REVIEW: Endings, Beginnings [2020]

I’m not trying to make you feel better. This isn’t a love triangle romance. Daphne (Shailene Woodley) hates feeling like the star of “The Bachelorette” upon learning the two men she sparks connections with at a party (Jamie Dornan‘s Jack and Sebastian Stan‘s Frank) are best friends. If she could, she’d walk away from both since this period of her life was supposed to revolve around a self-prescribed six-month sabbatical from all vices: alcohol and men alike. That’s not who she is, though. She’s never dealt with being alone well…

Read More

REVIEW: The Edge of Seventeen [2016]

“You should look out for run-on sentences” If you ever wondered what a John Hughes movie would look like without the cutesy cliché and overblown 1980s caricatured comedic appeal, Kelly Fremon Craig‘s The Edge of Seventeen is it. So don’t treat the talk about it being a “twenty-first century Hughes” film as hyperbole or a slight because the shoe fits its depiction of angst-fueled, hilarious embarrassment. What it lacks is the need to feed into stereotype, sentiment, and melodrama that weigh reality down into fairy tale. This is the life…

Read More

REVIEW: Time Out of Mind [2015]

“She’s coming back” One of the easiest things we can do in modern society is marginalize strangers. To laugh and assume we know what has transpired to place some nameless soul in his/her current position only takes a second devoid of context whereas beginning a conversation requires so much more. We reject compassion because it necessitates effort when we’re too busy dealing with our own troubles to carve out time for someone else. That leaves two options: ignore his/her plight altogether or transform him/her into some form of personal entertainment.…

Read More

REVIEW: Man on a Ledge [2012]

“I can see his leg shaking from here” I’ll give TV movie scribe Pablo F. Fenjves light applause for hooking me during the first two thirds, but the real kudos go to documentarian Asger Leth and his ability to make even the implausibly contrived and impossibly far-fetched finale not take away from the entertaining little gem his fiction debut Man on a Ledge surprisingly ends up being. It’s convenient, convoluted, and pretty hard to stomach in terms of realism, but something about the acting and sporadic bits of humor kept…

Read More

REVIEW: Singles [1992]

“What took you so long?” Finally I have caught up with all of Cameron Crowe’s films. Like his directorial debut, Say Anything …, Singles brings us great music, a cast of unknowns we all know now, and a story with heart and laughs. Maybe it just goes to where I am in my life at the moment, but this movie really resonated with me. The fact that life relies so much on luck, whether good or bad, to shape our personal relationships, our career, and our loves is quite prevalent.…

Read More