REVIEW: Repair Us [2014]

“What do you suggest we do?” There’s a moment at the beginning of Mikael Ayele and Catherine Ames‘ short film Repair Us when Nicole (Ames) is joking around with her boyfriend Brandan (Ayele) about what they can do to spice up their stagnant relationship and rekindle a waning flame. She goes through a list of the usual suspects as far as role-playing is concerned—nurse, schoolgirl, nun—before eventually laughing off a suggestion of doubling herself for a menage a trois. It’s a deft bit of reaction shot cutting from his wry…

Read More

NYAFF14 REVIEW: 風暴 [Fung bou] [Firestorm] [2013]

“Do you have evidence?” For fifty minutes—minus one crazy hand-to-hand combat fight on top of a fallen metal gate suspended over two adjacent buildings’ fire escapes in midair—writer/director Alan Yuen‘s 風暴 [Fung bou] [Firestorm] is a fast paced actioner that fearlessly goes to the darkest corners Hollywood never would. After it crosses that threshold of time, however, the film goes off the rails like an out of control locomotive crashing into everything along its path until it culminates in an epic street shootout with enough destruction to rival Man of…

Read More

Posterized Propaganda July 2014: ‘Magic in the Moonlight,’ ‘A Most Wanted Man,’ ‘Life Itself’ and More

“Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” is a proverb whose simple existence proves the fact impressionable souls will do so without fail. This monthly column focuses on the film industry’s willingness to capitalize on this truth, releasing one-sheets to serve as not representations of what audiences are to expect, but as propaganda to fill seats. Oftentimes they fail miserably. Oof. There are a couple good posters this month. That’s it. And I don’t mean “a couple” hyperbolically either. There are maybe two I’d consider looking at again at the…

Read More