REVIEW: The Birth of a Nation [2016]

“I pray you sing to the Lord a new song” It’s impossible to watch Nate Parker‘s The Birth of a Nation today without making note of the controversy surrounding him. Emotions have run high and the first-time director has met a backlash of calls for boycott stemming from a 1999 rape case of which he was acquitted. The victim later committed suicide and his public response upon discovering this news didn’t necessarily show remorse like many believed it should. It’s tough to say now whether he was innocent of wrongdoing—look…

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REVIEW: About Sunny [Think of Me] [2013]

“Think of something that makes you both happy” It’s intriguing to note how many buzzed about films depicting parents who don’t know how or simply can’t do the job were released on the festival circuit between 2010-2012. You don’t have to look far to see myriad examples of this concept right outside our doors as “babies are having babies” without the ability to stop being selfish so they can take on the responsibility. But while Sofia Coppola‘s Somewhere and So Yong Kim‘s For Ellen have at their core a character…

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REVIEW: The Artist [2011]

“Farewell Norma. I never loved you.” It all starts with a kiss for the cameras and the dot of an eyeliner pen. From there a star is born in the form of Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) while her accidental impetus to become an actress ends up an industry dinosaur of a bygone era overnight. Silent Hollywood’s finest actor from Kinograph Pictures, George Valetin (Jean Dujardin), wakes one day to find himself at a crossroads of cinematic history with the transition to Talkies forcing him into the background where once only…

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REVIEW: Flipped [2010]

“Something in those dazzling eyes” Not until a few hours before checking out a screening of Rob Reiner’s new film Flipped did I know it was based on an award-winning young adult novel by celebrated author Wendelin Van Draanen. The title has double meaning with both the idea of ‘flipping’ over someone the way young lovers tend to do and the structural format of alternating between the complicated duo at its center, Juli Baker and Bryce Loski. Reiner, never subtle, transitions each segment with a top to bottom flip of…

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REVIEW: The Messengers [2007]

“Farmer Sutra” Special sneak previews are always a good time. No matter what movie it is you are seeing, people will always pack the theatre who have been awaiting the film, like free stuff, thought it’d be something to do, or just got lost. Either way, no matter how good or bad the film, the audience alone will make it enjoyable. Now when said movie is a PG-13 pseudo-horror film (can you really delve into horror when the MPAA is on your back censoring everything?) you know there will be…

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