REVIEW: Children Without Parents [2013]

“Who even said you were my kid?” The tagline for Casey Puccini‘s autobiographical fiction Children Without Parents is a disturbing proposition in context with its subject matter. As a film dealing with a quartet of siblings coming together at the house of their father days after his suicide, the words “this film will be a true story” have serious gravity to them. I get the meaning is more aligned with explaining how real life reactions to this death will be similar to what’s depicted and not an anticipation of his…

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REVIEW: Bad Hurt [2016]

“It’s kind of a forgotten place” The kitchen sink’s thrown against the wall with bathtub, toilet, and whatever else made of easily-shattered porcelain in the house following right behind—this is Mark Kemble‘s Bad Hurt. Adapted from his semi-autobiographical play “Bad Hurt on Cedar Street” with the help of Jamieson Stern, the film depicts a dysfunctional family that drew the shortest of straws in terms of volatility and hardship. But with that burden comes the capacity for strength in love to somehow overcome. Doing so is difficult, enough that the attempt…

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REVIEW: What Happened, Miss Simone? [2015]

“I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear” As someone who heard “Feeling Good” on a Muse album in the early 2000s thinking it was their song until the promotional advertisements for season four of “Six Feet Under” got me researching the female vocalist singing its “new” rendition, a documentary on Nina Simone is something my musical education was in desperate need of watching. But that doesn’t mean Liz Garbus‘ film won’t also resonate with the musician’s most ardent fans—it’s extensive look at her tumult and genius can…

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REVIEW: 旺角卡門 [Wong gok ka moon] [As Tears Go By] [1988]

“I found that glass” Writer/Director Kar Wai Wong hit the scene in 1988 with gangster drama 旺角卡門 [Wong gok ka moon] [As Tears Go By] in a way that many compare to Martin Scorsese‘s debut splash Mean Streets. It’s a gritty look at the streets of Hong Kong populated by men who are nothing without their fearsome reputations. “Guts” are what sustain them, keeping them alive within this cutthroat underground of tough guys bluffing in the hopes loud threats prove enough to stay at the top and crazy psychopaths calling…

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REVIEW: Hail, Caesar! [2016]

“It’s all in the hips, the lips, the eyes, and the thighs” You don’t think much when you read the Coen Brothers have been bouncing Hail, Caesar! around since 2004. After all, they’re prolific auteurs that often write scripts for other directors, so a decade-long gestation period is nothing to scoff at. Only when you learn the idea was little more than an idea that you start wondering about the final product. Maybe they loved that initial pitch so much the words simply poured out over the last couple years.…

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REVIEW: Shopping [1994]

“Don’t get caught” I don’t know what it is about Paul W.S. Anderson, but I very rarely dislike his flicks no matter the critical consensus or fandom drubbings. He isn’t the best director out there but he has created some interesting vehicles despite it—enough to accept the fact that Hollywood studios will continue giving him money to make them. And even though it’s a far cry from the video game adaptations serving as his claim to fame, Anderson’s debut Shopping feels right at home alongside Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat.…

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