and you move on” It may be the label of the outpost built while under heavy fire in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, but Restrepo still stands for the man from which it was named. A young soldier enjoying life, Juan Restrepo is seen in the opening minutes as a self-proclaimed ‘beast that can’t be tamed’ and a man the others look to for a smile. Many tell their stories of him later, on the anniversary of his death—tales of hardened, long fingernails to play…

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REVIEW: Monsters [2010]

“I don’t cause it, I just document it” I’m not sure you can call it an alien invasion when we send a space probe out to find information, only to have it crash land over Mexico upon its return with extra-terrestrial life. America brought its new enemy to the world of Gareth Edwards’s Monsters, a human story of survival, fear, and love six years after the creatures have taken over the middle of North America, coast to coast. The area is now known as the Infected Zone and it shouldn’t…

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REVIEW: What Is It? [2005]

“It’s burning” Finding out that the ever-eccentric Crispin Glover was coming to town with his new film It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. first gave way to excitement at the prospect and then curiosity to attempt catching a glimpse of his directorial debut What Is It?, both part of a planned It? Trilogy. Only viewable at his personal road shows, I’m not sure the ability to see the actual film even exists anymore. There is, however, a bootleg copy roaming the internets, and so the completist in me was able…

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REVIEW: Exit Through the Gift Shop [2010]

“Street art was poised to become the biggest countercultural movement since punk” One of the final sentiments in mysterious street artist Banksy’s documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop is the most telling statement spoken in the entire film. Who is the joke on? It’s a question that unfortunately leads to the answer of everyone, but especially those who consider themselves artists. We all know how subjective our craft is; whether the work is accepted or not, though, good or bad, as long as it elicits a reaction, we like to…

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REVIEW: Cyrus [2010]

“Its like a crippled tree reaching for heaven” I’m not sure anyone makes awkward comedies quite like Jay and Mark Duplass. Even though their newly found mainstream status as filmmakers has caused an evolution from the old days of Mumblecore, it hasn’t knocked those off-kilter sensibilities away. Their latest endeavor, Cyrus, is a huge step forward in that it has enticed a reasonably seasoned cast of actors to lend the film a more professional feel, for lack of a better term. That’s not to say the previous collaborations weren’t, they…

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REVIEW: Easy A [2010]

“The Accelerated Velocity of Terminological Inexactitude” Who knew Huck Finn had such homosexual overtones? And who knew Easy A—a film I now regret not having caught at its TIFF debut three months ago, dismissing it as a low-brow tween comedy—would be such a great film? Director Will Gluck has just cemented himself as a guy whose work I will no longer preconceive as unworthy of my time—yes, I will admit to being mesmerized by the surprising comedic glory of his debut film Fired Up! He and writer Bert V. Royal…

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Top 100 Albums of 2010

(short and sweet and to the point; culled from listening to 502 releases—at time of publishing—from 2010. ask me tomorrow and the list will probably be drastically different, but you have to lock ’em in sometime. click album cover for website) #100: I Speak Because I Can by Laura Marling #99: LP4 by Ratatat #98: Wilderness Heart by Black Mountain #97: Libraries by The Love Language #96: To The Sea by Jack Johnson #95: Star Tiger, Star Ariel by Delays #94: God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise by Ray…

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Telling your story brings you home … Babel’s Maxine Hong Kingston

With Ed Cardoni back to open the festivities of the second installment of Just Buffalo Literary Center’s fourth Babel season, one could catch a quick glimpse of Maxine Hong Kingston trying to get on stage. During his tales of art funds and legislature votes and veto prevention, Kingston walked through the door before being asked to return backstage until after Michael Kelleher’s introduction of the series’ first American-born author. It was a sign of her enthusiasm and joy in talking to her fans and speaking about her work—each novel a…

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